Queen Hatshepsut and the Best Job

Nathan building a pyramid out of sugar cubes and frosting for our study of Egypt.

About a week ago, we were listening to the story of Queen Hatshepsut (of the New Kingdom of Egypt) from The Story of the World Volume 1.  She was a woman who wanted to be Pharoah.  But, at that time, women could not be rulers.  She ended up being able to rule because she was the regent for her nephew who was next in line for the throne.  The people did not accept her in a power of authority because she was a woman.  She told them to think of her as a man.  She would dress in a man's clothing, and even wear a false beard when she was on the throne.

When we discussed the story later, here's how our conversation went:

Me:  Remember, back then in Egypt, the only jobs women could have were. . . 

Matthew:  A priestess in the temple, or a dancer or - 

Me:  A mother and a wife.

Nathan (looking at me):  I think that's the best job of all.

I would have to agree, sweet boy.  It is the best job of all.  

Of course, I kind of get to be Queen, too - sometimes. . . in my little kingdom here :-).  

8 {Nathan's Birthday}

My not-so-little guy turned 8 yesterday!!!

First, a stroll down memory lane. . .

The sign that Dave and Matthew made.  It was hanging on the front door for when we came home from the hospital after Nathan's birth.  The black blobs are Matthew's contribution (he was 3.5 then).

I found this in a pile the other day while I was decluttering:  it is one of those print-outs you can get at Chuck E. Cheese for one token. 

Yup, Nathan and me.

He was 20 months at the time.  Sniff.  My baby.

Yesterday.  Strawberry cupcakes with homemade strawberry cream cheese frosting.

I love his dimples!  Oh, and the goose egg is from a pretty bad fall at the park on Labor Day afternoon.  We *almost* went to urgent care.  Thankfully, Dave has some connections - called 4 ER docs who all confirmed that Nathan was ok to head home (we did have to observe him, and also wake him up every hour or so a couple of times after he fell asleep that night).

What can I say about Nathan?  He is just the more loving, funny, fiery guy.  He loves his family, and has loved babies ever since he was practically a baby himself.  He defends those he loves, is fiercely loyal, and brings tears to my eyes sometimes with the touching sweet things he says.

We thank the Lord for you, Nene!  You are such a blessing to all of us :-).

The Big Catch Up Post

Sorry - we have just been so, so busy around here!  And not taking a lot of photos.  Which makes for less blogging!  But I will attempt to catch up a bit here.  

We have started our school year.  All of the kids are home this year, and they are not attending the Chinese school at all.  It was just taking too much time - even though they only went until lunch time.  By the time they came home and had lunch, it was hard to switch gears in order to complete all of the other subjects.  It has been soooo nice to have a change of pace.  No more rushing out the door with half eaten cereal and spilt milk all over the kitchen table in the mornings.  We are still easing into getting a good routine going, but I am optimistic.

"Roamschooling" at the car wash.  Doesn't Nathan look cute with the pencil behind his ear?

Yes, my little Aarbear is in kindergarten this year!  Yikes!  He is doing so well.  He is very apprehensive of learning new things.  In fact, when I told him we would learn to read this year, he started crying :-(.  I think it is hard for him having two older brothers who seem to be able to do so much more than him.  In actuality, he can hold his own with the "big boys," and he certainly has more experience than many kids his age dealing with older kids.

I love my new beach chair from Costco!  And so do Nathan, Aaron, Lily, and her babies.

We are studying ancient history this year.  We read together about the Egyptians and papyrus.  We decided to make paper out of paper pulp from scrap paper.  You can see everyone is getting into it - even Lil.

We put radish seeds in the purple paper so that the recipient of a letter written on it can plant the paper afterwards and have radishes!

Matthew's (top shelf) and Nathan's (second shelf) school books for this year.  That is not even all of them.

The daily report, dictated every day by Aaron.

Nathan doing a front kick.

Jumping front kick combination.

Woohoo - and Matt and Nene tested for purple belts!!!

They are high fiving their class mates after receiving their purple belts.

