What To Do When There's a Typhoon

Typhoon Glenda hit first thing Wednesday morning, knocking out power as it came in.  We spent three days without power, and got creative in our activities.

Wednesday morning we spent some time watching the storm with its impressive winds.  I'm sure the fascination came because we didn't have to worry about our safety or the strength of the roof over our heads.  We didn't manage to pull out the camera until after it was all over, though.

Some of the debris we cleaned up in our yard

A tree that just missed hitting our roof

Wednesday we passed some time making a pretzel alphabet.

Later in the day when everything was calm and rains had passed, we went to the Seminary campus to see the situation there.  We weren't able to communicate from our house, so didn't know if there were already relief efforts underway, needing help to assemble supplies.  Their power had been restored, but they did not have communication either, so we spent time with the Armstrongs.  The boys played a favorite game with Uncle Clark, while Emma looked at the fallen trees and the birds with Aunt Connie. 

Back at home Thursday, we spent some time watching the rain,

and passed some time making stairs out of couch cushions and watching ourselves in the mirror.

Of course, no power outage would be complete without a Nerf War.

By Friday we had been able to clean up outside around the house, and everyone went outside to enjoy the sunny weather and fresh air. 

We were very thankful when power was restored late Friday night, after 66 hours without it. 

Busy

A few months ago, as Emma learned to walk and quickly started getting into more and more things, we watched her just wander around the house looking for things to explore.  She quickly earned the nickname "Busy."

Like most toddlers, she is learning to imitate those around her.  She often follows Mommy through the day, watching her sweep and clean, and trying to copy what she does.  In the kitchen, she pulls out what they can reach, most of the time plastic containers and measuring cups.  Up until now, in our experience with boys, this exploration and imitation in the kitchen has mostly led to impromptu drumming.  But with Emma, the story is a bit different.  It's been such a change to have a little girl in the house, pulling out baking supplies while Mommy works in the kitchen.  But instead of drumming, she finds a utensil and pretends to mix. 

Emma has taken her self-appointed role as Mommy's Little Helper to a new level.  For 18 months, she's been carefully observing our ways and routines.  She seems to know the rules and (for now) desires to follow them.  And she is becoming our Little Enforcer.  She can often be heard yelling to get her brothers' attention:  "Guys!  Guys!  Guys!"  If one of the boys starts to head outside in bare feet or socks, she's quickly grabbing what they are missing, running after them shouting, "Shoes!  Shoes!"  In the morning, she likes to sit with Wiley while he reads his devotions.  One day this week, Wiley got up earlier than usual, and he and Emma were alone in the living room when he picked up his devotional book and read.  But when Aden came down and started his devotions, Emma again pulled out Wiley's devotional book saying, "Wiley!  Read!  Read!"  She was sure that his earlier reading didn't count. 

Yesterday, she became Daddy's Little Helper in the office and showed us her innate ability to multitask.  As she usually does, she immediately walked behind his desk and proudly climbed into his lap. 

Then she found a paper and a pencil and began to make notes.

Finally she spotted the irresistible aircon remote and a calculator with nice, big buttons.  She adjusted all of her materials and set to work, mostly going back and forth between the note-taking and the calculator.  If Daddy tried to stretch his arms around her to reach the computer, she would quickly shove it aside, out of the way of her most-important work. 

We're going to have a hard time keeping up with her . . . but she'll also be helping us to keep the boys in line! 

Running 'Against The Flow'

Against the Flow is the slogan used by the youth congregation that meets at our church here in the Philippines.  It is a way to encourage young people that they don't have to give into the negative peer pressure.  Instead they are doing things to make a positive impact on their community.  Next week is their summer youth camp, and we were excited to have an opportunity to support them recently when they announced their fundraiser --  a 3K Fun Run.  
 We had decided that 3K wasn't too far and that our whole family could participate, knowing that we could walk if needed.  So we all got up at 5 a.m. to make it to the 5:30 a.m. start.   Even Emma went and rode along in a jogging stroller.  The boys had never done anything like this, so we really didn't know how they would do, or if they would even enjoy doing it.  We started off together, but got separated when Noah had a shoe come untied.  Aden and Wiley kept running with Uncle Todd and Aunt Connie - we didn't know were coming but we were glad they were there.  Noah was with Daddy, and Emma stayed with Mommy.  After the shoe malfunction, Noah was determined to catch up with Aden and Wiley, so he just kept running.  I think he only stopped to walk two or three times for a few minutes each time.  It was great to see the other adult runners do a double take as they watched a four year old fly by them.

