This week has definitely felt different than our normal routine! With the older two kids at school from 6:45am until 3:45pm, Hudson, Noah and I have been trying to figure out what to do with ourselves! We're having a good time getting more concentrated play time in together, but Hudson has also mentioned at least twice each day that he sure misses Karis and Eli. We are so thankful that our kids genuinely enjoy one another so much! For the past year they have been one another's constant playmates, so I think that each one of them is feeling the separation. Karis and Eli told me on the walk home from the bus stop yesterday that they are sad when they have to part ways in the morning and that they wish they were in the same class.
When they get home in the afternoon, things seem a little bit hectic as we try to figure out the new routine of hearing the details of everyone's day and getting homework done before dinner. Because they are having to get up just after 6am, we're trying to get them in bed earlier, too (by 7 or 7:30pm). And Kevin and I have been amazed at how exhausted we are by that time, as well! I have to confess that there has been a night or two this week that we've been in bed before 10pm!
So Hudson and Noah and I have been doing lots of outside play (as the weather this week has been in the lower 90's rather than upper)--especially baseball--and reading and crafts inside. Hud and I had a "date" to the international school library while Noah stayed home with Ayi--a first for us all! Ayi LOVED the one-on-one time with Noah, and I am so thankful to be able to leave him in such capable hands for a few hours at a time.
One of my favorite moments with Hudson this week was at the bank. He had found a caterpillar on the walk there, and proceeded to carry his new pet in his hand the rest of the distance. When we were in the bank, with caterpillar in hand, Hud sat down next to a woman who was there waiting. When the group of people gathered around us to look at the foreign kids saw that Hud was holding a caterpillar, they all kind of collectively freaked out. (I later found out that there are supposedly a lot of stinging caterpillars here, so the general consensus is to stay away from them.) The woman sitting next to Hud repeatedly asked him, "Ni hai pa ma?" (which means, "Aren't you afraid?"). Hudson, convinced he could communicate with the woman, looked at her and repeated emphatically, "CAT-ER-PILL-AR" enunciating each syllable as if trying to teach the woman to say the English word. The two of them went back and forth several times, each convinced that the other was going to catch on to their own native tongue and respond appropriately--which obviously did not happen! I, however, did get quite a laugh out of the whole situation, and was thankful at least for Hud's attempt to communicate in spite of linguistic differences!
