life slice

bathtime

2010-12-15T06:07:00.005-07:00

I love the soft, buttery, clean feeling of my freshly-bathed Hannah:

And I love making shampoo hairstyles on the kids (especially putting horns on Eli when his hair is long enough). These kids are so excellent.

Our new house doesn't really have a bathtub, but we have small baby tubs that we use for the kids...probably saves us on water in the long run. It doesn't matter, bathtime is always fun no matter what.

Christmas play

2010-12-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this year, Eli and Dana starred in a Christmas play. Eli got the role of Joseph and Dana got the role of a Shepherd. I think that Dana enjoyed making the ornaments after the play more:
Eli also made one:

I had to stifle my laughter at the rehearsals when Eli and Brieanna-Joie (Joseph and Mary respectively) bickered and fought like an old married couple. I'll bet the real Mary and Joseph had their tense moments especially under the stressful circumstances of Jesus' birth.

I love this shot, when all the kids got together and sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" among others. They may not have known the words then, but they know them now!

Dana date

2010-12-07T06:09:00.006-07:00

One of our favourite things to do is go to the library, which is really the International School. Our homeschool group has an agreement with them which allows me to go and use their library. So one day I went with Dana, and we hit the playground afterwards. First we played "buyer and seller." Dana sold me things like lipstick, hotdogs and cake all from the same store, and reasonably priced too ("Ten kuai")...

Then we went on the swings. It seems to me that the swings are her favourite...come to think of it, they were my favourite when I was her age too.

This day was Eli-less because he was at school. He goes to preschool 5 days/week (half days) and Dana goes 10 times a month (also half days). Hannah was sleeping in the stroller.

good friends

2010-11-27T06:07:00.004-07:00

My good friend Phyllis and her family moved back to the U.S. at the end of November. Phyllis and I had come to China at about the same time and studied together at the same language school. We were both excited and relieved to find each other when we first arrived because we had kids the same age too. It was so fun to make her laugh in class!

Her daughter Emma and Dana were good buddies too. It was Emma who introduced Dana to the "let's pretend you are my dog" game. Emma is dog-crazy and very imaginitive.

Eli's best friend is Caleb. It was neat to see how Caleb and Eli related to each other these past three years as they are really quite different in their personalities. Eli is more prone to bypass sadness and go straight to anger, whereas Caleb is more of a sensitive soul. Eli needs to run and jump and wrestle, whereas Caleb can be still and draw or build things.

Hannah is a bit too young to have gotten a chance to play with Phyllis' youngest child Samuel, but we are going to miss his toddler antics too!

I am so glad we had a chance to get to know Phyllis and her family. We sure are going to miss them! Who knows, maybe our paths will cross again... I sure do hope so.

Hannah likes solids!

2010-11-06T06:08:00.003-07:00

Our little Hannah, at 6 months, started eating solids. I know you technically can start at 4 months, but why would you when breastfeeding is so easy, convenient and clean (not to mention that breastmilk is the most important food for babies up until one year of age)! Here she is with her first meal of rice cereal:

And the verdict:

That's a "thumbs up" for rice cereal smile for sure.

the visit: everyday 'round here

2010-07-25T07:18:00.004-07:00

Of course we had down-time too. We wanted to show our folks our regular life so that included hanging out at home and showing them some of the local sights. The sights also included the latest greatest grandchild!

I love this picture that Boppa (Alan) took, aptly naming it "the two Cuties" How true. Hannah is not hurting for food, she almost eclipses Dana!

I love the grandparent shots with the newest grandchild, so I included one of each. Nana was excited and soon remembered her baby-burping skills without any coaching.

Hannah's favourite spit-up target was Boppa. It hardly ever failed, I would hand Hannah over to him to hold and 4 seconds later she would have a productive burp all over him. But her smiles made it all worthwhile right Alan?

And Babi too, took a shining to little Hannah. I love both of their expressions here, equally enamoured with one another.

This is the closest thing we have to a farm: one rabbit which Dana loves to feed our fruit and vegetable scraps too,

and two ducks that have miserable living quarters as far as I can tell.

When you don't have a backyard, this is what you learn to do in your house. We are looking into gymnastics for this little monkey, but may do a stint of diving in the meantime as it incorporates trampolines and swimming for a reasonable rate. If you remember how China did in the diving at the last summer Olympics, you'll know the coaching is decent.

Eli and Dana's bedroom. Eli was delighted to receive some Lego from Boppa, Nana and Babi.

On our date night, Scott and I got to go for an evening riverside walk with our folks, while Eli, Dana and Hannah were babysat.

One day we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride along five historical streets that featured (mainly) European architecture. We also saw the former residence of Eric Liddell. If you don't know who that is, watch Chariots of Fire or, better, read a biography about him. He was a remarkable man.

The sleeping slug. Hard to believe this little man could ever get into trouble isn't it? Hah!

Reading stories, and/or watching world cup soccer on the couch. We also played our share of games in the evenings with Scott's parents. My mom preferred to turn in early and get up early the next day to, buy fruit at the market, or play ping pong/go for runs with the locals.

We rode in the Tianjin Eye on a somewhat clear day. The whole rotation took about 20 minutes and there was lots to see from the 12 o' clock position especially. Eli opted to be at his friends house.

So, all said and done, it was a tremendous visit. I must admit I was a little worried about how it would go because I wanted to figure out things to do and see that would be interesting for our parents and fun for our kids too. Also, it was the first visit for my mom and so I viewed it as a "make or breaker" for any subsequent visits. I daresay that based on how it went, my mom might very well be back again, I know Scott's parents will. I felt very blessed to have them and the fact that they made the effort and incurred the cost to come means a lot to us. Thank you!

the visit: Great Wall

2010-07-23T07:49:00.003-07:00

There's a good shot of Hannah, completely unaware that we were on our way to the Great Wall. She was also blissfully unaware of Eli getting carsick on the way there too. Lucky her...but lucky me too (I had an extra shirt).

Here we are setting out. Little do we know how tired we will be by the time this day is done...

We were ambitious and did decide to "try to the whole route" but at least we did not leave "evening into the scenic".

Gorgeous weather and even a breeze!

Dana and Eli walked a lot of the way on their own, I'm sure I sprouted more than a few gray hairs as they navigated the stairs (especially going down!).

And here's Speedy Brimacombe. He reminds me of Dash from the movie "The Incredibles".

This is the view at the end of the climb, just cross the bridge and go through a maze to get to the parking lot where we were picked up. My mom and I (with Hannah) decided to walk the rest of the wall that you could see beyond the bridge. There were three more towers to get to and where it ended there was still a trail which we did not reach the end of.

I was sore for at least 5 days afterwards, hobbling around like a lame sheep and wincing if the kids so much as touched my legs. My mom was just fine though, a regular mountain goat! I hope I can be like her when I grow up! She's 68 for goodness sake!

the visit: Qingdao

2010-07-21T07:29:00.004-07:00

After one day of rest at home, we took off again, this time to Qingdao, a coastal "town" (only a few million people) about 6 hours southeast.

Besides going to the beach we saw an old Lutheran church (circa 1907) and a naval museum.

Dana just knew how to look cute as she climbed the dark green contraptions.

Eli, however, meant business and wanted to use what the tanks had to offer. He was disappointed that they didn't really shoot.

Babi (my mom) and Dana in front of a plane that my brother Albert probably knows how to fix by now. Isn't that right Albert?

And heading out to go get some lunch. The kids and I had a rest in the afternoon while Scott walked around and scouted out some famous authors' former residences.

That evening, we walked down the pier and bought some shells and other souvenirs and gifts. Then we had kebabs for dinner. Alas, a lot of seafood is lost on me, I much preferred the lamb kebabs over the shrimp or squid, a true land-lubber am I.

This "beach" was just across the street from our hotel. We didn't swim here, but just leaped on the rocks and played in the sand. This was shortly before Boppa (Alan) accidentally threw Eli right into the water. He meant to throw him clear to the shore as it was already too far for Eli to jump it with the tide coming in, but Eli landed on his bottom right in the water. We all had a good laugh about that as the locals wondered what on earth we were trying to do.

Aha, a rare Hannah sighting! She was often in the back of the stroller, hidden under my nursing cover being fed, or in this carrier with a hat on.

Dana liked picking up the green "rocks". Sad to say that they were actually pieces of broken glass whose sharp edges had been worn down by the sand and waves. She picked up a neat collection of them at any rate.

the visit: Tiananmen and Forbidden City

2010-07-19T07:14:00.004-07:00

Scott's parents agreed to watch Eli and Dana and take them swimming while my mom, Hannah, Scott and I did a rush job of seeing Tiananmen Square. So many people, and I couldn't believe how long the queue to see Chairman Mao's body there was.

Here was another neat dragon on a mural as we entered the Forbidden City which is quite near to Tiananmen Square.

And a picture of Scott and I as we were leaving. We had to hurry so that we could check out of the hotel on time, and me stopping to feed Hannah meant that we really couldn't do justice to even the few parts we saw in the Forbidden City.

I guess it just means we will have to go again sometime, that's all, right mom?.

the visit: Summer Palace

2010-07-17T07:11:00.003-07:00

Another necessary sight to see in Beijing is the Summer Palace. We found that if we climbed (and carried a stroller up) a few hundred stairs, there were less people, and more nature to enjoy.

Colourful, ornate, and detailed architecture in the buildings. Gold and red are favourite colours it seemed to me.

Here we walked along a path that went around a man-made lake. There were a few people fishing as well.

This is one of the views on our way up the stairs. We were thankful for a relatively clear day and for the fact that the rain that fell earlier cooled us down somewhat.

the visit: Temple of Heaven

2010-07-15T07:07:00.006-07:00

What an exciting time to be alive! We were so happy to host my mom and Scott's parents for two weeks in July. It was a hot time to come, but they were all real troopers and up for anything we had planned. So on day 3 of their visit, we packed up and went to Beijing for two days in order to catch some of the tourist sights there.

A group shot. Eli still hasn't warmed up to cameras, because living here and being blonde means he gets more than his fair share of complete strangers wanting a picture of him, or with him. I don't blame him for his annoyance.

I gathered that this dragon is a bit of a rogue and prone to flying off, so putting a chain net over him was deemed necessary...

Our pace was regulated by little Hannah's clockwork feedings. How pleasant to travel with such patient people, large and small. Oh and it also helped to have snacks and water on hand.

After seeing the Temple of Heaven, we had lunch and then took the kids to the pool.

Eli's 5th birthday

2010-06-20T06:03:00.002-07:00

For Eli's birthday, we decided to stick with tradition and make it a 10am to 2pm affair, with games, food, gifts and cake. Eli was the quality control for the chocolate cake I made for him (I like this recipe --no eggs, so he could lick the mixers without me worrying!):

I'm glad we have a big kitchen table to accomodate all the friends that were able to make it! I was especially appreciative of the parents that also stayed to do crowd control and help out.
This is one side of the table:

And here's the other: Notice all the cut-up vegetables! What was I thinking!? There was way too much healthy food for this group, but you can't say I didn't try.

Here Eli is starting to fade and he's probably thinking, "I like the presents, it's the sharing I don't want to do!"

Dana and her friend Emma weren't too interested in Eli's new toys. They decided to sit in the toy box and catch up on old times, just like their moms like to do from time to time.

It was a wonderful, tiring day and I could hardly believe that I've been at this mom thing for five years now. How does that happen!?

a family of 5

2010-05-23T08:04:00.002-07:00

Our first family picture as a family of five. I don't think it has really sunk in for me yet. What an exciting time to be alive! Scott looks great, the kids are cute...too bad about my shiny forehead.
Oh well.

a closer look at Hannah

2010-05-20T07:58:00.001-07:00

We had to take about a million pictures of Hannah in order to get just the right shot for her Canadian passport photo, so I thought I would post my favourite one of her here for your viewing pleasure. Plus, newborns, they change so fast!

Sooooo cuddly! And 2 out of 3 nights, I think I'm actually getting some decent sleep!

Dana is 3!

2010-05-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

Now that I have two daughters with birthdays in May... I wonder if I can have double parties for them in the future...

I had to make it simple this year, obviously, since Hannah's arrival makes life busier than usual. Featured below are the refreshments served, and we ordered pizza for lunch. I made the cake and cut up the fruit and a friend brought the fruit jello which was really yummy.

Here's Dana in her favourite present: a new summer dress just in time for the weather heating up. It's almost time to start turning on the air conditioning, that's how hot it is here (30+ Celsius these days).

Here are all the party guests pictured after a rousing game of "Duck, duck, GOOSE!" We also played a simplified version of pictionary with our chalk board and whoever guessed what was being drawn (by an adult) got a candy. Oh, and they could shout out the answers in Chinese or English.

And the happy birthday girl herself. She's excited to be a big girl and to be going to preschool in the fall. She is a very good helper to me these days too, helping me rinse Hannah's bum in the sink, bringing me water when I'm nursing, throwing diapers in the garbage for me and giving Hannah a MINIMUM of twenty kisses and hugs daily.

Hannah's here!

2010-05-09T06:33:00.004-07:00

Yay! She's finally here! Hannah Joyce was born on May 6th (my due date!) at 0715, weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz. and measuring 50 cm. Scott and I are so pleased and thankful. I was especially thankful that Scott was able to make it to the delivery...even though the doctor initially thought I was in false labour. Hah! Sure showed her!

I love this proud daddy face on Scott. I must say he was a huge help to me during my labour, quoting verses to me, singing to me, encouraging me and getting me water...even handing me pieces of chocolate at some points.

Here's Hannah at less than one hour old. I was surprised at how alert she was. I think she looks a bit like Eli did when he was born...but of course it's too soon to really know who she'll look most like.

And can't forget the mandatory picture of the newborn feet, still blueish and wrinkly...

We stayed two nights in the hospital and now we are back at home. I'm wondering how life will change with 3 kids now, I'm just taking it a day at a time and trying to get as much rest as I possibly can.

Eli and Dana were really excited to meet their new sister, Dana especially just dotes on her. It's so good to be home all together again.

waiting in Beijing...

2010-05-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm almost at my due date now and really looking forward to finding out who will be joining our family soon. I am in Beijing staying with some friends until the baby is born. It has been two weeks already, because I thought I might be early like I was with Eli and Dana. This baby, it seems, is in no rush.

