Preston is nine years old and has calmed down a lot from his younger years. He is very inquisitive. Sometimes he is intentionally annoying. Since he is older, he sometimes laughs at the same things we laugh at.
Franklin, at six, has become a delightful kid. When we were in California, one day we were on a car ride and he began asking me all sorts of "favorite" questions. They started out typical, like "What's your favorite color?" and "What's your favorite book?" Then he began looking around for ideas for more questions, like "What's your favorite window?" and "What's your favorite seat?" (Nathaniel ended up getting into the questioning too, and I ended up having to tell him that I don't think I had a favorite leaf when I was a little baby.) Franklin has also taken a liking to playing games. On the Fourth of July, he wanted to play Monopoly, because one of his classmates had played it. I told him it was hard and complicated. When we were playing it, he said, "I like this game. You said it was hard and complicated." But I was actually doing most of the work, just telling them what to do (it didn't help that the TV distracted them too.) Yesterday, he wanted to play chess with the Peanuts chess set I got for Christmas almost four years ago but never opened. (When I was ten, I was obsessed with chess, even though I wasn't any good at it, but now I don't like it.) Franklin played a very good game, although I had to help him. He was saying that my mom made a good recovery from her broken leg "for an old lady." I said, "She's not that old," and he said, "I know, she's just old. Old for her age."
Nathaniel (Qi-en) is four years old and is adorable, with his big half-Chinese eyes and his huge dimples. He has some major speech problems, which makes it funny, cute, and difficult when he goes off on some long-winded conversation you can't understand. He is very inquisitive and asks lots of questions, tagging a "why" or "how" again at the end. For example: "Why is the GPS telling us where to go if we already know? Why?" This week he asked me more questions about the sun. If I remember correctly and if I understood him, I think he was asking me why the sun shines in Utah but not in Taiwan (he having spent a month in Taiwan earlier this year). On Friday, I went on a walk with him and Franklin. Franklin kept running ahead, but Qi-en would stop and tell me he was waiting for me. He kept telling me he would help me when my legs got tired. I go running on hills all the time, so I didn't get tired, but it was good knowing he was there to help me if I did. He also ranks cuteness on size, so I'm the least cute in my family (since I'm tallest). This week we went to the aquarium (which I was really impressed with) and he saw his second cousins "Wallace" and John. Both of them are cuter than he is, and the baby is cuter than the three-year-old. Although Nathaniel has become a little less happy, he is generally a very happy kid and runs around with a little hop in his step, as indicated by this picture I snapped at Lassen Volcanic National Park.
I felt so happy, if a little guilty, yesterday when I was leaving and he said, "I don't want you to leave."
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