Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl

One of the greatest challenges of living overseas is staying connected with family. We've been pretty darn creative though. We have phone calls, we have Skype calls, we have video i chats, we have care packages going back and forth... I have to admit though that there's no replacement for having family come visit and there's no replacement for us heading back to the States to spend time with them. Within the past year, we've had Grandma Barbara, Grandpa Earl, Aunt Susan, Grandma Dotty, Grandma Bill and Mary, Great-Aunt Rhonda, Great-Uncle Jack, and we have Aunt Sissy and Unca' Bubba heading our way at the end of March. We have been very, very lucky!

As soon as Barb and Earl arrived this time, Maddie was right in step with them. There was no warming up time needed... it was just instantaneous adoration. They have come to school a couple of times while they have been here and Maddie has loved it. They came for Chinese New Year celebrations and Maddie's teacher, Ms. Preeti, video-taped some of the performances on that day. In today's elementary assembly, Ms. Preeti showed the movie and Maddie sat right in front and re-lived having her Grandma and Grandpa at school. She yelled "GRANDPA" when she saw him flash across the screen! When Barbara and Earl came to school in the middle of the assembly to walk her home from school, she was absolutely giddy! This truly has been quality family time and that is irreplaceable!

Dad and School

Having your father work at your school must be terrific when you are three years old. I knew that it was important to Maddie, but I really didn't how important it was until Andy was gone recruiting in the States for over two weeks. In short, Maddie was miserable, I was miserable... and we were really good at being miserable together! On the first night that Andy was gone, we made a sign that spelled out WELCOME BACK!!!. We then proceeded to color one letter each night before heading off to bed. This was our way of counting the number of sleeps until Daddy came home. I don't think she has a real concept of how long (or short if you're an optimist) two weeks really is so this helped her count it out each night. Big things happened while he was away. Maddie wrote her name all by herself for the first time and she had M Day at school where she was responsible to bring in items that started with her letter. Ms. Zhou, Mommy, and Maddie made muffins and she brought them to school to share! Of course we recorded all of this on our sign for Daddy! She was really happy before when Andy visited her classroom... now she's just down right thrilled to have her father work in her school!

Today was a big day for Maddie! When we visited her classroom, she did not see us so we were able to spy a little bit to see her in her true form. She's quite the bossy one at times, especially with Justin who she was very articulately telling how to properly put the glue on the back of the mitten in order to stick it on the banner correctly. She also go a new pink coat from Grandma Barbara.... such a monkey! Pink is definitely the color of choice these days!! Pink coat, pink Converse shoes... I guess she'll just have to dress up for the assembly tomorrow when her daddy comes as a special guest to read to the early elementary kids!