The Hole Thing (TMI)

Many of you have asked "So what is it like over there?"  The truth be told, there have been some really challenging things but most of it has been exceptionally great.  Things are happening so quickly that I can barely even process them until well after they have happened and by that time there is a whole slew of other things that have taken their place.  I have not had time to update nearly as much as I would like to.  I wish I could teleport you all here to give you a glimpse of a day in the life (which would not help because every day is so different.  I guess you will just have to come and visit.

One of the things that I had 'worried' about before we were coming over, was using public toilets.  "Why" you may ask?  If you live here or have visited before than you are probably snickering to yourself right now and understand my legitimate concerns.  However, if your travels have not taken you this far or even to a place with similar sanitation systems, then let me educate you and tell you a bit of our experience.

Standard Eastern toilets are known as squat pots and although you can find Western style toilets in many places, there are still quite a few places with only a hole in the ground.  Therefore, one has to literally squat down to do your business.  While I have read that this is easier for your body to expel the necessary items, this western girl much prefers her trained method of sitting on a pot or at least hovering over one.    I fooled myself to think it more useful since I would not be sitting anyway but it seems the aim of those living here might be quite as bad as mine so the floor itself can be quite disgusting.  As an added bonus, because the plumbing systems are so old, toilet paper is to be thrown in a near by trash can.  Oh and by toilet paper, I mean the tissues that you must carry at all times because 93% (yes that is a scientific proven number) of the public bathrooms do not provide toilet paper.

By this point you probably have a nice G rated mental picture of me (or yourself even) attempting to use the facilities.  All in all, it is really not preferred but it's still manageable.

For myself.

Now I would like you to add to the mental picture a 3 and a half year old and a 1 and a half year old.    Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence to have both with me but when I do, it's a NIGHTMARE come true.
On one particular occasion, were were eating at McDonalds (now pick your jaw up off the floor and stop judging as I will explain myself in a later blog).  As you might imagine, the bathrooms were not the prettiest but we were a LONG way from home.  Helaina, bless her heart, was excited at the fact that she finally got to use 'the hole one'.  I literally suspended her in the air part of the time and held her by her arms so she could squat without falling in the rest of the time.  Simultaneously I used my backside to keep Indigo from climbing the stair leading to the toilet all the while praying that nobody would fall in.  My gag reflexes instinctively started the activation process.  It may have been the recently ingested fare, the smells, or that Indi was placing both her hands all over the stairs to thwart my efforts.  Whatever it was, I prevailed and DID NOT make this situation 10x worse than it already was by vomiting.
I got Helaina situated and now it was my turn.  I was able to restrain Indigo's arms from touching me or anything else during the process. Thankfully Helaina minded me, stayed put and did not touch anything.  She did however, decide to yell out anatomical observations about mommy.  I have never been so glad to be in a place where English is a second language and even more grateful that the place we were at was unlikely to have anyone in ear shot that understood what she was saying.  

Lord, I am so grateful for hand sanitizer!  (or han-a-tizer as my nephew,Vegas, call it)

Photo Love:

學校 -- Otherwise known as School.

I do not know how to pronounce school (Xuéxiào) in Mandarin but maybe that will be one of the first words that Helaina learns and she can teach me.  It rained like cats and dogs the first day on the way to school but not on this girls parade.  She is just as excited when she came home on the 3rd day, as she was on the first.  She was oozing with details and of course mommy pressed her for more.  She willingly obliged me without holding back in the slightest!

3rd day waiting for the bus

She loved eating lunch, of course and was super thrilled with the ridiculously large indoor playground they have.   She has been a hot mess after school because she is so exhausted and has fallen asleep for nap in less than 5 minutes when her head hits the pillow.  She even slept through Indigo's 8 minute screaming protest of her nap yesterday.

This is her class room and the kitchen that I had
to call her over from to say good bye.

Her English teacher, Miss Natalie, from England.

Outside of her "Pteros"
I had to look up how to pronounce it which is
further evidence that home schooling is not an option :o)

Most of the indoor playground

Big girl off the bus!

As Chris said "Happy, Talkative and
Energetic -- Just like Momma" May her
progress reports always be like this.

Her school is for age 6 and under only which is one of the many reasons we chose it.  I wasn't quite ready to stick her on the bus with middle and high school kids.  We also like that there is a Mandarin and English teacher present in the room at all times as well as an assistant.  They divide up the day between the two languages.  She has not learned a new Mandarin word yet (that I am aware) but am fairly certain she will be fluent in not time.  There are roughly 15 kids in her class and we enjoyed meeting her teachers. The school is a good mix of students from all over the world.  There are only roughly 20% American kids so she will have good exposure to many cultures.  Her buddy so far is a chap from England named Luke.  She has also played with a girls named Addie which mommy is excited because I befriended Addie's mommy, whose name is also Laura.  

