Kids Say the Darndest Things

Here is a conversation between my sister and Brycen:

Betsy: If you could choose to live in the United States or China where would you want to live?

Brycen: China

Betsy: Why China?

Brycen: Because that is where my dadda is.

Betsy: Ok, if you could live anywhere and your dadda would be there where would you want to live?

Brycen: (thinks for a minute) Mexico

Too funny, as we have never been to Mexico nor do we talk much about Mexico on a daily basis. I love kids!!

Fuxing Park and Photo Walk

Last weekend my friend Lindsay and I went on a photo walk. She has just finished taking a photography course and knew of some cool places to go. She is like me in the fact that she likes to just walk around in old town Shanghai and explore the little alley ways where the locals live. It is so interesting to see how they live. Whenever I am out walking I try to get a glimpse into their houses to try and get somewhat of an understanding to the way they live. I had never been successful in getting a local to let me in their house until now! I was taking a picture of a little boy playing in the doorway of his house, and I suppose the grandparents were so thrilled that I thought their grandson was picture worthy that they invited us right in and encouraged us to continue taking pictures. It was very neat. Anyway below are some of the pictures that I took while on this walk.

These two pictures were taken at a temple. These are prayer cards. People write their prayers or words of hope on these cards and then hang them from the trees and this stand. Although most of them were written in Chinese, there were a few written in English.

Obviously this is a picture of a satellite dish, but what is funny is the plastic bottle that is acting as a component to this high tech system. I guarantee they get better tv than we do:)

Here is the picture of the little boy playing in his doorway. He was so cute, but quickly became shy when I started taking his picture.



Two weekends ago we went to Fuxing Park. The parks in Shanghai are great for people watching and also seeing the locals in action. I loved this park. I would say a majority of the people at this park were in their late 50's or older. The great thing is that everywhere you looked people were dancing or singing and having a great time.

Writing with water. We stopped and watched this for a while. Les was talking with someone who told him that they write different philosophical sayings and then sit and ponder the meanings.

Les taking Brycen fishing for the first time. This was a little pond filled with tons of goldfish. Les put the bait on the rod and then Brycen caught the fish and then they made me un-hook the fish...what, why do I get that job?

The "older generation" dancing. They really were having a great time.

Playing Catch Up

I am trying to play catch up with some of the things we have been doing lately.
Les was in Beijing for 2 days and was lucky enough to go to the Great Wall for a few hours. We hate that we didn't get to experience it for the first time together, but such is life. He said it is really cool. He was amazed at how steep it was in some spots but said the views were amazing.

They had this performer at Activity Day at Brycen's school. He was pretty cool. He danced and his mask somehow kept changing colors. He would wave his fan in front of his face and voila....a new color.

Activity day at B's school. Here is Brycen and his friend Kai playing in the water. These two thought it was really funny to throw the soaking wet sponges at me.

Brycen and Les went for a boys days out to the Shanghai X-Games. It was really hot this day, so they didn't last too long, but they had a great time watching all the cool stunts that can be done on a skateboard and rollerblades.

4 month stats

A little late but here they are.

Height...24" (50th %)

Weight...14.66 pounds (70th %)

She takes 4 bottles a day and totally sleeps through the night. I hope this doesn't change when she tries to deal with the time change this summer. She is such a good baby. She is very happy and content except when she is sleepy and then she is MOODY! She absolutely loves her brother and grabs at him every chance she gets. It is amazing how long her hair has gotten over the past month. She still has a bald strip in the back, but it is really long and curly everywhere else.

Les calls her "Dawn" King. Because although her hair is curly it does go straight once she lays on it or messes with it and then it sticks out all over the place. I love this little girl!!!

Water Town

This last weekend we decided to visit one of the nearby water towns (think Venice, but not quite as picturesque). There are few to choose from but Zhouzhuang came recommended. It is one of towns that has kept some of its ancient ways and this town dates back to the Ming Dynasty.

It was a really hot day and this place was about as un-stroller friendly as you can imagine. We weren't quite sure how big this town was so we took both strollers. Brycen probably could have walked it, but I don't know if he would have lasted as long as he did.