Why in Beijing you may ask? There is a very good international hospital here that I feel quite comfortable with. Originally I was planning to give birth at a local Chinese hospital, but I found myself not seeing eye to eye with the doctor there (the language barrier didn't help either). I felt I would be a horrible patient at a local hospital because of my nursing background and because I have had two very positive birth experiences already. The rate of cesarean sections in Chinese local hospitals is also very high which scared me. I wanted to be somewhere where I could have a say in what was happening rather than being told as is the norm.

I'm reminiscing the baby days with Eli and Dana, pictured above is Dana, sweetly surrendered to sleep. I wonder what it will be like with 3... soon I will find out, but it is hard to be patient and not be anxious about when. With every twinge or slight discomfort I'm asking myself, "is that a contraction? am I in labour now?" It's tiring to keep that level of alertness up, only to be disappointed over and over again.

Here's a picture of baby Eli. I just love how he has his little hands clasped together, and I love his little toque too (hiding his cone-head no doubt).

Thankfully, last weekend Scott came to visit me with the kids. It was so good to see them and we got to spend 3 days together. We were hoping that I would go into labour at some point during the visit, but it didn't happen.

We had a little scare with Eli, he fell off/jumped off some monkey bars and bashed and gashed RIGHT on the outside of his left eye. He just missed it. I was also thankful that he did not whack his temple, which can be really dangerous if not deadly I understand. We did not take him to get stitches, I just cleaned and bandaged him up. Aside from some swelling, it looked a lot better three days later. Phew!

Well, I will try to post again as soon as SOMETHING happens! People say that no woman has stayed pregnant forever, but I'm beginning to feel as though I may be the first...

malaysia: bees

2010-03-05T05:40:00.001-07:00

I suppose I couldn't call myself my dad's daughter if I didn't include this post highlighting a Chinese/Malaysian-owned bee farm that was open to visitors.

Lots of colourful flowers for the bees to get to.

Here's what the area looked like. I deliberately did not take pictures of the large kitchy cartoon bee statues set up in different areas. Just ugly!

Many, many of these set up everywhere.

Dancing bees...but in the Cameron Highlands, they wouldn't have to go far to find flowers and plenty of them!

Like this bee did. I confess that I did not sample the honey there. To be honest, it looked too watery, as if it was watered-down or just processed in some way (something that goes against my Slavik sensibilities). I still have my dad's and my brother Rob's good homeade Slavik honey at home anyway, no need to sully my tastebuds with any other kind. (Yes, I am a honey snob, or as I prefer to think of myself as a honey afficionado).

malaysia: bugs

2010-03-04T05:45:00.001-07:00

When you have kids who are one metre or less in height, it helps you notice what is on the ground more and take the time to check things out. It also became obvious that the kids would enjoy going to see other insects so we went to this butterfly farm that included other insects, reptiles and rodents too.

I wouldn't put it past Eli if he were trying to count up the legs on this caterpillar.

Eli wanted to hold different insects. Here he is holding a large horned beetle on a stick.

He's braver than I am, that's for sure, here's what it looked like up close! I didn't get too involved in this excursion, the smell of the rodents was getting to me.

malaysia: cooler highlands

2010-03-03T05:48:00.001-07:00

After our time with Jill, we met up with Scott's parents for two weeks. It didn't take us long to get weary of the heat so we decided to rent a van and head up to the Cameron Highlands. It's a beautiful area famous for tea, ("self-plucking")strawberries and other agricultural products.

Here we are at a tea plantation--just a maze of tea bushes for acres and acres!

Some spots were pretty steep and we didn't want to lose the kids so Scott's dad found a good way to transport Eli.

And Dana (copying her brother) found a good seat on Scott.

While Eli stayed with Boppa and Nana, Dana, Scott and I hiked down and explored the tea plantation. We stopped for a rest and some water at this little gazebo.

Another time, Scott's parents watched the kids for a morning so Scott and I could go on a hike. It was steep but so nice to get out sans kids for some exercise and conversation.

Here I am dragging my belly up the winding trail...

We made it to this lookout tower after about 3 hours of hiking. It was much faster going down, but one had to be careful not to go too fast (i.e. fall)!

malaysia: animals

2010-03-02T05:51:00.004-07:00

When travelling with kids, you almost have no choice but to go to all those places you wouldn't think of going as a single, or as a couple. But we had fun at these animal parks, and admission was cheap. Through your kids you somehow, in some ways, get to be a kid again.

Finally a sign that says what they really mean!

A bird in Dana's favourite colour.

Forgotten already what this is, strange creature...Looks like a cross between a bear and a sloth.

Eli asked me how one would kill an ostrich. Any ideas? Besides shooting, I mean. Could we be strong and quick enough to wring its neck I wonder?... Nothing like having a son that makes you ponder these sorts of things.

And can't forget the crocodiles. Nobody is sure why they rest with their mouths open like that. One theory is that the sun helps kill bacteria in their mouths and therefore promotes better oral hygiene...

malaysia: langkawi with Jill

2010-03-01T05:55:00.001-07:00

We had the chance to go to Malaysia for Chinese New Year. Scott's sister Jill met us there and we spent a wonderful week together on Langkawi Island. I was SO thankful for the extra hands and eyes she provided (w.r.t. the kids!) as well as her navigational help when Scott was driving at night on the left side of the road trying to find different places of interest. Plus, it was just plain good to see her again,catch up, and make memories.

Here we took a gondola up a high mountain so we could look out over the island. Eli does not look pleased but at least he isn't covering his face as he is prone to do when the camera is pulled out.

Another day we found out about this trail to a waterfall with a pool at the bottom of it, so we went. It was so refreshing to find a cool place to be in the middle of the day. We had to chase off a few monkeys (who are attracted to the sound and sight of plastic bags), but other than that it was very relaxing. It was also one of the few times Dana didn't announce every 5 minutes, " IT'S TOO HOT!" when we were outside.

Also nearby was a natural waterslide area where we spent another whole afternoon sliding down the slippery rocks. Actually it was Scott, Jill and Eli that did most of the sliding, Dana and I just soaked in the cool water.

It might look painful, but those rocks were slippery! Like father, like son...

Often in the afternoons, I would be tuckered out, so I would opt for a nap leaving the kid responsibilities to Jill and Scott. The kids loved storytime/bonding time with their auntie (Eli even had a sleepover with Jill one night that he still talks about). Having some indoor downtime during the heat of the day was one way to keep the kids (and their pregnant mom, for one) from getting too cranky and/or sunburned.

Our time together was over all too fast. We were able to also take in a morning at the beach, an aquarium, lots of delicious food (especially mango ices), night markets, snorkelling, games...we're looking forward to the next time!

Christmas Musical

2010-01-14T06:21:00.001-07:00

Eli and Dana got to be in a Christmas Musical this year! It was put on by the local home-schooling group of which I am a new member. We get together every Friday afternoon for some outdoor play, then we come in and have a snack, and then we read a story and do some kind of related craft. Each parent takes a turn leading it and providing the snacks. Eli really enjoys it and calls it "story and craft time." Dana wishes she could go, but it's for kids ages 4+.

Eli had three roles: Moses, a tax-collector and a pig (some people think the latter two are the same thing). Dana was a cute little pig too for the manger scene (they had extra animal costumes, so Dana could take part too). At one point in one of the performances, Eli was pretending to eat voraciously out of the manger! It was pretty funny! Thankfully in that particular scene, Jesus had not been born yet.

I really wanted to post a movie but it would not download! Eli and Dana really enjoyed the songs throughout the play, especially "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" (Eli's favourite) and "The First Noel" (Dana's favourite, she sometimes calls it The Next Noel").

It's January now and they are both still asking to sing these Christmas carols at bedtime...well, why not?

Christmas and snow!

2009-12-30T08:08:00.004-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! We especially enjoyed Skyping our families and chatting with them. The kids were pleased to receive Play Doh (especially for Dana)toys and Lego (especially for Eli). The best toy of all was the box the Play Doh Creativity Center came in: the kids are sitting in the box and it reminded me that they are two of the best gifts I've ever received!

We also had a big snowfall (after Christmas), the biggest in 20 years. I went around taking pictures of "typical Chinese snowmen." Here are a two examples.

Yep, just piles of snow, with heads on top, but points given for creative decorating of the heads nonetheless. It was entertaining to me (since I do not own a car) how upside-down the city was rendered by this snowfall. It really slowed things down for a few days there, and it seemed to clean things up a bit (rather refreshing to see clean white snow on the ground for a few days rather than the usual dirt and frozen loogies!)

i'm thankful for...

2009-10-21T06:25:00.004-07:00

Eli because he is enjoying school and learning how to play board games.

Dana because she likes putting blocks away and putting things back in general.

Scott because he is easy to talk to and a great listener.

my breadmaker because it makes the house smell so nice.

AND....my pregnancy that is going so well (due in early May).

***

summer highlights part two: murtle lake

2009-09-21T06:24:00.011-07:00

After our ocean adventures on Vancouver Island, we were able to spend some time with my brother Rob and his family in Prince George. My favourite part was watching the kids interact and get to know one another --the boys got along very well, whereas Dana and Rachel were... well... acting their ages.
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My brother Rob has only recently discovered Murtle Lake and has made it one of his yearly vacation destinations. We were lucky enough to be able to go with them on one of their five-day canoe-camping trips. Look how beautiful it is!

Another reason why it was so memorable was because my whole family (except for my oldest brother Otto, who had to hold the fort in Williams Lake) came, making it a total of 13 people. We missed Otto, but he didn't miss us! He had a good time on his own he said. Here's a good picture of my dad sitting on the beach.

We had four canoes total. In one canoe sat my brother and my parents. Don't worry though, despite what this picture looks like, my brother Albert did his share of the paddling too! Even if he had to arm-wrestle my mom at times to convince her to have a rest!

And here's a rare family picture of Tricia, Rob and their slugs. Rachel is in the front with Tricia and the three boys are in the middle. Some of the time, the boys were in their own canoe too, paddling, fishing and hollering away. Eli got to ride with them once and he really enjoyed that.

This is a view from behind me: Serious Scott and the giggly, restless kids. I think Scott was giving me that look because I had just had a nap while he paddled and he wondered when it was his turn.

Rachel and Dana would get the same great idea from time to time:

Nothing like napping in a canoe...

Or playing (in your underwear) on the beach...

I love this picture of Tricia and her boys! It was taken on the way to a trailhead along the shore as there are various hikes near different campsites. The boys had an easy time finding gun, knife or sword-shaped driftwood, but maybe not such an easy time of it trying to carry it all.

Rachel was asleep in her dad's arms as we hiked along the trail. The kids were too little for us to make it the whole way, but Scott, Albert and my parents went the whole way.

Here is a picture of my parents and brothers on the fifth and last day of the canoe trip. Slaviks, by nature, can usually be seen doing one of two things: they are either upright, working hard or horizontal, napping in the sun.
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It was a great trip.

summer highlights part one: vancouver island

2009-08-21T05:52:00.016-07:00

We were fortunate enough to spend some time back in Canada over the summer. Here are some summer highlights. Thanks to Scott, I have two recently adopted favourite places on earth, both located on Vancouver Island. The first is Parksville:

Parksville has a perfect beach for little slugs like Eli and Dana. It just stretches out for about a mile at low tide, has lots of sandbars and little crabs to chase and catch. The tidal pools are warm and inviting for even the littlest people (barely walking types).

Here are Eli and Dana walking back to our beach house with their Nana and Boppa. This shot almost reminds me of PEI (another one of my favourite places) with the grass on the side. We had wonderful, I mean just fabulous weather while we stayed here.

Here's the sweet woman that made it all possible! Scott's mom has a real knack for planning trips. She and "Boppa" are also extremely generous people...this trip was a gift to our family.

We spent lots of time in the ocean and Eli had fun using his net to catch all manner of strange creatures (as you can see)!

I liked playing "shark" and grabbing Eli's feet as he scrambled like a crocodile on all fours in the water.

The second new favourite place is Tofino which is on the west coast of the Island. It is wild, more rugged, considerably cooler and seems to have more varied sealife.

Here's Eli on a walk with his Boppa on the beach, yep we had to break out the jackets here, but it was so beautiful and restful all the same.

Here Scott is showing Eli and Dana some of the neat things that are in the inter-tidal areas on the beach, Eli was especially interested in feeding the sea anemones.

A family meal in our cabin: ever reliable, Jill served as a booster seat for Eli on at least one occasion. I told you Scott's whole family is the generous type! She can also make a mean clam chowder and is a great teammate for bocce ball competitions!

This is what our cabins looked like: I don't mind making a plug at all for Ocean Village in Tofino, British Columbia. Sunny weather cannot be guaranteed, but if you are prepared, you will always find a way to enjoy your stay. Scott grew up coming here and we came here on our honeymoon too...gosh! 8 years ago now!

Dana loved it too, there's no faking a smile like this on a 2-year-old!

Eli turns 4!

2009-06-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

We invited a few of Eli's classmates and some friends to to help us celebrate Eli's 4th birthday. When everyone got to our house, we went outside and had a water fight. It was fun for Eli and his older classmate, all the other kids either cried or were not interested. See the video at the end of this post.

Below is a picture of Eli's younger classmate looking fiercely poised with his watergun. Once he got sprayed with a bigger, more powerful watergun and he got upset and made like he was leaving. This was a good language experience for me: trying to coax a toddler back with the others (his parent's had dropped him off)! I eventually called for Scott to help me with this.

Eli and his best friend Caleb are playing with some of Eli's new toys.

Caleb's mom and dad made a very tasty ICE CREAM cake for Eli's birthday (this not having an oven businesss is really working for me!). It had wine gums on the top of it, which Eli and Dana call "gummies."

Here's an aerial-ish shot of the action at the dining room table. It was a similar deal to Dana's party, fruit, cake, veggies and pizza. We tried to have a balloon stomp game outside, but it was once again, over most of the kids' heads and the oldest boy ended up stomping on all the younger kids' balloons before they even knew what was going on...sigh...at least it was fun for him I guess.

Here's a short video of the waterfight action. Eli got a new watergun for his birthday so he was pretty into it.

Afterwards as things wound down, Eli announced to our few remaining guests, "I want you to go home now, I'm tired." Nothing like being direct, but we all (parents included) were tired and so our friends graciously took their leave. It was a fun-filled morning, but I'm glad birthdays are only once a year.

Great Wall camping

2009-06-18T16:19:00.002-07:00

My school offered a two-day, one-night camping trip to the Great Wall and so I jumped at the chance to go. Scott stayed back to work on his two papers and enjoyed the fact that he could work uninterrupted for more than 2 hours at a time.

