We had the nightmare train experience yesterday. More than that, probably one of my worst mommy moments ever. We had to get a 2:30 train back to Beijing and the boys naturally we’re quite tired by then. And we’d had to get to the station early because we had to check out of the hotel. So imagine 1 ½ hours of a very crowded station full of people going “twins!” and asking how old and who is older and so on. I tried to ignore most people, but some were really in your face, poking and pinching them and I would have to ask them not to.

But that wasn’t the nightmare part. The train was packed, with many having to stand the whole way. We had two seats and the boys fell asleep pretty easily on our laps. An hour or so later, the train made a long stop and Isaac, who was on daddy’s lap, woke up. And boy did he let the whole train know. He was like possessed, kicking and screaming and flailing about. I gave poor Ethan to Jack, knowing he would wake up then and cry also. But I still couldn’t do anything to calm Isaac down. The whole train was just watching this out of control foreigner’s kid. I just hadn’t a clue what to do, there was nowhere to take him, you couldn’t even move on this train. Finally when I gave him back to Jack who threatened to take him outside, he started screeching for mama and when I took him back, he calmed down. Of course then I also had Ethan on my lap, who started screaming because he didn’t want to share mama. It seemed like the longest stop ever. Eventually I got them both situated in a way that was comfortable and we had some peace and quite. But I am very thankful I never have to see anyone on that train again! And thankful Jack didn’t get the camera out to video. Though no doubt somebody probably did, and I don’t much want to look on YouTube to find out! I wish I knew why he behaves like that sometimes. Times like that when I am holding them and all their needs are met, I think of hungry, sick or neglected children and understand why parents say “I’ll give you something to cry about!” But Jack may be right that I spoil them in some ways and we are trying to work on dealing more with the tantrums at home, and saying no and meaning it, so the public displays decrease.

Most people on the train were sympathetic, especially once they were both back to their cute selves. Most people had smiles and pats on the head for them as they got of the train, one young guy saying in English “don’t cry, baby” from a song apparently. However, one foreign woman, with her husband and kid, all looking kind of ragged, gave me a kind of dirty look.

We were very happy to be back to our “home” and as if to make up for the train experience, the boys have been pretty sweet and well-behaved today. They have been going peepee a lot on the potty when we are home, though Ethan still has a hard time going on command. He’ll sit there, say “no peepee”, get off, then five minutes later pee all over the floor. I try to do like training a dog then and stick him back on the potty and make him sit there several minutes.

They also have been sharing very well most of the time (though if mama or daddy asks to share what we’ve just given them, we’re told to “go store, pay more”). We have some videos of them passing apples back and forth. This morning Ethan found a robot picture in a magazine and wouldn’t let go of it. Isaac really wanted it, and so when it was time for Ethan to go peepee, I told him to put it down and let Isaac look at it while he peepeed. He went and put it on the bed without argument. I told Isaac he had to give it back when Ethan was done and sure enough as soon as Ethan emerged from the bathroom, Isaac offered it back to him. I was quite impressed.

Isaac did another funny when we were at Beidaihe. There are so many hotel compounds there, most government-related and you can’t go in. Well, the one next to our hotel had a big sign out that said “the foreign tourist nalts!” We figured out, based on the Chinese that that meant “halts”. In Chinese is said something like “foreign friends, please don’t come in here.” I find that hysterical, like “we really like you, but we just can’t let you come in here.” Anyway, in this compound there was a playground the boys were constantly after going to. So one day Jack decided to try to take them in there to play. As I was waiting with the boys outside for Jack to come and do so, I explained to Isaac that mama couldn’t go in there. I said “Mama’s not Chinese”. He immediately pointed to himself and said “Isaac Chinese” and then pointed at me “no Chinese”. He apparently repeated this to Jack after they entered, but they were kicked out quickly anyway.

There are only a few hotels in that area that even can allow foreigners to stay. The Olympics have made everything stricter. I find it odd that the one event you want foreigners to feel very welcome for, they make it even harder. Still, they would probably say it’s for our “safety” – in other words, we don’t want you seeing or doing anything you shouldn’t. Particularly, there are family hotels that we could have stayed at for $5 a night, and they would have driven us around and cooked meals, but they had just received a notice from the government that they must not allow foreigners to stay. I told Jack he could take the boys by himself but he didn’t quite go for that idea.

Jack’s dad comes tomorrow and it will be very interesting to see how that goes. We have such small quarters. He will have to sleep in the dining room on the boys’ bed. So they will have to sleep one on the couch and one in our bed. But hopefully it will be a help having him around. The boys are excited about it but I’m not sure they really understand. Hopefully he will be excited too to meet them and hopefully they will take to him and he can help babysit and whatnot. He can cook too which will help and save us some money as well as energy.