Maddie Says

"My tummy has been asking my mouth for food for 131 minutes."

Jacob has defined 131 as the true meaning of LOTS.

(Found in my email drafts folder dated 2 July 2011.)

Santa Shipment

Christmas is just around the corner and we have two Santa delivery options. Last year we wasted a boat load of cash because we kept hoping the kids were veer away from wanting very specific Playmobil stuff. They never did and by the time I caved it was too late to get it shipped so we bought it here for way too much money.

 

I probed for gift ideas today.

Ben – no ideas

Maddie – a magpie bird

Jacob – “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do.”

 

Not much progress made thus far…

A Tempting Drink of Kickapoo

Brian was nearly out of "daddy drinks" so I stocked up today for him. This was right between the Sprite and the Fanta. Tempting I'm sure you'd agree. Who doesn't want a big swig of nice cold Kickapoo? Funniest thing was when I sent him a text message from the store about it my phone auto filled the name of the drink when I got to "kickap" so it must be sort of common here. Maybe on another day when we aren't all down with Delhi Belly (aka travelers diarrhea) I will be up for a taste test.

Time for Baby Gates

Goodness. Lots of changes these days. Like I said the other day we had to drop the crib, she's sitting, crawling, expanding her food selection and today? We are looking at baby gates folks. Yuck. I hate climbing over gates for months and months. Hope she masters stairs really fast.

Ashlyn Update

Ashlyn started putting herself in sitting position this week. Most often accomplished by crawling, yes she started crawling this week too, over to me laying on the ground. She pulls up so her chest is on my belly then holds tight as she swings her body down to sitting on my side.

We also moved the crib down to the low level because she will be pulling up any day now to standing. Kids are learning quickly not to leave things laying on the ground. I'm quite sure there will be more tears and ripped and broken trinkets before they realize her full destructive capacity.

Next Time

"Maybe Ashlyn can make a peacock with her slobber." Maddie

Just Like Big Sister

Maddie noticed this smiley face this morning on my pants. "Look! She's just like her big sister! She's doing art but only with her slobber!"

Beauty Shop

Maddie threw up and had diarrhea for about eleven hours making us miss the bus trip to see the Tak Mahal while the boys when. It's been two hours since she vomited last and she has perked up. She had half a piece of toast and has kept water and a few sips of apple juice down. She's even doing math in her head figuring when she last threw up relative to when she had a bite to eat and correctly concluding when she can expect dad to be back - I'm figuring it will be about 12 hours alone here in the hotel where the Internet has been out for three days.

Now that she's feeling a little better she's playing with the beauty shop kit she got at the bazaar last night and making Ashlyn pretty. Ashlyn is happy enough but doesn't seem to notice she's got the mirror backward. I guess both sides must taste the same. She is either a little sick too or exhausted from all the commotion the last two weeks. She took a two hour morning nap, played two hours then slept three more. Poor girl. I hope everyone is better enough to fly home tomorrow.

You Look Like Us

We dressed for church on Sunday, though a bit dressed down for us. The boys had polo shirts instead of button ups but both had long pants. Brian had a button up shirt without a tie. I had a plain skirt below the knee and blouse and Maddie a simple cotton skirt and pink T-shirt.
We were waiting in the lobby for our group to gather and one of the Indian guys working that morning was observing us a few minutes and then commented to me, "You look like us now." I'm sure we gave him a puzzled look because he followed it up with, "Your clothes look like we wear." That made me laugh. We silly Americans stepped it up a bit from our logo t-shirts and blue jeans and looked nice. Indians always look nicely presented. Even the rickshaw drivers wear collared shirts and have tidy hair Togo along with their flip flops.

Suffer with a Case of "The Almosts"

Here we are again. Maddie is putting books under her backpack instead of inside it. Then I get sweet emails giving me a "gentle reminder" to please return the daily reader and homework pages. Her teacher reports the "almosts" are a big issue with her.
Ben is doing the same thing at the house. His clothes almost made it in the laundry basket last night. Just two inches short. Why? Why not just put it in? And hanging his nice church shirts. He knows that isn't gonna cut it. It's that last step he just can't get done. He hates to make them straight so then they fall on the floor, which isn't an issue in his head but he knows it is for mom. His new solution is to thread them all wadded up through the hanger.

How do we medicate this situation? On the up side he's made a mental breakthrough that makes me happy. His teacher said Ben is struggling in math and to complicate things he's not getting enough practice time during class because he's too chatty and won't focus during partner time. He just can't ever finish the lessons. Yesterday he said, unprompted, that he can't get things done in math so he decided to just work independently from now on.