Here's a picture of Eli amusing himself with our camera on the bus. There were about 30 of us total, with two other kids also going. I was a little worried that Eli might play too rough with the other kids (all younger and all girls) so I asked some of the single guys to go ahead and rough-house with Eli whenever the opportunity arose.

On the first day we walked into a village that is located near the Great Wall, about a 2 hour hike through trails, and woods and corn crops. The villagers put on a show for us, with drums, singing and dancing. The boy in the fore-ground of this picture isn't shy about showing his dislike for the music!

I carried Dana is this pack while Eli walked or was carried by those blessed obliging single guys.

This was my favourite dancer, one of the few males, he was just delightful in his expressions and really enjoyed having a large audience.

Didn't get a picture of our tent this time, but pretty much exactly the same set up as last year, we camped in one of the towers. It was a gorgeous night, clear, not too hot, with a pleasant breeze and a bright almost-full moon. It was not the best sleep of my life, sleeping between Eli and Dana, but it sure was memorable!

The next day we walked the Wall itself. I again had Dana and I borrowed a pack and a mule...uh I mean, another student...to carry Eli. So thankful for the help of everyone who went! Otherwise soloing it with both kids would have definitely been too much for me, and an experience not worth repeating!

Dana turns 2!

2009-05-15T15:37:00.003-07:00

Dana celebrated her birthday with her "Chinese twin," they are only 3 days apart and we thought it would be fun to celebrate together. It was a fun morning, Dana picked out her birthday outfit (the top was from her Auntie Pam in Canada) and her dress was one she got in Thailand.

Scott's dad was worried that our kids are "too healthy", here they are having juiceboxes with their friends on Dana's birthday of all occasions! He hopes to remedy the situation when we head back to Canada for a visit in late June! But we hope yogurt remains as Dana's all-time favourite food.

We made fruit kebabs for our mid-morning snack! Not only visually appealing, but very tasty!

Of course we had cake too! It was absolutely huge and brought over by a friend. (I don't have an oven yet in my new place! We did a lot of eating, washing hands, playing, (repeat). Following Chinese tradition, we had cake first, then pizza.

Eli approved of the cake, as you can see.

"Put the nose on the Elmo" was a game we tried to play. It was the adults that humoured me and joined in because the kids were not too into it. The kids liked watching their parents play and helping their moms or dads get the nose in the right spot though though.

Let's not forget the presents! By this time Dana was fading and thinking: "When are you all going home so I can have my nap?" I was thinking that right along with her!

rollerblading!

2009-05-11T07:55:00.003-07:00

Look at Eli's moves with his rollerblades! He would like it better if he didn't have to wear all the protective gear, especially because of how hot it is here (even at 9 am it's 25+ degrees C). Having the kids learn early how to skate and swim is a priority for me.

springtime changes

2009-05-10T07:45:00.003-07:00

This is one of Eli and Dana's last rides around in our old neighbourhood. Dana is content to be the passenger and Eli shows surprising skill in driving this "police jeep" It was given to us by a friend whose son had outgrown it.

We moved to a neighbourhood closer to Eli's school, only a 5-minute-walk away! We love our new neighbourhood because it is more convenient for buying fruit and vegetables (markets nearby) as well as having a great play area and courtyard that is full of kids in the evenings (when it has cooled off).

I love our new apartment itself as well. Although it is technically smaller than our old place (and quite a bit cheaper!), the common areas: kitchen, dining area and living room are more spaceous and therefore more suitable for having people over.

I thought I'd throw in the picture of Easter bread that I made for Easter too, using my new new Czech cookbook. It turned out pretty good!

And here's a great picture of Dana smelling the lilacs that were growing like mad this spring. "Smells good!" Dana would say after a big whiff.

slovakia part 6: strecno

2009-05-01T16:50:00.008-07:00

On the last part of our trip, we made it into Slovakia to visit my dad's brother and his family. Here is a picture of their house. Albert said that although I would probably like Czech Republic a lot, he bet that I would like Slovakia more because it has mountains readily accessible to those interested in hiking.

On our first day, we walked to this old castle. Can you imagine having a castle in your neighbourhood? I loved that we could just walk there from my uncle's house! And the history of it! Read on!

Majestic and romantic ruins of the Strečno castle are a dominant above the Váh river and are standing high on the hill as a symbol of feudal power in the region of middle Považie. The castle has been in ruins for three centuries, but it still belongs among the best known castles in Slovakia. Although the recorded history of the castle started in the half of 14th century, the first settlement at the castle hill is much older. In early Iron Age up to late Roman Age there was a settlement of the Púchov culture and in the 9th century there was not only a Slav residence but probably it was also the oldest fort. Artifacts of the settlement from early Stone Age - a copper pick axe was found on the Zvonica hill, Slav tumuli was found in the area of Dedová and a fort was located at Bašta hill from 15th century.

Unfortunately we could not enter into it and explore further, it had not yet opened for the season. I enjoyed this sign and thought...so it's not just the Chinese who have funny signs! I like the part where it tells visitors "not to leap over the castle walls". Excellent advice.

Here's a view of it from further away, on another day.

We were on our way to visit this old fort, which was a short hike up a good hill:

And here's the view from up there.

Here's my mom with her favourite childhood candy bar, Horalky (or also Tatranky) or which are chocolate-dipped wafers. Light and not too sweet. Mom has the best smile!

My cousins Kubo (left) and Juro (right). Kubo is finishing up a civil engineering degree and Juro has a year to go or so in his Information Technology degree. They were very friendly, polite and accomodating, and their English was great which meant I could get to know them better, faster.

I also got to meet Martin, my youngest cousin (also probably my tallest)! He was in the hospital while we were there getting treatment for what they think might be psoriasis. He was in good spirits under the circumstances. He is just graduating from highschool and planning on studying Information Technology as well.

Below is a picture of my Aunt Lubka with my Uncle Jirka. She is gorgeous and looks more like my uncle's daughter than his wife! (Just don't tell him that!). She is 13 years younger than him though. I enjoyed our evenings together talking and looking at photographs. My uncle is a great storyteller. I liked hearing about his membership in O.S.A., a members only association invented by himself and a few friends to get exercise, go hiking and goof off together once a week. I love that idea!

When my dad and Albert went to Europe together some years back, they got this portrait done of my dad in Vienna I believe. It is framed outside my cousins' room, so they see their smiling Uncle Otto greeting them every morning. I really like the expression my dad has in this picture, pensive and warm.

And then, before we knew it, it was our last evening together. Here's an impromptu group shot that my mom took. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again too and having them meet Scott and Eli and Dana sometime.

So that concludes my trip! I'm finally done blogging about it, but I'll never recover from the experience. I'm a cousin, a niece, as well as a daughter, sister, aunt, wife and mom. It's new and special for me to experience belonging to an extended family. I don't just belong to a little Czech island in Western Canada consisting of my family of origin! I have a clan!

How wonderful to meet relatives and be relieved that they are people you would choose to have for relatives if you had that choice! I won't dare ask them, but I hope they feel the same about me.

czech republic part 5: pardubice

2009-04-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

In Pardubice, we met up with my cousin (also named Olga) and her husband Petr and their winsome daughter Lada. They graciously agreed to let us stay overnight (we didn't give them much warning!). Pictured below are Olga walking and Lada on the scooter. Olga is my Uncle Lubor's daughter. I did not get a chance to meet Uncle Lubor's son Bob and his family this trip, as they live in Stuttgart.

After they picked us up from the train station, we got ourselves settled at their place and went out for a walk. It was a gorgeous day, and really felt like spring had finally come for real. This was a real treat as it had been quite cold previously.

Here's Petr, he's quite the active guy, one who especially enjoys running (although he is speed-walking in the picture). After our walk, he invited me to for a run with him and I did. It was a good workout for me, and probably not for him because he's used to going so much faster!

Pardubice is a real hockey town, the hometown in fact of Dominik Hasek, the famous goalie for some NHL team (I used to know!). Petr went to school with him and they used to play tennis together actually!

These brightly coloured buildings remind me of a storybook setting...and somehow they look just right. I had to take a picture because no one would get it that yellow, pink and green houses side by side wouldn't look just plain wrong otherwise.

Didn't manage to get a picture of this peacock with his tail fanned out...not for lack of trying either! But it was fun to surprise some Taiwanese tourists with a little of my Mandarin as we were watching these birds.

Lada was so fun to hang out with...not bothered in the least that her "teta jesterice" (auntie lizard--that's me!) could barely communicate with her. She just happily chattered on and grabbed my hand and took me places. I was sorry that we couldn't stay longer, she was providing me with invaluable Czech and daughter lessons (giving me ideas and insight into what Dana might be like at her age).

These look like Christmas decorations don't they? My dad could paint this, no problem, it looks like something he would consider doing. I think it's beautiful.

We had lunch in an old beer cellar turned restaurant. I copied Lada and had svickova na smetane (if i remember correctly), one of my favourite dishes. It has dumplings with a really really yummy (indescribable!) cream sauce and meat. It was good, but of course my mom does it better.

I really like this picture, I would love Lada to get to know my Eli and Dana...they would be fast friends I'm sure. Maybe the next time I go to Czech Republic (me with Scott and Eli and Dana next time!), we can stay with these guys in the Jindrichuv Hradec house... I can picture it already: "Pass the salt, pass the Czech-English dictionary..." It would be a hoot.

czech republic part 4: jindrichuv hradec

2009-03-28T16:49:00.002-07:00

After our time with Uncle Joseph in Trebic, we headed by bus to Jindrichuv Hradec, which is where my mom grew up. My cousin Joseph (Jajik) on the left, met my mom and I at the bus station, and led us to where we were going to stay. My uncle Lubor (middle) was at the house to greet us. This house was originally willed to Lubor and my mom, and then my grandparents lived there in their later years. It now serves as a holiday home for Lubor and his daughter's family.

After a delicious lunch of soup and bread, we went for a walk around the town. I couldn't resist taking this picture of the the 15th parallel written in Mandarin (for Scott's benefit).

Below is a picture of the backyard of the house we stayed at, not a bad size, complete with an old water pump that still worked, and room for a garden (which everyone in Czech Republic has).

My mom and her brother Lubor had lots to talk about and I was content to listen in, occasionally interjecting with a "co/kdo je _____?" ("what/who is_____?") for the many Czech words I do not know, or have long since forgotten. This picture is also of the backyard, but from the opposite direction (the house that you see in the center, is the one in which we stayed).

I loved hearing my mom say to her brother, "Do you remember when..." and start to recount a story of their childhood. We went for a walk in the park where my mom often played as a child, my mom even showed me the very place where she broke her arm. She didn't want to tell her parents, but my grandfather, observant doctor that he was, noticed right away in how she was carrying her arm with her other hand.

Here is an old castle or chateau nearby the park. Close to this place was where my grandfather had buried some silver in order to keep it from being confiscated by the communist government.

I forget just what they are pointing at and talking about, but I just really liked this picture, it shows the reminiscing that continued for the duration of our walk. Even with the choppy, bare-bones conversations between my Uncle Lubor and I, I could still appreciate his humour and get to know him because I could understand so much more than I could say.

Inside the house was beautiful, totally renovated and cleaned up since my grandparents' passing, yet still including a lot of the old artwork, tapestries and furniture. I took a lot of pictures.

I loved the bright colours in this one! Thanks to my dad, my appreciation for not-too-detailed oil paintings are high. He used to say: if you want detail, take a picture, otherwise paint one.

We spent a lot of time poring over a thick old album that my grandfather put together. It was really interesting to get a glimpse or an idea of what his parents were like and what his childhood was like etc. This is a picture of my grandfather in his volunteer fireman's uniform, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because my brother Rob is one of those today!

Can you guess who this is? It's my mom! She still remembers that itchy dress and being walked to the painter's house by her grandmother I believe, and having to pose for what must have seemed like an eternity at the time. So worth it now! I can see a bit of Dana in this picture, can you?

czech republic part 3: brno

2009-03-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

While we were in Trebic, we took a day trip to Brno, where my mom worked and went to university. Here is the church where my parents were married. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul located on Petrov Hill; a Gothic church rebuilt in the Baroque style during the 18th century, later partially reconstructed in the Neo-Gothic style, it has two characteristic towers (81 m high) since 1905; cathedral since 1777. You definitely get a sense of awe and a healthy dose of humiliy from the architecture and history of European cathedrals.

Here's a little information fact sheet on the university my mom went to, probably too small to read, but maybe you can zoom in (?) The Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry. She left the country in 1968 just short of finishing her Master's degree, but (bless her!) never looked back. My mom likes to live life in a "no regrets" way that I would love to emulate.

Here's a map of the place:

One of my cousins, Ivo, works at the university, but unfortunately we missed him because when we visited, he was vacationing in Mexico, we'll have to catch him next time!

I liked Brno and the stories my mom told...like about how she and her friend would receive 5 or 10 minutes notice from another friend to get ready to go see an opera because cheap tickets were only available at the very last minute...and also about the places my mom lived near the university, and the people she knew...she visited her old lab and talked with a former student's daughter who works there now. I loved the added insights into my mom's pre-Canadian life. As a mom myself now, I can appreciate that she had a life before my brothers and I came along!

czech republic part 2: trebic

2009-03-23T16:19:00.000-07:00

First stop after Prague was to Trebic to visit my mom's oldest brother Joseph. Like my grandfather, he was a doctor and is retired now. He liked to hunt, collected knives and swords and had an impressive collection of antlers on his wall.

We had fun taking these!

See the sword on the right of this picture? He also showed us his pistols! Since that's one major difference between Canada and the USA, we were rather impressed and wondered what in the world he had them for.

There they are, brother and sister. It was funny to be able to relate to my mom not only as mother-daughter but mutually understand our lot in life as youngest children and only girls in our families of origin. I forgot we had this in common!

My uncle Joseph has four sons, only one of which had I met before. This is Pavel (Paul), he now works as an oncologist in London, England and is a member of the prestigious Royal Council of Physicians. He came to Canada when I was still in grade school (I forget how old I was), I just remember being a walking Engish dictionary for him, so I think it is safe to say I had something to do with his success in mastering English!

We went for a walk to the Jewish Quarter.

And so did these ducks.

