Chistmas in Shanghai 2006

2006-12-16 Christmas Presents

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. We will be traveling to the US tomorrow to spend a few weeks with our family. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We have been very blessed to have a safe and healthy 2006 and we pray that the new year brings the same to all of you.

We had a small Shanghai celebration with Shou Ju and the kids this afternoon. You can see the photo and video links above.

love kath, kirk, elizabeth and alex

Lizzy at the Beauty Shop

2006-12-16 Lizzy at the Beaty Shop

Elizabeth made her first trip to the Beauty Shop today to get her hair trimmed. Her hairdresser's name is Farhana and she is from India. She also does her friend Orla's hair. She has a nice time being pampered so much so she was falling asleep.

Xintiandi Christmas

2006-12-16 Xintiandi Christmas

http://www.xintiandi.com/site/Default.aspx?tabid=101

Merry Christmas!!! This is our official Christmas picture taken at Xintiandi. Click on the link above to learn more about this area of Shanghai. Since we just took this last night, the picture didn't make the Christmas cards, sorry.

Concordia Christmas Program

Elizabeth had a school Christmas program. The preschool classes sang the "Friendy Beasts" song. The ladybug class were the Doves. They were very cute. Afterwards, we went to Haagen Daz.

Concordia Christmas Program

Christmas Brunch at the JW Marriott

Christmas Brunch @ JW Marriott

One of the favorite things to do on Sundays in Shanghai is to go to brunch at one of the 5 star hotels. These places have the most amazing spreads of food I have ever seen. We've tried the Shangri La and these pictures are from the JW Marriott. Alex and Elizabeth both ate really good and of course afterward, they polished off some homemade chocolate ice cream! They were cooked after that.

Lizzy & Daddy Go Shopping

Kirk and Elizabeth went to the Superbrand Mall by the Oriental Pearl Tower to do some Christmas shopping. They were gone all day and they had a lot of fun together. She had a choice to eat lunch at Blue Frog or McDonalds. Surprisingly, she chose McDonalds.

There is a video of her dancing!

Lizzy & Daddy Go Shopping

Making M&M Cookies

My helpers! Elizabeth had a cookie exchange with school so we made M&M cookies. Not only because they are her favorite, but I couldn't find any chocolate chips. Have to remember to try to pick some of those up. Now that Alex is walking, he wants to be everywhere we are, even in a dinky kitchen!

Shanghai Toys R Us Grand Opening

There is now a ToysRUs in Shanghai. It is in the Superbrand Mall. Alex and I went with his friend Chloe and her mom, my friend, Sophia. This was the grand opening. It wasn't what we had expected. It was more dignitaries giving speeches. Chloe passed out and Alex was trying his new walking skills.

Shanghai Toys R Us Grand Opening

Alex & his "Cars"

Okay, I have to tell the story about the cars. Alex is a little bit of a Cars fan (the Disney movie). We had Mater (the tow truck with the funny teeth) from the States out of a Happy Meal. I never got more of them because he wasn't that interested in cars then. But now he is.

Now China McDonalds has them in their happy meals. So Kirk goes to every McDonalds he can find so that he can get Alex Cars. We are missing McQueen. I think we'll have to find that one on Ebay.

Alex's favorite is Mater. He feeds Mater his french fries or what ever else he's eating. It's pretty cute.

Alex & his "Cars"

phone isn't working

Our Vonage isn't working now, so if you are trying to call, I'm not ignoring you.

Coconut

Elizabeth's imagination is at it again. Today she told me that there is a monster that lives in her room. His name is Coconut. I asked her what he looked like. She said that he was big and round and had orange eyes and no hair. I told her to draw him. She did. He doesn't have feet or hands, she said. He has sticks. Then she told me he was sad, so she drew over his eyes and made them cry. She asked Kirk to write "No Coconuts Allowed" on her picture and hang it up on her door. Tonight she used him as an excuse to goof off before bed. So we told her that Coconut will sleep in our room tonight.

