June update

After weeks of a) insanely packing, b)moving across the world, c)moving into a place w/o internet, d)getting internet but insanely unpacking, e)road tripping, f) insanely unpacking some more, I have decided I must put off no longer writing an update. After all, it's been just over a month since that time I last wrote (sad for all, I know), and we've had so many great American experiences since then.

I must share this one story from leaving Nanjing:

The Great, Forgetful, Escape:
The Wednesday before our flight, Chad's coworkers picked us up from our apartment and loaded us into their company van. By the time we were in sight of the train station across town, I realized I did not have my purse--containing all our Chinese money intended to get us through the week, my phone with all the minutes we would need through the week, and my camera--but had left it locked in the apartment with our keys. There was no time to return to get the purse since we would for sure miss our train and our landlord wouldn't be able to meet us until late anyhow. Chad had the good idea to just go forward and onward, and hopefully someone could ship us our purse. So we loaded the train successfully, poor Chad and his coworker hauling over 200 lbs of suitcases plus more poundage of overstuffed backpacks, a stroller, and a play pen. I was in charge of Clara, who was in charge of her stuffed bear and purse. I obviously had no purse of my own to protect.

With less than a couple minutes of calling time and about 6 texts left on his phone, Chad was able to arrange for a friend from our branch to meet our landlord's husband that evening at our apartment and retrieve my purse. Since we had thankfully arranged to spend one day in Shanghai with our friends before the day we flew out, the plan was for our branch friend to mail our purse to us the next day using same-day mailing. Even though some aspects of this train ride were less stressful than other rides had been, it was difficult for me to relax with my purse still in Nanjing.

At the Shanghai station, without money to pay for assistance, Chad made two trips hauling our luggage to our waiting friend Britney who came to help pick us up. Clara and I waited by half the luggage while Chad took the first half to Britney, and we went with him for the second load, Chad trying not to die from over-exhaustion. Luckily, Britney brought enough money to spot us for the fare to her apartment. We were able to hire an uncertified, self-employed van driver for all of us and our effects. We were able to get a cheaper deal than paying for two taxis would've cost, when if we had tried to hire something like this when we first arrived 8 months prior, we would've had no idea what things cost and could've easily been suaded to pay maybe 400% more.

When we got to Jake and Britney's apartment, me still trying to relax despite my purse situation being unresolved, Chad used Brit's phone to call our branch president's wife (the self-proclaimed Nanjing info desk) to ask about same-day mailing options. His side of the phone conversation went like this: "Oh, there is NO same day mailing? Oh, you're coming to Shanghai tomorrow? Oh, you CAN?!" In the end, the next morning she met our other friend had who picked up our purse that night with our landlord's husband and brought it with her on the train to Shanghai personally. Chad met her at the station, spotted by Britney again just to travel there. Everything was just how I had expected it to be within my purse. I could finally fully relax. We enjoyed two nights on the town with Jake and Brit before our flight, including a bizarre restaurant where the bathroom doors opened from the "hinge" side instead of the door handle side and there were no lights inside except for one spotlight on each table.

Chad made a deal for the same van driver to pick us up and take us to the airport Friday. It rained on us all the way there like it rained on us our very first day in Shanghai. This time, however, we had a comfortable ride all together in one vehicle instead of spread out from all our luggage in multiple taxis. We were not charged extra for going slightly overweight on most of our luggage, and we had a stress-free experience at the airport. Everything went smoothly after my purse, my Solomon's strength apparently, was back in my possession. We watched a group pass out lucky tea eggs to eat before the flight, which struck me as particularly Chinese and something I wouldn't commonly see anymore after that point.

The flight home:
Luckily we got an extra seat on the plane so the three of us could all have our own chair in our very own little row. Clara was mostly happy to play with her new Disney dalmatian toys and new books all the 10 1/2 hours back to America, with a few fits of crying here and there. At one point she stood on the arm of our chair and belted "I love to see the temple" to the row behind us. The Benadryll never knocked her out for more than about 30 minutes, so Chad and I were really wiped out by the time we landed. In San Fransisco things again went smoothly, even though we had to regather all our luggage to go through customs there before boarding our next flight. Clara didn't sleep on this flight either until we landed on the runway in LA and drove around for 15 minutes before parking.

AMERICA:
Two key things stood out to me after arriving in the American airports. One was that as I noticed people sitting around on the floors in corners or against walls, I expected them to be homeless or deformed and begging for money, and was always a little surprised to discover they were just people charging their laptops who would've thought it strange if I tossed them a coin. The other was that the diversity of people around us, especially in LA, was so beautiful and rich to my eyes I wanted to stare at everyone like a Chinese staring at anyone else not Chinese.