Well, we never caught up to Aden and Wiley because they never stopped.  We saw them once because the route that we were running eventually doubled back.  Wiley was up front with Uncle Todd and he had his game face on.   Todd said he was doing well to keep up with him and was yelling to us as we passed, "Where does he get this?"
Aden was not far behind him with Aunt Connie and he was pushing it hard too.  The two of them actually made a wrong turn towards the end though because they were following other racers who apparently didn't know the way.  Uncle Todd saw them make the turn so he and Wiley ran after them to get them to turn around. They had been at the finish line waiting and watching for them.  They eventually caught them, but not before they had run over 1 Km the wrong way.  So Aden (and Wiley too, since he had to help chase them down) ran closer to 6K.  Wiley ran at a 10-minute-mile pace, recorded at a consistent 5.9 mph (according to Todd's device).  Not bad for a six year old.  He actually arrived at the finish when they were still holding up a finish line to run through. By the time Daddy and Noah finished, there was nothing.  There was also no Aden and Wiley.  They waited for Mommy to run across the line with Emma (though they had walked most of the way), then went back and found Aden and Wiley as they were returning from the wrong direction.  So, we all got to run across the finish line together.  Wiley then whispered to Daddy that he thought he probably finished in first place because when they got there, nobody else was there.  He is quite the competitor.  Below is the link to a video for you to see it for yourself. Thanks to Uncle Todd for putting it together for us.

Click here for the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su5O7SOMhJk

Overheard (V)

We've been compiling this list for a few months now, and it's getting pretty long, with quite a few contributions from Noah these days.  I was reading through them recently and decided it was time to post.  Here goes . . .

Some recent conversations about food:  

Wiley told us his "Top 7 Meals":
1. tortillas
2. pizza
3. chicken pot pie
4. A creamy chicken dish Mommy recently invented
5. chicken and rice
6. baked potatoes
7. Sunday night snacks

And then Noah felt inspired and gave us his own "Top 7":
1. sweets
2. mango
3. tortillas
4. pizza
5. chocolate chips
6. milk
7. chocolate milk

Wiley:  You need to eat more oatmeal, Noah, so you don't blow away with the wind.  You need to eat meat.  And sandwiches.  And healthy stuff like eggs, vegetables and tuna melt. 
Noah:  Or mango.
Wiley:  No, mango is not that healthy.

Noah:  Why does chocolate taste better than everything else?

Noah (picking at dried food/snot around his face/mouth):  What's this?
Mommy:  Probably dried food or snot.
Noah:  No.  It flew up from my beard.

Noah (on seeing something floating in his water bottle):  What's in my water? 
Mommy:  I don't know.
Noah:  It came from my beard.

Aden offered Mommy some of his chocolate from a birthday goody bag he'd received, but she declined.  Aden replied, "But I thought all ladies loved chocolate." After asking him more about where he had made this discovery, he told us that his friend at school said his mom always waits until he she thinks he's asleep and then goes to the kitchen to "chomp on chocolate." 

More Deep Thoughts from Aden, while sick:

Aden:  I wish all the stuff that I didn't like in the world didn't exist, like hurricanes, getting struck by lightning, going blind . . .

Aden:  When you're sick, it's really easy to think that you'll be sick forever. 
Sometimes we catch an interesting glimpse into their days at school: 

Apparently the third grade class was working on "data-gathering," and getting some practice in the kindergarten class.
Aden:  Do the third graders sometimes come and get dada (data) from the kindergartners?
Wiley:  Yeah.  They get their dads and then they read to us.

And a list from Noah: 

Noah:  Are they people, or girls?

Noah, to Mommy (who was holding Emma and tossing some clothes to Noah to fold):  Catching is hard for you.
Mommy: (absentmindedly) Sometimes.
Noah:  No, a lot of times.

Noah (reading a birthday card):  They didn't know my name.
Mommy:  Yes they did.  The card says, "Dear Noah."
Noah:  But my name doesn't have a Dear in it.