I am also going to list here the curriculum choices for the year, even though I know that this will be pretty boring for everyone who is not homeschooling.  This is for posterity, so bear with me :-).  Also, I am including (totally non-affiliated) links - just in case you want to check out what they are studying this year and where to find the materials.

Matthew (6th grade):
Math - Singapore Math 5B, 6A and hopefully we can get to 6B later in the year.
Sonlight Core G reading list
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Language Arts - Matt is participating in the Classical Conversations Essentials program which covers
     grammar, spelling, and uses the Institute for Excellence in Writing for writing.
Science - Matt is participating in the Virtual Homeschooling Group which will be using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science for the textbook.  By the way, this is an AMAZING resource if you have older kids (middle to high school).  It is completely free.
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Nathan (2nd grade):
Math - Singapore Math 3B, and then I think we will do Teaching Textbooks 4
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2
Language Arts - Rod and Staff 2 Phonics, Rod and Staff Spelling 2, Writing With Ease Level 2
Science - Studies Weekly and Hands-On Science Fun! Microscopic Explorations, Insects, and Light
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Aaron (K):
Math - Houghton Mifflin California Math workbook, and then we will move to Singapore Earlybird
Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Language Arts - Daily report (see above), lots of being read to, Rod and Staff Preschool Curriculum
Science - Studies Weekly and tagging along with Nathan with the science kit

Lily (toddler):
Be cute
Bother brothers
Get into everything
Hang on Mama's legs

I am also including this scripture memory system (which is ingenious by the way) with the kids (and myself) in addition to our usual morning devotion times.

Wow - if you made it through this far - thank you!

I am trying hard to be more critical of where to spend our time and energy and have more margin in our lives.  It seems like we are always rushing around, and I do NOT like that.

Man Shall Not Live By Bread (Donuts) Alone

This week we had a trip to Krispy Kreme.  All the kids had a blast picking out their donut, and watching the conveyor belt carry the donuts under the glaze waterfall and onto the racks to set.  Even though Lily undoubtedly never had a donut in China - she loves them!  Matthew loves them, too.  They are probably his most favorite treat.  Last year for his birthday, that was his request - and we actually found a mom and pop donut shop that makes a giant donut that can be served as a cake.  It was about 1 foot in diameter, and we put candles on it and served it up as his birthday cake when he turned 10.

We usually do our morning devotions together over breakfast, so we brought our stuff to Krispy Kreme to do it there.  You can see how Lily has scribbled all over  decorated our record of Bible readings.  We are going through the Psalms now - one a day.  We are also reading Egermeier's Bible Story Book.  Do you have any resources or routines you have used for devotions for family or kids?  Another one we absolutely LOVED and have gone through many, many, many times is The Jesus Storybook Bible.  It is wonderful!  I would love to know how you do family devotions.  Always looking for more inspiration!  We have done other things in the past, too, like Keys For Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Leading Little Ones to God, The Picture Bible, Read-n-Grow Picture Bible through the years.  

To keep it real, it is a struggle to get through our devotions most days.  Lest you think that my kids sit quietly while I read to them - a typical morning involves me corralling them back to the kitchen table (my kids love to eat and run, even when they are eating, they are only sitting on their chairs halfway), and then we are interrupted by Lily flipping the pages of the Bible or book to another place, or Aaron asking me if he can have another egg, and then finally by me giving them a lecture about how we should only interrupt if it is an emergency and defining what constitutes an emergency (blood or fire).  But we get through it - and they are improving.  Every time we have added a new baby though - things definitely are very hairy for a while.  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear any tips, resources, books, etc. that have worked for your family!  Have a blessed day :-).

Lily's Voice Part II

I took a couple of quick videos of Lily's speech therapy session yesterday at Lucile Packard.  You can watch the video to get a better idea of how Lily speaks :-).  Her speech pathologist is April, and she rocks!  We all like her very much, including the boys who come along almost every time. 

And one last one - a video I took this morning of Nene and Lily jumping around on the bed.  You can see what a loving brother Nathan is, and how Lily loves to imitate him and play with him.

