Life with the Pierces

bummy

2012-02-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

this weekend we went to a friend's birthday party... unfortunately my camera battery died after about 4 minutes so i didn't get many photos. but, i did snap some of luke with my phone. he thought he was such a big boy painting. mary was pretty excited too... she was showing me her paint. :)

and to leave you with the words of my mary...

she calls everything that is covered by her underwear "bummy". it was bum and then she started adding an "e" to everything so now was have "bummy". yesterday she was scrubbing her body in the bath tub and looked at me and said, "this my front bummy, this my back bummy" pointing the appropriate areas. that's right, mary... we'll just call that your "front bummy" from here on out... let me know what your science teacher thinks of that in a decade.

and here is mary loving her wendys! for those of you who knew me in boston, can you believe my child has an ice cream cone all to herself?! we're crazy. :) she loves it and i'll tell you, the frosty's in indonesia are about 10 times better than the frosty's in america. they are hands down my favorite dessert in indonesia! i'm thankful for frosty's!

home made flavored creamer!

2012-02-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

my breakfast of champions

i don't usually talk about food but these two items may be of interest to some people. for those of you living in america the coffee may not be that special, but if you live far from a land flowing with flavored creamer (like indonesia) this is for you! i now make my own flavored creamer... and it's good (though after being away from the states for 6 months i think my taste buds have been compromised, so i'll confirm that when my mom brings a box of to-go vanilla coffee mate from america next week). :) one can of sweetened condensed milk, equal amount of normal milk and 1 T of vanilla extract... or whatever flavor you like. beth, if you can find coconut extract this may just be your way to have coconut creamer all year round!

secondly, the brownie is from a blog that i read (but i actually do know the person in real life). don't judge but they're made with black beans and no flour (i think for gluten free people but they taste delicious). they're really dense and a little more like fudge than brownies. yummy. check out the recipe at jami's blog. served cold with a hot cup of coffee right before my first run in two weeks... amazing. :) breakfast of champions.

and, here are my kids enjoying their swings in our back yard. luke does have a diaper on... usually that all he has on though. the poor guy sweats so much! and mary has no shorts on, which is also very usual.

photographed a wedding.

2012-02-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

again, i am no wedding photographer, but my friend's sister got married in bali and they needed someone to take pictures. since i have an interest in photography and wish i were a real photographer, i went along and got to take pictures. :) here are some of my favorite.

so so so happy for melanie and brian! they were such a fun and laid back couple. their story is a picture of God's mercy and faithfulness. it was a joy getting to know them and documenting their wedding. right before the ceremony i was telling brian that he is a very calming presence (he's just a peaceful person) and he said, "what's there to worry about? i'm about to marry the best thing that ever happened to me." i'm so happy for them and their family! if you want to hear more about it and see more family pictures check out vikki's blog. thanks for taking me along, vikki! :)

different.

2012-02-05T09:16:00.000-05:00

my kids are different than the usual kid here. in many ways... most obviously their skin tone, but also the way they walk independently into places (kids are raised differently here so they're always surprised to see mary independently walking down the store aisles with me following behind her), how "fat" my kids are, how they can eat by themselves, etc.

so, a few days ago we were at the grocery store as a family. danny is checking out and i'm handling the kids running around at the front of the store. we have an audience of about 12 people, running up and kissing them, giggling and running back to their friends, trying to squeeze their fat arms, etc. my kids usually aren't phased by being watched at this point. at one point, danny and i look over at mary... a new song had just started over the loud speaker and apparently mary noticed. mary looks up, puts one hand on her heart and one hand up in the air, closes her eyes, switches to a very serious face and starts swaying. can you picture it? try, it's funny. what was she doing? oh, just pretending to worship to the latest indonesia pop song in the grocery store in front of her 12 viewers. danny and i just looked at each other and started dying laughing. that might be one more thing that makes her different than most kids here too. :)

oh and this incident was right after i had my first attempt at trying to get her to go on the squatty potty at the grocery store. think gas station grossness times 10 with no tiolet but instead a wet floor and a ceramic hole. needless it say, it was unsuccessful. she kept asking, mommy, where's the potty? it's right there, baby girl. maybe she'll be ready in a few months.

and, if you were wondering the pictures have nothing to do with the above stories. just trying to record our daily life here. :) these pictures are from our play times with a spare mattress. one night we made a fort and the kids loved it! they thought it was so fun to be under there all together, but man it was hot! and since we don't have a rug sometimes we use the extra foam mattress (that is actually borrowed from a friend) as a play place for them to run and fall and chase eachother. the first time i did it, they played happily together for 45 minutes straight! i highly recommend this idea for mom's of young kids that sometimes fight over toys. :)

contentment

2012-02-02T10:29:00.000-05:00

a glimpse of some of the beautiful people we see everyday.

the people here are so beautiful but they're always wanting to look different (just like americans). they do things to make their skin lighter or talk about how they want smaller lips and smaller cheek bones or whatever they don't have. i try to explain that people in america have proceedures to get more plump lips and more defined cheek bones... and that white people always want to be darker. we always want what we don't have. it reveals the sin in our hearts, the discontentment, the wanting. it's not just with appearance, with anything. sometimes i just want our house to have a rug and nightstands, or really want to hang out with old friends, or want time by myself, or want danny to do something for me, or want my kids to stop whining. it wears me out. i realized a few weeks ago that i was just worn out from wanting, from not being content.

i'm thankful that we have the promise of God. there is freedom from our sin today and one day there will be free from it for all eternity. but for now, i continue to pray that God gives me eyes to see things with joy and thankfulness. to appreciate what we have here in indonesia and the beautiful creation of God all around us. to be content in all circumstances.

the park, the usual.

2012-01-31T10:28:00.000-05:00

we spend many afternoons at this little park, even though most of the equipment there is way too advanced for our children. but it's somewhere to go and there is grass... we are thankful for it!

i always climb this little wall so mary wants to try too. but, obviously, she's a bit young.

uhh, i love him. he has been so funny and cute lately! he just realized that he can try to be funny and we'll laugh at him so he's been doing small performances like his big sister. so cute.

and, in an effort to not forget the little things... yesterday i got him up from a nap and changed his diaper. as i opened the diaper there was a small puzzle piece right on top of his *uhh, you know*. not sure how it got in there but we now have an incomplete puzzle at our house! and just to let you in the real glamour of being a mom, as i went to throw the piece away he rolled over without a diaper and peed all over the floor.

oh and now he drinks his cups out of the side of his mouth. always.

my little baller.

just enjoying life!

first time photographer

2012-01-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

this is the first time i've taken photos of someone besides my children. i actually went to bali this week to be the photographer at a wedding, or to photograph a wedding... or whatever sounds the least professional and the most informal! it was a very small (family only) wedding and it was my friend's sister getting married. anyways, since i've never taken pictures of adults i asked a couple here to "model" for me so i could practice. i had a great time! here's the practice photos. and the wedding photos will come later.

what do you see besides the couple in this picture? the first thing danny noticed was the face in the tree... maybe because we just finished watching the Lord of the Rings series and he's all into finding "ents" in nature. :) not really, but we did just watch it and there is a face in this tree.

thanks, kalyn and tony for modeling! thanks sarah snape (a real photographer) for helping me always! i didn't do much with photography the first few months i was here (i was a little busy doing other things... like learning to go grocery shopping or trying to find coffee in a foreign land) but i've really enjoying practicing and learning more these last few weeks.

mixed emotions

2012-01-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

we went to the park and luke was a mixed bag of emotions. i guess he didn't like being stuck in the middle of the tire swing. but, it would have been a cute picture.

happy boy.

and frustrated again. i know it's sad, but i love his little serious, frustrated face. his jaw is all crooked and his little teeth show. his life can be so difficult.

and mary was pretty happy playing with daddy.

wow, she's having a good time on that swing.

phone pictures...

2012-01-18T10:27:00.000-05:00

here are some of my recent cell phone pictures.... a look at daily life for us here in indonesia (though i don't take pictures of the hours and hours of language school that we have every week). :)

mary dancing with leslie's beloved clown mask

my boy, l.pierce, dunking

oh, and this is mary singing on stage with the singer at a hotel... it was hilarious! she sang twinkle twinkle little star for all to hear!

luke at a mall play place... they have terrible outdoor playgrounds but the indoor ones (that you have to pay for) are great! :)

mary cutting beans with ibu sri, our babysitter

mary sings

2012-01-16T08:41:00.000-05:00

all of the time. she loves it and she loves her guitar. here's a video of a recent one. notice the facial expressions. :) the song is 'how great is our God' if you can't tell.

oh and she's just wearing underwear... also a very common thing around our hot house!

all about bubba: 1.1 years

2012-01-13T02:49:00.000-05:00

luke's birthday has come and gone... and though i put up some pictures of him i really want to write about him too. he is so funny right now, i want to remember the little things. as i watch him i remember the things mary used to do that i had forgotten until luke started to.

things we love about luke...

when he laughs really hard he throws his head back

he's still such a little chub

his attitude; he's a full out lover (wants to cuddle, wants to be held, kisses us) and he's also very clear when he doesn't want something. if we walk away from him, he looses it! sometimes he even gets on all fours and slowly 'bangs' his head on the ground. we always stop him, but we laugh too... it's as if his little life is over because i couldn't pick him up in the middle of kneeding pizza dough. he's just so emotional.

he's also emotional about being told no. if he does something he's not supposed to we say NO sternly... and usually he looks at us, waits a second or two for effect and then starts screaming. we have to cuddle him and reassure him that we love him, he just can't hit mary or throw his food. he's just so tender.

but, he's all boy too! he LOVES to play with balls. if he sees one far off he starts grunting and goes after it, even if it isn't ours. he's also always sweating and always dirty... since birth. :)

he loves to eat! he loves avacado, bananas, noodles, mango, bread, oatmeal and he's pretty good about his veggies.

he loves milk... when he finishs his cup of milk he lets us know... usually by throwing it. we're working on the throwing thing. :)

he plays happily in his crib after he wakes up for 30-60 minutes every day. we bring him toys, he plays and then he lets us know when he wants out. we're thankful for that time, especially because he's been an early riser most of his life.

he always waves hi and bye to people... which is a real hit here in indonesia!

i love his big teeth too. he has these huge front teeth that look a little bit like chiclets and are really far apart. when he laughs really hard he shows them in all their glory. hilarious.

things he's recently started doing....

he's started "talking" to us and it's the sweetest 'cu' i've ever heard... he points to something with a look of curiousity and looks at us as if he's telling us a story about it. love.

he's started getting into things. he walks around the house, picks something up, brings it into another room or hands it to someone, as if he was asked to go get the tupperware or danny's shirt. it makes a mess of the house, but i love it! he usually 'talks' about whatever he's carrying around too, which is maybe why i love it. he puts the items he finds in and out of baskets or bowl or whatever he can find. i vividly remember this about mary... i always let her play in our pantry because she loved it and it occupied her for hours. luke doesn't have a pantry to play in but he still manages to find things all around the house.

when asked to clap or when he hears music he claps both hands on his belly... not sure if that's because his belly is so big that it's difficult for him to get his hands together or what?!?

he always wants to eat and if someone else is eating, he comes running. he always begs for mary's food.

he loves to dance! if i ask him to dance or whenever he hears music, he does a little knee bob, sway and occasional head bob. so cute.

he loves his sister! it is the sweetest thing. i mean, they definitely have their moments of fighting over a ball when there is another ball that one of them could happily play with 2 feet away... but a lot of the time they are loving each other and laughing. it's possibly my favorite sound right now... the sound of their laughter together. mary knows she can make luke laugh and she loves it. she does things like play with her food or yell at the table and when i ask her to stop her response is, 'but luke like it, mom!' luke laughs and laughs at her. he loves her, he watches her, laughs when she's being silly, looks for her when she's hiding, dances when she sings.

uhh and how could you not love this!?!? he had a little accident a few weeks ago (i assure you he was fine right after it happened though i was scared for a minute!). we die laughing every time we look at it!!! the face and chub are just too much.

love this.

2012-01-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

they love each other... mostly.

prayers.