View at Night from our Apartment

Tonight was a pretty clear night so we set-up the tripod to take a photo. It turned out pretty good. Not all of the lights on the buildings are on, but this gives you a pretty good idea what our view is every night.

Trip to Yu Yuan Garden

2006-12-01 Yu Yuan Garden

Wow....what an adventure this was. It was a beautiful, chilly, sunny day on Saturday so we took a trip to the Yu Yuan Garden and bazaar. It's only about a 30 minute drive from our house and it's just over the river so if we took the subway, we could have made it in about 20 minutes maybe. Of course, there were about a bazillion people. And of course, Alex wanted nothing to do with being in the stroller, her wanted to walk. There is a ton of shopping that can be done here and there is a beautiful, traditional Chinese garden from the Ming Dinasty ( i think). It is supposed to be beautiful in the spring, just in time for when our parents visit. Elizabeth got a new purse here. It is reddish-pink. (her description). There is supposedly a restaurant that has the best jiaozi (dumplings) in Shanghai. But of course, I'm the only one who likes dumplings, so we had lunch at McDonald's. Great place to go, but next time will go in the morning without the haizen (children).

Christmas Chapel at Elizabeth's School

2006-12-02 Christmas Chapel at Elizabeth's School

Elizabeth's preschool led the monthly chapel. They did the nativity scene and sang lots of songs. Elizabeth did a very good job and loves singing the songs. Her favorite is "Away in a Manger".

Elizabeth's friend Orla's 3rd Birthday Party

2006-11-29 Orla's birthday party

Elizabeth has a friend, Orla, who lives in Building 3 of our complex. Orla just turned 3 on Nov. 29 (same day as Jake's birthday). Orla and Elizabeth love to play dress up together and draw and do crafts. They are very similar creatures and usually fight for the 1st half hour of their play dates. Usually on Saturday or Sundays, Orla's mom, Kim, and I swap having play dates so that we each get to share in the joy of breaking up the fights. Kim is usually much smarter than me and has two of everything so that they don't fight. After the first 30 minutes, they play wonderfully together.

Kim planned a "little chef's" party for Orla's birthday. That lady is brave (or insane)! She had about 10 - 15 preschoolers making pancakes, rolling out and decorating cookies, and frosting and decorating cakes. As you can see, all the kids had a blast.

Orla's sister is Ciara (key-ra). She is Alex's friend. Whenever we are going to see her, Alex starts saying her name and gets very excited. It's pretty cute. I'll have to try to get that one on video.

Visit to Santa

They just weren't all that brave with this Santa. I don't think I would've been either!

Thanksgiving at Elizabeth's School

Thanksgiving at Elizabeth's School

Elizabeth's school had a really nice Thanksgiving luncheon. They sang songs for us and we all ate Turkey!

If you can not see the above video click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peg9DBjxUP0

Century Garden Play Group

Play Group

See Pelton...proof that I hosted a playgroup. Alex and I now have a playgroup every Monday morning with some other moms and kids from Century Garden. Lin, Ciara, Jean Luc, Chloe, Ophir, and Ciara.

Yahtzee!

If you can't view the above video click the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kRJ1Q9RX-4

Alex loves to play Elizabeth's Disney Yatzee game. See how well he rolls the die.

Around the House

Around the House

You can see that Alex still has his curls, the kids tried to show their support for U of M, and Elizabeth on her way to pajama day at school.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family. We are really sad that we can't be there to celebrate with everyone. We are thankful that we will get to do webcams with the Roessler's in Florida and with the Dufon clan in Fountain.

I've been remiss on writing stories lately. The days do seem to fly by. You can see that we have had some fun adventures to the park, to the Oriental Pearl Tower (Elizabeth calls it the tallest tower) and with our shipment coming in.

Speaking of shipment, we found out that we brought way too much. Number 1, we lived without it for so long, we really didn't need it. Number 2, we are crunched for space. We got creative with underbed storage and consolidated some things so there is a place for everything. Although it's "GOODBYE cute little Metropolitan, Minimalist apartment, HELLO Meijer Toy City"!!!! I'm grateful for the toys now because of the weather change.

