Saturday, August 29, 2009

Timmy Turns Two

Today was Tim's actual birthday, but it seems like we've been celebrating for a month! Between his party on Tuesday and presents sent from grandparents that have been arriving all month its been a long celebration. I can't believe two years have passed already! Here's some pics from his party and the balloons that won't die.


I finished making these cupcakes in the middle of the night after Timmy's accident. They look terrible because what I thought was gel icing to write with was really just liquid food coloring. It was imported from Germany so I couldn't read the packaging. Oh well, they tasted good!

Read his lips, "Choo, choo!"

These are the post-party balloons, or in Timmy-speak, "balooms, balooms!"



Thursday, August 27, 2009

Coke Cans and Bananas

The day Timmy broke his leg I had another classic China moment.

That morning before any leg breaking, I decided it was time to finally get our kitchen sink fixed. It has had a super slow leak (of super smelly ooze) for at least a few months that I have been ignoring because its just easier that way. I called Scott's HR comrade to make a call to our landlord who will in turn call our building management who will send a plumber to fix it.

The plumber, or at least that is what I thought he was supposed to be, showed up (at this point it is after Timmy jumped off the window seat), took the pipes apart, cleaned them out, used plumber's tape around the cracks and then asked the new Nanny (whose first day on the job it was) for something to prop up the pipe. She looked around the kitchen and picked up a spice jar, I think it was paprika, and I said no way! Her second choice was an empty coke can. At this point I was assuming this was a temporary fix and I was more concerned about the crying baby in my arms than the kitchen sink. Anyway, I guess the coke can worked and he left, but not before asking me for 5RMB (this is equal to about 70 or 80 cents) - weird.

Later that night, when we got back from the hospital I thought about what had taken place earlier and realized there was probably still an empty coke can holding up my kitchen drain pipes. Yep, a load-bearing can.



Monday, August 24, 2009

Poor Kid

So Timmy has been a crazy man lately and jumping off of anything he can climb on. Well today he jumped off of that ledge by his window (about 2' high) and fractured his Tibia in 2 places (he broke his leg). The kid's a trooper - he took a nap with his broken leg before Katie took him to the hospital, but woke up still crying and wouldn't walk on it. Katie did a good job of getting him to the hospital in a taxi with his broken leg before I could get there for them to put the cast on and take pictures of the xrays on the wall and the doctor putting the cast on. We'll see how it goes with living out here. If anyone has any ideas of how to attach wheels to his leg let me know...I need to figure out how to make this restless kid mobile again soon before he gets too stir-crazy!





Saturday, August 22, 2009

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

We took Timmy to the Science and Technology Museum today. I think we are spoiled for museums in other cities because we come from Chicago where all the museums are world-class. This one I think would have been a little better suited to maybe a 4 or 5 year old. The architecture of parts of it reminded me of the waterfront in Milwaukee near the art museum there.

Timmy did love watching a temporary exhibit they had where you could purchase your own little race car and watch it race around on a track. The second best attraction was not even an attraction at all, it was some kind of mystery yellow lifting machine thingy that Scott doesn't even know the proper name for. It was stashed in the corner under an escalator and Timmy thought it was the coolest.


Checking out the mystery machine and learning about pilot valves like a good little engineering student.

Watching the cars on the track.

There were fish in there under the floor.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Timmy, Timmy, Timmy

Today Timmy licked a taxi. Yes, I said licked. As in with his tongue. He was playing the try to lick Daddy game and then changed to the let me see what else I can lick game. Anyway, it was the inside of a taxi, I don't know if that is better or worse than the outside.

When asked what his name was, Timmy used to say Andy, now he says Titty. Yes Titty. My son named Titty. Hmmmmm.

And finally, I asked Timmy how old he was going to be and he said 2! I wonder if it was a coincidence or if he really understood the question. Oh well, he's repeated it since so I go with he knows!

Licking DaDa in the taxi. Gross.

Having a drink with Shaun and the kid whose wiener is hanging out after a hard morning of jumping.

