{Insert witty Thanksgiving title here}

Earlier this week, when I was contemplating what I might write in my Thanksgiving post, I thought I would be writing about our cute little family dinner complete with whatever traditional dishes I could manage to make in China with my toaster oven and limited access to imported foods. I did not think I would be writing about cleaning up vomit and Indian take out. (Well, that's partially untrue. In the back of my mind I had thought about ordering out for Thanksgiving instead of cooking. Ideally, I had hoped to cook a semi-traditional meal but it ended up being just a lot of work for only the three of us.) Anyway, Wednesday was very nice, we had an impromptu Thanksgiving gathering with Joel's colleagues and we all had a really nice time. But then Wednesday night hit and Joel and I spent our sleep time cleaning up throw up from the various places that Will chucked throughout the night. On top of that, Joel had to work Thanksgiving because we don't get American holidays off. And so, instead of preparing Thanksgiving dishes, I was again cleaning up vomit. We ended up ordering delivery from Ganges, our very favorite Indian restaurant, and took a few minutes before putting Will to bed to decorate our "tree" that we bought last year from a Japanese store. That was probably the best part of my whole day.

 Despite the sick child and limited sleep the night before, it was a nice chance for me to reflect on the things that I am thankful for. At the very top of my list is my family and the fact that in just under a month, we'll get to go to the States for a short visit during Chinese New Year. I'm also grateful for the chance I have to work with the children in Primary at church. I think I tear up just about every Sunday when they sing their songs or give their talks or even just their comments sometimes get to me. I'm not a crier, really I'm not, but these kids and their sweet spirits just touch my heart every week. And despite my semi-frequent complaints, I am grateful to be in China. It's sometimes hard and it's not always fun, but I have learned so much and met so many wonderful people. Being here has changed me for the better and I'm glad for the opportunity to be here.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloween parties, hair cuts and private English classes

October seems to have come and gone in an indistinguishable blur. I feel like it should still be September. But, here we are, and October is almost over. 

We had a super fun Halloween party last night with families from our church branch. The whole time we were there, I was super impressed with all of the ladies I have the pleasure of associating with here. Two or three women had the idea to put together a Halloween party for the kids and two weeks later, we a full-blown, well planned and well staffed Halloween party on our hands. The kids loved it and it felt nice to be doing something that was uniquely American. Using our good ol' Mormon ingenuity, we tracked down Halloween decorations in China and put together costumes for our kids. We did the best with what we had available and I think it was a smash hit! As we were all cleaning up, I had this feeling of unity with these other families - we are all trying to live our normal American-ish lives in this foreign country and we are a team. 

I have also started teaching a private English class on Saturday mornings to a group of eight year old Chinese kids. One of my favorite ladies that works with Joel at school asked if I would be interested in teaching this class to some kids. She was friends with their parents and knew that I had a background in education so she put us in contact. So far, I've taught two classes and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I love it. I have missed teaching and missed the interaction and bond that comes as learning is going on. It is fulfilling for me. But, even though I have a teaching degree, I have very little experience in teaching English as a second language. All of my classroom experiences in the past have been with native English speakers. I am finding it hard to assess my students' English abilities in writing, speaking and understanding and I am struggling with knowing exactly where to begin. I have 6 kids for two hours (on a Saturday nonetheless!) and I have to keep them busy, entertained, engaged and learning all at the same time. I have no curriculum to guide me and relatively no experience teaching a language. It feels a little overwhelming right now but I'm hoping after a few more weeks, I'll find my groove and feel a little more comfortable. 

Oh um, I also chopped all my hair off. Yeah. I have a pixie cut. I just had a crazy urge to do it and I went to the salon and got it done. My stylist gave me my ponytail of cut hair to take home and it was a little repulsive. But, I'll be honest, it was probably three or four days before I could finally let go and throw it away! Some days I love the new hair and some days I find it annoying and I have moments where I think I look like a Vulcan. I'm glad for the change though and it's nice to have something different.

