Recently by Kristie

I'd just come back from a jog and I almost made it back to my apartment without anyone saying anything when I run into Ai-di and Si-yu in the hall.

Ai-di: (noticing my clothes) Did you just exercise?

Kristie: Yes. (trying to get away without a more detailed answer)

Ai-di: (noticing how sweaty I am) Running?

Kristie: (Busted!) Well, jogging really, I don't go very fast.

Si-yu: (was already a few steps down the hall, but turns around to say) But aren't you pregnant? (looks pointedly at my baby bump)

Kristie: I am.

Si-yu: I didn't know pregnant women could jog.

Kristie: Sure they can, being pregnant isn't being sick.

Si-yu: No, not sick, but most of the pregnant ladies I've seen are more like...old people.

Kristie: And old people can jog too! There were lots of old people at the track jogging tonight. Honestly, most were going faster than me.

Si-yu: Yeah.....one time I saw an old man wearing spandex shorts to jog. I was embarrassed for him.

Kristie: Right....(thinking, "Does this mean I shouldn't wear my spandex shorts to jog?")

Si-yu: Yeah, I was really, really embarrassed for him. Really embarrassed.

Kristie: (nods, wonders if this is some kind of commentary on me, even though I am, thankfully, not currently wearing any spandex) Well, goodnight!

Si-yu: I still would have never thought a pregnant lady could jog...Hmm..Goodnight. (walks away, with a furrowed brow)

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.
Psalm 33:1

I've been weaning Ellie this past month, from three nursing sessions a day to none. It has been a really easy process, mostly we've had this conversation several times.

Ellie: Milk?

Kristie: You want to drink some milk? Sure, let's go get your cup of milk.

Ellie: No. Momma Milk. (While nodding--she answers her own requests in the affirmative--and doing the sign language for "milk", which really means "nurse" to her)

Kristie: Oh. No honey, Momma doesn't have any more milk. (which I think is true)

Ellie: Buy more.

Kristie: I did buy you more milk, it's in your yellow cup in the fridge.

Ellie: (goes to the fridge, opens it herself, gets out her yellow cup and starts guzzling away)

One of the best things for me, and I think for Ellie too, about moving to the seminary are the community and social aspects of living here. I was pretty lonely for other mommy friends in Taichung, and Ellie never had much interaction with other children. Now we are making lots of friends that I hope to introduce to you over the next few weeks.

First is Xi-pan (her name means "Hope"), who is one of Ellie's favorite friends. Xi-pan is almost two years older than Ellie, but they love to play together. (Yes, this is the same Xi-pan of potty fame from last week's Real Conversation.)


This is Ellie and Xi-pan riding the wagon together and giggling their little hearts out.

Xi-pan lives a few doors down from us, and most afternoons she and Ellie ride tricycles in the hall together. Xi-pan also likes to come to our house and see what kind of food we have, and then eat it.

Xi-pan only speaks Chinese, of course, and Ellie only speaks a little bit of mostly-mispronounced English. No worries though, they communicate in giggles. Often Ellie will do something silly, like lie down on the floor or lift up her shirt, then Xi-pan will copy Ellie and the two will erupt into giggles.

Sometimes Ellie copies Xi-pan, too. Like here in this picture:

Xi-pan was over playing when she picked up one of Ellie's books and started "reading" it to herself aloud. Then Ellie also sat down with a book and started to read aloud.

Ellie asks to play with Xi-pan all the time, and Xi-pan's name was even the first Chinese word Ellie said consistently. Actually, I'm hoping Ellie will pick up lots more Chinese from Xi-pan as they play together over the next two years. Mostly I think it's so sweet to watch Ellie interacting with her very first friend.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2

For the past two mornings I have awoken to the most beautiful sound coming from Ellie's room:

One of Ellie's friends, who is three, was over playing when she said she needed to use the potty. I went in with her, because I wasn't sure how much help she needed. I'll start the conversation halfway through the process.

Kristie: Okay, here's the toilet paper, do you need help wiping?

Xi-pan: No, my mom says not to use toilet paper when it's just pee.

Kristie: Um...okay...so what do you do?

Xi-pan: Just pull up my pants.

Kristie: Alright. Do you need help with that?

Xi-pan: No...(some struggling)...yeah, maybe.

Yeah, yeah, so this is old news by now, but I still wanted to give a shout out to my little sister who just got ENGAGED!!!!



CONGRATULATIONS TOM & AMANDA!!!

It's been four days of no naps around here. No naps for Ellie. No naps for me. Four. Long. Days.

And I really need my naps. I keep wondering why I feel so tired and behind, and then I remember. Oh yeah. No naps.

One day I tried to lie down and rest a little. Ellie crawled onto the bed and started crying and saying, "Momma! Wake up! Wake up!" It was a little like that scene from Steel Magnolias, but without the tragedy.

It did make me cry though.

We've had a lot of crying these past four days, too.

Because of the no naps. That, and because Ellie got a real, honest-to-goodness, band-aid requiring boo-boo last week. Her finger go pinched in the elevator door. Sometimes she remembers her now completely healed boo-boo and will come to me holding her finger out. And crying. I give her a hug, and she tucks her little knees in and asks me to sing "Hush Little Baby". It was sweet, the first 50 times.

Ellie isn't napping because I took the final step in her weaning process and stopped letting her nurse before nap time. Actually, it wasn't just a "nurse before nap time". We would nurse lying down, and then once Ellie was asleep I would slip away from her and let her keep napping.

I think this is going to be a tough one.

On the plus side, Ellie has been sleeping a little longer at night. More like 11-12 hours instead of her usual 10. Before, she slept at night from 8pm to 6am, and then took a 1-2 hour nap just after lunch.

This past week she's been getting up later, around 7 or 8 in the morning. But no naps. I think maybe it wouldn't be such a bad trade-off, the 8am versus 6am wake-up call without any nap.

Except for the crying. So much crying. And the holding. She always wants to be held, or carried. And Ellie is no lightweight.

So this has left me feeling a little, um, crazy.

I've been trying to do a mini version of our bedtime routing, some books and singing and then lie down in her crib. It works at night. It doesn't seem to work during the day. Sobbing. Hysterical sobbing. Until we finally decide nap time is, yet again, a wash.

Today she seemed so exhausted that I finally decided to hold her and sing and rock her a little. She fell asleep in less than 5 minutes. I let her sleep on me for a little while, it reminded me of when she was a tiny baby, but when I tried to lay her down on my bed she woke right up. Crying. (By the way, too much of the holding while sleeping when she was tiny is one of the reasons I think we're having our current troubles.)

I might try taking walks in the stroller after lunch. Ellie could probably sleep for a little in the stroller.

Of course it's not a real solution. She still wouldn't be sleeping in her bed. And, more importantly (?), I wouldn't be sleeping.

Is 15 minutes too much to ask?