2012-01-06T18:37:00.000-05:00

yesterday mary prayed out loud for the first time. it was so sweet. she prayed for mama, dada, bubba, herself and mimi and papa at dinner time. then later that night she prayed for michael and kathryn and ba and mikey. yes, she said mikey. that prayer also included something about all of the people not crying (still not sure what people... when i asked she told me cow, layla and white bear, the three things that she sleeps with at night), her not whining and crying when she goes to bed and peace. she always askes me to pray for peace and for her "whine"... i've prayed many times that she has peace and that God helps her to have a happy heart and not whine. :)

later that night we were having a conversation after a little discipline issue. she was really upset and couldn't get her emotions under control. she said, 'mama pray now.' so i prayed for her. i prayed that she would know that God loves her, that mommy and daddy love her, that she is forgiven. i prayed that she would know the peace and presence of God at that moment. i ended the prayer and she looked up at me with a smile and said, 'mommy, you pray for my presents?'

potty training III

2012-01-05T10:19:00.000-05:00

"i can do it, mama!"

that's what mary says every time she goes pee pee on the potty. she's surprised every time that she does it and then we have a very over exaggerated celebration (which included funk music and dancing today). she also gets THREE CHA CHA's!!! cha cha's are the indonesian version of m&m's. it was a rough first few days (dealing with fear of the potty) but she had no accidents today (minus the grape size piece of poop that somehow landed on the floor)! we're so proud of her and we tell her a lot. so much so that yesterday she came right up to my face and said, 'mom, i so proud you.' :) thanks, mary.

and here is her modeling picture... hilarious because it was totally natural.

i all done.

2012-01-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

our sweet...

and crazy little girl...

...started potty training herself yesterday. i told her last week that when auntie kim leaves she's going to be all done with diapers. i was hoping to wait until thursday so that i could have a few days to relax (with a healthy husband... danny was sick all last week!) but yesterday she started. i told her kim went home and she said, "i all done with diapers. auntie kim go bye-bye, i all done with diapers." so, she has on undies today. wish us luck. third time's a charm, right?!? yeah, this is our third attempt... and will be our last. :)

my boy. 13 months.

2012-01-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

i've wanted to take "one year" pictures of luke, well since he turned one a month ago. i keep asking danny to come with me and help me so he can make him laugh or stay by something cool that i want in the picture or whatever but we just never had time. i was thinking i was going to do it today... but then he face planted into a cobblestone sidewalk. so, no photo session any time soon. but, i will post some post-accident pictures soon. :) here are the ones i got of him randomly at a school we play at sometimes... maybe i'll get more than his face sometime, but for now this will have to do.

i love him.

they love each other.

2011-12-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

mary and luke in their christmas pjs...

a little explanation about their christmas pjs: i had the pants made by a woman here... i gave her a pair of mary's pj pants and told her to make one that size and one a 2 inches shorter. they're the most awkardly shaped pants (nothing like the originals) but i love them! i put the little stars on the white shirts. i keep telling indonesians that it's an american tradition for children to wear matching christmas pajamas. danny corrects me and says it's only in my family. i still hold my position. it's my culture. :)

i love luke's teethy grin.

she is so sweet to him. sometimes she's not, but she usually is. she's started comforting him a lot... 'it's okay bubs, mama will be right back.' or 'i'm sorry bubs, are you okay?' after he falls. and he loves her. she loves to make him laugh and he loves watching her be silly. it's the sweetest thing to watch them enjoy one another.

racing to mama, luke's walking in action. his legs go just as much to the side as they do forward when he walks. it's so cute.

LOVE THEM.

first christmas in indonesia

2011-12-26T09:24:00.000-05:00

we had a wonderful christmas this year! though it was very different than any i've had before, we were thankful and had a great time. instead of having 45 family members and a hired santa come to my parent's house we had our little family of four, auntie kim and leslie.

Christmas eve we went to a church service here and then came home and started our first annual christmas tradition. we sang two christmas songs together and then read the story of the birth of Jesus from mary's kid bible. mary loved the story and luke loved dancing to the songs. it was a sweet moment for our family and one that i look forward to expanding as our kids grow up.

Christmas morning we woke up, open presents and then had a delicious breakfast (involving bacon, which is very special if you live in a country like ours). here's our one family picture from the day... awesome, right?!?

luke was entirely clueless about christmas, but he did enjoy the wrapping paper and his new basketball. mary is enjoying his other toys (especially his animals and safari truck). :)

mary didn't really know anything about christmas except that it was "jesus' happy birthday" (as if she even understands what that means). she was pretty excited when we told her there were presents and surprises. after she opened the first few presents we had to convince her to open other ones... she didn't get that there were more. but, she got the hang of it and was wanting to open everyone's by the end of the morning. :)

one thing that danny and i really wanted to get her was a guitar with real strings. though it was only $7 she thinks she's the real deal now. she carries it around and sings nonsense songs all of the time. and, she sways her hips back and forth as she sings. she's a trip sometimes.

and they got swings! i'm really excited about the swings. playgrounds here aren't great (in fact, i think i've seen one baby swing in the country thus far) so this is fun for both of them.

if you're wondering what the swings are hanging from... oh, our metal grating over our entire little backyard. it's used to keep theives out and to hang swings. perfect.

danny and i watched "the navity story" during nap time. first of all, i love watching movies during nap time... i feel like i'm on vacation. it's a great movie and we went out to dinner with some good friends of ours here and then we ended the night with this...

happy birthday, jesus!

though it was sad to be away from family and friends, we're thankful for the grace that God has given us during this season. we've tried to look at the positive things about being here right now and are thankful for the opportunity to establish our own family traditions and really enjoy our kids during these young years. it's kind of neat to be away from the commercialization because we can really shape what our kids know about christmas. we want to always remember that it is our Savior that we are celebrating. as i've had longed for "home" here God has really encouraged me through scripture about His incarnation... that Jesus left His place in heaven and came to earth. as i wrestle through hard days here (days of really missing family and friends or days of just wanting to not stick out or day of not wanting ants everywhere), God reminds me that Jesus gave up so much, not only in His death but in His life here on earth, and that He gives me the grace to walk the path He's marked for our family. i'm so thankful that i have a humble Savior, who though He was God on earth, He didn't use it to His advantage (Phil 2) and became a servant. even the story of His birth speaks of His humility and His love for the lowly. I'm thankful for Jesus.

mail!!!

2011-12-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

we love getting mail! all day i was listening to the gate, hoping that someone would come with our package from my parents... and someone came! with one from my parents, one from my aunt and uncle and one for leslie. they were such fun and timely surprises!!! we realize that getting packages here isn't easy or cheap and we want to say THANK YOU! it's really special to know that you all thought of us during this Christmas season. Thanks mom and dad, joe and debbie and katie (for leslie). :)

here are the goods. it's the little things, pumpkin pancake mix, a new dress, spices, cake/brownie mixes, cans of pumpkin, books, clothes for the kids... oh, and the adorable baby toms for mary. :) thanks!

merry christmas eve, from the pierces!

fun in batu

2011-12-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

Auntie Kim is here! mary and luke have been having a good ole time with their auntie. on tuesday we went to a really cool zoo in batu, a city outside of malang... i was SO surprised at how nice and cool it was! we were there for four hours and didn't even see all of the animals. we're definitely going back! and, of course, i took like five pictures because luke wanted to be held the whole time so he could see the animals too. :)

mary checking out the turtles

this was one of my favorites, a white peacock.

the next day we went to this batu's town center. they had a great playground, but unfortunately we didn't know that the local kindergarten was meeting there (with their parents) to pass out report cards... random. so, it was really crowded! this playground was the closest thing to the usual american playground, so i was really excited about it. here's mary climbing the wall and all of the older kids waiting on her... :)

and they're still waiting...

luke got some love from auntie kim too.

luckily, those aren't auntie kim's legs :)

one funny story from the night away... we were at the hotel's restaurant for dinner and there was a singer and a guy on the keyboard. mary of course wanted to go dance in front of the singer so i took her up there and she danced away. then the singer offered her a microphone and they sang twinkle, twinkle little star together. it was so cute! though it she was a little quiet, i was proud of mary for singing. and she made the singer very happy!

and one last cultural note.... THINGS YOU DON'T SEE IN AMERICA!

this was the sign in the stall of the bathroom at the zoo. i died laughing. traditionally people use a 'squatty potty' here but in most nicer public places there are toilets. but sometimes people prefer their regular 'form' of going so they take their shoes off (yes, sometimes you can see empty shoes in bathroom stalls), stand on the toilet and sqaut. apparently it isn't allowed at the zoo. :)

baking away

2011-12-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

mary loves to bake and we've been doing quite bit lately... and we'll be doing even more this week. these pictures are from when she 'helped' us make the sugar cookie dough. we didn't have time to let her 'help' us cut them (her helping usually increases the time and mess by at least 30%) but we're going to do that with auntie kim this week.

who is auntie kim, you ask? danny's sister who is coming to stay with us for two weeks from africa!!! we are so excited to have her coming for christmas... the excitement of her coming has helped me deal with (or not think about) the sadness of missing family in the states. something that makes her visit especially neat is that she actually hasn't met luke yet. so, they'll get some good bonding time. mary has yelled "AUNTIE TIM" (yeah, she says 'tim') as she hears someone coming in the house. she's anxiously awaiting her special visitor!

back to baking... i think mary actually like to cook for two reasons:

1. because she eats every ingredient i use (flour, salt, sugar, butter... she wants a bite of it all, or 18 bites). do you see the sugar on the tip of her finger? she's happy about it!

2. because i let her crack the eggs by herself and she gets really proud of herself. it's hilarious! she slams it on the counter top (usually winds up really high and i think she's going to smash the egg everywhere, but she slows down right before it hits the counter), finds the crack and usually uses her pointer finger to dig the shell away and guide the egg as it falls out.

her little pointer finger in action. :)

while i was taking pictures it was actually leslie helping her. leslie, thanks for always being a great sport and letting mary 'help' you! she loves it!

while writing this post i was interrupted by mary... and it was funny. she went to bed about 40 minutes ago and usually talks and sings for awhile. she all of the sudden started moaning and whining for me so i went in and asked her what was wrong. she said 'layla hit me. layla hit me hard, like that...' while she smacked herself in the forehead kind of hard. layla is her baby doll. i laughed. about once a week she tells me that layla took her blanket or layla kicked her in the back or some other offense. for some reason i think it's funny every time.

we have party every night?!?

2011-12-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

earlier this week we had a little gathering at our house for the girls that leslie lives with. leslie lives in a kos (hard to explain... kind of like a dorm, kind of like an apartment) with 9 other girls and we wanted to have a night to share a little bit of our culture with them during this Christmas season. we hung out for awhile and mainly did this...

that's right, just watch my kids play, sing and dance. our kids did great with all of the new girls at our house. then the food came and we had dinner. after that, the real fun began and we decorated the Christmas cookies! it was so fun!

after the girls decorated a few cookies mary took over. she sat on leslie's lap the whole time and leslie helped her... she decorated a ton and ate way too much sugar! she had a blast and especially loved the sprinkles! we took her shirt off because of the food coloring... usually she wears clothes if there's a party at our house. :)

the next night i was putting her to bed and she said, "mama, my friends come over more-gin (that means again)?!? we have party every night!" i think she loved it!

side rolls.

2011-12-14T10:48:00.002-05:00

first things first, do you see luke's side rolls?!? so cute.

sometimes luke is obsessed with me and just stands at my legs and yells until i pick him up... and carry him around all night. so, i've started using the 'gendong' at home, like our babysitter does. he likes it and i can get more done. if you're wondering what that big light in the upper right hand corner of the picture is, that's our mirror and the flash shows you exactly how dirty it is. luke likes to look in the mirror and put his sweaty little hands all over it. and today we found mary rubbing a slice of cheese on the mirror. not sure why she thought that was a good idea but that helps explain the gross mirror.

more side rolls...

the last few days ibu sri has come to babysit the kids her daughter has come along too. she's in her last year of highschool but had less class because of finals. mary loves when farah comes with ibu sri. she's such a sweet girl and our kids love her.

i think mary was telling her a story... a very serious one.

do you see what mary is wearing? again, she picked out her own outfit....very usual. a tanktop that she loves, a diaper with underwear over it (after christmas we will again try to wear the underwear without the diaper underneath!) and luke's crocs.

i love it!