We were all anxious and grateful to see mom pull up and offer to take us away, a total rewind from her dropping us off there in the same truck 8 months ago. We marveled at the wide open land with so many more vibrant colors than the brown-tinged and hazy look of the big Chinese cities. We noticed that, thought the amount of traffic in LA was comparable to Shanghai's the morning we left, all the cars were big, bulky, new, and beautiful, instead of narrow, old, dull, honking, and adorned with Hello Kitties, teddy bears, or good fortune charms. We thought Valencia the most beautiful place our eyes had ever beheld with the bright blue sky, the rolling hills and the bright green grasses and growth. All the homes and and even the stores matched each other. The roads were wide. People followed the laws of the road and the lights. And most stunning of all was the palace of beauty that is mom and dad's town house. Clara kept lying face-first on the carpet and rolling around on it gleefully. The showers and toilets and counter tops were the most beautiful things I had used in so long, it actually makes me emotional when I think about it, which is ridiculous I know. Hot water that maintains it's temperature instead of scalding you then freezing you and doesn't spread over the entire bathroom, for example, is worth rejoicing about. Clara got a real bath instead of having to shower. I thought I would have trouble sleeping that first night, but then as I started climbing in bed I knew at once that I would have NO trouble; this was the softest, puffiest thing to ever envelop me in the last year. I think I woke up once early in the morning, but was able to go right back to sleep. Clara and Chad also slept through the night.

Overdue Reunions:
We were really exhausted the next few days, but we still never had any trouble sleeping at night. It was much easier to turn around this time. Every time Clara saw grandma or grandpa she would say hi to them. If they left she would wonder where they went and call their names. After two days we were in Vegas, where Clara was again happy to see the family we had spoken of or seen on the computer for so long without actually seeing. She warmed up quickly to her other set of grandparents as well, and especially the dog. Once when Donna put their dog out she said, "Dog?" and Donna said, "I put the dog outside," and Clara thought for a moment and said, "I miss it!" It startled Donna so much to hear Clara express herself like that that she melted like butter and let the dog back inside that instant. Again I wanted to rejoice in the shower. Again I wanted to rejoice when I didn't wake up with bed sores from sleeping on a wooden plank with a blanket over it.

Our new home:
Chad drove our bed out to Queen Creek, Arizona on Tuesday to start work Wednesday, and I stayed in Vegas another day. Mom came and got me Thursday, and Friday we drove a load of our stuff out to Queen Creek to meet Chad. We are pleased and spoiled to live in a brand new complex with a pool and a washer/drier in our apartment and two bathrooms and two bedrooms and a lovely kitchen and open living room area. Clara and I can walk to Wal-mart the bank and the library across the street, which is important since Chad uses the car every day so far. Chad enjoys the challenge and game-aspect tactics of getting people to buy pest control, despite the long hours Monday-Saturday laboring in the heat and mostly being rejected.

More overdue reunions:
Clara and I had a week to sort through things, then Mother's Day weekend Chad's parents drove out all the stuff we had in Henderson. I had another week to sort out all that stuff before Mom and Dad brought us the rest of our stuff the following weekend. Mom and Dad took Clara and I back to Valencia that weekend. Chad had a week of focusing on work--with one day off to fly to Vegas for his mom's graduation with an RN degree--while Mom took Clara and I to visit Grandma Leah, Alex and Nicole, and Paul and Robin for the week. We also visited with Cami and with Sally, who took Clara's almost-2-year-pics. What talent Sally has! I was anxious to see Grandma again and see Fillmore and be on the I-15 as I had yearned for so long. Wide, open, natural spaces. Ahhhh.

Two memorable things, besides all the enjoyable showers and the beautiful colors of the land, were when Clara saw the horses on Grandma's farm and exclaimed "Kangaroos!!!" and when an actual conversation unfolded in the sweet toddler voices of Johnny and Clara, who played cute together and got along for the most part during the visit: "Hi Johnny." "Hi Clara." "Here you go," (handing him a toy house). "Thank you." It was simple, yet remarkable.

Proud to be an American:
I noticed a week into arriving in the states, home sweet--there's no place like--home, that I no longer woke up coughing with achy lungs every morning, nor did Clara, and that my eyes, which had started acting infected and pussy before we left Asia, cleared right up. We have spent the first few weeks back introducing things to Clara like cereal with milk, chocolate milk, cheesy tortillas, hot dogs, and popsicles, and also trying to get her to sleep willingly in her toddler bed (aaacckkk!) I cut Chad's hair for the first time in a long time, and Clara's for the first time ever just to even out the back. I ended up layering up the front though because the back hairs were so short when cut to fall at the same length as the longer front hairs that I didn't think it looked very balanced. Chad didn't get any sales for two days after I cut his hair, so his must have not been that great either.

I have loved Loved LOVED feeling like I'm back in my groove cooking and cleaning and taking care of our apartment. It has been so fun and so enjoyable, maybe because our home is new, maybe because it's quality American made, maybe because it's filled with American amenities and all my stuff I like to have around. Maybe because it's not humid and the air isn't filled with stink and spores. I can't pinpoint what it is, but I love it all. Let it be written, I love cleaning my new toilets!!!! I love talking to people on the phone. I love high-speed internet with no blocks to sites. I love the AZ humid-free heat. I love our a/c and ceiling fan even more! I love my porch! I love my ice maker and American soy milk! I love the flowers! (In Nanjing we saw more cabbage than flowers in landscaping attempts). And I always thought AZ was so colorless as a kid since there are more rocks than grass here. Oh how wrong I was. Ok, so I don't love all the AZ bugs, so there's one thing I don't love.

