I can honestly tell you I have three of the very best guys in the universe living with me in this house! (I'm sure Cooper is awesome, because he hops around all the time in my belly so I don't have to worry about him!)
On Friday Jaxon said to me-
"Mom, if you are in the same room as me when Dad gets home could you, umm..go somewhere else? I mean, it can be somewhere where you still feel comfortable, just not, ummm...close to us. I need to talk to Dad about something really private about Mother's Day...so...ummm...I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you will need to go away...but still somewhere comfortable."
That made my mother heart just swell! Yesterday Dave and Jaxon ran some "super secret errands" and Jaxon takes his job as secret keeper very seriously...that kid is a VAULT!
This morning Jaxon ran in super early to wake up Dave and whisper in his ear. They left the room, and I fell back asleep! At 7:30 they came in with a tray of breakfast in bed for me! It was all Jaxon's idea, and he was sure proud. He even insisted on what they were going to serve- eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. Dave talked him out of eggs, because even the smell makes me sick, and normally I like bacon, but not right now, but Dave and Jaxon both like the two meats, so they ate the for me and I had the pancakes! They gave me a beautiful card, and then had me come downstairs and have chocolate covered strawberries waiting for me!
Then I got to rest for a little while longer before getting ready for church. After church we made beef and veggies shish-kabobs on the grill...my favorite right now as I can't keep down chicken! We also had my specialty fruit salad and rice, it was just perfect. We talked to both my mom and Dave's mom on Skype and rounded out a wonderful afternoon. Now we are all snuggling together on the couch while Dave plays on the ipad, I type this blog, and Jaxon is playing a spelling game on my phone- this is the life! Just wanted mostly to tell my boys and our posterity how truly blessed I am to have them. They are as good as it gets!
So blessed to be a mom!
I can honestly tell you I have three of the very best guys in the universe living with me in this house! (I'm sure Cooper is awesome, because he hops around all the time in my belly so I don't have to worry about him!)
On Friday Jaxon said to me-
On Friday Jaxon said to me-
AS IT TURNS OUT....
Okay, you should probably sit down...because as it turns out, WE ARE ACTUALLY HAVING A BOY!!!!
No, this is NOT a joke!
No, this was NOT an elaborate scheme to trick people!
There is a very plausible, and very humorous story, and here it goes-
Friday night, I was feeling A LOT of cramping in my belly. My lower back was killing me, and I was sicker than usual...and I was COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT!
Dave told me to just go to the ER and get everything checked out ,because he knew everything was fine, but he knew I would not sleep until I KNEW it too!
So I went to the new little Rinky Dink Gilbert Hospital on Power and Ray because they have billboard that says "Door to Dr. in LESS THAN 30 minutes" I just wanted to KNOW what was going on as soon as possible.
Looooooong story short ( at least this part of the story...) Everything WAS/IS TOTALLY FINE! The baby is fine, I am fine, everything is good. During the Ultrasound at the ER, the ultrasound tech (Who was clearly a complete IDIOT!) told me I was having a girl!
FAST FORWARD TO FRIDAY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT WHEN I GOT HOME FROM THE ER....
Dave and I decided NOT to tell anyone I had been at the ER. We didn't want anyone overly worried. So we just kept our little "girl" a secret, because I was going in to have my ultrasound on the following Monday. (This past Monday)
I was still so excited for my ultrasound, and Monday morning about 2 hours before it was scheduled, the Dr's office called and cancelled, because the Ultrasound tech was sick. I was pretty sad, but since I already "knew the gender" and was dying to tell, I told Dave I was just going to act as if I had gone to my Ultrasound so I could start telling, and STILL would not have to tell anyone I went to the ER.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY, THURSDAY AT 1:30 AT MY RESCHEDULED ULTRASOUND...
CONGRATULATIONS...IT"S A BOY!!!! I was shocked, I laughed pretty much the rest of the Ultrasound, and I promise this is true- I couldn't stop grinning!
Yes, I was SO SO SO EXCITED to think I was having a girl.
BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I HAVE A HEALTHY BOY IN THERE THAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG TIME! He is Mine, and I couldn't be happier! Shocked, yes, but happy!
I had the Ultrasound tech show us his goods about 10 time (Dave can tell you, that's not even an exaggeration!) and there is no question, our little boy is ALL BOY!
So don't feel bad for me. No "I'm sorrys" or "maybe next times" OUR LITTLE BOY IS LISTENING, AND I HOPE HE IS AS THRILLED TO BE WITH US AS WE ARE TO BE HAVING HIM!!!
IT'S A BOY!!!!
No, this is NOT a joke!
No, this was NOT an elaborate scheme to trick people!
There is a very plausible, and very humorous story, and here it goes-
Friday night, I was feeling A LOT of cramping in my belly. My lower back was killing me, and I was sicker than usual...and I was COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT!
Dave told me to just go to the ER and get everything checked out ,because he knew everything was fine, but he knew I would not sleep until I KNEW it too!
So I went to the new little Rinky Dink Gilbert Hospital on Power and Ray because they have billboard that says "Door to Dr. in LESS THAN 30 minutes" I just wanted to KNOW what was going on as soon as possible.
Looooooong story short ( at least this part of the story...) Everything WAS/IS TOTALLY FINE! The baby is fine, I am fine, everything is good. During the Ultrasound at the ER, the ultrasound tech (Who was clearly a complete IDIOT!) told me I was having a girl!
FAST FORWARD TO FRIDAY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT WHEN I GOT HOME FROM THE ER....
Dave and I decided NOT to tell anyone I had been at the ER. We didn't want anyone overly worried. So we just kept our little "girl" a secret, because I was going in to have my ultrasound on the following Monday. (This past Monday)
I was still so excited for my ultrasound, and Monday morning about 2 hours before it was scheduled, the Dr's office called and cancelled, because the Ultrasound tech was sick. I was pretty sad, but since I already "knew the gender" and was dying to tell, I told Dave I was just going to act as if I had gone to my Ultrasound so I could start telling, and STILL would not have to tell anyone I went to the ER.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY, THURSDAY AT 1:30 AT MY RESCHEDULED ULTRASOUND...
CONGRATULATIONS...IT"S A BOY!!!! I was shocked, I laughed pretty much the rest of the Ultrasound, and I promise this is true- I couldn't stop grinning!
Yes, I was SO SO SO EXCITED to think I was having a girl.
BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I HAVE A HEALTHY BOY IN THERE THAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG TIME! He is Mine, and I couldn't be happier! Shocked, yes, but happy!
I had the Ultrasound tech show us his goods about 10 time (Dave can tell you, that's not even an exaggeration!) and there is no question, our little boy is ALL BOY!
So don't feel bad for me. No "I'm sorrys" or "maybe next times" OUR LITTLE BOY IS LISTENING, AND I HOPE HE IS AS THRILLED TO BE WITH US AS WE ARE TO BE HAVING HIM!!!
IT'S A BOY!!!!
The Story of The Pregnancy!
NO.....it's not THAT story. Shockingly, THAT happened the good ol' fashioned way...but enough of that...
First let me add, this post will probably be very scrambled and jump around a lot. So unless you really care, have your own fertility issues, or are just morbidly curious how the heck someone who has been trying for 4 years and had two failed invitros could possibly get pregnant, you can just skip this post and think,
"How nice, Ashley's pregnant."
So, remember my last post about China? Okay, we go back further than that. Remember the post before that about Christmas, specifically how I was so stressed out of my mind that I was really ready for Thanksgiving/Christmas/Church stuff to be over so I could just leave the country without cell phone access for 2 weeks? Yes, okay, we start there-
Okay, so there are those people, who are super well meaning, but if you have fertility issues, you really just want to stuff a sock in their mouth and then put duct tape over it so that they can't give you anymore unsolicited, painful, (and STUPID) fertility advice. Specifically this little gem- "JUST STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! AS SOON AS YOU STOP "TRYING" YOU WILL GET PREGNANT! IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME!!!"
I'm so sorry people. Sorry that I can count to both 14 and 28, and that once a month a get a super lame and inconvenient reminder that my greatest hope and dream has been dashed once again. It's nearly impossible to just "Forget about it" and word to the wise- don't ever say that to someone....and if you have, you should go buy them a Route 44 Sonic today and drop it off at their house for no apparent reason!
Well, I will now sort of eat my words. Not because I think you should EVER say that to someone, but because I think that's how I got pregnant. Well....that a few other things... but I was so INSANELY STRESSED OUT OF MY MIND, that I didn't have time to think about my fertility in November and December. I'm serious, I don't think I could have told you which way was up, let alone which days I would be ovulating.
So, back to the very convoluted story. Dave and I had decided for the end of last year to quit all our drugs, ultrasounds, day 13 trigger shots etc. etc. etc. because I was already too stressed out, and because we were going to do another round (or 2) of invitro this year. BUT- I did need to have one procedure done before we could go forward with invtro. I needed to have a laperoscopy to see if my right ovary was fused to the back of my Uterus with scar tissues from Jaxon's c-section. (During our last invitro, the doctor couldn't get to my right ovary to get all those beautiful little follicles, and thought it was because it was fused to the back of my Uterus) so, we wanted to start our Invitro process right away in January, so I scheduled the laperoscopy for December 5th.
On The fifth I had my laperoscopy. Dr. went in through an incision in my belly button, and one in my c-section scar. The procedure went well. My ovary was not fused, so the doc just moved it. I had no endometriosis to speak of, I had one large cyst which the dr. removed (But after finding out that it was my day 14 in my cycle, he said it was probably my follicle/egg about to ovulate) and he flushed my tubes to make sure they weren't blocked- which they weren't. So like I said, it went well, but didn't show anything unusual.
So, because the Dr. may or may not have removed a egg/follicle, he said it may or may not have changed my cycle. So....that was not very informative. Anyway... recovery was pretty simple and thus, CRAZY INSANE life went on. On Dec. 22rd we left for China. You can read all about that in the previous post, but let's just say...we shared a room with Jaxon our whole trip...so...fertility was pretty much completely on hold! :o)
BUT!
I hadn't had my period for 4 weeks before the trip.
AND...
I didn't know if my cycle had changed.
What I did know is that I am very regular, so my period should for sure come sometime during the trip. Either at the beginning, or the end. I was prepared, but didn't think much of it.... until it was 4 days until we would be leaving China. Since I hadn't started at the beginning of the trip, I knew it would be at the end.
Counting down....
Day 4...nothing.
Day 3...nothing.
Day 2....nothing, and I mentioned something to Dave. Dave knows better then to get excited every time I do, so he wasn't too phased.
Day 1- We were leaving China, and nothing. I checked ALL shops in the Beijing Airport- no pregnancy tests. bah.
We arrived in Seattle. I checked ALL shops in the Seattle airport- no pregnancy tests. Bah!
We arrived at the Phoenix airport. I checked ALL shops on the way out of the airport, NO PREGNANCY TESTS- BAH!!!!
My dear friend picked us up and drove us home, and as soon as she pulled away, Dave took off to go to the store to get a darn test.
He brought it home.
I took it.
I was pregnant.
WHAT?
YES! I SAID
I.
WAS.
PREGNANT!!!
I came out of the bathroom Crying and Dave didn't know if that was good or bad. I nodded my head and he ran over to hug me! I was crying and we were hugging and Jaxon said, "What are you guys doing???"
I said, "We are just SO HAPPY to be a family!"
Jaxon said under his breath.... "You guys are weird..."
So, I had NO IDEA how far along I was. I didn't know what my cycle had become, so we made an ultrasound apt. right way. The first 5 days home I was horribly jet lagged, but fine other than that. On day 6, two days before our apt...it hit! AWFUL, DEBILITATING NAUSEA! BLECH!
( I have tried not to complain too much, because I WILL TAKE IT...)
