I don't know why they love him so much...

Megs' boys adore Dylan. They always want to play with him. I don't get it.

I mean, I adore Dylan, too. I really do. But he just kind of...ignores them. So I can't figure out where the draw is. Maybe because he's an older boy? I don't know.

Dylan just kind of has his own agenda and goes forward with it, not worrying about what anyone else is doing, whether if he's hurting anyone's feelings, etc. It's all about him. If other kids are along for the ride, that's fine with him. But he's not about to coddle anyone or put forth any extra effort to be nice.

Which means that he is, like, the opposite of me. I'm too nice. I need to take a page from Dylan's book, really.

For example, he is so into himself that, when Sadie was born, he didn't really even notice. I think he finally realized that there was another child besides him when she was maybe six months old. Same with Mike. The other day, Ben was lamenting that Micah, um, prefers feminine things. He said, "It's all Dylan's fault, you know. If he had shown any interest whatsoever in Micah, then maybe he would like boy things." I rolled my eyes. "Mike is going to be fine, honey."

Ben has a flair for the dramatic. We have established this fact.

These pics are from when we were hanging out at Megs' house one evening.

Megs and her hubby are so funny. They're good friends. They've been so concerned about us being ready to leave that they have actually done some of the work for us. A gal I've met who is an expat in Beijing suggested that I bring my own deodorant with me, because she says there's not a huge deodorant selection over there. That, if I'm particular about my deodorant (and I am), I should buy enough to last me my entire time that I'm there. I mentioned this to Megs, and guess what the girl did? She used her coupons (she has madd couponing skillz) and bought me a ton of deodorant in my favorite brand. What a sweetheart.

And then her hubby downloaded Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur Mandarin lessons for us and burned them onto a CD. We put the lessons onto Ben's iPod, and we've been listening to the lessons quite a bit. I'm not a very good auditory learner, so it's been hard for me to pick up, but it's coming along, slowly but surely. I've listened to Lesson 1 four times now, and I can honestly say that I just about have that lesson down pat.

Want to hear what I've learned? I'm excited. I'm obviously spelling these things out phonetically, aiight?

Excuse me. - Toy po shi.
Can I ask - Chin when
Can you speak English? - Ni way schwah Yingwen ma?
No - Bo
No I can't - Bo way [This was easy to remember. It reminds me of "No way.]
I can speak Mandarin. - Wah way schwah Po tone quah.
I am an American. - Wah shi Maygwan zchen.
A little - Eee day-are.

Pretty cool, huh? I listen to the lessons while I jog. I'm sure I look special, jogging along, yelling aloud, "Po tone QUAH!"

Thanks for being such good friends, Megs and Mark.