Peking Duck

Samuel loves Peking Duck.  Unlike his brother who has pretty much stuck to a diet of pizza, hash browns, chicken nuggets, and pasta; Samuel has dived into the land of Chinese cuisine, which we didn't really prepare much in Boston, and still neither here in Beijing.  But his kindergarten serves breakfast, lunch AND dinner with snacks in between, and he gobbles it all up.

Can you put on my seat belt?

At dinner tonight, Samuel asked me to put on his seat belt, because he was having such a hard time suppressing his urge to walk around and play with his toys. So I used a plastic jump rope to tie him in.
He explained, "I can't help myself daddy."

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Don't go momma

Annette has to travel 10 out of the 30 days this month to Berkeley, Singapore, and Shengzen and so all of us are missing her very much, especially Samuel.  He gives momma a reluctant goodbye hug as she waits for ride to the airport. 

Learning Chinese

After 2 months, I am so proud of how Samuel is handling being in a Chinese school.
His class is a real black box.  We drop him off at 8am, and pick him up at 4pm.  We don't really understand the teachers very well, and we don't any other English speaking parents in the class, so we know very little about what goes on in his class, except that he gets lunch there (which he really loves), naps afterwards (which Samuel really hates because he has a hard time falling asleep), and he's learned how to jump rope really well.
But it is neat to see how his Chinese has been progressing.  He regularly speaks to his teachers now in Chinese:  "Xie Xie (thank you)"  and "Jia Jian! (goodbye)"
At home, he likes to say "Bu Yao (don't want)", "Shenme (what?)", "Haochi (tastes good)", "Ahya (oh no)", "Jiuming (save me!)", "Jendi (really?)".
While walking home today, he proudly told me, "Dad, guess what, I got a yibai today!"  At first, I thought he said he got some E-thing, but repeated "yibai!" and I realized he meant "100".  He is slowly incoporating Chinese into his speech.  :)

Bedtime Prayer

Samuel's Prayer tonight:
"Dear Jesus, please help mom have a good trip.  (Annette's back in California for a conference).
Please help me grow strong.
And please give me a new Ipad."

Mischievous

Sam answered a wechat from our friend Han, who was leaving for Chengdu, where we are going in a few days. Han was at the airport and called to say bye. Sam replied, "0k, we're going to the airport too, see you in a couple days!"
I told him, "but we're not going to see them, that's going to confuse them."
Sam chuckles, "I'm tricking them."

Touching you with a napkin

At breakfast today, we went around the table asking what we were each looking forward to on our upcoming vacation.
Annette said, 'I'm looking forward to spending time with my boys!"
That made Samuel so pleased. He picked up a napkin and started to reach for her arm saying, "I'm going to touch you with a napkin because my hands are greasy."
It was an impressive that he could stay true to his tactile loving self, while also managing to not get his greasy fingerprints on his mom, which she very much appreciated.

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Samuel, you are now 5 years old!
You love to play with your brother, and copy everything he does, from building StarWars legos, to battling Air Wings on the iPad, to wearing "tie" shoes.
You are a fast runner, and I expect you will be a track star someday.
You haven't started to speak much Chinese yet, but you have already started to use chopsticks and even squat on a regular toilet!
You love to snuggle, especially with mommy at night.
You like to sing silly songs, like "Smelly stinky sushi!"  Who taught you that?
We are working on your math skills.  When I ask you what 5+5 is, you say, "That would be 10, dad."

Doing laundry

Our Beijing apartment has a tiny washing machine and a neat contraption to dry our clothes old fashion style.

First day of Kindergarten

So proud of Samuel today. We dropped him off for his first day of kindergarten, in a class full of strangers speaking a language he doesn't understand. He was very brave and handled it so well. His teachers said he ate his food well, albeit, struggled with using the chopsticks so they gave him a spoon. And he napped for 2 hours. Must be exhausting learning Chinese!
We celebrated his first day of kindergarten by going to his favorite Chinese restaurant: Pizza Hut!

Last days of preschool

We celebrated Samuel's last days of preschool with a pizza party with his classmates. We have so appreciated his teachers Libby, Sophia, Rena, and Laurie.

Learning Chinese

In 2 days, Samuel has gone from not knowing his name in Chinese to being able to write it now in Hanzi. Very proud of him

Tiramisu

Samuel discovered a new favorite dessert at Ikea: tiramisu. He wants a tiramisu cake for his birthday this weekend.

Helping mom

The boys enjoy helping Annette set up for her art installation.

Father's day

I received this very nice card from Samuel for Father's Day.

Spring Breakin'

Please come home

I received this sweet phone message from Samuel the other day.  (Joshua is the loud voice at the end)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcsoy6euqdvcoyr/please%20come%20home.mp3

Djembe

Joshua just got a new djembe for his African drumming class, and Joshua has been giving Samuel his own private lesson--video to follow.  So I thought I'd get Samuel his own djembe--I found some on line and asked Samuel if he wanted one just like Joshua, or one a little smaller.  He immediately said, "Bigger one!"

Playing together

At Chipotle

Original star wars creations

I've been impressed with the original star wars creations that Samuel has been making. He's becoming a lego master like his brother.

First timing skiing