Shower-Time Shenanigans

Each day, whilst (don't you love my new-found British language influence?) I'm in the shower, Timmy finds himself free to do as he pleases for about 10-20 minutes. Some days he plays contentedly in his room, or watches the movie of the day (Cars or Nemo depending on his mood). Other days he is a scheming monkey that gets into everything. One day he brought all his toys into the bathroom, some even made it into the shower and sink. Another day he brought a stool in and lined up all the contents of a drawer on the counter. Yet another day he put stickers all over the toilet, I missed a good photo op there. And finally one day he used the same stool to unload a different drawer that happen to house our stockpile of US medicine and cough drops. Luckily all the bottles were sealed and childproofed. Needless to say, that drawer now has its own childproof strap to lock it shut. Timmy calls the strap a boo-boo, I guess he thinks its like a band-aid for the drawer. :)

Bedtime Prayers

So most nights we try to pray with Timmy before he goes to bed. Last night as we turned out the lights and sat down next to his bed he said, "Pray, Pray!" It was so cute. When Scott was done praying, Tim said, "More, more." So we prayed more. I asked him to say, "Amen," and he did in his tiny little voice. It just makes you feel all warm inside as a parent, like maybe, just maybe, you're doing something right.

Would You Like Some Watermelon With Your Manicure?

I'm not the paint your nails type of girl, but since manicures are so cheap here in China (less than $8 USD), I get one every once in a while. This also fits into the duties of my role as a lady of leisure, as Scott likes to call me. :) Today I tried a new place in Spring City, a commercial area down the street from our apartment. I spent 45 minutes watching a Chinese soap opera that actually seemed like it would be funny if I had the slightest clue what they were talking about. Then, about 5 minutes into the nail drying process, one of the girls places an eighth of a watermelon in front of me. This was a very large piece of watermelon. I have no idea if I paid for this, or if they just had extra so they wanted to share it with me. I was one of two customers in the shop at the time, the other being a middle-aged guy getting his feet filed down. He did not partake in the watermelon, but graciously told me in English where to wash my hands after I ate it. Just another day in Shanghai.

Solar Eclipse

Timmy and I watched the solar eclipse this morning. It was around 9:30 in the morning and for about 6 minutes there was complete darkness. It was really cool. It would have been cooler if it hadn't also been thunder storming at the same time. There was a bunch of lightning and the sky was all clouds so you couldn't actually see the sun get covered. Bummer, but I forgot to get the special glasses to look at the sun anyway, so I guess we were lucky. This will not happen again in Shanghai for another 500 years, pretty cool. I turned off all the lights so we could really see how dark it was, but Tim didn't like that and climbed up on the bed to turn the lights back on. "Mama, light, Mama." :)

American Music Monday

Timmy and I were out running errands all morning and I kept hearing American music everywhere. Here are some of the songs I can remember hearing in the last 4 hours:

We Will Rock You - Queen

Uno, Dos, Tres - Ricky Martin (okay so maybe he's not exactly American)

Some Eminem song with vulgar lyrics

Toxic - Britney Spears

various Backstreet Boys songs

Family Affair - Mary J. Blige

The best was hearing some old Chinese lady singing the Ricky Martin song after it was over in a really thick accent!

DQ Something Different.

Yesterday I took myself to the doctor because I've had a sore throat for 12 days. Its not strep so she said its either a virus or mono. I opted not to get blood tests done to find out if its mono because either way there is no actual treatment so why waste the time and money. Anyway, I'll be fine and I'm not contagious (unless you kiss me!).

After the doctor I needed to go buy a new toilet seat since ours broke. There is an new B & Q (Chinese Home Depot) in a mall near our apartment so I went there. It took ten minutes of wandering to find the entrance to the store because the place is huge. During my wanderings I happened upon a brand new Dairy Queen in the mall. It was open and I decided that ice cream would feel great on my sore throat.

