Once upon a time our two oldest children spoke only Chinese and it was really cute.  But ever since I taught my eldest to read, his Chinese speaking skills immediately began sinking.  Eventually it got harder and harder to keep up with Chinese, and now it’s practically non-existent in our house nowadays.  Sad, but true.

But the story doesn’t end there.  We are currently revisiting our Chinese language skills because after all, our kids are ethnically Chinese.  Their grandparents all speak Chinese.  I believe speaking another language other than English is beneficial, so at this juncture, we’re determined to drill more Chinese into our kids’ vocabularies.  Today was the new beginning where I started speaking Chinese to them.  English now takes the backseat.  So, how did the kids do?

When I told my four-year-old in Chinese to go pee, she froze and just stood there.  Her face said it all.  Completely dumbfounded, lost, and clueless.   She could tell I was giving her a command but she had no idea what I was asking her to do.  Finally, I repeated the command in English and immediately comprehension was in the air.

Later I told my three-year-old to get me her milk in Chinese, she returned quickly with a CD.   CD, milk, they’re all the same to her.  At least she obeyed my command of “go get. . . . ”

When I spoke to my five-year-old in Chinese, he just giggled.  It sounded funny to him.  He understood the language, but not having spoken to for such a long time, the language sounded funny to him.

My seven-year-old is the most adaptable since he had the most language exposure.  He was able to reply to me in Chinese.  Now, that made me happy.

So, we still have ways to go with the kids.  We are now transforming our household (back) into a Chinese speaking household to the best of our ability.   I’m looking forward to receiving my newest Chinese curriculum purchase.

Our “creative artist” five-year-old produced the following.  Spelled the words on his own, as you might perhaps guess.  Phonetically.  Enjoy.

Same kid who made this batch of “cherries”:

At least, that’s how many days it’s been since we posted on our blog.

What can we say?  We’ve been afflicted by summer, a development spurt from our now-7-month-old daughter, and a lack of inspiration for great blog entries.

Otherwise… I’ve been picking up a few books at the same time, as usual, two of which have been especially helpful.

When People Are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch is a book that looks into how all of us suffer to some degree from a fear of man, or desire for man’s acceptance; instead of a fear of God and desire to please Him alone.  Where I initially had some other folks in mind when I picked it up (don’t we all? =-p), it’s been helpful for me already to see areas where I succumb to looking to gain the acceptance of others instead of being “God’s man.” Things may get even better should I progress to chapter two and beyond…

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges is a book I read through over a decade ago in a men’s study and prayer group.  It’s remarkable how time has changed my perspective on life, on God, and on obeying God.  So it’s with new eyes, of a sort, that I picked it up a couple of days ago to start reading it again.  And I was struck anew by his helpful thoughts on the importance of grace — and how easily we forget its necessity in every Christian’s life.   He sums it up well in the first chapter with this memorable quote: “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

I’m hoping to redeem a good amount of my limited spare time this summer by stealing moments to read a book here and there.  Wifey is reading Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God, which I speed-read a few months ago and appreciated some of the key points within.  Lord willing, I may also get myself to pick up John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation as well, difficult though the prose is to work through at times.

So it seems our kids set the pace again.  Even as the local public library, various bookstores and restaurants are offering kids incentives to read; it appears we have our own opportunity to do some summer reading.

To close, some new (and old) photos of the kids in gratitude for your energies slogging through my prose:

Recently we vacationed in San Diego with another family, and it was a great time together.  Our oldest and their boy got along really well, and I just love the fact that they enjoyed playing with each other.  With the two of them similar in age, they had a blast being boys and having fun at the same time.

After a couple of days, however, both sets of parents realized that these two boys were so enjoying one another’s company that they inadvertently had begun to exclude their own siblings.  The others were feeling left out and hurt as a result.  We had a chat with both boys separately, encouraging them to include their respective siblings in their fun, which they did happily thereafter.

