Frosty Fascination

Sydney is fascinated with snowmen. She talks about it all day, spends a lot of time at her bedroom window looking at the melting snowmen outside and frequently asks me to tell her stories about snowmen. She LOVES them. However, she's too afraid to touch them. She will touch snow on the ground but not when they resemble people.

The snowman above sits in the courtyard at Sydney's school. All of the kids got such a kick out of it but it was too cold to be outside. So the teachers brought indoors buckets of ice for them to build a snowman on one of the activies table. When I arrived to pick Sydney up from school, she was busy sticking pipe cleaners in the snowman for arms. She had declined requests to put in any other body parts because it would require her touch the snowman. I was kicking myself for leaving my camera at home because I would have loved to have a picture of the final product. If you can, picture a snowman about 3 inches taller than Sydney with 9 arms, 5 eyes and a carrot for a nose.

Winter Chaos

We finally have a reprieve after 5 days of snow and ice in Shanghai. Instead of having machines clear the roads of ice and snow, there are people out with shovels and brooms doing the job themselves. As such, traffic is more horrendous than usual. Actually, we are pretty lucky here. Most of western/southern China have been hit with so much snow and ice that all of the transportation systems (i.e., buses, trains and planes) were shut down. The extreme weather couldn't have come at a worse time. Next week in Chinese New Year (February 7th) and everyone is leaving to return to their home town. And for most people, Chinese New Year is usually the only time that people go home to visit their families -- parents, spouses, children --- so everyone has been desperately scrambling to find any available transportation. In Guangzhou alone, there were 500,000 people stranded at the train station. Many of whom have been sleeping at the station for days. In another province, there was a bus full of people that was stranded in the snow 2 days without any food, water or heat. The Chinese government is asking people to refrain from traveling this New Year but it doesn't appear to have any effect. In addition, there is a prediction of food shortages to certain areas of China due to the inability of food shipments getting through. The Chinese government has dispatched about 500,000 soldiers to help keep the peace and also to shovel snow and ice in an effort to clear up the roads. The Chinese premier has publicly apologized for transportation shut downs resulting from the weather.

Luckily, the reprieve in the weather enabled some of the public transportation systems to resume their operations and many people were able to depart to the intended destinations to celebrate the new year.

Snowy Weekend

It snowed all day on Saturday and Sunday, and this time the snow did stick. There was enough snow for people to be outside, engaging in snow fights or building snowmen. I only enjoy cold weather when I'm in a heated room, in front of a raging fire in a fireplace, with a cup of hot tea or cocoa. Or when I'm skiing. I couldn't talk Sydney to going outside to play in the snow so Sydney and I enjoyed the snow festivities from her bedroom window.

I cancelled all of our plans for this weekend because I couldn't bring myself to brave the cold weather to wait for taxis. This is the second weekend that we've been shut inside all weekend. Sydney is a bit restless and, as a result, our apartment is littered with anything and everything that Sydney can put her hands on and tear apart. But since she was generous enough to sleep until 8am yesterday and 7:30am today, instead of her usual wake up time of 5:30am-6am, she can trash the apartment all she wants (especially when our ayi is working tomorrow).

Cartoony World

After school, we went to a place called Cartoony World with our friends Colleen and her kids, Riley and Nicola (who is in Sydney's class). Cartoony World is a combination of Chuckie Cheese (without the food) and an arcade so that it would attract kids of all ages. There is even a train ride, an indoor carousel and live fish pond where kids can keep any goldfish that they can catch. In other words, it is loud and overwhelming. When we first arrived, Sydney looked at me and said, "Mama, nooooooo." But once Colleen and her kids arrived, Sydney felt more comfortable and had a great time playing.

Once we finished playing in the ball room, Sydney played a couple of video games and rode a couple of the rides. Of course, she walked right past the cute, girly rides and instead insisted on riding on the helicopter and the Batman car. She was too scared to go on the train ride with Riley and Nicola but took several turns on the carousel.

After almost 2 hours, the Moms were tired so we all went to Moon River Cafe for dinner ---- chicken quesadillas and tuna melt for Sydney and me, just what a couple of American girls needed to hit the spot. When we got home, Sydney only had enough energy left for a bath before asking to be put to bed.

