"Venice of the East"

There is a small town near Shanghai called Suzhou, which is called the "Venice of the East". Whoever called it that must not have ever visited Venice because it is a gross exaggeration. There are canals running through a portion of the town but it is a limited portion. And the canals are nothing to marvel at. But then, I've been to Venice.

Suzhou used to be the artistic capital during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The main attraction in Suzhou are the parks, of which I visited 2. I first went to the Humber Administrator's Garden, which is also known as the "Garden of Stupid Officials" although I haven't figured out why. The garden is beautifully laid out and peaceful. It was nice to be in such a quiet environment for a while.

The main attraction at Tiger Hill park is the 7 story leaning pagoda (the Cloud Rock Pagoda) built in 961 A.D. It is quite remarkable. According to legend, the founder of Suzhou, He Lu, is said to be buried under the pagoda and his 3,000 swords were buried in the park and was guarded by a white tiger.

My favorite site in Suzhou is the Suzhou museum which houses various treasures, writings and crafts from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The collection is not extensive but nicely presented. I really enjoyed the building and the space itself. The architecture is very modern, which is an interesting contrast to the historic buildings around it.

Weekend Recap

Last Saturday started off beautifully --- sunny and cool weather, Sydney and I slept until 7am, and after a big breakfast, Sydney and I went outside for a walk. Sydney was as happy as can be.

That was before the nap. After the nap, I had to deal with Sydney's challenging twin. If the terrible twos is going to be worse than what I'm going through now, I will need to get on Valium. Otherwise I fear that I will rethink my no spanking policy. Without warning or provocation, Sydney became whiny and stubborn and fussy. Very quickly it turned into a temper tantrum. Also she's developed a new whine that drives me up the wall. Usually when she whines, I put on a Mozart CD to drown her out. But today, the combination of the whine and banshee screeching made me lose my temper with her.

Work was stressful last week. Our in-house attorney in Beijing tendered her resignation effective on January 31st. Knowing my company, it would take a year to find someone to replace her. I have no interest or plan to learn Chinese law so if we don't find someone before the attorney leaves the company, ....... I may need to get on Valium now. There's a bit more pressure for me to stay in Shanghai longer than a year. I may change my mind in 8 months but as of now, I'll be in Dallas the end of June.

Anyway, Sydney was testing my patience, and unfortunately for the both of us, it was in short supply on Saturday. I yelled at her. She was more bewildered than scared or upset. I felt really bad about it. Knowing that I couldn't deal with Sydney on my own, I took her to Kid's Town. It seemed to do the trick because my sweet baby was back.

On Sunday, Syd and I met some friends for brunch at a place called Coffee Tree. We both loved it --- I like the ambience and food and Sydney liked the big ball pit. I think we've found a replacement for Moon River Cafe.

Thanksgiving Visit

Sydney and I are returning to Dallas for Thanksgiving. We will be in Dallas from November 15 - November 26, and I am very excited! If you are in town and have the time, Sydney and I would love to see you.

YCIS Annual Picnic

Sydney and I started our day off by meeting our friends Jennifer and her sons, Nicholas and Julien, at Moon River Cafe for breakfast. Nicholas and Sydney haven't quite clicked yet, but Jennifer and I have become friends. So the kids will learn to play together whether they like it or not. Sydney is more fascinated with Nicholas' 6 month old brother, Julien. She likes to pet him on the head.

Nicholas

Then in the afternoon we went with Jennifer and the boys to Sydney's school's annual picnic at one of their campuses. They couldn't have picked a better day. The weather in Shanghai has been nice and cool since the typhoon blew through here last Monday. There were games, food, balloons, drinks and Jeffrey the Toys R' Us giraffe (some poor soul in a giraffe costume). Sydney was too scared to approach Jeffrey but Nicholas was fearless. So after 2 hours, a bag of popcorn, cookie, fruit bowl, juice box and 4 balloons later, Sydney was ready to head out.

The Jetts

Jennifer and Julien

After the picnic, Jennifer took us to a children's market, which I've only heard about but have never been. It is an underground mall (literally) consisting of dozens of stalls selling all things babies. And I mean DOZENS of stalls. It was a bit overwhelming and required a bit time to visit all of the stores and dig through the piles of clothes. I'm told that most of the clothes come from manufacturers of brand names (ex. Gap, Ralph Lauren, OshKosh, etc) who have excess supply so they sell them at the children's market for a cheap price. Unfortunately, Sydney wanted to run around the market, which was impossible to do because of the large crowd of people there, so we left before I could go through all of the stores. I did manage to get Sydney a cute sweater for US$7, a pair of pajamas for US$6 and a toy for US$5.

Sydney was wired from her exciting day and it took some time to get her to bed. But she is now sleeping comfortably, the dishes are done, the kitchen cleaned, the laundry has been folded and put away, and I am exhausted. Good night.

Say "Cheese" (Or Not)

A couple of weeks ago, I had Sydney's picture taken by a professional photographer. As expected, she did not smile once. While I can appreciate her reluctance to perform and be happy on cue, I wish she would have been more cooperative. We were able to solicit one fake smile, as you can see in the second picture below. The pictures still turned out pretty well. I see now that dressing her in a yellow dress against a white background was a bad idea. You live and learn. To be honest, I really didn't think that she would sit still at all for the pictures, based upon past experience. The photographer is a young guy who is very nice and outgoing and was able to coax Sydney off of me. Instead of selling the printed pictures, he sells the digitized version of the pictures, which he gave me on a disk for me to do whatever I want with it, like posting some of them on this blog.

Nicola's 2nd Birthday

Nicola is an adorable little girl in Sydney's class. And Sydney adores her! I've never seen Sydney react to another kid the way she does with Nicola. Sydney likes to hug on Nicola and hold her hand and just be around her. Interestingly, Madeleine (another kid in Sydney's class) hangs on to Sydney the way Sydney hangs on to Nicola and it annoys Sydney (or so the teachers tell me). I'm told that Nicola reciprocates Sydney's friendship, which is nice to hear. I'd hate to think that Sydney is harrassing the poor girl in class. Her Mom, Colleen, told me the other day that when she tucked Nicola into bed the night before and asked her if she had a good day, Nicola answered, "Sydney".

We went to Nicola's 2nd birthday party today. I was the only one that showed up without my ayi. All of the kids had a great time --- there were balloons, balls, a bubble machine, pizzas and cupcakes. What more can you ask for at a birthday party?

16 Month Measurements

I skipped Sydney's 15 month check-up because she received her 15 month vaccination in the US in her 12 month check-up. But I've been so curious as to how much she's grown, legnth and weight-wise that I took her in to see Dr. Juemin Huang at Shanghai United Family Hospital. She's a pediatrician trained in the US and came highly recommended by a couple of expat Moms here. Sydney received a clean bill of health.

Her weight is 23.15 lbs, her height is 31.10 inches and her head circumference is 19.09 inches. I'm not sure what percentile she is in for each of those measurements but as long as she continues to grow, which she is, that's all I care about.

Sydney at School

Sydney's teachers take pictures of the kids everyday and they appear in the weekly newsletter. Her teachers were kind enough to make me copies of some pictures of Sydney.