The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Lan Lan: "Mom!  There's a spider outside?"

Mom: "Kill it."

LL: "I can't!"

Mom: "Why not?"

LL: "I'm too big!"

School Jobs

In LanLan's classroom each child has a special job they do for the week.  At the beginning of each week the jobs change so every child gets a chance to do all the jobs. Some of the jobs are: Line Leader, Pledge, Teacher's Helper, Calender, Prayer Warrior, Wastebasket, etc.

We were asking her what her favorite job was and she answered "Line Leader! No, Prayer Warrior! No!! Line Leader!! NO! . . . . Calender Girl!"

Snow = Snow

As my little Orchid looks out the window excitedly watching the very wet snow fall down to the ground she screeches with delight about all the things she will do with the snow.  I try and explain that the ground is too wet and too warm and there won't really be any snow to accumulate.  She turns to me and explains "Mom, when it's snowing it turns into SNOW!"

English Class

When we first took LanLan to her Kindergarten class she asked if her teacher was going to speak English or Chinese and when we told her that it would be in English she responded with "But I need to keep learning Chinese.".  I could hear my husband's heart breaking, it is his dream for her to speak fluent Chinese . . . and she will soon forget it all.

I'm pretty sure though, she is enjoying being in English school and surrounded all the time by English. A day or two ago LanLan pulled a comic book out of a cereal box.  So excited about it she ran up to her grandmother and said "Look, it's in English!!"

(We would get her comic books in China, in Chinese of course, but I don't think she knew they existed in English.)

School Days

While in China LanLan has been attending school for the past 2 years and had almost completed Kindergarten. But being that it was all in Chinese and for New York law she is too young for 1st grade, we have decided to send her to Kindergarten this year. She is doing well but I feel that it is a little easy for her and she might be a bit bored. I asked her one day: "Is Kindergarten hard or easy?"

"It's easy . . . . and hard."

"Oh really, what's hard about it?" I asked.

"Raising my hand."

Salt & Spicy

This morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of white snow outside. As I woke up LanLan to get ready for school I told her to look out the window to see a surprise. The snow was just the motivation she needed to hurry so she could go out and play before the school bus came.

As we waited for the bus she played in the snow, throwing it, eating it, rolling around in it, kicking it, etc. After a short time a salt truck came by and I pointed it out to her explaining what they were doing.

She thought for a second and asked "What is that spicy stuff?"

"What do you mean? What spicy stuff?"

"Umm, PEPPER! When are they going to put pepper on the street?"

Survival of the fittest

The other day I sent LanLan to her room for a time out. A few minutes after she was there she called out to me to come quick. Thinking she was trying to get out of her punishment I didn't respond right away. But the tone in her voice was a little different so I did end up going into see her.

As I walked in her room she was very upset b/c this . . . .

was eating this . . .

Not really knowing what to do I tried to "rescue" the fish from the crayfish's mouth. He was still alive and tried swimming away. He wasn't very good as you can imagine a fish with no tail would be.

Later that day when my husband came home LanLan and him found this fish being eaten by his "brother" fish. The fish was still alive but now only had half a body. Again my husband "rescued" the fish but this time flushed him down the toilet.
Sorry little dude that I didn't flush you earlier and save you from all that anguish.

More Turkey Please

Getting a turkey here can be very difficult and very expensive, so if we get one it's a BIG deal. LanLan (living her entire life out of America) doesn't grasp American holidays easily. We want her to know her roots so we try and explain special holidays and make them as much as we can like what she would experience in America. I got really excited that we could get a turkey and therefore making her excited (but she doesn't really know why).

LanLan would ask when we were going to eat the turkey and I would respond, "On Thursday, Thanksgiving day". When Thanksgiving arrived she was so excited, she ran around telling her friends "We get to eat turkey today!!"

We sat down to dinner, served up the plates, and began eating. After awhile LanLan came up to me carrying her plate and asked "Can you give me more turkey please?!"

Pointing to the untouched pile of turkey I looked at her a little puzzled and said "That's turkey right there."

"Oh, can I have more of this stuff?" pointing to the bacon on her plate.

Days of Expectation

We have been working on learning the days of the week. LanLan is learning that she goes to school Monday - Friday, Saturday is play day with daddy and Sunday we go to church. She loves Saturday & Sunday is always counting how many more days till then.

Yesterday I picked her up from school and LanLan exclaimed "Today is Friday. Tomorrow is SATURDAY and then it's SUNDAY!"

This morning LanLan woke up with her usually shouts of "Mooommy!!" "Daaaadddy!!" I walked to her room and motions for her to quietly join me in my bed. She said "Isn't daddy here?" I shook my head no. She threw her head down and said "Then it's not Saturday yet"

Rock Hard Baking

"Daddy, Mommy & I made you a surprise!"

"What is it?!"

"Pumpkin Stones!!" (aka scones)

Shout it from the Mountops

"Sing to the Lord a new song . . . you who go down to the sea, . . . . raise their voices . . . . let them shout from the mountaintops."

My daughter loves to sing, not songs that she learns but NEW songs, songs that she makes up. We were walking home when LanLan was singing another made up song. well, it was more shouting than singing. At the top of her lungs she was singing "Tonight is Jesus' birthday, Jesus is God!" over and over again.

I was laughing and thinking about this verse in Isaiah, "shout from the mountaintops". I wanted to tell her to stop shouting and that she was disrupting the neighborhood (and to keep me from embarrassment) but I didn't. I was reminded how we should always be so excited to share the Good News, be excited to celebrate Christ and what he has done for us. I know that I don't, but I am thankful to my daughter for reminder.

Isaiah 42:10-12
¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.

¹¹ Let the desert and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the mountaintops.

¹² Let them give glory to the LORD
and proclaim his praise in the islands.

Sick

LanLan woke up this morning with an upset stomach. Her daddy was there comforting her and she said to him:
"I'm really not well. Can you call my friend and tell her?"

Daddy: "Why?"

LanLan: "So she doesn't come over."

Daddy: "Well, she's sleeping, and besides, she's not coming over, anyway."

LanLan: "Well, then, can you call her mommy and tell her?"

Attitude

Sometimes my precious little orchid is the sweetest little girl, very caring for her brother, kind to her friends, loving, and encouraging. But there are moments where she is likes to give a little attitude. Yesterday I took the kids to the park to enjoy the beauty of creation. I told LanLan, "Look at all the beautiful trees and flowers that are blooming! It is such a pretty day, isn't it?"

LanLan turned to me and said "No! It's a BLACK day! With BLACK flowers and BLACK trees!"

Good Morning

I went into LanLan's room this morning and pulled open the curtains to wake her. LanLan rolled over and said with a little annoyance in her voice "Mama! I'm trying to sleep!"

Obedience Is The Best Way

While I was pregnant with BinBin LanLan wanted the baby to come out so she could play with him. I told her that he needed to wait until we went to Beijing. Then once in Beijing he needed to wait till her Aunt arrived. She then told me: "The baby needs to OBEY Mommy!"