Day by Day

Aiden and Daddy posing for all the cameras - Shanghai

Where has the time gone? Coming up next week we will have been here for 3 months but it feels like we just arrived. So much has been going on that I have been slacking at updating the blog.

Pearl TV Tower - Shanghai

Nanchan Temple - Wuxi

Life in the apartment is just SO MUCH BETTER than being in a hotel!!!! We feel like its home now…all of our furniture is in and set up and most of our décor is up. We tried this week to finally hang pictures, but quickly learned that the walls are not sheet rock…just concrete! Yikes! So that took away that plan for the evening…now we must figure out another way to get pictures hung. Thank goodness for wall clings. Aiden's room is mostly put together because of them. We have a store near us called B&Q that is just like a Home Depot so that has been a life saver for us and we make regular trips to the store.

Since my last post we have experienced some EXTREMELY interesting things. One being that as I was doing the dishes after lunch one Saturday, I looked out the window to see a lady getting ready to pull her pants down to use the bathroom. Literally, she was RIGHT outside my window. She made eye contact with me and I'm sure she had to have seen the look of utter SHOCK on my face, but of course that did not deter her in the least. I have since learned that this is a very "normal" thing here in China and that it probably bothered me more than it did her. Still…I'm not quite used to that nor do I want to see that again. O well…the things we learn! HA!

Aiden loves to be outside.

With Julie Sager and the kids at the Science & Technology Museum - Shanghai

Even the Monks came to meet Aiden - Nanchan Temple - Wuxi

Another thing is that apparently there was a wedding in our complex this week, so that meant LOTS of fireworks. Now I know I have spoken of such before, but I will reiterate that in America I LOVED fireworks…I could NOT get enough and anytime they were going to be shot off I had to be there. In 3 short months that has changed DRASTICALLY. Probably because of the proximity to where they shoot them off. In America, to get to see the big and beautiful ones you have to go to a special event and the general public is not allowed any where close to where they are shooting them off. This now makes so much sense to me. Here you can shoot them off no matter where you are. So this wedding party had a TON of fireworks that they shot off right outside my kitchen window. (Our kitchen window faces the courtyard type area where the pond is). Poor Aiden was TERRIFIED!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I don't blame him…it sounds like world war 3 is going on outside. Any conversation you are having stops until they finish since you can't hear anything anyway. But they do love their fireworks…I don't think there has been a day since we have arrived that fireworks have not gone off somewhere near us. I teased Jeffrey that for my 30^th birthday (that will be the year we come home) instead of going to be near fireworks as I wanted originally we are going to go hide in a hole somewhere.

We have finally started to travel some now that we are settled and went with our good friends, the Sagers, to Shanghai for a few days. We had our drivers take us there and then we rode the train home. On our way up while heading to Element Fresh for lunch we passed a "Johnny Moo's" which apparently is a knock off of Johnny Rockets! Hilarious! After lunch we headed to the Science and Technology museum and the Knock Off Market. The museum was great with lots to explore, but of course, Aiden slept through most of it. He did wake up during the robot exhibit and became an exhibit himself. So many people wanted to take his picture. We do have a pretty cute kid if I do say so myself! At the knock off market I found Aiden and Jessica Chini's Chinese outfits for their pictures we are going to do together when we come back for a visit. So adorable and I can't wait to see them in them. Our second day there it POURED on us, but we still had a blast exploring and figuring out the subway system. We headed off to the Aquarium to escape the morning rain. Aiden again slept through the entire thing but the aquarium was great! So much fun to explore with the Sager girls. Afterwards we wanted to go up in the Pearl TV Tower but it was so foggy that we wouldn't be able to see much but the building itself was amazing to look at. Such a neat design. Since we couldn't do that, well of course we HAD to get some ice cream! Yum!!! We thought there was a ColdStone nearby and we were all using our smart phones to see who could find it faster, Blackberry or iPhone. My iPhone won out!!! J But we then learned that we were standing right where it used to be, but it had gone out of business…such a sad day! So we headed to Haggen Das instead. Still quite yummy. As we headed back to the hotel that evening it POURED on us again…we were soaking wet by the time we got back to the hotel, so naturally we all headed to the pool. Aiden had a BLAST playing in the water. When we got home later that weekend we headed over to B&Q and found a baby pool that once the rainy season stops we'll put outside. He is going to love it!!!

This past weekend we tried to go to Nanchan Temple here in downtown Wuxi to explore. We made it there, but again it POURED on us so we didn't stay all too long. June is the rainy season here. But while we were there we had started to explore when Aiden drew a crowd around him yet again. I had him in his pouch carrier and everyone wanted to come see the white baby. Even the "monks" came out from their rituals to see him and take his picture.

Aiden is now 6 months old and growing like a weed!!! He is working so hard on trying to get up on all fours and start crawling. If you stand him up and let him hold on to your thumbs he will walk across the room. Be still my heart! He eats all of his veggies really well, but still is not a fan of fruit, but we are working on that. One day at a time. He must be starting to teeth some, but nothing has poked through yet, but he loves to chew on anything around him.

That is all for now my friends…the journey continues day by day.