Xi'an

When Auntie Celia visited us, we all took a trip out to Xi'an to visit the Terracotta Warriors.  The boys woke up super early so we could catch a flight out there first thing in the morning.  When we arrived to queue up at the airport check in counter, Joshua said, "What are we doing here in Economy?"  We've created a monster.

Badminton

It took 3 months, but Joshua finally received his school uniform and loves to wear it, especially to play badminton.  He's really Chinese now.

Happy 8th birthday Joshua!

At 8 years old, he is the sweetest lego loving big brother there is.

To Annette today: "I love walking home with you mom. We can stop and look at things and talk about them."  I came across them as they were walking to campus and I was headed toward Sam's school - - he ran toward me to give me a hug.

Joshua celebrated his 8th birthday in Beijing at a  pizza pub with his new friends: Chloe, Han, and Yenmingzhi.

His favorite toys now are: nerf guns, Chima and Star Wars Legos, and of course his iPad especially the magic chess and Angry birds apps.

His favorite TV cartoon is KaiXing Chaoren, a Chinese superhero.

He likes to build paper airplanes, answer math questions and teaching his little brother all about life.

He still does not like most veggies except broccoli and squash.

His favorite food is McDonald's, nuggets, cheeseburgers, and of course cheese pizza.

He's growing up fast, but still likes to give and get hugs and kisses from us. His sweet little lamb from age 2yrs old is still his bedtime companion.

We love you Joshua!

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Abacus?

Joshua's Chinese math homework yesterday was to do some simple multiplication questions, but on the abacus?  There's probably some pedagogical reason for using it, but seemed very retro.

Master Lego Builder

Joshua has some work to do in the area of Language Arts, but he definitely has this lego building down.  This morning, he created from scratch both a Republic Gunship and a Podracer.

I don't like surprises

Joshua told Annette's friend that mommy was going to Beijing tomorrow to find a home for us to live in. And she was going to bring back the address, and that was important because he didn't like surprises.

Joshua wanted to go to the gym and workout with me this morning.

Math

I like how Joshua shows the 4 different ways he uses to solve this math problem.

Leaving MLK

When we told Joshua last night that we would be leaving Cambridge and moving, he started to sob, saying that he loved MLK and didn't want to leave his school.  Very touching that he has developed such loyalty to his friends and school.

Enjoying the good life...

As soon as we arrived, the boys were awestruck at the amazing greens and blues of the waters.  It was a nice view from the dining room.

Enjoying snacks from the balcony.

Playing roll the coconut down the stairs!

Joshua's main delight of the week was ordering Shirley Temples and this smoothie in a pineapple from the bar.

Paper Airplane Contest

One of Joshua's favorite past times these days, in addition to working on his Lego Star Wars creations, is to make paper airplanes. Here, he competes in our dorm paper airplane contest.

The Reader

Schedule

This was a rare Saturday morning for us where both Annette and I were home. We were making breakfast when Joshua in full anticipation of a home day with both of us said, "I'm going to make a schedule!"

I think for homework, we will work on spelling.

Dinosaur alphabet

For February vacation week, the boys have been working on memorizing the names of the dinosaurs.

Multitasking

Joshua reads a dinosaur book to his little brother while he poops.

Adding to a billion

Joshua was really excited today during our homework session to add up to a billion. He likes math games.

Joshua reads in Chinese for his class blog

http://cigrade1.blogspot.com/2013/02/drawing-read-by-joshua.html

To do list

Perhaps our busyness has rubbed off on Joshua. He made up his own to do list for Sunday morning:

7:59 wake up

8:01 eat

8:10  play with Sam

First time skiing

Joshua had his first skiing experience at granite gorge. After taking a lesson on the magic carpet, he was really determined to perfect his french fries and pizza turns. Very proud of him. Black diamonds, here we come!

Xwing fighter

After watching Star wars for the first time, Joshua got inspired to build his very own Xwing fighter.

Mr Independent

Joshua has been a big help, starting to do some many things by himself.
He wakes up in the morning on his own, goes to the bathroom, dresses himself, brushes his teeth, sits down for breakfast (can get his own cereal and milk), put on his shoes and be ready for school!
Samuel on the other hand, comes out of the bedroom and says, "is today a home day."  When he hears that no, it's a school day, he immediately whines, "Ah, I don't want to go to school!  Can I stay home with you today."  No one is going to be home, you have to go to school.  More whining.  Then, "Can you help me daddy...."  Not so independent, yet.

Joshua's prayers at night, "Thank you God for no scary dreams last night, and please help me not have any scary dreams tonight.  And please help everyone with anything they want, need, or need help with. Amen."

Samuel, ":Dear God, --daddy can you help me?"  Or when he is in an imaginative mood, "Help me to destroy all the idols.  I hate idols."

I was helping Joshua with his homework today and was impressed with how much Chinese he can write--it's definitely more than I can write.  I have to use the Pleco dictionary and OCR, to understand the Chinese vocabulary that he is doing.  It's fun to watch him as he is thinking.  Can't help but think he is much smarter now than I was at his age.

Helping Samuel with his letters, I realize he has a hard time with diagonal and curvey letters.  I was giving him a hard time with simply copying "m" and "n" the other day, and I saw the difference between his "L" and "T" and the other letters.  Also holding and writing with a implement, is much different from tracing on an ipad.  I need to give him leeway with learning to write at this point.  He definitely doesn't have the persistence of Joshua.  After writing a letter 3-4 times, he says, "I'm tired, daddy" and wants to quit.

Brothers after a haircut: