Jump Right In, or Climbing if you are Indigo

It's hard to believe that we have been here for 11 days already.  This week had lots of ups and downs.  We had a couple things in the apartment that needed to be fixed and we aren't quite sure what the proper channels are to do so.   We had furniture delivered, windows measured, and a whole bunch of other services from kind locals who don't speak a lick of English -- and had no use for the only Chinese I can speak at this point.  We stumbled through and all is well.

The girls gave us a run for our money this week.  Stress manifests itself in different ways for everyone.  For Indi, she decided that she would no longer like to go to sleep by herself (despite the fact that she has practically demanded sleeping in her own space since birth).  The solution was a desire of mine for a long time, the girls are currently sharing a room.  They are too cute giggling and keeping each other up for a bit longer than usual but no body is screaming!  Hopefully, this will still work when Helaina needs to get up at 6am next week to start school.  This is also a public service announcement that if this set up stays, we will have 2 rooms for guests.  (hint hint)

For Helaina, I'm hoping the "won't go anywhere in the house by herself" thing wears off sooner than later.  I want to make her comfortable but I would prefer not to spend an extra hour or so in the bathroom a day.

There was no way I was going all the way in
to take a pic the 1st time they finally fell asleep.

 Sleeping by herself seems to be the only fear that Indigo has.  Otherwise she scares the heck out of me at least 10 times a day.  She either has no fear, no sense, or an unhealthy combo of both.  She went up a 20 foot inflatable ladder / slide 3 times.  I tried to intervene but the "no big people" policy was mildly enforced by the young girl working the slide.  I took the opportunity to try to be a brave mommy and considering she did not get hurt, it all worked out but not without some nail biting.

We hit one of the local tourist attractions today called The Bund Sight Seeing Tunnel.  It's basically a tunnel that goes under the Huangpu River (the tertiary river that runs through the middle of and separates Shanghai) and has trippy lighting and weird music for a 5 minute ride.  It is so bad that is was good if that makes sense.  It was a definitely pricey for what it was.  It cost us about $16 US dollars total for both Chris and I and the girls were free.  I would not go again but I am glad that we did.   We also got to show the girls The Bund for the first time.  The Bund is on the Puxi (pronounced Poo - She) side near the Former French Concession and also runs along the Huangpu River.  The buildings definitely have a European feel and this may be the only place in Shanghai where the buildings are not tall.  You have a great view of the Pudong Side where all the massive, electric brightly lit (at night anyway) buildings are in the Lujiazui (pronounced Lew-jaz-way) area.

Puxi side looking across to Pudong

This is the electric car for the tunnel

Inside the tunnel

Back on the Pudong side.  Oriental Pearl Tower.

In other adventures, we ate at one of the huge malls here in a food court like area.  It was of course only appropriate for us to eat Japanese food :o)  We had no idea what we were trying but there was a long line so we went for it.

It ended up being fried Octopus balls (this is a family show so please watch the comments).  They had some sort of yummy topping that was thinly sliced and moved from the heat of the balls.  They were really yummy and I would definitely eat them again.  but not necessarily a meal so we went to an all encompassing type Asian restaurant where the girls dined on their new favorite -- dumplings.  We had fried rice and a salad with Salmon.  It was all quite good.  It wasn't as risky as the Octopus balls but we had enough adventure for one day.

This is one happy and of course messy customer

Many times when we are out, the locals like to say hi to the girls and often take pictures with them.  They love babies and especially white ones here.   The girls are handling the attention pretty well.  We have not ventured out into predominately local areas just yet, so this is a good warm up for them.

This boys family was chatting up the girls and
taking pics so I did the same.

Most notably this week, OUR HELPER STARTED!!!!  It's very common for people, especially expats, to hire helpers here - called Ayis. (pronounced I-E).  Labor is incredibly affordable and very much appreciated by this girl.  My biggest concern was "what's for dinner" when we decided to move here.  Lots of western food is available but at a cost.  Our helper has worked for multiple American families and was born in Shanghai.  She reportedly cooks both western and eastern food well.  I thoroughly enjoyed her first meal and I am looking forward to the rest.  Best of all, I got to spend lots of time with the girls without feeling guilty for not having a clean house or that I should be preparing dinner.

Her name is Jane and she speaks just enough English to fool me into thinking we are having coherent and productive conversation.  She is great with the girls, a self starter and has been super protective when workers or delivery people were in the house.  She even went to the grocery for us for items that I could not find online.   Chris said about 6 months before we leave he is going to have to ween us off of Jane so we can return to reality.  However, I have to tell you that though everyone deserves to have this type of service, I am REALLY glad that I have a few less things to worry about during our new life here in Shanghai.