A Boy and His Dirt

It goes without saying that Wiley is less 'blogged' about than Aden. It isn't on purpose, but just that Aden seems to have a lot more to say (literally) these days. Wiley can hold his own though and his vocabulary continues to grow as do his antics. He very much likes to do whatever big brother is doing, but does find his own adventures as well. On our porch sits a rectangular flower pot. It is full of dirt, but nothing is planted in it (for now). The boys seems to be obsessed with the dirt that is in it. What boy wouldn't, right? Aden likes to take off his boots and fill them with dirt. However, Wiley likes to take it to a whole new level. . .

Needless to say, we had bath time before dinner on this particular night.

100th Post!!!

For anyone who is counting, this is our 100th post. There were no balloons and whistles, but we were impressed that we have managed to keep it up for this long. Of course, with these two boys there is almost something that we could 'blog' about everyday. So, let's get on to what you are really here to read about...

As you may recall, Aden has been playing a lot of 'going to the airport' since we returned from the US a few weeks ago. This has slowed down a bit, although now he just talks about it and doesn't necessarily pack his carry on each time. He did pull Daddy aside today and say that he needed to talk to him about his trip. In all seriousness and even with some sighs and umms thrown in, he told him that his flight would be through Hog Kog (Hong Kong) and Sydiney (Sydney), while Aden's flight would be through London and Tokyo. We would also be going through Honowuwu (Honolulu). He even informed us that we would not have paper tickets, but e-tickets. WOW!
This week, instead of playing 'going to the airport', we played 'on the airplane'. The dining room chairs easily made nice airplane seats, as well as a pilot seat (booster chair complete with seat belt). We also had to have a seat for the co-pilot. (How does he know about this kind of stuff?) Mommy and Daddy were of course the passengers on the plane and had to take our seats. Wiley, unfortunately, missed out on this fun as he was taking a nap. You can see in the picture what our airplane looked like with all of us in it. And yes, that is Curious George as the co-pilot. Once we were all in our seats and ready, we heard Aden make the announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now ready to take off!"

Sunday Afternoon at Kudjip

After our naps and snacks, we needed something to do. So, Daddy and the boys went outside to play football. Now this activity has a different meaning to each of the three people who were playing it. For Wiley, it just means that we throw the ball, watch it sitting out there in the yard and wait for Daddy to go get it. In the meantime, he slips away to find some rocks to play with and throw around. For Aden, it is throwing and kicking the ball some, but mostly it is 'play' tackling each other (whoever has the ball). For Daddy, it is just whatever these boys want it to be, but we usually have to at least see how the catching skills are coming along.
We played at this for awhile, and the game eventually evolved into other things like trying to keep Wiley in the yard, and a little game of hide and seek. Aden would count while Wiley and Daddy were hiding. Aden was usually peeking so easily found us. You add to that the fact that he can't quite count all the way to ten in order and you can only hide so far away. After this, Wiley decided that he wanted to be the one to find us so he went over to the tree and covered his eyes as if he were counting. Because we were counting by the tree, we eventually had to try and climb it. We have a great climbing tree in our yard that has many low branches. It wasn't as easy as it looked though. In the end, climbing the tree consisted of each boy taking turns while Daddy held them up to a branch that they could hold onto.



Pretty soon, the McCoys came outside and of course Aden thought this meant it was time for him to go with Uncle Bill into his house to play cars and blocks. Grandpa McCoy arrived today for a visit though and was taking a nap, so we had a good reason not to go running into the house. Eventually, the Dooley family came up for a visit. They have three girls and their youngest one, Olivia, is just nine months older than Aden. They love to play together and ran all over the yards while everyone else sat on the porch and talked with Grandpa McCoy (fresh up from his nap by now). By the end of the evening, Olivia (who knows how to climb the tree) had taught Aden to climb up onto the first branch. I overheard part of the lesson while taking pictures. Olivia was already up in the tree and Aden was trying to get his leg up. Olivia told him to grab her leg. "Come on Aden, you can do it," she coached. And indeed he did. He was quite proud of himself. That's what friends are for.
By the time we had some of Aunt Marsha's chocolate chip cookies, and ran around the yards a few more times, it was getting late and Olivia had to go home. We started to play another round of football, but Mommy said dinner was ready so we went inside. More indoor activities followed, like preparing for our guests that would be arriving at anytime, according to Aden. He had grabbed his quilt and a pillow from his bed and spread them out on the kitchen floor. We asked him who was coming, and without hesitation he said, "Grandpa Jerry is coming to stay with us." It would be a long trip here from Heaven so it was a good thing we had prepared a nice bed for him (Aden has a picture of Mommy's daddy in his room and is learning about who and where he is). We played along with this for awhile and by bedtime we were all pretty worn out. The imagination is really taking off (as you will hear about in our next blog entry).