Okay the weather.......it is now a consistent dreary, rainy, damp, November day. We haven't seen the sun in over a week. Pretty depressing. Alex and I have a cold and he doesn't like not being able to go outside. He gets pretty cranky when we don't go for our walks. So now I've given in and just put him in the stroller whether or not it's raining and we go. (I have a rain cover for the stroller).

Elizabeth's school had a Thanksgiving Day celebration lunch. It was a potluck. We brought the mashed potatoes, gravy, and my sad attempt at Frankenmuth noodles. Although a couple Michigander parents did recognize what they were!!!

Tonight we are going to the Intercontinental Hotel with our friends from Kirk's work, Rob, Stacy, and Roman. Then Saturday, we will go to Nick Petouhoff's (fellow GMI grad) for a big Turkey party.

Alex still isn't walking by himself....yes 19 months old....but he does have the ability. He just is very cautious. He's been that way since he was born. He loves to take our finger and walk the circle around our apartment. He's saying a lot more words and even replacing some with Chinese words. He doesn't say "thank you" any longer, he says "xie xie" (shea shea).

Kirk is the master at posting the pictures and video, so I'll have him post the recent stuff later. We love you all and look forward to seeing a lot of you at Christmas. Hope you are enjoying the blog.

p.s. pelton...open the purse strings and go buy a web cam.

Happy 60th Birthday Pop Pop!

Happy 60th Birthday PopPop! We are sorry we can't be there to help you celebrate. We hope you don't set off the smoke alarm with all of those candles.




If you can not see the video above please click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M-96O0sLtI

Trip to Oriental Pearl Tower

2006-11-12 Trip to Oriental Pearl Tower

Boat Shipment Arrives

2006-11-9 Boat Shipment

Trip to Peoples Square & Nanjing Rd

2006-11-4 Trip to People's Square and Nanjing Rd.

Elizabeth's School Trip to Century Park

2006-11-2 Lizzy School Trip to Century PArk

Halloween Video

Just when you thought you couldn't get enough of Halloween. Here is a short video of Elizabeth (with here friend Crystal) and Alex Trick or Treating.

More Halloween pictures

2006-10-31 Halloween

Halloween in Shanghai

I'm just going to add one photo so that you can see what the kids looked like. I'll have Kirk import the whole album (I can't remember how to do it).

We started the night with having our friends Orla and Ciera (key-ra) come over to trick or treat. All the girls were princesses. Then we turned around and went to their apartment! Our complex only has about 40% expatriates so Halloween isn't that big here.

Stacy Eckstein invited us to go to a trick or treating party with her and Roman at another complex with many more expatriates. Elizabeth saw many friends from her school, as well as her teacher, Mrs Chiu. She and her friend Crystal had a great time.

Trip to the Bund

2006-10-29 Trip to the Bund

We made a trip today. We took the Metro (subway) to the other side of the Huangpu river, the Puxi side. The kids love to ride the Metro. It is very easy to get around the city with the Metro, but not if you are disabled or with a stroller. We carried the kids in the stroller down and up a lot of stairs.

We walked along the Bund (see the pictures of the older European style buildings). Chinese people love children, especially light haired children. We stopped to give the kids a snack and were eventually surrounded by 30 people. It was our first experience like this in China. A lot of people wanted to touch the kids and of course they all wanted to know if Alex was a nanhai (boy).

We then took the pedestrian sightseeing tunnel from the Puxi side to the Pudong side. We rode a tram car through a tunnel of amazing lights and music.

Once we got to the other side, we didn't get stared at as much. We got some ice cream from Mc Donalds and walked up and down the river. Elizabeth loved twirling and singing. She couldn't finish her ice cream, but didn't want to give it up and throw it away. I distracted her and Kirk threw it away. He then proceeded to tell her that a bird scooped it up and flew away with it. Great....she'll be traumatized by birds forever now. Of course she pulled the drama queen act about it.

