Day 22 of Thankfulness - Playgrounds

Today I am thankful for playgrounds. All kids of playgrounds...indoor and out! Aiden loves going to play, especially when his friends go along. 

Right after we came back from the states a new mall opened in town and they have a great indoor playground. This made my day since our last favorite indoor playground has closed. 

Welcome to our new indoor playground....this is probably where we will live for cold winter months that are quickly approaching! 

Fun and different kinda slide...it was hard to get him to do anything else. 

This place is great. 

Neil having fun in the ball pit. 

Enjoying the ball shooter

Aiden's buddy Neil...cutie pie huh? 

Here he doesn't even mind when the Chinese ladies want to talk and play with him. 

I am also super excited and thankful that there are great playgrounds like this in the states as well! My best friend and I went to a new place near Mall of Georgia and it was GREAT. This is something I will look forward to for many days playing there with Aiden and making new friends. 

Day 21 of Thankfulness - Chenglish

I have so much fun with Chenglish over here. I love finding it and laughing at the craziness of it all. Makes me really want to go back to the states and see our version of Chinese to see how bad it is. 

These below are signs from a school here in Wuxi that we went and toured a few weeks ago. There was another sign (I thought I had a picture of, but can't find it now...boo!) that said "Hold your hands and watch your feet." Ha! Most of these are all talking about not stepping on the grass. 

Enjoy! 

Day 20 of Thankfulness - Soku

Today I am thankful for Soku! 

This is another online site here in China that has been wonderful! This is one where they have lots of American TV shows posted. Its fabulous!!! 

Before we moved over here I wasn't sure how we were going to keep up with our favorite shows back home, but that shouldn't have been a worry at all. First we used iTunes to purchase  some of them and then a friend introduced me to Soku. Wow! So amazing to be able to get most of our favorite shows from home and to keep up with them as you guys are able to back in the States. 

Some of our favorite shows to watch on this site are:

Person of Interest, White Collar, Revenge, Criminal Minds and The Big Bang Theory. 

So thankful to be able to watch American television over here, makes us feel like we are right at home. 

Day 19 of Thankfulness - Taobao

Today I am thankful for Taobao!

www.taobao.com

This is an online website here in China that has EVERYTHING....and I do mean everything! And the best part, they deliver to my door.

Awesome. The best part for me with this site is that I can get most of the import products I love but at a much lesser price.

The one catch is that it is all in Mandarin. Thanks to Google Chrome, I'm able to translate it to English to better be able to search for the products I want. But you do get a much better deal most of the time if you can search in Mandarin and not English. This is another wonderful benefit from my weekly lessons and my English/Mandarin dictionary.

Some of my favorite things to order here are:

Cheetos, Cheerios, Cake Mix, North Face coats, Vera Bradley bags, toys for Aiden and coffee syrup.

Its wonderful!!! I may miss this shopping experience more than any other when we move home.

Day 18 of Thankfulness - 35 months of Aiden

How can it be that in just one month my little boy will be 3??? I just can't believe it. I am so thankful that Our Father has given Jeffrey and I this gift of raising him. 

This past year has brought so many changes in Aiden's life. He has started talking more and speaking in sentences. We have "started" potty training (though he isn't really interested yet). He can last much longer walking and we no longer have to take the stroller everywhere we go. 

Some of his favorites right now are Lighting McQueen and The King from the movie Cars, his trampoline and coloring. He loves to Skype with Mimi & Ta and everyone else who we talk to. The only things he will really eat at the moment is peanut butter and chicken nuggets. At times we can get him to eat other things, but many a night he goes to bed without dinner at his own choosing. Crazy kid! 

Trying out the different kids of tea. I think he likes it. 

Taking in all the sights and sounds of Beijing. 

Flirting with the little mannequin girl. 

A little blurry, but he was having a blast playing with a Chinese boy while Donna and I shopped in Suzhou. 

 Today we celebrated Aiden's best buddy's 3rd birthday. It has been so much fun to watch these two grow together. They love to drive their trucks together and share a love of cars. Such fun friends. 

Aiden and Noah! I hope these two stay buddies forever.

We love you Aiden! Thank you Father for this special blessing! 

Day 16 of Thankfulness - Nap Time

Today I am thankful for Aiden's nap time. Ha! 

This is a glorious time that I can get a few things done around the house, have a conversation with a friend, or even at times, host parties. Most days he still sleeps about 3 hours...I'll take it! 

He is definitely a lover of his sleep and for that alone I am thankful. Rarely does he not want a nap or fuss going down for his nap. But in all of this if we are not at home, he used to not nap at all no matter how hard we tried. Finally, we have over come most of that. Still there are days when does not sleep well outside of our house (mainly in the stroller), but we are getting there. 

Sleeping in the stroller while we explored Tian'anmen Square.

While we were in Beijing this weekend, he did fabulous at sleeping. We were so thankful for those times as it allowed us all to keep going and see more of all that Beijing had to offer! 

Thank you Aiden for taking good naps! 

Yes, he is laying down in the car....yes he is not in a car seat, but this is China...you don't have to here. And he slept great. This was right after we left the Great Wall, he climbed in on his own and asked to take a nap. Ha! I guess we wore him out. 

Day 17 of Thankfulness - Escalators

Today I am thankful for escalators and elevators. 

Back in the USA I completely took these for granted. Never before (well I guess I didn't have a kid very long in the states either...ha!) did I need to carry the stroller up stairs or lift it over a barrier, or even carry my luggage up/down the stairs. Now that this is a part of our daily life and travels I realize how thankful I am for these modern inventions.  

We are super thankful for you little stroller in these moments, and even more thankful that Aiden walks most of the time so we don't have to carry the stroller much any more. 

At the subway stations around China, some of the older ones do not have escalators so we are forced to carry everything we have up and down the stairs. One good thing about this though is it teaches you (hahahaha!) to pack lightly....something we haven't fully mastered yet. 

Whew! Tired already from carrying all that luggage...but they aren't finished yet. 

The crowd we had to get through to get to the stairs. 

There they go, picking up their luggage to carry down the stairs. 

Look at  my man go! 

It definitely makes me thankful and extremely happy anytime I can find an escalator or elevator. Or maybe this just makes me lazy, but either way I'll take it! 

To the inventors of these wonderful inventions I say....THANK YOU!