December 26, 2009: Perspective of a child

Please enjoy these "first-time" pictures taken by Hope. She'd been asking us how to use a camera for a while, so we decided to let her borrow ours and see how she did. So far, so good. It made us smile to see life through her eyes.

December 25, 2009; Celebrating Christ's Birthday

Homemade Red Velvet Cake, to celebrate HIS birthday.

外婆，外公 celebrating with us.

Hope gets a lot of hair Baubles from 外婆 who brought them from Taiwan.

Josiah celebrates with TWO new Elmos. He just LOVES Elmo

The last day of Advent.

December 20, 2009 : 6th largest snow storm in DC area

18-20 inch snow storm in 24 hours. Not bad, except all of the snow plows broke down. Freaked the DC people out...

Tinker toy Snow man, made by dad


Martha Washington snowwoman, by mom

Sledding in front of our townhouse. Yes, that's the street where the snow plows broke down. Like the snow on our minivan?

Sledding down our street!!

Gingerbread and Giggles

Hope and Josiah building the traditional Gingerbread House. We used a ready-made package, and boy! was that easier!!! Most of the candy went into little bellies, but that's part of the joy of these houses, right?

Here, we are teaching Josiah how to smile for the camera. He's quite the enthusiastic one!

Here he is with less of a squint.

He's working hard here. What a trouper!

A Josiah Funny

(At the Thanksgiving party, Josiah had been particularly naughty, touching all things forbidden. Finally, after a long time of "thinking", dad let Josiah go play again, but it was too silent. Dad went to go find Josiah by himself playing too quietly)

Paxton: Josiah, what have you been doing?
Josiah: Hit my hand
Paxton: Josiah, I won't hit you hand. Please tell me what you have been doing?
Josiah: Hit my hand
Paxton: You need to tell me what you've been touching again
Josiah: Touching light switches again...(melt into tears)

Another Hope Funny

Hope: ...K-K-Kangaroo, L-L-Leaf, M-M-Moon, N-N-Nest, O-O-Octopus...
Aunt Kim: Hey, who taught you that song?
Hope: My mom!
Aunt Kim: Well, she must be a smart cookie!
Hope: Nooo! She is not a cookie!

T - T - Turtle

One of our best homeschool moments was when Hope had a lesson on TURTLES. One day, Lisa went for a jog and found a small shell on the jogging path. It turned out to be a lost baby eastern box turtle. She turned into our newest pet. Her name is: Turnaround Turtle (named by Hope).

Here is Hope (and Josiah) learning all about turtles/reptiles.

Hope learns how to draw a turtle by watching the turtle walk across the page. What school would allow this? No worries, parents, we washed our hands right after each contact with the turtle, since we are quite aware of the salmonella that shed off of her shell.

On Capitol Hill

Paxton's mom came for a visit and wanted to see the sites of DC. While Lisa was sequestered in "orientation" for her new job at the local ER, the family got to check out the Washington Monument, Obama's motorcade going by, the Hope Diamond (at the Smithsonian's Natural History museum), the Enola Gay (at the newer Smithsonian's Udvar Hazy Air and Space museum), and the Kennedy family's newest tombsite (Arlington National).

Lisa did get one day off, so we decided to check out Capitol Hill on the day the House of Representatives voted on the Health Bill. While eating lunch, we met a flaming democratic lobbyist who thought that Republicans were nuts. It was quite the interesting lunch discussion, since Grandma lived in the generation where one never talks politics. How can one not talk politics with a lobbyist while eating lunch in the Capitol? The lobbyist gave Hope a quarter if Hope promised to grow up to one day work in the capitol. Hope took the quarter and wants to give it to the church.

Below are some pics of our time at the Capitol.

Protesters outside the capitol. They wanted to "Kill the Bill". Ahhh freedom of speech!

Grandma and family walking to the Capitol

Outside the Capitol. People in suits were running around as it was a Saturday work day for the House of Reps. They were to vote on the Health Bill that night.

Another picture outside the Capitol.

Inside the Capitol's rotunda. It was a very lovely and majestic room, reminding us of the foundations of American government. Sure we aren't perfect, but we are glad for the freedoms that come from living in this great nation.

On our way home, we decided to take a detour and go visit President Obama. He wasn't taking any guests this day, as he was preparing to give a speech to tell congress to vote for the Health Bill. Right after this pic, we were shooed off campus. Grandma sure got a good look at DC this week!!!

Josiah: One year a Mellinger

November 4th marks the day that Josiah has been with his forever family for one year. He has seen a lot of firsts. Here are some of them:

First picture sent to us of Josiah. He was around 2 years old.

First day we met each other.

First Christmas: In Athens Georgia

First Chinese New Year in the USA

First Easter

First Trip to the Beach: Nags Head, NC

First Trip to Disneyland

First Birthday Party in the USA: He turned 3 in May

First Costume

A Hope Funny

Today, mom was making an apple cake, and Hope was "helping". When mom pulled out the eggs, Hope shouted, "Oh! I know how to break open the eggs. Let me do it!" So, mom gave Hope an egg, hoping that she'd know how to break open the eggs and not leave any shells in the batter.