We finished the day with good German food at the Paulaner restaurant on the Bund.

Alex is starting to get a lot more confident with his walking and he walked all around without any help for a while. You can see how big he's getting by comparing him and Elizabeth next to each other.

View of Pudong from the Bund side


If you can not see the above clip click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhP92M8Ed5k

Alex walking along the Hungpu River

If you can not see the above view click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRWhsmSoIgw

Lizzy Singing and Dancing (she needs help with her singing)

If you can not see the above video click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzixh7DJI08

Guess Who is Walking

Guess who is walking....

Alex is starting to walk across the room unassisted. If you can not access this video above here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MVmxqGXGYM

Alex Stroller Climbing

Alex's new thing is to climb all over the stroller. If you can not access the video above, the direct link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUvm0AFCNk

First Visitor to Shanghai

Nick Gerasimidis wins the prize for being our first friend from home to come visit us in China. Nick works for GM and makes regular visits to Shanghai. Both Kirk and Kath went to school with Nick. It was good to see a face from home!

We also got our first letter in the mail direct to China from the US. It was a birth announcement from our friends Brock and Julie. They had a baby boy. It only took 84 cents to get the letter here.

Concordia Fall Carnival

2006-10-20 Concordia Fall Carnival

Here are pictures from the Fall Carnival at Elizabeth's school. She got to wear her Halloween Costume (She was Jasmine) and play many games with all of her new friends.

Sick kids

2006-10-15 Shanghai Sick kids

Rough week this week. We started out with a Goose Egg on Elizabeth's head on Sunday at the park. Then on Monday, I had to pick her up from school because she threw up. I thought it was just a side effect from the goose egg. Then Monday night she woke up with a 102. 3 F fever. I took her to the doctor the next day and he found that she had Strep Throat. Nice. And of course, guess who was at the doctor the next day......Di Di. Alex had a side effect of the infection too, Scarlet Fever.

It's Friday. We made it through the week. The kids are better, Kirk and I are still healthy. I think I'm still healthy because I made and ate Gigi's chicken soup. Kirk is just not around enough to catch it. Shou Ju caught it and went home sick today.

We went to a pub called the Flying Fox for dinner. They have an outdoor play area and good fish and chips. Then after, we finished with Haggen Daz. Great ice cream. Maybe it's just because it's been a few weeks since we've had ice cream.

We got our air shipment this week. It had been a month since it was packed. We really now understand how much junk we have and how you don't need that much to survive on!

Shanghai Third Week Pictures

2006-10-15 Shanghai Third Week

We had another good week in Shanghai. Elizabeth had her first week of school as well as her first field trip. Alex also started his school.

Elizabeth's school is Concordia. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Chiu. She is very nice and Elizabeth really likes her. Her class and the other preschool classes took a bus and went on a field trip to the local Carrefour supermarket. It is comparable to Meijers. I went on the field trip as well. The kids had fun but lost interest at the end. The purpose was to see what people did at work and people's roles in the communicty. After the trip, we went back to the school and had pizza. (Papa John's....my favorite!)

Alex has started school also. He and I go 2 days a week, Wednesday and Friday from 3 pm to 4:30 pm at the Shanghai Victoria school. It is a parent/tot class and it is held in Chinese. He has two teachers, Laoshi Micki and Laoshi Christine. They are nice and speak English. There are about 9 other students.....all Chinese.....all girls. Needless to say to all of those parents out there with boys.....Alex is the craziest in the class and doesn't pay attention to instructions most of the time. He just wants to barrel around with the toys. We learned the colors red, white and orange on Wed and we learned a Chinese nursery rhyme on Fri - Xiao Bai Tu. Shou Ju has to work with us on that one. Anyway, Alex is getting the hang of things and really likes going to school.

