One thing that’s nice about having twins here is no one pays much attention to the foreigner anymore. Everywhere we go it takes people all of two seconds to say “twins!” and go on about how cute they are. I think I’ve only once heard a comment about the fact they were with a foreign woman, when someone commented as I was passing with one in my arms “the foreigner has a Chinese child”. I’m not sure whether they thought I had adopted, was the nanny or was actually the mother. One old lady in our compound thought I was the granny. We debated dyeing my hair – the Chinese absolutely cannot stand having white hair and you even see men picking it out of their wife or mother’s hair. It surprises me in a culture that is supposed to value the old so much.

All the comments and attention Ethan and Isaac get do get old though. Generally, I just ignore them unless someone addresses me directly, which is only about half the time, most people assuming I don’t understand Chinese. People always try to talk to them and we have to explain that they don’t speak Chinese yet. Jack is getting better about speaking Chinese to them and I really hope they will pick some up and at the very least Jack will keep it up when we get back home. They are getting a bit less shy, though of course the other kids can’t understand when they do try to talk to them, such as a 2-year-old that’s always around the compound with her grandma who takes care of her 24/7. They used to get really scared when she tried to play with them, would cry and cling to me. Once they spent more time around her, they would want her to go with them or want to go to her house and one day when they really wanted a sucker (the daily ritual that Ethan begs for), they tried to get her one too, but her grandma refused, said she doesn’t eat candy. Still, the language of play pervades. They had a great time with a 5 ½ year-old on the train a couple days ago (see below). They annoyed him to no end, but he seemed to enjoy it. His mother was nice too, and bought them all some popcorn (“American taste” it said, which apparently means strawberry flavored). They live in Xian towards the west and were trying to get away from the aftershocks of the earthquake for a while and had come to see her sister in Beijing. Apparently well-to-do too, and she had another 15-year-old back home. Not sure how they got to have two, I’m guessing her husband must be something in government.

One thing people do comment about the boys is how skinny they are. Apparently it’s better for kids to be chubby while grown girls will starve themselves. Jack always worries about this and they are actually starting to get better at eating more interesting things. For veg, we have to rely on raw celery and carrots and steamed broccoli, but at least that’s something. They love any kind of meat, even spicy and Ethan even downed a couple pieces of soy-saucey-doused potato today. They even eat some dumplings and especially do well with the baozi we eat for breakfast (similar to dumplings).

We have gone on holiday (or “to play”, as the Chinese say) to the Beidaihe seaside, a couple hours from Beijing by fast train. It’s the resort of government workers, active and retired, including the pres and premier. It’s also where we spent a sort of “honeymoon” five years ago, with all the other foreign “experts”. This time, we came to escape the horrible Beijing dust storms. Some days you can’t even see and everything is just covered and it’s hard to breathe. We hope it is settling down by now though. But the beach is very nice. Despite getting on the train being a nightmare – being pushed and shoved everywhere, and rude people cutting right in with no concern about the boys. I had to keep a tight grip on them at all times, which Jack lugged everything around. The train was full too, so the boys had to sit with us, but fortunately it was a short trip and they still enjoyed their first real train ride. On the way to the station, Isaac kept telling me “train happy”. I asked him if going on the train made him happy, and he said “no, train happy”. He also used the label “happy” to refer to the “big kid” they were playing with on the train. Now he says mostly “happy birthday” and can almost sing the song too. Good thing their birthday really is coming.

Jack had booked a hotel with an agent, who actually turned out to be a decent guy. Picked us up at the train station, along with another couple staying at a different hotel. What shocked me was he picked up Isaac to carry him across the street and Isaac didn’t protest in the slightest, and whenever he took their hands they also didn’t object. The first hotel wasn’t great. It was kind of smelly, dirty and uncomfortable and they didn’t have much by way of customer service. So we upgraded to a better one. The same agent picked us up where we were playing on the beach, took us to look at the other hotel, then took us back to finish packing and check out of the other one and then back to book into the new one. It is considerably nicer. It is bigger, cleaner and with full size windows overlooking the sea. The only downside is, it is on the second floor also overlooking the locals’ favorite pee spot. Entertaining, except when we are eating lunch by the window.

The boys love the beach, even if it is a bit dirty and covered in seaweed. They have no problem with that. They pick up shells and rocks and throw them in the water, wade in a bit, get scared and run out. Isaac today was running up a rock incline from the water and jumping in the sand, apparently having learned something from the sports competition we went to. Ethan just wanted to climb the big rocks. I spend most of my time here terrified. The dangers just seem to be so much more. They are at an age where they understand danger, which often makes me let my guard up, but not consistently and there’s just too much potential for harm if I get distracted even for a second. Just after we arrived here at the seaside, Isaac tripped on the rock sidewalk and skinned his knee, then Ethan fell against a pole sticking up out of a concrete block, which would have been okay if it didn’t have a rusty nail sticking out. It scratched his underarm slightly, apparently through his clothes, so I just put ointment on it and it is healing fine. Ethan actually gets lucky most of the time. He tripped on stairs a couple times today but managed to catch himself in a good position to avoid injury.

The constant terror combined with them being fussy a lot of the time and demanding to be carried does make me pretty exhausted. I’m trying to be stricter about not carrying them unless they really need it and make them go to Jack as much as possible, but sometimes they will only be carried and only by mama, and throw the biggest tantrums right in the middle of shopping center, crowded street, zoo, you name it.

Speaking of zoo, we finally made it back there after Isaac’s initial accident (“zoo ouch all gone” he told us). Very disappointing, to the boys because they expected a roller coaster and train like the Indy zoo and to us because you can’t see much without paying extra at each place, which we just on principle weren’t willing to do, especially seeing the poor conditions of some of the animals. Some visitors though were much more upset because they paid a lot for a see-everything ticket and were still told they had to pay more to see everything.

Speaking of exhausted, time to sign off for this long-winded one. Will get as many pics as possible in here soon.