October is gorgeous in Beijing! The weather has been and clear. We had a rainstorm the other day that got rid of the pollution in the air so right now I can actually see for a good distance out of our windows. Apparently, October is the best time to be in China because the weather is cool and pleasant and the pollution is minimal.
Will has started to eat real baby food, it has been so fun for us to feed him. We can buy Gerber rice cereal at the imported food store near our apartment but it's definitely more expensive here than at home! They also carry imported Gerber baby food but it's more than $3 a jar so I have started making my own. I bought a food processor and have been going to town! I go to the open air produce market near our building and buy my produce and then use our rice cooker to steam it. So far so good, it's definitely not as convenient as buying the pre-made stuff in jars but it's a lot more affordable.
Since my last post, we've had our formula problem solved for the time being. I found a Yahoo group for foreign moms in Beijing and there was one mom who had brought too much formula back with her from the US and didn't need it anymore. She offered to sell it to me and I bought everything she had. It should last me for a while. It's such a relief to not have to worry about that anymore! My sweet sister also sent me some and the wife of one of Joel's coworkers just arrived from LA and she brought 3 containers of formula with her for us.
I think we are finally comfortably adjusted to living here. We definitely still have a TON to learn, but we have at least accumulated enough kitchen things to cook a decent meal. When we came here, we had a completely empty kitchen and I didn't want to buy all new sets of things since we will only be here for two years. But, people are coming and going from here all the time and we have already inherited quite a bit. Yesterday, I was craving Chick Fil A hardcore so I found a copycat recipe and made some chicken fingers and a honey mustard sauce and it was SO good! It probably wasn't that close to the real thing but it tasted so yummy to us. I think that may become a regular dinner that I fix.
We finally made it to Tiananmen Square yesterday. Joel had the day off because it was Field Day for the students and the weather was gorgeous so we decided to do some sight seeing. I imagined the square to be much more open but right in the middle is Chairman Mao's mausoleum. His body is preserved and in a glass case on display for all to see and it's inside a large building surrounded by a garden. I think my favorite part was the gate to the city. Back in the day, the city was surrounded by a large wall and anyone who wanted to enter or leave had to do it through designated gates. This gate was so huge and had massive wooden doors that could be closed to seal it off. It was so impressive.
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| Chairman Mao! |
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| Waiting for our subway train |
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| My favorite thing about this picture is the guy on the scooter staring at Joel. This happens all the time, people driving stare at us and get distracted and almost hit us! |
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| My beautiful boy! |
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| At the park by our building, they have these toys on the lake for kids. You pay for 10 minutes and they put your kid in there and they can push the bubble around the lake. When you're time is up, they pull on a rope attached to it and bring you back to shore. It's like a hamster wheel on water. So cute! |
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| We borrowed this toy from a lady that works at Joel's school. She obviously has a little girl but he loves it! He can stand up like a big boy. |
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| Will and I came to visit Joel for lunch |
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| Beijing has all of these beautiful flower displays throughout the city. So pretty! We also finally bought Will a crib...I know, I'm such a bad mom! We've been here two months and we just barely got one. He's been sleeping on top of a twin bed but we put stuff around him so he couldn't roll off. Luckily for us, he is still not interested in rolling from his back to his tummy so it was never a problem. Anyway, we braved IKEA in China and it was busy as Black Friday but weirder. People here really take the "try it before you buy it" slogan seriously. There were grown men taking naps in almost every bed and people were occupying every couch and sofa. And they weren't just sitting for a second, they had camped out there and had their stuff spread everywhere. The cribs that we went to look at all had sleeping babies in them! And when I walked up to look at the crib closely, the moms would all glare at me as if to say "how dare you come into my child's room!" I'm sorry, but if you put your kid down for a nap in IKEA, you're taking the chance that someone will want to come and look at the furniture that your child is sleeping on. There are a thousand people in this store, surely someone wants to look at this crib! So we picked out the cheapie crib (again, not wanting to spend money on something we will just have to leave behind when we move back to the US) and a nice mattress. The tricky part was getting them back to our apartment. We just took a taxi there and IKEA will deliver for you, but it's hard to order the delivery service when you don't speak the language. So, we finally managed to convince a taxi driver (using mostly gestures, harder than it sounds) to take us and our new merchandise home. The boxes didn't fit in the trunk so he didn't want us to block his vision through the rear window but we paid him a little extra and he took us home. So our baby finally has a real bed. Two months later. Better late than never! I also saw my first child pooping on the sidewalk today. So gross. Kids here wear split bottom pants and when they have to go, they just squat where they're standing and do their thing. I have seen a few kids pee on the sidewalk but today there was a mom who was helping her kid squat on the sidewalk and he just pooped there and the mom closed his pants and off they went! I told that story to someone in our building and she said she's seen kids do their business on the floor in supermarkets. Not even outside! Oh the joys of living in China. |
