snowflakes

James continues to make us laugh. Two weeks ago he was here for his English class and I gave him a sampling of Christmas cookies I had obtained from a cookie exchange that day. He quite enjoyed sampling each one and later asked Dave (out of my hearing range) that if he had to choose between a girl who was really pretty or one who could make really good cookies-- which one would he choose to marry? When Dave reversed the question, James told him it was more important to marry one who could make really good cookies. (Dave told James he married both in me:) So, at the end of the lesson, James asked me if I could teach his grandma to make cookies. I had already taught her to make my favorite oatmeal craisen ones, but it was time to bring out the "snowflakes". What are they? Well, most people call them meringues, but Dave has re-named them snowflakes. (Because they are light and fluffy and taste like mint). Let me tell you, they are tempermental, and as yummy as can be. I think I put my pregnancy weight back on simply by eating too many of these the past couple of weeks!
So, we called in the troops- James, Lucy and Grandma, to make cookies.
They had lots of fun making and eating (as did we all), and had lots of cookies to pass along to my neighbors. Google translate is an amazing tool that Dave just uploaded the recipe in English and then gave it to them in Chinese.

Someone in particular really really likes them!

Oh, I forgot to mention that this recipe is an old family heirloom- my great-aunt Alice's in fact. When I told this to James he passed on the info to his grandma, only he told her that only people in my family could make it. So, I hope in passing along this secret information, I'm not breaking any special traditions! (the cookies in the photos didn't come out right, I think the oven was too hot. They are supposed to remain white, but even when a little bronzed, they are still delicioso!)

So here is the recipe in English:

Beat 2 egg white until stiff, then add 1/8-1/4 tsp cream of tartar and beat till the pigs fly home, setting the eggs, slowly add 3/4 c white sugar and 1/2 tsp. mint extract. Stir in 1 cup mini chocolate chips. Drop on parchment paper and cook for 20 minutes at 320. I make sure the eggs aren't cold and add the sugar super slow. Make sure the beaters and bowl are really really clean and really really rinsed and dry. No soap, not a hint of grease.

And, for my Chinese audience:

薄荷巧克力雪花！

2蛋清，加入1/8-1/4茶匙塔塔奶油打至僵硬，然后慢慢加入3 / 4杯白糖和1 / 2茶匙薄荷提取物。 拌入1杯迷你巧克力芯片。 放置20分钟，320羊皮纸纸张和厨师。 它帮助，如果鸡蛋温度在室温。

赫尔希吻迷你花生开花

my son

Asher, I think you watch our every move. Quietly. You seem to take everything in and process it all behind those sweet eyes of yours. Have you really been here for only 2 months?

I'm sure glad that so far, any screaming meltdowns you've had seem to be soothed by simply wearing you.

You are the cuddliest baby I know. Your biggest complaint is not being held, cuddled or tickled. And you do cry when you are tired, but popping you in the ergo seems to do the trick.
You are adored by everyone in our family, especially your sister. She loves to dance for you and make funny faces, and she says your name more than any other word in her ever expanding vocabulary.


We love it when you just sit in our arms and smile at us.
You do that a lot. Yesterday I was trying to take a nap with you on the bed beside me and you kept me awake with little gurgling noises that made me open my eyes and look at you just smiling at me. I can't think of much else that warms my heart any more than that!
Blessed and beloved you are.

daughter of mine

Josie, it's been a rough couple of weeks. We've been to the doctor too many times, you've fallen too many times, we've had too many battles of the will. I know your mouth must be throbbing, as I see that your four little teeth making their way up through your gums. And it doesn't help that your head cold turned into a full blown infection. And then, when we were trying to tackle the big girl swing, you let go just as you were swinging backwards and fell straight down on your face, screaming with blood running down your chin. I ran home carrying you and Asher, so glad our neighbor was at her kitchen window and came to help us. So glad that you were ok, despite the large chunks of tongue to bit though. I do hope that the little tales on either side of your tongue will heal up, the doctor said they would at least. I hope. And last night you came down with the croup again. I think we treated it in time, going right to steam, vicks and some kind of cough soothing medicine. You seem better today but I'm not sure we're going to make it outside tonight in the cold rain. We'll see.