How big is this baby, when is he due, and what's his name?
I still have quite a few boxes to sort through and repack, but our biggest and most recent pile from Riverside storage is shrinking. Lots of stuff we don't even want to unpack since we want to be pretty much packed and ready by the time the baby comes, which could be sooner than we thought. I am trying to take it more easy and go slow and careful since I've been achy and having semi-painful to painful contractions and cramps on a pretty much consistent basis. On top of that, last week at my 30 wk appt with our new doc our baby was measuring on ave 33.1 wks. Most noteworthy, his head and torso are measuring 34 wks. Truthfully, our boy comes by big genes rightly, just from looking at both his grandpas, but even Clara who measured big in the womb and has always had a large percentile head was not THAT big in utero and was only ave. at birth. In a way it is kind of relieving to me to hear that I haven't been crazy feeling so big this time around and feeling like I'm already as big and achy as I was at with Clara when I was ready to pop. I really do have a big boy in there.

The ultra sound tech was really funny with remarks about how before she even started the ultrasound she was thinking my belly looked bigger than a 30 wk belly and then how she kept remeasuring the baby's head to see if it would ever measure smaller, and how his bottom really was way up there in my ribs and how she had no idea what to make of my real due date since this baby was definitely not measuring like a 30 weeker, so she was grateful that decision was left up to the doc. She even asked what our diet was like in China. Chad "joked" later to me that the Chinese gov, in attempt to build a bigger generation of Chinese, has been putting hormones and steroids in the food. Ha.

The doc wants another ultrasound in the coming weeks to assess growth and more accurately calculate our due date at a later time.

A glimpse at the future:
Chad's last day of work here will be August 14th. He'll take a week to drive up with my dad to MI and move in for his math review on the 22nd. Mom and I and the kids will fly out to East Lansing that same week and meet him and dad there. The only other trip we have planned is the Sevey reunion the first week of July. Other than that, I'm not going far from my apartment with all the crazy contractions I've been having. Chad and I are still indecisive about a name . . .

Ah, it's so good to be home. I'm Proud to be an American, and to live in the land of the free.

1 week to go!!!!

Well, a week from now we will be recovering from jet lag in LA. Home, sweet home, we can almost feel it now. We've started to have a few hot and humid days here already where Clara goes outside and comes home with hair like Annie. This weather is a signal to me that it is good timing to get outta here.

I have 2 suitcases packed and weighed. I am throwing away things daily and donating a bunch of stuff to other people in the next few days, so the apartment is getting emptied and organized gradually but nicely. Today is my last day of tutoring work and Monday is Chad's last day of pretend work. Tuesday we meet up with our friends--that we've enjoyed many a play date with--for lunch and bequeathing all rest of the things we are not packing with us or throwing out, like rice and soy sauce, which I am literally sick of. (Please never offer to take us out for Chinese). We have our exit interview, I don't know what else to call it, with our landlord on Tuesday night. Then we try not to lock ourselves out until Wednesday when we leave on our train to Shanghai. We hang with our friends in Shanghai Thursday and fly home Friday morning and arrive in LA an hour earlier. I am looking forward to spending half the flight running back and forth to the tiny airplane cubicle potty.

I imagine we’ll have a stressful first week home, unfortunately, with being exhausted and flipped around time wise, and with trying to travel every two days until we finally move into our summer Arizona apartment the Tuesday after we get home. I think we'll feel pretty frazzled, but hopefully I'll be able to keep all in perspective and despite all the chaos just be happy I'm finally home in the states. We’re excited to be extremely close to family for the summer. We’re planning on having our boy in Arizona. Chad may have to drive ahead to Michigan before the rest of the family for a math review before classes officially start in September.

Amidst moving plans, are family is doing well. My stomach must have turned into elastic with my first pregnancy, since I feel like I already look fully term compared to last time. Even so, some days it feels like the baby's trying to press my stomach out further with all his might, or painfully shoot my belly button to Timbuktu, or punch my uterus up higher, especially when Clara's riding on it. He always tries to punch her off of sitting on him when I hold her there. I think it's about time I don't hold her on my belly anymore.

We are excited to see you all in the coming months, some of you in the coming week!

Where to go for grad school

The tides have changed many a times. It is good to know where we are going to be for school after weeks of flopping between favoring AZ, then MI, then AZ, and then . . . MI.

The good thing is that Chad finds the specialty at MSU more interesting than ASU's specialty (what a waste to go to a school that can't offer you what you most want to research, right?). On the other hand, we are going to have to live where everything freezes for half the year. On the bright side, in MI people believe in central heating. Unfortunately, even the thought of snow depresses me. However, East Lansing is at a lower latitude than Minnesota and North Dakota, so hopefully our stories won't be as bad as Hanna's April snow blizzards and Alex's snow trench mission tales. On the down side, we have to be far from family, and road trips are pretty much going to disappear for us for awhile--sad. On the up side, MI gives lengthy winter, spring, summer, and fall breaks during which time we can take advantage of the cheap direct flights from Lansing to Vegas. (These flights are so cheap because Vegas subsidizes passengers they think are on their way to gamble away their wintry sorrows). So there you have it.

East Lansing is the city home of the university. We will probably live outside of that city, though. There are several small cities around the university town with viable options of places to live for us. Like getting out of a student ward, or getting out of Provo, we will probably enjoy living outside of East Lansing, especially considering the notorious student/community rivalries which have led to violent outbreaks between MSU students and the locals.