We have hired some helpers around our house. Shou Ju is our Ayi. She cleans for us, watches the kids a little, and cooks for us. She is very nice and a very welcome addtion to our family here in Shanghai. She speaks a little english and wants to learn more so we are helping each other by teaching each other the languages. She calls Elizabeth, Jie Jie (older sister) and she calls Alex, Dee Dee (younger brother). She has already taught us a lot.

We also hired a car and driver. We just don't feel safe always taking taxi's since the kids aren't buckled in. Our driver's name is Leo and he carts us around in a Buick minivan. It is much more convenient to have the driver when I am grocery shopping! He is very nice and the kids love him as well as he is very good with the kids. He doesn't know much English so he let's me practice my Mandarin on him. He and the door lady said that I am really trying.

Today we went to Century Park (we call it the big park) with the kids for a picnic. This park is absolutely unbelievable. They still have the plant sculptures up so that is cool to look at, but even without them, there is so much to see and explore in the park. This time we hung out on the east side of the park. We sat on the bank of the river and had bread, cheese, salami, fruit and of course a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken! It is a perfect place for a picnic. After our picnic we walked around some more and Elizabeth tripped over her feet on a cobblestone path. She now has a HUGE goose egg on her forehead. Thank goodness school pictures were last week.

Our curtains get installed this week on Monday and our airshipment comes on Tuesday so we will have a busy week. Kirk is in Thailand overnight tonight for a presentation at Ford and will be back tomorrow. Check out the pictures. I'll post some video tomorrow.

bye for now -

Kath

Crazy Kids

Alex is starting to respond to questions. See what his answer is.

If the video doesn't play you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c2RyARrrBQ

Shanghai Second Week Pictures

2006-10-09 Shanghai Second Week

Oct 3, 2006 - 11 Photos

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days.

Downtown Shanghai (View from Bund)

Here is the view of downtown Shanghai (Pudong) from the Bund. The tall tower is the Pearl tower. All of the lights stay on until about 10pm at night.

If the video doesn't play you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1PjdSQ2Mvo

Elizabeth's first day of school

Elizabeth started school today. She was extremely excited. She has been wanting playmates for a long time and this will keep her very busy. She's attending Concordia International School. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Chiu. It will be a long day for her - 8:00 to 3:20 pm, but they do take naps in the middle of the day. She has her first field trip on Wednesday. They are going to go to the Thumb Plaza Carrefour (grocery store). She will be riding a bus to get there.

Alex was not happy at all when we dropped Elizabeth off. #1. He will miss his favorite playmate. #2. He wants to be at school to play with the kids and the toys too!

View from Apartment (Daytime)

Here is the view from our apartment in the daytime. I am taking the video from the North side of our apartment overlooking Century Park going from east to west. The downtown area is toward the end of the video to the west. You can see the Jin Mao Building and the Pearl Tower from our apartment.

If the video doesn't work you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StX5-2ycHUM

Shanghai First Week

2006-10-04 Shanghai First Week

Oct 4, 2006 - 44 Photos

Here are mostly pictures of our visit to Century Park. They are having a landscaping festival in the park with participation from many countries around the world. We went early in the morning before most of the people started showing up. Due to the holiday it is a major tourist attraction. You will see that Elizabeth and Alex enjoyed the playgound at the park. Elizabeth met a new friend at the bouncy castle.

Hello Shanghai

2006-09-30 Hello Shanghai

Sep 24, 2006 - 13 Photos

Here are pictures from our first couple of days in the apartment. I am trying out different photo sharing sites to see which one is the easiest to use. These pictures are mostly of the apartment and the fireworks show on September 30th.

Summer 2006 Pictures

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=13i7coq9.bc2741kd&x=0&y=3nydd

Click the link above to go to the pictures.

Swimming

The kids love swimming in the pool in the gym that we have a membership at. The name of the gym is Will's Gym and it is just 4 buildings away from ours. They have a kids pool that comes up to Elizabeth's shoulders. Alex can walk in the pool as well (with help of course......still not walking!). The water is a little chilly, not what they are used to. But it definitely tires them out!

