Talks about God

As we face the imminent departure of our closest friends here, the emotions are running high. Yesterday Ethan came into the house in tears because he hasn't been able to spend as much time with his friend Jackson this week as he had hoped. Through his sadness, he asked me, "Why did God bring us back to China if He was just going to make the Higgins leave so soon?"

Well, I have a lot of theories about that, but I knew he didn't want to hear any of them. So we just sat and cried together.

When I put him to bed, I told him that I was glad he'd asked that question, and asked how he was feeling toward God. This led into a long discussion about being honest with God (since He knows what we're thinking anyway!), hearing from God, heaven ("I can imagine going on forever, but I can't imagine not having a beginning!" he said), what being born again really means, how to grow closer to God, why it's ok to have doubts and question Him. It was the most precious conversation I think we've ever had.

Red Plate Day

We got one of those red "You're Special" plates for our wedding. We didn't realize how, if I can say it, "special" it was at the time. So it wasn't one of the things that made the cut into the 5 bags we brought when we moved to Asia in 1999.

Too bad, because today was a Red Plate Day. Why? Well, for a reason I'm guessing most of you (unless you live on this side of the world) would never have. Ethan came to me after language class today and said, "Mom, I just pooped in the squattie for the first time!"

For those of you unfamiliar, a squattie is what we call the hole in the ground version of toilets popular here. I hate them myself. I'm pretty sure I'm using them wrong, but I'm not going to into details. I love when I go to a public restroom and there is one sitting toilet, because there's always a line for the squatties but they kindly leave the sitting one for us foreigners. I think they probably whisper about me while I'm using it, wondering why I would want to squat 2 feet off the ground.

But back to Ethan. He continued with, "I thought, 'Uh . . . I'm not sure how this is going to work' but then I just did it." He was really proud. He wanted to be the one to tell Erik later. Now if only I could get Megan to use them at all . . .

Oh, and mom and dad, I'm guessing that plate's in your basement. Next summer. I promise. That and everything else. Ok, most of it.

A Life in Cakes

We just celebrated Ethan's 10th birthday yesterday. Yes, 10!! We were reflecting on each year last night at dinner and got on the topic of Ethan's cakes. My mom set an example for me of having creative cakes for our parties. I can't say all of Ethan's have been amazing, but it's fun to look back through and see what he liked each year. Here they are:

1st year: He didn't care, so I just made a generic cake to the feed the masses of friends we invited (he didn't care who came at age 1 right?)



2nd birthday: Ethan loved Blue Clues. This is when I first discovered the awesome time and effort saving technique of using toys to decorate the cake, rather than actually drawing something. (I'm pregnant in this picture, by the way). It's fun to see that the two kids on the right, Jackson and Emma, were at his 10th birthday party too!


3rd birthday: I'm pretty proud of this one. You can't tell much, but I dug part of the cake out, throwing those M&M rocks into the hole (if only real rocks came in candy colors). Again, Ethan's toys to the rescue!


4th birthday: I didn't want to ruin Thomas by planting him in frosting, so I constructed this, probably from a picture.


5th birthday: This one was our first in Singapore. I realize it doesn't make sense that Spiderman would be laying on the web like this, but it looked better than him doing a face plant into the cake.


6th birthday: Dinosaur! I wish I had a closer picture of this one. This was my first shaped cake. Notice the "rocks" on the table - chocolate pieces I found at Mustafa! The palm branches are courtesy of the courtyard. Ah, the tropics!


7th birthday: I'm not sure why Ethan wanted a Superman cake. I think he requested superheroes in general and this was the easiest. That red frosting was so potent the kids' mouths and hands were stained for days!


8th birthday: What do you do when your son asks for a "Lego Star Wars" birthday. Not Legos, not Star Wars, but Lego Star Wars. Call in the toys! There's a stormtrooper riding that green animal, and some other figures scattered around.


9th birthday: Ah, possibly my biggest challenge yet: a Bakugan birthday. Thankfully, these little toys are round so I suggested cupcakes. I then spent a night creating frosting in the various colors of Bakugans. After all my work, I was informed by my son that they were not quite the right colors. Because it was his birthday, I let him live.


10th birthday: Camouflage! Good thing I stocked up on all those different food colorings at the baking store in Singapore. This required brown, black, and two shades of green. My fingernails are still stained. As are some of the boys.

There it is - a life in cakes.

Kid quotes

The kids have been shooting out the classic quotes lately. Or at least I think so. Overhead at the Butz house recently:

Ethan, "Let's hope the Korean falls, perhaps." This said as we watched an American compete against a Korean in the 1,000 meter speed skating heat.

Megan, "I'm all milky!" after consuming a little box of chocolate milk in one go.

Ethan, "Mom, I think I've outgrown coloring." Ok, good to know.