2011-12-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

today i'm thankful for our neighbors: kasih (age 10), setia (age 8) and langgeng (age 6). they live down the street from us and visited often for a month or two. we didn't see them for quite a few weeks and then on luke's birthday they showed up with the sweet homemade card and a ball for luke. i can't even remember telling them when his birthday was, but they remembered. it was really sweet! since then we've visited their house twice and they are just such an enjoyable family. so inviting and so sweet to our kids. we're thankful for friendly neighbors. oh, and their mom is an english teacher so the oldest child can speak english... that's a plus for mary. :) unfortunately i can't find the one picture i have of them... but soon i'll post one.

and i leave you with some fun pictures of my one year old... whom will be written about soon.

sometimes when he's naughty he gets put in a laundry basket. i wish.

look at those chiclet teeth. love them!

what, those don't look like cookies?

2011-12-08T10:04:00.001-05:00

mary helped me make cookies last night... she loves to bake with me. i now let her crack the eggs all by herself (into a different bowl so that i can remove any small shell that might find it's way in) and she loves it! she saw me rolling the cookies and wanted to help...

just your normal cookie, right? i promise, they tasted better than they look (which doesn't say much seeing as though they look like... well, you know).

she was proud of her little 'cookies' on her own cookie sheet.

disclaimer... the first picture kind of makes me look like bad mom alert. her elbow really wasn't that close to the candle... i promise. she is really secure on the counter. and, most importantly, the backsplash in our kitchen is white board so it's okay if i write the week's menu on it (and my little brother's phone number... i intend to call you soon, michael!). :)

angry boy

2011-12-07T18:53:00.000-05:00

oh no! i can't reach the balloon.

what do i do, mama?

get me that balloon!!!

don't just take pictures... help me, mama!

luke is generally a smiley, fun little guy but he also knows what he wants. and when he doesn't get it he has a way of letting us know, as you see above. sometimes his angry faces crack me up. he also usually has a 4 second delay before he starts crying about something... which is also a little funny and really cute. his bottom lip slowly comes out, he looks at me like 'how could you do that to me, mama!??!' and then 1-2-3 WAIL! like if i take his milk cup away because it's all gone or i take him away from the dirt he is trying to eat. crazy boy. i love him.

i love it!

2011-12-05T04:28:00.000-05:00

to continue my series on reasons i love indonesia...

today i'm thankful for the flower market. we went there for the first time on luke's birthday and it was so nice! the flowers and plants were abundant and beautiful. we went on a weekday during the day so it was so quiet and peaceful. i hope to go more often. i feel like it's a good place to practice talking to people because no one seemed to be in a rush... and it was peaceful so maybe it will ease my nerves a bit and i won't sweat so much when i try to speak in indonesian. :)

we also bought one little bunch of flowers and i love them! they're called 'sedap malam' and they smell so good in the evening (malam). and, they were less than a dollar! they're in our bedroom now and i'd like that to be a regular occurrence. :)

christmas time!

2011-12-04T03:11:00.001-05:00

mary being very proud of her work!

mary loved decorating the tree this year. unfortunately luke was really tired from his long day (we bought and decorated the tree after his birthday celebration) so he went to bed... and oddly enough, has hardly noticed the tree. i thought it was going to be terrible because we have a ton of red and silver balls on the tree and he LOVES all things round... but he hasn't touched it. anyways, mary loved it and has touched the tree. in fact, today she hung a plastic bag on a branch because she so badly wanted to keep hanging ornaments. it was a really fun night for us because she was so into it. she put her hand up to stop me and say, "mommy, not help me. i do it all by myself." and she did hang most of the ornaments. she did great! leslie was also here to share in the christmas joy with us. we're thankful to have leslie around... she is such a special person for us and especially to our kids. and, she made some amazing home made hot chocolate to add to the christmas experience! yummy!

the tree seems so small to because i'm used to my parent's huge tree, but i think it's perfect for our little family. and if we bought a bigger one we couldn't have afforded to buy more ornaments (christmas decorations aren't in high demand here so they aren't so cheap). :) we're really thankful to have a tree... even though it's hot and very little else in the city reminds us of christmas, it feels like christmas.

last week danny preached at the english church service that we attend here... it has been such a good reminder for me this week. he spoke about Immanuel. before Christmas, one Israelite got to go into the presence of God once a year to atone for the sins of the people. when Jesus came at Christmas (on December 25th, of course :), he graciously brought his presence to us. He came to restore His people back to His presence. now we can have relationship with God and enjoy the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. and one day, as it says in Revelation 21, God's dwelling place will be among us and we will dwell with Him in fullness. thank you, Jesus.

Happy Birthday Bubbalu

2011-12-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

our little boy is ONE!

yesterday we had a fun day of celebrating our little lukey and being together as a family. it was great! danny and i took the day off of language school so that we could go to the animal market and out to lunch. our babysitter and helper (who i will talk about later) came along because they are such a big part of luke's life thus far. he loves them both so we wanted them to celebrate with us.

everytime luke looked at an animal he started grunting and 'talking' to it. i couldn't get many good pictures of his excitement, but he loved it! it was fun to see him excited. and, of course, mary loved it too!

then we went out to this little outdoor restaurant that has a little green patch of grass that the kids could play in before we ate. it was a great place for our family because the kids didn't have to sit down and wait for their food.

luke proudly walking in the grass!

luke loved the candle too! he tried to blow when i did and it was really cute. he didn't really care about the cupcake though. we tried to get him to eat it but it was a long day for him and i think he was about done. he had a few bites but don't have the normal 'baby covered in cake' picture. :)

we had the english and the indonesian happy birthday song this year!

and here is luke's gift... that he doesn't care about at all. he did love the ballons that we gave him at home though!

and lastly, my three favorite people...

i'll write more about luke later... just wanted to document our fun day to celebrate him.

we love you, luke daniel pierce!

i love it!... the monkey man.

2011-11-28T09:21:00.000-05:00

one of the great things about living in indonesia is that anything can be delivered. i don't feel like we've fully taken advantage of that yet (because we're afraid to call stores and ask for something to be delivered... understanding indonesian on the phone is hard!) but we did take advantage of the MONKEY SHOW that was delivered to our house. :) a guy on a motorcylce rides around beating his drum to let everyone know that he's outside with the monkey (every item for sale has a different sound so people know what is available as the seller passes the house). we happened to be outside and somehow got that our neighbors (whom we had never really met) thought it was too expensive to pay for the show, so i suggested we split the price. it was about $.80 each. the 10-15 minute show was well worth it! the kids loved it!

here are some of the tricks the monkey did...

mary wanted to go sit with the neighbors whom we'd never met (of course) and they loved it! she danced to the drum and had a great time. and then she said she wanted to go into their house and walked right in. luckily, 'dropping in' is very welcomed here so they were excited to have us. the next day we were walking by and were invited in again. so, the monkey and my pushing daughter helped us make some new friends!

oh, and in case you happen to notice her outfit, i did too. she had on a tie-dyed tank top and blue bloomers (those aren't underwear, she had a diaper on under them). that is a very usual outfit for her. our babysitter lets her pick out her clothes so i usually come home to something like that... well, i hope that mary is picking out the outfits and not ibu sri. that would be weird if ibu sri put her in something like that. i'm sure our neighbors just think it's a cultural difference. :) the first thing out of danny's mouth when we got home was, could you at least put some shorts on her. oh well.

i couldn't take many pictures of the kids watching the monkey because it kind of scared me not to have them with me. at one point mary knelt down and said 'hi monkey' closer than the monkey liked and he hissed at her and showed his teeth. mean monkey! but, i'm going to ask my neighbor for pictures because he was taking a lot of luke squealing at the monkey.

just one of the perks of living in indo.

thanksgiving #1 in indonesia

2011-11-27T19:07:00.001-05:00

first thanksgiving.

leslie's amazing turkey!

we had two thanksgiving feasts here in indonesia this year. the first was friday night at our language school. leslie and i arranged a traditional american thanksgiving meal for the group and it turned out to be a lot of fun! they were really excited about it and loved the food. i think there were only two indonesians that had ever tried turkey before so it was fun to introduce something from our culture. there were actually a lot of people there (maybe 40ish) but these pictures don't do it justice. it was hard taking pictures and making sure my children weren't kidnapped by the few indonesians that were obsessed with them. i kid. :)

mary had a great time playing with some of the kids there and a lot of the adults. the boy on the right is one of our teacher's sons and he is always so sweet to her! she really likes him.

mary dancing

mary doesn't quite get the stick out your tongue thing...

they played 'london bridges' (probably called something else here) and the kids loved it!

and this is what luke did all night... was grabbed by someone, i tried to hide and he looked for me. after a few minutes he started fussing and then i'd take him back. everyone wanted to hold him but he's into a MAJOR mama phase... like one that has me wondering if i'll loose my mind by the end of the day. but usually in the evening he starts snuggling up on me and i can't get enough of it. i love you, luke!

'mary, what are you thankful for today?'

2011-11-25T03:33:00.000-05:00

me: 'mary, what are you thankful for today?'
mary: 'dod' (meaning God)
me: 'what else are you thankful for?'
mary: 'Jesus'
me: 'well, what made you happy today?' (in an attempt to get her to think of something that happened in her day)
mary: 'dod'
me: 'okay, that's great!'

mary last thanksgiving...

we *try* to ask eachother what we're thankful for every night at dinner (usually happens about half of the nights) and this is mary's response every night! somewhere she learned that we should be thankful for God and Jesus. either she is really spiritual or she doesn't quite understand that you can be thankful for other things also. i'll go with the thought that she's just really thankful for what God has done for us through Jesus. i pray that she is always be aware of the love and grace of God for her and be thankful for Him. and i pray that we learn to be thankful everyday from her.

proof

2011-11-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

luke started walking and this is his proud/ concentrated face while walking. it's kind of hard to get pictures of his whole body walking since he can only walk a few steps and i have to be there to catch him. can't get back far enough... but here's his cute face while walking.

and here's the first night he took steps. yes, he's always that dirty. he always has food on his clothing (sometimes i wonder if the ants get on his cloths during his naps... sometimes i put him in clean cloths). :) and he's ALWAYS that sweaty! his hair is usually wet around his ears. i think he get's it from danny (an obvious joke for anyone who knows me).

he's walking....

and he landed.

we're proud of you, bubbies!

"i love it!" and we have a walker....

