Wedding Video

Here's the video as promised. Enjoy!

Isaiah's First Wedding (here)

An old friend of mine got married on Christmas weekend.  We drove down to the capital city for a very festive holiday weekend. The post below shows some of the fun we had with American friends, but the weekend also included Isaiah's first local wedding.  What's even more fun is that Isaac's first (ever) wedding was my friend's older brother... at the same house..if you click on that link you'll notice my friend and her (now) husband in some of the shots. Good times. Our camera battery was still dead during all of this so please enjoy what we do have of the celebration. (I'm working on putting together a video, but wanted to get this up in case it never happened!)

 My friend's dad's name is "Zainal" but people call him "Zay"... here's Grandpa Zay meeting Little Zay.

And here's Isaac. He did a lot of running around and we even lost him briefly in the crowd once. But he just played right along with the other kids there (and wanted to eat all the sweets they were handing out to the kids there).  The girl in the foreground is actually a girl I met the same time I met the bride... last time I saw her was at my friend's brother's wedding too! I got to sit and chat with her and another girl I met back in 2004 for a little while...it was quite the reunion!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We went to our capital city for a friend's wedding over Christmas weekend.  In the little guesthouse we stayed in we had some fun friends to celebrate Christmas with.  Thursday night we had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party... it was fun. Unfortunately we forgot our battery charger and it made it so that we only had one low-quality picture on Christmas morning.  :( We have video, but only one picture. So enjoy the few (sometimes blurry) photos we do have!

Here is Princess A and Isaac providing acoustic accompaniment to Christmas Carols during the party.

 Party people.

 Jesus' birthday cake. Which, as Princess A would tell you, "We have to eat all of it because Jesus is in heaven and won't be coming to eat any cake tonight." :)

Christmas morning 2010. Classic.

Because Preschool Rocks...

Here's more pics of Isaac at Preschool.

 

Our boy dressed in his spiffy uniform outside our house. They actually forgot to give me the shorts with his shirts (picture pleated blue checks with cuffs instead of navy shorts).  And this was taken on a camera phone...but the handsomeness still shines through all of it.

  

He wears the pink uniform Tuesday - Thursday but Monday and Friday are "Aerobic Days" so he has to wear a more casual uniform that day. Most of these pics were taken on Friday, hence the fantastic looking athletic wear he's sporting.  Here he is in the main classroom. I'm standing outside in the play yard (it's got half-bars wrapped in Christmas tinsel). I love all the bare feet. 

 

I'm not sure what I like so much about these pics, but they are just so cute to me! Here's the big athletic man hanging from the sliding monkey bar thing. He did it several times and was so proud of himself!

My little blondie in the midst of the sea of black hair.

Yay for preschool!

A "Rivers Day" Video

Yesterday was a special day for our family.  One year ago Sharon and I stood before a judge in Orlando, Florida who ruled that Isaiah was now legally our son.  In honor of that day we plan to celebrate "Rivers Day" every December 15th.  Yesterday we celebrated by going to TGI Friday's (not what we would have chosen is the States, but Western food is Western food!).  We may do a bigger post about "Rivers Day" later, but until then here's a video.  Before we went to TGI Friday's the boys were playing on our front porch.  Warning for the Grandparents - this may be too cute to handle:

Isaac the Preschooler

 Isaac has gone to preschool 2 days now. We can't really tell if he has fun because he's not that great at describing what goes on. He's tired by 12Noon and just kinda wants and needs a sandwich and a nap by then.  So tomorrow I'm going to stay for awhile in the morning to watch him in action.  He goes from 8-12, 5 days a week.

(the first and second pictures crack me up. Isaac was a bit overwhelmed- it was raining too- when we first arrived, hence the first picture. Then one of the teachers off to the left showed him how to take a proper picture...photo below. Our little Asian.

We looked at several schools before choosing this one. Some were near where we're taking language class (30 min from our house, over the big hill on the island) but the one we chose is only 5 minutes from our house. Most preschools here are simply townhouses converted into preschools. Usually they are in the end-unit of a row of houses so that there is a big play yard. Isaac's school is actually 1 of 2 on the short little street it's located on. The one on the end just didn't seem to have it together. When we knocked on the gate to Isaac's school "Melodi" preschool, they invited me in and asked me to wash my hands upon entering. Check.

After walking past the covered play yard (check), I was greeted by this well decorated wall upon entering the building (check).

The principal was so on top of things. Compared to the other schools she seemed to know what parents (should) really want in a preschool environment. Unlike the other preschools we looked at, I didn't have to explain to her why I wanted my son to learn another language (particularly Mandarin) other than English.  While English is mostly spoken there, the teachers are all Chinese and I've asked them to speak Mandarin with Isaac as much as possible.  On top of that, when interviewing the principal she whipped out several flash cards with Mandarin symbols on them saying that the kids would learn those words- to speak them, to recognize the character, and to hear it. She then said, "Since your son already speaks English, if he can learn Mandarin, he will be able to speak to nearly the whole world." (check) Well said Ms. Principal.

