baptism, lies, Chinglish, and patience

1.Yesterday we attended a baptism. Before going, we reviewed with Lo Lo what baptism means, and showed him pictures of it, etc. At all the prior baptisms Lo has attended at this point, by the time of the actual submerging in water he was out in the hallway for one reason or another. But yesterday for the first time that I can remember, he got to see the ordinance performed. His eyes stared wide and unblinking from his perch at water's edge, and as I guided him back to his seat afterward he said loudly, "I do that baptize!" Then he proceeded to repeat those words to the point that I had to remove his chatty self out to the hallway. He REALLY wants to be baptized and still talks about it. Hope he still feels that way 6 years from now. :)

2.Today during sacrament meeting at church, Lo insisted several times that he needed to be taken out. "Diaper change," he kept requesting. So I took him out and was none too happy with him to find his diaper held not a single drop of wetness. It was clean, dry, and oh so sneaky of him to get out of sacrament meeting. I never knew a kid could be so conniving even this young.

3.We had a few Chinese friends over for dinner tonight. I was proud of Lo's proficient Chinglish communicating with our mixed lingual crowd. He used phrases like, "More Ji," for example, when he wanted the chicken passed to him. (Ji is Chinese for chicken). The one Chinese lady said Lo Lo was a Guai (good boy) (not sure if I butchered that pin yin) because he was sharing his toys. =) He does have his good moments.

4.I need to always make sure to remember the good moments. Focusing on the positive, because today was actually not my favorite overall. At one point during nursery I even told one of the other nursery leaders, "What on earth am I supposed to do?" She smiled serenely and said "learn patience." I am taking her advice to heart. Just thought I'd share my newest goal...

Random sampler

Our apartment has a field of horses adjacent to it. Sometimes we feed them carrots or grain. Also I have nightmares about Lo Lo climbing through that missing slat in the fence sometime when I am not watching and getting kicked in the head...=/ I love how this stage of Lo's development is marked by a desire to help and participate in all projects. Here is our helpful son putting away tables after a church activity a few weeks ago:

At that same activity, there was a woman there who wore a similar tie-dyed shirt to one my mom wore when we were back in Boise this past summer. The two women have similar hair styles/color, and from the back look like twins! Lo Lo kept trying to convince me this woman was his grandma; he has no idea how crazy that would be if his Idaho grandma suddenly appeared at our church event out here in Ohio. After we saw her face, he realized she was not his grandma. That night we asked him, "was grandma at the church today?" And he said with certainty, "No." Kids are so cute.

Sorry for the blurry shots. These were all photos from Jerry's phone that just got uploaded and I figured might as well post them.

Smorgasbord

I've been feeling like I had too many random photos that I just wasn't getting around to blogging, so here are a handful just thrown in all at once.  Just so I can feel like I've checked something off the list. 

 Painting.  This is one of the fine-motor skills we've done lately, and Lo seems to enjoy it (though we probably need to work on the way he grabs the paint brush).  It is one of those magic books that has colors appear when plain water is brushed on it.  So we have no mess, but plenty of fun.  =)

 Sometimes I get bored of making the same menu items for our family all the time.  For dinner, we often have foods like curry, fried rice, stir fry, homemade pizza, spaghetti, or some type of crock pot soup or roast.  But one night I decided to break from routine and we ate a dinner of appetizers.  Pictured above: cheddar/chives/sour cream potato skins; pecan ham pineapple cream cheese tortilla squares (yeah, I just made than one up, but it tastes wonderful); deviled eggs; lettuce wraps (we didn't have the right kind of lettuce handy, but they worked alright); peppered cheese tomato slices.  It felt festive and interesting to do this type of "appetizer meal" for a change. 

 I will probably have to stop doing bum shots entirely once Lo gets a bit older (how old is too old?  NieNie still does it for her boys!)  Anyway, I think we had just gotten him out of the bath and he ran down the hall to shoot a few hoops before bedtime.  He seems so skinny to me these days.  Seriously, when I compare bum shots to what he was a few months ago, the difference is striking.  Not sure what he weighs--I should be having his 15 month well-baby doctor's visit stats soon to post. 

 We have had a lot of snow here lately.  This is the view from our window a few days ago.  That Lo likes to look out the window and cheer for the snow plows and children trudging home from school each afternoon. 

 One of the couch cushion towers Lo Lo climbed in our living room.  He loves this past-time more than any other, I think.  He often tries to drag the cushions off the couches all by himself (which he cannot yet do, thank goodness).  Oh dear what have I taught him.  That's the webcam in the bottom of the photo. 

Lo hugging the camera.  He really does love his grandparents, though he doesn't get to see them often. 

Life is very good.  I will try to post more, but it is about priority number 15 on my daily to-do list most days, so we shall see.