Aiden and Jasmin

      This week began with a trip to the hospital with Jasmin. A twice-scrapped knee decided we needed a little more excitement in life and so became infected... swelled the whole knee, grew red and hot, put out pus pimples, and started a red line up the inside of her thigh.  This last is what sent us to the hospital - it's no joke and no waiting at that point.  (We only went to the hospital because it was after hours though.) We avoided IV antibiotics, but we brought home a mini pharmacy of pills to bring us through. And she's fine now, just slogging her way through the last days of a pill regimen that had her rearranging meal times and counting hours.

    Aiden is deep into chess at the moment. All because Dad was watching a chess game replay online one rest day!  Now we each are asked to play chess regularly... so we are quite glad for the numerous online chess games and instructional sites available! Only the more he plays on the computer, the better he plays against the rest of us... he's already a worthy opponent to give us some lively games.  Sometimes it draws in Grace and Dad so much Mom has a hard time getting them to the table for a meal!

    Aiden has also graduated to a bike with gears and is travelling farther afield than before.  This week he made it all the way to his Chinese class - about 5km.  Not quite ready to tackle getting to church (about 10km), but he's confident enough that he's asking for extra trips to work at getting ready!  Mom and Dad are quite pleased to not have him on the back of our bikes in our travels - he is getting heavy :o)  Still, now we have to add in extra travel time...

    Aiden and Jasmin have a twin lisp but for different reasons.  Aiden lost a front tooth after what seemed like "forever" of being wiggly. And the adult tooth is taking its sweet time in showing up.  Jasmin now has an expander - the first stage of fixing her teeth to make it easier to eat. She's been looking forward (!) to this for a while now, waiting for all her adult teeth to come in. Now she's having to get used to something in her mouth all the time and a substantial lisp, she's not quite so excited about it - but still looking forward to a better shaped mouth of teeth.

Next week begins Chinese New Year. The roadside and market has been fuller than usual - stalls selling red paper lanterns and loads of firecrackers and fireworks which we shall experience randomly all next week. Indeed, random explosions of firecrackers have already started... All outside classes and activities are on break for a week or two while the new year is thoroughly celebrated, so we are looking to catch up on things in house - and hopefully do some celebrating with friends, if we can.

This Week

This week was not normal
Rather mind bending
But also somehow perfectly natural
We had playdates with friends from Canada!

A few short days spent on the beach
Or in their hotel mini water park
Too deep in adult talk and kid play
To take pictures - just like it used to be.

No trip to the market - the fridge is not empty enough
A meal or two out with friends
Unexplained "I'm not hungry"s
Leaving us with ample food supplies

After school activities resuming
After a long Christmas break
Squeezed in make up classes
For Chinese missed for friends

Simply The Story group meeting
Telling Samuel's story to each other
And youth cell group
Giving us late nights this week

AWANA also restarted
After another long break
So all these normal things
Feel off schedule

Next week a new after school activity schedule
Water fun, playground play
Calligraphy, spike ball
We've got a lot of getting used to to do!

And then, just starting to feel the rhythm of days
Chinese New Year will come
The nights will fill with fire crackers and fireworks
Day'll be free as another break begins!

Better Late than Never - Penang Christmas

A few things we did manage to do for Christmas despite being sick in varying degrees all holidays...

Lessons and Carols - a really great choir from KL joined a church here to lead us through this traditional service.  It was beautiful - made even more so as Mom and Dad got to go as a kind of date.

Our Church's Christmas Day celebration around finding the perfect gift.  Though the pictures are horribly blurry, they do show a few important things: the wise men's comedic yet profound play, and the children's christmas light costumed dance.

And, we did make it to the beach as planned, but we didn't stay nearly as long as expected, or get to much of what we'd dreamed of, as that day Dad was so sick he stayed in the hammock most of the time. Still, we managed to give Aiden his requested 2nd-ever beach baseball game!

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A Tiny Sliver of Our Christmas

We were all sick for Christmas, but we did manage to have some celebrations last week, but this is likely the highlight:

Jasmin worked on this for months to give as a present to grandparents.  It blesses way more than the few intended recipients!