Springtime play dates for Clara

Above are some pictures of Clara on April Fools' Day, playing at a river park on a play date with friends Leo and Charis. The park is next to a section of the old Nanjing city wall. Crazy that much of the old city wall still exists around the city. Nanjing has of course spread ridiculously beyond the old city limits. Notice Clara blowing bubbles with her lips on the bubble wand. Clara, as she always has, LOVES bubbles!
Above and below are some pictures of Clara playing peekaboo with me around her favorite statue of a "grandpa" on campus, on April 10th. The "grandpa" is really an old wise sage. There is a grassy area here on campus with several statues. Chinese people come here for graduation shots and dramatic poses. (They are always taking pics of themselves on their phones, and love to have self-portrait dramatic shots). Clara and I came to take a few fun pictures ourselves today--and even got in a few dramatic poses--since I feel like I've had such dark indoor pictures of her all winter.Below is Clara today at a park for another play date comfortably sitting on a bench. She loved finding benches to sit on. This is a more serene moment prior to a run-in we had with some overly-interested fans. When we ran into a mob of older ladies and gentlemen shortly after this photo, all of whom went crazy over Clara and her friend Leo, Clara started screaming, crying and saying, "I touch you/no touch you" over and over. She gets her nouns mixed up and means, "You touched me, don't touch me." We ran away, my friend Liz prying fingers from off her son in the process.
Afterward Liz commented how proud she was of Clara's spunk to stand up for herself and not let people touch her when she doesn't like it. (Liz witnessed this same reaction from Clara a few times that day as we were out in public--Clara sees a stranger clapping at her or reaching to her while getting hysterically gaga over her, and immediately recoils now, and if they touch her she says very loud and disapprovingly, "I touch you" over and over while shaking her head and patting the place she was touched.

Clara has become more defensive as of late, and maybe she's just fed up, or maybe it's because they keep feeling her hands and arms now that she isn't wearing her winter coat outdoors anymore. I always try moving Clara away as quickly as possible from these people that grab her and squeeze her, though I'm sure that looks rude to them. They glare at me and I point to the sun and indicate the heat, even the perspiration on my forehead. Only once did a woman nod and proceed to take one layer off the baby she was nannying, which delighted me because it was the last thing I expected her to do. All the other times this has happened I don't think the people believe I make a valid point.

The Chinese really can be too touchy, and don't often respect the space of babies. True, they appreciate the miracle of a baby (unless it's unborn and unwanted or deformed, of course) and don't take babies for granted, but their behavior has also caused Clara to learn the first step of self defense: shout out that attention is unwanted. People just don't get that if they don't treat her with respect and try forcing her in any way, she is going to have a major problem with them. As my friend was saying to me, it's a healthy natural response for her to stick up for herself. I don't think she learned this response anywhere, I think it must be genetics. What can I say, I don't like to be messed with either.

Happy Easter/General Conference!

Clara got to color Easter eggs with another nursery baby during the morning session of conference we watched with our branch for church Easter morning (conf weekend is always a week late out here). Clara right away decided it was fun to bang two hard boiled eggs together and then poke her finger in the egg where the shell cracked off. During our lunch break between sessions, the kids got to hunt for the eggs they colored in the exercise room of the hotel where we meet. Clara got so excited when she found her first egg, lifted it way in the air and sad, "I GOT it!" She really did "get" right away the concept of looking for eggs, all of which she handed over to mommy immediately so she could look for more. We ate them during the second session and brought home one for a pic to commemorate the whole event.
Also pictured is Clara with her Easter spoils. We got her a small package of large marshmallows, which she absolutely loves and were the first thing she pulled out of her ever-so-fancy "Easter" shopping bag "basket." Every time I asked her to look at the camera or take another present out of her "basket," she would quickly stuff not one, but two more marshmallows in her mouth before complying.

Jungle Book and, "Potty, I say please!"

Clara now loves her Easter jungle book movie. She asked to watch Jungle Book the other day by describing it, “with the snake, and the bear, and the tiger, and the doo-dute-doo,” (from the monkey song scat). The day it became her favorite, she kept referring to the "cute boy" on the screen and saying she was a "cute girl," and then I found her sleeping Mogli-style in her crib that night. She now prefers to go to bed without any clothes on at all, so we're working on that.


Also, Clara has been frequently begging us to let her go potty ("Potty, I say please!") and tries pulling up her shirt and removing her pants, but being the mother of the year, I always say, “just go in your diaper.” I am willing to get her a little potty she can sit herself on to her heart’s content once we settle down in AZ, but not right now before we move, as I know she doesn’t know what to do there and just wants to sit on the toilet like mom and dad. I feel too pregnant to indulge her potty fancies by balancing her over the toilet, though Chad has helped her sit over the potty twice, which has made her so incredibly happy. She beamed a happy grin the entire time.

Blue or pink? Hmmm . . .

Well, we successfully saw the doctor today. The nurse listened for the heartbeat with the Doppler and told us our baby is an active child. Then we got an ultrasound. And we saw the sweet little face, hands, toes, beating heart, and the head and spine and bottom and all the jabbing movements from the baby that I was simultaneously feeling. As we looked at the lower half, the technician asked Clara if she wanted a baby brother or sister. After Chad and I saw an extra part we didn't think looked familiar from the time we did Clara's ultrasound, the nurse gave us our hint. She said, pointing to Chad, "The baby looks like you."