Random Chatter in the Chat Room

The Shanghai Mamas Yahoo Group has been discussing potty training this week. Several of the Mamas have followed their ayis' advice and started potty training their babies as young as 5 months. Ayis typically train babies by holding them over the toilet and whistling and the babies would pee on cue. I'm not sure how that would work exactly, especially considering that the babies are not able to let their parents/ayi know that they have to urinate. Maybe they learn a non-verbal signal? And I don't think that they have the bladder control to not urinate when they sleep. One Mama said that she started potty training her son at 1 month and at 4 months he was out of diapers. Note how I am not calling anyone a fibber.

Another topic that is red-hot on the Yahoo Group is the problems some Mamas have had with being charged an incorrect price at the grocery store. Everyone participating in the discussion seems to think that the errors were intentional. I have to admit that I have never checked my bills from the grocery stores. Partly because of the language barrier (some receipts show up in Chinese only) and partly because it usually entails getting into another line to get a refund. I don't have the energy for it. But I did check my bills this week, and they have all been correct. Some of the "mistakes" mentioned in the chat room were things like one item being wrung up as 6 items, something that was supposed to cost 8RMB showed up as 200RMB.

There was a post by a Mama indicating that someone stole her purse from her cart while at Carrefour (a large 2-story grocery store). The security man found it laying on top of a shelf. Of course, the 2,000RMB that she had in the purse was gone. She wanted the security man to close all exit doors in Carrefour and check everyone in there until they found her 2,000RMB. Unless she taped her picture to all of her money, I'm not sure how she is going to recognize her missing money. Also, closing down Carrefour is like closing down Walmart the day after Thanksgiving with everyone in it. It gets better. Since the security man would not close down Carrefour, she demanded that all of her groceries be given to her free of charge. The security man made the mistake of laughing at her. She was so irate that she sent her mother-in-law home with her baby and she intended to stay at Carrefour until they were willing to let her have free groceries. Carrefour closed at 10pm. She stayed until midnight! But it was not all of naught because she got her free groceries. Note how I am not calling anyone crazy.

BRRRRRRRRRRR

It snowed on and off today, which was great. Unfortunately, it didn't stick so there was no opportunity for snow fights or snow angels.

I'm having a hard time with the cold weather here, mostly because we don't have very good insulation at the apartment and it is always cold even though I have the thermostat set at 90 degrees (which is as high as it will go). I sleep in my sweat pants, sweat shirt and socks. Fortunately, it is warm in Sydney's room, which is the only room in the apartment that is warm.

Sydney seems to enjoy the cold weather, mostly the hot cocoa on Saturday mornings. I asked Sydney what she wanted for breakfast this weekend and she asked "How about cocoa?" She is really big on "How about _____?" these days. She got a new coat for Christmas from Aunt Cassi and she really likes wearing it.

I continue to get grief from her school about Sydney not being dressed warmly enough. She is usually in a turtle neck over a t-shirt or under a cardigan sweater, or in a sweater. Of course, she also has a coat and hat. But sometimes when I pick her up from school she is wearing the two spare shirts/turtlenecks that I brought for her, in addition to the clothes that she arrived at school in. I wouldn't care except that it means more laundry for me and you know how much I hate to do laundry. But then sometimes on these days when she is wearing 3 shirts/sweaters her teachers would tell me, with a straight face, that Sydney's temperature is a bit on the warm side. Sometimes I remember my yoga breathing techniques and it gets me through the moment, and other times I remind myself that I have wine at home and it allows me to leave the school without an ugly incident.

I hope that everyone is managing to keep warm!

Guess Who???

Sydney is fascinated with umbrellas -- the way they can open and close and be twirled around. Whenever it rains, she always tries to carry our umbrella, which is too big for her to manage on her own. Thanks to her Uncle Tony and Aunt Amy, she now has her own umbrella. But she doesn't like to take it outside when it is raining. I think that she doesn't want to get it wet. When I ask her if she wants to take it outside with us, she would shake her head and say "Umrella. House." However, she does like to play hide and seek under it. She'll play hide and seek with her stuff animals sometimes. She'll put them under the umbrella and then pretend to look for them. It always make me laugh out loud when she hides under the umbrella and waits for her animals to find her.

Sydney Update

Sydney is 19 months now ....... my, how time has flown...

In the last month, Sydney started saying sentences with multiple words. "Uncle...Bye Bye...All Gone" was her first 3 word sentence. My favorite sentence so far is "Mama, good girl". She recently learned "[Where] are you?" and goes around the apartment loudly calling for her stuff animals, people in her books and food (as in "Milk. [Where] are you!") I have to be much more vigilant in my word choice around her. I thought I heard her say "F-ing" the other day but I'm not sure. I hear her in her crib at night talking to herself -- basically calling out random words that she knows. Thanks to a fabulous set of books from her Aunt Cassi for Christmas, she's learning new words every day ---- new words learned this week: grasshopper, kangaroo and kite.

