Chinese Potty Mouth

In the car, Hunter was in the back row with his Chinese classmates, when I heard a mixture of whispering and loud laughter. We adults (well, me and all the grannies that were picking up kids from school) got quiet to hear what was going on...

whispering the word: '放屁/FangPi' (snicker snicker)

LOUD LAUGHTER

whispering: '屁股/PiGu' (snicker snicker)

LOUD LAUGHTER again.

So now I'll translate for you:

屁股/PiGu: Butt

放屁/FangPi: Fart

Never in my life did I ever think I'd be telling my son "Hunter! We don't say PiGu or FangPi!" Then just the other day, I walk in on Tim and Hunter having a serious conversation about what words are coming out of his mouth while sword fighting with his friends and brother.

Tim: Hunter, you can say "打/Da", but you can't say "打死/DaSi"
Hunter: Why not?
Tim: DaSi means to kill, Da only means to hit.

Like Son Like Father

Tanner has this weird habit of laying down on the floor, or anywhere. He'll sprawl out just like this on the tile floor at church. Totally strange.

Still trying to figure out where he gets it from.

What You Might Not Know About This Dad

1. After a long day at work, many-a times he meets us at the Arcade before going home.


2. He has his own recipe for French Toast and German Pancakes (the Caltons call it "David Eyre").


3. He is not afraid of loosing friends by lighting industrial fireworks in the middle of our caldisac.

4. His wife is obsessed with this scene, and has pictures of it from almost every vacation we've been on.

5. He taught his 3 year-old not to be afraid of the big waves.

6. These are the people he admires most.

7. He's totally okay with a grown man putting his hand on his knee, so long as it's "DingLi", whom he taught while on his mission over 10 years ago in Australia.

8. His wife might be diagnosed with OCD.... hmmmm, and has this picture from almost every vacation too.

9. Has no shame in taking a picture next to a walrus with his 5 year old.

10. Or to be seen on the back of a kiddy ride, taking very seriously his duty to be the horn-honker.

11...aaahhhh, there's the picture again, now where was I?...

12. And again.

13. Once again, no shame. Things I would have never guessed about him when we were dating... lol

14. This picture makes me misty. Tanner fell off a swing, and started to cry. I had the camera, and said to Tim "quick! Get him back up on the swing, or he'll develop a phobia of the swing". Tim agreed, scooped him back up on to the swing. Here is Tim kissing Tanner's little head while swinging him slowly.

15. He is the family camel/horse.

16. He's very proud of his man-sized tricycle. And keeps a mental spreadsheet of how much money he's saved on cab/gas fees by using this electric beast.

17. A promise is a promise. Here he's woken Hunter at midnight to play Wii, b/c he promised they'd play when he got home.

18. I know two little boys who wanna be nothing but just like him.

19. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, I love it.

20. He's proud of his 'church ball' wounds. This is after he let a Chinese man at a hair salon have a go (mini-operation) at it with his little tool kit. LOL!

21. Loves to go out for treats. Especially the Chinese version of starburst "Hi-Chews".

22. But if you asked him who he really was... he'd probably describe himself as something like what you see in this above picture.

23. And I'd probably confirm that.

24. Happy Father's Day Tim, and Happy 7th Anniversary. I love you more than a 'bunch of pigs' (inside joke derived from my mom's poem "I Love You Little I Love You Big").

Congrats Nanzi-Noo!

Nanzi-Noo, Snoo, Sneedle, Toots, Tootsie, Noonie, 弟弟(DiDi means little brother), Noon-Day-Son, Snoopy, Nanner, Tanna (Tanner w/ Chinese accent), 笑天(XiaoTian, Tanner's Chinese Name), Teents, Nanni, 小皇帝(Xiao HuangDi means Little Emporer), Tornado, Sazoo, Sneepy, Lahley, Tans, Soopy, Sazeese...

But rarely, and I do mean rarely, do we ever call him Tanner.

Today, we congratulate ________ !!!!
(insert your favorite nick name for him from the list above).

I couldn't find an appropriate picture for his accomplishment, until I found this picture Hunter took in my 'delete' section... (I was swinging Tanner back and forth in the below pic).

The Chinese potty train at 1 years old. In public, you will see them holding their bare bum-ed babes like this (below) over the potty, garbage can, mud puddle etc. Hence, the reason why many 6 month-olds have a split bottom pants instead of expensive diapers here.

Tanner has decided he will only use the potty. I thought b/c he wasn't speaking a lot of English that he wasn't ready. But then one day we opened his drawer and told him we were out of diapers. And aside from a couple of small accidents, he's been totally successful in training HIMSELF!

Quite a difference from the over-do-it potty training research I did with Hunter:

buying the 3 potty training books, the potty training boot camp @babies r us, Scotty Potty doll, Getting the "Potty Training in One Day" book signed by the author, even talking to her on the phone, borrowing the Potty Elmo from Nicole, and watching the Dr. Phil episode on potty training...

So, I testify, when they are ready, they are ready. Congrats Snoodle-Doo!

And that's a nick name I am using today.

Crafts With Hunter

Hunter is my little buddy. Today he reminded me of one of the millions of reasons why I like having these little boys around.

I was folding some last minute hair bows to send to family, and had to get them done in the afternoon.

The boys rarely see me do 'adult' crafts (I usually do them when they're asleep). So when he saw me get out the glue gun, wire cutters and scissors, he curiously said:

"Hey Mom, can I help?"
"Sure" I said (thinking of something he could help with that wasn't scolding hot or extra sharp).

While I was thinking, he bolted out of the room--
and returned like this:

Apparently, this is a "MAN's" get up for doing hair bow crafts.

LOVE being a mom of boys, love it!

Public Restroom, from a 5 year-old's view

We moms clorox our floors, sanitize little fingers, change sheets weekly (or have Ayis do it), wash with hot sudsy water... only to have something like this happen:

We were at "Zhen Da Guang Chang" literally translates to "VERY BIG shopping center".

And of course, upon getting to the highly trafficed enterance, Hunter dips both hands in a mud puddle, and then licks them both. In front of both of us. After a few rounds of dry-heaving, Tim and I compose ourselves to have the following conversation with our sweet boy:

Tim: Hunter, we never ever ever do that!
Hunter: I was thirsty!
Tim: Hunter, it's VERY dirty. Did you know that people in China pee in mud puddles (okay, this is a true fact, if kids or even adult males have to go, many times, they will hold the children over a puddle to go... not to say this puddle right in front of the door was used for this purpose, but you get our drift).
Hunter: (down-loading this new found information)
Tim: (hoping he never forgets it, so his wife doesn't dry-heave in public again)

Then, on our way out, it had just finished raining,

Hunter looks around, and concludes: "Wow Mom, look at all the people that peed". LOL!!

I'VE HAD IT!!!!

ARGH!!! China has had blogger blocked for about a month now.

After weeks of waiting (y'all know this happened around the time of the Olympics too), Tim finally got a VPN to let us get around it.

The day he got it, I feverishly posted 4 of my... hmmm, let's say 45 posts in the 'waiting' phase. Delighted, everything uploaded just fine.

Then, on Sunday, Monday and Today, I try to upload pictures--- and I CAN'T UPLOAD!!!! SOOO stinkin' frustrated right now. I can write, but no pictures!!

What do I do? We have Windows Vista, so not all VPNs can work on our computer. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm going out of my mind over here!

Throw me a bone.