Stop and Smell the Roses....or build with rocks

It's been a long couple of weeks.  John has had visitors in and that means he leaves earlier and gets home later than usual, which makes for long days for me and Z. He does try and sneak home, even for a few minutes, to see us before his evening activities if he gets a chance. Zane has had the chicken pox so that has limited our outings and interaction with others and has totally goofed up our routine! We, and by that I mean me, are very much about our routine so when it is disrupted it can be challenging.  

Zane is feeling better now.  John's visitors start leaving tomorrow and life will return to normal....well as normal as it gets around here. It has been so humid the past few days that our time outside has been limited to early morning and late afternoon.  I can only imagine what it will be like this summer when it is REALLY hot! This morning, since we were up early anyway, we decided to just take a walk around the path at our apartment and then we wandered around in the courtyard.  The courtyard is beautiful and the buildings block out the harsh sun, but there is a lot of water to attract the Tiny American's attention, so we don't spend a lot of our time there.

One of Zane's favorite things to do is play with rocks.  In the courtyard there is a flower bed that is full of bamboo plants and the base is full of these big stones, just the right size for his hands, but not small enough to go in his mouth.  He loves to stand there and build with them and just throw them back in the pile. We stood here for 20 minutes today, just piling rocks up and then throwing them back in the the bed.  He couldn't have been happier! 

Sometimes I think my need to be busy, to have things planned out and scheduled gets in the way of just being.  As a mom I don't want to  push our days in one direction, making sure to get it all done, that i miss these moments.  I want to make sure that we take the time to just stop and be present.  I want to make sure that we stop and build with rocks, pick up every leaf that he sees, or enjoy whatever he is thinking about.  I want him to know that being with him is what is important, not what we are doing or how quickly we do it.  

So today take the time to stop and smell the roses or whatever it is that makes you happy.  Today don't let life get in the way, just enjoy the moment.

Not an SUV

I won't lie I LOVED my expedition.  I loved how high up I sat.  I Loved that I was one of the bigger vehicles on the road.  I loved how safe I felt.  I loved that I could load the dogs, the boy and all his trappings up and go wherever we needed to go.  And  even though I thought I would never use it I loved the built in GPS.  And don't even get me started on the seat heaters and coolers!  I miss it.  I miss being able to load up and run to the store really quick if I just need one thing.  I miss how easy it was to shop and have room for whatever I bought without worrying if it would fit or not.  I was spoiled, I admit it.  I took the convenience  for granted and I am not sure I appreciated how nice it was until it was gone.  It would not be a good fit for Taiwan.  First of all it would be a beast to parallel park, and that was if you could even find a hole big enough to try and put it in.  The regular parking spaces...no way!  The car we have, is considered big for here and it's a sedan.

I don't mind walking. I like to walk, which is a very good thing because I do a lot of it.  I walk to the store almost everyday to pick up one thing or another.  We walk to restaurants if we want to go out to eat.  Zane & I walk to the park to play.  I walk around to just explore our city.  I have seen lots of things that I would have otherwise missed by driving or riding in a car.  Zane loves it!  I don't miss driving, but I miss how much easier some things would be if I did drive.

 John came home with a TON of orchids from the International Orchid Festival.  The Flowers were beautiful but just in little plastic pots that you would find at a greenhouse so I needed to repot them or at least put them in containers for display.  I had nothing to do any of this with at our apartment.  I knew that I could ask Eric to drive me and we could run to Home Box (think distant relative of Home Depot) and pick up what we needed.  I also knew that Eric was busy with the visitors that were in town this week at John's office so I didn't want to ask him to drive me a couple of blocks when  I could walk it.

This is the part where planning comes into play.  If I am going to buy more than I can carry in my over the shoulder shopping bag I have to make sure that it can fit in the under basket of the stroller, which isn't very big. Before Zane and I leave the apartment we have to make sure that the stroller is empty of any non-essential things. Kinda like a mom's car, our stroller becomes a catch all over several days.  You'll find donut wrappers, extra shoes and jackets, a stray fry here and there, goldfish swimming loose, and water bottles.  Of course I always have to have diapers, wipes, packages of kleenex (for noses and public restrooms), Zane's water cup and sunglasses.

SO before we head out for a planned trip that will require extra space I strip it down and then we head out.  Route is important as well. Some of the sidewalks in our neighborhood are great, some are ok and then there are some that are just not even useable with a stroller.  I have to think about traffic at the time of day we are going and what the sidewalks are like on the way to my destination. I can get to Home Box a couple of ways, one of which has no sidewalks which would not be my first choice in the afternoon - early morning, no problem, there is no traffic.  So I chose the second route which includes all categories of sidewalk.  We have great sidewalk in front of our building and then there is about a block with no stroller friendly sidewalk so we are forced to walk in the street.  Now  if everyone followed the rules and only drove or parked their cars and scooters where they are supposed to, walking on the street would be no big deal....they do not.