Will is officially 18 months old as of a week ago. He doesn't say a lot of words but he understands most of what we say to him. It's interesting to contrast his behavior and demeanor in America to his here in China. In America, he was more curious and brave and independent. Since we've been back in Beijing, I'm finding that he is very cautious again. It's almost a survival skill for him here. He stays much closer to us here because life is much crazier. There isn't as much space for him to run around in and everywhere is crowded with strangers who have an endless fascination with him. So it makes sense that he wants to stick close and isn't very interested in exploring. It's things like that that make me feel a little guilty about living here. At home in the States, we were in our element. And I think he picked up on that.

I had forgotten how cold our apartment was last winter before the heat came on. It's all coming back to me in vivid detail now! Beijing's state-provided heating starts up on November 15th and until then, you're on your own to keep your apartment warm. The state-provided radiator heating doesn't cost us anything, which is nice, but those radiators are only on for about four months. It's already cold outside but, we learned our lesson last year and were prepared for the onset of winter this year. We invested in a radiator of our own that we just plug in and it is HEAVENLY! We mostly only use it at night and we keep it in Will's room because at least Joel and I have each other to help keep warm (each other and our fabulous new IKEA winter bedding. Thank goodness for IKEA!). When I go to pick Will up out of his crib every morning, I feel like laying down on the warm floor in front of the radiator. This time last year, I would sneak into Will's freezing room after he was asleep and add two more blankets to his bedding (which he would inevitably kick off at some point during the night) and put mittens on his hands to keep his fingers warm. It was a little rough. But now we know better! 

We found this great park with awesome grass! Will gets excited every time he gets the opportunity to walk on that wonderful stuff so it was hard to get him to come off to play on Joel's skateboard, but we just had to get a picture.

mmmmm, mac and cheese......

From Utah to Beijing .... and then to Hong Kong and back!

Oh man, it is good to be back to blogging again. This summer was so hectic that I didn't even have time to think about posting let alone actually writing something.  

We had a fabulous summer holiday in the states. I felt like I did everything that I wanted to do plus some.  We managed to fit in boating, rock climbing, camping, hiking, swimming, trampoline jumping, biking, doctor/dentist visits, wave running, and eating at all of our favorite restaurants! It felt like the summer flew by in a wonderful whirlwind. Our families were so great about accommodating us this summer and helping us out and I loved being able to see them all the time. 

When it came time to fly back, Joel and I had bittersweet feelings. Of course we were sad to leave our families and hometown, but at the same time, we were excited to get back to Beijing and resume our regular day to day activities. I feel really grateful to have been able to spend almost 10 weeks at home but 10 weeks is a very long time to be on vacation and to be out of your regular routine. Goodbyes are always sad, but they were a little easier this time around, having already done it once before. 

The flight was pretty much a breeze. This time it was a night flight and Joel and I sat several rows apart which was actually a great idea. That way, whoever didn't have Will got a complete break because you weren't even sitting next to him. The night flight meant that Will pretty much slept most of it and we even caught a couple hours ourselves. We made it back to our musty apartment at about 1 am Beijing time and all crashed thankfully into our beds.The next morning, it was fun to watch Will rediscover his favorite toys that he hadn't played with in so long.

After just a few days, we had all of our stuff put away and everything cleaned after 6+ weeks of vacation. Beijing is such a dusty, dirty place and it was amazing what had accumulated in our absence! We were all over the jet lag in two weeks flat, which was awesome because it took Will at least three weeks when we went to the States before he was even close to being "back to normal."

The day after we landed, we found out that the school had to send us to Hong Kong to renew our visas there. We didn't really understand why we had to go and we were upset at first because we had just come back from a big trip. But, we quickly realized that we could make the most of our trip and it would be fun to go see somewhere new. We had a blast, we got to stay for four days and the school paid for our airfare and accommodations. We went to the beach, saw some sights and spent some good family time together. Our friend Jen calls Hong Kong "China-lite" because life there is a little more westernized. Most everyone spoke excellent English, the food was awesome and the city was so much cleaner than Beijing. (Our stroller wheels got a nice cleaning just from being pushed around the Hong Kong streets!) We got our visas renewed without any issue and we returned home. I'm glad we got to go even though the timing was not ideal because we probably wouldn't have ever gotten to go to Hong Kong if the school hadn't sent us there!