We live in a culture that values peer relationships because we naturally gravitate towards what’s comfortable and easy.  We are very careful in making sure that our children don’t fall prey to negative peer relationships.  However, I find that even positive peer relationships can have a negative effect.  Even though our oldest was having a great time with our friend’s son, we did not want him to neglect his other siblings nor to treat this friend with more importance than his siblings.  I noticed that the more time my boy spent with our friends’ son (of similar interest and age), the more he “forgot” about his siblings.  It became harder to extract him from any activity he was engaged in.

And yet… we were greatly encouraged as we saw both boys, after being guided by their parents, begin to gladly (not begrudgingly) and intentionally work hard to ensure that their siblings were as much a part of the fun as ever.  We know that they are very much glad for their brothers and sisters (though not without frequent reminders from us).  So it gave us great joy to see these two boys not only cultivate their friendship, but to do so in an inclusive fashion.  They went from being self-centered in their fun (albeit with another self) to being other-centered, which is the heart of Christian living (”Love your neighbor as yourself”).  They thus managed not only to forge new bonds, but to strengthen the ones within their own respective families that will in all likelihood be there for their entire lives.

No doubt, in the coming years, we will face new challenges in keeping our family tight-knit.  Not only children, but parents can also lose sight of the priority of family.  Strengthening family relationships, esp. sibling relationships, takes work.  We hope that God gives us much wisdom, so that when our kids read their Bibles, and see how the New Testament refers to fellow Christians as “brothers” and “sisters,” it means much more than a distant or forced relation, but instead a very loving, lasting, and meaningful one.  And when they think of who their best friends are, their very own siblings are on the top of the list.

As my hubby noted, we vacationed in San Diego last week.  It was a fun time together as a family, but it wasn’t without meltdowns, complaints, bad attitudes, etc.  There were a few moments where I wondered, “How is this a vacation when I’m trying to give the kids lots of fun but they respond with meltdowns and complaints?”

I learned long ago that family vacation doesn’t really mean a complete vacation because we still have to wear our parenting caps, even on vacation.  So, how can one have a nice family vacation without having to deal with continuous meltdowns and complaints?

From experience we know what works for our family and how much the children can handle life outside of their home routines.  When we’re on vacation, we don’t pack our schedule with back-to-back activities because that’s a recipe for disaster.  Rather, we have one “on” day and one “off” day schedule.  We spent an entire day at Legoland and the following day, we took it easy and hung out at the hotel pool.  After a long full day at Legoland, the kids need a break whether they know it or not.  They need to catch up on sleep in order to maintain their homeostasis.

Legoland was an all-day affair.  On our second visit there, in spite of having taken two days of “downtime” at the hotel, the kids were nevertheless beginning to show signs of missing their regular routine.  By mid-day, two of the kids had a conniption over nothing.  We knew their behavior was due to having missed their naps.  But their behavior was still unacceptable.  They were disciplined for their behavior and afterward we had them sit in the stroller to sleep.  Unsurprisingly, they went to sleep almost immediately.  For some, putting the kids in a stroller to sleep seem waste of money because after all, they just spent lots of moeny on a theme park.  To have the kids miss out on rides and activities seem a waste of money and time.  As for us, we’d rather have sane kids over over-stimulated or over-tired kids.  How much fun are they truly having if they’re exhausted?  I doubt they’re having that much fun.  And neither are we.

I believe that parents exasperate their kids — in disobedience to God’s Word — if they keep on pressing on to give their children as much fun as possible even though they know their children are exhausted and melting down.  We have to consider our children’s needs first.  Even though we may feel compelled to get the biggest bang for the buck at an expensive theme park, our children’s needs come first.  Even when the children acted out, we shouldn’t make excuses for them.  We need to deal with their behavior immediately and appropriately.  Of course, there’s a fine tender balance.  They are tired so their self-control is out of the window, and we need to be especially tender and careful in addressing their issues.

Another nugget of wisdom we found was that the right amount of time to be on vacation is approximately one week.  Any time longer than that, the kids get antsy and start to act out more than usual.  One week is just right because it gives us enough time to do what we want to do, but not too long so that we feel we’re simply tired of our vacation destination.

Lois was making calzones in the kitchen.  From scratch.

She stepped away for “just a moment” to change baby’s diaper.

