I can see!

Yay, I had almost given up hope, but today for some reason the internet let me through. Bet you had given up on me too! :-)

So, I'm going to type quickly and hope my luck lasts out. If it does, then I will add more posts afterwards with more details and hopefully lots of pictures.

So, what's new with us?
Lizbeth is potty trained! Completely by her own choice, she begged for months, but I held off due to impending Christmas travel. Well, in America she proved she was serious by using the big toilet three times. When we arrived back in China we immediately bought her a toilet and she took off. There's definitely some ups and downs as we face stubbornness and testing of wills, but really, she's doing amazing.

I'm 33 three weeks pregnant. Hard to believe little boy will be here in just around 7 weeks. It's been an up and down pregnancy, with him hanging out low and causing bazillions of contractions, worrying the doctors and putting me on semi-bedrest. Good thing is all the contractions are not causing any real progress so I'm pretty much released unless they come back in force again.

I'm teaching drama two days a week, two hours each day. It feels really good to be in the classroom again. The school provides someone to watch Lizbeth during that time, and Nathan's schedule is left open to cover for me whenever I can't make it. (For instance this last week with Lizbeth's 103 degree F fever). I hope to take a few weeks of maternity leave once I have the baby and finish out the semester with them.

As a whole, we have not been a healthy family for the past two plus months. We all got the flu this past week, although thankfully I was hit least so have been able to take care of the other two. Unfortunately, this is my third time in a row getting sick, the first two lasting over two weeks each. I've also had what the doctor calls a "painless migraine" and have had to have a bunch of testing (all coming up relatively normal) to rule out many other things. Needless to say, we've seen the doctors a LOT these past couple months!

Lizbeth is growing more and more independent and toddler like. In general she has a very sweet disposition, but we have our moments of "mama, no!" Her new word is "You!", she says it whenever she's upset about something and doesn't want you doing it. "You, no!" "You, sit!" "You, get it!" We are working on respecting mommy and daddy and Ayi.

We're also having night time issues. Before going to America for Christmas, she was the easiest kid to put to bed. Simply hug her, put her in, and sing her a song or two, and she was great. Usually only about 10 minutes. Now we average between and hour and an hour and a half, taking up most of our evening. She is afraid of being alone and won't fall asleep unless we are there. It has been very trying and we have tried many tactics.

Well that's about it. I haven't said much about Nathan, he's keeping on keeping on. He's enjoying his classes a lot this semester, teaching video production, involved in the middle school drama, and continuing to teach programming (among many other classes too!). His class load is also a little lighter this semester since I am taking the other drama class (6th Grade) and his computer science class is smaller this semester. They are also transitioning Broadcast Journalism to another teacher so he is phasing out of that class as well.

Well, Lizbeth is giving me her "You! Hand off Computer!" Not sure when I'll have access again so until then, know I am thinking of you guys constantly even when I can't write.