watch eli run!

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

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...

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...

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

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

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!

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.