Its November! Day 1 of Thankfulness 2012

WOW! 

Is it already November 1st? Time is really flying. It seems like just yesterday we arrived in Wuxi and now we have been here 20 months. This has become home. Crazy isn’t it? But for those of you reading this thinking that we are going to make this our permanent home...NO! Ha! But for this season of life that God has us here, this is our home and we have made ours. 

So what does a typical day in China look like for us? 

Aiden and Daddy working to get breakfast ready. 

My wonderful husband (poor guy) has to go to work all day, and a lot of his days includes travel. This wasn’t something that was supposed to be part of our journey here, but we make it work and enjoy time with Jeffrey home as much as we can. 

Aiden and I on the other hand play non-stop. We are the blessed ones who really get to enjoy all the good things that China has to offer. Our days are so busy and get filled with  lots of fun and good friends and most days...coffee. We have breakfast together as a family before Jeffrey has to leave for work at 7:30. 

Typical morning pose...sitting on a pillow watching Cars. 

The rest of the morning starts out by relaxing (here lately for Aiden that means watching Cars or Cars 2 while Mama does the dishes) and skyping with family and friends. Then around 9:30 or so we head out for whatever fun awaits us that day. Some days we go to the playground, other days its a walk to Starbucks, and even some going shopping or to visit friends at their homes. We eat out quite often have have sampled some wonderful food around town. Then its back home for Aiden’s nap and most days I have friends over during that time. Some days some actual cleaning gets done. Jeffrey gets home around 6:30 so we can have family dinners together. Aiden loves time with his daddy and gets so excited when he comes home. 

Spending the morning together at the park.

There is so much more that really goes into this and over the next few days you will really see more detail of why I am so thankful for all the different people, activities and things in my life. 

In looking at my daily life here I realize how much I really have to be thankful for. These next 30 days of posts are just scratching the surface. We really are blessed. 

Playing with Daddy on the iPad. Their favorite toy. 

For the LOVE of Sour Cream!

One of my most FAVORITE things about living in China is all the wonderful friends we have met from around the world. On our second American Football night I discovered that my dear friends from Spain and Austria have never heard of Ranch Dip. As they proceeded to try it I do believe the expression the rest of us saw on their face epitomized "love at first taste." They were hooked. As we explained that it is just mixing the ranch packet with sour cream, the second question was, "What is Sour Cream"??? My heart about stopped on that one. I am a TOTAL sour cream addict so it was a surprise. These guys are in for a treat as they delve into the goodness that is Sour Cream and all the yumminess you can make with it! :) 

Ranch mix + Sour Cream = Ranch Dip! YUMMY!!! 

Football Time in Wuxi!

One of the things that we have really been missing here in China is sports! Football (American style) and basketball are the two that Jeffrey and I miss the most. But since we have some great friends in the know, we were able to get NFL coverage so I can watch the Panthers! In my excitement over this I learned that some of my dear friends from around the world have never seen an American Football game, so the plan began. We had people from Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands joining our group as well as Americans. It was a great night for some football especially since the Panther's won!!! This is now going to be a weekly event in our house. 

The entire group! So much fun!!!! 

Sights of the City

I get asked frequently by my parents, "Have you updated your blog?"....as you well know I have been extremely slack on that lately. Some of the ladies here in Wuxi and I were discussing this past month that it seems like life in China has become "normal" and that the strange things we see are pretty common or else we just don't have a camera handy to take a picture. In light of this we planned a day that we would head out from our apartment complex and walk downtown with our cameras out and ready at all times. 

Enjoy the Journey! 

The Start of the Journey...we have 4 different countries represented! America, Spain, Singapore and Turkey. 

These guys were laughing at all the foreigners with our cameras out, so I had to take their picture. 

I love heels as much as the next girl, but it never fails to amaze me how the Chinese ladies wear  EXTREMELY tall heels no matter where they are. 

You can get your teeth cleaned and watch what is going on outside at the same time....privacy...what is that?