2011-11-21T09:53:00.000-05:00

the "i love it" series... to help me choose thankfulness and to love the place God has led our family... today is a really spiritual one...

today i'm thankful that there is a starbucks in surabaya and that i got to go last weekend. that's right, surabaya (the city we're moving to next summer) has a starbucks. it is exactly like the starbucks in america and it was oh so comforting. we took a short weekend trip to surabaya to check out different areas of the city and just enjoy the city that we'll soon be calling home. it's a lot bigger, dirtier and crowded so we want to be proactive about trying to find things we love about it. things i loved... starbucks, the italian and the thai restaurant that we ate at and the huge malls. spiritual, i know. :) it's hard to love deep things about it after visiting for 48 hours. but, i also really liked that there were a lot of people just hanging around (hopefully it will make it easier to get to know them) and there were a few nice parks for the kids to play and me to meet other moms.

anyways, on to our WALKER! luke took his first steps last week... it was three steps as he was falling into my arms. now, only a few days later, he's taken about 7 controlled steps. it's so stinking cute! he gets really proud of himself and looks at us for approval. we'll try to get it on video one of these days. here he is at the park last week...

he was laughing, not crying.... i think.

going after a ball... his FAVORITE activity (besides eating)

about to crawl towards me... he also loves to do that. whenever i get on the floor with him he gets so excited and comes right over to tackle me. yes, he full on tackles! he's a tough boy.

and here's my big girl reading in her big girl bed. sometimes we send her to bed with a few books while we clean up and she just reads them. she has a few memorized (or at least the idea) so she tells the story. it's sweet. gosh, she is so stinking funny these days!

today she came running to me when i was cleaning dishes. she said she was scared (just wanting my attention). danny said, "well, when mama gets scared she always wants dada to cuddle her. do you want to come to me and i'll cuddle you?" she looks at him in all seriousness, "no thank you, dada."

we all went to the mall/grocery store tonight to get a few things. mary went with danny to go buy some clippers at the department store. the entrance they enter through led straight to the lingerie section. mary proceeded to touch every bra and say "i like this one, daddy." she picked up some blue underwear and told danny she like them too. meanwhile, danny was trying to hurry her out of that section as all of the veiled women are watching him stop his two year old from picking up bras. awkward.

one more thing that she's doing now that is really sweet. whenever luke walks or does something that is a little bit of a challenge for him (get down stairs, throw the ball, etc.) mary yells for danny and i to watch him. she says, "look what luke can do, mommy! yeah, bubba! you did it, bubba!" i hope that she always encourages her brother like that!

my debut

2011-11-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

today was my debut as 'coach lisa.' that's right, i coached a high school girls basketball game today. i've been helping with the team once a week (coaching one practice) but the other coach was sick today so i had to take over the duty of coaching. it was rough. the girls played hard, really hard. we were missing 4 players, including the one below (laurie) who is usually responsible for most points, assists and steals. i'm proud of the way the girls played the entire game, even though there was no chance they would come back to win. most of them haven't played much (if at all) so we're in a learning phase. i like to say that there is a lot of room for growth. :)

obviously can't take pictures while i'm coaching but this is from last week :)

the team is from an international school down the street. it's been a fun little place for our family. we know quite a few people who go there and they have a playground that we can use. so, often times we'll go up to play in the afternoon and then end up watching some sporting event. mary usually knows a few of the students playing so she cheers them on and wants to play with them. she loves 'playing' basketball, which is sometimes a problem while she's watching a game that she can't join in on.

there was a boys' game after ours... i had hoped to watch it but instead was involved in a small photo shoot. someone from the opposing team had a super fancy camera and they took about 200 pictures of our kids (and the other white kids). they're going to email us the good ones and i'm actually kind of excited to see them. they showed me a few and they were cute. i'm rarely in pictures because i'm always taking them.

and on a different note, here is mary eating her first hamburger. she's one step ahead of me in the food department. i have yet to eat a hamburger in my life (my parent's could correct me on this, but i'm pretty sure it's true). she maybe had one bite and then moved on to baked beans and carrots. funny that mary comes to indonesia to try her first hamburger. thanks, o'quin family! :)

oh, and she has also learned what wendy's is since being here. we go after church every sunday evening with the other white people who miss american food. usually i pack a dinner (seriously) but i always get a frosty. i think the frostys at wendy's are the best ice cream in town. keep in mind, i've eaten a frosty in america one time in the last 7-10 years. my friend shelly (who had a habit of eating frostys in boston) was stopping by my house one afternoon and brought me one. i liked it... but now i LOVE frostys!

i love it!

2011-11-14T07:54:00.001-05:00

here is what i love about malang, indonesia today....

'alun alun'

saturday we packed up the family, some lunch for the kids and a ball and headed to the center of town, called alun-alun. there's nothing too special about alun-alun, it just an a grassy area with benches, a dirty fountain that wasn't on and a lot of random people laying around. in boston i loved going to the boston commons to play in the grass, watch the people and just be in the city. so, doing that here makes this city feel a little more like home.

we're always sure to be watched and usually approached when we go out with our kids. luke made some buddies that played with him. he liked them. danny also met a guy that he talked to for almost an hour. i didn't think it would be a cute to take a picture of them talking :) but i was proud of danny for being able to talk that long in indonesian! progress... slowly but surely.

peek-a-boo!

mary wasn't in the best mood this afternoon, well really she just didn't want me to take her picture. she played and ran around with the kids too, tried to climb the tree like them and pretended to play tag (she could not keep up with the kids, obviously). and, she's eating her daily lunch... a peanut butter and honey sandwich. she eats it everyday and i make a whole sandwich a few times a week and eat the other half. yummy.

water bottle

2011-11-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

today we went to go see a waterfall about an hour away... mary asked where the "water bottle" was the entire time we were driving there. she kept telling us we were going to see a waterbottle, not a waterfall. once we got there she was only mildly interested in the waterfall, but had a good time on our little journey none the less. luke doesn't look too interested either... he wasn't. he's a little too squirmy to enjoy being in the ergo carrier anymore.

danny isn't too into being photographed so this picture is extra sweet to me. danny is smiling with his teeth (very rare for pictures) and mary is all snuggled up (also very rare!). sweet.

a few highlights from our trip: there were monkeys all around and mary liked that a lot; i got my picture taken with multiple random indonesian people... they just come up and ask if i'll pose in a picture with them. usually it's my kids that get photographed (it's not uncommon for 10 people to take picures of luke or mary while we're at the mall) but because i had luke on me i was included. awkward. and on our two hour journey mary probably asked at least 300 questions, no exaggeration. she's started the question asking phase. wow, it's tiring. finally at the end i started asking her questions just like she asked me, 'mary, where cow go?' 'i see cow more-gin?' 'where the waterbottle?' she thought i was so funny. she knows all of the answers to the questions and sometimes i'll tell her the wrong answer and she'll say no mommy and tell the the right one. she funny.

and, the water bottle...

make him laugh

2011-11-08T09:36:00.000-05:00

mary and luke are quite the buddies these days. mary loves him and he thinks she is so funny (which is probably one of the main reasons she loves him so much)! today we were at a high school basketball game and i was holding luke but mary wanted me to hold her also (which was partly because i was holding luke). anyways, they just started leaning their heads together, mary would kiss him and they would laugh together. it was so sweet! those are moments that i love.

often times if luke is done eating and i'm cleaning dishes or something i'll ask mary to make him laugh so he doesn't get whine. so she plays peek-a-boo or does a funny dance or yells something random and he throws his head back and dies laughing.

more peek-a-boo

i love it!

2011-11-07T07:13:00.000-05:00

so, to continue in my "series" of why i love indonesia.... here it is. :)

changing the water is one of the activities that danny and mary always do together. she 'helps' him cut the seal, clean the top and then flip it over. he waits for her help everytime it has to be done. she loves it!

the truth is, today i'm not in love with indonesia... i like it but i can't think of something that i really want to talk about. for some reason today is kind of a down day... maybe because i was sick (again) yesterday, most likely from something that i ate, and i'm still feeling it. throwing up for a day every month or so may just be the new normal for our family. today i'm still thankful, it's just not something specific to our life in indonesia.

today i'm thankful for danny. i'm thankful for countless things about him, but a few from the last few days...

i'm thankful that today when i was feeling kind of down he asked me to sit by him and tell him what i was thinking and feeling. he cares.

i'm thankful that i can tell by the way he looks at me while i'm talking that he would do anything to make me feel better.

i'm thankful that when i was in bed all day yesterday he took care of the kids, tried to keep them out of the room to let me rest, fed them and cleaned up after everyone.

i'm thankful that he's been really proactive about building our marriage in the good times (rather than just as a result of conflict) and seeking to bless me in the little things (like hanging pictures on our walls and making our house feel a little bit more like OUR home).

i'm thankful that he lets me go through the process of grieving the loss that came with moving to indonesia; he is patient with me, speaks truth from God to me and encourages me.

from july... luke the little baldy

tattle tale and snaggle tooth

2011-11-03T07:15:00.001-04:00

"mama, maya come over more-gin. i not say NO! to maya.... i say NO! just a yiddle bit. i not say NO! to livvy, i just say NO! to maya just a yiddle bit." this was our conversation in the car on the way home from dropping off hayley and maya (who is 20 months). mary has a problem with saying NO! to her friends (as i'm sure most 2 years olds do) and we're working on it. it's a deep rooted issue though!

mary always tells me when she knows she did something wrong. it's so funny. so our babysitter can't exactly say no to mary, it's just not in their culture. usually they don't really say no to their kids until they're like 4 or 5. so, sometimes i come home and mary has eaten 5 clementines and then has diarrhea for the next 5 hours or she's had 3 oreos before lunch (and for those of you who know me well, well... that's different). and she's even had her pacifier in her mouth twice when i've come home from language school. she's two and a half, she really shouldn't have a pacifier anymore at all! she wakes up every morning usually around 6am, i give her the paci and walk out and she sleeps until 8 or 8:30am. i'm just not ready to give up those hours. so last night she had it i told her she was going to have a punishment if she asked for her paci from ibu sri again (usually ibu sri says mary cries for it and so she gives it to her)... i walked in yesterday and the first thing she said... "i ask my paci from ibu sri." hilarious! i mean, obviously she knows it's wrong because it's the first thing she tells me when i come home. i hope that she will be like this until she's all grown up.... maybe she'll never figure out that sometimes kids try to hide the bad things they do from their parents.

mary watches ibu sri leave everyday. sometimes she tells me she's going by herself and then holds ibu sri's hand and says she's going to her house. thanks, mary! :) usually she tells her not to forget her umbrella. the rain can be crazy here! oh and that's our gate. weird, i know. we told our language teacher today that people in america don't usually have gates and she was so surprised! she said, people can just enter?!? well, we have doors to stop them. everyone has gates here.

oh, and disclaimer, though ibu sri isn't great at saying no to mary, or getting her to eat in a chair or getting her to wear something besides underwear over her diaper and a tank top (she usually has on something of the sort when i come home)... we LOVE ibu sri! she loves our kids, takes them on walks, plays with them... she's wonderful. and they love her! mary tries to go home with her sometimes and luke gets so excited to see her every morning. it puts my heart at ease since being away from my kids for so long every day isn't my favorite thing.

have i mentioned that ONE of luke's top teeth came in about 2 weeks ago and the other one hasn't. i think it's so cute and funny looking. though these pictures are the most becoming of him, i love this face. it's his really excited face... usually when he sees someone he loves or is chasing a ball. he's getting to be so much fun these days! he waves bye bye and gives kisses and laughs all of the time. he's a pretty happy guy, in general.

i love it!

2011-10-31T11:02:00.000-04:00

i want to give a little update about life in indonesia... usually i just talk about my kids, which is probably more exciting, but i also want to document our transition here, the timing of stuff and how we feel.

in general, life is good here... sometimes i really miss america (mainly when i think about my family and friends... and cheese and the ease of shopping and diet dr pepper and....). i've realized that something that i want to grow in is having a thankful heart for where God has led us. honestly, there could potentially be a lot to complain about here (there isn't the order and ease of america), but i want to learn to love this country and the people. i want to choose to be thankful for the small things until i know the people and culture well enough to really love it. SO, i'm going to start writing a little 'series' (is that what real bloggers call it?) once a week called "i love it!" and talk about one thing that i love about life in indonesia now... even if it a very small thing... like...

our backyard

this is a view from the grass, it's our little porch that we spend A LOT of time on. those sliding doors are always open during the day and go into our main room in the house (we have one big room with a kitchen, dining area and living room). we love having the shaded area to play outside!

here's a picture from our living room... kitchen on the right side and that little patio table is our dining room table now. :) we're getting there. there's a little strip of grass about the size of a one car garage and these big colorful plants behind it. it's really pretty out there and will be even more pretty when a gardener comes and cleans it up soon. :) we didn't have a yard at all in boston so this is one thing that we are really thankful for about life in indonesia!

this is not going to turn to complaining now but this is what real life is like here. there are BUGS... like the 10 cockroaches we killed in our bathroom/ bedroom today! they have all of the sudden moved in! we hadn't seen one in over a month and today we had 10, one of which was on my shirt! they're the size of my thumb, mind you. i screamed. i found something online that says to put salt around the room and down the drain and i'll never see them again. i'll let you know how that works out. :)

oh and one more thing we're really thankful for... our dressers came this weekend!!! we have been living out of these little black bins since late june so i was thrilled to put all of our clothes in drawers this weekend. that's another wonderful thing about indonesia... you can give the carpenter a picture of a pottery barn dresser and get it made for about 1/10 of the price. fun!

and i leave you with this picture from our porch...

twinkies

2011-10-28T10:48:00.000-04:00

my best friend in 7th grade used to call me cabbage patch kid and i think wrestled her to the ground in response to her remark. i didn't like it... but i was 12 years old so i guess looking like a chubby baby wasn't a real compliment to me. (don't worry, i wasn't scared long term by the remark)

think the resemblance has been passed on?