At our drs. apt we saw the heart flutter and found out we we were 7.5 weeks along. So you know how you actually calculate your pregnancy from two weeks back from the actual conception date?
Any guesses what that meant the "First day" of my pregnancy was?
No takers?
Okay- DECEMBER 5th! THE DAY OF MY PROCEDURE!!!
Coincidence? I think not...
We had decided that if we could see the heart beat, we would start telling people, because I was too sick to hide it. So, we started telling, and I have been so touched by people's excitement for us!!
We hadn't told Jaxon yet, because we were waiting to see the Ultrasound...so we saw it, and it was time!
But that...is a post for another day!!
First let me add, this post will probably be very scrambled and jump around a lot. So unless you really care, have your own fertility issues, or are just morbidly curious how the heck someone who has been trying for 4 years and had two failed invitros could possibly get pregnant, you can just skip this post and think,
"How nice, Ashley's pregnant."
So, remember my last post about China? Okay, we go back further than that. Remember the post before that about Christmas, specifically how I was so stressed out of my mind that I was really ready for Thanksgiving/Christmas/Church stuff to be over so I could just leave the country without cell phone access for 2 weeks? Yes, okay, we start there-
Okay, so there are those people, who are super well meaning, but if you have fertility issues, you really just want to stuff a sock in their mouth and then put duct tape over it so that they can't give you anymore unsolicited, painful, (and STUPID) fertility advice. Specifically this little gem- "JUST STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! AS SOON AS YOU STOP "TRYING" YOU WILL GET PREGNANT! IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME!!!"
I'm so sorry people. Sorry that I can count to both 14 and 28, and that once a month a get a super lame and inconvenient reminder that my greatest hope and dream has been dashed once again. It's nearly impossible to just "Forget about it" and word to the wise- don't ever say that to someone....and if you have, you should go buy them a Route 44 Sonic today and drop it off at their house for no apparent reason!
Well, I will now sort of eat my words. Not because I think you should EVER say that to someone, but because I think that's how I got pregnant. Well....that a few other things... but I was so INSANELY STRESSED OUT OF MY MIND, that I didn't have time to think about my fertility in November and December. I'm serious, I don't think I could have told you which way was up, let alone which days I would be ovulating.
So, back to the very convoluted story. Dave and I had decided for the end of last year to quit all our drugs, ultrasounds, day 13 trigger shots etc. etc. etc. because I was already too stressed out, and because we were going to do another round (or 2) of invitro this year. BUT- I did need to have one procedure done before we could go forward with invtro. I needed to have a laperoscopy to see if my right ovary was fused to the back of my Uterus with scar tissues from Jaxon's c-section. (During our last invitro, the doctor couldn't get to my right ovary to get all those beautiful little follicles, and thought it was because it was fused to the back of my Uterus) so, we wanted to start our Invitro process right away in January, so I scheduled the laperoscopy for December 5th.
On The fifth I had my laperoscopy. Dr. went in through an incision in my belly button, and one in my c-section scar. The procedure went well. My ovary was not fused, so the doc just moved it. I had no endometriosis to speak of, I had one large cyst which the dr. removed (But after finding out that it was my day 14 in my cycle, he said it was probably my follicle/egg about to ovulate) and he flushed my tubes to make sure they weren't blocked- which they weren't. So like I said, it went well, but didn't show anything unusual.
So, because the Dr. may or may not have removed a egg/follicle, he said it may or may not have changed my cycle. So....that was not very informative. Anyway... recovery was pretty simple and thus, CRAZY INSANE life went on. On Dec. 22rd we left for China. You can read all about that in the previous post, but let's just say...we shared a room with Jaxon our whole trip...so...fertility was pretty much completely on hold! :o)
BUT!
I hadn't had my period for 4 weeks before the trip.
AND...
I didn't know if my cycle had changed.
What I did know is that I am very regular, so my period should for sure come sometime during the trip. Either at the beginning, or the end. I was prepared, but didn't think much of it.... until it was 4 days until we would be leaving China. Since I hadn't started at the beginning of the trip, I knew it would be at the end.
Counting down....
Day 4...nothing.
Day 3...nothing.
Day 2....nothing, and I mentioned something to Dave. Dave knows better then to get excited every time I do, so he wasn't too phased.
Day 1- We were leaving China, and nothing. I checked ALL shops in the Beijing Airport- no pregnancy tests. bah.
We arrived in Seattle. I checked ALL shops in the Seattle airport- no pregnancy tests. Bah!
We arrived at the Phoenix airport. I checked ALL shops on the way out of the airport, NO PREGNANCY TESTS- BAH!!!!
My dear friend picked us up and drove us home, and as soon as she pulled away, Dave took off to go to the store to get a darn test.
He brought it home.
I took it.
I was pregnant.
WHAT?
YES! I SAID
I.
WAS.
PREGNANT!!!
I came out of the bathroom Crying and Dave didn't know if that was good or bad. I nodded my head and he ran over to hug me! I was crying and we were hugging and Jaxon said, "What are you guys doing???"
I said, "We are just SO HAPPY to be a family!"
Jaxon said under his breath.... "You guys are weird..."
So, I had NO IDEA how far along I was. I didn't know what my cycle had become, so we made an ultrasound apt. right way. The first 5 days home I was horribly jet lagged, but fine other than that. On day 6, two days before our apt...it hit! AWFUL, DEBILITATING NAUSEA! BLECH!
( I have tried not to complain too much, because I WILL TAKE IT...)
At our drs. apt we saw the heart flutter and found out we we were 7.5 weeks along. So you know how you actually calculate your pregnancy from two weeks back from the actual conception date?
Any guesses what that meant the "First day" of my pregnancy was?
No takers?
Okay- DECEMBER 5th! THE DAY OF MY PROCEDURE!!!
Coincidence? I think not...
We had decided that if we could see the heart beat, we would start telling people, because I was too sick to hide it. So, we started telling, and I have been so touched by people's excitement for us!!
We hadn't told Jaxon yet, because we were waiting to see the Ultrasound...so we saw it, and it was time!
But that...is a post for another day!!
CHINA!!! CHINA!!! CHINA!!!!!
CHINA!!! We spent 12 days in China over Christmas break 2011, and I'm telling you, we had the time of our lives! Because I am making an entire blog book about it, with the 500+ pictures we took, this will be an extremely quick overview.
There were a few things I really worried about, and all revolved around Jaxon. How would he do on a 12 hour flight? How would he do at swapping his days and nights? Would he be a melt-down zombie all day? Would he even enjoy seeing the sites in China? All my worries were FOR NAUGHT! He did amazing on the flight! We took off from Seattle at 6pm our time, and got in at 8am our time, which was then 11pm china time---a little tricky. On the plane we just let Jaxon stay up and watch his individual screen in the back on the chair in front of us as long as he wanted. There were 100s of kids movies and cartoons to choose from, and he was in heaven. Around 9 he started getting really tired, but couldn't get comfy. At 10 he asked if we would lay a blanket on the floor for him at our feet, which we did, and he immediately fell asleep for the next 8 hours (not super restfully, but asleep) he woke up happy as a clam for the last few hours for the flight and was SO EXCITED TO SEE GRANDMA AND GRANDPA that he could hardly contain himself! We got to the airport and he RAN into Grandpa's arms! Grandpa and Jaxon are really special buddies, and Grandpa was crying he was so excited to see Jax. That night we all stayed at a hotel in Beijing (where the airport is) and shopped all the next day. Jaxon only slept about 3 more hours that night, but otherwise watched his plethora of media options and was fine.
The next day we went to the pearl and silk market to do some fun shopping! Fun for us, NOT for Jaxon. Every shop is run by an 18-30 year old girl, and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. fell in love with Jaxon, picked him up, hugged and kissed him, and squeezed him to death. Jaxon was so over it, and started asking the four adults (Mom,dad, grandpa and grandma) to walk all around him so the girls wouldn't see him!
No such luck buddy-SPOTTED!
This is a different girl... she really loved Jaxon... A LOT!
That night we took the bullet train back to Tianjin and my parents apartment because it was Christmas EVE! We were in the apartment next door. Here is Jaxon with his best buds, in his new Spider Man PJs that he got at the market!
Jaxon fell asleep (Dead to the world) around 7. At around 2:30 I heard some noise and stumbled into his room to find this-
Jaxon had woken up and was ready for the day to begin! He plopped on his new angry birds had, got a protein bar, and played his leap pad. We just let him stay up, and play!!!
This is a picture of my parents bathtub filling up! Though I am a lover of baths, I just couldn't do it. Although I did shower, and it was the same water....
This is how Jaxon was often found in the cabs in China- SLEEPING! The poor kids finally got on schedule a few days before we left, but really took it like a champ. He took catnaps whenever we drove anywhere (Grandpa enjoyed a few good naps himself!) and then woke back up and enjoyed the next activity!
Christmas night in an attempt to wake Jaxon up from a 3 hour nap, and also delay his bedtime, Grandpa took him to a meat market! (Totally different than "meat market" here!) In the bottom left of the picture you can see live fish just waiting to be bought and scaled, but the real gem is Jaxon and Grandpa are holding a giant LIVE bullfrog which we could have bought and had butchered for our dinner.
We didn't-
but we could have!
On Monday we got up and Jaxon, Dave and I went to Grandpa's class that he teaches at the university. Dave and I were chopped liver, but just like everywhere else in China, JAXON WAS A BIG HIT! All the kids had funny questions for him, and Gave him the Chinese name of "Sham-boa" (best English spelling I can think of) Sham-boa is the Chinese version of a Romeo-Juliet type story-- He's very handsome and charismatic!
On Tuesday afternoon Jaxon, Dave, and I flew 3 hours to Xian (pronounced She-Ann) where the Terra Cotta warriors and the very ancient Xian City wall (Different than the great wall) are located. I had been here before and knew how totally amazing, awesome, and awe-inspiring it is, and DAVE FELL IN LOVE! Dave is a real history buff ,and he seriously LOVED Xian. Jaxon did so great too! He loved looking at everything and hearing the background stories. It was extremely EXTREMELY cold in China (in the teens and 20s with lots of wind) and even inside, we usually always wore ALL of our winter gear!
This was our guide in Xian- Coco- she was darling and an amazing wealth of knowledge! One of my favorite guides I've had in China!
Wednesday morning we started our whirlwind jam packed tour!
Here we are in side pit one of the warriors. It is a fascinating story, and if you don't know it, you should google it!
Our little Terra Cotta Warrior-
Next we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is an ancient and still functioning Monastery. We had another guide just for that temple, and he was amazing. Our tour was 2 hours long, and even Jaxon didn't get bored!
Here we are in front of the gold Buddha. This is where the monks come to worship/pray and meditate. You can see their kneeling pillow to the left and right.
Our guide took our names and translated the sounds into Chinese words, and gave us Chinese symbol names.
Dave's closest name sounds were Dai-wu-dah (they don't have the "v" sound) and his name meant
Dai-black
Wu-powerful
Dah- virtue
Jaxon's closest sounds were Chia-ku-son
Chia-Outstanding
Ku-scientist
Son- Forest
My sounds were Ai-Shu-ree
Ai- Love
Shu-Family
Ree- Beautiful
After our amazing tour at the Wild Goose Pagoda we went to the Ancient Xian City Wall. It runs 8 miles long all the way around "Xian ancient City" You can walk it, jog it, or even ride bikes around on it!
These are the stairs up, to give you an idea how high it is!
Here we are on top of the wall. We were pretty exhausted, but we had about an hour before we had to be at our Tang Dynasty Show and dumpling feast, so we walked for about an hour along the wall. Dave wished we had time to walk the whole 8 miles, but seriously, I might have jumped off had that been the case- I was so tired! I do think it is extremely beautiful and amazing, and Jaxon says that we were just like Samuel the Lamanite!
Did I mention we were exhausted? Jaxon laid down for a rest, and we just let him lay for a while!
here we are in a Rick-Shaw! I think we look pretty cute!
Next we headed to the Tang Dynasty show and Dumpling Feast. Jaxon had been so excited about this show all day, but we got there for the dinner at 6:30, and the show was at 7:30, and the poor kid never stood a chance! We sat down, gave him some of the food we brought for him, of which he took a tiny nibble and fell asleep with his head on Dave's lap in about .02 seconds. He was out like a light from 6:30-8:30.
This is our first of three rounds of dumplings. Often the color or shape indicates what is inside- ie- the yellow duck shaped dumpling was filled with- you guessed it- duck!
Here's the deal- dumplings are fun in theory only. They are kinda gross, and all end up tasting kinda similar, unless there is something really disgusting inside (Enter - bean paste filled dumpling!) or delicious (there was only one delicious one, and it was filled with a brown sugar walnut paste...think...pecan pie filling)
The show was really amazing and showed musical instruments, music, dancing, and fight scenes from the Tang dynasty, 1000's of years ago. We were really bummed that Jaxon was missing it! About halfway through there was a REALLY REALLY LOUD drumming performance with giant drums. Jaxon sat straight up, and looked absolutely petrified! His eyes were huge and he just looked and looked around trying to figure out where the heck he was! He then calmly climbed into Dave's lap, and enjoyed the rest of the show!
The next morning we slept in, and then met our guide to go to the Muslim market. It is located right next to a Muslim Mosque. One really interesting thing that happened while we were there is that a Muslim funeral came through the market. The front guys were carrying the dead person on a stretcher just covered by a sheet! Then there were probably 30 people following behind. The first ones right behind the stretcher were "professional mourners" (our guide told us) hired by the family to act so sad that they were kinda out of their minds! Pulling on their hair and clothes and practically screaming their cries. Behind that was all the family members who were just normally crying. It was one of the craziest things I have ever been 2 feet from!
Jaxon really loves to buy things by himself- give the money, get the change etc. So here is Jaxon making his first purchase with the 100 yuan that grandpa game him- an angry birds game that we all actually had a lot of fun with!
We flew back to Tianjin and the next morning we took the bullet train back to Beijing with my parents for the rest of our stay. Our first stop was THE GREAT WALL! It is truly amazing, and has such a fascinating history-again- Dave was TOTALLY SOLD! We went to the highest (Geographically) point anywhere on the great wall, and IT .WAS. STEEP! Jaxon couldn't hack the walking (pretty sure he would have fallen over backwards and tumbled several thousand feet down the wall till it leveled out a little) so Dave carried him. It was FREEZING, but it was a serious work out, and Dave definitely gets the gold star- that was NOT easy to carry Jaxon up!
You can see the miles of Wall behind us in this picture- (and to the right in the red jacket you can see our Beijing guide- Helen. She was lame and very protective of China and didn't tell us the true stories about a lot of the places like my other guides have in the past!)
At the very highest point we stopped for several pictures. Again we were reminded what an anomaly we were there, and after our own pictures together, and a very long line of people waiting behind us to have their pictures taken with us. I'm not kidding. After about ten minutes of pictures, and Jaxon downright refusing to look at any more cameras, we left (and the people in line were none-too-happy!)
I think I have reached my picture limit on this one...so more to come!
Really, Christmas?
Christmas time 2011 can best be described as.... A BLUR! With Dave finishing up busy season, and with my calling at church keeping me ON. MY. TOES! And with trying to get everyone ready for our 2 week trip to China, we were BUSY BUSY BUSY!!! I hate to say it, but to tell the honest truth, I was SO READY for "The Christmas season" to be OVER for us, and just to get on that plane to China and not have cell phone or email access for 2 weeks. That is NOT, I repeat, NOT a good way to go into the season that not only celebrates the birth of our Savior, but also celebrates FAMILY, so next year I have vowed, WILL NOT be like that!