Noah (after a haircut):  I've got Buzz all over me.

Mommy:  Can we turn on that fan now?
Noah:  Why?
Mommy:  I'm hot.  I'm sweating.
Noah:  And we're going to melt?
Mommy:  I will.
Noah:  Why?
Mommy:  I'm made out of sugar.
Noah:  You're made out of sugar?  And we're made out of clay, too.

Noah (looking at a blue screen):  It's pitch-blue.

Daddy (answering a question from Noah):  Yes.
Noah:  Do you mean yeah?

Noah (playing cars with Mommy):  Mommy, you can't race anymore.  And that's good.  You won't lose.

Noah:  Is God a he or a she?
Mommy:  A he.
Noah:  But Jesus has girl hair.

Noah (looking at a family picture from Table Mountain):  There's Noah, there's Wiley, there's Aden, there's Daddy, and there's Mommy.  And we have another one borning.

Noah:  I can make a police siren in Tagalog.

Daddy (hearing Wiley read):  Excellent!
Noah:  Leviticus!

Noah:  Mommy, we saw a ladybug and it had wings.  But it was a she.

Noah (looking under the couch):  It's kind of not fair for ants.  Because they get to go under anything.

Noah (age 3, to Emma, age 10 months, while riding in the backseat of the car):  Let's play charades.

Daddy:  Noah, this is your last drink tonight because I don't want you to pee the bed.
Noah:  Is there pee in my drinks? 

Sometimes through these conversations we get a glimpse into their reasoning and thought processes:

Noah:  When I grow up I wanna be a grandpa.  Actually a drump truck driver.  What does T-R-O-X-O-R-P-U spell? 
Mommy (attempting to pronounce the string of letters):  Troxorpoo, I guess. 
Noah:  Is that a kind of car?

Noah:  It's not ok to say dumb, but you can say freedom. . . . Does the devil think it's ok to say dumb? He's poisonous . . . Is the devil a he or a she?

Just to show that Emma wants to hold her own in this group, we'll add a few of her contributions:  

Even before she was talking, she liked to spit, and also liked to imitate sounds she heard.  Mommy was using the nasal aspirator to clean out Emma's nose, and each time Emma would spit to imitate the sound, nearly perfectly.  Mommy also used saline spray; Emma's nose was blocked, so the saline dripped down into her mouth.  For the second nostril, Emma opened her mouth and was ready for a drink!

For a while, as Emma was learning names, she called all the boys "Woah" (Noah).  Now, she has added "Wiyey" to her vocabulary, and although we are confident she knows all three of the boys' names, she insists that all of them answer to her current favorite.

Emma has lots of new words in her vocabulary these days, and she's starting to repeat more and more of what she hears us say.  A few we hear most often are
Noke (milk)           Up
No                          Eat
Ball                        Please
Cup                        Book
Shoe                       Change
HI!                         Happy
Out (when she is done in her high chair or wants out of the stroller)
Bath (though her enjoyment of these can vary dramatically, and apparently she doesn't like bubbles)
Bob (a favorite character from Sandra Boynton's "Fifteen Animals")
Woof (or dok - dog)
Cat (or meow)
Emma
Mmm-ah (our favorite - a kiss)

Getting Away in the City

Last week, during an almost two-week school break for the older two boys, we decided to get away into the city.  We spent a couple of nights in a hotel and explored a couple of areas around Manila Bay.  We got a bit of a slow start, as Aden woke up sick the day we were supposed to leave.  But as we packed, he rested and slowly got better, so just after lunch we loaded up and headed into the heart of Manila.  After checking into our hotel (which the boys loved, at least partly because they were able to watch some basketball and soccer), we walked just a couple blocks to Rizal Park.  Noah immediately spotted a train that we could ride around the park, so we caught up to it and made one loop around the park.

As we explored a little further on foot, we found a large playground, where the boys were able to burn some energy, and Emma got out of the stroller for some exercise (and extra attention).

 

Before going to dinner, we stopped to get our picture with the statue of Jose Rizal and then wandered back to the large fountain area, anticipating a musical light show.  We were certainly not disappointed by the show, but after a couple of songs, we were ready to eat a late dinner and head to bed to be ready for our big Friday outing to Ocean Park.