If you are super interested in reading more about her school the web site is http://www.seips-china.com/

The first few days Indigo and I rode on the bus with her and she took it home by herself.  Today was big girl day (for mommy of course) and I stayed at the curb and watched as the bus drove away.  It was quite a moment but I know she is in good hands and that she will thrive from the experience.  I only called Chris once crying.  

She is so excited that it really makes being upset about her being gone a bit easier to deal with.  Indigo and I have had a nice time bonding so far but that is a post for another time.

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.

We're Here!

We've made it! -- At least the in the physical sense.  

This is what moving 3 months of stuff with 2 toddlers looks like 

This is the size vehicle required to do so

Indi is now in Helaina's car seat and she is
thrilled about seeing the world

Helaina now sits in her new more portable, US approved
car seat and feels like a big girl.

The girls did exceptional on the big travel day.  Helaina watched half of her 1st movie ever, Cars.  Indi watched her first tv show ever (sesame street) and played 1 game on the ipad.  They were quite entertained just by being on the airplane.  Getting them to sleep when they were exhausted was not easy but they eventually got there for a bit.
 

I don't speak Chinese but I could bet these nice Shanghinese folks helping us
probably threw out a "Are you kidding me?" in their native tongue

The girls have been very pliable to time changes (meaning we have now started sleeping in until 5:15AM) as well as the busyness of moving and organizing.  They are loving our new place and so are we.  That helps tremendously since we have been indoors a lot since we have been here.  It is hot here.  And I don't mean oh it's very hot.  I grew up in Florida where we know hot but not like this:

That is right.  FEELS LIKE 123!!!  Ugh is right! 

This is what H looks like in this weather -
By the way this is at 9:30 AM.

 One of their favorite activities in our place have been running in circles.  Seriously.  Our place is arranged with a hall going all the way around so they literally chase each other around the halls.  They also can't get enough of the kitchen set we had set up before they got here!  It goes nicely in their playroom which I can't wait to get totally set up.  The past year's smaller space we were in made me grateful to be able to have such a room for them.

They also enjoy staring out the window.  (wow I sound like a great parent).  But seriously, I like to join them in this game too.  

I can't wait for the heat to break so we can actually enjoy this park

And the other activity they have now come to enjoy is having a dance party in their window.  Watch the comments - these are our daughters.  

Why yes that does look like the running man

While the girls have successfully found ways to be entertained, Chris and I have done the same.  And by entertain, I mean trying to get the basics down to function in a foreign country and keeping a bit of humor while doing so.  

These are the instructions to our washer.  Help please

There appear to be some quirks with our apartment which I understand are not at all uncommon in China in general.  We can not plug in the washer and the dryer at the same time as there is only one plug.  We also can not run our oven at the same time as the microwave.  Our landlord actually had the oven put in special for us as it's uncommon to have more than a toaster oven here.  So I guess I'm grateful that I can have an oven at all.  I hope I don't forget and blow a circuit. 

Speaking of quirks, Chris and I had to open two separate bank accounts as their are no joint accounts.  I hope I figure out how to transfer or mama needs to get a job.   I now have a Chinese cell phone.  It works like a prepaid phone and to get more money on it, I need to go to any convenience store to add money to my account.  We also get text solicitations on our cell phones but I obviously have no idea what they say.  Our home phone is fun to answer when telemarketers call.  "No Chinese, only English" -- followed promptly by a few more words I don't understand and then a click and dial tone.  Luckily we have only had a few of these.  

I think some of the driving shock wore off the last time two times we were here.  Chris and I did get a giggle when the driver of our car sped right past a cop with it's lights on - along with a bunch of other cars.  

I had my first solo outing yesterday and thankfully all went well.  I went all the way to IKEA by taxi, made some purchases and made it home safely.  Some preparation and lots of prayer worked wonders.

We are certainly not in California, Hawaii, Florida or anywhere else I have ever lived before anymore Dorothy.  However, we have so far enjoyed the ride and we are looking forward to our "new life"

Right now we need to get back after it and in the words of Helaina today "I think we need to learn some more Chinese words mommy"  So wise for 3 and a half.  