**there's also a picture taken by sarahmica photography on my facebook pictures... probably the most like cabbage patch kid! and the picture is amazing because she took it!

we miss you, daddy!

2011-10-25T07:24:00.001-04:00

danny went to malaysia for four days and i'm here holding down the fort. i'm really excited about this opportunity for him to get some time with some of the other men around southeast asia and be envisioned for our life here... but WE MISS HIM!

mary made him a sign to let him know how much we miss him. this is when mary is in charge of the sign...

and this is what happens when luke is in charge of "holding" the sign... that blur is the sign being thrown about. mary is singing old mcdonald, of course.

i know that many of you have your kids for way longer than four days while your husbands travel... way to go! i'm new at having both kids by myself in indonesia. :) luckily we have a car now (and luckily leslie was over so i wasn't scared to death!), so when the electricity went out last night we loaded the kids up and went to mcdonalds. sometimes it's out for 20 minutes and sometimes it's out for 2 hours... you never know. it was back on when we got home, and leslie and i got to eat ice cream and mary and luke played on the slide. it was a great way to spend the evening!

he eats dirt.

2011-10-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

yummy, dirt!

what mom? dirt is good!

luke likes to eat dirt. he is such a boy! he goes straight for that corner where he can reach the dirt and ants and tries to eat them... and sometimes he gets it in before i can stop him.... and sometimes it's gets all over his cute little mouth.

mary has a few favorite things right now... puzzles being one of them. she's getting really good at the puzzles (probably because she has them memorized now) and loves to do them! it's fun because she gets really proud of herself as she's doing them... when i'm doing them with her she gives me a high five after every piece she puts together.

she loves to play her guitar also. we have bought mary very, very few toys in her life (she has grandparents that do that) but this was one i wanted to get her as a surprise for when we arrived in indonesia. it was one of the better buys that i made this year! she loves it. lately, she's been watching this video of herself when she was about 4 months old with her three girls cousins... the girls are singing "girls just want to have fun" and dancing with mary in their arms. it's about 36 seconds long and mary will watch it approximately 58 times in a row. well, i think this frequent viewing has helped her dance moves, as you can see below.

on another note, my kids are both turning over new leaves in the sleep department! praise God! :) mary has yelled and whined for about the last 5 months every time she has to go to sleep... i have to go in and talk to her far too many times and we continually repeat... "how do you go night night, mary?" and she replies "with a happy heart, good attitude, no crying, no yelling" and then i close the door and she yells or cries. rough. but, the last 5 nights and naps she's gone to bed great! as she gets in her bed she says, "go night night with happy heart and good attitude more-gin mama!" letting me know that she's going to do it again (more-gin means more/again). it's been nice. and luke, well he had been waking up around 6am and sometimes 5am. but, the last four mornings he's slept until 7:15 or 7:30am! then he plays in his bed for a half hour or an hour. we're thankful and hopeful that these great patterns will continue.

and on the last note, as i'm watching a lizard run across my bedroom floor, i just wish the lizards in my house would stay on the walls! i've come to accept that we will have lizards in our house... fine. but, i hate when they're on the floor. i just wish they would stay above eye level on the walls. that's all. :)

kuda, the horsey

2011-10-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

we have a car! it's a mitsubishi kuda (which means horse). we're super excited! we're thankful that we got a quality car but we're most excited to be able to go places as a family and FINALLY explore our new city together. i have dreams of going on picnics, going to the mall together (which would have been a nightmare had i thought of it before... but since we haven't been able to in so long i imagine it as pure bliss... i'll report on reality after it happens) and taking the kids to a playground or something. :)

and what did we do to celebrate? we went to pizza hut! :) we went with some friends who also bought a car this week (the husband basically found and bargained for our car too) and one of our language teachers and her family. it was fun to hang out with them outside of school. ps. i never would have eaten pizza from pizza hut in boston... but here, it's a special treat! :)

and here's bubs doing one of his favorite things.... squeezing an empty bottle. he's very pleased with himself when he can make things happen by myself, like noises from a bottle.

strapped in

2011-10-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

first of all, an update on mary... she is feeling much better tonight and just went to bed without a fever. we quit potty training after saturday. she had a very high fever sunday and was in no mood to be trained to do anything! :) she was pathetic really. sad. we'll try again in a few weeks when the trauma wears off. i'm convinced that the third time will be a charm! (yes, we also tried for one day when she was 21 months old... that was terrible! she had 21 accidents and 3 successes in 5 hours. haha!)

on a different note... we're ready to get a car! mary and luke were practicing in their carseats this afternoon (they've been in our foyer since we moved here). this evening they watched a bit of a video strapped in. it was mary's idea and luke was less than thrilled about it after about 10 minutes.

and here is the other reason we want a car... raining season is starting. it DOWNPOURED on danny when he was coming home from the grocery store. you can't really tell how wet he is, but he's completely soaked! thanks for going, danny!

and yes, that is our spikey gate behind danny. funny, huh? we hardly even locked our doors in boston and now we have some dangerous gate blocking our driveway. all of the houses on our street have a gate.... really all of the houses in the city have gates. it's very welcoming. :)

potty training: day 1

2011-10-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

potty training went a little bit like this today....

mary, 4 months old, in her cousin mary's chair

it's not entirely true, but right now it feels that way. she started off really well, had two accidents on the ground but went a lot on the potty. she was excited about it and loved her M&Ms... which she calls 'cinnamon.' we were putting cinnamon on our oatmeal this morning and talking about her treats if she goes on the potty. she got them confused.... and we let her stay confused because i thought it was funny. way to go mary!

i was a little discouraged because i felt like she was getting less excited about it as the day went on (usually i can get her excited about almost anything). well, at 1:30pm i pick her up to put her to bed for her nap and realize she's kind of hot. oh, she has a 102 temperature. no wonder she wasn't herself. after medicine and sleep she was a bit better, but the medicine wore off and she just went to bed with about a 103 fever. she got progressively more resistant towards the potty but was also resistant towards everything. she didn't eat, she wouldn't take medicine, she wouldn't do anything. she just wanted to lay on me. sad. she's never cuddly and she kept saying, "mama, hold you."

we'll see how she's feeling tomorrow and see if this little 'potty training boot camp' will continue. we'd love prayer for her though. i'm sure she'll be fine, but it's sad to see your little girl so uncomfortable. thanks!

"yes"

2011-10-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

tomorrow is a big day here... we start potty training mary. kind of dreading it but really think she's ready. pray for us. :)

how mary is going to bed these days:

we used to read books, pray and all of that stuff. then, i would stand up and hold her while we sang 'amazing grace' one time and then she goes in her bed and we sing one more time. well, now she doesn't want us to hold her, so we all three stand alone and sing. it's kind of odd. she just started dancing while singing too. then, she gets in bed, we sing one more time and then walk out. oh, and the entire routine is interspersed with this conversation... 'how do you go night night, mary?' 'happy heart, good attitude, no crying, no yelling'... over and over again. and just the last three nights she hasn't cried. we've had that saying since way before we moved to indonesia though. it's FINALLY working... maybe?!?

most recent new sayings:

"YES" all of the sudden mary has totally changed her usual 'ya' to a 'yes' pronounced very well. there are these three indonesian kids who come over often to play and their mom is an english teacher... so maybe the indonesian kids taught her the correct way to say it. :) i don't know. it literally happened in one day and she totally stopped saying 'ya'... it's just so weird.

"i have an itchy"... she has a bite or something that itches, she often wants us to have itchies also.

"biciple" is bicycle. cute.

"i say in sweet tone, mama" after asking for something nicely... she gets really proud of herself! we're really working on the tone and attitude thing. :)

"ibu sri let me!" when she's asking to do something that she knows she's not allowed to do but our babysitter always lets her... like stand on the counter and pick out snacks, eat oreos, fill up the ice trays by herself, wear her bathing suit all day... ibu sri isn't quite as quick to correct. it's okay though, we're thankful to have a kind woman who loves our children!

choo choo tar

2011-10-12T11:35:00.000-04:00

i've always known that boys and girls are different but my kids are another great testimony to that. luke's favorite activities currently are going after the dirt or ants on the edge of our grass (like below)... he's like a magnet to that place! he loves to throw the ball around the house by himself and chase it. sometimes he'll do it for 20 minutes straight and he gets really proud every time. he also loves to throw food off the his tray... and then look at me and wait for me to give him a little pinch. at the age of 10 months, i'm not exactly sure what mary loved, but she's never eaten dirt or picked up bugs and she didn't start playing with a ball until after she could walk. and, i gave her about 10 pinches over a few days and she never threw things off her tray again. they're different. luke has some spirit. :) mary does too, especially now, but it's different. i can't wait to see how luke's personality develops.

currently, mary loves her "choo choo tar" (guitar... i have no idea how she came up with that name)... her dance moves are developing more and more every day and it's hilarious. she's now got her hips really going. she also loves to play puzzles... she's do the same puzzle 12 times if we'd sit there long enough to help her (she likes real puzzles, not wooden ones that she can actually do by herself). and, she loves to test. we often talk about how wonderful and funny our kids are, but they are also real. mary is in the midst of testing her boundaries about EVERYTHING... how long can she wait before she comes when i ask her; if i tell her not to put her feet on the table, can she put her toe, could she put her foot on the underside of the table top, could she... you name it, she tests it. all in all, she is a pretty easy kid but she definitely is 2 and is learning her place, which is loved by and under God and mama and dada. :)

four years of marital bliss...

2011-10-08T10:55:00.001-04:00

...that's what we celebrated this weekend. :) though in reality not every day is full of bliss, we do feel like the Lord has been so gracious to us through our marriage and we are so thankful for his presence with us. we are blessed by God.

and, we got to celebrate this weekend! it started with me making a special dinner of pesto pizza and danny's favorite cookies, pumpkin cake batter white chocolate chip. keep in mind, most of the ingredients in these cookies can not be bought here, so they are VERY special! :) (thanks, mom for the package!) we put a candle in one for mary and we all sang happy birthday to mama, dada, mary and luke... the term for anniversary here is literally "happy birthday wedding" so i thought it was appropriate... and mary loves candles!

bad picture... i'm not too good at the timer thing yet. :)

happy birthday to mama!

happy birthday to ME!

that was probably the 14th time she blew out the candle

friday night danny and i went to a local hotel and had a night away! it was so fun to just relax and get to spend uninterrupted time together. we went to a nice dinner... which ended in a funny/typical story. danny asked for the bill, motioning a piece of paper with his hands and said 'nota' which we are told is used for bill. the waitor asked something about a glass and danny just kind of looked at him. then the waitor said 'the large one' and danny said yes. he walked away and i asked danny why he said yes to the large one... i mean, are we sure he was talking about the bill... is there an option of a small bill? well, a few minutes later the guy comes back with a huge bottle of beer and a cold glass. we stopped him right before he started pouring it for danny and realized that 'bill' was heard 'beer.' anyways, the moral of the story... we still don't know what is going on around here. ;) a huge thanks to our friend leslie who kept both of our kids by herself! she's great with them and i didn't worry at all.

i brought my camera intending to take great pictures of us at the cool places we were going... and i only took this one picture of us sitting on the porch of our room. lame.

on a different note, it's funny to think about the different things mary is going to grow up doing... like wearing her babies in a "gendongan" like Ibu Sri (our babysitter) wears luke. cute. she also asked leslie were the gate was when they were drawing pictures of houses together. every house here has a gate, and many have crazy spikes. it's normal for her.

bubs

2011-10-03T10:18:00.000-04:00

the bubbalu.

luke is 10 months and getting to be so much fun. i have always loved my little man, but i'm really loving him these days. he has so much personality. he is often seen with this fat kid, cheesey smile on his face... especially when mary is around. he was laughing at her then.

