What's a girl to do?

After starting Mother's Day a little sad and missing friends and family a lot, I went off on a shopping adventure in Beijing with some girlfriends! We had been planning this trip for months and did not realize until last week that it fell on Mother's Day. Danny was a little disappointed that we would not be spending the day together, but he was a trooper and enjoyed his day on daddy duty!!

Our first stop was back to George's Lamps, which is a bit difficult to find!! I think my driver thought we were crazy going into the alleyway to buy lamps!! These pictures give you a glimpse into the area surrounding the shop!! I was successful though and bought a tall lamp with a wood carved base - although Danny thinks it looks like a light post!!

I truly thought it might be down this road (it wasn't!)! There was a lot of dui bu qui (so sorry) going on to my driver!!
It has to be down this alley somewhere!!
Oh, of course, I'm so shocked we didn't find it quicker!!
Once inside, lovely!!

Next we went to Mrs. Shannon's Bagels for a quick, early lunch and then next door to Renaissance, which is a great little gift shop (yes, gifts were bought to bring back in a month!!)! Next stop was purse shopping! One of my favorite things to do! Here is Ginnette outside the unmarked door...hmmm!!

After a stop at the Silk Market, we headed to the "dirt" market (my first time!). It was amazing, with many treasures at every turn! Here are just some of the things that were being sold. It is very interesting to see how well they make pieces look old and claim they are antiques!! The colors are beautiful though!

After we shopped for a bit, we dared to take a rickshaw to a local furniture mall! It was a ton of fun...I couldn't stop giggling listening to Ginnette scream as their bike took off full speed ahead into oncoming traffic with shotty breaks!! I definitely need to get my parents on one of those!!

Yes, this is us going straight into traffic!!

Finally we were almost ready to call it day, but we had to make a quick stop at a sporting goods store to stock up on all of our tennis needs!! We are all taking tennis lessons now, so we need to look good so we can play great...hehe!!!

When I arrived home, I got a beautiful homemade card from my four favorite people!! And they even saved me some sheppards pie...yum!! I am so blessed to have such a loving family and wonderful friends, both near and far!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I'm sitting here at 5:30am (of course, with the amount of light outside, one would think it was 12:00pm!) and couldn't stop thinking of all the wonderful mother's that are a part of my life, Danny's life, and the children's lives!! I'm sending huge hugs to my dear mommy friends who are too far away, many who have played mommy to my own children on more than one occassion! I miss you dearly and on special days like today, I miss you even more!

I'm also sending huge hugs to my grandma, who is so full of life and love. The kids cannot wait to jump in the big chair with you (they have grown a bit since December gram so you may need a bigger chair!!) and tell you a hundred and one stories (all at the same time!)! I miss you so much grandma, I cannot wait to see you and here all of YOUR stories!!

I'm also sending huge hugs to Danny's mom!! You have accepted me as your own daughter from day one and I will always be so grateful for that love you have given me! I know you have made great sacrifices for Danny when he was a wee boy and you continue to do that for all of us even now! I miss seeing you and doing all the silly things we do! I miss watching the way you are so patient with the kids during a "project"!! Thank goodness for Nai Nai or else my kids would never be interested in the arts!! We all miss you, but even though you are far, you are a huge part of our life in China...we have a better understanding now of you and a day rarely goes by when someone doesn't say, "That's why mom/Nai Nai does ...."! Part of this adventure we are on is for the opportunity to fully imerse ourselves in the Chinese culture and give us all an understanding about the joys and struggles these people have that one can never understand in the Western world! Thank you for helping us along this very bumpy road we call life right now!!

I'm also sending huge hugs to my dear sister (and I'm sure soon enough this will include my sister in law and my baby sis!!). Even though you are the younger one, you have no idea how much you have taught me about motherhood. You probably do not know how much I miss our daily talks. It seems that not one conversation went by without you, in your quiet and composed way, giving me something to hold dear to my heart! I am so happy we are going through motherhood together, you always give me hope, even on the days when I want to pull my hair out! I love you so much and I love watching you love my nieces and nephews with every inch of your heart!!

