Awana awards ceremony

All three of us got a good night's sleep last night, finally!  I like that TongJie is sleeping in a little later now so I can get up before him and get ready for the day.  It was hard when we were all sleep deprived and not getting to bed until really late and then getting up at 5:30.  It's also hard when I get up at the same time as TongJie because then I'm having to try to make breakfast for him while he's crying and all that.  It's so much more enjoyable to have everything ready when he gets up.  I sort of feel like it's cheating or something to get a full night of sleep, because it makes everything so much easier!  Jeff finally slept better last night too.  He's still having a hard time adjusting to the time change, even though it's been almost two weeks now.  Hopefully the trend of being able to sleep at night will continue for him.

This morning we walked to the Java Station on Cherry and Miller, with TongJie in the stroller, and with Albert of course.  TongJie did great in the stroller, and it was over an hour that we were out walking.  The lady in the coffee place let us all come in because she saw me waiting outside with Albert.  She said they like dogs.  That place is pretty neat now, they've fixed it up a lot with a seating area and everything.  We didn't stay at the seating area, though.  We kept walking as soon as we got our drinks.

We've been making rice cereal and oatmeal with whole milk for TongJie, and he'll usually eat it with whatever we mix in it.  He seems to think that if one of us is feeding him something with a spoon, it must be good enough to eat.  The only time he didn't eat something that we fed him with a spoon was the day we got home from China and he was so tired and upset he wouldn't eat anything.  Usually, even when he gets tired of eating something from his plate, such as scrambled eggs, veggies, cheese, or meat, if we mix it in with his oatmeal or rice cereal he'll eat it just fine.  So today we decided to try tuna in his rice cereal, since he wasn't too thrilled about the tuna alone.  I could tell the concoction wasn't his favorite, but he still ate it!  I wonder how much longer we'll be able to use that little trick of mixing things in.  Probably not too much longer, so we might as well take advantage of it while we can.  As I've mentioned before, he's been an excellent eater, so it's not really a big deal right now anyway.

This evening, I got to go to the end of the year Awana awards ceremony.  I've been an Awana leader for the past two years at our church, with the T&T kids (3rd-5th grade), and when we went to China of course I had to give that up, at least for awhile.  To be honest, I've really missed Awana, especially my little group of kids on the red team.  So I was really looking forward to going to the awards ceremony to see all the kids again and to see them get their awards.  It was a really neat ceremony and I had a good time seeing the students, other volunteers, and parents.  Several of the kids got up in front of everybody and recited verses that they've memorized this year and they did a great job.  I'm so proud of all the kids in Awana; they've worked hard this year!  It was fun to talk to people that I haven't seen for a long time.  I guess it's only been less than a month, but it seems like it's been longer than that because so much has happened in that time.  As I was driving to the church this evening, I realized it was the first time since before we left for China that I've driven a car.  Since we've been back, we haven't been in the car a whole lot (except for that trip to Seattle) and Jeff has been driving.  Also, this evening was the first time since we've had TongJie that I went somewhere without him, aside from the time when I went by myself to do paperwork in the hotel the day before our visa appointment in Guangzhou.  This evening, Jeff got him all ready for bed, and by the time I got back around 8:15 he was already in his crib and Jeff was reading his Bible to him.  He fell asleep a little easier tonight (probably because Jeff was reading from Numbers, just kidding!) and was asleep by 8:35.  I think that's a first!

Here's a picture of me with TongJie playing in his room this morning.  We realized that there haven't been a lot of pictures of me with him lately, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures!

 



And some of Jeff and TongJie walking in the backyard together.  He's already getting a lot more confident walking on the uneven ground, and he still loves to be outside!