Chad, thinking she may have pointed to Clara, asked for some clarification. Then the technician checked with her coworker if it was okay to tell foreigners gender, to which her coworker replied, "Oh yeah, foreigners are fine." Before we left, she said to Chad, "Not like her," (pointing to Clara); "like you," (pointing to Chad). We were both pretty sure we saw the same verdict for ourselves. As we were leaving, the nurses were opening talking amongst themselves about how cute it was that we were having a boy and we would have one girl and one boy, and all hush hush barriers seemed to have disappeared.

That's another interesting Chinese tidbit for you; when you go to the doctor or the hospital, there is a lack of privacy of your hospital or health records or why you're in the hospital. This is why the nurses were talking openly about the gender of our child in front of us and other patients afterward. We also had several nurses walking in and out of our ultrasound, each stopping to observe as they cared to. If you're being treated in a open area or walkway, or even a room with windows, other people might just gather around to see what's wrong with you or even check out your x-rays if they're interested, and not think twice about their behavior invading your privacy or anything.

So, it looks like we're providing a little buddy for Johnny and William to not feel so outnumbered on the Sevey side, and we're making the grandchildren gender tallies even on the Lee side!

I have been smiling to myself all day when thinking about my little boy soon to come. I have more faith in him being a better nurser than Clara was since I hear boys tend to nurse better than girls, and if his appetite reflects mine this pregnancy, he already has a heartier appetite than Clara did in utero. The one thing I'm disappointed to learn is that I'm just as sick with my girls as I am with my boys, so far.

I've said many times that one of the convenient things about having a girl the second time around would be that we already have all the clothes and accessories, but we are excited that we'll get to shop for all new clothes for our boy. I think Clara is getting pretty possessive of pink things anyway to share with a sister right now. She has started requesting only pink blankets to cuddle with on the couch, or only her pink washcloths to use in the shower, for example.

We brought two of Clara's towels, one green and one pink, with us to China. This week she has requested only the pink one after showers. Tonight, however, the pink one was still drying on the line when we showered her. Chad tried to hide the green towel when he got her out of the shower and I just set her into it backwards and wrapped up the ends around her quickly so she wouldn't see anything, but after two seconds in the towel she got this worried look on her face and asked, "pink?" and yanked off her hood to examine it. She immediately started twisting and pulling the towel away from her from all sides and crying, "pink, pink, pink" until Chad somehow managed to finish using it on her.

Ah, the girly moments are now more precious for me to cherish. Active though our little boy may already be, we wonder how emotional his temperament will be. I, naturally, hope that all my children will turn out as rational and even-tempered as Chad.

So there's our news!

Girl or boy?

I have been feeling very stretched out, my belly button hurts from being inverted, and the baby has been kicking a ton.

We go to the doc on Saturday to see if they'll tell us gender, since legally they're not supposed to but we've heard they'll give hints to foreigners without saying "you are have a ___." Hopefully we have a technician willing to humor us. Hopefully she gets her noun right when she says "boy" or "girl" in English. We'll see if we can figure it out for ourselves on the screen. If not, I guess we'll be finding out the good ol' fashioned way come August. Wish us luck!

You have about 42 more hours to muse on whether or not we'll uphold the Sevey tradition of having 2 girls in a row first. If so, pressure's on for Alex and Jason to follow suit one day, I guess.

We have a couple girl and boy names we're tossing around, I'm anxious to see which ones our baby will qualify for.

"Trash" . . . April Fools!

Clara has been finding opportunities to throw away trash, and always delightfully says, "trash, trash, trash . . ." as she smilingly throws something away. Usually she just throws away a tissue after she "uses" it, or little bits of paper she may find. However, yesterday I heard her padding off to the trash can and saying, "trash," and I wondered to myself what she was throwing away. "I'll check in a minute," I thought.

It wasn't until after I had put Clara down for her nap and went into the bathroom later when my gaze caught the trash can colorfully filled with the bills from my wallet! I'll have to teach Clara that money doesn't grow on trees, or maybe just not let her play in my wallet anymore.

Moral of the story: If you ever hear a baby throw something away, make sure you check immediately to see if what they tossed was indeed trash!

Shanghai on business

Monday-Wednesday this week, Clara and I got to join Chad for a business conference in Shanghai. Monday we traveled by train and checked into our hotel. Clara and I had naps while Chad was gone until dinner. Our friend Jake came to see us for dinner that night. Tuesday Chad was gone all day and Clara and I went on a long walk and found a grocery market to buy lunch snacks. We walked all the way back, depleted, and had lunch and naps in our room. Chad got back as we finished our dinner in the hotel cafe. Wednesday Clara and I got to play around the hotel grounds and climb lots of steps and watch a group of women practicing their sword-dancing routine outside.

Chad checked us out at 1 and brought us to the hotel of his conference for the remainder of the afternoon until time to head back to the train station. I have never felt so under dressed as I did walking around that luxurious, magnificent hotel in my jeans and scroungy tennis shoes that have walked all over China. Clara and I enjoyed walking and slipping around on the marble floors, riding motion-censored escalators, gazing at water fountains, and sitting in plush chairs. There was lots to see.

When we met up with Chad, I went to use the restroom. Everything was so luxuriant in there as well. I found myself, flit, float, and indeed gracefully fly from the automated sink to the paper towel dispenser. (Haven't seen paper towels in months). I turned around and saw the vanity and since I had nothing to primp but needed to blow my nose anyway, I took the opportunity to sit on the puffy stool and blow my nose in front of the mirror before leaving. Outside, I told Chad that I guess enough money can buy my will. If we got to stay in hotels like that for the rest of my life, I could live in Shanghai. I don't know what it takes to buy Clara's will; I think she's more stubborn than me sometimes.