Megan, "Mom, what's the key to life?" I think she got this from a movie. I hopefully supplied her with a better answer than the one the cartoon animals gave her.

Things I never thought I'd have to say

They don't warn you, when you become a parent, that you will hear sentences coming out of your mouth that were previously inconceivable to you. Ethan usually is the one who generates these phrases from me, as he is the more physically creative of the two (do you like how I put a positive spin on that?). Over the years I've been led to say things like, "Honey, it's not a good idea to free fall off your lofted bed onto the floor, even if there is a mattress there", "Great drawing, sweetie, but you can't swing your sister from your bed by a rope" (see drawing from December 21, 2004), and "Can you please stop trying to launch mini-muffins with your catapult." After awhile it becomes quite normal to say these things.

So yesterday I added to the list when the kids were eating snacks, and I was compelled to say, "Ethan, please don't try to shoot gummies into Megan's mouth with your sling shot." While I appreciate the fact that he's enjoying this simple toy, and learning to use it well, they were at seriously close range. How do you explain a slingshot/gummie induced wound?

You never know

Whenever he can, Ethan investigates technology. When we got our flight from Minneapolis to Chicago, he put on the earphones and searched for music on the armrest. The pilot broke in with an announcement, which caused the earphones to crackle. Ethan told me it gave him a mild shock all the way down his body. Then he continued with this interesting bit of information,

"Mom, whenever something like that happens, I do this" and proceeded to first hold his hand up, palm forward, then flip it around and hold it Spiderman style. Why? "Just to see if it gave me any super powers."

Always good to check.

Every man for himself

As a family we recently ventured up to the north part of town where many of our friends live. We opted for the subway because it's a pricey taxi ride there, and the western most subway stop is a few blocks from our house. Since it's the first stop, it's almost a guarantee you'll get a seat, which is good because as you continue on, the subway can start resembling a "how many clowns can you fit in a Volkswagon" joke.

Ethan, being our anxious one, started preparing to disembark about two stops ahead of time. He started saying to me, "Mom, shouldn't we get ready to get off?" as he was eyeing the sheer number of people between him and the door. I told him we could wait. It was all I could do to keep him in his seat until we got to our stop. Then he bolted.

I told him to relax, saying, "Ethan, don't worry. You're going to get off the train."

To which he replied, "Yeah, I'M going to get off the train." Implication: I don't know about you people.

My Kind of Cook

Ethan: "Mom, where's my Darth Vader mask?"

Me: "Boy, I don't know buddy. Why?"

Ethan holds up tongs, "Because I'm cooking bacon and I want to protect my face because a little bit just splattered me right here on my chin."

Now I really want to go find his mask because there's nothing better than bacon that's been cooked for you by Darth Vader.

I don't know what that means

The kids are working on short presentations for a little homeschool gathering we're having on Friday. Megan wrote about Sacagawea. Ethan chose hippos.

Yesterday, after Ethan finished typing his, he asked me if Megan had written hers by hand. When I said yes, he said, "Hmm . . . I prefer to use labor saving devices."

Later, he told me, "I don't really know what that means."

Surprising then that he used it in the right context!

The great Lego project

Since we are getting ready to leave Singapore, I told Ethan he needed to assemble all his Lego sets, determine which pieces are missing, and which sets he may want to sell or give away. He rose to the challenge and decided to start with Sentai Fortress, which is his largest set.

His Legos used to be organized, but over time, because he tends to make creations from his imagination rather than following instructions, they were completely mixed up. Megan and I put ourselves to the task of sorting the larger pieces by color, and the smaller ones by type.

Here's our final project. After a week of sorting an hour or so every day, he's at least able to know where to start looking. He says it won't stay this way. We've told him we won't sort them again (although Megan might cave. She really enjoyed it).

Celebrating Singapore style

I was kind of relieved that Ethan wanted to have a birthday party this year with just his friends who are homeschooled. It meant we could have the party during the week, and invite fewer kids! He decided he wanted to have it at the zoo, specifically in the water zone part of the zoo. The zoo has always had a water play area, but last year they up sized it and we had yet to experience it.


Erik took the afternoon off to come celebrate with us (after all it might be our last time to the Singapore Zoo!). As we drove up to the zoo, we noticed that the huge dark cloud, the darkest one around, was hanging right over it! We met our friends and ate a quick lunch while waiting for the drizzling to subside a bit. It did, just long enough for us to get to the north end of the zoo where the play area is. Once we got there, forget the animals! Every four minutes a huge bucket of water dropped down on the kids. There were water slides and fountains, plus a dry area where they could do a zip line or pull themselves across a pond on a raft.


