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

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...

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

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!

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...

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

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

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.