On our way to the station, we had BK for dinner and got donuts to go. On the train we ate donuts and freshly popped popcorn they were selling, though it tasted like a weird combo of kettle and something else. We felt very American with all our American eating habits fitting the stereotypes that night. We never eat fast food, except every chance we get!

Clara and Chad ran up and down the aisles the majority of the way home. After getting off the train, Clara and I were walking down some crowded steps when I saw my husband flying to his death on his slick dress shoes down the luggage slide to the side of the stairs, our suitcase pulling him in front. (Instead of elevators and escalators, the stations have slides adjacent to the steps to HELP you wheel your luggage down). Thankfully, our German friend we met on the train--who incidentally rescued all Clara's necklaces from down our train seat--grabbed Chad's sleeve and saved him from certain catastrophe.

In the taxi line, most people were waiting patiently in line, but a few vagabonds tried cutting in front of me. I gestured to the back of the line and objected with some vocals. The three looked at me like I was a rock, and weren't about to move until I grabbed one of the mens' sleeves and yanked--which seemed to snap him out of his "I don't care about you and I'm going to ignore you" mode--and Chad started talking to them too, in addition to a couple others standing nearby. The men stepped back finally. l think my behavior probably embarrassed a nearby white fellow, but someone has got to keep people from cutting; the Chinese don't like to bring attention to themselves by calling someone else on cutting so it's usually up to me. If I didn't do it, believe me, experience has taught me that everyone else would've started cutting, too. Gall, wish I had pepper spray sometimes to jerk jerks out of their stupors. Naw, it was all in good fun.

Clara: 20 months and counting

Clara has been a mostly happy girl lately, though she likes to assert her own ideas and her independence frequently. She has been doing Heidi-laughs a lot lately, like her cousin. The never-ending, fast giggle.

Clara loves playing with markers and is a good helper when I start to put them away: she starts singing the "Clean Up" song and helping.

A couple times she has dressed for shopping like Mommy by wearing shopping bags and her purses around the house:
At the beginning of the month I dropped an apple I was washing over the sink and Clara asked from the table, "You ok?" How nice, as I looked back at her sincere face watching me, I felt like I had an adult there checking on me. I guess whenever she is playing and something drops or crashes loudly my first response is always to ask Clara, "Are you ok?"

Clara has enjoyed watching the Pixar Shorts movie. She loves all the little stories and the characters and songs from them. She is learning to help us load DVDs and turn the TV on and off:Clara likes to sit on her stuffed animals in her crib and call them her "chair." She has also started shredding pages out of books she takes with her to bed. She likes to throw several different items in her bed before bedtime or naps these days. We sing less before leaving her to sleep, now, which is a relief.

Here is Clara wearing her Family Home Evening "I Am a Child of God" crown and playing with her decorated cardboard tube "trumpet." She likes to "toot" and "sing" into the trumpet:












At nights Clara likes to get out the foam puzzle pieces Chad exercises on and do sit-ups and push-ups with him; if he's not home on a given night, she still remembers in the evenings to get out the puzzles without him and do push-ups and then dance across them. She also likes to run around the house saying "fast fast fast fast," or "run run run."

Clara likes to wear her necklaces and purses around her neck, and sometimes when she wears all her jewelry she looks at it and says, "pretty." At church Clara generously decorated her toy motorcycle with all her bracelets. Nice feminine touch, I thought.

Clara wearing Daddy's shoes around the house, a favorite pastime:Last week she was looking into my hand mirror while sitting on my bed and aiming the mirror towards the doorway. Suddenly she said, "Jesus!" a few times while looking in the mirror. I still don't know what to make of that, but something looked like or reminded her of Jesus in the mirror I guess, though I have no idea what she was thinking or seeing.

At church last week, after I was done playing the sacrament hymn and sitting there at the keyboard, I heard and watched Clara do some interesting, loud yet ?reverent? things. After the bread prayer, Clara said a very loud "Amen." As soon as she received the bread she repeatedly asked Chad about the "water, water . . ." Then she laid back on her seat, crossed her legs, and flipped through the hymn book while loudly singing the hymns, for all we know it sounded like baby talk. After the second prayer, Clara kept repeating loudly, "Heavenly Father." It turns out, as Chad told me later, she was on the phone "calling" Heavenly Father. During the closing hymn, Clara sang at the top of her lungs until she was shouting by the end. I think Chad had to cut her off when the music ended.

Our neighbor got a rabbit and invited us to come play with her. Clara was so excited to feed the rabbit the carrot and grass and wanted to share her candy from our friend with the rabbit as well. The rabbit was very trusting of Clara and ate all the food she offered her. Clara was so gentle petting her and so well behaved walking around by the little rabbit. Clara didn't want to leave for a long time and then wanted to go back up to our neighbor's house the very next time we left our house:












We love our growing baby girl!

Dissertation and Daddy-daughter day

The rest of this week after returning from Shangahi, I finished regrading the English dissertation I did before; this time I was to do a final editing sweep after the author had made all the corrections from before. Good thing, I found lots I missed the first time around.