sometimes i leave them in their highchairs for awhile after we eat and ask mary to make luke laugh. she plays games with him and entertains him while i clean the dishes. it's awesome.

he's also on the go a lot! he never stops moving. he's clearly excited about going after something... probably a bug. it's just weird how much of a boy he is and how different he is than mary. anytime he is on the back porch he crawls to the grass to eat handfuls of dirt or catch big ants. he gets really excited about the ants.

he's about to get me... crawling up me as i take the picture. he's kind of a physical guy, always wrestling, knocking someone over or trying to eat my face. we'll have to get that one on video but he literally tries to eat my nose. it's kind of embarrassing in public because he looks like a ferocious dog.

and my newest favorite thing that luke does... play peek a boo in his high chair. he lays his head down and looks at us and we say "where's luke" and he just gets a big grin on his face. i mean, i can hardly stand how sweet he looks when he does it.

on a completely different note, i want to share two reasons why i love indonesians so far. first, we have had these two little girls come by twice this weekend to play with mary. they are 8 and 10 years old, they are so patient and kind to her, they bring their toys to show her and they totally entertain her for at least an hour. it's so sweet! and i was able to study a little bit while they played. nice.

secondly, i had an experience at the grocery store that made me really thankful. i'm like a circus when i go there, really! i'm on the motorcycle and they give you approximately 4 inches between bikes when you have to park. then i come out with four big bags of groceries that i have to stuff in a backpack, in my seat and between my legs... then get my bike out of the smallest space known to mankind. all the while, i'm being stared at the ENTIRE time because i'm the white girl on the motorcycle that clearly didn't have to grocery store on a motorcycle in my past life. anyways, today i was loading the bags and first, my leg touched another muffler and burnt it (just a bit but i couldn't help it because my legs are wider than the 4 inches that they give me!). this man looked at me with sympathy, then after watching me try to jam 3 boxs of cereal in my packback he came and helped me while his wife watched (so he wasn't being shadey). then, he tied my other grocery bag so i could hang it between my legs. then, when i was trying to get my bike out of the jigsaw puzzle i, of course, bumped into another motorcycle and couldn't manage enough turns to get it out. the man was there making sure i made it out safely (which i wouldn't had if he weren't there), then he moved the bikes around me and made a way for me to get out. anyways, all of this to say two things... I AM A GONG SHOW whereever i go. i mean, i was just laughing at myself as all of the indonesians watched the helpless white girl. it's times like that that i just wish i could BLEND in... but i never will. and the other thing, sometimes it's nice to look like an idiot because indonesians are so friendly and they have compassion on me and help me. i thanked God for him as i drove away. oh, and the real moral of the story is... pray we get a car soon!

boulder...

2011-09-30T10:30:00.001-04:00

danny and i are in language school from 8-12 monday-friday. it's just us, leslie (our friend from boston) and our teacher. generally we have a really good time and are able to laugh at our many mistakes. sometimes it can be a bit frustrating though.... the language is just different so you can't always translate things with the exact same meaning and the words are LONG.

like PEMANDANGANNYA... it means scenery. after saying it about 15 times, danny said...

"it rolls right off the tongue... like a boulder."

we still can't say it at all. oh well. we're getting there though. language school is pretty exhausting, but we've enjoyed it thus far. i can't wait to be able to communicate to people when i go shopping or when i want to order food or when i walk by our neighbors with the strollers or any time, really!

and, since danny and i are rarely on the blog, i leave you with these recent pictures. luke loves to wrestle and crawl on me (or anyone) and mary loves the motorcycle.

too hot.

2011-09-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

mary went to the bathroom on the potty today... that's a big deal around here. we haven't started potty training but i think i'm about to. anyways, after we celebrated and danced around the potty it was time to put a diaper on. i said something to let her know it was time to put her diaper on and she looked at me dead serious and said, "my bum too hot for diaper." i died laughing. really, you're bum is too hot!?! nice.

just wearing her 'bap-pap' around like a big girl

gemuk!

2011-09-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

what are you looking at?

sometimes i wonder why people yell out "GEMUK!" as we're walking down the street... 'gemuk' means fat. but if this is what they usually see, my wondering is resolved. oh, i love that fat head.

mary part 3

2011-09-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

there's a park within walking distance (a long walk, but back road so it's still "walkable") from our house. it looks about 50 years old (in style and equipment), it's in a normal neighborhood and seems to attract random people. i like it. it's the best we have around here and mary seems to enjoy it. it has some benches and great shade so there are a lot of people hanging out there. mary loves that part about it... she interacts with everyone... like the random man below. we were eating our lunch on a bench and she walked over to this guy and motioned for him to help her up. and then they chatted.

and these random people that she hopped on the merri-go-round with. and then they asked to take a picture with her... another very normal occurrence for us these days. there are hundreds of pictures of my kids floating around people's phones. funny. mary plays along and says "cheese!"

in other news of mary, there were three milestones that we needed to cross when we got here. getting mary into a real bed, getting rid of her paci (more on that later) and getting her potty trained. one down! she got a big girl bed! finally! she seems to love it. she calls it her "bid-durl-beh" and is very excited about it. she has only gotten out of it once (in the middle of the night and i think she might have still been quasi asleep).

next up is potty training, which she is really taking an interest in. i just don't want to do it! soon i will... when i have some time off of school and can really try. she always wants to sit on the potty and never goes. it's annoying. i wonder where she got the idea to read a sports magazine on the potty? weird. umm, and look at her sick feet. new normal.

old plus two

2011-09-16T11:48:00.000-04:00

danny likes to say that he is now old plus two. clever. yesterday was his birthday and we didn't do a lot of celebrating but it was a really great day for us all. danny and i went on our first date in indonesia the night before his birthday (thanks leslie for keeping our kids!) and it was super nice to have the night out. we ate outside in the courtyard of this cute little restaurant and the food was great! they serve real bacon so danny was a happy man! (most places don't around here due to religious restrictions)

our babysitter showed up in the morning with a birthday cake for danny so i didn't even make his cake! she has a bakery out of her house so it was delicious. we had a nice dinner of leftovers as a family and then blew out candles about 5 times. mary liked that part!

waiting for daddy's cake to come...

singing happy birthday...

so much fun!

and this is a cellphone picture of her blowing out the candles. she was super excited about the cake, daddy's birthday and the candles! she kept saying that she and dada were three now. it was funny.

luke was there too... on the other side of the table. he was excited about dada too but just can't express it quite like mary right now. oh luke, he is so funny and cute these days. more on him later...

this is his proud face... look what i have, mom?!?

"fiddy"

2011-09-13T05:45:00.000-04:00

my girl.

2011-09-06T01:40:00.000-04:00

an update on the life of mary.... part 1.

mary is growing, learning, laughing and enjoying life here in indonesia. i think this often, but this might be my favorite stage of her life so far. it's so fun to watch her learn to communicate and socialize with people and understand the world around her. she's particular about weird things... like where the cloth should go or what utensil luke needs to use for his food. she also has a quark about what she walks on.... can you tell by the picture below? she doesn't like to walk on grass (or anything different). after going to a park with all sand i had to wash her feet in the drinking fountain before she was happy. funny.

mary loves playing outside and always wants to be on the porch. we got some fun toys from a family that was moving from indonesia that mary has really enjoyed, the scooter being on of them! we go on family walks most evenings and mary just walks around talking about everything we pass (we call her our running commentary) and greeting our neighbors. one day, when we can actually communicate with people, we hope to not just be known as mary's parents... maybe we'll even make some friends because of her. :)

she loves to run, jump, dance and pretend to play sports (that's my girl!). she can kind of dribble, talks about the red sox and will use a big water bottle to hit things like she's swinging a bat (they don't really have baseball stuff in indonesia). during church you can usually find her jumping up and down and dancing during the music time... when i ask her what we're doing she'll say singing to jesus. she dances for him also.... or at least that's what i tell myself as she's going crazy during worship. :) i'm not sure what she's doing in the picture below but i love it. i like the facial expression so i did a close up too. she looks like a big girl... sad.

and did you notice the celtics shirt? go boston sports. :)

9 facts for 9 months.

2011-09-02T06:17:00.000-04:00

9 months old...

1. luke is still quick to smile. he gives this goofy grin that i love... his eyes squint up, his mouth is completely straight across and he looks extra chubby.

2. he loves his mama... too much. he's going through the attachment thing pretty bad. sometimes if he sees me walk out of the room or even turn my back he starts screaming as if i just cut his toe off. he'll grow out of his love for me so i should appreciate it... unless i'm trying to cook dinner.

3. speaking of cooking dinner, he pulls up on me all of the time (especially when i'm cooking dinner)... and then i'm stuck and can't move.

this is really just to show our tropical back yard... pretty.

4. he plays SO well in his crib by himself. he's been waking up way too early here (like 6:30am usually... it was about 8am in boston) so we just give him toys and a pacifer and comtimes he'll stay in his crib for 45 minutes just playing. he does it after his afternoon nap too. it's very nice.

5. he crawls all over the place and loves to play on our back porch.... our favorite place.

6. he loves mary and laughs at her all of the time... i love it!

7. he is a really good eater... we usually just blend whatever indonesian dish we're eating and he eats it, spices and all. it's great!

8. he's tough. we play on the bed everytime after bathtime as a family... it's one of our favorite times of the day. we swipe his legs as he's crawling, knock him over, throw him around... and he just laughs and laughs. he also just started tackling, yes full out tackling as if he's in football camp. it's usually to me or danny but sometimes he'll go after mary and knocks her over. she thinks it's funny.

9. lastly, here he is with ibu sri... the woman who watches the kids while we're at language school. this was right before we left for class. he loves her and she's so great with him! but, do you notice the cinnamon all over her pants... she didn't know he opened the cinnamon and was shaking it everywhere. crazy boy.

new normal...

2011-08-30T05:35:00.000-04:00

we have many, many new normals these days... bugs in our house, me killing bugs with my fingers and not thinking a thing about it, lizards on our walls... inside our house, rice, rice and more rice (the food is actually really good, i just want to not eat rice for one day), people yelling "hello mr." at me (remember, this is lisa writing), driving a motorcycle, you know... things are different. we actually really like it, but it's definitely different.

anyways, pictured below are two of our "new normals." this is our dining room table. it's great, we move it outside in the morning to eat breakfast and lunch outside and then we move it inside for dinner (because of the misquitos). we're not exactly ready to host a dinner party but it works for now. if we use plates rather than bowls (which doesn't happen often because everything is on top of a bowl of rice) leslie usually holds her plate on her lap. danny and i are usually assigned to a kid so holding a plate and feeding a kid is a little tough. for those of you who don't know, leslie is our good friend from boston who moved here with us. she usually joins us for at least one meal a day and we LOVE having her around... and so does mary!

the next new normal is dirt. i mean, it's just dirty here. mary's feet always look like this... and this picture doesn't really do justice to the dirt. oh, and that is marker on her toes. on one of our flights she kind of started freaking out because she wanted to sit on my lap duing take off but because she's two now she can't. so, i told her she could color her toes. she knows she can only color paper so that was a special treat that kept her in her seat. and now, she always colors her toes. oh well, there are bigger trajedies every day in this world (that's what danny says everyday).

and here are luke's TWO teeth. he's very proud of them.

like mother, like daughter...

2011-08-28T01:50:00.000-04:00

...mary loves the motorcycle!

she was so excited about her new helmet and was even more excited when she got to ride with mama. this morning i took her to a playground (that was all sand so she wouldn't even walk in it!) and she loved the ride there. she is a running commentary on everything we pass... "people have helmet like mary" or "two people riding" or "bumpy mama, hold on!" she also sings "mary's riding" a lot of the time (it's from an elmo video).

she was so excited to get on!!! face shield down and she's ready.

mary did a great job riding. she holds on to "her handles" and i hold on to mine. she tells me every few minutes which ones are mine and which ones are hers (it's very important that she doesn't grab mine so we've gone over it a lot!). she doesn't move around or anything, she just talks and laughs and sings. it's awesome. not sure if you can tell but i tie her onto me for extra safety (as if riding a motorcycle can ever be that safe for a two year old)... but it keeps her close to me and restricts her movement.

yesterday i also bought a helmet for luke. when danny is ready to have the whole family on with him (which is kind of a big deal), we'll have mary in the front, danny driving and me with luke in the baby carrier... all with big helmets on. oh, speaking of helmets, how funny do i look?!?! i mean, can you say space ranger. i was dying when i went to go by it (by myself). people don't wear full face helmets here unless you're like a racer or something. but, it is the safest one so we've decided we will wear them. they don't make them for kids. very, very few kids wear helmets here. just the parents. weird, i know!

and, just in case you don't think we're being safe... check this out! it's the asian way. :)

(no, i didn't take this picture... danny got it from a friend).

and he's off....

