preschool math

Four hungry preschoolers** plus warm, fresh oatmeal muffins with jam equals a HUGE mess all over the kitchen floor. But it ALSO equals four gracious "thank yous," four contented smiles, and four children playing happily outside with full tummies. Guess it's time to get out the broom...

**The four preschoolers are Ryan and Logan, both 3, plus 2 delightful little girls, ages 5 and 21 months, who spend Wednesday afternoons and Thursdays with us.

The infamous "brown couch" photos...

Yes, I know. It's SUPPOSED to be red couch photos taken at the venerable White Swan hotel. But why walk all the way down there when the couches in the lobby of the Victory would work out just as well?? So, here are our infamous "brown couch" photos...



Hannah Mei, Logan, and Jack. Hannah is a DARLING little girl whose parents met up with us in Guangzhou. We were using the same agency; Hannah is an NSN girl. Jack is an amazing 5 year old from Logan's orphanage. We traveled with his family from the time we left Beijing to the end of the trip.

Another picture of the children


And our "group" : Dave, Julie, and Hannah Mei; Victoria, Hailey, with Ryan on her shoulders, Emily, Jim, Jennifer, and Logan; and Pete, Jack, and Jess. It was a most delightful travel group--we will miss everyone.

settling in

Home is a great place to be, especially once things start settling in. Both little boys slept all night last night, and were rested enough to giggle and play through naptime today. (They went to bed about 7:15 tonight!) The sun was shining today and the weather was close to perfect, Brent's home for a long weekend, Hailey's off having fun boating with some friends from school, Em and Tori are enjoying an opportunity to sunbathe, and the boys had a heyday in the dirt. And, as soon as Brent got home we had family portraits taken, so soon we'll have pictures that include Logan to hang on the wall. He understood that right away! What fun to see the light go on...

We've been blessed by friends who have provided delicious meals, and my motion sickness induced vertigo is finally subsiding. Jim's taken the last 2 days off so we've had time to relax and recuperate from the travel. I think by the time Tuesday rolls around we'll all be ready for the "new normal."

Ahhhhh...life is good. :)

playing in the park

Ryan plays baseball in the park...




(and gets VERY sweaty in the process!)


...while Logan sits nearby, deep in thought.

Zhengzhou paperwork--Monday and Tuesday...

Monday morning at the Civil Affairs office...








And Tuesday, at the orphanage and the Notary's office










And some Zhengzhou rush hour traffic:

LongMen Grottoes--outside Zhengzhou

Ryan does chopsticks

I think this is one of my favorite series of pics from the trip--Ryan using chopsticks.

The Great Wall

more pics--Beijing day 1

Night? What night?

You know, jet lag is the worst. Last night was a prime example. Logan and Ryan took great naps yesterday afternoon, and we woke them up after 2 hours of sleep. They played hard and ate a good dinner then had a bath and went to bed about 8:30. Almost immediately they crashed. Sounds great! The rest of us were in bed by 10, so everyone was feeling pretty good. UmmmmHmmmmm... Someone forgot to let those little boys know that nighttime was for sleeping. I awoke at 11:30 to some funny little noises followed by a wail I DEFINITELY recognized--Ryan's. Stumbling in to their room, I discovered that Logan apparently had decided that he didn't want to be awake alone and had tried to get Ryan to be awake with him! I got Ryan re-settled and he returned to slumberland in about 30 seconds. Not so for Logan. At 3:15, he was STILL awake. Mean mom that I am, I was not about to allow him to get up and play--he could lay quietly in the dark but encouraging nighttime play is just not my thing. I know his clock is off, but we might as well establish the ground rules from the beginning, right? So I lay there with him, trying to get some much needed sleep. It didn't happen. Finally Logan drifted off and I headed back to my bed. I remember seeing my clock say 3:30...then the next thing I remember is hearing Ryan calling me. Checking my clock, I see that it's now 3:50! UGH. Back to the boys room I go, and lay down again with the two boys. Ryan's decided that it's time to get up. For whatever reason, I couldn't convince him that it was still dark outside and time to sleep. Not-so-quietly, he lay next to me until 4:30, when Jim finally figured out that the irregular knocking noise he was hearing was NOT birds outside but in fact his son kicking the wall. He came in and the two of them got up for the day.

After sleeping fitfully until 9, I decided to move forward on the day. Ran a few errands, refereed a dozen squabbles, and hung out here. The boys are back in bed for the night, and I'm headed there too. Hopefully tonight is better--I can't do too many like yesterday!!

Settling in,

Jennifer