The hardest part about traveling with Sydney isn't the traveling itself. It is after we get home and I have to get her back on her regular schedule --- specifically, getting her to willingly go to sleep in her own room without my being there too. After a week of sleeping in the same room with me in Hong Kong, she's not eager to go back to our prior sleeping routine. The only way that I can correct that is to keep her up an hour later than she usually sleeps so that she would be too tired to carry on a prolonged tantrum. We are making progress because she slept at her usual bedtime tonight and only cried for a minute before drifting off to sleep.

I bought Sydney several books for Christmas and as a result she has stopped asking me to read to her Corduroy and Monkey Puzzle (thank goodness). She still enjoys Goodnight, Moon. Her new favorite book is "Llama Llama, Red Pajama" --- it is mine too. Although I do find myself saying the rhymes in my head while I'm at work. At the gym. At the grocery store. In the shower. Doing the dishes. Typing this blog.

We started potty training a couple of weeks ago. Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures of this process. She's been exhibiting signs of being ready for over a month now but I've been postponing it because she is so young. But I also fear that if we don't start the training now when she's interested in it then she'll loose interest and it will be more difficult to train her later. Because she is so little, I had a hard time finding a potty that she could sit on comfortably. I had to buy one for her classroom too because the kiddie potties at school are too big for her, and I think that falling into the toilet would be a discouraging experience:)

Sydney is willing to sit on the potty when I ask her to, but doesn't do so on her own yet. She has "gone" in the potty a couple of times a day for the past couple of days. So I think that we are making progress. I don't have any potty training books with me here so I'm just winging it. If anyone has any suggestions regarding how to go about this, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Happy New Year's from Hong Kong

My family brought our holiday spirit to Hong Kong after Chrismas. I love this city -- so beautiful, relaxing and unique. Hong Kong is divided into 2 sections by Victoria Harbour -- Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Kowloon is considered the more traditional Chinese side while Hong Kong Island is the modern, commercial "Western" side. As a result, the city is a great blend of East meets West. The official language in Hong Kong is English (thanks to the 156 years of British rule) but many people also speak Cantonese. Following the British tradition, everyone drives on the left side and most hotels offer an afternoon tea service. The Peninsula has the best tea service in terms of quality of food but the tea service at the Intercontinental Hotel offers the best view of Victoria Harbour. Both hotels are on the Kowloon side. This is my 2nd trip to Hong Kong and I have only stayed on the Kowloon side. The only bad thing about Hong Kong is the pollution and smog -- as you'll see in the pictures below.

Since I've been to Hong Kong before, I didn't take in any of the touristy sights -- of which there are many to see. Sydney and I just strolled around the city --- the promenade and Kowloon Park. Sydney loved the park --- the duck/flamingo/fish pond, the aviary section with all sorts of birds, the water fountains and flowers. Sydney is usually very shy around strangers but for some reason, whenever we travel she comes out of her shell and is a very friendly girl. She walked up to several people at the park to say hello. Luckily, she didn't pull up her shirt to show everyone her belly, which was a favorite past time of hers in Phuket.

People in Hong Kong celebrate Christmas so the whole town was lit up with Christmas lights and decorated with beautiful Christmas trees. Sydney and I really enjoyed all of the Christmas decorations. It just occurred to me now that I didn't take any pictures of them, which I regret.

My wonderful family took turns taking Sydney out with them so that I could have some time to myself. With Sydney being sick for a couple of weeks leading up to the trip, I was a bit run down, impatient and sleep deprived -- not a good combination for me. I'm sure Sydney was glad to be around people who had the energy to match hers. And of course, she was loving all of the attention.

For New Year's Eve, we ate at a great restaurant in our hotel. It was a fixed, 8 course meal. I only made it through the 4th course, which took 2 hours to get to. I was so tired at 9pm so I left to go to sleep. I was disappointed that I missed the rest of the meal because the first 4 courses were excellent, and I'm told that the main entree was fabulous. Sydney stayed up until about 11pm with the rest of the family. In my defense, I did turn 38 at the stroke of midnight, and my late night partying days are a thing of the past --- thankfully so. I wish that I could say that I feel older and wiser. But the truth is that I only feel older.

I hope you all have a happy, healthy, restful but fun 2008!!!!!