There is a red line between the sidewalk and street that lets you know you should not park there, but they do.  I could be pushing the stroller on the street, dodging parked cars and scooters but still kind of off the road,  and someone might decide to parallel double park next to the sidewalk just beside someone else illegally parked which makes us walk even farther out into the street.  Yikes!  I'm even fine with that most of the time now, until a bus doesn't want to even move over an inch.

Once we survive that block and so far we always have, there is a nice stretch of sidewalk for the last block of the trip.  By nice I mean it's wide enough, even with the scooters parked on the sidewalk to get the stroller through, and there are only 2 places where the sidewalk has a step down and back up. And then we are there.  This particular day, when I loaded up, I even surprised myself with how much I could get in the stroller and carry home.  Luckily my companion was in a good mood , which is a huge plus.  He also knew that McDonald's was just around the corner.

This is what I bought!

With the stroller packed full, my shoulder bag with as much as I could carry and happy meal balanced on the handle bars we made our way back home.  We made it upstairs.  Unloaded our purchases and had a cheeseburger.  Repotted some orchids and had a nap! I miss my Expedition, but I'm enjoying my adventure.  Almost everyday I surprise myself with how I can adapt and make things work that otherwise I would probably not try.  Don't get me wrong when we get home I will most likely be seen cruising to Home Depot in some sort of SUV; but I also know that if I had too,  Zane and I could head out with our stroller and pick up what we need.

Orchids are everywhere in the apartment now.

With all the marble and the flowers it feels a little like a funeral home! 

I ran out of pots and had to use a mixing bowl....I like it. 

What did we see....

One of our favorite books is, I Went Walking.  Each page says I went walking what did I see....and then the author shares what the child saw.  Sometimes at the end of the day this is what I think I sound like to John. Zane and I walk a lot, everyday.  By a lot I mean about 7 miles a day on average.  We walk the same path a lot, but somedays we just wander aground and see what we see. It is not unusual for a week to pass without us getting in the car.   We often stumble across new and fun things that we would otherwise not see.  I think once a week I will just share random pictures from our walks. Here we go....

We went walking what did we see.....

Performers getting ready for a parade.  The first day of Lantern Festival Parade.  We didn't see the parade we had other plans that day, but we enjoyed watching them get ready to start.

In front of the department store this week Chinese New Year decorations have been replaced with sculptures in honor of the Year of the Goat.

This one was my favorite, it reminded me of home.

We saw Cherry blossoms...they are everywhere and they are beautiful!

And of course there is my walking partner and our favorite stop, the park.

Check back next week and we will let you know what we saw when we went walking!

Cake

Do you really need a reason for cake?  Seriously do you??? When I was out today this sweet cake called my name, well it really called Zane's name, but he wasn't with me and so I got it for him.   And on the walk home I was trying to justify this little cake.  Here is what I came up with....

It had strawberries AND oranges in the filling so surely it was healthy. (sort of)

He IS a Wolf and his job is to torment little pigs, so this cake had to have been made with him in mind!

It has been a long week all ready and it is only Tuesday....Daddy has been gone before breakfast and home after bed for the last 3 days.

The Tiny American has the chicken Pox.  

But in all honesty the reason I bought him the cake was because I knew he would love it....

Hello Little Piggy.

So you built your house out of cookies???

Well I will huff and puff and bury you in the cake....

Don't try and escape, I am too fierce! I will crush you....

He did get in his high chair and he ate some of the cake. Mostly he ate the frosting and he picked the fruit out and threw it on the floor, so I guess any chance of it being healthy went in the garbage.  But he totally loved it and that is justification enough for me!

I love being a mom

About the time you wonder if you are doing a good job or ask yourself if you are making difference you get a text like this.....

This is from my oldest, Taylor.  He is 20.  He is in college, lives in his own apartment and will always be my baby.  I miss him everyday.  He is my reflection at times.  We are both stubborn we don't back down easily from an argument. At the same time we are pleasers, we want to keep the peace and make everyone else happy.  He has a huge heart that he sometimes hides to keep it safe.  He is funny and kind and a somedays a total pain in the butt.  I love him more than words can express.  He was my firstborn, he made me a mommy.  I love this role more than any other I have ever had or ever will have.  It's tough.  It can be painful, but it can be oh so rewarding.

When they were babies I wondered if they would grow out of the "needing" me phase. And yes they don't need me as much, and when they do it is in different ways obviously from when they were little, but they do still need me and they do still ask for help.  I worried that because they were boys they would no longer want to hug or snuggle as they got older.  That isn't true either.  They give awesome, long, tight hugs. Still sit close to me on the couch when the opportunity presents itself.  Just before our move Taylor was hanging out with us watching a movie.  He came and laid down on the couch next to me and put his head in my lap like he used to when he was little....some days it would be nice to go back to when they were little, but it is so fun to see the men they are becoming.  I am proud of who they are and proud of the role I played in that.