As soon as we got there we decided to eat the picnic lunch that we had brought. This was all fine until Brycen dropped his "Cars" sippy cup into the canal and started screaming hysterically. Les was looking at me with a look like 'I AM NOT going in there to get a stupid cup'. Luckily, this was also the route where all the gondolas went and one nicely maneuvered over and fetched his cup for him. On we went.

We had a great time looking in all the little shops and I tried as hard as I could to get a picture inside one of the little houses that lined the alleys, but they kept shooing me away. As always the kids drew a crowd everywhere we went so that slowed us down a bit. We took a gondola ride through the little town and it gave us some great pictures.


Entrance to water town

not quite sure the significance of this creature

Gettting his name (Chinese and English) put on a stamp

Hmmm...interesting selection, I think I'll pass

This lady also sang for us. She stopped her song to remind us to pay her money for singing:)

Like I said, we packed our own lunch

Expectations

I have always struggled with knowing when to lower my expectations. Today was one of those days.

I (and all the other mothers) were invited to Brycen's class today for a special Mothers Day presentation. Brycen and I were given an assisgnment ahead of time to come up with a presentation that the two of us could do together to present to his class. We were given 10 minutes and could do anything that represented what Brycen and I liked to do together. For those of you who know me, you know that I don't have one creative bone in my body. So I called on my "creative" friends from home for some inspiration.

In the end we decided to showcase a "day in the life" of Brycen from back home in America. We made a poster board that included lots of pictures that would show his class some of the things he enjoyes doing (skiing, going to the zoo, hiking, Yo Gabba Gabba). So after a darling song by the entire class for us moms it was time for our presentation. Brycen did such a great job explaining to his classmates what he was doing in each picture. We also like to cook together lately and so we decided to make an American Flag cake. I had the cake baked and frosted ahead of time and the strawberries (that are used to make the stripes) sliced and the blueberries (for the stars) all ready to go. All Brycen and I had to do was assemble the cake...

Roll video...

Not quite how it had all played out in my mind, but none the less we had a great time.

Heaven in Shanghai???

Shanghai is not without its fair share of American food chains...McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, California Pizza Kitchen and Cold Stone Creamery. Some of them taste pretty authentic, but some are so far from authentic that it is sad. Take doughnuts for example. Although there are plenty of doughnut shops around none of them taste like home. They taste more like unsweetend rings of nothingness. That is until we found....wait for it...Krispy Kreme.

I had heard from a friend that it was here and to be honest my expectations weren't that high. I decided to surprise Les with a trip there and I knew from the moment we walked in and were greeted with a warm, icing dripping, hot off the press doughnut that this experience would be different. This was the best $12 dozen doughnuts I have ever tasted!!

The funky ones with candy and cookies on top were Les's pick...all I wanted was sprinkles

Happy Easter Weekend

We had another great fun filled weekend. It started out with a trip to Brycen's school to help out with their Easter celebrations. They made sock bunnies, decorated and hid Easter eggs and sang songs. It was fun to help but I do not know how those teachers do it day in and day out with 25, count them 25 three year olds running around...WHEW!
On Saturday we met some friends at an indoor play area here called Mama Meya. They had lots of fun Easter activities for the kids and Brycen had a great time. On our way home we took a pit stop to an American favorite, but I will keep you in suspense and put that in another post...
On Easter morning we woke up and were so happy that the Easter bunny visited our house. Brycen was happy to find colored pencils, markers and a football (actually it is a rugby ball, Les informed me because they don't play American football here)...oh well. We then met some friends for a very yummy brunch. We ate everything from steak, sushi, ham, Indian food and the best desserts ever! It was a great weekend.

Oh Sunny Day

It has been a rare site lately to see beautiful sunshiney days, blue skies and buildings as far as the eye can see. But today we have all 3! I love this view. It is for this view that makes living on the 55th floor a little less scary. We have an incredible view of the Shanghai World Financial Tower, home of the worlds highest observatory and behind that to the left a little is the Oriental Pearl Tower. I find it very funny that the Pearl Tower is a TV tower, but we only get 5 english speaking stations. Go figure.