She came back to the below… well sorta.  The following was taken after the children were properly chastened, but not before removing the evidence of their actions.

Well, we’re back home now, with a full 24 hours since we got home from San Diego.  Six days of fun, sun, and a little bit of sleep.

It was a terrific vacation, all things considered, including two 12 hour drives to and from our destination.  We enjoyed 2 full days of fun at Legoland California as well as good times with our friends who helped to secure our 2BR/2BA housing accomodations through their timeshare.  We got to celebrate a child’s birthday, and that with a first-time-meeting-in-person family of eight that we’d met over the blogosphere.  We were privileged to meet up with old friends, worshipping with their new church family, Grace Bible Church, the day after we arrived in San Diego.  And what Ding family trip wouldn’t be complete without multiple trips to Costco, Target, and our favorite (and not locally available) fast food joint, Chick-Fil-A!

As for Lois and me, we were perhaps a bit unrealistic in our hopes for ourselves.  We packed 6 different books, hoping to get some reading time in.  Alas, as usual, parents are never truly on vacation.  We didn’t get to go out on our anniversary (which lands on the same date as the aforementioned birthday).  And somehow, mysteriously, our camera disappeared en route from our hotel to dinner at a friends’ place.  Thankfully, we were able to pick up a new one at the nearby Costco, while still mourning the loss of the old one, so we could continue photo-documenting our trip.

But all told, our worst fears weren’t realized (unending crying on the long drive, losing a child in the amusement park, etc.) and new fond memories were made.  Here are a few photos recording those memories…

Kids in the van, still in their jammies, and cheerful in spite of being awoken at 5am to begin the long drive down (maybe it’s the sugary snacks we rationed out every hour or two to help keep them looking forward to something positive!):

300+ miles later, we realized our van was badly overdue an oil change.  So we stopped at a quick-lube joint and were served “with excellence, humbly, with a servant’s heart.”  Hmmm, I think I’ve heard those expressions somewhere before.

As you might expect, Legoland CA was the highlight of our trip.  In fact, it was the main reason we chose this destination, as the park was hosting the last of its “homeschool” days which provided admission at a greatly reduced price.  At the end of our first day, though, we felt as if we’d barely covered a fraction of the park… and then discovered for a mere $15/person we could purchase tickets for a second visit (within 9 days).  And so we did so, and went back again a couple of days later.  Here are some photos from our Legoland visits.

Kids modeling with Bob the Builder (made of Legos, as much of the park’s features are):

Kids checking out a model of the White House in the “Miniland USA” feature at the park:

… and standing in front of the Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip:

“Hey that looks familiar!” as they look onto a Lego-art wall mural:

The kids got to do a bit of driving themselves…

… and I even got to be in one of our hundreds of photos, with my lovely wife…

Calissa (at right), had some precious time with her friend Mercy, who was born just two days after her:

I think we were hoping to get smarter by standing under the huge Lego sculpture of Albert Einstein:

And we enjoyed some rides as well…

What photo montage would be complete without our now traditional “make a monster face” pose?

Of course, with five kids ages 7 and under, many trips were made to certain facilities…

The closing act was a great time at the water play area…

And to prove we were all there at once…

One planned visit that turned out wonderfully was meeting a previously online-only acquaintance, the Fisher family, who live in the San Diego area.  We got to celebrate Calissa’s third birthday, enjoy some loving hospitality, and talk theology all at once.  Here’s a photo of the kids (9 out of a grand total of 11) together at the dinner table, making (of course) monster faces:

“Fishmama” and Lois together:

Other highlights of our trip included three (!) trips to Chick-Fil-A for delicious nuggets, hanging out in the hotel room and by the pool, “hotel schooling,” and yet another long but enjoyable drive home during which we listened to an entire audiobook presentation of The Wizard of Oz.

Enjoying lollipops at the halfway point of Kettleman City on the way home:

The sunset as we approached Los Banos on the way home:

Approaching Gilroy, the kids had endured/behaved so well on the long drive, we decided to reward them with some simple toys from Wal*Mart:

Wow.  We may not do it again soon… but we would most certainly love to do it again!