My uncle took us on a tour of the Basilica (12th century) in Trebic. The basilica is a jewel of European medieval architecture. Its design represents a transition between the Romanesque style and the Gothic style. At some points in its history it was used as a market, beer cellar...even a stable to keep horses, until it was finally restored.

Here we are walking out with the guides, one of whom was just learning how to be a guide. She was from Mongolia and her Czech was great!

czech republic part 1: chilly prague spring

2009-03-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who don't know, I got the chance to go to the Czech Republic for two weeks with my mom. I like to think of it as a 30th birthday present from my parents and Scott. I had never been to Europe, nor had I met many of my relatives before, so this was really special for me.

Here I am with my mom and Lukas (my mom's cousin's son...does that make him my second cousin?, I get confused with all those terms...). He graciously let us stay in his apartment whenever we were in Prague, which we returned to a few times between train rides to other relatives' houses.

Here I am with Jiri and Zorka (my mom's cousin). They helped us out start to finish, driving us around Prague, to and from the airport and even lending us their mobile phone for the duration of our trip.

We also needed them to hold our hands on the way to catch the subway, the escalator is fast and steep! On our first day, they showed us around some of the historical sites in Prague, a beautiful city even in gray, cold March when we were there.

Here's the Astronomical Clock (1891) located in the Old Town. My mom said that after the clock-maker finished building this, the powers that were took out his eyes so he could never build another one like it. Brutal!

My first Czech meal (potato pancake, roll and a sausage) almost 100% Czech except I opted for green tea instead of beer. Horrors! (I know dad...).

My parents have one of these types of carvings at their house, so I took a picture. I found myself distinguishing between what in my family life experience was distinctly "Czech" and what was just "us." I even made a list in my journal of random things that made the not just "us" list such as: changing into comfortable clothes (teplaki) when you get home from being out; picking mushrooms: blowing your nose as hard as you can and not just politely wiping it; Jesus, not Santa coming to give you gifts at Christmas...It's not strange or weird! It's just Czech!

Jiri works in restoring old artwork in historical Prague, so he knows a lot about the different types of artwork associated with each era. We had our own personal tour-guide, complete with an excellent sense of humour!

This is the ceiling in the St. Nicolas cathedral at Malostranske Namesti (1703). This is the largest of Prague's churches founded by the Jesuits. Particularly impressive is the dome fresco from Franz Palko, showing The Celebration of the Holy Trinity, filling the 70m high dome.

A view after crossing Charles Bridge.

A menacing statue against the blue sky...don't be fooled though, it was cold! I had to borrow a toque and gloves from Lukas.

This is Karlstein Castle (1348) which is about 30 km southwest of Prague. Jiri and Zorka drove us out to do some sightseeing. It became the place for safekeeping of the Czech coronation jewels, which were kept here, with the exception of several short-time breaks, for nearly 200 years.

Near Karlstein was the cemetary where my mom's uncle (Zorka's father) was buried. I had never been to a relative's grave before, it was a meaningful experience, these flowers were at the gravesite, so we picked a few and put them on his gravestone.

Also nearby is the house that my mom and Zorka inherited from their grandmother. She saw fit to give it to her only granddaughters as an inheritance, I thought this was rather amazing and forward-thinking for the time in which she lived. My mom often talks with fondness about this grandmother, she displayed a lot of wisdom in her life and had a joyful disposition, often able to smooth out the differences between people.

Zorka and my mom have long since sold this house. If I remember correctly it is near the birthplace of Martina Navratilova (the famous Czech tennis player).

big snowman and big news!

2009-03-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

We got more snow! It only lasted a day so we had to take the opportunity to make a snowman, as (this time) the snow was actually sticky enough to roll and build a snowman. While Scott and I worked on the snowman (Scott made the bottom and middle, I just made the head), the kids fended for themselves at the little playground.

We couldn't and didn't let Eli wreck the snowman we were building so he had to satisfy that need by kicking the snow off some shrubs instead.

Here's Eli on the teeter-totter.

And Dana (the more cautious one) assessing the danger on the slide...

She did go down after all.

Voila! Our finished work--the best-looking (well most typical anyway) snowman I have ever made, not to mention the tallest (~six feet tall!). Scott and I had to both lift the middle section together to get it on its bottom section.

And Scott, the one who did the lion's share of the work:

The one on the left just received a full three-year scholarship to do a Master's degree in Modern Chinese Literature! We are really excited at this opportunity! Without the scholarship, we could not, would not consider doing this, but all is paid for! He even has an office on campus that he uses as his study space. Scott has been reading as much as he can as fast as he can as a result(yes, in Mandarin!), he has really jumped in with both feet!

Since Scott has a study space on campus, we have decided to move to a slightly smaller place closer to Eli's school. Eli and Dana share a room now (since Thailand) and so a 2 bedroom is all we really need. It didn't take long to find a suitable one and now we are poised to move on May 1st.

thailand part 2: early morning impressions

2009-02-26T01:09:00.002-07:00

For the last few days of our holiday, I got in the habit of getting up and out of the house bright and early. These pictures were taken on the last day of our time in Thailand. Here's a shot of a monk walking along the beach. I didn't want to be too obvious and so in my haste, the shot was blurred. I imagine his life a lonely one, I wonder what his life is really like...

I sat down on sun-bed that I didn't have to rent because it was still so early and just read a bit and took in the sunrise. I don't want to miss another sunrise when I am in such a picturesque place again. I am definitely more of a sunrise person rather than a sunset, as it's the beginning of a day and there's still hope and ideas for what might happen.

Oh that delicious feeling of toes in fine, wet sand! I took this picture because I never want to forget what that feels like. There is so much pleasure in the little things sometimes.

And now, here comes the sun...

--And here's the dog that took in this scene with me, I was pleased to get his profile just so. It was a great way to start the day and a memorable way to end our vacation.

thailand part 1: great family times

2009-02-25T01:24:00.010-07:00

Okay, so one of the first things we had to do in Thailand was go to Swensens for ice cream. Eli had been talking for some time about "strawberry ice-cream with a cherry on top" and that's just what he got, with a cone thrown in, which he ate first.

Of course we had to get the exact same thing for Dana...

Scott got some kind of chocolate-y kind with pour-it-yourself fudge on the side.

Besides eating, we went and played either at the beach or the pool most days. This is a poolside picture in which the kids are playing in the showers...turning them all on and running through them like sprinklers, filling up cups and watering the plants nearby. (Eli also did a different sort of "watering" of the plants which I more than once pretended not to see...)

Eli and Dana in their "dragonboat" in the pool. Eli's sunglasses fit me too, I was originally going to buy them for myself, but they became Eli's when he tried them on. He wears them right side up most of the time.

We went out one afternoon to get pictures for the kids' visas as they had expired, so they had naps in the stroller as we went along afterwards.

Eli used some of his own money (given to him for Chinese New Year) to buy a toy "tuk tuk" which he fell asleep clutching in his lap.

Some of Eli and Dana's favourite foods at the restaurant where we were staying was spaghetti and meatballs. It got so we just stripped them down and didn't bother with shirts or bibs...you can see why...

And if one dropped a meatball, so did the other...we had a good conversation about the song "On Top of Spaghetti..."after this happened...

One of the fun things that Scott got to do for three afternoons was rent a scooter and go exploring. He almost made it to Burma one afternoon, and he came back later than expected. I was so relieved when I saw him, I was reallly already imagining him bleeding in a ditch all alone somewhere...the things husbands put their wives through! The helmet was too small for Scott, but at least he had one that at least looked more durable than a coconut.

Ahhhh...the best part. The ocean, and the beach where we played in the sand, and jumped into the water on an alternating basis. I would hold Dana in my arms and wade in and she would point to the middle of the ocean and say "DIS WAY!" she just wanted to stay in the water and keep going further out with me.

The kids got short rides on the scooter in our parking lot. They (especially Eli) loved it. I like how Eli is trying to figure out how the scooter works in this picture.

A good shot of Dana concentrating on her "rainbows" which are actually toy horseshoes.

I'll never forget chasing Eli along the beach with a pail full of water to dump on him, or dipping Dana in the water and singing goofy songs to her, Thailand was a very refreshing time indeed.

Eli goes skiing

2009-01-22T08:37:00.003-07:00

Scott and Eli went with another father and son (Eli's best buddy Caleb) to try skiing for the first time. It was a huge success and Eli wanted to go again the next day (and the day after that...). He really got the hang of it, so now we are hoping that his success with that will rub off on his learning how to rollerblade.

Chinese New Year almost here!

2009-01-22T07:40:00.004-07:00

I am off school as of yesterday for the Chinese New Year holiday and tomorrow we fly to Thailand. A neighbour said it was good timing as there is talk of a blizzard coming on Saturday. In any case, we will really appreciate the warm weather, clean air and the ocean, not to mention Thai food...

They have been busy decorating our xiao qu (neighbourhood) and even supplied us with posters to put on the outside of our doors with the character fu (福) which means blessing. Red and gold posters, red paper cut-outs are everywhere, ushering in the year of the Ox.

We recently went for a walk to a park nearby which had some ice. You might be thinking, 'oh they went skating, how nice...' but no, we tried something we'd never seen or heard of before.

It's a cross between skating, sledding and cross-country skiing. The little sleds have two blades that enable them to glide along the ice, and usually they are self-propelled via two small ski poles. The ski poles looked a little dodgy to me, and frankly dangerous with the inch long spikes on the end of them, so we went without.

At least three of us could fit on at a time and I would push, or Scott would use the short ski poles. Eli preferred to push Dana and Dana liked being pushed in the sled so it really worked out well. Where we live is pretty flat, so this is as close as we got to going sledding this winter.

I was glad that I actually had a use for those winter boots I bought the kids this year. I bought them in faith that we would 1. get some snow and 2. be able to do some winter activities...plus they weren't all that expensive. Although it seems mild here most of the time compared to where we're from in Canada, the wind can get pretty chilly here, cutting to the bone as you walk or bike where you need to go.

As we walked back from the park where we went ski-sledding, we must have passed at least three of these roadside stands selling firecrackers. Chinese people prefer to start their New Year with a bang and it is LOUD...like, don't bother trying to sleep kind of loud! I didn't ask how much the different kinds were, but I couldn't resist getting a picture. The whole country will soon be erupting in firecrackers and fireworks on Chinese New Year, I hope you do your part in celebrating too, even if it's just ordering Chinese Food or shooting a cap gun.

Scott is 30 now too!

2009-01-03T05:22:00.004-07:00

For Scott's birthday, I tried my hand at making Scott's favourite cakes: angel food cake and pineapple-upside down cake. These were his Grandma B's specialties. Let's just say I have a long ways to go to get to her level! Maybe by Scott's 60th I'll have them down.

Scott let Eli blow out the candles. He still hasn't quite figured out how to do that, he would blow and then try to keep blowing even after he had run out of air. His face would redden from the effort, but the candles would stay lit.

I took Scott to an Aircraft Carrier Theme Park on his birthday. We took a taxi, a light-rail, then a bus to get there (about 2 hours) and toured the circa 1970 Soviet Aircraft Carrier. It was in use for some time, retired and sold to China in 1999.

This was on the top level, the bridge of the aircraft carrier, the "cockpit" so to speak.

Scott posing in front of one of the fighters.

I'm posing with a Russian sailor holding some kind of artillery shell. At first I thought we were in the wine cellar!

Some of the best advice I've heard in a long time...could also serve as inspiration for developing New Year's Resolutions.

On one of the lower decks, one of the many control rooms, with a poster of V. I. Lenin. I figured my dad would enjoy this one. I also wished my brother Albert could have come with us, with his knowledge of Russian and military stuff, I'm sure I'd have learned a lot more. When he comes, we will have to go again.

Here's Scott posing in front of the Aircraft Carrier itself. It is not the biggest as far as Aircraft Carriers go, but still formidable.

I think this sign was made by the same people who made the sign by a park near us "Civilization walk the dog" it says, (meant to tell you to keep your dog on a leash).

Civilization Happy New Year!

Christmas!

2009-01-03T04:38:00.005-07:00

We had a great Christmas! It even snowed a little bit the week before. It never snows here, and the snowfall we had broke a fifty year record for the amount of snow in one day. It was only about 3 or 4 inches, but we were so glad to see some of that white stuff! And we still have some!

I was actually under the weather on Christmas Eve, but managed to feel quite a bit better for Christmas Day which we spent at our British buddy's place. Our American friends also joined us, so we were three couples with young kids enjoying an international Christmas together. We tried to act out the Nativity with the kids, but it turned out better to just read them the Christmas Story.

Eli got this second-hand Power Wheels jeep for free on his birthday, but we were not able to use it until recently because the rechargeable battery was useless. Scott managed to find a place that makes batteries and so we were finally able to let Eli use his new wheels. Here he is giving one of the neighbour kids a lift with Ye Ye (grandpa) looking on.

Dana thinks that Eli's undies can be hats, so here they are with their "Wise Man" hats on.

This one of Dana could be on a CD cover! Oh yeah, Scott got me some Chinese rap for Christmas, so hopefully that should help my fluency!

This last one is just for fun, This is Dana a year ago in a Santa hat. A little more chubbiness in her cheeks, less familiarity and confidence in front of the camera and no neck are about the only differences I can see.

We continue to marvel at how blessed we are: good health, great kids, a chance to study a different language in the country that speaks it, good friends (old and new), a warm and cozy house, reliable bikes, a fantastic house-helper (ayi)...I am so thankful for these things.

the school trip to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)

2008-11-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

Had to take the opportunity to travel again with our school. And now we know why! We always have so much stuff that we really need the other people going to help us carry our stuff!
These pictures are not in order, but probably nobody cares about that except me so I'll just comment on each as usual.

Here's Eli driving the boat we took on the last day. The boat stopped at two tourist attractions but we (our family) did not get off the boat to see the first one because it was raining too hard.

We thought we would just wait it out and enjoy the peace and quiet under the roof of the second floor of the boat. It wasn't long when Eli informed us that he had to pee. Since we were on the second floor we weren't willing to go downstairs (where the squattie was) because then we would have to get wet by the rain, so I just led Eli to the edge of the boat and told him to pee off the edge into the water below. Just as he was almost done, however, a man on the first floor stuck his head out directly below us and was emptying a bucket of something into the water. Eli quite accidentally peed on the man's head and back! I yelled "Xiao xin! (watch out!)" but it was too late and I just whisked Eli out of sight and pulled up his pants. I did not find out if the man realized what had happened or not! And I was thankful for the rain!