Makin' Pizza and the Scale of the Universe

This is a little video I shot a couple of weeks ago when we took a field trip to Pizza My Heart.  The kids got to make their own pizza.  Even Lily was able to do it with minimal help from me.  They had loads of fun, got a free tee shirt, and the experience of eating their own yummy pizza that they designed.  Sorry, didn't get any footage of Matt.  He was there, I promise, just sitting a bit further away.

I *LOVE* Nathan's pizza.  It is very *him.*  Still waiting for the pineapple here to make the teeth.

There's Matthew!  I love how they had all the toppings within reach of the kids.

Aaron, very slowly and deliberately putting his pizza sauce on just the right spot.

And something that a friend sent to me that is SO COOL.  It's about the scale of the universe.  Click HERE to visit this amazing and thought-provoking site.  You will want more than a few minutes to look at it.  My boys spent a good 20 minutes there, and then had to get off in order to go to bed =).

I was going to post this link as a separate post, but I realized that they are related so I am going to keep it here next to the pizza post.  

You can certainly see the mind of my children in their very individual pizza creations.  Their preferences and their personalities are evident in even something as small as a pizza they made.  There is also pride of ownership and artistry.  

The awesome site I mentioned above makes me think of this verse:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen and understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Romans 1:20

Makes me think of the mind of God as He created things - from the most infinitesimal to the most grand.  How we can "see" who God is through His universe.

Wow.  Very cool!

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.   To him be the glory forever!  Amen."
Romans 11:36

Around Here. . .

Well, this has been an utterly s-l-o-w day.

Matthew and Aaron are still out of commission with their stomach bugs.  Nathan took a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which does not bode well.  I have a feeling he is coming down with it as well.  It is a terrible bug.  Matthew was up until 3am, throwing up and just in general feeling miserable.  Poor lamb.  Thankfully, Aaron seems to be getting better now, but he is still sooooo out of it.

Nearly all of our silkmoths have emerged.

A drawing Nathan made in his silkworm science journal.
Here is an excerpt from his journal dated 6/10/12:
"One of are moths has hatched from is cacoon!  And all the moth will do is lay her effs. (if of course it is a female) they lay eggs to about 300-400 eggs.  And when they mate they stick there abdomen together.  When the moth first emerges it will spit out a liqid, (don't ask me why because I don't know).

The reddish liquid actually comes out of its behind, and it is called meconium.

You can see all the eggs that are being laid by these moths.

Totally unrelated, but a rare family photo of us from a wedding we attended a couple of weeks ago.  

A cool photo I got of Matthew and Lily about a week ago before the stomach bug hit.  And Lily's dress is mama-made.  It is from a pattern in Handmade Beginnings.

Looking forward to better health next week :-).

Mommy Moments

First off, an update on Matt. I have had many people ask me how he is doing. He is doing great! I think he is almost 100% recovered! Praise the Lord! He attended church on Sunday for the first time in 3 weeks, and even had friends over afterwards to play. He went back to Chinese school this morning (much to his displeasure), and went to piano lessons as well in the afternoon. He is, however, taking a hiatus from martial arts for the month of May. Contact sports is a no-no when recovering from mono. The reason is that your spleen gets enlarged during the infection and can rupture if you get hit there. Otherwise, his appetite is back, and he seems to be recovering very nicely. Thank you for your concern and prayers! I have been reading Little House On The Prairie to the kids, and they have been really into it. They love the fact that the Ingalls have a brindle bulldog named Jack. They also love to hear about the food the family eats. We decided to have a Little House breakfast the other morning - bacon, and then cornmeal pancakes cooked in the bacon fat. Yum. We had syrup instead of molasses though.

Here is a snapshot of singspiration before Sunday school this past Sunday.

And here are the two littles this morning. Yes, they sleep with me and they often kick each other (and me) at night. But I found them snuggling like two puppies this morning.