Stuck on Furlough

We arrived back to PNG almost two weeks ago. We are getting settled back into routines and have almost got all of the suitcases stored away. We have even had Pizza Night this past Friday, which makes it feel like we are home. However, Aden seems to think that we are still on the move. While in the US, we did seem to take off quite often, not staying anywhere longer than two weeks at one time. That seems to be what has stuck with him the most. Each day, and pretty much all day, Aden is packing his backpack and on his way to the airport. It's not just his backpack that he is packing, but he actually calls it his 'carry-on'. How many two year olds even know what a carry-on is? Before he can go, he lets us know that he is ready to go and frequently asks that we pray for his trip. One day, he prayed for the trip himself and made sure that we had our heads bowed when he did. It was an extensive prayer that covered the safety of the trip to the airport and on the airplane, security at the airport, the suitcases and having fun when we get there. The destination is usually Hawaii, Oklahoma, Ohio or somewhere else we went while we were in the US. Once we have had prayer, he asks for "a hug, a kiss and a squeeze." He gets his boots on and goes to sit by the front screen door. Apparently that is the airport. Oh, the life of a Missionary Kid....

Lullabies in the Living Room

Aden came to Mommy this afternoon, in all seriousness, holding one of his lullaby CD's and said, "Mommy, I was trying to sing about babies."

"Did you want to listen to that CD?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's the CD you listen to every night. Did you want to find a different one?"

"Yeah. . . . We can just put it in the CD player and see if it works. Maybe the batteries are dead." (He had not already tried the CD player, which is out of his reach; he was simply repeating the phrases he's heard Mommy and Daddy use.) Aden proceeded to search through the lullaby CD's in his room, pointing out all the pictures of babies on their covers, until he had chosen one he wanted to hear.

"Did you want to listen to it in your room or the living room?"

"Well, where is the DVD player?"

And so we had lullabies in the living room this afternoon.

The Short Version of a Long Trip Home

Ten days before we were to leave for PNG, we were re-routed because of an error on the booking of our tickets. We were supposed to go from Columbus to New York to London to Tokyo to Cairns (Australia) and then after two nights there up to PNG. The new route was going to be Columbus to New York to London to Hong Kong to Sydney (overnight) and then up to Cairns. This made the trip time about 8 hours longer. Twelve hours before we were to depart for the Columbus airport, we were re-routed once again. This time we would be flying from Columbus to New York to Los Angeles to Brisbane to Cairns. While the process was a bit nerve-wracking, the route was much better for us. It had us arriving into Cairns 16 hours ahead of the original route and 24 hours ahead of the second route. So, a very long trip became a little shorter (but it was a long trip nonetheless with two restless boys who didn't sleep long enough on the flights for mommy and daddy).
We were thankful for a video on our personal video screens that kept Aden entertained for part of the time. He watched the making of the A380 Airbus at least 15 times. He didn't always make it through it, but it was started that many times for him. It was also nice to have a few days in Cairns to relax and adjust back to the routine of naps and nighttime sleeping. We also had some fun in the swimming pool as it was very hot there (a drastic change from the Ohio winter that we had just left). We enjoyed this time with "Bubu Jim", "Kah-tee", "Ceel-ya", Jo and "Yeedeeya". They traveled on our original route so we left them in New York and were reunited in Cairns before returning together to PNG.