Some beautiful misty views as we cruised along the river.

We were very happy to have two other kids along for the school trip. This made it all the more enjoyable for Eli and Dana. Here Dana is getting picked up by her friend James. She didn't mind at all.

On the third day we went to a place with beautiful trees, streams, waterfalls and many suspension bridges. I think this may have been my favourite place because of its natural beauty. It was a good reminder that not all of China is concrete, crowded or polluted.

Scott couldn't resist taking off his socks and shoes and wading in the stream. Well, the stream used to not be polluted!

I thought my dad would enjoy this sign, there are so many signs like this: not quite right, but the meaning is clear.

This one was taken on the top of Yellow Mountain on the second day of our travels. We were so blessed to have good weather because 200 days of the year it is raining on Yellow Mountain. So we were able to have good views and not get too cold.

We borrowed another backpack so we could safely stash both kids while on the mountain. Some spots were just plain too dangerous to let little slugs run around.

Sometimes on our hike atop Yellow Mountain we would find ourselves in a cloud. It really gave a "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" kind of feel to our time. Definitely needed my brother Albert around to do some bamboo grove ninja-leaping moves to complete the effect.

Dana wasn't always impressed that she had to stay in the backpack, but she coped by eventuallly napping.

Where we were (Anhui Province), is known for its strange pine trees. Here's a picture of one.

Esther, Eli and James climbed their own little mountain in a park on our first day of travels. These three loved to chase each other and race around. Scott and I owe it to them the fact that Eli went to bed quickly and slept soundly each night.

These big signs were each dedicated to a different person for specific virtues. The highlight here for Eli? Eating fresh sugar cane. So much lore and history was lost on me because when travelling with young kids my attention span and interests by necessity just end up matching theirs. So I wish I could tell you more about this place, but I was probably busy talking to Eli, or changing Dana when the guide was talking.

At this village, there were old-style houses of the wealthy that we could tour. Quite intricate and well-preserved carvings!

All the people on the edge of the lake are artists, mostly doing watercolour paintings. Seems like an ideal place to practice.

Check out this man's artwork! It's too good to call it a "sketch" I think!

We really enjoyed our trip and afterwards got to go to Nanjing to visit our friends there for three days and two nights. I was really excited to use the serviced apartment's washer (and dryer!) because Eli was in serious need of clean clothes!

Unfortunately our camera's batteries were all used up so we don't have any pictures of our time there but Eli really enjoyed playing with our friend: "Let's play ball Mr. David!" he would say, over and over again!

And of course, it's always good to come home isn't it? We feel pretty satisfied with ourselves, having survived 3 overnight trips on the train with 2 kids under 4, not too shabby!

turning the big 30!

2008-11-16T06:01:00.015-07:00

As of the end of September, I can report that I've officially survived my twenties! And Scott surprised me with wonderful birthday weekend plans to boot!

On Saturday, Scott organized a babysitter for the whole day, hired a driver to drive us to an unrestored section (Jiankou) of the Great Wall near Beijing. In our travel book it said that it was "for serious hikers only" and it lived up to that. Here are some pictures to give you some impressions of our time.

I really liked the symbolism of this shot, such contrast.

At the highest point of our hike there was a man selling firecrackers. A lot of people like to set them off in China, anytime, anywhere for many reasons. Why not at the highest point of a particular section of the Great Wall?

Here was one of the more precarious parts of our hike, if you look closely, you may be able to tell that the bottom of the ladder is no longer fixed to anything, so it was a bit shaky, but we knew it was sound because we had just passed someone hiking in the other direction.

It is a lot more exciting to hike the unrestored sections of the Great Wall. Sometimes you have to figure out how to get from A to B. Here we had to come down through an opening in the top of this tower ad then crawl through the space where Scott is crouching.

And it was nice and steep, good exercise, excellent weather, beautiful views, cleaner air. I really couldn't have asked for a more fun and full day.

This was at the start of the Great Wall portion of our hike, although we needed to hike about an hour and a half to reach this point. My brother Albert will have to critique my technique in this picture, I know something is definitely lacking!

This is on the way up towards the Wall. Apparently someone sleeps here sometimes!

Here is a praying mantis I almost stepped on. Quite a good size, about the length of my middle finger. Very camouflaged, except the green underside caught my eye against the rock background.

And just beyond this sign, quite a well-travelled trail to the Great Wall.

Where our driver dropped us off, the village had springs of water in which they farmed fish (red snappers I believe). Our driver said the eggs for these fish were imported which explained why they were going for quite a hefty price.

We ended up at a restored section of the Wall called Mutianyu at about 1830, and then rested our jello legs during the drive into Beijing for something to eat. We went out for dinner at a Tex-Mex Restaurant with a real down home-like family atmosphere, complete with wandering toddlers and friendly servers. They served good-size portions and we were glad because we were ravenous! We got home at about 2300, but what an awesome day it was!

On Sunday, we relaxed, played with the kids and later went over to a friend's place for what I thought was going to be a low-key dinner with friends. Well, it turned out to be a surprise party! Lots of people were there including my Chinese teachers and some neighbours! Scott really outdid himself, even organizing a big game of Pictionary, dividing the group into teams and using a massive whiteboard to draw on. You just have to have games and/or karaoke at a party like this. It was so much fun, I think I'll turn thirty more often!

conversations with eli

2008-09-24T23:31:00.006-07:00

For this next story, you need some background:

Every week or so, Scott meets with a professor at a local university to talk philosophy. It is mutually beneficial: language practice for Scott and editing help for the professor (he wants to do some post-doctoral studies abroad). Anyways, the professor's area of expertise is Confucius and one day as I was putting Eli and Dana to bed Eli asked me for the third or fourth time where daddy was...I was getting tired of answering him and I knew that he already knew the answer so I asked him: "You tell me where daddy went, Eli." I said.

Eli thought for a moment and then said with certainty, "He went to go meet with Confucius."

A week or so later, Eli, Dana and I were playing at the park and Eli wanted me to sit next to him on the steps of the slide. "Mommy, sit down, I made room for you, " he said.

"Okay," I replied and sat down, keeping an eye on Dana and extending my hand for her to hold as she toddled up to join us.

"It's like we are on a date," Eli said. (He has by this time gotten used to Scott and I going out once a week, just the two of us).

"Yes it is Eli, kind-of...do you know what people usually do on dates?" I asked him.

Eli, without much pause said, "Talk about Confucius." Then he sprung up from his seat and catapulted himself down the slide looking about as pleased with himself as I was of him. How is it that not one, but TWO cartoon characters live with Scott and I?! God I love those kids!

Alan, Donna and Jill come visit! Part 4: tired

2008-09-21T00:51:00.005-07:00

Just in case you didn't believe me about our time together being fun-filled yet tiring, here are some photos that ought to convince you.

Sleeping on the couch:

Sleeping on the bus:

Sleeping at the train station:

Too tired to smile for the camera:

Sleeping at the park (I know I already have one of Alan, but I couldn't resist):

I must say that just because I am not in these pictures doesn't mean I was not also a victim to exhaustion and therefore sleep in public places. I just don't have one picture of sleeping me on my camera. Honest! I would post it if I did!

Alan, Donna, and Jill come visit! Part 3: Xi'An

2008-09-20T19:02:00.009-07:00

Our week-long trip to Xi'An was quite a lot of fun. We were fortunate to be able to stay in a friend's house for the duration. The city (an ancient capital of China) has quite a long history. We went to see the drum tower and the bell tower and took in performances at each. Alan, Donna and Jill always had their cameras ready and aimed at the kids and whatever they were doing.

It was pleasant just to walk around the city, although most days it was quite hot (30+ degrees C) so we had to keep the fluids up, not unusual (and actually probably necessary) to drink 4 litres a day!

We walked on the old city wall and then decided to rent bikes. Scott and I in a two-person bike and Jill in a single biked the whole 13km perimeter while Alan and Donna watched the kids and fed them ice cream to try to keep them cool and amused. Here's a picture of Donna and I in the "bicycle built for two " (which she sang as we rode!) as well as Scott riding beside us.

A real highlight for me was getting to go climb Mt. Hua, one of the famous mountains in China, with Scott and Jill. Alan and Donna graciously agreed to watch Eli and Dana for the two days and one night that we were away. It was about a 6 hour climb and we stayed in a motel at the top. That way we got to see the sunset AND the sunrise. No, this is not your regular mountain climbing or hiking experience, there are stairs all the way up, a gondola if you want, as well as vendors selling you water, fruit or instant noodles. The prices went up the higher you went.

My favourite picture that Scott took is below. Look at the sunlight ribbons streaming through the clouds and the little traditional Chinese structure on the edge of the mountain. Gorgeous.

We also went to see the famous terracotta warriors and other museums as well as an infamous art gallery that had art (and not a lot of it) stapled on the walls. It was my idea to go there as it was a rainy day...the consolation was that Eli had a large circular area to run around on pushing the stroller and that we went out for pizza afterwards!

Alan, Donna and Jill come visit! Part 2: the olympics

2008-09-20T15:44:00.017-07:00

Ahhh the Olympics, what a crazy time we had watching it. I had this love/hate for it by the third day. We just were too easily wrapped up in it all and even started watching events on TV that we had little to no interest in... We also were getting a little worried and disappointed when it took the Canadians so long to get their first medal, and how ironic that it was won for us by a Chinese who immigrated to Canada!

This next picture is a view that we had at one of our track and field events. We were pretty high up there!

I think in total there were 3 separate trips to Beijing to see the Olympics. Donna and I opted out of the last one as we were getting tired of all the commuting. We had tickets to see some soccer, track and field and volleyball. My favourite was watching the men's volleyball game. It was Poland versus Russia and we opted to root for the Poles because they border Czech Republic and their flag colours are red and white like Canada's. It was an exciting game to watch because the two teams were fairly evenly matched. Jill and I got some laughs and stares from the Chinese fans around us because we were cheering so loudly: "POLSKAAAAAAAAAA!"

Here's a good shot of Scott and his family on our way to Beijing. Each time we went, we also fit in some of the sights, like the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tian'men Square, The Great Wall. It made for some very full and tiring days, but at least we were realistic in not inflicting those long days on the kids, they happily stayed home with the babysitter and we happily went without them.

This is the famous Bird's Nest where we watched the track and field. I especially enjoyed the pole vault and the high jump events. It's amazing to see those events live, you get a greater appreciation for what they can do when you are right there watching it all.

Here's a picture of the outside of the Bird's Nest. Impressive!

And one of me cheering away with flags in my hair! I especially enjoyed the pole vault and the high jump events. It's amazing to see those events live, you get a greater appreciation for what they can do when you are right there watching it all.

Alan, Donna and Jill come visit! Part 1: the zoo.

2008-09-20T01:30:00.012-07:00

Well it's about time I wrote about our three week visit from Scott's parents and sister in August! We had wonderful (if busy) time together. The first week was spent getting over jet lag and touring around our city, the second week we went to Xi'An to travel and see the sights while the third week was dominated by Olympic activities (if we weren't travelling to Beijing to see some event, we were watching it at home on TV).

One of the first things we did was go to the zoo together, you may be sick of hearing about our zoo adventures but remember that a Chinese zoo is really not like a North American zoo. It's truly a cultural experience, so we had to take our guests there. Plus Eli is not sick of the zoo yet.
Naturally we rented the little car that Eli could drive and we all took turns driving with him. Alan got to be the first. Here we are on the way to see the birds.

The bird "sanctuary" is an area about the size of a soccer field with a little man-made creek running through with a pond and quite a few types of birds that would ordinarily definitely not be seen together. There are ducks, swans, storks and even a vulture to be seen there. There are a lot of cages as well as a huge net over top to prevent the birds from flying away.

Then we went to see the bears. The panda bear is considered a special treasure in China, though it is endangered. Here he is feeding in the background of this picture, looking more energetic than in previous visits.

After that we decided to go feed the crocodiles. You can pay about 50 cents to rent this stick with a chunk of meat (chicken they said it was) tied on to it, then off you go to taunt and tease the crocs from various platforms that are above their swimming area. Again, not your regular zoo experience. Here are the fearless crocodile "hunters":

They seem so sluggish, and even sleep with their mouths wide open, but don't be fooled, they are FAST! They can sure startle you when they suddenly snap for the meat they pretended to not be very interested in! And the snap of their jaws echoes in the whole building!

Eli's birthday and other adventures...

2008-08-15T06:37:00.004-07:00

Catching up now on some things that happened in June and July. I had some trouble trying to upload pictures and I just don't think that blogging without pictures is worth it, but it finally worked today, hip hip hurray!
Here is a picture of Eli's birthday cake. I blogged a picture of Dana's earlier so I thought I would a put a picture of his in as well (plus I'm proud of it okay?). He had a bit of a fiasco on his birthday, we went to this park where we thought we could rent those little kiddie cars by the half-hour, but they were nowhere to be found, so we were trying to decide what to do instead when Eli fell and scratched his head. We put a diaper on his head to stop the bleeding and numerous Chinese people were telling us to take him to the hospital. But we didn't and we didn't need to, he was fine and the party continued at my friend's house which was nearby.
Here's Eli's buddy Caleb having some cake with Eli. They are good friends. I'm thankful that we all have found someone to click with over here, at least one friend for each of us. It's one of the things I asked for and really hoped for when we first came.
Had lots of rain in July, so we had some very fun and very dirty puddle-playtimes. I would ordinarily not stand for this but we were within 2 minutes of our house and therefore our bathtub, the use of which immediately followed this episode.
Living in a city of 10 or so million, we still play tourist a year after arriving. Here the kids are in the TV tower, some 400 metres high. That's Naomi, on the left, another good friend of Eli and Dana, who lives pretty close to us. We do a lot with her parents too, cool-cat Brits who live a 5 minute cycle away.

camping on the Great Wall

2008-06-15T01:48:00.007-07:00

Our school organized an overnight camping trip on the Great Wall. We just couldn't pass that experience up so we packed up the kids and borrowed some gear and off we went. Eli and Dana were so great. Eli was even potty-training on the trip and not a single pair of shorts got wet or soiled! (in case you were wondering we had a false start with him last fall, so we postponed the potty-training business until this June). One of the things that shocked me about China when I first got here was all the public peeing and pooping (on the children's part) that just wasn't an issue with the locals. Of course I didn't like it at first, but now that Eli's potty-training, I'm so glad!

One of Eli's favourite parts of the trip: the bus ride!