2011-08-27T05:58:00.000-04:00

this is luke's very typical, goofy smile. he's thrilled about something... usually it's seeing me, if i'm honest. :) i love it. his eyes squint up so much you can hardly tell they are open.

many things are changing in the life of luke... first up, he's crawling everywhere! he loves to crawl on and off of things (his favorite is mary's mattress which is still on the floor, we're getting a bed in a few weeks). he also loves to play with the dirt off of the patio... this is frightening because he reaches the dirt by doing the football stance below and could lunge forward onto the brick at any moment. it's so funny that he actually likes to play with the dirt. i mean, i know he's a boy but it's still weird to me that they can be so different at such a young age. he goes right for it when i put him down. if mary touchs the dirty she says, "oh no! dirty!" though living here she is going to have to get used to being dirty... very dirty all of the time!

nothing has changed in the weight department... he's still a big boy, as you can see. :)

he loves the bathtub and splashes everywhere!

he is interacting more with mary. he loves her and she loves to make him laugh.

he's been pulling up on everything! he's not incredibly stable when he gets up so it's a little frightening sometimes. he's taken his share of falls on our tile floors.

this is my favorite picture because you see his cute baby face (and his misquito bites from living in indonesia).

other things in the life of luke... he got his first tooth last week. he loves ibu sri (the woman who takes care of our kids while we're in language school), which is a huge blessing. he has a strong will sometimes... grunts when he doesn't want something or cries if we take a toy away from him. mary never did that (she was really laid back) so it's interesting to see how kids are different even at such a young age. he loves his mama (mary also never had attachment issues, so this is new to me also... i don't really love it). he takes two naps and sleeps about 10-11 hours at night. and, he eats a lot! he eats whatever we eat and we just blend it. so, he's had chicken curry, beef stew, and a lot of other indonesian dishes. he's great about eating!

and a little update on life in indonesia....

we're really liking it! we love our house (it was such a blessing to find so quickly) and it's slowly coming together. things take a bit (or four times) longer here. :) language school is going really well, we really like it but it is exhausting!!! putting that much into your brain for four hours straight can wear me out. our friends here are great... they have been so helpful with everything and we really enjoy being with them/learning from them. we have a very small backyard (think the size of a one car garage) and a great patio... the doors are open all of the time and the kids love playing out there! we got a motorcycle last week!!! i love it. i mean, it's so fun! of course we haven't had any mode of transportation so i'm especially thankful for it. i just bought helmets for the whole family this afternoon... i think i might take mary on a little ride tonight. we're going asian here! :)

my thoughts and conversations are mostly filled with information about how to live here... where to buy things, how to cook, how to communicate with our babysitter, how to make tortillas or french bread (just stop right now and thank Jesus for tortillas or french bread that you can buy in a bag). :) alright, that's all for now. i could go on... life is very different here. but, all in all, we're doing great and loving it.

my toys!?!

2011-08-17T04:01:00.000-04:00

we are moved into our new house and so thankful for it. it's been a week now and we're feeling a little more settled by the day. i felt like shopping was my part time job for about 2 weeks, but thankfully it's slowing down. note: shopping is not quite as easy for me here... not being able to communicate with anyone can be problematic. we've had to have a lot of help.

blurry and in motion... dancing to the toy's music. i love the expression!

mary is very happy to finally be at our "new house!" the day before we moved in i took her over to the house to let her see her bin of toys. she hadn't seen them since mid-june and i don't think she knew they were coming back, so she was SO excited. she played with tons of toys and read all of her books. it was really a special moment for me.

for some reason it was hardest for me to think about mary and how she feels as we left boston and all that was normal to us. so, i brought as many of her things as possible (hooded towels, her quilt, a special painting she had on her wall, and HER TOYS!). here she is dancing to her "music dog," one of her favorite toys from my bff's mom. she got it over a year ago and still loves it... that's a long time for a kid's toy.

side note: i realize she's only two and won't remember any of this, but she has definitely noticed it now. she's doing much better than the first week we arrived in indonesia. that was a doozy!

more pictures to come of life in indonesia... as soon as the internet gets going at home. it's been great so far!

too small?

2011-08-07T10:06:00.001-04:00

the bath tub is too small, you think?

if you're wondering, this was the transition from luke's bath to mary's. they didn't actually get washed together... they would still be very dirty if that were the case. speaking of dirty... man, they get dirty here! luke's crawling everywhere and his hands and knees are evidence.

noises.

2011-08-05T11:34:00.001-04:00

i just want to start by saying that the noises we hear at night here are crazy! first of all, we're staying at a house with a dog and cat. the dog doesn't bark much anymore (my dad showed his authority) but the cat starts meowing outside of our "window" (that is actually just a screen) around 5am... just as we're getting used to the call to prayer, which starts about 4:45am. leslie, our friend who is living with while we're settling in, went outside in the middle of the night to see what was going on. i had danny do the same thing about three nights ago. there are 5 cats in the empty lot next to us who meow SO loud. like, i actually thought that someone might have dropped a child off in our front yard... i had danny go check. the meowing is not normal... sounds like a small child. and, ramadan just started here so there are LOUD microphones throughout the city reading different texts... for hours starting around 4am. and there are firecrackers. this makes boston seem very quiet! we're getting used to it and so are the kids. life is different here. nothing is bad (except the loud cats), just different. anyways, now that i have explained one of the "new normals" for us...

i really haven't taken pictures, i've just snapped a few when i see something funny. like this. luke was gnawing on a hacky-sack for about 20 minutes. i didn't think it was that big of a deal (though, i'm sure it wouldn't have passed mimi's sanitation standards)... then i looked down and saw what the BLUE hacky-sack was doing.

walking into the flower market

danny with some "natives"

my indonesian boy

2011-08-02T11:14:00.000-04:00

luke is loving indonesia thus far. here are a few pictures to let you see how well he is adapting to the new culture (as if he has a clue we're in a new culture).

we're staying at a friend's house right now and this is the wonderful woman that helps them out around their house. she loves luke and mary (but especially luke, i think)... she will ask to take luke all throughout the day. she feeds him, plays with him or just carries him around in this, just cooking or just showing him outside. she is so sweet and has cooked a few meals for us and we love them! i thought i really didn't like indonesian food (the stuff we've had at restaurants) but her's is really good!

you can hardly tell, but this is luke eating rice for the first time. i'm not sure how much, if any, got in his mouth but he had a good time trying. he looks so clean in this picture, but it was ALL over him. mary has been doing great with the food too. she really likes the rice and has eaten a ton of chicken (surprising because she was basically a vegitarian in the states)... she even ate curry chicken and veggies over rice tonight. we're really glad she likes the food!

and, this the "walker" that luke already broke. my parents bought it for him a few days ago and he has probably spend a total of 45 minutes in it... and ripped the fabric right off the rim.... like the fabric is torn! i think that these things aren't made for american size babies. usually when a kid weighs 23 lbs here he's probably been walking for 2 years and about to enter pre-school. luke, well he's 8 months old. he gets a TON of attention for those big white rolls around here. people are always touching my kids as they walk by. it's kind of funny.

lastly, a little progress on the practicals. we have our indonesian IDs. i have driven a few times already... even to the mall today. we got our appliances delivered today (washer, dryer, stove, fridge and one AC for our bedroom). we ordered our couches today. we got our cell phones today. we're hoping to move into our place this weekend. we're so thankful that things are moving along relatively quickly around here. we're very ready to have a place that is our own. thanks for keeping up with us on this side of the world.

coming along

2011-07-30T10:07:00.000-04:00

things have been a little crazy here but we're really liking indonesia so far! the whole jetlag thing has really put a damper on things, but we're getting over it! the kids finally started sleeping through the night a few days ago... we have had two "full" nights, which is huge! still waking up a little too early for my liking, but everytime i hear them for the first time around 4-5am i'm thankful (they usually sleep at least another hour after that). unfortunately, danny and i aren't adjusted because we were up so long in the middle of the night. we'll get there.

today was a big day for us because... we got a house! yeah!!! we like it a lot... i think. we have seen it once and we saw a ton of others, but if i remember correctly it's great. :) we don't have the keys yet but when we do i'll post some pictures. we also got a few appliances and are getting the rest in the next few days. soon, we'll be up and running. we start language school on monday (crazy!) and my parents leave thursday so we're hoping to get a lot done early this week.

a special thanks to our friends here, pete and vikki. they have taken us all over the place, helping us find a house, negotiating deals, getting our furniture, driving us... they are doing a lot for us. without them we might just be... well, i'm not really sure what we would be doing without them at this point.

oh and big news from luke... he's crawling! yeah, bubba! he's so stinking chubby; i love to see those legs move.

phone pictures...

2011-07-26T16:45:00.000-04:00

i haven't taken any pictures while in indonesia... it's just kind of awkward walking around with my camera. we get enough attention as it is since we are white and have cute, chubby kids!! i'll take some soon, but for now here are some of the pictures from my phone that i gave up when i left.

lily giving luke a sweet hug

lily giving luke a headlock hug... look at their faces! love it.

mary, lily and jude on the porch... we were regulars in meghan's backyard

mary putting luke "night night"

luke loves the swing and he smiles so easily!

mary and dada swinging (g'ma pushing mary)

typical of my weird little girl

this is what luke did almost everyday while we played at the park. awesome.

i fit perfectly, right?

lily and mary on a walk around the block. they were hilarious!

happy boy.

can you tell they like to swing?

they love each other.

lily's shades. looking good.

HI!

in INDONESIA

2011-07-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

we are here!

a few highlights from the trip here... we almost missed our flight because of the 14 detours getting to the airport at 4am. mary peed through her cloths on the first flight... from boston to nyc. awesome. i spilled an entire cup of a purple drink all over my WHITE shorts on the airplane. they look tie dyed. mary's dvd player was amazing! she did really well considering the situation. we left our "house" in boston at 4am and arrived in malang around midnight (i think)... door to door about 32 hours of traveling. not bad to get across the world.

we are all very tired from the traveling and jet lag, but we're hanging in there! the kids are not at all adjusted to the time. mary has been awake for almost 2 hours both nights. last night luke was awake from 2:15-6:15 and then up again at 7am. it was rough! we finally put him in our bed around 5am (he had just fallen asleep in his bed and was woken up by some 'call to pray' like song... that lasted over an hour). after wrestling him for about 45 minutes he dozed off again and about 30 seconds later a cat came to our window and meowed so loudly that danny checked to make sure it was outside. luke was awake again. danny and i were dying laughing at a few times through out the night. it was like we were waiting for the hidden camera to be revealed... certainly that couldn't have been reality. it was.

DAY 1: we slept until 10am (when we were awaken by some of our friends here). we hung out with them for a bit and met their kids, who will be great play mates for mary. we just hung around, unpacked, took naps and then headed to dinner with some friends. it was great to get out and eat some indonesian food. we went to bed. mary and luke were both up for awhile. mary was attacked by mosquito bites in the night... she has them all over her, including three big ones on her right cheek. sad! we're being more cautious now.

DAY 2: we woke up early and didn't do much. went to the outside sunday market for a bit. took a LONG nap (after getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before). then, my mom, leslie and i ventured out to the grocery store. we got a taxi, couldn't communicate and ended up at the wrong place. we did a little shopping there and then went home. then we went for round two... we were on a mission to find the "western" grocery store. we got another taxi and found it. it's not so western. i mean, there are some good items for special occasions... but a pint of haagen daz ice cream was $10... won't be buying that anytime soon! now we're off to bed.

tomorrow we go to the language school to check in and start house hunting. please pray that we find one quickly! we're really looking forward to having a place that our kids (and us) can call home and feel settled, especially after hopping around for the past month. also, please pray that our kids start sleeping through the night quickly and feel comfortable here. thanks! we'll report more later.

on our way...

