Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Grand Week

Aaron is continuing to value his independence. Here he is following a friend from church (J.D.). The two of them had a lot of fun playing together.In a couple of weeks Danny will be helping with a kid's camp through the church. This Sunday we went to the park to get some ideas and see the area we will be working with. Please pray for the team as we plan for how to best work with the kids.
Aaron loves playing with shapes. He recognizes all of the shapes in his game as well as things like hexagon, heptagon, and octagon! (sometimes he gets the gons confused though!)
A tree at the park.
Earlier this week we had a visit from a bunch of cockatoos at the school. We don't see them very often here, but a lot more than we did in the US!!
Another construction photo for you.
Aaron enjoys this box as a parking garage for his cars. On this particular day he was working on parking skills as well as social skills.

He would drive a car into the garage and line it up with the side door.
Then, he would knock on the door.
Then he would open it to reveal the car inside and drive it out!


Love you all!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A Week in Singapore

We had a relatively normal week here this past week. Aaron continues to grow and enjoy his surroundings.

Here are Danny and Aaron in the taxi on the way to church.After church Aaron had some fun at a local mall playing on all the rides.


Last Thursday Betsy and Danny got all dressed up for the annual staff banquet. It was a wonderful evening.
Over the past year we have seen a lot of construction in our neighborhood as the local town council is working to make the area "barrier free". The largest portion of this work is upgrading all of the elevators to stop at all floors instead of just the even floors (some buildings they only stop every four floors!) That construction has finally reached our building. Thankfully there are two lifts in the building and they are only working on one at a time, but this construction is supposed to take close to a year to complete!
Aaron is really enjoying newfound freedom. He loves to run off ahead of us while walking to the hawker for dinner. But thankfully he is also very good at waiting for us before he attempts to cross the street.
A random building seen on an outing last Saturday. This is one of the many mosques in Singapore.
Aaron and Mommy at the MRT station. Aaron loves walking on the bumps!

Thanks for caring and checking up on us! We love you all, drop us a comment to let us know you were here!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Just a quick post to share some pictures from the last couple weeks and to wish all you Mother's a happy day!


The English as a Second Language classes finished for the year. Here they are celebrating with a potluck.
We took Aaron for another day at the Science Center. He had a blast!

His favorite is still the play house though!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

China Trip Volume 2

Most of our time in China was spent working with the English classes. However, we were given a day to do some sight seeing . We took a trip to the Stone Forest. This natural wonder is a popular tourist attraction outside the city. Apparently many years ago this area was under water. When an earthquake rumbled through the land, the soil sank and limestone was exposed to the elements. The weather has been eroding the limestone into fantastic and amazing shapes ever since. The Chinese call this place the Stone Forest because many of the limestone formations look like giant trees.

We had a guide who told us about the history and legends surrounding the Stone Forest. She cautioned each of us to stay with her and with the group. There are a vast amount of trails leading all over the park, and it would be very easy to get separated.

From the first moment we set foot in the park, Aaron was the star of the show. There were tourists from all over China, and even other parts of the world, there to explore the park. As soon as these people saw Aaron, they wanted their picture taken with him. I (Betsy) was afraid we would lose our guide if the other groups kept hemming us in. So, I had to step in front of the cameras and push us past Aaron's new fans.

Well, due to all this "press" attention, everyone in the Stone Forest that day knew our group. They all knew that the cute little American boy was with us. Now, unfortunately, one of our group did get separated. He was at a loss to know how to find us with his very limited Mandarin. Finally he struck upon a grand thought. Perhaps he could find us with Aaron. So, in his halting Mandarin, he began to ask every person he saw "Where's the American baby?" Each person would point him in the direction of our group until he finally caught us! Aaron saved the day!!!

Enjoy these pictures from the wonderful Stone Forest.

Below: "Stone Forest" carved into limestone in Mandarin. Underneath is Cullen, the man who found our group with the "American Baby" questions.


Aaron liked looking at all the flowers and naming colors.



Aaron did a great job hiking all those trails.



The Stone Forest







There were ethnic groups selling handcrafts and demonstrating ethnic dances and art all over the park. The people below were obviously on a break. We liked the incongruity of the native costumes and people on cell phones.


An ethnic dance group.