Shanghai Fireworks

Here is the view of the fireworks over Century Park from our Apartment. The fireworks are to celebrate National Day (October 1st) in China. It is a week long holiday. Elizabeth and Alex both loved the fireworks. Elizabeth thought they were a little loud and Alex said "Weeee!"each time one would go off. We had a great view from our balcony. There are going to be two more fireworks displays later in the week which are supposed to be better than the one tonight.

If the video doesn't work, you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPj1dvjQ43s

Here is a link to more information on National Day. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200210/02/eng20021002_104307.shtml

Made it to Shanghai

We made it! This will be a short note. It is now 6:28 pm on Wednesday (12 hours later than you in Michigan) and the kids have been napping for a couple hours. I need to wake them so that they can sleep tonight.

Our first full day consisted of Elizabeth and Alex waking up at 4 AM and wanting to play. (it's going to take a few days for our bodies to adjust). Elizabeth proceed to have at least 5 changes of clothes by 8 am!

We went to the local police station to register, went to Pizza Hut for lunch (tastes them same as in the states, don't want to get too crazy with the kids yet) and we ended up at the Carrefour to do some grocery shopping. The kids were losing it at the end which was okay because we weren't tempted to buy more. It is difficult enough with two kids and a stroller to get into the taxi, cannot add to many more bags to the mix. Thank goodness Kirk was with us. It will be a while until I venture out with E and A on my own in a taxi! Elizabeth loves not having to sit in a car seat. Makes me nervous.

That's it for today. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow.

Thomas the Tank Engine

We went with Kevin, Chrystal, Ethan, Grammy, and PopPop to Crossroads Village to see Thomas the Tank Engine. This was Elizabeth and Alex's 2nd time seeing him. Ethan is an official train freak now. We had a lot of fun taking a train ride, watching an electric train, doing arts, and going on the carousel. Of course we shopped and got gifts. In the picture is Chrystal holding Ethan (20 months) and Kirk holding Alex (16 months).

Bobby Crim 10 Mile Road Race

We did it!!! I talked Kirk's brother Kevin into running the 30th annual Crim road race on August 26th. 10 Miles. The farthest I'd ever run in my own lame training plan was 6 miles. My goal was to finish. My stretch goal was to finish in under 2 hours. Kevin stayed with me the whole time, when he probably could've beat the Kenyans. I think our official time was 1 hour and 44 minutes. It was awesome, we had so much fun. I can't believe I lived in Flint for all these years and never ran in it. Definitely have to do that again.

Minnesota Trip

The kids and I along with Bumpa and Gigi, took the S.S. Badger from Ludington across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, WI. From there, we made a 6 or so hour drive to Ramsey, MN to see Steve, Kim, and Nathan. We had a lot of fun on the trip. We went to a zoo, the Mall of America, and even a Minnesota Twins game where the Dufon's got to watch their Allendale neighbor pitch for the White Sox. Sarah and Elizabeth had a ball playing dress up. Too bad I didn't get pictures of them with the sparkles in their hair!

Sold the house

It's official. We have sold our house on 4401 Brighton. It's been a great house to us and I think it will be going to a nice family. I can't believe we lived her for 8 years. We close on August 20 (Josh's bday!) and then we'll move out starting September 18. Things are starting to move along. We'll leave for China around Sept 25th. More entries will come at that time.

We started Mandarin lessons. It is a difficult language to learn. I think we'll know enough to get us through daily life. Probably will do a lot of sign language.

I'm almost done working. My replacement starts Sept 1. I'll work some hours until the 15th to help the transition. I think I'll be sleeping a lot when I get to China at first!

Initial Entry

Last night, Suzanne Cronley showed us Boog's blog after we talked about the need for us to keep a journal of our adventures in China. I think it will be a fun way to keep everyone posted about what we see, do, experience while we are in Shanghai. I will also post pictures of the kids and/or links to the kodak website so that everyone can see updates.