Scott and Eli embarking on the short hike to where we were going to set up our tents. There were about 25 of us altogether and we packed most of our own food as well. The first day we hiked to see some villages near the Great Wall.

Both kids slept great in the tent. Scott and I didn't sleep as well, but we sure enjoyed the cool, fresh breeze that blew all night.

Our day started at 0515 when Eli woke up and declared, "Had a good sleep!" We got packed up, had some oatmeal for breakfast and then hiked the Great Wall with the kids strapped to us. A fellow student kindly carried our water and other necessities.

Tired, but exhiliared, here we are nearing the end of our hike.

Dana's birthday!

2008-05-17T07:23:00.013-07:00

Had a birthday party for Dana, which was totally fun even though she won't remember anything about it! We invited some of her friends (and I told them they were allowed to bring their parents), chatted, ate and opened some gifts. I like that her birthday coincides with Mother's Day, she's the best Mother's Day present ever!

I probably have a little bit of whatever my mom has that makes her run around like a headless chicken preparing food and ensuring guests have more food than they could possibly eat. It's not a bad thing, it just may not be apparent that I am also actually really enjoying myself at the same time. Now I understand why my mom wanted to prepare my wedding cake PLUS do all (or most) of the food preparation for my wedding gift opening! I love that mom of mine, I really hope I can be more like her when I grow up.

I prepped lots of different fresh cut-up vegetables with homeade hummus, potato leek soup for lunch, and then a banana chocolate cake in the shape of a flower for dessert.

Tasted great, couldn't for the life of me get the icing to whip up properly, but whatever...Dana sure didn't seem to mind, here she is helping herself:

Here's to many more years Dana! You've been nothing but a joy to all of us! We like the way you can not only walk now, but dance as well. It's fantastic the way you are starting to talk too.

Watch this birthday "interview" with Dana featuring her first sentence: "mommypleasepickmeup". Impressive!

eventful May...

2008-05-17T06:36:00.005-07:00

As mentioned before, Scott made a quick trip to Canada to be at our friend Jeff's wedding. Here's a picture of him with the groom (right) and another excellent buddy Zeal (middle): A definite highlight for Scott was seeing his family. He got to meet his sister's boyfriend Mike, spend some time in the mountains with his dad, as well as see his grandpa. Wish I could have been there! I love this picture of the three generations of Brimacombe men, if I knew how, I would splice a picture of Eli in to make it four. I can just imagine Scott coaching his mom on how to take the picture which explains the expression on his face.Meanwhile, back in Canada, Pam and I were having a great ol' time. Poor girl though, she didn't get to see much in the way of tourist sites (next time, I promise!). Instead, I gave her the tour of parks and play areas since we had "tire out Eli" on the agenda every morning. When Scott returned we did do a little sight-seeing and souvenir shopping though. We had loads of fun, went for bikerides and walks, watched movies, got massages, took a boat ride, had a picnic...we packed a lot into the ten days. Here's one of our more serious (well Pam's anyway) shots:
And here's Eli on a tank. There was a sign that probably said "Don't climb on the tank" but my Mandarin reading is still not there yet so we took the opportunity for a photo. It was one of those cases of "don't ask, just ask for forgiveness later if necessary" courses of action.
Same with the cannon, he freakishly blends in with the statues behind him don't you think? Hopefully there weren't any almost-3-year-olds involved in (or anywhere near) the battles!

missing Scott...thanking God for Pam

2008-05-04T06:52:00.005-07:00

Wow, it has been ten days since Scott left for Canada and I am really looking forward to him coming back. I want to hear all about his news, who he had a chance to talk to, how the wedding was, how his time with his family went. It will be great to see Eli reunite with his pops too. Eli likes negating everything you say these days but one thing he is not saying "NO" or "it's BAD" to is when I ask him if he misses his dad, he breaks out of his tough little boy routine and softly says "Yeah".

It's been better than I anticipated though, I was worried about how I was going to juggle the care of two kids under three on my own, but a little planning and not trying to do too much each day makes all the difference.

I didn't end up going on the school trip to "China's Hawaii" (Hainan) as it was cancelled due to lack of interest and the alternative trip was decidedly not child-friendly. However I did get a chance to play tourist in Beijing for a couple of days. The best part of that was my best friend Pam flying in and meeting her at the airport. Yep, she is visiting me right now, sleeping on the couch while I blog. I didn't realize how much I missed her until this afternoon, listening to a Sarah McLachlan CD that she bought me, sitting in the living room with Dana and Eli in my arms, and chatting with Pam just as though she lived next door and had dropped by for a visit and to borrow a cup of sugar or something. It's so easy to pick up wherever we left off.

I don't think it's a bad thing but I have somehow kept myself just busy enough to not think too long and hard about all I have left in Canada. Every once in a while it hits me right between the eyes. A wise friend has told me that it is important to give yourself the space, time and grace to mourn the life you won't live even as you celebrate the one you do. I guess I am learning how to do that.

signs of spring

2008-04-11T05:13:00.011-07:00

I went for a walk this week with the kids and I finally remembered to take my camera with me. Below is a picture of our "driveway". They are doing some major work on it, digging large trenches to put pipes in. Eli likes watching the excavators, dump trucks and front-end loaders. He might be the only sad one when all the work is done.

We live in the tall brown and grey apartment buildings (although in this picture you cannot see our building itself). Here's Eli and Dana in our stroller, man that all-terrain stroller was worth every penny we paid! Shortly before this picture was taken, a Chinese grandma told me I should buy a different type of stroller because where Dana sits is too low and she inhales too much of the exhaust from cars there. I politely told her that I would discuss it with my husband, but actually I don't think the 6 inch difference in height really makes any difference. She also told me that taking the kids to McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken was not good for the kids to which I heartily agreed! (I haven't taken them there once yet).
Here's Eli at the top of his gravel hill. He gets nice and dirty every day which to me is a sign of a happy, healthy kid. Plus, there are so few hills here, that we had to take advantage. It comes more naturally for me to take the kids outside to play instead of doing indoor crafty things (although I'd love to be good at that too). I love this time of year, there are so many trees blossoming everywhere, it's remarkable how forgiving the trees and flowers seem to be here, they just go on blooming as if there were no pollution at all. I don't know what kind of trees these pink ones are, but they are lovely! We even have lilacs here too! There's a bush just outside our bedroom window actually.
Here's a typical street scene these days. My brother Albert asked me for some "typical" shots of what things look like here. They wrap rope around the trees for the winter and secure tarps around all the bushes. I'm not sure what it's for but I'm sure the Chinese know something I don't (they always do). The tall skinny building in the distance (centre) is the TV Tower. It is how I discern the air quality on any given day. Some days I can't see it at all. One clear day, we plan to go up there, have lunch and take pictures.

We went to this nearby park that is near the site of an Olympic venue. Because of the proximity to the Olympic site, there is a huge drive for general beautification of our road these days. They (many peasant workers, male and female, aged from 20-50 I'd say) are planting trees and flowers, sweeping streets and picking up garbage. They tore out all the brick sidewalks and poured concrete instead (I found out how to say "concrete" in Chinese, literally translated it is "water mud", and, by the way, I knew this word before Scott did!). Anyways, I was feeling a little stressed on behalf of the powers that be because the concrete work was not at all well done, it had footprints and bike prints all over it and was lumpy and uneven. I thought the bricks they had before looked way better. But--Scott informed me today that the concrete is just a base and they are putting tiles over top of it and that it looks sharp. Phew! Here is Dana at the park, looking triumphant for good reason: She just completed her first set of stairs and I set her down to do it again. Way to go Dana! She's such a cuddly and happy baby! How blessed I am!

Another random thing to tell you is that I saw this ad and was tempted to enter Dana: Baby models are being sought by HUGGIES diapers (China), the shooting will take place in Beijing on April 21st, half day. The organizers are looking for 8-14 month old 'crawlers', girl and boy, and must be 'Euro' looking. Each model will receive 2500RMB (that's about 350$). What do you think? Does Dana look "Euro" to you? Why doesn't Huggies (China) use a Chinese baby, that's what I'd like to know. I doubt I'll enter her, it's one thing to have cute kids, but quite another thing if and when those cute kids realize they are cute (and make money off it). No thanks.

march madness

2008-03-23T02:20:00.006-07:00

What to write really....life in China has become, or at least feels, pretty normal. We all have our routines and structure in our week is not only necessary, but most welcome.

Eli goes to school three times a week: Wednesdays and Fridays from 0900-1100 and on Saturdays from 1000-1045. Scott takes him faithfully, I have yet to go, but I will soon because Scott is going back to Canada in about a month for a dear friend's wedding. Here's a picture of Scott and Eli just ready to bike to school (about a 10-15 minute ride).
Some days Eli really gets into it at school, and other days he doesn't. He learned the words for drum and tambourine; shake and pat; one, two, and three; dog and cat (and more I'm sure). There is active play for him in the park that the school owns as well as the swimming pool (which is his favourite). He is like a little wild man compared to the other Chinese kids who dutifully stay close to their grandmas, holding their hands. Eli climbs to the top of the monkey bars and is noticeably more independant.
Eli is having one of his favourites: peanut butter and mantou. Put peanut butter on anything and Eli will like it.

On Wednesday nights, Scott and I have our date nights. Sometimes we just hop on a bus and ride it to the end of the line, other times we go out for coffee (green tea frappucinos actually) and chat. Sometimes we go to a friend's place and play games. Yesterday we walked along the river and read the plaques on the old Austrian consulate's buildings. I've found a really yummy treat here: it's called tang duir and it's candied hawthorn berries on a stick. It's the perfect blend of sweet and sour in a dessert. Scott thinks they are okay, but I love them. Here we are back from one of our dates. Our tang duir are covered in edible rice paper in case you are wondering what that is.

Hmmm, what else is new...oh! there is a school trip being planned in early May too. The destination is Hainan Island, which is kind of like the Hawaii of China. I'm really thinking of going even though Scott will be in Canada during that time. As I was trying to decide between staying home or going, my tutor put it well, she said, "Well, which would you rather be, sad or tired?" I'm definitely leaning toward tired. If I stay, things are more predictable and easy, but I might end up feeling sorry for myself. If I go, I know travelling with two little slugs will be tiring, but I won't be alone, there will be other students and teachers that I can call upon to hold Dana while I run after Eli (and spank him).

I thought I would include some more pictures of Dana as she is really starting to want to walk! She regularly pulls herself up into the standing position and cruises around the coffee table. She likes Eli's toys and doesn't own any dolls. Dana's appetite is increasing and broadening too. No more rice cereal, we're into congee (rice soup) with vegetables (and beans, meat and eggs, don't worry mom, she's getting enough protein). She likes bananas now too, hooray!
This is her "mom, would you please put the camera down and give me more to eat" face. Who, I ask you, could say no?

homework

2008-03-08T07:38:00.004-07:00

I'm trying to learn those crazy Chinese characters and my tutor highly encouraged me to do all my homework on the computer with characters instead of relying on pinyin (a Romanization of Chinese characters). So this is a short composition about sports and exercise which is mostly true (in some areas, I just wanted to use different vocabulary)...well, never let the truth get in the way of a good story right? Enjoy!

Sports

以前我平时喜欢做很多的运动。我中学的时候打排球，打篮球，滑冰，骑马，和踢足球。这些是我最喜欢的运动。现在我是妈妈，我的时间不够了，所以我不能做很多的运动但是我还喜欢锻炼。在健身房，在家，都可以。在健身房我喜欢举重以后在跑步机上快走。我花半个小时走路。在家我跟朋友看一个DVD，跳健身操和跳舞一起，有意思。我觉得锻炼身体帮我很多：我可以睡的比较好，学习比较好，我的态度比较好等等。。。如果我觉得我的压力很大，锻炼帮我忘了压力!

Translation:
I used to do a lot of sports. In junior high, I played volleyball, basketball, skated, rode horses and played soccer. These were my favourite sports. Now I am a mom, I don't have enough time so I don't do as many sports but I still enjoy exercising. At the gym or at home, both work. At the gym I like to lift weights after a half hour of walking fast on the treadmill. At home with a friend I like to watch (and do) an exercise DVD, it's a combination of dance and aerobics and it's fun. I think exercise helps me a lot, I can sleep better, study better, my attitude is better etc...if i feel under a lot of pressure, exercise helps me forget about it!

Thailand!

2008-02-24T06:12:00.006-07:00

Okay so this first picture was not taken in Thailand, but I couldn't resist adding this picture of the kids. Part of our bedtime routine is to give the kids a bath before bed. Eli calls it "turtle time" because he thinks he swims like a turtle in the bathtub. As you can see, they both quite enjoy this method of wrapping up the day. I didn't even plan the modest placements of Eli's hands and Dana's green bowl!
Here we are in Hua Hin, a city about 3 hours from Bangkok. This guy was trying to get us to rent his horse but we didn't bother...maybe some other year when the kids are bigger. We did get a chance to rent a jetski for half an hour though while friends watched the kids. That was one of the highlights as travelling with kids does not often allow Scott and I to get away and do things together.

The beach was beautiful and the ocean quite refreshing. I think it was the perfect time to get away from the winter in China, even though where we are is not near as cold as in Canada, the wind can still sure chill to the bone and take your breath away. I'm in a daily habit of wearing long johns in China whereas I didn't in Canada...go figure!

Dana preferred the beach and the ocean. She ate her fair share of sand and really enjoyed the way the sand felt on her fingers and toes, when she got too sandy, we would scoop her up and rinse her in the ocean's waves, even dipping her in completely at times. She did not mind this, if you can believe that! We bought that adorable hat in Thailand, and you can see her crawling trail in the sand.
Eli however, preferred the swimming pool to the beach. The salt and the waves of the ocean threw him off a little. Our pool at the bungalow where we stayed had toys and a nice little shallow pool for him to play in. Most of the time, Eli liked to "park" his toys in an orderly way on the edge of the pool. He is such an organized little guy: he really likes order. He fell in the pool a few times, but not to worry, I was always close enough to fish him out right away and he is not traumatized by those experiences.
And then it was time to go home. This was Eli's idea of packing! We actually had to buy some more suitcases because one of our suitcases was ripping apart and then we ended up accumulating more stuff as well. I definitely packed too much stuff for this trip. I think I can easily cut the amount of clothing for all of us in half for next time!
Other highlights from Thailand were: 1) meeting many new friends in the first week; 2) having a special Valentine's Dinner in the same restaurant we got to go to when Scott and I were engaged (7 years ago); 3) having games nights at our place after the kids were in bed; 4) meeting an inspiring couple from Norway who are now living in India; 5) eating delicious Thai food and the fresh fruit so plentiful and cheap everyday...