 

I've been thinking a lot about how different things are this time around versus where we were at one year ago. Last year at this time, we still had no idea where to buy groceries, we owned ZERO kitchen supplies, could speak no Chinese, and couldn't really get around the city. This year we are no longer in China survival mode and are really excited for what this year will hold. We are out of the transition phase and generally have life here figured out and are able to enjoy being here a lot more as a result. We really did miss our lives here, I missed our friends and I missed our church branch and I missed our apartment with all of our things and the constant, comforting hum of our air purifiers. I missed being able to walk everywhere (um, that might be because I gained something like 10 pounds just from being home. Darn you yummy, fattening American food!!) and having so many things to do near our apartment. Don't get me wrong though, there is definitely a long list of things that I miss about America. I miss our families and friends and I miss having a car to put my groceries into and driving them home. I miss our clean air and blue Utah skies and American washers and dryers. But, we are happy to be back in Beijing and we have settled right back into our lives here and are looking forward to the rest of this year.

Home Sweet Home

The title for this post is totally cheesy but it perfectly describes how I've been feeling since we landed in the beautiful USA last week. I was so focused on getting ready for the trip and on the 12 hour flight to Seattle that I hadn't really mentally prepared myself for all of the emotions that I would experience when I got here.

The night before Will and I flew out, Will barfed and it filled me with dread. It was 12 non-stop hours to Seattle followed by a 4 hour layover and then a 1.5 hour flight to Salt Lake. All I thought about all night long was how I was going to be stuck on a plane with a barfing, tired baby. We both started to get colds a few days prior to the trip as well so it seemed that the fates were completely against us! But it was far too late to make any changes to our plans. 

The morning of our departure, Joel and I ordered McDonald's breakfast to be delivered bright and early at 5:00 am. I was so nervous that I couldn't even finish my hashbrown (which is UNHEARD of, hashbrowns are my FAVORITE). We dragged our bags down to our waiting taxi and off we went. 

Luckily, Joel was able to come with us to the airport that morning. Our plan was to leave for the airport at 6:00 am and Joel would go with us all the way to the security checkpoint. Of course, nothing really ever goes as it's planned, and this trip was no different. At the entrance to the international terminal was a passport check. You had to show your passport to gain entrance to the terminal. Joel didn't bring his passport because he wasn't flying anywhere so we pretty much had to say good-bye at the door of the airport. I was completely crushed. Not only would I have to haul all of our baggage and Will by myself to the check in counter, but we had to say goodbye RIGHT NOW. We hugged and I was rushed through the terminal door by incoming passengers behind me. My tears flowed freely as I watched him turn around and walk away. This trip had not started out well.

I managed to get both of my checked bags, backpack, diaper bag and baby to the check in counter without any mishaps. A nice French man helped me heave the bags onto the conveyor belt so that I didn't have to do it by myself. I was feeling much better about my situation now that I was unencumbered by heavy baggage and I made it through the passport/visa check and security without any problems and got to our gate with an hour to spare before take off. I called Joel and Skyped with my Dad, and both conversations had a really calming effect on me. Excitement had begun to finally creep in but it was severely dampened by the looming beast that was our 12 hour flight. I couldn't focus on anything but surviving the coming day.

The flight itself was not quite as bad as I had been expecting. Twelve hours is beastly no matter how you look at it. Will threw up twice, though I managed to contain it both times, and he would eat nothing but packaged fruit purees that I had brought. I figured as long as he was eating something, I wouldn't be too picky about what it was. He even slept for two hours. 

Our flight attendants were polite, but not helpful at all. I had to take Will to the bathroom with me every time I had to go (which was super fun) and trying to eat a nasty airplane meal with a squirmy toddler on your lap was definitely tricky. We managed to survive the flight and made it in one piece to Seattle, where my sister was waiting for me after spending the night in the airport.

When I found Annie, she said she had a surprise for me. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, there was my mom running towards me. We all hugged and spent the next four hours playing with Will and chatting with a group of returning missionaries. The layover flew by quickly thanks to my wonderful mom and sister who spent the night at the airport so that they could meet me as soon as my flight landed. 

