I don't think you believe me

Kyle, I don't think you believe me when I tell you that you were my easiest baby. Even in birth you seemed to be unwilling to trouble. In that sunny hospital room, on a morning in March, I listened to the swoosh of your heart beat, noticing it get more and more faint, as it seemed to travel downward, and I could actually see you wiggling yourself away from the device, and underneath the monitor belt. You were working your own way into this world.  The doctor recorded minutes pushing: zero.

In your Father's Blessing you were gifted with a light that would be a joy to your brothers. And you were the first thing to stir them from their two and three-year old worlds of egocentricity.

  When we brought you home they surrounded you and brought forth offerings of Hot Wheels and Thomas the Trains.  They couldn't wait to include you.

  

You were an easy tempered, sweet natured infant, and remained surprisingly so as you grew. A natural third child, you were the one to endear and entertain with your whimsical humor,

  and your affectionate spirit.

 You have grown in so many ways since we left China, two years ago.

Even though you never loved transitions, you have risen to the occasion and become the strong arms that your little sister reaches for, and I am so proud of you.

I hope you had a fun birthday.

great wall

Memorial Day the big kids had school. Rob and I took Caitlin and Grant to the Great Wall. Grant and Caitlin love the cable cars.

They like to look for dragons in the guard houses.

Kyle wore this Elmo outfit on our first trip to the Great Wall in 2004.

Our favorite place to have lunch ...egg pancakes and noodle soup. The jien bing lady always welcomes us. She says the Mutianyu ren all know us.
In the evening, I suggested that we barbecue hamburgers to make it feel more like Memorial Day for the big kids. I spent 50 kuai on Grape sodas. It started to rain on our s'mores, but we adapted.

if not Spock then

These are my Thursday, September 10 pictures. My friend Xochitl hosted playgroup outside at the park. Xochitl lives three houses down from us now. Our boys are so happy. They play together everyday after school. Xochitl prepared a feast or us! There were delicious empanadas from her home country, Mexico.

Caitlin and Grant were having fun with the other children on the spinner. The boy next to her is the one she always refers to as "her friend named Andrew." She tells me everyday that she is going to marry him, if she doesn't marry Spock.

Friday I spent the afternoon baking cookies and preparing a dinner-to-go for the three older boys and Rob. They were heading to the Great Wall with the Scouts for a campout. The girls and I had a "girl party" with pizza and soda and cookies, of course we didn't exclude Grant and William.

Saturday morning, we packed up and headed up to the front gate where we met the rest of the Beijing Branch and the big tour buses. We were also heading to the Great Wall for the annual Beijing Branches/ BYU alumni, I'm not really sure what it is officially called, overnight activity. It was a great time. I have more to write about that next time.

It's Sunday night. Rob had to pack up quickly when we arrived home this afternoon. He left for a conference in Thailand. We all agreed that he is too lucky. We had a great time in Thailand in May of 2005. Maybe I'll post some of those pictures this week, if I get a chance.

becoming a great man

In China there's a saying “You're not a great man until you’ve been to the Great Wall.” William is off to a good start. It was Olivia’s Saturday to choose an activity. She had been asking me for some time to go on a trip up to the Great Wall. It is about an hour’s drive from our house, through countryside, villages, fruit orchards, and trout hatcheries as you wind up the hill.

The last time we went was in August with Rob’s cousin. Grant wasn’t walking then. Saturday he seemed to feel the spirit of the Ages under his feet as he took off running down a slope on the wall. Rob caught a great picture.

So how many people can say they got their first bloody nose doing a face plant on the Great Wall of China? He still has a goose egg. Poor guy.

Xiao Chen told me that she has never been to the Great Wall. That is kind of hard to imagine considering that they are from Beijing, but the hour drive is too expensive for them to take. So I wrote in my calendar on October, “take Xiao Chen and Lao Tien to the Great Wall.”

It’s nice to go in the Fall when it is not so hot.

This is a picture of the trying to figure out how much money we owe for cable car tickets process. You pay according to your height, not age. Olivia was incensed because the lady was going to make Mary pay but not her. Olivia is a year older. The pay according to height thing is a big irritation for Westerners with tall children.

This is one of my favorite samplings of Chinglish.

Olivia wanted the rest of us to walk in the opposite direction to explore a part of the wall we’ve not seen before.

After we come down the hill we always buy lunch at this little egg sandwich lady. Some of the kids just want tubs of “easy noodles.” Everyone wants a Sprite. The lady is very friendly. She has little tables and stool behind her stand. The fruit selling ladies always come over and try to give us dried cherries and ask a bunch of questions about the kids.

We usually spend lunchtime trying to convince the kids that they don’t really want a souvenier because they are all cheesy and will break or end up in the bottom of their toy box but of course the kids are never convinced. We ended up with at least four of those colorful paper umbrellas, that we’ve surely bought them a couple times before. Kyle got some terra cotta warrior guys. Sam got a feather painting of the Great Wall that he has been wanting for about two years. Bethany wanted some magic trick rings that the man tried to get us to pay eighty kuai for. We ended up paying fifteen. I forgot what Ben got but he was happy.

On the way home we stopped to take pictures in this amazing field of Black-eyed Susans.