Ethan's passion these days is Bakugans, which are a Korean toy. He and his friends have them, and regularly have Bakugan battles. His heart's desire was to get Castle Legos and Bakugans for his birthday. He also wanted a Bakugan cake. I ended up making cupcakes and coloring the frosting the six colors of Bakugans. What a mother won't do . . .


We stayed at the zoo for 5 hours! It rained off and on the whole time, but the kids didn't notice since they were wet already. They would have stayed there longer if we'd let them.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Nine years ago on the night of February 22nd, we had just finished watched The Truman Show with our co-workers and I started to wash the dishes when I felt my first contractions. Finally our little person had decided to come. An hour later some good friends came back from the States with their new son, 3 month old Jackson, and while we showed them around their apartment (which we'd found and had renovated for them) Jenny timed my contractions. I had worried that we might get stuck in traffic in the busy city we lived in, but when we left for the hospital at close to midnight, there were only empty taxis flying by.

Seven and a half hours after that first contraction Ethan John Butz came into the world at 4:33 a.m. on February 23rd, weighing 3.4 kg, which to this day I haven't converted to pounds. He spent his first few days in the NICU because he came out so fast there was fluid still in his lungs. During that time he was fed through an IV, though I came to feed him every three hours. Thankfully, that and his mellow personality meant he was on that schedule even after we took him home! For the first week and a half he woke up twice at night, then once a night for another 5 weeks, then he slept 10 hours a night. Go ahead, hate me, it's ok. God knew I needed an easy baby.

I was just looking back through a journal I've kept for Ethan since he was a baby, and it's fun to remember funny things he's said and done. I reminded him that when Megan was born, he would often spontaneously cry, "I love my Megan!" which he doesn't say anymore. He says it's because he likes babies (he really does!). He also went through a phase where he would ask me, "You so proud of me mama?" This included the time when I told him, "You have a fever."

But we are so proud of him. He's a fun, creative, sharp and friendly kid who has had a lot of experience in his nine years. We're excited to see where the next year takes him (aside from out of Singapore, of course).

So Much for Child Proof

When I discovered that Ethan had helped himself to his gummy bear echinacea, I questioned how he could possibly have opened the "child proof" bottle.

"I read the instructions."

Ah, yes. We're in that place now.

It's raining . . . or something

Ethan is our logical boy, and he often shares with us processes he's considered such as "The Eight Stages of Learning to Swallow Pills" (which he and Megan have both recently mastered) or, "The Four Stages of an Ant Bite." They're usually a series of stages. Sometimes they're just a list though. Tonight he gave us a list, which was, "The Words for Rain." It went like this,

"There are lots of words for rain. There's raining, and there's drizzling. There's sprinkling. There's pouring. And also there's plooping and plopping."

"Really? And what is plooping and plopping?"

"Plopping is when there are big drops that come down. And plooping is when birds poop on you. A lot of birds pooping at the same time is called plooping."

"Have you ever experienced this Ethan?"

"No."

"But that's what you'd call it if it did happen?"

"Yes."

Fishing for dinner

Erik took Ethan fishing today at Pasir Ris, where they caught large prawns. Yeah, they call them prawns here. We've succumbed. They caught eight of them and brought them home.

Now, this could have been a really awkward situation if we didn't have a fantastic maid who cooks like mad. We showed her the prawns and said, "Can you do something with these?" and she calmly and competently whipped up grilled garlic butter prawns with rice and green beans. The green beans, I should mention, were amazing. I do not understand how she makes these incredible dishes with items that I could just as easily find in my house. It's not like she pulls out some secret ingredient from her room to make all our food taste better. She just knows how to cook so much better than I do. And that's ok. That's why she cooks, and I don't. I bake.

But how cool is it that we caught our food for dinner? Ethan was incredibly proud. Lisa got a kick out of how often he came into the kitchen to check on her progress. Pictures to come as soon as my computer is fully functional, which is entirely dependent on Erik and not me.

My First Bible

Ok, Ethan's had Bibles before, but this is the first one he requested. I guess during VBS they had the kids look up verses in the pew Bibles (or maybe he was bored with whatever they were doing up front and spent some time browsing - equally possible) so he really wanted one JUST like it. That's right, a pew Bible. He's been asking for one for three weeks. We were at the Christian book store today and I took him to the kid's Bibles, giving him all the possibilities of cool covers and interesting devotions inside. He was undeterred.

So he's now got his first full adult Bible and he's a happy camper. And I probably saved money from buying one with more frills.

Ethan is funny

We stopped in the Lego store today on our marathon of browsing in stores and not finding the things for which we searched. Ethan saw this castle set he wants. The reason he wants this is because he has something called "Lego Imagination" which his friends started and he has taken up as a hobby. They each have a Lego board on which they build various structures. Ethan has a room at Tal and Keenan's Lego Imagination, as do Dawson and Ben. Ethan and Dawson both have "museums" in their Lego Imaginations that contain all the fun pieces they own, like light sabers and helmets. I have told Ethan that if he can show me that Lego Imagination is something that will take up a lot of those "I'm bored" hours, then I will buy him a bigger flat board for his building.