Though, one down side (after only 2 days!) is that the quality of English spoken isn't quite up to par. Tonight at dinner Isaiah turned over an empty cup. Isaac's comment was, "It didn't spill because it wasn't full up." Anthony and I looked at each other then both commented on how Chin-glish it sounded. Eh, ya win some you lose some.

Overall we think it's going good- especially as Isaac hasn't said that he doesn't want to go. More pictures and video to come (I'm sure).

Saturday Snapshot

Isaac: Self-portrait

The Boys are back in town...

Isaiah eating Roti Pisang (banana bread) and Isaac in front of the 2 tall towers he's been looking forward to seeing!

(DING) "This is your captain speaking..."

The boys did as best as can be hoped for on the flights.  We only had 2 flights which is great as navigating airports with carry-ons and half-sleeping kids is more annoying than the long flights themselves.

The first flight was ok. Isaac slept for most of it and Isaiah would have slept more had the cabin crew not kept the lights on and talked REALLY LOUDLY for about 4-5 hours of the 8 hour flight.

The second flight was better as the Benadryl was administered flight crew gave out meals in a timely fashion, with little ruckus and with only ambient lighting (if you want more light at your seat, that's what the button is for...)  Both boys fell asleep during take-off and slept for about 6-7 hours. Glorious! We also had 4 seats together in the center section. That helped loads.

When we finally got to our beds around 10:45pm local time, the boys went down with little fuss and slept all night... Isaac even slept in til about 8, which borders on miraculous for our 6am kid.

November = Adoption Awareness

 Adoption quote of the day- "Too many children is like saying there are too many flowers." 
Listen to this guy talk about adoption.  He went from 0 to 5 children in 18 months.  We are currently at 1 biological child and 1 adopted child...but we're already praying and asking God how he wants to grow our family again.  Another like the pumpkin on the left or the pumpkin on the right? Hmmm... they both look great to me!

An Isaiah Post

Isaiah is different than Isaac in some ways. They're both fun little boys, but Isaiah has been showing quite the personality lately.  He's much more serious on the whole than Isaac. Of course Isaac's name, Isaac Joseph, means "The Lord will add more laughter" and Isaiah's is much more serious and means God's Salvation...so it's no wonder. :) Yet he's not unhappy, just...not super smiley. He does however get super frustrated when he doesn't get his way. We took his pacifier away when he turned one and since then he seems to be showing himself to be quite strong-willed. He will guard his toys at all costs and gets very emotional when Isaac somebody takes them from him. And he's not a fan of anyone leaving the room. Particularly his Granddaddy.

As much as Isaac is a favorite in Asia, Isaiah is a favorite among the ladies in America. Particularly Ms. Gloria of Gloria's restaurant. She immediately brings him a plate of fries and bowl full of ketchup when he walks in the door. She likes to take his shirt off so he "doesn't get any ketchup on him"... yeah right Ms. Gloria...we see through you and your weakness for dark handsome shirtless men.

He likes dirt a lot. His face wasn't that dirty in this pic, but if there is even the smallest pile of dirt (read: ant bed) anywhere, he will find it and put his hand in it. It's cute though, dirty crusty boogers and all.

Here's him getting mad that he can't get up on my lap.  You will find this look on his face when anything goes not the way he wants it.

He loves ketchup. Most of the time he will just stick his one index finger in oh-so gently, but then the frenzy starts and its fistfuls as fast as he get them in...

He LOVES his Granddaddy. Granddaddy is by far his favorite person. Probably because he takes him everywhere and gives him gum. Which Zay chews...for like 10-20 minutes, then when he's done he'll spit it out! He's never swallowed any of it. How does he know how to do that? Isaac sure doesn't!

Him on the boat ride during our Disney-on-the-cheap excursion. I tried to get him to sit with me, but he clung to Granddaddy's arm with much intensity.

Inspecting his "monorail ticket" to check for authenticity. 

Your feelings are strong for.... brother! Obi Wan was wise to hide him from me."  What a cute youngling...he wears it well. After all both Skywalker kids were adopted!

We love our mini-est man. Even with his non-sillyness, he still is a lot of fun and "all boy." Yay for Zay!

An Isaac Post

Isaac is so much fun these days. He puts a "t" at the end of every word that ends with an "n." So green becomes "Mama it's a greent light. Go go go!" and "My san-ich is all gont Mama."  The thing is when we correct him, he says it correctly, so it's not a speech impediment... and tonight I corrected him about "gone" and he said, "No Mama. Not gonnnnnne. It's gont." We're still working on potty training, but overall the number of times a week I have to clean poop out of his pants has dramatically decreased. And he stays dry all night every night (unless, like a gremlin, he drinks after a certain time) Here he is below after a morning outside in the dirt. It was all in his hair and everything! Nothing like a bath at 10:30am!

