1st Day of School

Our school has opened up a new class, for 2 year olds.  Yes, two.  Turns out this is a very common thing in European and other non-American schools. 

Because our school really believes children should be at home as much as possible with their mom, but wants to meet the needs of the community, the schedule is completely flexible (meaning full days, half days, every other day, ect).  Therefore, we have chosen to put Lizbeth in for 3 half days.  This gives me the chance to get a little shopping done with just one tag-a-long and her the chance to "go see friends" as she is constantly asking to do these days.

She was supposed to start last week, but due to a fever that's going around, we had to postpone her first day to today.  Due to that same fever, now passed on to Matthew and me, I wasn't able to take her, but Nathan had fun taking his little girl to her first day of school.

A Little Bit Dry

So we're in the midst of potty training.  You might know from talking to me that Lizbeth was completely potty trained for more than a month back in February.  Then about a month before Matthew was born, she became bored with it, and we had to keep upping the incentives to get her to go in the potty.  About when Matthew was born, she gave up on it completely and when he was two weeks old I did what I thought I never would and put her back in diapers full time.  (This was after she had wet her pants four times in an hour in a shopping mall.)

Since then, we've talked about it a lot, but haven't pushed her to use the toilet.  She is fascinated with bathrooms so if she is in a new place, she'll go just so she can see the new toilet.  She also loves going at her preschool because they have tiny toddler sized toilets.  But it wasn't until just a couple days ago that she became interested again in staying dry, and as long as I remember to ask her every so often (and use some bribing too) she will stay mostly dry (poop is another story though, unfortunately).

Today during her "quiet time" (more on that for another post) she told me she needed to use the potty.  I forgot to have her go before she got in bed, so I wasn't surprised.  When I told her she could come out to use the restroom, I noticed she was walking just a little funny, but not waddling as much as she usually is when she wets her pants.  I asked her if her pants were wet.  She said no.  I asked if they were dry and she said no too.  I asked if they were a little bit wet, and she said,

"yes, but they're a little bit DRY too!"

She was right. 

The good news is that she is starting to control her bladder again on her own, stopping herself from wetting her bed.  What a clever kid.

The Greene Family

In October we are about to accept a new member into the Greene family as Nathan's brother will marry.  Unfortunately, we won't be able to be there, but we did get to spend time with him and his fiancee last Christmas and for several days in June and July as we traveled around America.

For simplicity's sake, we just had Lizbeth call Amanda "Aunt Amanda" since she will so quickly become official.

The other day we were talking about our last name with Lizbeth and listing off different "Greenes". Mr. Greene (daddy), Miss Greene (Lizbeth), Nainai Greene, Great Grandma Greene, Uncle Luke Greene. Lizbeth immediately says "Amanda Greene!"

We were both so impressed by Lizbeth's ability to make such connections and it was fun to know Amanda has been fully accepted into our family.

So excited for you guys!

A Link

My friend had a link to this tutorial on her blog and I just thought it was the coolest thing.  Definitely want to do this some day...

http://www.howdoesshe.com/mothers-day-gift-ideas2

Finally some pics...

The problem with not blogging all summer is that there are WAY too many pictures to choose from.  I think we seriously took more than 2000 pictures. 

Since I'm running out of time during the short period both my children sleep at the same time (and I still need to prepare dinner) I'll keep the pictures to just Dallas right now (even though it's out of order, it's the easiest *s*)

I'll try to catch up the others soon.


It's nice when our east and west meet :-)

From 2012-08-09

From 2012-08-09

And when our best friends' kids can meet our kids.

From 2012-08-09

Lizbeth did great meeting so many of our friends.

From 2012-08-09

Best friend of Nathan's from his freshman year in college.

From 2012-08-09

Sometimes we did have to bribe the kids with electronics...I love how Mattias looks like, hey how come theirs is so much bigger?

From 2012-08-09

Got to see most of our friends from our small group so many years ago.

From 2012-08-09

Loved being back at one of my "homes" and seeing my daughter there too.

From 2012-08-09

Lizbeth was exhausted on the way back to Austin...which was a good thing because of the next photo.

From 2012-08-09

This is the storm we had to drive through.

From 2012-08-09

(what not to do--leave north dallas headed south on a friday at 5:00PM during a severe thunderstorm with 65mph winds...)

But it did lead to some awesome pictures.  I call this one, "Coming Out of the Storm"

From 2012-08-09

From 2012-08-09

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

As every year, the start of school begins a new routine for me as I figure out what life looks like after a long summer of running around.

Even though we arrived in China a week and a half ago, we spent the first couple nights in Shanghai to sight see, relax as a family, and do some doctor check-ups at the western hospital.

We then finally headed home to Qingdao late on the29th, and have been working to unpack, buy groceries, get over jetlag, and figure out what life looks like in China as a family of four.

Today was Nathan's first official day back at work, although he's been working most days at home or at Starbucks writing the fall play.  I'm excited to see how it all comes together!

Now I have to figure out what my life looks like for the next few months.  I'm not planning on teaching any classes at the school, although I will probably teach Sex ed for a month or so at the school I have taught at for the past three years.  As always, we have staff that didn't return and new incoming staff, so the community itself is different too.  I have the option of putting Lizbeth into a 2 year old class at the preschool, and I'm dragging my feet in coming up with a decision on that.  I'm planning on being very involved as a family in the drama, taking a pack-n-play up to school and making the kids our drama mascots :-)  Being that it's a highschool production, I'm sure there are several teenagers who will love "helping" with the kids.  I'm also trying to get more of a schedule going for the kids.  It seems to work to put them both down for a nap around 1:30 and from there I can count on 2-3 hours of silence from Lizbeth, though Matthew is still more of a wild card.  For the first time in a long time I'm not pregnant, so I am finding I actually have the energy to take advantage of this time! 

To sum up, I'm pretty excited about finding a rhythm again.  I'm trying to figure out what it all looks like to have a routine and not exhaust myself!  We'll see how the next couple weeks go and I'll give you an update. :-)

(hopefully I can get some pics up soon too!  Lizbeth is adorable and Matthew is huge!)

Apology

This is just to say I'm sorry for not blogging this summer!  It has been a whirl wind and I was so blessed to see so many friends from all around the world!  We will miss you America.  Not sure when we will return next.  Please keep in touch and know we care so much about all of our friends even when we aren't able to connect often.