Playing on a blow up castle slide outside a mall near our apartment.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ni Hao Kai-Lan & Uncle Andy Bike

Grandma Barb sent Timmy some birthday presents including a few Ni Hao Kai-Lan videos. Kai-Lan is a cartoon on Nickelodeon similar to Dora the Explorer how she teaches Spanish words, but Kai-Lan teaches Mandarin. One episode (that Timmy l-o-v-e-s), is Kai-Lan Goes To China. Apparently she lives in California normally. Timmy keeps talking about the airplane that Kai-Lan flies in to get to China and Kai-Lan's grandpa, Yeh-yeh. He even imitates the baby panda that is afraid of a boat. He walks around whining and saying, "Baby." I ask him if the baby is afraid and he stops whining and says, "Yeah." He plays peek-a-boo with the panda on the TV as well. Hilarious.


We've been trying to teach Timmy to say his name when asked. The other morning I asked him what his name was, and his response was, "Andy." I said, "Your name is Andy?" He said, "Yeah, Andy Bike." Last night when we were praying with Timmy and thanking God for grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles. When we said each family member's name, Timmy would repeat it. When we got to Uncle Andy, he said, "Andy Bike." So I guess that's your new name Andy Bike.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Choo, Choo and stuff.

So Mrs. Zhang, our nanny has quit. Well actually she just moved back to her home town, because her father has lung cancer. I'm more than a little upset. She was the one thing that I genuinely loved about life here. She was trustworthy and Timmy loves her. Now we start the search for a new helper.

In other events, it has rained almost every day for at least three weeks. If its not raining, its threatening to rain so you can't really enjoy being outside because you always think its about to rain, or it just rained and everything is wet and muddy. Despite all the rain, we didn't get hit with any extra from the typhoon-turned-tropical storm that annihilated Taiwan and the south eastern Chinese coast. It was supposed to come, but we just really got a lot of humidity, like we didn't have enough already.

Timmy is obsessed with trains these days. I am attempting to avoid letting him know about Thomas the train. For now, he just has a wooden train from IKEA and some stickers, hopefully he won't learn the difference and just be happy with any kind of train. He talks about choo, choos endlessly. We tuck the trains into bed with him every night and he gives them kisses.

Choo, Choo!

Our little monkey.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Actual Events and Conversations From Today:

Thursday, August 6th.

Timmy: brings Katie a pair of underwear
Katie: tries to put it on Timmy's naked butt
Timmy: screams in agony as if he is dying and says no, no, no
Katie: asks Timmy if he wants to wear it
Timmy: says yeah
Katie: tries to put it on again
Timmy: screams in agony and throws himself on floor
Katie: asks Timmy if he wants to wear it
Timmy: says yeah
Katie: tries to put it on again
Timmy: screams in agony and says no, no, no
Katie: gives up, he wears no underwear.

Later the same day...

Katie: tells Timmy its time for a nap, places said child in his bed
Timmy: screams in agony
Katie: says goodnight
Timmy: stands up and says Pee, Pee
Katie: asks him if he needs to go Pee, Pee
Timmy: says yeah
Katie: takes Timmy to bathroom, removes pants and diaper
Timmy: sits on potty and says night, night
Katie: asks Timmy if he wants to go night, night
Timmy: yeah
Katie: re-dresses Timmy and takes him back to bed
Timmy: says MaMa, Pee, Pee
Katie: asks do you have to go Pee, Pee
Timmy: Yeah
Katie: asks, for real this time?
Timmy: Yeah
Katie: undresses Timmy and takes him to the potty
Timmy: sits on potty again and says night, night
Katie: do you want to go night, night?
Timmy: Yeah
Katie: re-dresses Timmy and takes him back to bed
Timmy: cries and says Pee, Pee.
Katie: no response
Timmy: falls asleep

Praise God for nap time.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Homesick :(

I think the long summer is starting to get to all of us. Scott and I have been feeling homesick - mostly induced by watching the movie Cars too much. It is so utterly American that it makes us long for a summer road trip, or camping, or anything outdoors and not Chinese! I've been dying for some Lou Malnati's. Chinese Papa John's pizza just doesn't do it for me.

The worst I think was when Timmy went into a closet, grabbed a suitcase and starting saying, "Home, home, home." It was so cute and super sad all at once. Instead of going home, we settled for a Skype call with Grandma B that morning. He seemed to be satisfied with that. For now we will continue on the long road of potty training, and look longingly forward to the end of September and the visitors it will bring! Shout out to Jim, Cindy and Lauren, we can't wait for you guys to come!