Now we're back and gearing up for a new semester. We have pretty much the same schedule as last semester with just a few changes. We are rested and raring to get back to work again. Eli will be starting his preschool this coming Saturday. It is just a 45 minute class in which he must be accompanied by one of us (good for our language learning!). Should be fun. We want to gradually get him used to the idea of school, (and liking it!) so he will eventually be ready to go 2 or 3 mornings a week on his own...maybe by next September.

the BONKS

2008-01-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

here's a new one:

the good news is: i'm not a battered woman...the bad news is: i might look like one.

i'd better explain:
i had been feeling sick for most of this week, kind of a flu, kind of a cold and was starting to feel better. i was preparing fruit salad like i do every morning for breakfast and i started to feel dizzy/woozy/lightheaded/and maybe a little bit like i might throw up, so i thought i would do the sensible thing and sit down. i sat in a kitchen chair right by eli and called softly "scott..."

the next thing i knew i was on the floor with a terrible aching sensation on my cheek, my forehead and my head. i had blacked out and fallen on my head! scott was standing over me looking concerned and reassuring me, and eli (bless him!) was saying "sorry mommy" like it was his fault or something!

ouch! what the hell happened? were some phrases that came to mind. i had broken my 500$ glasses in the process, and the frame had cut a little bit into my cheek. but scott took my glasses to get fixed which they did (for free!) and although i'm sore, i don't have really nasty noticeable bruises on my face, so i'm thankful for that.

eli (he's so funny) talks about how "mommy fell RIGHT OFF her chair!" and asks me if i'm going to do that again sometime! i tell him that i sure hope not, because it hurt and i only have one head!

p.s. so if you ever feel dizzy like that, sitting down in a chair is not enough, just lay down on the floor right away and save yourself the BONKS!

p.p.s. the bright side of having something like this happen to you is, at the very least you get a good story out of it.

our first Christmas in China...

2008-01-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody! We had a wonderful first Christmas in China, all things considered. We definitely missed being with friends and family, but made the best of things...what choice did we have?!

Here we are, spending Christmas Eve morning on a walk, just the four of us. We walked to where there was snow...at a ski hill where they make their own snow. This was at the zoo coincidentally and so we also went to see the birds. Eli really likes the birds and can spend a good half hour just watching them in the comfort and (relative) safety of his stroller. I really liked seeing the swans, I have no idea how they keep their feathers so clean and bright white...especially considering how dirty the zoo is.
Here was our decidedly non-traditional Christmas Eve meal, lotus roots, a spicy pork dish and mantou (Chinese buns), all made made by our beloved and much appreciated ayi (that's "auntie" in Chinese, but here it refers to our house-help or maid if you will). She's the one that truly makes it possible for Scott and I to study Chinese simultaneously.
But I at least made the vanocka (that's Czech Christmas bread). I didn't make the loaves beautiful like my mom's though, she braids the bread whereas I just made simple loaves. Too lazy you ask? Yep, and I didn't have any toothpicks to secure the braids on top of one another. Still tasted like my mom's though and that's what counts.
Eli very much enjoyed Christmas too. He received many new cars and trucks from friends and family. One of his favourites was a school bus from Scott. Here is a picture of Eli, engrossed in his new toys on Christmas Day.
Well if I had to choose my top three favourite memories of our Christmas this year, they would be:

1. the carol sing that we had on the 23rd. We invited about 10 people over and sang Christmas carols with Scott on the piano and someone else on the guitar. It sounded beautiful, and it chased away the homesick feelings that are especially strong this time of year. Eli had some of his buddies over and really enjoyed that evening too.

2. watching "The Nativity Story" on Christmas Eve. We plan to make this one of our traditions. The movie is so well done and it helped me see again how amazing this story really is. It helps the story not be so "same ol', same ol'" even though I've heard it so many times.

3. making cookies with a friend the week before Christmas. We spent the whole evening chatting and laughing as we made cookies and decorated them together (and yes, we sampled our fair share too). Hopefully we can do that again next year as well.

new things

2007-12-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Dana got a new "car bus" as we call it. It's a walker and you can't get them in Canada because they are illegal (deemed too dangerous as many houses in Canada and the US have stairs). We got one secondhand and don't worry, we are on the first floor in our building and there aren't any stairs. Dana loves it and has really mastered scooting all around our house. She loves being mobile! Eli loves to push her but he gets in trouble if he does. I let him go "park" it when she's not in it though.
Here's a picture just for fun: Eli with his crazy hair eating the peanut butter off of his bread. Dana helped him get that crazy hair, she put her rice cereal hands in his hair and started pulling. Eli is pretty good-natured about it when she does that; he says that Dana is giving him a "haircut." Needless to say, we gave him a bath after this.
Dana has started eating solids! So far she prefers only rice cereal though, she spits out any banana or sweet potato that I've offered her. Hmmm...a woman of simple tastes perhaps? Sweet potato I can understand, but I can't believe she doesn't like banana! My friends tell me not to worry and that it is just a matter of time before she eats anything and everything, so I'm just taking things a day at a time. She certainly looks healthy to me.
Eli also has embarked on something new: potty training! We've been at it for two weeks and I confess that in the middle of the first week I was very tempted to give up and just go back to diapers. Who knew that I had a definite control freak streak? (I just wanted to press a button on Eli and have him deposit a #1 or a #2 in the potty.) Who knew that I would take it personally if I missed getting Eli to the potty by mere seconds? (I felt like he was not cooperating on purpose.) It is humbling to rinse Eli's poopy pants...probably good for my character and all that. We won't give up, we are persevering and Eli is doing pretty well, all things considered. I have to readjust my attitude every now and then about it. I ask myself: "What, with my tile floors and my brown couches, is the worst thing that could happen?" We're starting to look forward to and prepare for Christmas. I'm trying to look at the bright side of being so far away from friends and family in that this Christmas will be more simple. It's business as usual here; no holidays for us. Good Christmas music is in short supply over here though. Some friends of ours got us Michael Bolton's Christmas album which we haven't listened to yet (but we will!). Thankfully, we have a new electric piano that sounds fantastic! I love the way the music fills our house when Scott plays. Another new thing? Scott's goatee! His barber told him he looked better with it, because without it he looked "too white." I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me (ha ha).

watch eli run!

2007-11-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

I used to just love running towards my dad as fast as I could and having him catch me and swing me around. I did it for as long as I could at every opportunity, I remember almost knocking my dad over because I was too big already...sigh...it's one of those things that characterizes childhood for me. I'm glad I get to do that with Eli now.

Xi'an trip

2007-11-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

Guess what!? We got a chance to go on a week-long trip to Xi'an with our school. I sure appreciated having everything arranged for us, from the train (a 19-hour overnight ride) to the charter tour bus as well as the hotel and most meals. What really made it great in my mind, was the fact that there were two other familes that went along so Eli had some friends to play with. There was about 30 of us in total, including teachers, students, kids and tour-guides.

As Xi'an has a sizable Muslim population, we visited an old mosque and walked through the Muslim Quarter. We had dinner there once and bought this delicious bread on our free day. It tasted like a big soft pretzel or something similar.
Eli loved riding the bus, we were often the first ones back on the bus after a stop at whatever tourist attraction. Eli loved turning the steering wheel and moving the gear shifter. I love how small he looks in this picture because the steering wheel looks so big in comparison!
Dana did really well on the trip too, she slept in our suitcase in our hotel (not closed of course!) and continues to like it when Eli pushes her in the stroller. At times she got tired of sitting in it and wanted to be held. We can't blame her for that, she probably just wanted to see the sights too!Here is a picture of Xi'an's city wall. It is about 14 km around, we walked about half of it when we were there. It was built during the Ming Dynasty which began in 1368. Most of it is restored and you can rent bikes to ride around the whole thing. We didn't do that because we had both slugs in tow.It was a full week for Eli, he was either on full-blast, or off sleeping, he seems to have only two speeds. So when Eli wasn't pushing Dana in the stroller, he would climb in himself and have a nap:
There was this great apple orchard by another tourist attraction: the Qian Ling tomb where the Tang Emperor Gaozong and his wife Empress Wu Zetian rest. The Empress died around 705 AD to give you an idea of how old this tomb is. We were more interested in picking apples than in the history of the place (sad, but true). The apples were a little small, but tasted great! Here's Eli walking through the orchard:
One of Scott's favourite memories was going to another tomb (the tomb of Qin Shi Huang), this guy only ruled for 15 years, but accomplished so much (mostly due to his ruthlessness). One good thing he did was making the Chinese writing system standardized and uniform. We got to see the terra-cotta warriors that supposedly protect his tomb. This tomb actually hasn't been excavated yet because the Chinese want to wait for advanced technology in order to do so. They do not want to aid in its deterioration when the artifacts come into contact with air and/or light as has happened with the terra cotta warriors somewhat. We took in a performance by these dancers. They did flips and danced beautifully, and their fight scenes were well-choreographed too.
Here are three of the performers. They came to see Eli and Dana as I had to change Eli's diaper on the grass there, and they wanted pictures with them. Kinda funny, we thought they were the attraction and they thought we were...

That should give you some idea of what we saw and did. Would we do it again? Absolutely! We are already planning to go there next summer when Scott's family comes to visit.

a few of our favourite things...

2007-10-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

1. Eli's bike.
This bike is definitely one of Eli's favourite things. He likes to just push it around and thus far does not really ride it. He's really good at maneuvering it though, going backwards and forwards and backing up are all no problem for him. It's pretty heavy so I have to help him go over the curbs. Oh yes, the pink seat was not our choice by the way!

2. Outdoor exercise equipment. Allow Eli to demonstrate this treadmill/elliptical trainer. He is pretty good at it and wants to go on it especially if Scott or I are already on it. ("Mommy get off!" he says. We're trying to figure out how to make sure Eli knows that he can't get his own way all the time...) It doesn't have much for resistance so I'm not sure how much exercise you can actually get out of it. It may be more of a conversation piece.

4. Our little park. There are 3 slides, 1 teeter-totter and a little horse on a spring. And sand. When Eli's friend Caleb comes over, he loves to play in the sand so who knows, maybe Eli will take to it more too. So far, Eli likes the slides best and goes down on them backwards sometimes.

5. Dana. Here she is, everyone's favourite little gnome/slug. She has a few toys of her own too nowadays, but her favourite toy is Eli hands down! We play this game called "get Eli" where we "walk" her towards Eli and sit her on him, they both end up laughing which makes it really entertaining for us too.

6. Clouds and blue skies.
The past week has had some beautiful days, complete with wind, sun and spectacular clouds at times. I was inspired by another resident in our building to get outside and take some pictures as I saw her doing so outside my window, pointing her camera straight up at the sky. I quickly put on Dana (in the Baby Bjorn), got Eli ready, grabbed my camera and out I went--I was not disappointed.

7. Roses.
Eli and I walked to where the roses were and gave them some good sniffs. I tell Eli that roses are what beautiful smells like. Can you believe they are still blooming in mid-October! I'm always tempted to take a petal, roll it into a ball and shove it up my nose so I can smell them all day! (Don't worry, I don't do it though, maybe if Eli wasn't watching...)

8. Sunsets.
This is a view from outside our front door of our courtyard as the sun was going down. It was around 5 pm and getting close to supper time. I'm so thankful for days like these!

and so concludes september...

2007-10-01T00:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe September is over already, autumn feels different here, not as cold and crisp nor colourful (yet) as I'm used to. It's actually just now that we have stopped using our air conditioning! We had an eventful and fun month, here are some highlights of the latter weeks of September.

Here are Scott and I at the USA vs. England soccer match for the FIFA Women's World Cup. We were able to secure tickets to all five games featured in our city, they were on for half price if you bought tickets for every game! We cheered for the USA since our home country is so closeby, and they won 3-0. My favourite team to watch was Brazil, they played with such flair and passion, they were really able to attack well and keep possession of the ball. I was surprised when they lost to Germany in the finals.

Here is Dana getting her exercise in our spare bedroom/study. She has a more definite "awake-time" now and needs more attention and interaction. I think she is almost ready for a Jolly Jumper but alas, I don't think they have them here, I can't really imagine Chinese parents putting their kids in one, they really baby their babies compared to us.

On my 29th birthday, our school organized a trip to the countryside, about 1 1/2 hour south of our city (it just happened to be my birthday, they didn't do it in my honour or anything!). We saw lots of corn lying on the sides of the streets, drying out to make corn flour later and/or feed for animals. I didn't catch a lot of what our host said about his parent's farm unfortunately, either I just plain did not understand or I was too busy with Eli and Dana.

Here is a scene that captures the countryside I thought: a mule walking along the dirt road, Eli insisted it was a horse and I didn't think it was worthwhile to argue or explain how mules come to be.

So this is how peanuts grow! I had never seen them this way before. Eli in the background of course, he loved meandering along the dirt road and chasing after the little dog that was following us. The dog was equally interested in Eli and we were thankful that he was a friendly dog (no bites, thank you very much!).

It was a tiring but interesting day, I would like to be able to get out to the country more often, maybe even once a month for a change of scenery, air and perspective. It's too easy to start to think that China is just one big concrete jungle when it really isn't.

Nanjing trip

2007-09-15T22:58:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to go to a friend's wedding in Nanjing recently. We took a plane there (about 2 hours) and an express train back (about 7 hours)...always interesting to travel with young kids. The benefit of the plane was that it was only 2 hours, the disadvantage was that Eli had to remain seated with his seat belt on the whole time. Whereas with the train, Eli could run around, but 7 hours is a long time to run around. Thankfully, the other people on the train did not seem at all annoyed by Eli stomping up and down the aisles.

Our hotel (pronounced "ho teh" according to Eli) had only one room so we needed to go to bed with Eli at his bedtime or he wouldn't go to sleep, or stay asleep. I also napped with him in the afternoons. It was just the way it had to go, but I think that the next time we travel, we will splurge on a place with two rooms...

We got to see some pretty scenic spots because we went along for the photo shoot. I enjoyed following the photographer around and taking similar pictures. They even wanted us in one of their wedding photos! This is mostly because of Eli I think.