The jet lag with a toddler has been somewhat of a nightmare. He wasn't hungry during the day because of the time change so for three days, he hardly ate anything. I was freaking out. But, eventually, his body clock started to sync with Utah time and his healthy appetite is back and he's waking up less in the middle of the night. Just a few more days and we should be right on track. 

For the first few days, I was a total basket case of emotion. My family, the grocery store, the blue sky, the dryer, the grass and the sunset all made me cry. I'm just so happy to be here. I'm happy that my clothes aren't crunchy from being line dried and I'm happy that I can take Will outside without worrying about air quality. I'm happy that all of the food at the grocery store is safe to eat and that I can drink the tap water. I'm especially happy that I can see my family and Joel's family anytime I want and that I can watch them play with Will. 

We live in such a wonderful country. Despite it's problems and struggles, this is where I want to be and I'm so grateful for all of the blessings associated with living here. I cried all the way through the Star Spangled Banner when we sang it in church this morning out of gratitude and happiness. We should never forget how blessed we are! 

Having Joel so far away is the one thing that's not right about our so far wonderful holiday. It's hard to find a time that's good for both of us to chat. So we Skype for a few minutes before he goes to bed so that he can see Will. I miss him terribly and I want to wait to do all of the fun things we have planned until he gets here. So we're just hanging out and waiting for our family to be all together again. Three weeks didn't seem like that long when we were booking the tickets but now it seems a lot longer!

And, before I forget, here is a copy of Will's Sony commercial that we did. Our "agent" gave us this right before we left so it was perfect timing. I'm sure just about everyone we know has already seen it, but just in case:

Happy summer!!!

Sony commercials, fake bottled water and a teething toddler

I have been trying to compose this blog post for the last two weeks! Finally, the conditions are right and I think I will actually be able to finish this post today. I have my microwave brownie in a mug made from the wonderful mix that my awesome mom mailed me, my apartment is clean and Will is napping. I'm keeping my finger crossed that he'll stay asleep long enough for my to get all of my thoughts down.

As summer is quickly approaching, I feel like my list of things to get done before we leave Beijing is only getting longer! These last few weeks have been so busy and crazy that I haven't really been able to accomplish much. Will has been having such a hard time with teething for two weeks now. I can see that little bugger of a tooth right beneath his gums and I can feel that it's almost out, but it just won't pop out! So for two weeks, Will has been waking up every 2-3 hours ALL NIGHT LONG. Joel and I are almost at the end of our emotional ropes. I started running low on infant Motrin about a week ago and started to ration it for when Will seemed to really be in a lot of pain. I almost brought enough to last me our whole stay here, and if I'd just brought one or two more bottles, we probably would have made it. But, I ran out three days ago so the last two nights have been terrible. He's had such a hard time falling asleep and he won't stay asleep for long. He just cries and chews on his fingers and drools everywhere. I felt so bad! I finally asked around our branch at church to see if there was anywhere I could buy imported infant pain meds and my wonderful friend Nicola had lots of extra bottles she brought with her from the States and happily gave me three bottles of infant Tylenol. So hopefully, our sleep deprivation will start to lessen in the next few days and we can all get some sleep around here. 


Summer excitement is definitely spreading! (I've definitely caught some summer fever, I think I have a dream every night about going home) Most expats head home for the summer or on a long vacation somewhere fabulous. Bali, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines are some of the great destinations that are relatively close to China. When Joel and I first came to Beijing, we entertained the idea for a while (don't worry Mom, it was a VERY short while) of spending some of our summer vacation seeing more of Asia. But that didn't last very long. My dream destination for the whole summer is Utah. I honestly can't think of anywhere else I would rather spend my entire summer break. If it were feasible, I would love to spend my whole two months home in the mountains with our families. I just miss open spaces in nature and clean mountain air. I'm itching to go hop on my bike on a trail or climb a (really easy!) route with Joel.  I have really enjoyed spending time in a big city, but it can be a little suffocating at times.

Summer should be pretty interesting here in Beijing, our church meetings quickly empty as June gets closer. Our branch usually combines with the other branches in the summer just to have enough people to hold a decent meeting. Joel is the Elder's Quorum president now and will probably have to preside over a few sacrament meetings before he heads home just because there will be no one else there to do it. 