And, of course, I'm also sending huge hugs to my own mother, mom, best friend, and the list goes on. How I have been blessed with you as my mother, I will never know, but I will be forever thankful!! (Okay, now the tears are flowing...I think I was in need of a good cry!) I'm sure if I told you that you are my inspiration for making the most out of living in China, Chicago, New Hampshire, Bettendorf, you would probably laugh. I know you grew up living in the same town where everyone was within walking distance and I know that is probably the life you envisioned for all of us. But, when dad needed you the most, you showed us all that you were much tougher and could hold our family together wherever we may be located. Tremont may not have been China, but I'm sure to you, it felt like you were a world away from your safety zone! Mom, you never let on how much you must have missed grandmas and grandpas and your sisters, you jumped right in and made new friends and insisted we do the same. At the time, you probably also never realized how the simple things you did would make such a huge impact on me in the future!! Not a day goes by that I do not long for a hug from you and honestly (I know this one may be pushing it), just to smell you! I am happy here in China and I do believe that thus far, we would all say this has been one of the most fascinating, positive experiences of our lives, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I miss you!! Anytime I think of our reunion (in less than a month), tears of joy fill my eyes! Thank you mom for loving me, supporting me, agreeing with me, and inspiring me on a daily basis!! I love you!!

Happy Mothers Day to all of you wonderful, fantastic, crazy, loving moms!! Enjoy your special day and know that you are loved!!

Teddy Bear Tea!

This week I was able to spend time with Cooper at school during his Teddy Bear Tea! It was fun to watch him interact in the classroom and for the most part, follow his teacher's directions!! I was impressed that he actually danced along to the music and even knew some of the movements (he must have his mommy's sense of dance!! hehe!)! He really doesn't seem to play with too many of the children, and that is one of the big reasons I wanted him to go to school this year. At home, he has two built in friends (El and Eens) and they have always been there. He really doesn't have a clue how to make a friend, so I think this exposure is definitely good for him!! He is also learning to listen to his teachers without crying when they ask him to do something. It seems that if they ask him to stop doing something or tell him that it is time to pick up, he cries (and we're not talking a little sad sob, we're talking a scream like someone cut off my arm scream!!). Of course, he is only a bit over 3 so I know he is learning and figuring out this whole school thing!! By August, he'll be a pro!!

For the Teddy Bear Tea, the teachers asked all of the parents to send in healthy snacks to share. All of the snacks ended up filling two big tables, so much for lunch!!!

The nursery class now has a whopping 28 students...I am so thankful for these patient, caring, and energetic teachers!! I do not envy them at all!!

Sleeping Beauty...

or I should probably say, Sleeping Prince!! This is Eens after his gym day last week!! Thanks Miss Joely for sharing the pictures and telling him to close his eyes!!

Next stop Beijing!

On Saturday we finally (yes, the kids had been begging for quite some time!!) took the kids on the fast train to Beijing! It was a holiday weekend here and most locals travel on trains, so we had asked our ayi to go and buy the tickets for us on Wednesday to guarantee we had seats! We took a taxi from our house to the train station a bit too early on Saturday morning, but we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to acclimate ourselves to the station! It was really quite nice - there were comfy couches to sit on while we waited. Now, these couches were blocked off, but one of the joys of being a foreigner here is being innocently ignorant! So, we have no idea if we belonged on the couches or not, but we made ourselves at home and sat back to enjoy the people watching!

Finding our train and boarding was quite easy. We had tickets in the very roomy section of the train. They offered water and took my stroller for me - it was very convenient! Throughout the journey, you could not feel that you were going, at one point, 335 kmh. We arrived in Beijing in just under 30 minutes! Pretty impressive for a trip that usually takes about 2 hours in the car!

The Beijing station was nice and easy to get around in. We quickly found the que for taxis and got in one to take us to our favorite shopping mall, The Place! Our mission of the day was to get the boys a desperately needed haircut! They, of course, wanted to go to Melon Heads and so did we because they do a fantastic job on their hair! After two quick haircuts we shopped around in the toy stores (I was trying to get ideas for Eensie's birthday!), looked at the Sony teeny, tiny netbook (almost bought it even though we can't stand our Sony laptop with Vista!!), ate lunch at a yummy Italian restaurant, and then went to the bookstore and stocked up on books to get us through our last 6 weeks here until we leave for the summer! After that we headed out into a gorgeous, blue skied day in Beijing!!

