May 22 (One month before the big 3!)

The boys amaze me with their resilience. No matter the long plane ride, jet lag, house moving, they make the best of it. If only we could say the same for ourselves! Because China amazes me less than it used to. Perhaps it’s because the difficulties one encounters here are no longer new enough to be amusing, or perhaps it’s also because we have become a bit to accustomed to our American way of life. Certainly having children makes a big difference. There are new dangers and fears and the exhaustion from walking everywhere with two fussy kids adds up. Still, I was not surprised yet still disappointed when the apartment we chose turned out to be less than ideal. The promised cleaning was a simple mopping, the many assurances that we would only pay the Internet fee and not installation turned out to be false and so on. Personally I don’t mind that much though Jack keeps berating himself for not doing a better job. I do too a bit in the sense of I could have negotiated more myself and been more patient.

However, it’s only 6 weeks and considering the difficulty in getting a short term contract, it’s not bad. There is the “rollercoaster wee wee” (teeter totter) just outside and best of all, our old apartment complex nearby where there is probably one of the only playgrounds in the city. Somehow I never appreciated it when we lived there sans kids! The boys are sometimes impossible with their whining and especially wanting to be carried, patient as I try to be with all the changes in their life, but most of the time they are really good. I went by myself with both of them to Carrefour today, which on a Thursday morning is still as busy as a Wal-Mart in peak hours. They did very well, alternately sitting in the cart and pushing it and walking once we found hot chocolate and popcorn for them to carry and look forward to when we got home.

We were at the local supermarket the other day when Isaac demonstrated his burgeoning negotiating skills. They found a box of robots they of course were desperate to buy. I mainly was trying to ignore them, but Isaac kept jumping up and down and grabbing me and finally came up with “Mama, Isaac poo poo! Isaac poo poo!” Either trying to say he would go poo poo on the potty if I bought the robots or perhaps reminding me that he had indeed done that very thing that morning. He really surprised me then, just took off his diaper, said “poo poo”, got on the potty and did it. Still, we have got them plenty of toys and decided to hold off on that one! He did try something similar again today, when we were leaving the apartment compound and he wanted to be carried. He said “Mama, up! Che che ouch,” pointing to the busy street, meaning I should carry him so the cars didn’t hit him – a danger that doesn’t worry him most of the time!

We have been more or less offline since we moved, so who knows when this will actually be posted. It takes these people some time to come. We found some wireless connections in our building and Jack spent much of yesterday knocking on doors and trying things. One lady we thought was the stronger connection was really nice and let us copy down the number from her modem. Still, it turned out she was the wrong connection, but we can still use hers outside her house or outside the building. Then Jack was working outside and just asking everyone who went in if they were “Laurie Wang”, the name of the connection, unless finally a surprised woman said she was. She gave her connection number but apparently it wasn’t the right one, so we will try again. But hopefully our own will be working tomorrow! Jack has work to do and I need to make sure things are okay with family, tenants, paying bills, etc…At least it makes us appreciative!