Ate Dinner at a Table!

After an incredibly busy weekend we're back to our regular weekday grind. 4 hours of class this morning went down fairly smoothly, although during the last hour we were visited by paint fumes from the renovation going on downstairs. I tell ya, it always seems that they want to paint lacquer on things only on the rainiest days when it is inconceivable to open a window for some ventilation. They were actually painting and lacquering on the 1st and 2nd floors, but because there was no ventilation we could smell it way up in our 7th floor classroom. Yuck. Thankfully, class was over soon enough and we were out.

So, Spring appears to have finally come to our city. It's hard to believe that just last week we were sitting in class freezing our guts out under 4 layers of clothes, when this week we can sit comfortably in just one or at most two layers. The flowers are beginning to bloom, the trees are green and alive, and the rains have set in at last. This was all heralded by a magnificent thunderstorm last week in the wee hours. It was as if the Father were making an official declaration that winter was over- good news for those of us who have had a tough winter.

We had a nice afternoon with some friends and their son, who is about Gracie's age. The kids played in Grace's room and had a great time. Grace loves kiddos, and she finally seems to be learning how to interact with other children with out biting them or physically attacking them. Everything was going great and then our friend's son urinated on Gracie's floor. This was actually kind of funny, because the last time he came over he did the very same thing. Chinese children don't usually wear diapers, and their pants are split at the bottom so it is easier for them to go to the bathroom. Culturally, it's acceptable for children to do their business just about anywhere- even on the street corner. Honestly, I don't think a single day has passed that we haven't seen at least one child taking care of business on the side of the road. Now, there is one benefit to the split pants/go when and where you gotta go theory: no money spent on diapers! And, kids get potty training from the very beginning which I imagine saves the headaches later on.

We also spent some time doing a little light spring cleaning and some furniture rearrangement today. Jenny's been going crazy over the fact that we don't ever get to eat dinner at a table, and always end up eating on the couch. This is due to the fact that our living room couldn't really accommodate the table because of the large furniture set we have. But, it was clear to me that enough really was enough for Jenny, so we moved one of the pieces into the office and exchanged it for the table. When we originally moved in, one of the spare bedrooms was meant to be used for the dining room. Since we have a room for Gracie, we turned the "dining room" into the office. We used the table all summer for our Chinese classes, but lately it's just been sitting there. So, we made the big swap out today and for the first time in almost a year (!) had dinner at a table. Wow!