And lastly (I hope Nathan will forgive me for telling this story), a little misadventure this afternoon. We were at piano lessons. Matthew was having his lesson, so Nathan, Aaron, Lily and I were out in the backyard of our piano teacher's home. There is a jungle gym structure there that is made of wood, with a big plastic slide and a swing. Anyway, Nathan went down the slide, and then he was quiet for a while. He comes up and says, "I think I have a splinter. In my butt." There is a wooden plank that butts (no pun intended) up against the top of the plastic slide. He had slid his bottom across there and got hurt. I was trying not to laugh, but I had him come over with me to a corner of the yard and pull his shorts down so I could have a look. Yup. More than one splinter in fact - maybe a handful :-(. Everytime I tried to pull one out, though, Nathan would giggle and start moving so much that I couldn't get them. I was half getting impatient and half laughing and telling him to be still. Then all of a sudden, Matthew pokes his head out of the sliding door and says, "Nene, it's your turn for piano." I told Matthew to tell the piano teacher Nathan had a splinter and I was trying to get it out. The boys' piano lessons are group lessons - meaning there are other kids in their lesson with them. So I can hear from the sounds coming from the windows that his lesson has started. Someone is playing piano. I am getting panicked that someone else will come out and call us and see Nathan's butt and me hunched over it. Meanwhile, he is still getting giggly whenever I come close to picking out his splinters. Too ticklish, I guess. I finally tell him we will have to wait until we get home and have Daddy do it. Nathan reluctantly agrees and pulls his shorts up. He says to me very seriously, "This is dreadful." Poor lamb. He made it through piano lessons, though, without once wincing when he had to sit down. I had to think about sad thoughts in order to not bust out laughing every time he looked at me. That boy just cracks me up. Dreadful indeed! Dave had the misfortune honor of picking all those splinters out. I wish in a way that I had a photo to go with this story, but I don't think that I could post it even if I did :-). One thing for sure, Nathan certainly gave Dave and I trials of patience when he was a toddler and a preschooler. But now - goodness, I think we laugh more in one day that we used to laugh in weeks because of this boy. We love him to pieces. I will end with two pictures of Nathan since this has kind of turned into a post about him. The first is from years ago - and this photo was taken at Sunday school and put on a Mother's Day card they made for all the mamas. I think he was 3.

Man, look at those dimples! And that face! And the bandaid on that squishy arm! Next photo is from about a year ago at Uncle Kevin's wedding where he was the ring boy. So handsome!

Around Here

Thank you for your prayers. Matthew is doing SOOO much better. We are so thankful to the Lord. We were actually very worried about him for a few days. He was just not able to keep much down and had no desire or energy to eat or drink. Being married to a doctor, I had to decipher comments like this. When Dave felt Matthew's pulse, he said, "He feels tachycardic." What that meant was that Matthew's heartrate was very fast because he was getting dehydrated. We were worried that he would have to be admitted to the hospital because he was so dehydrated. But thankfully, he started to drink more and the nausea passed. When he went to see the pediatrician, she said that he could stay at home as long as he could still drink. We are grateful that he is now drinking normally, and even getting a bit of his appetite back. In the thick of all this, I was quite stressed. Being here in the Bay Area with no family around, well - my thoughts started racing. I don't want Matthew to have to be in the hospital by himself. I want one of us to always be with him. But Dave works! And I can't leave the rest of the kids! What's going to happen to us? It made me miss my family a lot. Yes, we have lots of wonderful friends and church family here, but I know that if my parents or sister or my in-laws were here - it would have been more of a non-event to leave the other kiddos. I had offers to watch the kids in the event that Matt did have to be admitted. I am grateful that it did not come to that and he is much much better! Although he has been doing a lot of this:

Which of course, he needs. I have heard it can be months before you regain your strength after mono. Although this afternoon we did get outside and prepare our bed for our seedlings.

We have been homebound. So we have had a lot of homemade fun. Actually, it has been a welcome respite - to have permission to just cancel everything and rest up. I have learned, too, that there are not that many things that are important. I am happy to enjoy this slower pace with all of my chicks at home and not rushing around taxi-ing them to various activities and classes. More fun at home: Lily on her "phone" which is actually the barcode scanner on her cash register.