Jake's Take

Jacob just returned from the Taj Mahal. He said, "It wasn't awesome. I SAW that it wasn't awesome so we, (insert classic Jacob shoulder shrug), we just came back home." Then he turned and went to bed. And that's how a three year old sums up a trip to India and the voyage to a world famous monument.

Nepal

It must be time to travel again. We had a long break after Ashlyn was born, but then we went home to Utah in July. I went with two friends and our three babies to Bangkok, Thailand in September. Now in October we took the family to Nepal to visit the Patches and then tagged along on their previously planned India trip. The kids now have seen each other in Cambodia last December, Singapore in January, Utah in July and Nepal and India in October.  I can’t think of a more fun family to travel with but when we leave each other in the morning we aren’t sure how many years until our next meeting.

 

Nepal was great. We stayed in the Patch home and had great homemade food that as safe for our fragile western tummies. Their maid Devi and their driver Manik took fantastic care of us. Manik drove us all over the Kathmandu area every day and fit all our huge piles of luggage in their tiny car along with all six of us. It was a bit like a clown car to see how we crammed it, but it worked. We flew overnight so expected to be tired when we arrive in Nepal at 8:30am. Then they had fog and wouldn’t let us take off in Delhi until the airport was at least close to opening. We arrived at their house four hours after we had hoped. The kids played for a little then we mandated a short nap – this news was NOT well received by the troops but after the whining and pouting everone fell asleep and the night was better in the end because they had some lay down time.

 

Saturday is the day they observe the Sabbath in Nepal and since it was the week we are to watch General Conference anyway, I stayed with the kids and watched church online at the house while Brian went with Chris to the church to watch with the members who generally don’t have internet access so it was their only chance to watch. Then they went to visit a French lady who has been in the hospital. We worked on a 500 piece puzzle of the Taj Mahal, checked out rooftop life at their house and Ben tried his hand at kite flying.

 

They all have upstairs shoes just for going on the roof so they don’t have to track the dirt all through the house. Smart mama.

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Maddie can’t avoid getting dirty. She touches everything within reach and then, always, touches her head and face. Yuck.

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The Zufelts and Kathmandu skyline from the Patches roof.

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Us with the Patch kiddos.

Ravi, Ben, Maddie Mae, Yared, Adie, Bronte in front with Angie, Ashlyn, Jacob and Brian behind.

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Ashlyn enjoyed the rooftop fun with Dad.

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Gretel was great to try and try again to help Ben with the kite her kids found crash landed in their yard and the little string that was left on it.

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Then buddies Ravi and Ben gave it a go.

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Suffer with a Case of "The Almosts"

Here we are again. Maddie is putting books under her backpack instead of inside it. Then I get sweet emails giving me a "gentle reminder" to please return the daily reader and homework pages. Her teacher reports the "almosts" are a big issue with her.
Ben is doing the same thing at the house. His clothes almost made it in the laundry basket last night. Just two inches short. Why? Why not just put it in? And hanging his nice church shirts. He knows that isn't gonna cut it. It's that last step he just can't get done. He hates to make them straight so then they fall on the floor, which isn't an issue in his head but he knows it is for mom. His new solution is to thread them all wadded up through the hanger.

How do we medicate this situation? On the up side he's made a mental breakthrough that makes me happy. His teacher said Ben is struggling in math and to complicate things he's not getting enough practice time during class because he's too chatty and won't focus during partner time. He just can't ever finish the lessons. Yesterday he said, unprompted, that he can't get things done in math so he decided to just work independently from now on.

Ash is Sick

Jacob just got home from preschool. Ashlyn was sick overnight and I didn't get much sleep. She only wants me. Jake saw her clinging to me when he walked in the door with Gina and asked, "Why didn't you make her better while I was gone?"
"I tried."
"Can you show me?"
"I just used love and tried to help her sleep."
"Did you hit her? Come over here to the table and show me what you hit her with to make her feel better." Somehow I gathered that he was meaning what medicine did I give her not really hitting her.
"I already put the medicine away and I can't move right now because she is happy so I have to stay and snuggle her on the couch."
"You were supposed to make her better mom."

Mission Failure today I suppose.

Birthday Pics to Remember

The Young Women sang to me yesterday in celebration of my birthday and crowned me queen for the day. I also got this lovely personal birthday card from our rental car company. An you tell we are really close friends? I only let my dearest beloveds call me "Zufelt Robinson".

It was a pretty good day overall. I took maddie to a bday party for her friends and ducked out during the party. Me and one of my favorite people in Singapore, Kristy, walked to the river walk and she bought me brunch. Actually it was a day of food. Brian had already made me scrambled eggs, bacon and home made hash browns. (Maddie asked me at breakfast if I asked dad to make them because she loved them so much. Cutie.)