So when he saw the castle set, he decided he wanted it because it has money pieces, and it seems that money plays into these Lego Imaginations. As we walked out he said, "I really want that. I realllly want it! No, I don't want it. I NEEEED it! Yes, I NEEED it!" I made a comment about him being soundly American, but he didn't quite understand.

In the car on the way home, he said something else very funny, something that started with, "What am I talking about? I AM . . . " but neither of us can remember now what it was. But trust me, it was funny.

Pillow Talk

Ethan hit me with a whopper last night when he came into my room and said, "Mom, I have a big question. Why do mommies and daddies like to sleep in the same bed?"

To buy myself time, I laughed out loud, while thinking, "Oh God, please tell me it's not already time for this one. Where's Erik? Shouldn't Erik be fielding this? Don't jump to conclusions Gina. Maybe he's not really asking what you think he's asking." (yeah, that's right - I think really fast).

He said, "Why are you laughing?"
"Oh, you're just funny Ethan. Why are you asking that question?"
"Because I heard in an audio book that mommies and daddies like to sleep in the same bed. And I want to know why."
(Whew). "Well, because we love each other, so we like to sleep in the same bed." (Now off to bed with you, little camper!)
"But sometimes you say that daddy annoys you at night."
(When will we learn that they listen to everything we say?!)
"That's just because usually daddy falls asleep before me, and he snores, and it keeps me awake. So then I have to smack him and he rolls over."
Ethan, "So you smack daddy in the face and he goes back to sleep?"
Hey, let's just clarify that smacking statement before it gets repeated at VBS, "No, I just elbow him, and he rolls on his side."
I then did a demonstration of this, because it cracks me up. Erik doesn't snore so much as breathe VERY heavy. What's cute is that when I elbow him, he rolls on his side, but usually makes an, "I feel so rejected" whimper. I did that too, because it made Ethan laugh.

This seemed to satisfy him, to my great relief. Chalk up one for Ethan for keeping me on my toes.

People Who Look Like Me

The other day, Ethan asked me, "Mom, why are so many of the people on TV white?" The more I've thought about that question since then, the more I can see why he asked it. In his world 98% of the people are NOT white. And that's been true of most of his existence. When we lived in China, we signed him up for Little League Soccer at the international school. We got lost getting there, so it took us an hour and a half. We walked on the field to see giant white men coaching lots of mostly little white kids. Ethan looked at me and said, "Did we drive to America?"

Oh, they are so thoroughly third culture.

Pine Wood Derby

They say a good story needs conflict. If I may be so bold, this is a good story.

The annual Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby was today. Ethan's worked hard on his "Legomobile" (could it have been anything else?). He is a "Wolf Scout" which means one step up from Tigers, but below Bears and Webelos. We drove the long haul up to the Singapore American School in time for the Wolf Rank registration from 10-11. As we neared the school, Erik said, "Do you have your car buddy?"
To which Ethan replied a meek, "No."

Quick, think. It's 10:25. Registration ends at 11. The race is at 11:15. It takes about 1/2 hour to get here. We can't possibly go home and back in time.

I suggested we call our neighbor and ask a giant favor. Erik hesitated until I insisted that we had no other choice. Mark was willing, and he grabbed the car and headed our way.

Inside, the Derby was running late. Good thing because the car showed up at 11:10 still needing to be weighed. The cars can't be over 5 ounces. Ethan's was 5 ounces at home, but there it weighed just over. Get the knife! Erik frantically scraped chunks of wood out of the bottom of it. Weighed again - still over. Try another scale! Perfect.

We slipped our "late entry" car into the mix just in time for the first heat. Ethan's car was in it, and he won! Each car races three times. Second heat, 1st place! His third heat wasn't until the very end, but he easily pulled another 1st place finish.

But wait! The timers were broken today, so the cars were given points rather than times. There was another car who also placed first three times, so they had a face off. Ethan won by a nose.

Now as great as all that was, it meant we had to stick around another hour for the grand finals. Unfortunately Ethan didn't place in that race, but he was happy enough to be the Wolf Champion.

Erik does the last minute whittling to get Ethan's car down to the right weight.


Ethan's car is the second one in. We used magnets to make the top look like a Lego. I'd like to take credit for the Lego idea. As usual though, Erik gets full credit for the engineering.


We like to call this one, "Eat my dust."


The tie breaker for 1st place in the Wolf Rank - Ethan won!


Last year Ethan got an award for Best Design. He had no idea what it was for, but he was thrilled. This year he knew what he'd won and he was pretty proud!