Not much here is stroller friendly...

SPLIT PANTS! The view when we got to this point was much worse than you are seeing now...hahaha!

Checking out the White Babies! 

Ewwww!!!! Is that human or not???? It was all over right where the kids were.....don't wanna know. 

We wanted to get a picture of a baby swimming with the float around their neck, but it was the one day that no one was there...where are all the babies?

The Aiden pose! 

Mimi doing the Aiden pose...its the next big thing! :)

Never fails to amaze me how much stuff they can pile on these carts.

Side view.

Boat in the green water. 

Aw...I love you too Wuxi! :) 

Halfway there!!!!! 

California girls know how to handle Wuxi! 

This man had stopped to stare at Aiden and Sal and watch us take pictures, so Mabel asked him to pose with her...He turned away pretty fast!!! 

Again...not stroller friendly at all. To get in the "non scooter" areas, we have to lift them up and over the blockades. Friends...you know they are forever when they will help you lift your stroller! :)

Squatty potty! This is what you find in the public restrooms. 

Checking out the white babies again. 

Crowds all around! 

Live wires hanging out...safety first! 

There is a lot of Anti-Japanese stuff going on right now...this sign was spray painted to tell people to boycott Japanese products. 

Public Toilet....we smelled it long before we reached it...though we wanted a picture, no one was willing to enter! 

Chenglish???

How else would you go??? On your hands?

Again...safety first.

Brie and I had moved to a hidden corner to change a diaper  and when we looked up these 4 guys were surrounding us trying to see what was going on, but they turned away fast when I wanted to get a picture. 

Halfway to Nanchan! 

Ingenuity! To make a kids seat on a bike, they took a wicker type chair and tied it on the back. I'm SO going to do this to my mountain bike and take Aiden for a spin...what do you think? 

Super Chicken! 

We made it to Nanchan!!!!! 

Canal Ride at Nanchan

You can rent bikes. 

Aiden passed out on our way...missed out on all the fun sights. 

Of course....we ended our walk for lunch at Starbucks! GREAT day! 

It was a great day all around. We had wonderful weather, good friends, and laughter...what more could you want!

Mama! Save me!

One of our favorite things to do here in China during the winter is go to the indoor playgrounds. Aiden loves having so much space to run and playing with the different items there. He is just starting to figure out how much fun it is to play with other kids but sometimes they still scare him.

The Chinese children and parents love the fact that a white kid is there and they all want to touch him. This is one of my greatest motivations to try and learn Mandarin, I want to have some good conversations with them. This occurs even more when I see a kid who gets afraid of Aiden. At the playground last week Aiden was running around and rounded a corner and came upon a boy about his age and his mom. I guess Aiden was the first “white” kid he had ever seen and he was SCARED. No, that is an understatement. He went into a full blown panic trying to crawl up his mother and wailing. Needless to say, I was torn between feeling awful for the kid and wanting to comfort him, and busting my gut from trying not to bust out laughing.  This happened anytime that this child caught even the slightest glimpse of Aiden. My sweet friend Mabel did her best to try and get a picture or video of this, but it was hard to do so without looking like a stalker! 

To make this day better, there was a 2 year old girl there who was cute as a button and kept playing with us. But later in the day her mom kept telling her to go give Aiden a kiss. Thanks to Mabel, for your viewing pleasure, is this event in a detailed picture form. 

Here she comes...

The kiss.

What just happened????

She kissed me????

Breaks into tears.....NOOOOO! 

She is pretty proud of herself. Ha!

Don’t you just love it! We laughed and laughed about this for hours afterwards. I have since told Aiden that the only girl he is allowed to kiss is Mommy and I think he is ok with that! 

We went back to this playground a few days later and this girl was there again. Needless to say, Aiden was a little leery of her this time and when she tried to kiss him, he ran away. I was so proud! Ha!!! But he loves to play and its a lot of fun to try and connect with these different families.