Snake Bubbles and Germ Spreading

Today was one of Caeds 'homeschool' days. I haven't done any real units or lesson planning since January (!). But I still try to devote the morning to doing one on one activities with him. This am I saw this quick easy project on Pinterest called "snake bubbles"

You just cut the end off of a bottle (water, soda juice) and put a sock over the cut off end, secure with a rubber band. Then make a mixture 1 part dish soap/1 part water. Dip sock in soap and blow... 

(the site I got it from added food coloring to sock too to make rainbow snakes but that didnt work to well for us). 

C made a few with great success but then he inhaled while his mouth was on the bottle and got a mouth full of soapy bubbles, after that he thought only I should blow them and he would chase/pop.

On the way home we found two cool looking bugs so we stopped by the HERC (this is a super cool education resource center in our city set up by a foreigner for foreigners) to take a closer look at them.

We tried with the microscope too but that didn't work. I need to revisit some science tutorials (I haven't used a microscope since 9th grade!) I think it is for looking at super super small things???

Best part of the day, C wanted to show his classmates and teachers the bubble snake. So I took him to school this afternoon and showed them all. Even though I warned them that if kids try they will probably suck it in they wanted to let them all have a go at it (this is where the germ spreading comes in, as every student and teacher proceeded to take turns blowing on this bottle). And seriously almost every kid that did it sucked bubble into their mouths. It was pretty funny :) They kept coming back though after washing out their mouths with soap. 

Last thing accomplished today was this little bookof songs for C's room. We try to sing a song every night as a family before he goes to bed. And S and I don't know all he words to the ones he keeps choosing so I made this today for his room. 

Also I have to say how much I love this "Time Timer" my MIL sent me. We used them in the classrooms when I was in the states. You pull out the red to a time say 15 min and the red disappears as it counts down. We use this all the time :) As in "25 min until we have to leave" "10 more minutes of reading time (or tv or game time)" etc. It's a good way for him to visually see how much time is left.

Little Tub Big Boy

Just look how funny this boy is, so in want of a bath that I found him in this 'mini tub' during his shower.

Last January we went to a wedding in the village. That husband left soon after to work on East coast and wife moved to our city to prepare to have baby. Well MeiMei (little sister) was born June 4th. She plans to take baby back to village after a month, we will be sad to see her go as we have enjoyed the past 5 months with her! Hopefully he will enjoy his own little sister more. I had to bribe him into holding this baby for a picture!

Caed has been notorious for wanting nothing to do with drawing/writing/coloring in the past. I don't push it (I figure he will do everything in his own time) but I try to give him chances to use these skills. Well in the last two week I have noticed that his coloring has improved a ton (well all he would do was scribble before so anything is an improvement...) Anyway he is trying to stay in lines and use different colors. So I am proud ;) Maybe he will have a desire to write letters soon.

So far the only thing he will draw on his own is spiders. But now I have lots of picture of happy/sad spiders

Painting water over his name in chalk.

 (I tried this a few months ago and he wouldn't do it but today he did great). 

During this time he also looked up to the ceiling and shook his head back and forth and said, 

"Mommy look my hair is tickling my back and it feel so good!"

Saw this on pinterest, using old toilet paper tubes, hot glue and paint to make a hotwheel hotel. We had fun painting this :)

Baby! 22 weeks :) I really need to put some decorations up in the dining room...

Catch Up

For a while now we have been saving all sorts of 'garbage' for our building box. Here we took turns building a home for a transformer.

Obviously the best part was when the other transformer came along and knocked it down

We reorganized the school room a while back. We moved the futon in there (not in the picture) so guests can be in there too. I love having a couch to sit and read on with C. The poster above his table is also a new addition. 

Here is a super low quality example of the poster (the real file was 421 MB?!). The idea was from pinterest but I designed it myself with Photoshop. 

Funny note the third font down that says "Always tell the truth" totally looks like my dad's handwriting! I'm right aren't I mom???

Most of the 'rules' are phrases from this great handout that I have called "Wise Words For Mom's" by Ginger Plowman. Of this she says, "In a handy quick-reference calendar style format Wise Words for Moms identifies 22 behavior problems in children (such as disobeying, lying and tattling) and offers examples of Scripture passages that help parents address heart issues. "

Caed and I usually pick out one or two and talk them over during our school time. We try to think of examples of how to say 'be considerate' and talk about the verses that go along with it. 

Learning to play Carcassone with Daddy - we are games people :)

Mothers Day

Thailand

We were in Thailand again for a conference and had lots of fun...

 catching fish

playing badminton

seeing old friends

hula hooping

and Caed's all time favorite, catching geckos. 

Every night he caught one and then let it go, this one was named Tailton

I love C's hair right now. I wonder how long we can grow it out. He told me while there,

 "I never ever want to get my hair cut again"

We found out we are having a girl! See her growing in this pic :)

danced and played in the pouring rain

picked flowers

 (had to include this pic because it is the 4th summer that Caed has worn these shorts. My friend Gloria got them at Lucky when he was one!!!)

swam!!!!

and speaking of shorts the swimsuit he is wearing is 6-12 months Old Navy, a bit tight but his 3T one won't stay up :)

And every day during at dinner and lunch played outside with friends. He had a blast at childcare (his "school"). He already misses all his friends so much. They did a performance at the end of the week and it was super cute! Glad that when we go back to Thailand in Sept (Caed and I will have to leave 5 weeks before baby is due) he will have friends in Thailand to play with!

 I see a lot of lizard catching in my future...

We are having a ...

... problem with the blog (hence the long absence!) Last month I tried to publish a post and it told me I had run out of storage room for pictures, so sad. And as it turns out 'purchasing room' was expensive! But just today I finally get to check of a big one on my 'to do' list which is to fix that. I was able to save the first year of our blog (2009) as a PDF and then delete it here. So hopefully that will clear up some space for a while and I can get back to the blog!

Now onto the good stuff!

We are having a 

healthy

wiggly

thumb sucking

GIRL!

We are so very excited and after all that has led up to and happened during this pregnancy it was truly amazing to get to see a baby during the ultrasound. 

As you'll see in this video (taken right after we came out of the tech's room) Caed was definitely hoping for a brother instead (an Acer) but in the days since he has gotten more and more excited about a baby sister. Even though he is certain that her name will be Alibad (he said this name is from Larry Boy). When we tell him that Alibad won't be her official name he had a mini tantrum... (but dont worry she will not be named that!). The video is hilarious - and we are glad that he won't be 'hitting her face' and will 'love her very much'. We haven't bought anything pink yet but this is probably only because we are in Thailand at a conference. I cant wait to get back to China and look for a cute outfit on taobao! And now that we know Sean is ready to start looking at names too :)

Another fun thing is that we were able to surprise our parents with the news. We had told them that our appointment was on the 7th (but it was really on the 2nd). I was able to coordinate with Sean's sister and a friend of mine to go and buy balloons and put them up at their houses first thing on Saturday morning. Thanks to our friends and family for their help with this :)

(oopps I cant seem to get the video on right now, ill try again when I have some time)

Soon I will try to take a snap shot of the dvd they gave us at the hospital that day so the grandparents can see 'her' :)

But for now here is a picture of me a few days before we found out - at 19 weeks.