Our first executive decision was to put up or Christmas decor, but not a tree. Since we would be gone for Christmas (had so much to do anyway!) and wouldn't be back until January, it was just for the best. We did put up our stocking Christmas countdown (So cute, but no picture. I bought it on Etsy, and Jaxon LOVES IT!) Every day we did one activity to get us in the Christmas spirit, and we really had a blast with it. The other thing we did this year was "Elf on a Shelf" this was our first year, and I didn't know how well it would go over with Jaxon, but it was the HIGHLIGHT OF HIS CHRISTMAS! It was SO SO SO SO SO SO FUN! The idea is that our elf, named "Jolly" by Jaxon, watches over us to make sure Jaxon is good. He reports to Santa at night while we sleep, and then comes back and gets into mischief and we find him in the morning. Jaxon absolutely loved this, and Dave and I had so much fun taking turns deciding what and where Jolly would be the next morning! There were a couple evenings that we forgot, and one of us would have to keep Jaxon in our room for a "discussion of the days' activities" while the other one quickly moved him) The first few days I was really ambitious and took super cute pictures...and then... well... did I mention how busy we were during Christmas??? :o)
Day one, Jolly played a fun game of Trouble with Iron Man, T-rex, and magic genie!
Day two Jolly got hung up in the shower...
Day three Jolly was found leading a Dinosaur Parade!
Day four Jolly was just plain tired and made a bed out of the kleenex box!
Our first executive decision was to put up or Christmas decor, but not a tree. Since we would be gone for Christmas (had so much to do anyway!) and wouldn't be back until January, it was just for the best. We did put up our stocking Christmas countdown (So cute, but no picture. I bought it on Etsy, and Jaxon LOVES IT!) Every day we did one activity to get us in the Christmas spirit, and we really had a blast with it. The other thing we did this year was "Elf on a Shelf" this was our first year, and I didn't know how well it would go over with Jaxon, but it was the HIGHLIGHT OF HIS CHRISTMAS! It was SO SO SO SO SO SO FUN! The idea is that our elf, named "Jolly" by Jaxon, watches over us to make sure Jaxon is good. He reports to Santa at night while we sleep, and then comes back and gets into mischief and we find him in the morning. Jaxon absolutely loved this, and Dave and I had so much fun taking turns deciding what and where Jolly would be the next morning! There were a couple evenings that we forgot, and one of us would have to keep Jaxon in our room for a "discussion of the days' activities" while the other one quickly moved him) The first few days I was really ambitious and took super cute pictures...and then... well... did I mention how busy we were during Christmas??? :o)
Day one, Jolly played a fun game of Trouble with Iron Man, T-rex, and magic genie!
Day two Jolly got hung up in the shower...
Day three Jolly was found leading a Dinosaur Parade!
Day four Jolly was just plain tired and made a bed out of the kleenex box!
Halloween 2011
Jaxon is really loving school! His class is great, and he has great friends, despite the fact that there are 6 boys, and 13 girls in his class! (UPDATE- all the really naughty boys from his class have transferred! WOOT WOOT!!) These are pictures from his school Halloween party! I love to go help in his classroom, it is fascinating to me to see how he interacts with others!
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| The little darling to the right of Jaxon (looking at him instead of the camera) is one of his best friends. They love to play together and she is a no-nonsense gal and I love it! To be honest, If I could pick his future bride at this exact moment, she would be in the top 2 with a little darling from Church! |
These next ones are from Halloween night. He wore the mask for about 13 minutes total...just long enough for me to torture him by taking these pictures. Then it just drove him nuts and he never wore it again! I think that his scrawny little neck coming out of the fake muscles is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!
Okay, get ready for THE CUTEST VALENTINE YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE...
Yes, I said Valentine. I had this baby in mind ever since he decided to be a super hero for Halloween, and I can tell you, the kids in his class LOVED IT! It was designed by the uber- talented Lauryn VanRooy, who is for hire for Christmas Cards, invites etc!
ARE YOU READY FOR THIS????
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