Saturday Chad and Clara had a daddy-daughter day going to a park within our friend's apartment complex and shopping while I was in and out. Clara loved the slide at the park and now is a little pro at climbing the steps and coming down. As they watched "Springtime with Roo" during the day, Clara started crying at the part where Roo sings a sad song and talks to his mom about what's making him sad. Usually, Clara gets worried and empathetic when she hears or sees babies cry, but here, she picked up on how sad Roo felt and that made her cry tears and say, "Roo sad," which she has repeated in the times we've watched it since. She gets truly sad at that part; as mom would say, "bless her little heart."

This was how I spent my Saturday: I graded the dissertation all morning, tutored Jasmine at 1, went to a branch "enrichment" baby shower for me and the two other expecting mothers in our branch at 3, came home for a little more editing before heading to my newest job of tutoring a group of 7th graders in English from 7-8:30, and finished the dissertation after returning home for good that night. Whew! What a terribly busy day! Chad makes the big bucks during the week, and I do on Saturdays I guess. For the next three Saturdays I'll have the two tutoring jobs.

As a side note, I had an absolute blast with the 6 kids I tutored that night, and it wasn't until I was home reading that the irony of it occurred to me. These kids are the same age as the ones I taught two years ago in Utah, but I had such an enjoyable, satisfying, time of-my life teaching experience with them this time around. I guess I have to admit that I do love teaching, I just don't love certain things that come with teaching in the public school system, like long hours, interfering parents, overlarge class sizes, ok ok no one wants to read my long list of negatives.

Sunday was a relaxing day of church and a ward potluck after, though Chad and I were both still exhausted from the day before. Sunday night after naps, Clara was throwing a huge tantrum as we prepared chili, corn on the cob, and watermelon for dinner. Finally, Clara took one bite of chili and exclaimed, smiling, "beans!" and proceeded to snarf them with her fingers and say in between bites "I love it!" or "I like it!" She picked up a piece of meat, examined it, tried it, and said "I like it!" about that, too. She snarfed the corn on the cob and watermelon happily as well.

As we were eating Clara kept smiling sweetly at me, kissing me, hugging my hand, kissing Chad, and saying "I like it!" and "I love you!" to us. Then she said "There's beans and corn and watermelon and a box!" I guess there was a box of cereal on the table that she wanted to recognize as well.

We were so grateful that our tantrumming daughter turned quick into a little sugar angel for dinner, and thanked me for the meal in her own special ways. Sometimes, life's like that.

To sing or Not to sing

Today was our primary program. I was in charge of the music end.

We had a practice the day before at the two boys' home up on the mountain, followed by bowling in their rec center, followed by pizza. Can I just say that I swept the bowling tournament? Yeah, against 5 children and one other adult. I did that with an extra bowling ball on my front, too. We had 5 children because 2 were visiting their grandparents from Canada. They kindly joined us for the songs for added manpower.

So today we had the 3 nursery babies join us for 2 songs at the end, "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and "The Chapel Doors." Clara, who always is the loudest, most energetic singer during singing time each week, refused to put down her book and sing with us. So Clara was up there being held by one of the nursery leaders, wearing a grumpy-pouty face while reading her book and ignoring everything else, while all the other children did a great job nailing the songs and singing out.

A couple of kind people later complimented Clara on singing loudly "I Love To See the Temple" from the aisle during an earlier song the nursery didn't join us for, technically. Her nursery leader later said to me, "We know she can sing all the songs," and one of our youth said about it, "It's ok, we hear Clara sing every week in Sacrament meeting," which is true; she likes to sing loudly from the hymnbook even if no one else is singing.

Ah, funny girl! At least she stayed up there during the songs, even if she didn't feel like singing at the time!

The Great Escape

You know it's time to switch from the play pen or crib to the bed when . . .

Sunday afternoon the whole family was taking a nap when, low and behold, our sliding glass door between our room and the porch opened. I instinctively opened my eyes and exhaled, "Chad!" and he sat up quickly with me to witness our little Clara fight threw the curtains and reveal herself to us. What the?

Chad opened up his arms wide to her and her face changed from apprehension to glee as she ran to him and played and laughed on our bed for awhile as we asked her about her nap and thanked her for coming to find us. When we first asked Clara to show us how she got out of her crib she flopped on the bed and did this:We got up to investigate shortly thereafter, and Clara wanted us to open the bedroom doors first. This must have been her path of choice until she realized she couldn't open her bedroom door. At least our rooms connect in the back through the porch as well so she had a plan B. We took pictures through the route she actually took through our room to the porch . . .. . . and from the porch into her room:When we entered the scene--her room--we found all her stuffed animals and blankets piled in one corner of the play pen, plus a few extra toys from around the room that apparently she had decided to throw in as well after escaping. At least she is a tidy fugitive.So at bedtime, I didn't put Clara in her crib with her pooh bear, who seems to be the biggest potential stepping stool.

Today for nap after our mountain excursion, Clara requested Pooh specifically and I gave in thinking maybe it'd be alright. After a half hour of her banging around in there and at one point crying (from no doubt falling on her way out of the crib), I heard our empty water jug banging against the glass door of Clara's room. I went to investigate and sure enough, she was red-handedly exiting her room with the water jug in tow, but this time had left a path of strewn stuffed animals and blankets leading to her empty play pen. Needless to say, I casually hid pooh while I gathered her things, remade her bed, and got her back in for real nap time as she told me all about how she "fell."Pooh has now officially outgrown the crib. Since Clara has too, but we have no other option for the time being, we are now anticipating the transition to sleeping in a toddler bed in Vegas, may Clara adapt willingly and smoothly.