I am so glad that you love your brother. But I've always got to keep my eye on you, should you decide to pounce. Good thing Asher is pretty laid back, or we would have lots of crying on our hands. Words like "gentle" and "no" seem to evade you, though I'm sure you understand what they mean. In fact, I know you do because you can say them yourself, along with any other word I throw your way. We fed a bunny yesterday and you've been saying "bunny" and then "banana" just so I know that you know the difference. You surprised me when you pulled out the word "yellow" and pointed to your yellow blocks. And when you Daddy asked you if you wanted some cough medicine last night you pulled out a whole sentence "no, that's enough". We both looked at you in disbelief-- did you really just say that? I think it might have been a fluke. And though I'm sooo glad that we have a new place that is just right for us, I'm a little worried about the stairs here. You like to test me, constantly. So when I say "back down" you turn forward and attempt to take a step. These steps aren't soft and they are very steep so you really must learn to do what I tell you... I'm getting rather tired of hurdling the baby gates at the both the bottom and top of the steps. Especially holding both of you, my abs must get stronger with all this high stepping business. I think we are both glad though, that you have your own room to make a disaster. You were dancing around and spinning in it this morning early while the rest of us were trying to sleep, listening to music. When the music stopped your yelled at the CD player "off!" (You wanted it back on, I guess)

Despite all your antics though, you are getting cuter by the day. You love playing with rocks, despite my attempts to show you the playground, you'd rather sit on the path and play in the dirt.

You love to wear everyone's shoes too, and that sure is cute. You love Chinese food, sticking your tongue out and laughing. And I love that about you!

our charlie brown christmas

Praise God. Dave is done with his finals. Well, he has been done since Friday but it's probably taken this long to debrief that fact. And so we commence with Christmas celebrations. (Before going on, can you spot the baby in this picture?)

But first, this new place needs a little decorating. Only problem is that somewhere between NY and Vancouver we have misplaced all our Christmas things. This certainly is a very sad thing in my book because the little Christmas things we've gathered over the years have great significance to us. So hopefully, whether in NY, OH, Seattle or tucked away in a basement here in Vancouver, we'll find them soon. Like our Nativity set, or our ornaments. But alas, we've got to make due.

First things first, a tree. Well, James' family came over the other night bearing gifts, including a case of mandarin oranges and a fake mandarin tree. And then later, 4 colors of tinsel garland. So, what to do with a plastic orange tree and lots of tinsel. Decorate of course. And let little hands help. Markers and paper will do for this year's ornaments! I did splurge and buy an $8 strand of 50 lights. ($8?? seriously?)

Josie and her friend Nolene enjoyed the decoration part.

And we even made snowflakes from scrap paper and junk mail.

Having all the fun in the world!

Oh, and did I mention the garland?
And Dave just brought home a real bonifide spruce potted Christmas tree. A small one, but a real one. Now what to do?

priorities

Well, now that we've chosen the school, we'll just see what sport Asher will choose. With the size of his thighs I'd bet he'd make an excellent sprinter. So, I'm voting soccer. Time will tell:)

the hood

Our new home is one of several "courts" of these white buildings nestled among pines and cedars on the family housing side of campus. It feels more to me sometimes like I'm at camp, not on campus, with the paths, community gardens and green everywhere!
It's really nice. And right around the corner from our building is the Common's Block, a little community center for activities that happen on a regular basis. We often go to a toddler "drop in" time in the mornings.
Here Josie can play with kiddos from all over the world, like Keon from Iran, and other from Latin America,
Japan,

China

and all over the globe!!
Behind Josie on the right is my neighbor Claudia and daughter Alfonsina. They are from Chile. Josie let herself out of the house the morning and they brought her in to play.
It's nice to have neighbors like that!

