Cast Off and Back to China

Timmy and I are leaving to go back "home" to Shanghai tomorrow morning! Its exciting though because Scott's parents are coming with us to go on vacation. First we're headed to Beijing Monday morning for a whirlwind three day tour of the sites. Then its back to Shanghai and our friend Lauren comes to visit as well. We'll be giving everyone the tourist experience of our city for a few days. And the grand finalle next Saturday we escape to the Philippines during the week long National holiday estravaganza that will be taking place throughout China. Stay tuned for pictures and updates.

In the meantime Timmy got his cast off today!!! He's not really walking on it much yet, and it looks pretty atrophied, but the doctor said he's healing fine. Hopefully he'll get his confidence back quick and start walking more. We're just thankful for the surprise trip home, even if it was for a bummer of a reason.

We Miss DaDa!

So the trade-off for coming back to the US to let Timmy's leg heal in the comfort of America was that we have to spend three weeks without Scott. I can tell that Timmy misses him because almost everyday he talks about how we took DaDa to the airport. The good thing is, he has plenty of other boys to step in and do boy things in Scott's absence. Thanks guys.

Uncle Gary

Uncle Steve

Yeh-Yeh (Grandpa Jim)

Baby Evie

Since we were coming back to the US on an unplanned trip, we decided to surprise our close friends who just had their first baby on Timmy's birthday. We stopped by Steve and Sarah's house on Thursday after Scott worked to meet the new baby and surprise her parents. The surprise was a total success. The baby is beautiful and has more hair on her little head than I have ever seen before. Timmy loves baby Evie too and has been talking about her ever since we left.

Home Again

Scott, Timmy and I are in Chicago! It was a last minute decision to spend the time Timmy has to wear a cast in a country that would be less stressful for all of us. So far the jet lag has been exhausting. Tonight for example, I went to sleep at 10 only to wake up at 11:30 because Timmy was not sleepy anymore. So we are watching Noggin and eating snacks. Hopefully this will be the last night of the middle of the night playtimes. And hopefully tomorrow Timmy will start eating actual meals, so far he's been eating just the smallest amount of miscellaneous snacks.

We only told our parents that we were coming in an effort to surprise our good friends Steve and Sarah who just had their first baby on Timmy's birthday. We stopped by their house on Thursday evening to surprise them and meet baby Evie. Adorable.

All in all its really good to be home again. Scott flies back to Shanghai on Tuesday to get back to work. Timmy and I will be staying through the 26th and then flying back to begin a two week vacation with Scott's parents and Lauren to Beijing and Cebu, Philippines.

Moon Cakes and Eggs

Its that time of year again, Moon Day is approaching, excuse me, Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon Day just sounds more fun to me. The holiday isn't actually until the first week of October this year, but the grocery store is overflowing with Moon Cakes of all varieties, most of which seem to have some type of meat involved. Yuck. Although this year I have noticed ads from Starbucks, Hagen Daaz and DQ that show more delicious looking ones involving ice cream and chocolate. Unfortunately these also seem to be priced way out of my price range, as in 500RMB for 4 tiny individual cakes - that's about $72. Yikes.

In other grocery store hilarity, it never ceases to amaze me what lengths Chinese people will go to to save a buck. Apparently if you go to the grocery store in the early morning eggs are on sale. Now being from the US, I'm used to buying eggs in cartons that are stored in a refrigerated case. Not so in China. Eggs are stored on the shelf and the ones that go on sale are purchased out of a big bin and placed into an impossibly thin plastic bag. I have then seen people take said plastic bag, filled with at least two dozen loose eggs mind you, in their hands and get on an electric bike to go home. Disaster waiting to happen if you ask me. I always buy my eggs in the carton even though I'm sure its twice as expensive, just so I don't break them all before I even leave the store. Not to mention, I would never wait in line as long as some of these people seem to just to save a few kui. I guess I'm an egg snob.

Mooncakes by the truckload.

The egg line.