Cultural dancing

In this video you can see one of the more interesting and endearing cultural practices of the local people.  In parks, apartment complexes, or other open spaces; in the morning and in the evening you often see older ladies dancing.  Line dancing.  Some are just there for exercise, but some are quite serious about it.  You can also see two other girls who are "quite serious about it".

If you will play this video on repeat from 7-9pm each day you will know what it sounds like outside our apartment... every day... same song...

I told Jill I would give her 1 yuan ($0.15) if she would join them.... so far my money is safe.

-James

It's fun being two and three!

I'm under no illusion that you guys read this blog because of my stellar writing. I know the vast majority of you just want to check in on the girls and see their cute faces.

I hope this post satisfies :)

This was the attire the girls chose one morning. Pajamas, outside shoes, hats, and backpacks.

This was taken later the same day. I did at least get them out of pajamas and more presentable to go outside.
By the way, what are these contraptions called in English? Anyone? In Chinese they're called yao yao che which translates shake shake vehicle. The girls love them and we love that they only cost 15-30 cents to ride :)

One of Jill's friends opened an English library that also teaches English classes. The girls got invited to participate in one of their special activities. 

We didn't master the jump rope yet, but we had fun trying.

This archway is just outside our front door.

taking a stroll through our complex

at a wedding we went to a couple weeks back

This is the girls' friend, Michael. His dad is British and his mom is a local. We've had a few playdates together. This day the girls especially loved that Michael shared his kite with them.

Ann riding Catherine. It was all fun and games until someone face-planted on the tile.

Catherine is getting better at coloring all the time.

our new home, part one

I don't have photos of all the rooms and if I wait until I do, this may never get posted. Until I get the rest of the photos, here's a peek at where we're living. This place is a bit farther from city center than we were before, but we have about 400 more square feet, a much nicer home, heat that we control ourselves, a nicer complex, and our rent is just about the same price. We are SO SO SO very thankful for His provision!

Our kitchen. 

To make you more aware of how grateful we are, see our previous kitchen below. 

We did eventually move the fridge to the balcony which created more space, but you can clearly see that our new place is a step up.

The view from our kitchen window. It's not the grand view of the city we had from the 18th floor, but it is getting greener by the day. And, I can still see the mountains in that small crack between the two buildings. However new construction is going back up there and I estimate in a couple months the high rise will block the tiny view I have of them :(

This room is off our living room and was probably intended to be an office. For us, it's made a perfect playroom for the girls and we hope will transition well to a homeschool room when the time comes. 

The girls' bedroom. view one: Catherine's bed
And in full disclosure when I made the beds to take this picture, it might have been the first time I made the beds since we've lived here. 

The girls' bedroom. view two: Ann's bed

The girls' bedroom. view three: the changing table I wish Ann would decide she was tired of using and would use the potty instead. 

This is the living room the day we moved in. It's been rearranged and other furniture added since then. 

Here's the view out of our living room/balcony window. I also captured the folks doing their morning exercises in this picture. 

Just outside our door. An empty creek. :)

This may not look like much to you Americans, but this is an actual closet. In all the houses we have been in in China, we have seen exactly two that have one. Mostly homes here have armoires in each bedroom but never an actual closet. We have a walk in closet with built in shelves and everything. The door on the right enters into the master bath. 

This is the master bedroom the day we moved in. It also looks different now. 

This is the main bathroom. 

and the shower

the dining room

Well, there's still another bedroom and the rooms that look different now than the photos but you can at least see something of our life until I get around to doing more.

Announcement #4

This one will be short, but it's still pretty great news for us: We were granted 120 day stays for our visa!
Last year we had 90 day stays which meant we had to exit China every 3 months. This is pretty tiring with two small ones, so we're thankful our request to the consulate was granted.

This really was a big answer to prayer since the normal stay granted is 30 or 60 days. We are thankful, but looking forward to the business registration being complete so that we'll have a long term visa!

Announcement #3

This announcement is just to let those of you who may not know it that James Judd rocks. Seriously.

This post has been in the works since early pregnancy. This is a compilation on of all the incidents I wanted to brag on him about but couldn't do so publicly until we had officially announced the pregnancy. And then we moved to China, then we had all kinds of tech issues and so here we are, but I still wanted to announce it:

JAMES JUDD IS AWESOME!

 Here are some of the ways he goes above and beyond normal husband and dad duty:

1. James cleaned up my puke. Multiple times. The worst incident involved a hotel sink and an entire Caesar salad. He also took care of the girls while I puked or while I sat wishing I could puke so that the nausea would go away.
2. James does night duty like a rock star. Not only when we have a cozy little newborn, but also when we have a preschooler who doesn't always sleep through the night. I have never been so thankful to marry a Ranger as I am when one of our children wakes up in the night. Thank you, US Army, for whatever horrible training you subject your Rangers to that make them able to rouse from deep slumber to full alertness in a manner of seconds. This ability was confirmed when one of James' ranger friends came to stay with us just before we left America and shared that he also possesses this superpower and uses it to help to wife with their children. I, however, was not an Army Ranger and do not possess that gift. I stumble around and grumble and complain so I'm grateful every time I hear his feet hit the floor before I've even moved.  
3. James doesn't complain when dishes are in the sink for days or the laundry is piling up. I'm somewhat keeping up with housework now, but during the first trimester I did not. And James didn't complain and often did much of the work of himself.
4. He lets me sleep in. Not every day, and I do try to repay the favor once in awhile, but many mornings James is the first out of bed tending to girls and I am so thankful for those extra minutes of sleep.

When I read over this I feel like it sounds like I do nothing. I sleep in, don't do housework, and then James gets up with them in the night. I'll let you make you own conclusions about what I do all day ad night, but just remember I am growing a human being inside my body. But, my point is I am very, very thankful for all of the help James offers in this crazy parenting gig.