We got back to the party as they were wrapping up. I stayed a bit and helped tidy the club house while I caught up with the mom, Jenny Allen, from our neighborhood in Fairfax. Then Ben called and without even asking where I was correctly said, "You said you would leave the party a half hour ago and you are still there." Baffled how he knew I admitted he was right and rushed home.

Then Jennifer brought gorgeous cupcakes and we visited. Finally we took the bikes and headed to West Coast Park for some family fun about 4:30pm. Poor Ben waited patiently the entire day for it. He started the day excited and willing to blow up bike tires and oil chains. Then he had to wait hours and hours and hours for the big reward. He sort of gets that a lot. He is so easy going and not often found complaining over things like that so sometimes he gets overlooked because the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the boy doesn't squeak very often. I sure love him. He is too smart for his own good though.

We rode bikes, played at the huge amazing playground and had dinner at McDonald's. We stayed long enough that we rode back to the car well after dark (sunset is only 7:00 year round). At dinner I asked if he had a good time. He thoughtfully said, "Yeah, but if had left earlier we would have had lots more time on the big playground." I suppose I shouldn't whine. That kind of choice and accountability or cause and effect thinking is what I've been hoping he would catch onto soon. Just not when it puts me in the dog house.

When we got home we had a ridiculously over priced and very delicious ice cream cake with the candle numbers "34" flaming on tip. Jacob was kind enough to lend us the 4 and we stopped to buy a 3 on the way home from the park.

Thanks for all the birthday calls and emails and Facebook messages. I feel loved.

I'm Full of Words

We took the family to clean the church building this morning. On the drive home they got into a snippity sort of a mood with each other and after Brian nicely trying to settle the troubles he finally deemed it to be quiet time for the rest of the ride. Jacob was in no mood to comply and after defiantly talking and not being willing to hush up he finally hollered out, "I'm FULL of words!" as a justification for him not obeying.

Jacob Swiss Cheese

We just passed our cute neighbor Eun Seo. That is her Korean name. She and Maddie have been friends since we moved into our house here in Singapore. When Eun Seo started at the American school in August she decided she would prefer an American name like her older brother has so she became Stella. Jacob saw her and I asked what would he change his name to and he was quite fast and firm in his answer. Jacob Swiss Cheese Zufelt.

Halloween's A Comin'

Today I took the time to finally assess the candy damage from last year’s Halloween. I counted and weighed so I know what to buy for this year. I never got around to posting last year but Halloween is nuts here! I bought six HUGE bags of candy. The picture here shows just about 3 bags we had left after the night ended. We gave 5 pieces to each kid (the candies were a little smaller than jolly ranchers) and I estimate about 1,200 kids came through in just one hour.

The neighborhood officially does trick-or-treating for two hours but Brian ended up having to travel at the last minute so I hosted a dinner party then took my kids out for the first hour and handed out candy at the house for the second hour. This year I figure we can tag team and have Gina help too so I am planning on handing out candy for the full 2 hours. I expect more than 2,400 kids. Someone reports that at their downtown condo complex there are flyers for signups for a tourist bus to basically come watch the crazy Americans and their culture. It makes the newspaper each year and people come from all across the country to have fun on Halloween night.

The kids are already excited and today I secured a surprise costume for Ben he’s going to love. It’s a Mario costume from the Nintendo games.  Maddie and Jake are easy to please so any old thing from the dress up box makes them smile.

I’m getting excited for Halloween myself. I need to spend some time thinking up crazy fun decorations again this year. They were such a hit last year I’ve got to one up myself. Of course, I am also loathing everyone in the US that can just waltz into any random Target, Walmart or heck, even a stinky old ghetto gas station and pick up a bag of snack sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or other cheap candy to hand out. There is one store that sells Reese’s in Singapore and it’s downtown in the fancy pants expat mall and they cost about $3 for a candybar (2 cups).

I personally like to buy the variety pack of candy bars at Costco to hand out to my trick-or-treaters. I buy them nice and early and eat them the whole month of October. That way I can eat the quarter of the candy that I love and hand out the Almond Joy, Mounds, Crunch and Butterfingers. I make sure to eat all the Reese, Twix, Mars and Hershey’s bars. If I can’t make it through I stash them for later.

Another nice thing about October there is the candy bars don’t have to be in your fridge. If you want to eat it here without licking the chocolate right off the wrapper you’re gonna have to keep all chocolate in the fridge. Who knows. Maybe when I get back stateside I won’t be able to eat room temperature chocolate anymore.