For the Grands

We're coming up close to Christmas, this weekend is Dave's last weekend before finals, and we've moved. Asher is almost 8 weeks, Josie is talking up a storm, and here are a few videos to document life in the Coons household these days. I think that the grandparents will be the ones with patience to view it all. Josie, after screaming every half hour all night long, is finally feeling better I think. But I'm going to take her into the doctor in a couple minutes just in case her grabbing her ears and shreiking means she's got a bad infection.

Asher pretty much sleep though the entire night. Go figure.

So, here is Asher around Thanksgiving

And Josie with Asher:

And here he is 2 nights ago: (if you must, fast forward to around 2:58-3:01 for very cute expression!)

And last night:

Adah's transplant day...

This is one of those posts that make your heart cry to Jesus with prayers of petition and thanksgiving. Best devotional reading of the day for sure.

Click here for Adah's story

December? Wow.

So, little Asher man is 7 weeks this week. Here's a couple pictures of our little smiler. I think he old cries when he's tired or hungry. But that doesn't mean he's quiet. Just the opposite in fact. He giggles and snorts and gurgles for attention. He'll make noise until you pay attention to him-- even if that's from 2-4am. But at least he's not breaking my eardrums with screaming! Just keeping me awake with snorting.

Ok, since I missed last week, here he is at 6 weeks at our old place.

With his big sis. She's trying to get him into good reading habits already.

And bearing scars of too much sistah love.
Is it really December already? Do I really have a 7 week old? Did we really just move again? Yes, Yes and Yes! We are the now the proud inhabitants of a 2 story town house, surrounded by trees, and squirrls and a community garden. I put our compost out this morning before running off with the kids to a toddler play group and found it totally scattered and 2 very large squirrels feasting on my coffee grounds and banana peels. I hope the neighbors don't mind that its taking me a little while to clean up! Speaking of neighbors, our little cul de sac there are people from around the world. My row of 4 units alone has us, people from Chile, Sri Lanka, and India. I can imagine that almost every country on earth might be represented among the graduate students here at UBC. At today's playgroup, I was using my Chinese and Spanish in one conversation with 2 moms. That's just the kind of place this is. Now to brush up on my languages!

Josie and Asher have their own large room to hang out in. Josie will play there alone for nice stretches of time which is a great change for all of us! (Even if she is emptying out all of the wipes and diapers onto the floor! I can handle that better than destroying the entire house!) I've decorated it too... pics to come soon. Now I'm working on just putting everything in its place. We had super help on Friday moving-- we pretty much got everything here that day while friends shuttled our belonging from our high rise to the townhouse. I pretty much held Asher and stood dumbfounded while my friends set up my kitchen, bedroom, living room and helped unpack all that we had packed up earlier that week. It kind of reminded me of moving in China. That too is an amazing experience of watching these guys haul furniture from one place to another in a matter of hours and bam, you're moved. There's a lot here that reminds us of living in China. The no-brainer is that we're surrounded by Chinese people... but besides that, our new place has that kind of feel. And that's comforting. I'm definitely not worried about kids making messes or keeping everything in order. This place is made for families and if there's projectile poo launched onto the floor, I won't freak out about it. Whew. That's a relief!

So for a little tour...

Start with the most important room in the house. The Storage room. Yes, we have storage! This is also known as my workshop. I can have a place to make all the jewelry that I want... and shut the door! Yeah!

Here's our room.. Hoping to keep it clutter free as much as possible.
and the best room in the house, which pretty much looks like this. I figured I'd leave Josie's tracks for an honest look.
Another look. When it's not raining, sun will stream though that window in the afternoon.
And downstairs. The kitchen. I desperately need a cute curtain for that huge window! All our neighbors can look right in. It also has a door to be closed off, which with Josie, is a big bonus.
Front hallway looking in. Keeping the kiddos occupied while I do this post.
Dining room from living room view. Computer is across from kitchen under the stairs.
And vice versa. Still working on putting up pictures. All our furniture amazingly matches and we either bought it off Craigs list or from our former landlords. Or it was given to us from other friends. Anyway, we're happy with it!

As everyone seems to melting, I'll save the 7 week pictures for another post coming up soon!