This is a drum tower that we went to. Scott and Eli sounded the drum which used to be used as a way to warn the city of impending attack, weather warnings and other city-wide communication needs.

Dana, Eli and Scott wrestling on the bed in our hotel. Dana watched but Scott and Eli played pretty hard and belly-laughed a lot. this was our entertainment on our down-times at the "ho teh".

Eli chasing pigeons at another park we went to. He liked running up to them and making them fly as opposed to what the more docile Chinese kids were doing: feeding the pigeons from their hands. I preferred that Eli not touch the birds and was glad that he was content to run after them and scare them.

Great Wall anniversary

2007-09-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

We really enjoyed our day trip to the Great Wall. Here are some pictures to let you in on how things went. It was an excellent way to celebrate six years of marriage!

Here's a picture of me squinting in the sun with a goofy-looking bandana on. Well, I didn't bring a hat so the bandana had to work to keep the sun from beating too hard on my head. We kept Dana under a light blanket so she wouldn't fry in the sun either.

We had lunch in this little tower and gave Dana a break from her carrier (as well as gave her lunch). In this picture she's just eaten and feeling pretty good. She slept for most of our time on the Great Wall. After lunch, Scott took his turn to carry Dana, which I was really thankful for.

Here is a view of the Great Wall, we took a lot of pictures so it is hard to choose just one to capture it! We were sure glad to be able to cool off in the towers that we would come to along the way (you can see one in the picture). The wall is about 2000 years old, but where we went was a restored section. It was still quite amazing to see and walk on...our legs were sore for three days afterwards from the many steep stairways! I really don't know which is harder: going up or going down...I think I prefer going up, actually (easier on the knees).

catching up finally!

2007-08-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, finally this blog thing should be working, it's been almost a month since I have posted. Sorry it's taken so long, believe me we've tried to get this going more than once but it was not cooperating from our house.

Here's some pictures which I know you are keen to see. First things first, Dana has been smiling quite a bit these days and is almost able to roll from her stomach to her back by herself! I guess we can't park her on the bed unattended anymore!

She likes to smile with her tongue sticking out. Sometimes she gives me these great half smiles too, with just one side of her mouth curling. "Piao liang!" is an exclamation I hear a lot when I'm out with the kids, it means beautiful or lovely. Lots of people think that Eli is a girl no matter what he wears because he has his gorgeous blue eyes with long eyelashes and curly blonde hair. (It is also time for him to get a haircut again.)
This is our courtyard that we share between 3 buildings. It's much larger than what you can see here, but it gives you the idea of the kind of green space we have, there are more trees and grassy areas with pathways to walk on and a fountain near the entrance of our development. They pipe in music sometimes in the evening (good ol' Kenny G) out of rock-like speakers to make the environment as calm and peaceful as possible.
Eli is in the guest room in this picture. It will be Dana's room eventually but right now she rooms with us. There is a lot of dark wood: floor and closets mostly, we really like it. We are on the main floor and have windows on three sides, so it feels very house-like actually.

A family shot of us. Pretty hard to get Eli to look at the camera without turning his head away 1.5 seconds later.

One of our views from our windows. Lots of cranes working on the various new developments around our place. They start at 6am and work until 7pm. We see the workers walk or ride their bikes back from work with their characteristic orange hard hats (that don't look that hard actually, more of a uniform than a safety feature I'd say).

Our living room. We have a different couch and chair now. The ones you see here were lent to us by our landlord but we opted for more child friendly and comfortable ones. We bought chocolate brown couches with forest green pillows and we are quite happy with them. Eli already jumps all over them and has fallen off, so we think we should look into getting one or two area rugs too, to cushion his falls.

You'll have to look sideways on this one, it's our kitchen complete with an oven! (unheard of usually in Chinese kitchens). I made cookies the other day and am really glad we have one. Everything is new as nobody has lived in our place before us. It was newly renovated last November and sat vacant until we moved in.

Yesterday we bought some plants, I did some reading on-line about "growing clean air" and found that spider plants, rubber plants and English ivy (among others) are good air-cleaning plants to have inside your house, so basically every room with a window has at least one plant in it. I would like to get lots, but Scott is not as keen as me to have a jungle-like living space.

Tomorrow for our 6th wedding anniversary Scott secured a car with driver to take us to the Great Wall for the whole day. We got a baby-sitter for Eli and we'll take Dana with us. Scott and I have been to the Great Wall before, just over six years ago so we are pretty excited to be able to go again and celebrate our anniversary in this way.

Our language classes start in September but of course language learning has already started unofficially. I love having Eli and Dana with me because people just flock to them and make a lot of the same comments and questions which I am starting to recognize and reply to. Life is good and busy.

taiwan times

2007-07-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures letting you know about how our trip went to get to Taiwan. It was quite the adventure, we were really exhausted when we got here but now are not really suffering much jet lag and we've only been here 48 hours! Because I have to be up every 3-4 hours to feed Dana, I'm not really noticing it anyway.

This is Eli at the airport during our 6 hour layover, it was about 1:00am (our time) and he did not slow down! There were so many "trucks" to push around, he tired himself out really well. It worked out reasonably well as a result as he slept for a large part of our 11-hour flight, with only 2 major meltdowns (that did not really last that long) in total. I think that was about as good as we could expect for a two-year old. I was certainly glad that I brought some extra clothes for both kids, nothing like rinsing Eli's poopy shorts in an airport bathroom during turbulence!

And here's Dana in her stroller at the airport. She did really well and we were glad to have a place to lay her for her naps on the plane. Neither Eli nor Dana seemed to have any ear-popping pain during the take-off or landing which was great.

This is our house for 2 weeks; very, very, very nice and spacious, supplied with more toys than we left behind even! It is located on a boarding school/international school compound, a lot of staff have gone back to the States for the summer so we are able to use it. It has air-conditioning and that is really a necessity here. I am reminded so much of Thailand with the heat and humidity here not to mention the delicious fresh fruit that we are able to buy at various markets within walking distance. I am becoming a bubble-tea addict. It is iced green or black tea with tapioca balls in it with an extra big straw to suck them up. Really tasty and thirst-quenching.

Eli has made some friends with the neighbours by "borrowing" their toys. If it has wheels, he loves it and claims it as his own and attempts to drive it away.

There is a park right behind our house and Eli has taken a liking to the swings. We had a hard time getting him off and he likes to be pushed so he goes high, although his face at first betrays a look of terror. Scott has started getting up early to go for runs and I joined him this morning at 6:00am (if we go later, it is too hot). We went at the 400m track which is near the park. It feels good to jog again, I'm super slow, but you have to start somewhere right?

and off we go

2007-07-14T15:38:00.001-07:00

It's about an hour until we leave for the airport, Eli is still napping and so is Dana. I can't put a picture on here right now because we can't think of where we packed the cord for the camera to go to the computer. Oh well, I'm not about to make a huge search for it now. We're feeling pretty good and we're ready to go...generally encouraged and excited. Our flight leaves at 1930 and we get to Vancouver for a 6 hour layover and then back on the plane for our 12 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan. It will be early Monday morning when we arrive (local time). At last, the long awaited airplane ride for Eli. Let's hope we all do well and can nap lots! I'll hopefully post again when some of the dust settles soon...

the b.c trip

2007-06-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

We went on a whirlwind trip to B.C. so Dana could meet all my side of the family. This picture sums up the warm greeting we got in Prince George. Malcolm showed his enthusiasm for his new cousin consistently, Jacob remarked at how bald she was and said "I like Eli better!" Isaac was also more interested in Eli and shared his toys better than Eli did while we were there.

I took this picture on Father's Day, Rob napping beside his oldest son. Rob is always on the go, doing lots of work, whether he's at work or at home. It was great to get some days with him. I liked being able to help him paint the laundry room/bathroom and chat and laugh it up some.

Dana meets her uncle Albert. I also have some great shots of Albert napping with Dana on his chest. Albert is probably the brother most likely to visit us when we go, he is no stranger to traveling and enjoys it. He also has this way of getting my dad to go places too...maybe, just maybe they will come together sometime...

Here's Isaac on the day we went to Berman Lake. Eli loved going for a canoe ride (his first). Even now, when we say grace, Eli thanks "Gigi" (Jesus) for the "red boat". I think he liked it better than his tractor ride.

Here's Jacob showing off his goggles. In the span of a couple of days, Jacob learned to ride his bike without training wheels! We won't forget words he said when we left to go back to Edmonton: "Uncle Scott, I love you."

Father's Day this year also happened to be Eli's 2nd birthday. Tricia -- who amazes me with what she is able to do on top of being a mom to 3 boys with a 4th baby on the way -- whipped up a delicious banana cake with cream cheese icing and we had a little party in the evening.

Here's Eli being coached on how to blow out the candles. He had such a good time with his cousins and can't stop talking about them. I know that even though he won't get to see them as often now, they are already great friends and will continue to be.

Auntie Tricia getting some cuddle-time in with baby Dana. Only ten or so more weeks until Tricia and Rob's 4th (and final Tricia says) baby is born. We are looking forward to finding out who he or she will be.

Then we had some time in Williams Lake. We went on a mini-hike to Scout Island and my dad showed us lots of different things that we would not have noticed otherwise. Always equipped with binoculars and a magnifying glass, my dad really enriched the experience. I like it when my dad gets in his teaching mode, he really has a knack for it. I got to go for a walk with my dad on one of his power walks. He carried a heavy pack and dumbells while I merely carried Dana. I really liked that.

My mom was on Eli duty and so her pace and prefences had to match his. Eli had to go in the water and once we got him in, it was hard to coax him out. I think grandparents have more patience than parents sometimes.

And then it was time to say goodbye. I'm really not good at those. Part of me would rather just be whisked away without the chance to say goodbye. I wished we had more time to spend with Otto, but he wasn't feeling well for part of the time we were there and the kids stressed him out a bit so he needed his alone time. I also wish I had more time to talk with my mom...sigh...

We got home and are back in "get rid of everything" mode, but I still take the slugs for walks daily. Today the couches went, on Saturday the car goes, on Tuesday the piano goes...little by little we are uprooting and readying ourselves to be planted elsewhere, far away elsewhere. It's becoming more real now...

my new normal...

2007-06-06T12:19:00.001-07:00

Here's Eli going for the planting of a "mwiss" (kiss) on his sister.

Smooch! Sometimes Eli's hugs and kisses are a little rough, but Dana seems to take this in stride and Scott and I make sure we are nearby whenever Eli is able to get at Dana. He is an affectionate little guy, that's for sure. So far he is doing great at adapting to having a new sister. Once in a while he likes to shake her playpen, or toss whatever he happens to have in his hands at her while she is sleeping (like a small metal car, or his sippy cup!). Thankfully his aim is not great and Dana is a small (but growing) target.

Here's a picture of little awake Dana at three weeks of age. Has it really been three weeks? It seems as though she has always been here, or at least been here for longer than that. She is a very good baby, proficient at the big three: eating, sleeping and pooping. We are so thankful for her, she is just beautiful...as you can see.

it's a girl!

2007-05-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here are her adorable feet. Dana Olga was born on Tuesday May 15th at 0849. She weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and measured 19.5 inches. I remember telling Scott the night before: "I'm pretty sure I'm having a boy." so I was really surprised and elated to hear the words "IT'S A GIRL!" Pam and Scott were there for me and were great sources of support throughout my labour, although I did tell Scott to not tell jokes during my contractions at one point. I thank God for a short and smooth labour, I got to the hospital at 0530 and Dana arrived about 3 hours later. God is good.

Here's a picture of us on postpartum day 3. Dana has just finished feeding so is feeling pretty satisfied and chipper. Eli was having his afternoon nap and it was a peaceful and restful day to be inside as it was raining and cool outside. I had a much better night of sleep the night before, but the bags under my eyes let you know that I could of course still use more sleep. Such is the fleeting plight of a new mother! I'm trying to keep it in perspective.

My mom's here and she is being such a great help to us: cooking, baking, cleaning up a storm. Today we took Eli swimming before his bedtime and were trying to teach him to jump into the water from the edge of the pool. He still hasn't quite gotten it, I think he needs his cousins around to model it for him in order to get motivated and inspired to do it. He is taking the arrival of his sister in stride, we're really proud of him.

canmore bliss

2007-05-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to go to Canmore with Pam and her mom last week for a few days. It was wonderful to get away into the mountains and relax. Even though Scott would rather not have to take care of Eli himself, he does notice how refreshed I am when I come back and therefore is generally in favour of my mini-getaways with Pam. Of course it was great to come home too. Maybe one of the best things about going away is the chance to come home again.

We did a number of touristy things: we took the gondola in Banff and did the mini-hike at the top, we went to Lake Louise, we swam in the pool at the resort that we got to stay at with Pam's mom, we treated ourselves each to a massage and ate barbecue steaks for two out of the three nights. I was able to catch the sunrise two out of three mornings too. In short: we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was truly time well spent as I don't know if i will be able to make another trip to the Rockies before we go.

the grand visit

2007-04-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Rob and Tricia and their three boys came to visit us. Here's a rare picture with all of them in it taken at the park near our house. We had great times: lots of swimming, good food I didn't have to prepare myself, big breakfasts a la Rob, walks outside, as well as plenty of chaos inside our little condo. They left this morning and the silence is eerie. Eli is going through withdrawal from his cousins, every once in a while saying their names to me. "Isaac? Jabob? Mackom?" I don't need to tell you how much I appreciated having a two hour nap this afternoon, followed by a relaxing bath.

I loved seeing my mom and Eli interact. He learned that she was his "bahbi" and also learned to say "protein" very well after my mom exclaimed that I had better feed him more protein one night at supper (all that was on his tray was rice and vegetables, horror of horrors!).

breakfast with eli

2007-04-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to finally set up my own blog. My friend Rachel is helping me do so, as I am decidedly inept and a little intimidated by this sort of thing. I'm excited to have pictures of Eli and the baby (when he or she comes) on here regularly.

Here's a picture of Eli eating breakfast with me this morning...we're having our regular favourites: apples, bananas, oranges. The bump on his forehead is from two days ago, running full out down the hallway, checking over his shoulder for his cousin and WHAMMO hitting a corner. Ouch, but he's a trooper: cried for about five seconds and was off running again.

As for me, I'm feeling great. I am 34 weeks along now, so not much waiting left for baby #2 to come. Things are getting packed up and wrapped up around the house. I want to do as much as I can before the baby comes, because I anticipate a major shortage of time (and sleep!) after that.