I have been trying to keep track of some of the funny things Brycen says lately:

"when are we going to our regular house"...house in Ohio

"this is our new house"...apt. in Shanghai

"we live WAY high up"

"dinners here"...he says this everytime our doorbell rings. There is a dinner delivery service here and obviously we use it WAY too much:)

"where is Shanghai"...he says this when it is really foggy and you can't even see your hand in front of you. It's funny when he says it, but scary when you look out the window from this high up (think being in the clouds in an airplane)

The other day he didn't want to take a nap and he called mommy, mommy for 1 1/2 hours straight. At one point I heard him say "mommy when I call your name your supposed to say 'yes Brycen here I come' "...yeah right.

Busy Weekend

Last weekend was beautiful. The weather was nice and so it was finally time to get out and see some of Shanghai. The morning started off with none other than a visit to the Dr. with Saria. I thought it was another case of pink eye, but they think she may have blocked tear ducts. Phew!! I had our day planned. We were going to go to a famous park in the middle of downtown called People's Square/People's Park and then to the Shanghai Railway Museum. I showed Mr. Chao (our driver) where we wanted to go and he initially dropped us off in front of some Urban Planning Museum. Surely we couldn't be in the right place, so I had him drop us off at the park that I saw across the street. There was a huge fountain there with kids running around in it. Shortly after we got to the fountain they turned it off so the kids could splash around in the water. Brycen thought this was very cool, because you could see the holes where the water came out. After walking around a little I was confused about what all the excitement was about in this so called "famous" park. Sure it was pretty, but where were all the people doing tai chi and water calligraphy? We decided to go to lunch and as we were leaving I looked behind the Urban Planning Museum (where we were originally dropped off) and sure enough there was a HUGE park with amusement rides and lots of people. Whoops. Next time I will leave it up to the local to know where to drop us off. The Railway Museum was pretty cool. The trains outside were fun to climb on, even though the signs said "no climbing". All the other kids were climbing on them so when in China do as the Chinese kids do:)

On Sunday morning Brycen and I "walked" in the Jinqaio 2K Fun Run with some friends of ours. There were two things that really amazed me on this morning.

1. This 2K was held in an area that is very popular with expats. It is very common to see mostly westerners when you are in Jinqaio and sometimes when you are there you forget you live in China. So I was very surprised when Brycen and I showed up to sign in and we were two of very few westerners there.

2. The paparazzi like photographers. These people had long lens cameras and were in our faces most of the morning. It is amazing how enamoured Chinese people are with westerners, especially the children. It got so bad that at one point Brycen's friend Brady pulled the shade down on his stroller just so they couldn't take his picture anymore:)

I think next time this happens I am going to start taking pictures of them taking pictures of us.

Brycen's friends Brady and Rilynn

The 8K about to start. Notice I am taking the pictures... NOT running

His first 2K!

Chinese 101

This week Les and I started Chinese lessons. Our first lesson included learning our numbers. It has been awhile since I have taken a foreign language and now I remember why. That afternoon Brycen came home from school singing a new song that he had learned in his Chinese lessons at school. Now it it not uncommon for Brycen to come home from school saying different words in Chinese and I never know what are true words or what are just made up. As I listened closely on this day I recognized that he was singing his numbers. It was quite the catchy little tune as you see in the video and it totally helped me remember numbers 1-5. I never thought I would be "learning" alongside my son, but I love it. He is very reluctant to speak Chinese for the camera, but I will try to record him some more as it is hilarious and darling all at the same time. So here is your chinese lesson for the day:

1...yi

2...er

3...san

4...si

5...wu

mingtian jian...see you tomorrow

wo qu..I want to go to _____.

All of these words have the tone indicators above certain letters, but I am not sure how to add them.

Never in a million years

I have not had very many jobs in my life and one of them even took me high up into the skies, but I would never sign up to do this!

Do you see that they are hanging by ropes and sitting on a wooden swing like thing? They were there and gone in a flash. Brycen thought it was the coolest. Little does he know this is also his new time out location:)

2 months

Wow time flies!! Saria is already 2 months old. I don't have any stats yet because she hasn't been to the Dr. (for her well check anyway...she has been to the Dr. plenty, but that's another story).