I ordered a small Oreo blizzard and paid for it. I watched them start to make it and that is when it got weird. The employee opened a package of Oreos and started breaking them in half with his hands (wearing gloves, thank goodness). He puts the huge chunks of Oreo in the cup with ice cream and then goes to the blender. The blender wasn't plugged it, so he reached for the cord and it has no plug - just wires with nothing on the end. Hmmmmm. He says something to the manager and she looks for herself. After fumbling with it for a minute and apparently looking for a hole to jam the wires into, decides its a lost cause. She then hands a spoon the to the other guy to mix my blizzard by hand. You can imagine how efficient this is with giant pieces of cookie in the mix. After about 30 seconds he hands me my treat, not really mixed at all. I must have been their first customer ever. Anyway the ice cream was good, but I wouldn't call it a blizzard.

Potty Training?!?!?!

So I had no intention of trying to potty train Timmy until well into next year, but he apparently has other plans. Earlier this week he started talking about the potty, so Scott took him into the bathroom a few times and let him stand on the toilet seat and try to pee. Nothing happened. I figured now is as good a time as any to buy a little potty for him to get used to. I didn't think he would decide to use it within a few minutes of seeing it. He did. Twice in two hours. What the heck. Now what? I guess its time whether I like it or not. Pray for us! :)

Timmy's 1st Doctor's Visit (In Shanghai)

Tim's been coughing all week and having a bit of a hard time breathing normally, so I decided to take him to the doctor and get it checked out. We've been here over 6 months and have not had to go to the doctor or hospital for anything yet, pretty good, huh? When we told people we were moving to China, many of you asked about the health care. I gave my best answers from research, but until today had not really known anything first hand.

The whole experience was pretty decent. Everyone spoke English, it was only 15 or so minutes from our place, the place was super clean (compared to the local hospital I volunteered at a few months ago) and they billed my insurance directly. The pediatrician we saw was an African American guy from New York named Tyrone. He is apparently the Chief Medical Officer in Pediatrics at Shanghai United Family Hospital. He was super cool and turns out that Timmy most likely has allergies that are flaring up from the intense humidity. No biggie, but I feel better after going and checking out the lay of the land.

Facebook Blocked!!!

China blocked Facebook last night because of the riots. I hear Twitter is blocked too, but I am not a tweeter, so I wouldn't know. Even our personal VPN tunnel witopia secret passage through the great firewall thingy (yep, that is something like the technical name for it) is not working. How annoying. I can still post stuff through our blog, so I guess that is good. I hope this is only temporary. I love Facebook. :(

Taxi Miracles!

Two days in a row now I've had unexpected taxi blessings.

Yesterday I was waiting for a taxi and I saw a middle aged business man flag one down a little up the road. I decided to walk to where he got his, and when I got there, he proceeded to give up his taxi for me and Tim. This is unheard of. I saw him as we were driving away trying to get himself an new one! I guess chivalry is not totally dead!

Then this morning, not only did I get a taxi right outside our apartment compound IN THE RAIN, but the driver spoke really great English. He was only the 2nd or 3rd driver I've had out of over 200 taxis that spoke any English. It was great!

Our Almost Fearless Son...

So as most of you know by now, Timmy falls a lot. He always has a bruise or twenty somewhere on his face, head, knees, legs and most recently we found some bruises on his spine! How does that even happen? Anyway, these "injuries" are due to his recklessness in jumping, climbing, running, etc. He has no fear when it comes to physical challenges.

Recently, however, he has developed a fear of bugs. Hilarious. We will be walking outside, merrily jumping along, when all the sudden my tough little boy melts into a puddle of, "Mama, bug, bug, buuuuuuuug!" I can't help but laugh most of the time. He does really like butterflies though. He chased two today for almost 5 minutes, yelling something that sounded almost like the word butterfly.

Here's a picture of him playing in our tiny baby pool on the balcony, trying to beat the heat, when a gnat flew by his head. Priceless.