I wanted to share our latest "I can't believe we live here" moment that we had last week. It had me doubting our whole entire move here and left me absolutely furious:
Tap water here is not drinkable. The government has labeled it as "safe" to drink, but no one does. Everyone buys bottled water or pays to have a filtration system installed. The tap water has all kind of heavy metals and probably some other contaminants as well. Our apartment building provides every apartment with a water dispenser and then you can buy the refill jugs of purified water from the front desk for a pretty reasonable price. So about every 3 or 4 days, we call down to the front desk and have a new jug delivered. They bring it to our door, remove the empty jug, and install the fresh jug of water. Well, I had recently heard from a few other moms that there was a website where you could check the serial number of each jug of water to verify that it was authentic water from Nestle and not an old Nestle jug that was just refilled with tap water and then re-sold by a dishonest distributor. 

I found the website and wanted to check our water, but I felt certain that our apartment would make sure to have authentic purified water available, I only wanted to be 100% sure that our water was clean. The website was all in Chinese but by using Google Translate, I was able to figure it out. When you put in the serial number, you should get a manufactured and an expiration date, letting you know that you do indeed have the real deal. But, when I checked our serial number, I did not get a manufacture date but instead got a message (in Chinese, I had to copy and paste the characters into Google translate. Love Google!!) telling me to call a phone number for assistance. I was furious, I was certain that that meant that our water was not authentic. I checked and rechecked the number, inputting it multiple times hoping that I had made a mistake. My mind was racing, I was thinking about how I had used that same water to make all of Will's formula from the day we had moved here and how we could all have been drinking contaminated water for the last 9 months. I called Joel and almost started to cry on the phone because we had unwittingly been giving Will unclean water for most of his little life. We have a neighbor who speaks good English and Chinese and he accompanied me to the front desk to explain my grievance (The staff all began to panic as well because they drink the same water!). They ran the serial number on the website and got the same message to call the phone number but when they called, the company gave them a manufactured date and the expiration date. I have never been so relieved in all of my life as I was in that moment. (I'm not sure why that particular number didn't work online but I have been checking all of our jugs since then and I haven't had any problems checking the serial numbers on the website.) Clean, drinkable water is something I will never take for granted again for the rest of my life!

I mentioned in my last blog post that our friend Kimi works booking models for photographers and needed a child model for a project and asked us if we would be interested. She got back with me early this week and told us that the original photo shoot fell through but she now needed a foreign baby to be in a commercial and that Will was the only foreign baby she knew. I was a little reluctant because I had no idea what to expect but it ended up being a fun (and sometimes really difficult) experience. It took two days and the filming crew had clearly never worked with children before. They were very patient and kind but didn't really understand the special needs that a baby has, namely nap time. We started early and by the time lunch came around on the first day, Will was ready to hit the hay but the director was certain that a 10 minute nap on the floor would set little Will right. Right, like my baby is just going to go lay down and go to sleep on your hard floor and be bright and chipper after only 10 minutes. Like I said, they had clearly never worked with kids before. Will takes a three hour nap every afternoon and without it, he's a total bear. I can't even get him to sleep in his stroller, let alone a hard floor with people running around everywhere. Kimi had to translate for me to the director, but she finally convinced him to let us go and start again the next morning.

I didn't figure out what the commercial was for until almost the end of the second day, I guess it was a Sony phone commercial. The last thing we had Will do was take the phone, put it in the washing machine and close the door. It took quite a bit of teaching, but he figured it out and it turned out really cute. The downside is that now we've taught him that phones belong in the washing machine....

It was a totally random, very Chinese, experience. Will had to wear this ugly tank top with a dinosaur skull on it and our footage might not even make the commercial but they paid us and said to watch Chinese TV in two weeks when it comes out. So we'll see! 

This is the photographer trying to get a still photo of Will playing with the Sony phone but he just was not interested! He only wanted to go walk around.

