Letter #2

For All Those Who Care:

I said I was going to write and write I will!  And I might just point out that it is 12:53 am at the moment here in China just to prove my tenacity.  This letter has been no easy task.  I have been thwarted on all sides: my lack of computer prowess and the reading of small print has led to my losing all the precious photos I have taken since our return to Beijing and the losing of my mind in the process of trying to retrieve them. The whole iCloud thing is so temptatiously confusing because I know the pictures are out there somewhere and if I were smart enough I could find them. Well, I have been trying to do so for the past 8 hours (off and on) and I have resigned myself to the fact that they are gone.  When you add my tendency to destroy all things digital to the unreliability of the Chinese Internet you have a recipe for disaster.  Thank goodness I had uploaded (is that the right term?) some pictures to Instagram so I am able to share with you a few things that went on this week.

Here is our new house Claire says "looks like a castle" (which I think might be because of the balconies or the dungeon-like basement) which means that either she has low expectations in life or she is quite optimistic.  We are still working on the quirks that all Chinese construction brings to a home so let me tell you it's far from being a castle.

 

But it has a great backyard complete with a peach tree that Alex was so excited to tell Papa about.

 

 Buster started preschool!! And he is loving it and giving us all a little bit of peace because the older kids don't start school until next week.  This has been the longest summer EVER!

And someone in our house just turned 1!!  Our celebration included waking him up from a jet-lagged-induced slumber, not bothering to change him into party clothes, shoving a lighted, over-sized, dilapidated cupcake in his face, and singing until he could take it no longer.  So those of you who have never seen our Angel Baby cry, here it is....

 

 

But happy or sad, poopy or pooped out -- we love this little guy!

And, boy, has he grown!!

 

Hope this finds you all well.  Until next week (where hopefully I have tales of how much I got done with the kids being in school).

 

Love,

Kelli