(Hey Mom, I meant to do this for you after our Skype the other day, but then the mouse on my computer stopped working and rendered my computer unpredictably useless, but I am doing it now, on my birthday, as a gift to you, which makes more sense than giving a gift to me because you did all the work those 30 years ago on that best day of your life.)

We went to Mongolia. We saw. We conquered like Chinggis Khan (you've been saying it wrong, and you didn't even know it!). Actually, mostly Dan did lots of work, and Joash and I hung out with a bounty of fun kids and their bounty of toy vehicles. I will post the pictures quickly before my computer stops working again. A couple days ago the mouse was clicking itself. I think there was a ghost nestled briefly in its microchippery. It seems to have gone on by now.

We're here in Mongolia, and I can't believe we've already been here almost a week. Joash and I are settling in to life at the living complex for Dan's company. There are so many kids here, and he loves to chase them around until he gets overwhelmed and starts yelling at everybody. They have been too kind to us here, refilling our stores of candy and soda (liquid candy), somehow secretly when we even briefly leave our room.  Tomorrow we are going sight-seeing, and then we've been invited for a Mongolian dinner at the home of Dan's co-worker's sister. Joash has been subsisting on peanut butter and honey sandwiches for most meals of the day. I'm glad we thought to bring his green veggie muffins or I'm afraid his insides would melt into pureed peanuts.

Anyhow, I have two videos for the grandmoms that I forgot to post before we left. They are a little boring, but grandmoms don't seem to mind any of that.



Day to Day from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
I was trying to get him to throw the ball because he has an exceptional (and comical) wind up, but he was vocally disinterested.

 
Waterless Fountain from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
Playing on the waterless fountain, wishing water would come out.

You could guess why I'm writing. Dan's in Japan this week, but, honestly, I am getting so much better about it. I actually really appreciate all the singular attention I get from Joash, and good days are easy. So far, we've had two good days in a row, great days, really. Yesterday we celebrated Easter with a date at Lotteria for burgers and chicken nuggets (also, we celebrated Passover last week when Dan was here). Then we ran a couple shopping errands and played for a fantastically long time on the (currently) inert fountains outside of E-Mart. It was our warmest day yet, and Joash found a couple friends to squawk and squeal at. He is used to being chased down and tickled by the older girls at church, and I think he thinks that everyone's out to engage him. He's not entirely wrong, but only almost right.

Today we dug in the sand and watched a tractor tear apart one of the playgrounds by our house. The nice thing about Korea is that they do these things completely in the open without even any protective barriers, so we got to see it up close. And then we marveled as the guy magicked his way onto the truck bed by rotating the bucket front to back and doing alternating push ups. There was no ramp. Is that normal? It was amazing either way.

5 Videos!

I have 5 videos. I haven't had a video haul like this since the old days.


Water is Wet from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
An old past time he's more or less given up.


Musicking from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
Dancing and playing his instrument. He could be in one of those marching bands.


Silent Night Again (and Again) from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
He wore the battery out on this book playing it over and over and over again.


Counting Calisthenics from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
Learning how to count (sort of) and getting a good work out.


Choreography from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
He has a toy bus that plays 10 songs. One of them is a pirated version of "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music. I used to sing him this song in funny voices when he would get grumpy during diaper changes. Now he dances like a maniac to it.


Cracker from serenity johnson on Vimeo.
And here he is saying "cracker."

I am a netbook user, and, somehow, a netbook cord abuser. Without fail, my computer outlasts its power cord, and then you're confronted with the dilemma of replacing an 80 dollar cord or replacing a 200 dollar computer. We replaced the cord, but it came slowly from America, and then Dan forgot to check our mail for a long time, but now I have a powered netbook again and pictures from as long ago as the last blog. I also have videos lurking on devices, but I'll get to them on another day. Probably this week, though, because Dan is in Japan, and that's the only time I can get any work done around here. We still suffer the sickness curse while he's away. This time Joash got a somewhat horrifying infected diaper rash, but I treated it like a proper hippie, and he's very much on the mend.

The weather has been amazing, and we've been going out to play every afternoon. Joash expects these trips now and brings me articles of clothing throughout the day, punctuating their delivery with petitions to "go go?" Along with bringing things to me, he's become quite adept at taking things to their proper resting places. He loves to clear the table after dinner, and he has even started to sort our trash into one of our three recycling bins. We've started the descent into toilet training, and, while I can't get him to pee or poop in any potty, there are marks of progress. Today he peed on the floor when I was in the other room, and then brought me a cloth to clean it up with. He repeats most of what we say these days, and I can't help but laugh every time he asks for crackers, making a sound more like a duck's quack than a word. It makes him sad when I laugh, because, no, seriously, he wanted a cracker.