I also saw an add for foreign babies to come to a photo studio to have their pictures taken for stock photos. I sent them Will's picture and they asked us to come in last Saturday. It was just a short 20 minute session and we didn't get paid for this one, but the reason I wanted to go was because they gave you copies of the pictures they took of your child. So we got some really cute professional photos done for free! These are unedited and they are supposed to send me copies once they retouch the photos, but I don't even think these need retouching.

 

Will is a full-blown walker now. He toddles around the apartment with his Frankenstein-ish walk. It really crept up on us! He took his first real steps before he turned one, but he wouldn't really walk anywhere without holding our hands and then, bam! All of a sudden, he wants to walk everywhere. I still forget that he can walk and am constantly having to move things from off the edge of the table or the counter because he can how reach them. 

Whew! I did it. I managed to write everything I wanted to before Will woke up from his nap, and it was perfect timing, since he's awake now. Thanks for reading!!

PS We'll be home in one month from now. Woo-hoo!!!

One year later....

Today is Will's first birthday! Just before I started writing this post, Joel and I were browsing through some photos from our very first days in China and I can't believe how much little Will has grown since we've been here!

This is the very first picture we took in China! We were SO tired after our long trip. But Will still looked happy and chipper. He's changed so much since then!

This is a more current picture.:)

 So happy birthday my little boy! He is learning so much everyday. He loves to wave good-bye and to hand me anything he finds. He can take steps on his own but still prefers scooting to walking or crawling. He is an awesome napper and sleeper. I just lay him in his crib and leave the room and he falls asleep. He's been saying "Dada" for a while but I'm pretty sure he's just barely figured out what it means. Will and I walked past our spare bedroom where Joel was grading some papers and Will stopped and looked at Joel and clearly said "Dada." He seemed pretty pleased with himself!

Will has recently figured out that he doesn't have to open his mouth every time I try to feed him with a spoon. This boy used to eat anything I would put in front of him! Not anymore. He gets this mischievous look on his face and drops food onto the floor and waits for my reaction. 

Will also loves to drum on things. Joel bought a set of drum sticks for himself but they have since been taken over as toys by Will. He just scoots around with those drum sticks all day and hits anything he can reach. Sorry Joel, but I don't think you're getting those back anytime soon!

I can hardly believe the love and joy this little guy has brought to our lives. One year ago today, we met him for the first time. When the nurse laid him in my arms, I was smitten. He's been charming me (and everyone around him!) ever since! 

We have a friend of a friend who used to work at the front desk of our building who now works booking models for photographers and we ran into her a couple of weeks ago and she told us that she had a photographer who was looking for a couple of baby models for a photo shoot. She asked if she could take a few pictures of Will and send them to the photographer. I told her that would be fine and she got back with me a few days later and told me that photographer loved him. So we met with the photographer and he wants Will to model a split bottomed pants outfit! Pretty funny. I think we're going to do it just to say we tried it. I think it could be fun or it could be a disaster. I guess we'll find out which.

Today for Will's birthday we went to Beihai park. It was so nice to see green leaves & grass! Such a refreshing change from the gray concrete. Will loves to be outside, as soon as he sees that we're going inside, he'll just sit down and refuse to stand back up.

This is the first time Will has walked on grass. Ever.

This is Will's "I just tried to eat a blossom and it didn't taste very good" face.

 Let's see..... other things that have happened since my last post.... Joel turned 30 and we had a lot of fun with that! I asked a few people to send me video clips wishing him a happy 30th and I put them together to make a video. It was fun to see friends and family even though we were so far away. I also did a little surprise party for him with a few of his colleagues. I'd say it was a success! We got him some tailored shirts made as a gift and only in China would a tailored, custom shirt be half the price of a pre-made department store dress shirt. I told him he looked like James Bond. I don't know how we'll go back to the pre-made ones!

Never can get a serious photo! But he looks good in that shirt, even with the robot pose.

I have already started my summer vacation countdown.... Eight weeks until we're back in the USA! I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. I already have a list of all the things I want to do while we're there and all the things I want to bring back to China from the States. :) I'm already picturing the moment when I see our families again and it makes me teary just to think about it. Joel and I can't wait to watch our parents play with Will and interact with him! I can't wait to hug my Mom and Dad. And go grocery shopping at Costco!