We did "Disney on the Cheap" the other night. Which is going to Disney, not paying for parking by parking at a hotel, eating dinner at a hotel, ride a boat to another hotel, ride the monorail around the lake and to Epcot, hopefully catch a parade (they have one on the lake too), some fireworks, go to a Disney souvenir shop (Disney will never let you down about not providing a gift shop), then call it a night. For kids under 2 at least, this totally works. Here we are at Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World for dinner. Isaac is such a good picture taker! There is rarely a time when he isn't camera compliant and won't smile huge and say "cheeeeese!"

If you look waaaay over my shoulder you'll see the monorail parked on the track waiting to go to the Contemporary hotel (which is perfectly hidden by that clump of trees on that man-made island). We were getting on a ferry to take us to the Contemporary from the Wilderness Lodge. Oh what a jet-setter Isaac will be! Is!

On the boat... spying the lights of the hotels across the lake. Isaac commented several times on this boat trip about, "The sunset going doooooown." He's got daytime and nighttime figured out, and nighttime is when the sunset goes down. :)

Back at the Wilderness Lodge after the monorail ride... it's dark in the photo, but no worries, in real life the man-made crystal clear stream complete with rocks and pebbles is perfectly visible (and touchable!) at night. Such simple pleasures in a 2-yr-old's mind!

So we didn't go trick-or-treating. Last year we tried but it was horrible. No one in our little town did anything. And because I didn't actually buy the outfits until Saturday night, or get them hemmed until Sunday afternoon, there was no trick-or-treating and this photo below was taken on Nov 1st. Isaac was cheesy smiling in most of the pictures (or swinging the light saber so it was blurry)... but this one made me laugh! I tried to get him to wear his Yoda back-pack (actually is a Yoda doll so he'd look like Luke in training) but he didn't want to. He played all morning in it!

Then yesterday he got his hair cut at a real salon. He has before but this time it was much more pleasant. I haven't taken him to a salon since April 2009.  In this Mama's opinion, his hair is adorable long (and his head is a bit lumpy from genetics and a crooked exit upon birth) so a close cut really isn't up his alley. This cut went much better and it wasn't too close!

Yay for Isaac!

I Spy...

While walking along the sidewalk cafes and stores of Coconut Grove in Miami, Anthony spotted a small lizard and showed Isaac. It was just a regular ol' Florida lizard like the kind we have on our porch outside, but he liked it of course.

  I was chatting with a local artist so Isaac started looking around the trees, bushes, and plants while we were standing there and proudly exclaimed to Anthony, "Daddy! I see one too!" Anthony (not believing it like his frequent "ant" sightings on any given sidewalk) was like, "Ok! Show me! Where is it?"
"It's right there!" Isaac said pointing to the tree...

It took a minute for Anthony to see it, but sure enough. He had definitely spotted a lizard! Can you see it? It's hard to tell how big it is, but the body had to have been over a foot long. It moved to the other side of the tree just before we got a good picture of it. Too funny! Can't wait to see how he reacts to the monitor lizards in Southeast Asia!

Pickanick

a gorgeous day
a gorgeous tree
gorgeous boys
What a day for a picnic! Our yard in Southeast Asia probably won't be big enough to house a tree, much less multiple large oak trees, heck, there's not even oak trees in Southeast Asia!  So I took advantage of all the gorgeousness to be found and brought lunch outside with my boys.  October in Florida has always been one of my favorite things!

Isaac loved all the "popcorns" (acorns) that kept falling from the tree...there were a lot!

He couldn't get enough apples in his mouth!

"Yes, this was a good idea!" I said to myself during our fun picnic!

What Isaac and I saw after we ate. Yay for picnics!

It's Good to Be 1

 Isaiah got a (belated) birthday package from our very cool friends in New York City!

The Big Apple Cookies arrived unscathed! Not even a crumble out of place!

Cute cookie! You can see Isaiah is excited about his!

Thanks Wall Family! We love you guys!

Happy Trails to you

We went to our local state park the other day for a little dinner picnic. It's the same park where we had Isaiah's birthday party. Very fun that there's one right here in our little town.

Cute, but the source of major neck pain for the last 3 days! No wonder they make packs with baby carriers built in!

Isaac figuring out the way.

As you can see it was a heavy duty hike. Those foam sandals are more supportive than they look.

The creek behind/below us.

Getting off the bridge Daddy and Isaac saw a snake. Isaac pointing with his foot where the snake had been. Or maybe he was just drawing in the sand. But that was where it was nonetheless. Also, I love that Florida is sand even in the middle of the state!

Slowest hikers walk up front.

No swimming :( There's an alligator warning that says, "No Swimming, We Care about human safety, We care about wildlife safety" It's changed over the years. This is where we would get out when we tubed down the River to this creek into the park. A great little swimming hole!

Ahh Florida. Though for whatever reason, Cyprus stumps (the knob things that stick out all around Cyprus trees) used to freak me out as a kid.

We did pack a blanket and food, but our packs were "filled" because we wanted to take a picture for our other blog with all of us in it.  Other than convincing me that we need a child-carrier-hiking pack, we enjoyed our little walk on the trail. Not sure if we're ready for the new extended Appalachian Trail to Africa, but ya gotta start somewhere!