My beautiful kids in our dining room window.

Zach is taking taekwando classes now. Today was his second class and he got his free uniform. It's so cute! All white with a white belt. He has to get six stripes to get to the next belt - orange. His first stripe is after he memorizes this greeting about mind, body, etc. John said he takes it very seriously in class. When I took him for his first day, he ran right in there for his intro class which was a one-on-one with the instructor. The instructor was a high school student who said he only teaches on Saturday since he has marching band in the weekday evenings. Zach said his teacher was really cool. I am so glad he's enjoying it.

We also had a great birthday party for Zach on Tuesday. Some of his friends from school came: Ryley, Emme, Briar, Lance, Gary, and Joshua. Then Ethan, Aletheia, Acacia, Sydney, and Travis. Everyone had a great time. My parents and Es were also there. Asia has been asking for her Nai-Nai and Auntie Es ever since.

For Thanksgiving, my Aunt and Uncle from Stow, OH, came to visit along with my cousins Wayne and George. It was fun listening to my mom and my uncle talk about old times in Taiwan.

no cats for us

At my suggestion, John took Zach and Asia to an animal shelter to play with
some kittens. We suspected Zach might be allergic to cats, though his
reactions weren't consistent. John said that one time he and Zach spent the
night at a friend's house who had cats and the next morning, Zach was
complaining that it was hard to breathe. As soon as they left the house,
Zach was fine. I've never seen this happen myself. Another time though, we
were at John's sister's house in TN and after playing with some barn cats,
Zach complained that his eye was hurting. It was all red, but he was also
really tired and ended up taking a long nap after that. Anyway, so this
time, they were playing with the cats and John said Zach started sneezing
and felt his neck was kind of itchy. John himself felt itchy. But it was
Asia who had the worst reaction of them all. Driving home, she started
sneezing. Then when John brought her in, her eyes were almost swollen shut!
My poor baby! I gave her some Benadryl so we'll see how she does. Anyway,
unfortunately, no cats for us at least for a few more years.