So two key milestones have passed in the last week: some of the the most important ones with kids.
The first is Leah sleeping all night without waking up or needing feeding. As with Hannah the trick here was for Andrea to disappear for a few days. Leah could tell Andrea was not here so she woke up less. Also if she did cry I could easily ignore her for a while till she fell asleep again a few minutes later (women are really bad at this, they always rush to deal with crying children).
The second is Hannah's willingness to brush her teeth. It has been a perennial nightmare for 2 years; that she never wanted to brush her teeth, no matter what toothpaste (bubble gum flavored princess, for example) or what toothbrush (toy story electric toothbrush that plays music, for example). But now she is ok with it, doesn't complain and sometimes does it herself quite well. I don't think there was one trick for that. We've been trying every trick in the book for months and for some reason one of those tricks just worked last week!
In other news we're getting closer to a routine at home and trying to get into the spirit of being active parents academically (the kindergarten is very proactive and requires parents to help kids do homework (like read a book about fish, though tough when that book is in chinese; or in their textbooks, color in the tall house blue and the small house red; or buy a basketball to play with/seeds to plant; or make various things). The kindergarten really is very good. One day they worried about some marks on Hannah's hands and required we go to see a doctor in case it could be something contagious (it wasn't), every day they send an SMS with the plan for the day's activities, and every week they send an SMS with the menu for the week. It's impressive and Hannah enjoys it a lot.
Every morning, in every kindergarten in the area, after kids arrive at kindergarten they do exercises to music and many of the parents or grandparents watch. It is adorable. I usually rush off to work but yesterday stayed behind a bit and saw a guy with a wireless mic leading the exercises. It felt like watching an aerobics show on TV just for 3-5 year olds. They all love it. And Hannah knows a lot of Chinese songs (and some English ones, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). Her native language is still Chinese, which you can hear when she talks to herself as she falls asleep sometimes.
It is very sweet hearing kids' favorite phrases (like Hannah's "that's funny") and favorite facial expressions. Leah's still mostly got the gormless face going with a large chin, poor girl. But she has beautiful eyes and lots of wonderful hair. She's still the same size as kids a few months older than her and increasingly enjoying the fruits of the world that we feed her, though the first two teeth are achingly slow in coming through.
