So, how are ya?

Well, as the song goes, I’ve been running at “the speed of life” all day…make that all week…make that all month…and I guess that qualifies me for all year! Today I have laundered and cooked and done dishes and run kids and picked up more things that don’t belong to me than I care to admit. You might think my house would be all nice and neat and that I’m feeling pretty good about my day’s accomplishments…yeah, not so much. There’s still a pot soaking in the sink, I didn’t get the laundry in the dryer put away, there are toys all over the place and at least ten loads of laundry left to do, plus I have at least 20 phone calls to make. But I quit…for today. Tonight I’m going to do something I want to do, not something I need to do! So for those of you who check my blog frequently and have been sadly disillusioned of late, thanks for not giving up on me! Now here’s what’s new with us…


Caroline is talking a BLUE STREAK! Sometimes she speaks a word or two at a time, other times it’s four or more words in a sentence! Sometimes it’s intelligible English, sometimes toddler babble, other times it seems she lapses into a distinctly Chinese-sounding dialect. I know she’s been home for nearly a year, but you just have to hear it to believe it. Her first “words” to us came quickly…the normal babble you would hear from any baby…she clearly understood everything we said almost immediately. By 18 months, she had a respectable 10-20 word vocabulary, but shortly after that, it was as if a switch was thrown and her verbal skills seemed to double daily. What’s more, her long strings of babble sounded like she was speaking Chinese…they still do! Seriously, I can't begin to make the sounds she makes! I know eventually that will all fade away, but for now it is completely precious and hysterically funny at the same time.

That being said, pardon the pun, the girl is a phone maniac. No phone is safe around her. She has speed-dialed one of my dearest friends no less than three times. One day while I was in the shower, she made off with my cell phone and called my friend, Jaima, whom she lovingly refers to as “Jhay Jhay”. Apparently they had quite the conversation, and even Jaima said that in between the English words she could discern, she sounded like she was speaking Chinese! Then she hung up and dialed her again! As I was telling this story to my Mom recently, I’ll be darned if she didn’t pick my cell phone up off the table and hit Jaima’s speed-dial number again! And you don’t dare laugh…it only encourages her!

Now every time the phone rings, I feel like I have to hide in the closet because she is convinced every call is for her. She has regular lengthy conversations with her Daddy, “Pop”, both grandmas (whom she calls “Magga”), my aunt in Texas, and several of my friends! The photos in this post are of a conversation she had last week with my Dad. She is crazy for “Pop”! She went on and on and would not give up the phone! One day a while back, she got hold of the phone and the following conversation ensued…

“Pop?”
“Yes, Caroline?”
“Hi, Pop.”
“Hi, Caroline.”
“Pop?”
“Yes, Caroline?”
“Hi, Pop.”
“Hi, Caroline.”

This went on until my cheeks hurt from laughing and I finally pried the phone out of her hands. To which she replied, “Hey, MOMMY!”

As for our older kids, they are in that stage of the school year where you need a brass band and a bouncer to haul them out of bed. Who can blame them? It’s freezing cold outside, and it’s still dark when the girls walk to the bus. I don’t want to get out of bed, either. I’m not sure that electric blanket of mine was such a good idea. Don’t get me wrong…I dearly love crawling into a nice, warm bed. It’s the getting out I don’t like. And the weather outside is frightful, indeed. Today it was almost 60 degrees. Tonight a storm blew through and brought with it a tornado warning. We retreated to the basement with Grandma Dotty, my neighbor and her dog in tow! It blew through quickly, with no damage, praise the Lord, and it’s still blowing! We have a wind advisory till tomorrow, and it isn’t fit for man nor beast out there! The temperature is now down to 12 degrees, and the wind is gusting to 50 mph. On top of that, we’re expecting a snowstorm Thursday night and into Friday. Friday is the anniversary of the day we left for China, and I shudder to think what might have happened, had we been expecting that weather a year ago!

I will try to post again in the next couple of days…I have photos of Caroline’s birthday that I am anxious to share…and a few others! Thanks for hanging in there! Oh, and the last two photos are of Caroline after she figured out speaker phone!