Plum Blossom Festival

(Clara hugging a giant animal statue).

Today Clara and I went up the local mountain to the Ming Tomb that we visited back in September with Chad's class. We went with our friend Liz and her son Leo.

This week spring has finally burst through, and tomorrow is the last day of the Plum Blossom Festival on the mountain, which is not actually a festival but an appreciation of the time period when certain trees are in full spring bloom.

When we arrived at the tomb I told Clara we were going to see the animals and she shouted "rhinos!" and ran ran ran ahead excited. Rather random, but I guess we had better go back to the zoo sometime if that is her animal of choice. (Last night putting Clara to bed we had to sing versions of "the wheels on the bus" with the whales, the sharks, and the badgers on the bus. Funny girl).

So we enjoyed today, walking around the large stone animals built for the tomb again and also taking some side trails away from all the overzealous spectators, the ones that were over-excitedly spectating Clara and Leo instead of the sites.

Things got out of hand for a minute when a gradually growing crowd surrounded us and started bestowing the gifts: first candy and an orange, then an apple, then a drink, then a fan, and I kept helplessly, ineffectively communicating for people to keep their things and no thanks, but, fine, thank you, how kind. For some, like the woman who bought the fan, it's a manipulative maneuver to exchange something you may not want for a photo with your child. Especially when someone buys something for Clara, I do feel like they bought a free pass to take photos with/of her as long as Clara doesn't mind. Mostly people ask to hold her, frankly they ALL want to hold her for a picture and for her to smile and look at the camera. So demanding of a 1 year old, I think.

Today I kept resolutely saying, No you may not hold her because that will make her cry, but you may stand next to her and take her picture. They all HAVE to be in the picture WITH Clara so the picture is REALLY cool, I guess. Once we got out of the hands of demanding grandparents and photographers by following the babies off the main path, I could relax a little more.

Clara was eager to romp around in the clovers and flowers and grass and didn't want to stay on the stone trails. At first I was trying to encourage her to stay on the trail, but I changed my mind when I saw her happy, smiling face and pleased, tentative steps, and I realized this was a rare opportunity for Clara to play in nature and she was loving the experience. What a blessing are places like that when your daily existence is normally exempt of grassy knolls . . . or even grass.

On the bus home a grandma, who Clara called "funny grandma," was nice to us and gave us lots of attention even though she knew I couldn't speak Chinese. Whenever the bus stopped, she stood protectively by us and shook her finger sharply at elderly who got on and glanced at me while looking for a seat or a young person who would get up for them. I thought that was sort of sweet, though unnecessary since I've never seen someone get on a bus and kick someone out of their seat, but it was still a nice act towards me that she tried protecting me. There was no way I could get up and ride the bus standing with my belly and my crazy-at-the-time toddler. It was an elderly gentleman who offered us his seat in the first place because he must have felt worse for me than himself. It can be a very special thing how inclusive the Chinese are with each other and outreaching to strangers as well.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you remembered to wear green. I reminded Chad this morning so he put on a green t-shirt under his work dress shirt. What a good sport he is with me and my sometimes over-zealous American notions.

Food and "Family Planning"

Today we had lunch with some friends, one of whom is from Tanzania. Our wonderful Tanzanian friend, Brian, who Chad introduced to the church here, told us on the walk home from lunch that he doesn't like Chinese food because it isn't as "natural" as Tanzanian tropical fruits and seafoods, and I guess the eggs here stink too. Our friends who cooked dinner are American. The wife is 4th-generation Japanese/Chinese mix. She told me on the walk to her house that the greatest thing about China to her is the food because it's "delicious and cheap and everywhere!" Such is the way with reactions about China; people can have totally contrasting views of just about everything here depending on their backgrounds, I suppose. The meal we ate together was delicious.

Anyway, our American friends told us a story of when they lived in a small province in China over a year ago, when they had only one baby (now they have two). They were raided by the "family planning," aka abortion, police, who informed the wife that since she had one child she could not have more. Our friends of course contended that and explained they could have more, as they were American. The enforcers argued back and said, no you're Chinese, so you have to follow Chinese law.

Scary that the Chinese, especially the government or gov programs, get so protective of anyone with Chinese ancestry or blood. Also disturbing, as I've mentioned before, is how people here are ignorant about being the only country with gov limits on childbirth. Who knows what they were thinking this time. Our friends said they were grateful she wasn't pregnant at the time so they didn't try drugging her and dragging her off. They kind of do crazy things the less developed the city or area, I guess.

In the evening our family went on a walk across campus to enjoy the weather and escape the busy streets. We stopped and looked at some interesting metal statues for a bit. Chad really likes the old wise man statue, and Clara liked the baby steps she could walk up to stand inside him:As we continued on our walk, we ironically we found ourselves feeling relaxed and oasised from the bustle of the city as we came to a halt in the center of a field of AstroTurf. At least there was the sense of "getting away" from the cars and the noise, even if we were still surrounded by people exercising and treading on yet more inorganic material. We are looking forward to more quiet and natural atmospheres in our future where we can see the raw, growing earth on a daily basis, much as mom and dad can relate to from living in the noisy, crowded activity of downtown LA this past while.