Sure enough, Hope took the egg, gently tapped the egg to the side and happily opened the egg, right onto the floor.

Mom forgot the next step of teaching Hope where the insides go. That's the next lesson.

Race for the Wounded Warrior

This morning, we woke up at 6am and ran in 38 F weather for wounded soldiers of the war. Lisa had hoped to run the Marine Corp Marathon's 10K but her 6 week cold/flu took her out of training too long. We decided to run a family race since strollers were allowed. The group raised over $12,000 to help those who were injured during the war.

Biking Northern Mount Vernon Trail

Today, the weather forecasted a windy rainy day, but we decided to risk it and bike along the Potomac River to enjoy DC. (After all, we'd heard Colorado was getting a blanket of snow on their bike trails).

We packed some popcorn, crackers, and other munchies, stuffed the bikes in the minivan and headed to the River edge.

Raindrops pelting the windshield didn't dampen our spirits. Lisa was finally well enough to do a longer ride and wanted some speed!

What a day for a bike ride. Paxton hooked the two-kid trailer to his bike and we headed north, towards the Washington Monument in the distance. The gray clouds and fuzzy rain kept the paths open for us, but joggers with their ipods and other speedy roller skaters and bikers provided us ample opportunities to scream "ON YOUR LEFT" before being pelted by Hope's popcorn.

Ahh! The rush of wind and water on our face as we pedaled into the crunchy fall leaves. The trail took us straight through Reagan National Airport where the planes were taking off, so we stopped to eat our lunch while the planes ZOOMED straight above our hair. Hope and Josiah had to keep covering their ears as the big birds screamed past us. The rain picked up, so we decided to plop the kids back into their warm pumpkin trailer and trudge forward.

North we pushed until we saw the Washington Monument straight across the river from us. There, we felt we could fly over and touch the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Alas, we had no fins, gill, or wings, so we just biked onward over the mass of red/brown/yellow/green petals covering the trail.

Lisa was in the mood to race Paxton, so off she pedaled, going as fast as possible while peeking to see Paxton panting for three people. Suddenly, a couple stuck their umbrella out and nearly knocked Lisa off her bike, so the race came to an abrupt. We decided this was a good time to head home.

If we get anymore of these bike moments, we may have to stay in the DC area a bit longer.

George Washington's Home: Mount Vernon

Saturday, we biked to Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate. It was a perfect day for a tour around the grounds. What fun to see history come alive before our eyes. People walked around in period costumes, including look-alike George Washingtons, beggars, peddlers. A craft fair sold various wares from colonial days. We bought some mulled cider spices and herbal teas to take home for the winter.

Here was George Washington's house, with 10 bedrooms and NO bathrooms! Hope was still trying to figure out how to go to the bathroom in the winter...burrrrrr on the bum! We saw some soldiers walking about, doing a re-enactment of a battle. That was pretty fun. Guns, flutes, and drums. It was "Yankee Doodle Dandy" come alive!

Here we are with the First family. They seemed a bit stiff for the picture, but it was a great privilege to stand next to the family. Very warm in heart, but kinda cold on the outside.

At the craft fair, they were showing us how Martha Washington used to make chocolate. If you look really close, you may see Lisa and Hope drooling as the lady melts the chocolate in front of them. In those days, Hot chocolate was for big people. They added various spices including cinnamon, anise, chili peppers, sugar. They felt that hot chocolate made children hyper. So, instead, they gave the kids beer.

Taking a break at the fair. We are enjoying our smoked turkey leg. Very tasty colonial fare!

Sickly

Mom has been so sick and worn out, that Hope drew a depiction of her sickly mom. No fun when mom is out of commission...

Mosquito Hope Funny

Now that we've moved to VA, we've newly experienced the armies of mosquitoes that attack us every night.

Today, Hope said: Mom, maybe if we spray the mosquitoes with repelllent, they will repel themselves and then just die.

Another observation that she noticed was that they only go after Mom and daughter. She believes this is because women are sweeter and that there just ain't enough meat on Josiah for them to bother.

Kindergarten and Chocolate

Today, Hope officially started Kindergarten. We are using My Father's World curriculum, supplemented with Singapore Math and Explode the Code Phonics. The girl has been counting the days before school started, so when mom was tempted to not start, there really was no choice. We pulled down the books, sharpened the pencils, and started. Hope soaked up everything like a sponge and was so excited to learn learn learn. We even had time in the afternoon to learn some Chinese.


A while back, Hope was asking mom to tell her a long long story, so mom tried to remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by memory. Hope was so fascinated by the entire story that she made mom tell it again. Mom decided to instead read the book to her, but she had to translate it into Chinese for her. What we do for our kids!!!

This afternoon, on our way back from the library, Hope said she is now ready for us to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to her. Maybe Paxton will translate that one for her...