boston teenagers in wuhan, china

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/specials/083008orphanage/
our family was honored to meet these gals and have lunch with jenna when we were in wuhan adopting dani. check out this video.............

what's in your backyard?

john and i came home the other afternoon after cross country practice. i was getting groceries out of the car when i heard john yell, "SNAKE, there's a SNAKE!" alex came running outside, the dogs were barking, dani's peering from the door. mass bedlam in the front yard. we all thought it was a rattler, from the noise it was making, but counldn't see any rattles. it was only a bull snake, however, and jeff reminded us all of steve, the crocadile hunter, as he successfully removed the snake from the yard............

saturday music choice.............

-if you haven't before, start having dreams, have lot's of them. have great dreams, have small dreams---
-----james b stewart

taking it easy.....................

--so many of our dreams at first seem impossible, than they seem improbable and than when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable
-christopher reeve-

saturday at a car show

a different event for this family, spending the afternoon at the fairgrounds with the hotrod.
we ran into a fellow china traveler that was in guangzhou with his wife adopting their new little daughter the same time as our family. it was fun to visit with him and find out how she is doing............

Beijing2008-Fuwa

august night moon

shin guards and soccer shoes

last week alex and i escorted dani on her first field trip to the indoor soccer center for a shopping exursion in new foot apparel. we borrowed a ball so dani could try out the indoor soccer field which she thought was way cool.....
later in the week, we had a night at the park trying out dani's new shin guards and soccer shoes. i am fairly convinced she is striker material........
meanwhile, john was chilling in a tree.........

hectic good times..............

home from a night class of tae kwan do for john. he did well and is learning new stuff. i couldn't get dani to budge out of the place, she is engrossed in this new experience, and in the way that we communicate these days, a mixture of words, and hand gestures, she indicates that one has to be five to participate in tae kwan do, (because that is what i have told her), and that she, dani, is five, and wants to do tae kwan do. (big smile on her face!) she is quick to chastise me when i do not bow before walking out the door and is disciplined to do so herself.
dani is starting to volunteer words in chinese for us to learn. as usual, some of the words seem to be dubious, but the growing trend is a dual communication system.
we have had four days with zero button pushing from dani directed towards myself, and this time has been verrrrrry nice. i think alot of that again is increased understanding of what we both want.
this child can talk and talk............and talk some more. i can see a glimpse of the coming future of non-stop question asking. her new one this past several days is "what are you doing?"
trouble-shooting happenings are the "potty problem". dani seems to have issue on making it to the toilet, today, went well, but a late night BIG SPLASH just occured with a major clean-up session. i've explored the emotional and physical components and the big changes that dani has had in her life. any insight from moms out there in the same boat, would love to hear from you. i just put a night light in the bathroom, hope that helps for the night OOPS, and still working on the day-times.
this mom is tuckered out, so to all, a goodnight!

more cool music................

cool music.............

late, hot, summer night...............

it's late, on a hot, summer night. all is quiet, as everyone is fast asleep. another whirlwind day in the life of this household, with soccer, catching up on math lessons, (math in the summer, hopefully the last year for alex), tae kwan do, and a before bed, mario kart match between john and dani.
this is the first week that dani has observed john participating in tae kwan do. it is clearly evident that this has quirked her interest. she seems to understand our conversation that one has to be five to start tae kwan do, and lo and behold, she is five. she is a child that will try anything!
dani and i visited the soccer office today to sign her up for soccer, another thing she is excited about and talks often of. or in our case, the talk consists of some english, and lot's of body language.
she is learning new words daily and it is fun to watch. as she learns the english, i am starting to find it easier to ask dani for the words in mandarin, and she seems more agreeable to share. what i had experienced with her is a playful evasiveness, or a lack of understanding perhaps, that i was interested in knowing a word in mandarin. when asked, she would spout off with words that i am fairly certain are probably not appropriate, gathering from the amount of laughter coming out of her.
dani is definitly a handful, and is keeping life hopping. she is cheerful, happy and outgoing, with an unpredictable nature to throw in an occasional tantrum, preferably at the most inconvenient moment. the root of the tantrums lie two ways, i believe. one is a lack of understanding, language wise, as to what is going on in the moment, or what's going to happen. the other is strong will, of which she has plenty, and she does have the gift of "poking the bear".
the last interesting topic is the relationship that is developing between john and dani. i have noticed that they are playing together at times, lot's of imaginative play. dani is loving teasing john, probably a good thing again, not knowing what she is saying to him. i also see that john is starting to be observant in watching over dani when we have been out and about. life changing moments at hand.........

-wisdom begins in wonder....
-socrates-

cousins, soccer, and magic

back-to-back soccer tournaments for alex, as she guestplays this weekend for a different soccer team than the previous two days in seattle. my brother, his wife, and two boys are visiting from hawaii and came to watch the game. izzy, my younger nephew is five, and incredibly engaging. he and dani hit is off right away, and i was tempted to ask my brother if i could borrow him for the rest of the summer so dani would have a playmate.