Dressing Up

My husband's photography talent is really starting to shine. I love this picture he
took of the boys. What do you think they are looking at?
Hint: I am the one in costume!

Wellllllll, we have made it to November! Holy cow! or Holy turtle, snake, fish, or Buddha whatever...

Suddenly, a whole wave of thoughts surround me. There are still several things that we would like to do and many things that we need to MAKE SURE we do for one last time. (Why do so many of those involve eating specific things? Hmmm...) As I sit here on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon looking out my big window at that same nasty apartment building next door, I definitely feel a new sense of urgency.

This week I am going to bombard the blog, technology willing, with several picture-fests to catch up the boys' baby book on a record of their China life. I have even gathered another good crop of food pictures (which, by the way, are much easier to take than say...toddler pictures) for those of you who have been anxious to see some additional foodie moments.

Just to catch up and answer the single most common question coming at me via email: No, we did not acknowledge Halloween this year in any way other than devouring all the delicious candy that was sent to us from the babysitters of our beloved fish and great friends, The Jones Family, and enjoying sweet holiday cards from many friends and loved ones (especially those artistically challenged homemade cards from The Vanderbilt family, ha!). No, I really do not have much guilt that the kids did not participate this year. For one, I had no idea what to have Tucker dress up as. My best laid mental plan (mostly based on what I see everyday!) was to turn him into a teabag using a bedpillow sham and leaf stuffing, but I think that would have just made his father giggle too much. Hudson wanted to be a ghost. Secondly, we were in Beijing.

Halloween is still treated like a Western holiday here-- meaning it is not really acknowledged at all outside the expat communities. The stores brought out their decoration options around October 20th. I have seen more bats than birds in Wuhan, so I will just assume that China decorates itself.  :)

More tomorrow!

Guest Blogger: One from Josh

First off, I want to say thank you to my beautiful bride.  Thank you for having this blog.  There is nothing that cheers me up more on a crummy day at work than to take a short break and find something new posted here.  And thank you for giving me the stage to share something with our friends and family here.

OK, now a warning for the rest of you.  I’m not going to be very good at this.  For one thing, it’s probably going to be long.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  I’m not a very good writer or communicator (“Hi, I’m Josh, and I’m an engineer”) and I’m a “painter”, not a “pointer” (for those who read The Seven Love Languages in your pre-wedding marriage counseling, you’ll get that).

But I wanted to share.  I don’t necessarily have a specific point, which is nothing new, but I’ve learned a few things as a father that I’d like to share.  The original inspiration for doing this was that Hudson went with me to the AMA Supercross race at Lucas Oil Stadium the other night, and we’ll get to that, but it may be a winding road to get there.

Thing #1 I’ve learned: parenting is hard.  The hardest thing I’ve ever done.  But boy, is it worth it.  It certainly starts out being a major strain on a marriage, but I think if you do it right, it ends up bringing you closer to your spouse.  Heather and I share such a strong bond in our love of our kids.  I’m thankful that we were fortunate enough to have a few years of marriage before we had kids.  We built a solid foundation on which to raise our family.  I would love Heather whether we had the two cutest little boys in the world or not.  But when I see one of them light up when she gets home from her latest photography session or when we worry together over the latest fever or what to do about one of them beating the stuff out of the other, my heart swells.  I thank God every day that I have this beautiful woman to share my life with.  And I have so much respect and admiration for any single parent who is doing their best to try to provide the love and discipline that a child needs without a committed spouse’s partnership.

OK, Supercross.  Going to the annual Supercross race in Indianapolis has become a traditional boy’s night.  Hudson has started watching the races on TV with me, and this year, we decided he was old enough to go along.  If you’ve never seen a Supercross race on TV, it’s worth checking out.  20 riders starting side-by-side head for the same spot in the first turn, then jump, bounce, and race their way around a football-field-size track at high speed.  The pre-race show is worth the price of admission by itself.  Turn out all the lights in the stadium, fire up a laser light show, shoot off some fireworks, and let the racers do a few tricks on their bikes under the spotlight.  Hudson loved every bit of it.

Thing #2 I’ve learned: always be on the lookout for “teachable” moments.  I’m not very good at this, either.  My friend Chris is.  Chris had recently shared a story of an ordinary comment from his son that, because of the questions Chris asked, he was able to turn it into a teachable moment.  There was one that stood out to me in the Supercross race.  One of the riders had led the entire main event in the 250cc class (this is the “junior” class for the guys who are getting a trial run to see if they’re ready for the big-boy 450cc class).  He was leading with less than half a lap to go in the 15-lap main event and he crashed on his own.  He ended up finishing 6^th.  Hudson is too young to grasp the concept of some of this, but I was thinking about what I would talk about with him if he were a couple of years older.  How would he handle himself in that situation?  Would he be able to accept the blame?  Why did that happen?  Had that racer not prepared well enough?  What is the correct response?  What do you say to your team that works on the bike when you get back to the pit area?  I can’t say that I would handle myself very well in that situation, but hopefully, this could be an opportunity to teach Hudson about humility, accepting responsibility for your mistakes, preparation, and responding to adversity with determination and hard work.

Thing #3 I’ve learned: I LOVE sharing my hobbies with my kids.  It was a lot more work and a lot more money and a lot more FUN to take Hudson with me to the Supercross race than it would have been to just go and be one of the guys.  I beamed with pride when he worked up the nerve to ask my friend Jesse for some of his bacon dip (this is what we will eat in heaven, I am convinced) at the pre-race dinner at the Oaken Barrel, and even said “please” and “thank you”.  I loved all his questions.  I loved that he was into watching the races.  I loved that he wanted to take pictures of what was going on (combining Mama’s and Dada’s interests; that’s cool!).  I loved that the seats got screwed up and he sat on my lap ALL NIGHT.  Best Supercross ever.  I’m normally not too disappointed when James Stewart messes up and loses a race that Ryan Villopoto goes on to win, but when Stewart messed up this time, Hudson looked up at me and said “that’s who I wanted to win”, it broke my heart.

Since I’ve procrastinated long enough on writing this, we’ve also made it to another boy’s tradition: the Columbus, Indiana Racer’s Reunion.  I have some friends involved in organizing this neat event, and I’ve been going for several years now.  Since Hudson and then Tucker were born, this has been a Daddy and the boy(s) event.  Tucker is at a tough age to take to something like this.  Hudson was a gem.  It’s tough.  Poor Tucker wanted to touch, climb in, drool on everything in site.  It’s one thing when he’s going to drool on my friend Derek, or Donald Davidson, the historian at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  It’s another when he wants to drool on a priceless antique race car.  Needless to say, a couple of boys got their day made by some very friendly folks who invited me to allow the boys to sit in their old quarter midgets. 

This is another annual tradition that has become much sweeter by sharing it with my little buddies.  We just won’t make the stop at Denny’s a repeat.  Seriously, I love Denny’s, but that was just gross.  I felt fortunate that none of us got violently ill after that.  Maybe there’s a reason I’ve really only been there at 2:00 a.m.  You have to have some impaired judgment to think that’s a good idea.

So that’s about it for my first and probably last foray into blogging.  I told you it would be long.  If you hung in there with me until the bitter end, thanks for reading.  We all owe Heather a big thank you because I now know what a pain it is to make time to do this.  Sweetie, I appreciate it!