We decided to take the kids to the Temple of Heaven because they hadn't been there and it was not too far from the train station! The tree lined path leading up to the main temple is lovely and nice on a hot day because of the shade!! The kids enjoyed ice cream treats in relative peace, despite the ever present paparazzi.

And finally after almost a mile walk, we arrived at the Temple of Heaven. The structure is breathtaking and the colors are exquisite. These pictures do not do it justice! It is one of my favorite sites to visit in Beijing because it is not nearly as crowded as places like the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace!

And you get to watch a bit of impromptu ballroom dancing right in the middle of the park. It was mesmorizing!!

We let the kids take a peek inside the temple and then we headed to a little exercise park close by. It was close, but not close enough to the nearest restroom, therefore, Coop got to go "local" when he couldn't hold his little movement!!! You can see how excited I was about this!!!

After that episode, we headed back to the train station and were back in Tianjin before I could read 2 chapters in my new book!!

Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best...

Last week was a bit stressful as we watched the swine flu developments take place in Mexico and the US. All we kept hearing here was that a pandemic was eminent, so preparations must take place. Before we even had our first reported case in China, we were witnessing the preparedness plan put into place after the SARS outbreak in 2003. It is truly quite amazing what has been done within our expat community based on the World Health Organization's pandemic staging.

Last Tuesday when news broke and the stage was raised by WHO, our school sent home a very detailed letter informing us of new policies that would be in place during this flu outbreak. As of now, only students, teachers, support staff, and parents can enter the school and that is after all of us (imagine the line of students in the morning!) have our temperature taken and sanitize our hands. Only then can we enter through the main entrance. If you do have a temperature, you are sent home and if I understand correctly must stay home for 5 days minimum. Once you get inside of the school, all is pretty much normal, except for the buzz from most teachers trying to rush around preparing e-learning curriculum. If the WHO raises the pandemic level one more, our school will most likely close and students will use the internet to do their schoolwork. Of course, we are hoping that this does not happen, especially for the seniors who will start their IB exams next week. However, I truly appreciate the seriousness with which this outbreak has been taken and I can deal with the inconviences if it helps stop the spread of the flu.

I was talking to my neighbor from Singapore the other day and she was telling me that her children's school in Singapore was shut down for 5 weeks during SARS. The kids did e-learning during that time to complete their work. Since then, she said they have designated e-learning weeks during the school year so they can practice in case of another shutdown.

Our local SOS clinic has also taken precautions to prevent the spread of the flu should it come to Tianjin. Usually there are two doors we can enter through, but now they have locked one. At the opened door, there is a nurse who waits and takes your temperature and makes you fill out a form (this form asks about symptoms and places you have recently visited). If you have any symptoms suggesting swine flu, you are automatically put in an isolated room.

I have taken a few steps at home to prepare...I have asked ayi to order another big cooler of water so that we always have two full ones available, I also had her buy all of us the surgical masks (my thought is that if the flu reaches China, they will be sold out in a matter of minutes - the locals love those masks anyway, this would be a great excuse to wear them!), and I have talked to the pharmacist and a nurse about the availability of the anti-viral medication. We are also, of course, washing our hands like crazy! I may run out of my Bath and Body handsoap after all!

At this time, the locals do not seem too concerned about the flu threat. They know it is occurring, but it seems that they view it as a North American problem. At the fabric market today a nice lady was practicing her English with me and she told me that many people were sick in America so I should call and tell my parents "hi" from her!! It was so cute and she was so serious!

We hope you are all healthy and that this threat will pass quickly!

Happy Labour Day!

On Friday, we celebrated International Labour Day here in China! This meant that Danny didn't have to work and the kids didn't have school. We decided not to travel far over this holiday because many Chinese travel and most sites would be very crowded. Instead, on Friday we had a pajama day until late afternoon when the kids decided they should put on their Chinese clothes to celebrate the holiday! They were pretty sure they were going to wear their clothes to Din Tai Feng for dinner until I got a glimpse of Coop. Apparently he has really grown over the past 6 months - his little kung fu outfit was way too small! The pants were almost at his knees and he was wearing a half shirt - I know this fit him when we bought it!! El and Eens were a bit devastated that they couldn't wear their clothes out because it wouldn't be fair for Coop, so I appeased them, promising I would take a picture and show their grandmas and grandpas!!