Nathan's chalk drawing.

Just hanging out.

And with being at home more, some yummies we have made. And just so you have no delusions that it is easy at all to cook or clean or do really anything with Lily around, I have to tell you that I have to hoist Lily on the counter to "help" me with baking and cooking. Or I have to wait until she is asleep. But I always like getting new food inspiration and recipes from friends. So I thought I would share. These are really yummy muffins. You use leftover cooked oatmeal (I tend to make too much), and they are so soft and moist and delicious. You can halve the amount of sugar and they are perfect.

And our dinner the other day - quiche. Yummy! One has spinach and bacon, and the other broccoli and cheese.

Green With a White Stripe (Green ONE)

On the last Friday of last month, Matthew and Nathan tested in taekwondo for their green belt with a white stripe. The white strips denotes a second level green belt.

I could not be more proud - because they are *good* and I am not bragging :-).

The testing procedure involves them doing their forms, their kicking combinations, their self defense maneuvers and their sparring combinations in front of a panel of instructors. At the end, they get called up one by one for a critique - what was commendable, and then something to grow on. It is nerve wracking for them, but a really great experience, I think.

They have learned so much from martial arts. For Matthew, it has helped him be more assertive and aggressive (in a good way). You all know how cautious he can be. The students all have to sound off in class ("Yes, sir!" or "No, sir!" whenever the instructor gives them instructions) which helps them learn respect and how important it is to RESPOND when people talk to them. For Nathan (who can be a bit of a loose cannon sometimes) it has helped him be more self-controlled. Each time they test for the next belt - it is cumulative. Matthew and Nathan have had to memorize numerous forms (each having at least 20 movements) and other combinations. It is amazing how much they can remember! This type of cumulative testing also emphasizes how you always need to have a solid foundation even when you go on to learn new things.

They seriously are awesome. I admire how strong, sharp, and poised they look when they do martial arts.

Cleft 101

Before we met Lily, I had never seen a cleft palate. I had seen many cleft lips before from Smile Train advertisements and from numerous referral photos on Chinese adoption sites. I want to share with you and document what an open palate looks like:

Ok - this is not the best photo. And forgive the amount of boogies that are in poor Lily's nose! But I think you can see the cleft in the roof of her mouth. She wasn't terribly cooperative as you can imagine for the taking of this photograph. This was back in October of 2011, shortly after she came home. If I could have gotten a better shot, you would be able to look up into her cleft and see her nasal bone. Lily had a bilateral complete cleft palate - that means that there were two clefts in her upper lip, gumline, and hard palate - and the two clefts fuse into one large cleft when it hits the soft palate. That is what you can see here - the one large cleft towards the back of her mouth.

Here is a photo of her from about a week ago. As you can see (more or less), the palate is repaired - looks like one piece - and it is. Dr. H did a three flap palatoplasty to close up her cleft.

Again, forgive the boogies! I promise she doesn't always have a runny nose!

And I wanted to show her cleft gumline. You can't see it when her mouth is closed, or even when Lily smiles because her top teeth do not show when she smiles. I think this is pretty typical of cleft affected children in the early years after lip repair - the lip is just very tight and does not have a lot of "give."

So. . . Lily's gumline is cleft on two sides. You can see here how her top middle teeth and gums are kind of on an "island." There is a cleft (gap) on either side, kind of where your canines would be. Her top jaw is essentially in three pieces.

When she is 8 or 9, Lily will undergo a surgery that will graft bone into those gaps to reconstruct the gumline. They time this surgery with the emergence of her permanent teeth in that area. When it is all done (the bone graft surgery and lots of orthodontia) - her gumline will look more or less like a typical person's - one piece with straight teeth going all the way across. I am documenting this now because I know that someday I will forget what her gumline looked like. I am already forgetting what her cleft palate looked like!

In order to get these last two pictures, we had to persuade Lily to open her mouth by having all of the brothers get their mouths photographed. Here are some of those photos hee hee.

Silly brothers! But it worked :-).