We had a "small world" moment about a month ago: Joel's Chinese teaching assistant told us that she was moving to Utah of all places! We loved her and were really sad to see her go but so excited for her.  It was really fun to email back and forth and to see our home state through her eyes. We couldn't believe the coincidence; what are the odds? 

I'm having a little mom guilt over the fact that Will has not been to the doctor once since we've been here.... yes, that is 8 months without a checkup. We have insurance through Joel's job but it's only good in mainland China and I don't really understand how our plan works. Whenever I call to try and talk to someone, they can't ever explain anything very well so I'm a little nervous to use it because I have no idea what to expect. I've also been thinking about vaccinations; if we wait until we come home to get all of his vaccinations done, we'll have to pay out of pocket. If we get them done here, China does not allow the importing of some vaccines anymore, so you get the made in China shots that have higher risks of fevers and rashes. Ugh. 

That's about it, I'll leave you with a photo record of a few other things we've been up to. Thanks for reading!

Wanna know how I got these scars?

Prince? Or Che Guevara? Who knows.

Hold on!

Aw, come on Mom. Five more minutes?

Happy birthday little guy!

Farewell to our heating

This is has a week that has made me ask "why are we here again?" more than once. Not to complain, we still really like it here, but sometimes it's hard not to think that "we wouldn't have such and such problem if we were back in the States," problems like having no heat in March and privacy issues.... Will was down for a nap yesterday and I had just gotten out of the shower. There was a knock on our door and I didn't go answer it because I was getting dressed. When I didn't get there fast enough, the guy opened my front door wide open (of course, he came on the one day I forgot to lock the door when Joel left for work), and yelled a loud "Ni hao!" The yell woke up Will from his nap (which will incite immediate rage in any mother) and caught me right in the middle of putting my clothes on (just my luck, our bedroom is straight across from the front door so it's the first thing you see). I have been told by several other expats here that this is not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, it's not at all rude to just open someone's door if they don't answer. What if I had still been in the shower? Would he have come all the way inside and dropped off my package? The more I thought about this yesterday the angrier I got. Who does that? Who just opens someone's front door? That's when I have to realize that he wasn't meaning to be rude, it's just different where I'm from and there's no sense in getting upset about it. It was a good lesson for me on just letting things go.

And, we have no heat again. Heating in Beijing is only on from mid-November until mid-March. So now it's off. And it snowed this morning- a good two inches of snow. So, after Will falls asleep, I sneak into his room and add three extra blankets to his bedding so he won't freeze at night. Poor kid.

On the plus side, David Beckham is apparently going to make an appearance at Joel's school today. I guess he's acting as a "soccer ambassador" to China so some of Joel's students get to play an after school game of soccer with Beckham. Will and I are heading over when school's out to see if we can "happen" to run into him....

These are some random pictures of our produce market, we try to make a trip here once a week to pick up our fresh fruit and veggies.

Eeeww. There's something about buying meat in an open air market that I still can't get over.

I never knew there were so many kinds of eggs.

Will is getting so big these days! In one month, he'll be a year old. The kid makes me laugh every day. He doesn't crawl, he just scoots. He pulls himself forward while sitting on his bum and because we have wood floors in our whole apartment, it's pretty efficient. But, if we ever go somewhere with carpet (like the church), he just gets frustrated because his mode of transportation suddenly doesn't work. Too much friction! He can clap, give baby kisses, feed himself finger foods, feed me & Joel finger foods, and walk with a little help.

Prep for our summer trip is coming along as well. We decided that I would go three weeks before Joel. At first, the motivation was mostly financial. School doesn't get out until mid July when flights are at their peak price. It saves me $600 to go at the end of June! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to go home sooner than mid July. Even if that meant flying with a baby by myself for an 18 hour trip. And then, my sweet sister Annie decided she is going to come meet me at the Seattle airport for our 4.5 hour layover and then fly with me the rest of the way to SLC. I was really dreading that layover because it will be in the middle of the night according to our body clocks but I'll have Annie to help me, which is such a relief. And I won't have to do the last leg by myself. So I'll have almost 10 weeks at home and I can't wait!