30 Days of Gratitude

Many things are starting to slip through the cracks with our impending move that's happening in 2 weeks!!!!  A million things have happened that I would love to blog on.  We have had some incredible visitors over the last few months that we thoroughly enjoyed.  The girls continue to grow and develop at a remarkable pace.  I had an amazing trip to visit my besties.  But alas, I really don't have the time to blog (or at least I am not willing to sacrifice the little sleep I'm getting to get there.)

I did feel it was important to record a small project I took on.  About 30 days before my birthday, I fell into the hype and began to feel mopey about what was my upcoming 40th.  I had a chat with myself about how blessed I am and decided to come up with one thing for each day left of my 30's that I am grateful for.

In no particular order:

30.  Forgiveness:  From God and others -- without it, I would be nothing.
29.  My Husband:  God had a great plan for me all along.
28. Helaina & Indigo:  They are beautiful (inside and out) and amazing.  They drive me to be the best that I can.
27.  Family:  My mom always said if everyone put theirs on the table you would pick yours up first and she was right.  I feel twice as grateful since I love the family I married into also.
26.  Friends:  I can't help but smile when I think of the great people I have near and far from all walks of life to call my friends.  I have some that are life long and some that are seasonal and I feel loved for and by all of them.
25.  Health:  I wish I was more grateful on a daily basis for this.  It's one of those things you don't think much of unless something goes wrong.  It is wonderful when everything is working and you have no fears or worries.
24.  Crown Class:  Chris and I took this when we first got married and have been diligently trying to apply these biblical principles to our finances. I truly feel like we are seeing the results.
23.  Rest:  I don't usually do this well but I am glad that I have the option and it feels good when I do.
22.  Prayer:  I am baffled that I get to communicate with the same God that made everything and that He not only listens, but responds in various ways.
21.  Bebe Dog:  She has traveled through many lifetimes with me and has always been a loving constant companion for the past 12 years.  (this is hard to type as today is her 1st day in her new home in VA)
20.  Facebook:  Although it has it's negative points, I love being able to have snapshots into close friends and associates lives that I definitely would have missed.
19.  Growth:  90% of the times it aches but who would I be if I avoided all that?
18.  Time:  it heals, makes us anticipate, it reveals things, we get to spend it with people.  It is such a precious gift.  I love that we have 24hours periods too because God obviously knows we couldn't handle more than that at a time.
17.  Pictures:  I take a ton and I love to look at them.  Unfortunately I only have a handful of my mom and I cherish each.  My girls will not have that problem later in life (although I don't always love the way I look in them but I am suspect she felt the same way.)
16.  Technology:  Email, facetime, internet,  I am fairly certain that this would be a much different move that we would be making.  Keeping in touch is key to my sanity.
15.  Our China adventure:  I probably have every emotion possible about our upcoming move but I know this is the right thing and we will be grateful for the experience.
14.  Books and reading:  I love that you can learn about the past present or future and form your own opinion.  Alternatively, there is nothing like escaping somewhere that doesn't exist.
13.  Yoga:  I can't express how much I have love this over the past 12 years.  I can't imagine not doing this for the rest of my life (yes that is a double negative)
12.  Food & Taste Buds:  I know you are surprised to see this so low on the list - but I said in no particular order.  I won't digress but if you know me, you know how much I like it.  I am forever grateful for my family who has always had exceptional taste and a love for food!
11.  Nature:  from diverse landscapes to weather, animals and beyond.  It's the most amazing canvas ever painted.
10.  Modern conveniences:  The kind that are everyday to us but not as prevalent or even non existent if you grew up not too long ago.  Airplanes, diapers, sliced bread, washing machines, a/c.   You name it, I'm happy about being born in the time I was.
9.  Surprises:  good ones anyway
8.  MOM's group of Burbank and my Bradley group in Hawaii.  What life savers and friends came from both.
7.  Good Byes:  Although these appear to stink, it means that you care for and are cared for by someone(s).
6.  Music:  all types!
5.  The book Jesus Calling:  this devotional keeps me grounded and in the word daily
4.  Finally starting to understand how to have an opinion without being judgmental.  
3.  A Healthy Mammogram.  woop woop!
2.  Feeling younger than I thought 40 would feel.  A wise person once told me that it's probably God's way of reminding us that we are his children.  
1.  lastly, I am grateful for being grateful.  I can't help but feel blessed.

One of my favorite question to ask people on their birthday is something that they have learned this year.  After reviewing the list, I wisely remembered that for many of these, my younger self was either completely or partially unaware of most.   It's been an incredible ride so far and I hope I'm blessed enough to review this in another 40 years.  I wonder how much will be the same.

Picture candy below:  I know that's what most of you want ;o)