No Chinese Name?

There is so much to say yet, so little time! I'm watching Winter Wipeout (Thanks to Jenn Chini I am ADDICTED!!!!) as I write this post wishing that Jeffrey was home. He has had to travel a lot lately and will be gone again next week. It's tougher being in another country and having him travel, but doable. Granted…I really wish he was able to be around all the time, but I know with his job that is not likely. So we make the best of it. That does make me EXTREMELY grateful for the friends we have made here. Always something to do or a place to go or even…floors to clean!

Aiden checking out the goodness of Dunkin Donuts!

This week has been interesting, as most of them are. I have found the Dunkin Donuts!!!!!!!!!!!! And the coffee was AMAZING!!!!! I can survive here now! HA! Its pretty sad that it takes good coffee to make me feel more at home, but man it does! I had brought a bag of my DD coffee with me, but it was starting to run out! They had some of their coffee there at the store so I was saved!!!!! At first the thought of making coffee at home was a little daunting since, if you know me well, I use a TON of flavored creamer in my coffee and that does not exist here. But I have found a few things that work to make an amazing cup of coffee. Starbucks here had the other day Vanilla Syrup that they use in their stores so I had to invest and it is so good! Along with that you add some regular creamer, some sugar and a little bit of cinnamon and you have a great cup of coffee! YUM!!!!!!! 

A Pork and Seaweed Donut...any takers on trying it?

Yummy donuts...and most are not too strange!

That same day I went with a friend to check out the Toys R Us and Babies R Us here. It wasn't much, but good to know where to buy toys as Aiden gets older. My goal over the next few months is to find something that will work as a kiddie pool to put in our garden (backyard). Aiden loves playing in the bathtub so I know he will absolutely enjoy the pool. The Babies R Us there consisted of two aisles so not much there. I've been SO GRATEFUL to my amazing mother who has been willing to ship things for us that Aiden will need. Baby food is definitely an interesting thing here and not much variety. THANK YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the Chinese version of a Snuggie! Made me laugh!

Jeffrey and I went to the local electronics store this weekend to buy a home phone and a second water cooler for the basement. It totally made me laugh at how many people it took to figure out my name. One girl had asked me to sign a paper (through "sign language") and then looked at me very funny and started laughing. I started to feel a little odd…then she took it over to a few other people and they started busting out laughing. Now I was feeling very uncomfortable…but what do you do? Finally another girl came up and asked "Chinese name?" Quite a few sarcastic responses came to my mind…but alas I was able to hold off and just say "Bu" (meaning no). At this they all gathered around again and you could tell that they had no idea what to do. I'm guessing that they had to enter my name into the computer or something like that. Finally I took out my driver's license and gave that to her. It still took them a long time, but they finally got it figured out! HA!

All the employees that it took to figure out my name! Hilarious!

Aiden has been growing and changing like crazy! This past weekend he was playing with Jeffrey and while holding his hands, he took two steps! Now granted, he hasn't done it since but it made my heart stop! He has just started rolling all over the place and looks like he is about to start crawling so I know my world is getting ready to get a little crazier! He is doing fabulous with his cereal and would rather have that than a bottle so I have to limit him on the cereal. In another week we will be starting veggies so we are excited to see how that goes and all the funny faces I know will come with that! Hopefully he is not like his mom and will enjoy vegetables. 


So I confess. I am really missing my dishwasher! Maybe that just makes me lazy, but whew…it seems like my sink is always full of dishes and there are only 3 of us in the house. I've already made Jeffrey promise that when we move back home that we will get a nice big dishwasher in our new house! He has already agreed to that! I don't think he likes constantly washing dishes any more than I do. One thing we are on the hunt for that I know is here but we just haven't found yet is aluminum foil! That will make things much easier. The hunt is on….! 


Our apartment is fully livable now and the only thing we have left to do is hang pictures and all the décor that we brought with us. We have found a furniture factory in Changzhou that makes amazing furniture for great prices. The daughter of the owner works with Jeffrey. We bought two leather chairs and ottomans to put in the basement for a reading area. They are amazing and so nice, but alas again, they wouldn't fit down the stairs! O goodness! So Aiden now has a new chair in his room and we are going to put one in our room, at least until we figure out if there is anything else we can do with them. But this did make us think that if there is any other furniture we want to bring back with us, we will wait and purchase it all right before the movers come to back us back up. Who knows what all we will come back with! 


Stay tuned as the journey continues.Its a daily adventure!