(Not so) New Pets

I can't believe it has taken me over 3 months to write about our pets. When we got back from the US for xmas, Xiao Ju left the kids a gift. A couple of goldfish. Elizabeth named them Cherry and Berry. Both kids absolutely loved Cherry and Berry. Note I said loved. They made it about 2 weeks before kicking the bucket. We used the opportunity to talk about life and death and held a flushing ceremony.

So then came the second Cherry and Berry plus about 6 other friends. I don't think the bowl was quite big enough because they all lasted about a week. One by one, they kicked the bucket. This became a normal process and the kids did not grieve at all.

About 2 weeks ago, another Cherry and Berry showed up. Again, the kids love them. Elizabeth goes to the bowl first thing in the morning to see if we have floaters. We are down to one now. Not sure if it's Cherry or Berry!

Now you understand why we don't have a dog??????

Caved in and Bought the Kids Play Dough

It was a rainy day, so we took the kids to Hongqiao to a place called Kidstown. This is a play place for kids set up like a miniature city with a market, a house, a beauty salon, firehouse, etc... Alex loved it because they had lot of cars, including his police car. Elizabeth had a lot of fun pretending that she was my hairdresser. I had to physically drag Alex out after 2 hours. Even the promise of ice cream didn't help!

We did follow through on the promise. There is a Coldstone Creamery right next door and it was GOOD!

After ice cream, Kirk wanted to go to the Hongqiao Pearl Market where they have a fake market as well to buy a new wallet. I had to go buy jewelry for an outfit so Kirk took them for 10 minutes to give me some free time. A big rule was broken in that 10 minutes. No, not the "not using bribery to get kids to behave" rule, we don't have that. The "no buying Playdoh" rule was broken. I hate the smell of that stuff and it always ends up ground into the furniture! However, it was a big hit and entertains the kids for a long time. So I guess we'll have to keep it around more.

Day Off in People's Square/Century Park

Elizabeth had a day off of school so I decided to take them out for the day. We started by going to Puxi to the Indian Visa center to pick up my passport. After that we went to People's Square. It was a warm, sunny day. The fountain was on in front of the Shanghai Museum. There were a couple people wanting pictures of Elizabeth and Alex, including the one in this photo. They had fun running around and after finding a grassy area and playing for a while, they were kicked off by a security guard. Not a very kid friendly park!

Easter Sunday

Elizabeth was very excited about the prospect of the Easter Bunny showing up. Sure enough, he brought baskets and hid eggs. They had a great time running around the house looking for the eggs. We had to coach Alex a little. After the egg hunt, they both really wanted to eat all of their chocolate!

We went to church and afterwards, we went to Brunch with the a large group of friends. Elizabeth was such a good girl at church. After church, she saw her friends Lucy and Alli as well as Emma, her friend Ben's sister. That is the cute picure of the girls.

Elizabeth's School Easter Party

I was able to join the Easter party at Elizabeth's school. They had fun making bunny ears, having bunny snacks, and an Easter Egg hunt.

Alex After a Long Day on Patrol

Yes, he parks it next to his bed and sleeps next to it most times.

Another Friend Visits Shanghai

Small world again! Jim and Jeri Ward have a good friend who now works for Delphi, Dennis Buser. I stood up with him in their wedding. He traveled here for business so we were able to meet up and show him around a little. We had fun visiting some of Kirk's favorite hangouts and Romo joined us as well.

GMI Friends in Shanghai

It is a very small world and Shanghai is getting smaller and smaller. Mike and Julie Romanski (Kath lived with them for a couple semesters at GMI) are moving here. Mike has already landed and Julie and their girls get here in June.

Once Mike came into town, we found out about other past GMI friends traveling here. In these pictures are Mike and Jeff Shumaker (AKA Shuey. We went out on the town one night while he was here and pretended to be in college again. We had too much fun and all paid for it the next day but it was worth it.

