Ho Hum

Not much new here which I guess means that we have settled into a routine and are doing fine. Josiah is still loving school, it is sad that he only has two more weeks left. He is doing great on the potty training and we have even ventured out on short outings in just underwear. Lydia is now officially crawling, but is still slow and methodical about it, she loves to go after paper and crawls to the kitchen to visit the ladies. I'm getting more comfortable and independent in the kitchen and have now started to write down some recipes. I'll be happy to share them with others when I get home as long as you are comfortable with approximate measurements and adding spices according to your tastes. Jeneson and I are currently planning for a vacation to Goa (relaxation and beaches) for just the 4 of us for the end of April. Then just a few more weeks and we will be home (according to Jeneson's FB page, there are only 53 more days). While we are settling in here, we both miss home and the comforts of our own place and routine. I personally miss watching Josiah play at the playground and am thankful that it will be warm enough when we get back to start hitting the playgrounds. That's all for now. We would love to get e-mails from you guys who read this to keep us connected to you all.

Holi pictures and more

Happy Holi

Hey all, Things have been going well here. Josiah is almost completely potty trained except for night and the occasional accident during the day. I guess bribing him with ice cream if he goes 'poo poo in the potty' has worked. He also loves his play school that he goes to everyday. Lydia is growing like a weed and is much more content when she is sitting up or being held standing. She rolls all over the place and gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. It is only a matter of time before she figures out how to move her knees and hands. I, for one, am not looking forward to that day as the flat is really not child proofed for a crawler. It is amazing how fast they grow up.

This past week Josiah and I (Jeneson is a party pooper and Lydia is too small) got to participate in Holi (pronounced holy) celebrations here. Holi is the Hindu festival of colors. The day before Holi some people have large fires and burn 'old/bad memories' then the day of Holi they don white clothes and adorn themselves with 'new colors'. While we did not see any of the fires, we did get 'colored'. On Monday, Josiah's play school had a small, tame celebration and then on Wednesday (the actual holiday) we dared to venture outside. The idea of the holiday is great, but as often happens in every part of the world, sometimes people get a little out of hand. Some use this holiday as an excuse to get drunk and others become vicious and use oil paints or fill the small bags of water (that are thrown like water balloons) with chili powder, rocks, sewer water and other nasty stuff. Thankfully, we were spared all that and people from the building were gentle with us and only colored us a little bit and did not get Josiah and I too wet. I am working on uploading a few pictures of the Holi celebrations along with some other recent pics.

Night construction, cold showers, & potty training

I know, quite the conglomeration of topics this time. The first of note is road construction at night. Now I know that most of you are thinking, big deal, they work on the interstates at night all the time. Yes, that is true, but do they ever work on the road right outside your bedroom window during the night? Dad & Mom's building is a couple of hundred of yards away from a fairly busy turnaround intersection that also is home to quite a few bus stops. The rationale is that b/c this is a busy intersection, traffic cannot be disrupted during the day with construction. So, therefore, the construction vehicles start rolling in around 11pm and work until about 5am. We are talking about backhoes digging up asphalt and loudly dropping it into dump trucks! This has been going on for almost 2 weeks now and it does not look like they are going to be done anytime soon. Just because of this we have started using the AC in our room b/c we have to keep the window closed and the room becomes a sauna with the body heat of 4 people and no air circulation.

Talking about AC, we are starting to enter the season of cold showers here in India. It has been getting increasingly hotter here and even the papers have been commenting that it is a warmer March than usual. Daytime highs have been around 94 degrees and it is only getting down to about 75 degrees at night. This is about 6-7 degrees warmer than usual and it is only going to get worse from here as May is the pinnacle of the heat before the rainy season starts in June.

Now for some great news...Josiah is almost completely potty trained. For about the last week, he has been about 95% potty trained and has even stayed dry during his naps the last several days. He still wears a diaper at night, but we can work on that later. Jeneson and I are so very proud of him and his reward for doing good all day is to get a little treat of ice cream. Josiah is also loving his school. He goes everyday from 11:30am-1:30pm which provides him with some good playtime and gives us a little break. Lydia is growing, growing, growing. She is now rolling all over the floor, likes to be sitting up and held in a standing position. She is even getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. I am really hoping that she does not start crawling soon as I don't want to chase two little ones around the flat! Well, time for a few minutes of sleep before the construction starts!

Kerala photos

Control issues

Guess what? I am a control freak! I know that this is quite the revelation for those who don't really know me, but my need for control has got to stop. I think that God is using this trip to India to help me let go of my need to control. The past two weeks have continued to be a struggle. Finally, Jeneson and I had a brutally honest 'talk'. Basically, I often want to control what others do, how they react, what they say, etc... and reality is that I cannot. I have to just let it all go. I can barely control myself at times, what makes me think that I can control others. I also need to let go of my expectations. As Jeneson said, 'I'm not even sure if you know what to expect of yourself'. Oh, the things God is teaching me during this trip!

These past couple of days has been a little better. In addition to my revised expectations, Josiah has started playschool. He goes everyday for 2 hours and gets to play with kids his own age. He seems to really like it as he only cried the first day that we dropped him off. Still working on those photos.

Thanks for the prayers

Thanks for all your prayers. Josiah is feeling back to his normal self. Lydia loves her new bed and slept well last night and today for her naps. My foot still hurts, but the x-rays don't show any fractures. Jeneson and I had a breakthrough this morning. I was yelling at Jeneson that we cannot yell at Josiah anymore after we both yelled at him this morning. So Jeneson declared at least a 24 hour moratorium on yelling. Today has been much better. I have found myself being more gentle with Josiah and in turn he seemed to be more gentle with Lydia today. Please continue to pray that God gives Josiah an obedient, gentle heart and gives Jeneson and I hearts of gratitude, gentleness, patience, and understanding.

I'm still working on those Kerala pictures. I have downloaded, organized, and tagged all 400 some photos and put about 75 of them in a blog folder. I figured that nobody would want to see all 400+ photos. Now if I can only get shutterfly to cooperate. I know that many are keeping up with our blog to keep up with our adventures, but we would also love to get updated from you all. We sometimes feel a little isolated and are missing our friends and family, so if you get a chance, send us an e-mail letting us know how you and your families are doing.