2011-07-20T23:34:00.000-04:00

to INDONESIA! i can't believe the day has finally come! i should be asleep, like my husband beside me, but i'm documenting one of big life changes that is about to happen. we take off from boston at 6am tomorrow and will arrive in our new city just a short 24 hours of travel later. :) you can pray for us... and our kids! my parents are traveling there with us to help us settle in and we couldn't be more thankful! we will update soon from our new home!

we are sad to leave boston... but so excited about our new life in indonesia. it has been a journey for me, but i can say with everything in me i'm ready and i'm excited! i'll have my lonely days, but i'm so thankful that God has brought us to this place with my lovely family. we are ready to have a home again (we've been 'migrating' for 3 weeks).... and we're ready for it to be in indonesia.

she's always ready for an adventure... even last summer!

a few other things...

we had a wonderful time in florida getting to spend time with family and hanging out with isaiah! i will post pictures later, but i was so surprised at how well he is doing with such big transition. we got to play and bond and i love him!

secondly, we had family pictures taken by a friend last week... she's awesome. here's a link to some of them on her blog. we love them and had a great time with her. she was great with our little family... and karen (aka teddy in our house... danny's sister) was beyond helpful to both our family and sarah. thanks for your help teddy!

lastly, thank you to all of the people who have helped us get out the door to indonesia.... many friends ran errands for me, packed my bags, watched my kids, etc. thanks to craig and meghan for letting our family live with their's for the last 10 days! thanks to pat (danny's mom) and teddy (danny's sister) for watching our kids ALL day and making a fabulous "last supper" for us! we really appreciate everything!

Mary Ryan, 1925-2011

2011-07-19T22:20:00.001-04:00

This isn't exactly the kind of post I look forward to writing, but I wanted to take a minute to honor Mary Ryan, also known as "Granny," who passed away 1.5 weeks ago and whose funeral was last Wednesday. Many of you know how special she is to me and my family, as evidenced by our daughter carrying on her name.

It's always painful to say goodbye to someone, yet there is, in a weird sense, a relief that she is no longer sick and physically miserable. Granny was a feisty, active woman. Up until the final 2 weeks of her life, she was still going to work at the Marshfield Town Hall, where she worked for 50+ years. I know these last few months where she struggled with getting sick were difficult on her, not just physically but emotionally. Yet it was a privilege to visit her a few days before she passed away, to bring her a couple pictures of Mary and Luke, her 2nd and 3rd (out of 4) great-grandchildren.

There are a bunch of memories that I hold to, but some of my favorites will be her with my kids. Even though they won't remember her, I'm thankful Mary and Luke were able to meet their great-grandmother. Mary and Granny had a connection that went beyond their name. When Granny was around, Mary stopped what she was doing and made sure to sit on Granny's lap and kiss her over and over and over again. She wore Granny out, and I couldn't pay Mary to sit on my lap and kiss me!

Here are a couple pictures from the last couple years:

Granny and Mary after Mary was born.

Mary, Ryan and Mary Ryan.

Mary sharing a laugh with Granny (and about to pucker up for a kiss).

This one is probably my favorite. I wonder what Mary was telling her...

We don't have too many pictures of Granny and Luke. It wasn't long after he was born that she started to get sick, and she got weaker as he got heavier and squirmier. But here's one with Granny, Mary and Luke (and Layla, the doll).

I wish I had the time and space to talk about Granny's life; it would probably make for a pretty good movie. When I stop and think about all she overcame, it's remarkable she did so well: being orphaned as a child, treated as a house slave by a foster family in the Great Depression (picture Cinderella before the Fairy Godmother showed up), but marrying a WWII vet, having a family and ultimately living long enough to see 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren born.

When I think about her story it reminds me that our God truly does make beauty from ashes. Granny was proof of that. I love her and miss her.

ISAIAH!

2011-07-15T23:33:00.000-04:00

isaiah lucas larkin

it was a long day of flying to FL and then waiting at the airport... for hours. but it was SO worthy it! luke enjoyed waiting for kelley and isaiah... he got to play with rissa, his birthday twin from uganda. her mom is one of kelley's best friends. she looks much bigger than him, but i think it's because she's crawling and standing... and, well, luke's belly is a bit harder to get off the ground. :)

the many kids waiting with signs in hand to welcome isaiah to his new home... they were fun and crazy!

they finally came and everyone was so excited... especially luke and the kids! the kids were so excited and hyper! it was fun for me to watch as they told kelley the most random things to fill her in on her time away... hudson gets especially excited and can be a little slow to spit things out. kelley just looked at him smiling, anticipating the funny things that was sure to come out of his mouth. it was sweet to watch.

it was also fun to see how excited the kids were to be with their new brother... they kept showing him toys, wanting to hug him and trying to get his attention. they are really thoughtful of him and so welcoming... like it's not weird at all that they now have a new brother from africa. they are awesome.

he was a little shy at first.... there were A LOT of people there that were really excited about him so that is understandable! he soon warmed up and started playing with the kids and some of the toys they brought him. how cute is he!?!?

here's most of the welcoming crew... and do you see will and hudson? they're the two goof balls in the front with their arms up. it's just such a typical picture. i love it!

that's all for now. we're so thankful that we are able to be in FL during this special time before we move! isaiah was so cute and we can't wait to play with him tomorrow!

next week....

2011-07-14T07:38:00.000-04:00

next week at this time we'll be on our way to INDONESIA! the time is quickly coming and many of our ten 48lb. trunks are already packed, labeled and weighed. we are excited about our move there but with the excitement comes about 17 other emotions. it will be terribly sad to leave our friends in boston and our families that are now just a drive or short flight away. but, we're confident that this is where God has our family for this next (at least) 5 years... so we're getting ready! here's mary getting ready. :)

mimi has taught her so much already. :)

also, wanted to include a few stats on the luke...
**luke sits up unassisted, falls over every once in awhile but is never bothered by it
**luke is now making forward progress, it's a struggle but he can gradually army crawl across a room
**luke weighed in at 22lb 3oz at 7 months
**luke says "ma ma ma" not referring to me or anyone, just making noises... but i like it

here are his passport photos that were given to the indonesian embassy. this is his excited face... he looks like a total dweeb. hilarious! i love him.

and let me remind you that he is very cute, despite the above representation...

gracie and ellie come to boston!

2011-07-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

this is how our fourth of july started....

we met a bunch of friends (all those who were in town for lacey and rob's wedding) at panera and then we headed to the park with the kids... and mike and beth. somehow beth started giving them squirts of water from her bottle and they loved it! they waited in anticipation and thought it was so funny!

then we had a little cookout at the house where we're staying (thanks, richmonds!). the girls came over again and had a great time. they started playing the piano together and loved it! it was so cute. mary doesn't always play with kids, usually more along side them... but she played pretty well with ellie and gracie. she thought they were so funny and would join in the squealing and laughing. it was fun to watch!

then we did sparklers for the kids. i was a little hesitant at first, you know a bunch of toddlers playing with fire... it's not really adviced in parenting magazine. but, they did great and thought it was so cool!

the littles were assisted at first, but not for long

excited their sparkler is coming... then scared. :)

we were so thankful to have our dear friends in town before we head off to indonesia. joy, ellie and gracie's mom, has been one of my dearest friends since the beginning of college and i'm thankful that we've been able to walk with her through so much of life.

oh, and this is what luke was doing the whole time... hanging out and being entertained by gracie. thanks, gracie!

30 = ISAIAH

2011-07-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

one week from today... i'll be THIRTY years old!

a few months ago i was saying that i was going to spend my 30th birthday in bali (since i thought we'd be living in indonesia by now). since we're still in the states for 13 more days (crazy!!!) i have found an even better way to celebrate!

if you've talked to be in the last 4 months you know that my brother and his family are adopting a little boy from zambia. his name is ISAIAH LUCAS LARKIN. we went to sarasota a few weeks ago thinking that we'd be there for his homecoming... but some paperwork was wrong and they are still in africa. but, he and kelley are supposed to be coming home on friday, july 15th, my 30th birthday... and we're flying to FL to be there!!! for months, i have been praying and dreaming that i would get to be there with my whole family when isaiah comes home. i wasn't sure it was going to happen but we just bought our plane tickets so they better be there! :) i am beyond excited and thankful to get to go!

isaiah and kelley

i think he's a beautiful little boy and i hear that he is quiet the funny guy too. we can't wait to meet him and i can't wait to see him interact with his big sister and brothers. he's only a few months older than mary, so i'm sure she'll love to have a new cousin to play with that is more her size. and, he doesn't really speak english yet which is perfect for mary because most people can't understand what she's saying anyways (unless you've been tutored by one of her parents). i hope they'll be two peas in a pod... if they can learn to share. :)

kelley, we can't wait to see you either! you have been beyond amazing through this very trying and long journey! we love you and are praying for you these last few days!

midnight snack

2011-07-08T11:17:00.000-04:00

we had the privilege of having my aunt, kathy, and her four kids come visit for about 7 hours last night (10:30pm to 5am). they flew into boston and had an overnight before they headed back home. they hadn't met luke and mary hadn't seen them in almost a year.... and this was the last time for awhile so we kept the kids up to play. mary went to bed at 12:15am and was happy the whole time. she's a night owl and it comes in handy in times like this.

they are a really special family to me, i've been close with my aunt since i was little and i have loved her kids since they were babies. it was a treat for us because we didn't think we'd see them before we left. so, mary and luke played with cousins gracie, annie, mary and "baby isaac" who is almost two but mary still calls him baby. everyone had a bowl of cereal (our midnight snack) and just hung out and laughed at the funny cousins. the girls are wonderful and i love seeing them grow up!

playing with luke

before our late night visitors, we spent the day with mary's other cousins, ryry and dylan. it's always fun to be with them because the kids are so close in age... and ryan has fun toys and a yard, something that is hard to come by in the city. :) mary and ryan love each other and usually begin to play well together after about 4 hours. they're two. sharing can be hard. but, here is ryan being a helpful big cousin and pushing mary. don't mind the ponytail on top of his head... not sure how that happened. :)

mary thought she was awesome on her 4 wheeler. i had one growing up also and i actually still love to drive any vehicle, especially if it's fast. like mother, like daughter.

boys will be boys. dylan and luke are beginning the wrestling matches at 6 and 7 months old. should be fun in three years!

mrs. lacey baron....

2011-07-06T23:09:00.000-04:00

it was a crazy, fun weekend celebrating lacey and rob getting married. it was also a reunion of sorts because all of the ladies that have already moved away were reunited and it feels so good! yes, we began the party on wednesday night... for a sunday wedding. it was awesome.

i love you, ba.

dara and joy are my friends from college and boston... we're working on ten years of friendship. i'm blessed.

beth and joy have been out of boston for a few months now... it was SO fun to get some good time with them this weekend. we miss you already.

my parents came for the wedding. it was great to have them here in boston one last time! my friends all love having them around too, so that's always fun. here we are with dara, who is basically part of the family. i hope our being overseas doesn't disturb my parents' social life in boston. :)

oh, here's my "life of the party" husband...

me, singing lovingly into his eyes, and him standing there not even looking at me. this was probably me trying to get him on the dance floor during a fast song (he always dances to slow songs with me)... fast songs aren't his favorite thing. this time he was there with his buddy, mike, and they had their own agenda... ruining the girls' pictures. danny will proudly show you his work very soon on this little blog... i was asked not to reveal it yet.

aside from this, danny was a superstar all weekend... i mean, all week really. the festivities started last wednesday and my last friend left town today. he kept the kids for hours to let me get good time with these dear friends of mine. these were my "final goodbyes" with many of these friends and danny has bent over backwards to make sure i get quality time without my kids. all that to say, i'm so thankful for him... for how thoughtful he is to my needs during this time and for what an involved and sacrificial dad that he is to our kids. you're just what i need, danny!