After a special breakfast of Krispy Kreme donuts, we headed out to a day of fun at Ocean Park.  Once we got accustomed to navigating the somewhat confusing layout, we were able to visit each of the attractions included in our ticket.  We started with the jellyfish . . .

blubber jellyfish, upsidedown jellyfish, and moon jellyfish

 then went to the sea lion show
(one of the day's highlights for the boys)

Before lunch we squeezed in one more attraction, going to the Trails to Antarctica.  We missed the main entrance to this exhibit (found it later), but did get to see the penguins, and Daddy and Aden rode a giant slide.  Before leaving the area, we visited "snow village," where we were given coats to wear before entering.  It was sort of like going into a giant freezer, complete with frost as "snow."

After lunch, we went to the Birds of Prey Kingdom.  We carefully read about the attraction before going in, paying close attention to the warnings against loud noise and pulling out cameras or phones.  As we went in, we saw nearly 50 birds of prey, mostly brahminy kites, many perched high in the netted area, and others right at our fingertips on fence posts and short trees.  A photographer approached us and asked if we wanted to feed the birds.  Mommy was a little apprehensive anyway, with all these raptors around, but a bit surprised at his question.  Once we were assured it was safe (and free), we gave it a try.  Each of us (except Emma) took a turn wearing a large, thick glove, holding a piece of meat and watching the kites swoop down and grab the meat right out of our hands.  It was quite an experience.  The photographer captured it just as the bird was grabbing the meat, which made it look like the bird was landing on our arms!  (You had to pay to get a copy of his picture, of course.)  Later, as more people entered, we saw they all had cameras and were taking pictures themselves as they fed the birds.  We were disappointed not to get our own pictures of feeding the birds, but did pull out our camera to remember the experience.

After seeing the birds of prey, we went to the Amazing Birds show, then went to the Oceanarium, another highlight of our day.  We saw all kinds of fish in smaller aquariums, then were able to walk through a tunnel to see the fish swimming on all sides of us, and even above us.

The exit of the  Oceanarium led us to the highly-anticipated Fish Spa.  Mommy had been looking forward to
the experience, but the boys weren't so sure, especially as they watched the fish nibbling all over Mommy's feet!  Aden and Wiley each stuck their toes in for half a second, long enough to feel one ticklish nibble.

Our last noteworthy experience of the day was the glass bottom boat ride.  It was a short ride around a small area, but did go over the Oceanarium tunnel, and seemed to be enough to make the boys a little nervous (as evidenced on their faces).

We were thankful for the opportunity to get away and enjoy a little bit of the city that we hadn't been able to explore. 

Light up the Candles . . .

. . . Aden is EIGHT!

As Aden's birthday approached this year, he and Noah were both counting down the days.  His birthday was on Tuesday, and as usual, he had chosen all the meals for the day.  We've now added "merienda" to the meal list, something special to share with his class at school.  So, we celebrated with coffee cake for breakfast (and he was able to start a new devotional e-book), 

pop tarts for merienda,

Aden's classmates singing to him at his birthday merienda

Aden's one request was that he be able to hold Emma at school during merienda

he enjoyed a pizza sandwich at lunch, and we had tortillas for dinner.  (I always intend to take a picture at the dinner table, but usually it doesn't happen until we pull out the cake.)  Aden had requested a football cake, and his favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip.  But mint chocolate chip ice cream can be hard to find, so instead Mommy improvised and made mint chocolate chip icing for the cake.  The strawberry footballs tied in the theme.

His gifts included shinguards and soccer socks,

 

a soccer ball,

 

and a lap desk, chalkboard journal (from Noah), and wallet (from Wiley)

   

On Wednesday, the celebration continued with a birthday party with his friends.  Aden had requested a sports-themed party and was allowed to invite eight friends.  His main request for activities was a soccer game, but he just wanted to play as many sports as he could with his friends.  They were able to shoot baskets in a game of knockout, and then Aden wanted to play a game of American football.  Daddy ended up having to briefly explain the rules first, since only a few of the boys were from the US and most had no idea how to play.  The party finished with a game of soccer.  Most of the sports pictures turned out pretty dark on the covered court at Faith Academy, but the boys all had a good time and Aden felt very blessed (and exhausted) at the end of the day. 

Knockout

Soccer

American Football