Elizabeth on Roller Blades/Alex in his Police Car

Elizabeth got roller blades for her birthday present from us. I was a bit unsure of how she would do as she inherited my clumsiness and lack of athletic ability. I had no need to worry. Kirk took her and Alex (in his police car of course) down in front of building 7 and they rollerbladed for a couple hours. By the end, she was really good.

Elizabeth's 5th Birthday

Elizabeth woke up on her birthday to a decorated door which has become a tradition now. Daddy did a great job (his only job). She opened many presents from many relatives. Thank you all so much for thinking of her.

Elizabeth's friend Ben and his twin brother had their birthday party at Megafit, a local fitness center. She had so much fun that she decided that she wanted her party to be there. She originally wanted all of her neighborhood friends and all of her classmates. That would have been 24 kids. That would have been crazy. So we pared it down to 15 and also had a classroom party. The kids had fun!

Elizabeth's New Haircut

Elizabeth got her spring haircut today. She originally wanted it much shorter like her friend Lucy, but she settled for shoulder length. She loves it. However, when she woke up the day after, she complained because the curls came back!

Elizabeth's 5th Birthday Party @ School

Again, Elizabeth wanted to have all her friends at her birthday party. That would have been 25 kids including Alex and Elizabeth. No way.

Grammy sent over a ladybug bookmark craft and we had a party in her room for her classmates. They had a lot of fun doing the craft. For her birthday snack, I put out bowls of Cheerios, mini marshmallows, animal crackers, raisins, and chocolate chips. They each had a cup and took one scoop of each until they had a trail mix. This is her favorite snack and all of her friends liked it too.

Elizabeth was on cloud nine all day.

Alex's New Police Car

When we left the US, Alex's favorite toy, the red Cozy Coupe, did not make the trip. It had already been through all 4 Thompsons and Elizabeth and was on its last leg and we didn't think we would have room for it. Well that was a huge mistake. I robbed him of 16 months of pure joy.

Everytime we go anywhere that has one of these cars, he always monopolizes them. One day at Elizabeth's school, he saw one locked up and was crying at the door to play with hit. Refer back to last summer's pictures of the kids at Cole's houes. Poor Olivia was shoved out of her's a few times.

I finally said it was time. We took him to Toys R US one afternoon to buy a car. Well, they didn't have it in stock. He was so distraught. We had his hopes up only to dash them down.

After a week, Kirk came home one night and rang the doorbell. He brought home a special package. The Police Car Cozy Couple. Alex was so excited. He had been talking about it for days. He helped Kirk put it together.

His days now go something like this.......
1. Wake up.
2. Get into Police car (which sometimes is by his bed).
3. Drive car into bathroom and go potty (with prodding from Mama)/
4. Drive car around in the morning until he has to go to school.
5. Put up a fuss that he has to leave it to go to school.
6. Come home from school.
7. Get into police car, eat lunch, play, watch some tv.....all while in the car.
8. Drive into bedroom for nap.
9. Wake up from nap and get back into police car.

I think you get the picture. What a joy to see his face with his car. Kirk was concerned that he will get bored of it very soon because he is growing. I don't think so!

He uses his imagination freely with it too. It's not always a police car. Yesterday it was a blue taxi. Today it was a golf taxi. Great investment!

Allie Stevens' 4th Birthday Party

Elizabeth was invited to Allie Stevens 4th birthday party. It was at the spa at Vizcaya. The girls had their hair braided and their nails painted. They were all so pampered and looked beautiful afterwards! Only in China.

Elizabeth's Valentines Roses

Elizabeth in total recieved 36 roses from her admirers. PopPop sent roses first and they were supposed to be pink. They delivered red. After letting them know that they delivered the wrong color, they then delivered pink but she was able to keep the red ones. Kirk had to fly to the US unexpectedly on Valentine's Day, so he made sure to buy roses before he left.

Alex & Elizabeth School Pictures

The kids both had their pictures taken at Concordia and Alex had his taken separately at Victoria. These guys are growing fast.

Chinese Cooking Classes with Liu

Liu was driving Elizabeth and I to school one day soon after the CNY and I asked him what he did during the holiday. He told me that he ate a lot of jiaozi (dumplings). These are meat or vegetable filled pasta pouches that are very popular here. I told him that I liked them also.