She is such a wonderful baby. Still only waking up once during the night to eat and most of the time it's not until 4 or 5, so that I can handle. She is starting to smile a lot more and we even hear the occassional laugh. Saria loves her brother so much and is always staring at him with wide eyes. Thanks to my Aunt Susie for the adorable hat in the picture below.

Thanks Mom

A HUGE thank you goes out to my mom for all her help while visiting us in China. I really can't believe how much she did and she makes me want to be a better mom (especially when it comes to being crafty with Brycen).

My mom arrived in China on Chinese New Years Eve. Not being a fan of fireworks and really loud noises this was probably the worst possible time for her to come. The Chinese must have huge stock in the fireworks business, because there were fireworks day and night for the next 2 weeks. Thank goodness that we live up high enough so that they weren't too loud, but just loud enough to be a bit annoying. Did I mention this lasted day and night for 2 weeks??

Brycen was so happy to have his grammy here. She spent lots of time reading and doing crafts with him. She is so creative (I totally missed this gene). She could take a small box and turn it into a carwash, parking lot or whatever else his cars would go in. She made personalized placemats with him, so we all knew where to sit for dinner.

Although we didn't get out and about a whole lot during her visit, she was lucky enough to experience a little bit of China. I took her to dinner at a hotpot restaurant, we took the ferry from one side of the Huangpu River (the river we look onto from our apartment) to the other, a visit to the fake market and a short visit to Yuyuan Garden. The Gardens were sooooo crowded when we were there that we didn't even venture into the actual gardens but will save it for their next trip out.

My mom kept our house spick and span and did our laundry everyday, whether it needed it or not:) Brycen kept referring to her as "our new ayi"...too funny.

Thanks again mom! You are going to missed.

Crash

Next time we'll teach him about the brakes BEFORE he gets on the bike:)

9 months old...OK he's 3

That's a leap year baby for ya! Happy Birthday Brycen. I can't believe he is 3 years old already. He has never looked as big as when he jumped up and hopped right on his bike and took off down the hall. I was so proud.

Don't let the size of the Elmo cake throw you. It was only a 5" cake for a mere $40...but to be honest it was the perfect size for us and we even had left overs.

Poor Baby Girl

It would be an understatement to say that sickness is rampant in our house.

It all began with the day after Saria was brought home from the hospital. Brycen came down with a high fever, cough and slap cheek and had to stay home from school for 3 days. Thank goodness Betsy was here to help keep him occupied. Then Les got a sinus infection, I caught a "bacterial" cold for which no medication would help and I still have it today. Brycen then came home from school with pink eye. Thank goodness there were no missed days of school as he had the weekend to become non contagious. 3 days later, I took Saria into the Dr. for what looked like pink eye, a high fever, cough and congestion (so bad that when she cried no sound came out). She was hospitalized for what was supposed to be 24 hour observation but sure enough 4 days later we came home. The day after we got home my mom went to the Dr. for pink eye and an awful cough...when will it end????

On the bright side Saria is feeling much better and was very well taken care of during her stay in the hospital...and mom enjoyed the food once again:)

Here she is in her hospital gown that was 20 sizes too big. The nurses kept saying "too big for newborn, too small for pediatrics"...funny.

Love this...

I love this picture.

I love this picture because this was one of the good days where he didn't try to bite her finger off, take her tummy time toys or squeeze her stomach.

One Month

Here are her 1 month stats:

9.59 pounds..50th percentile

20 inches..50th percentile

I can't believe it has already been a month!! Saria is such a fun, good baby. She is a fairly good eater and for the most part a very good sleeper. She only wakes up once during the night to eat and then goes right back to sleep.

It is so fun to dress her up in all the different clothes that were given to her!

Happy (Chinese) New Year

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. I have to admit, I have always known about Chinese New Year and knew that my birth year was associated with an animal, but have never really given it a second thought. That is until we moved to China and got the chance to experience it first hand. Living on the 55th floor of our apartment building afforded us the best view of the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen.

The Mandarin teachers and students at Brycen's school put on an assembly that had singing, traditional dragon dances and drums. After the assembly we went back to his classroom and the kids made dumplings. The dumplings are made with meat and veggies and then boiled to cook the meat. I turned around just as one of Brycen's classmates was eating an uncooked dumpling...poor thing, the teachers were mortified.