I went out for a run (6 miles that day!) and when I came back there was a wooden board full of dumplings. I asked Liu if his wife made them and he said no. I assumed he bought them. Later I asked him where he bought them and he told me that he made them! We had them for lunch and they were very good. I told him that I wanted to learn how to make them.

When you tell Liu something, he gets right on it! The next day he brought all the fixings and we sat down and he taught me how to make dumplings. I think I'll need more practice because mine definitely weren't as pretty as his.

2008 Year of the Rat

Above is a picture of Alex and Elizabeth in front of a statue of a Rat. You can read more details behind the Year of the Rat below:

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2008 is a Year of the Rat (Earth), which begins on February 7, 2008 and ends on January 25, 2009. First in the cycle of 12 Animal signs, Rat Year begins the sequence and recurs every twelfth year. It is a time of renewal in so many ways. From New Year to Valentine's Day, to the arrival of spring, may all the blessings and delights of the New Year be yours.

A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find. People born in an Earth Rat are said to be logical realists, shrewd, charming, ambitious, and inventive. Of course, the entire horoscope must be considered when making any personality assessment.

In Chinese, the Rat is respected and considered a courageous, enterprising person. People born in the Year of Rat are clever and bright, sociable and family-minded. They have broad interests and strong ability in adapting to the environment and able to react adequately to any changes.

They are gifted in many ways and have an easy going manner. They are active and pleasant, tactful and fantastic, and are able to grasp opportunities. They seem to have interests in everything and hope to participate in doing it and usually do it very well.

新年快樂/Xin Nian Kuai Le/Happy Chinese New Year!

We came back from Sanya on Chinese New Year's Eve. Starting at 7 pm, fireworks started going off. Not organized ones over the park, random people just setting them off. We had ones right in front of our apartment. Some of them were so close that I couldn't go onto the balcony to take pictures for fear of getting hit. This went on until after midnight. At midnight is when the mass fireworks started going off. I looked back at the video and saw at least 20 different locations that were shooting off. That was only in the front of our apartment. To the rear, there were about 10 locations shooting off, including ones from the houses just behind us. It was crazy!!! They were still shooting them off today on New Year's Day.

Trip to Sanya, China

We left for a short holiday on Friday, Feb 1 to go to Sanya, Hainan Island, China. We left just in time, as Saturday came 8 inches of snowfall and shut the airport down.

Hainan Island is a Chinese Province. It is south of China and East of Vietnam. It is called the Chinese version of Hawaii. Most expats stay away from here during major holidays because they become very busy with nationals. I think we were the only Americans staying at this resort but we didn't find it very busy at all.

We stayed at the Sheraton and it was a very nice resort. It was right on the beach and it was a very nice, white sandy beach. It had playgrounds (indoor and outdoor) for the kids, bounce houses and many pools to swim in. The weather was only in the low 70s and overcast, so we stuck to swimming in the heated pool.

Elizabeth's favorite part of the trip was dancing with the resort entertainers. They had a lounge singer named Ware that she loved. She also loved the band from Paraguay at one of the restaurants.

Alex's favorite part was his 100RMB ($14) dump truck that he saw one day at the kids center. We normally buy a bucket and sand toys when we get to our destination for about $5 and then leave them there so that we aren't transporting big items back and forth. Well this toy made the trip back. #1 it cost $14. #2 it is now his favorite toy. It will probably break soon since it is plastic and since it was made in China, but it sure makes him happy.

Kirk's newfound talent that will not amount to any money making is sand sculpture. Forget the sand castles. He made a mermaid, a monster, and a car. There were many onlookers and admirers.

The flight was short, only 2.5 hours so we would definitely go back. The service was very good, the grounds were beautiful, and it was clean.

Also note in one of the pictures that Alex is wearing underpants. Yes, just like he did with walking, he decided on his terms that it was finally time to start going potty! He has only had a few accidents and has really good bladder control unlike his sister. He still is using a pull up at night, but I don't think that will last long.