Best Friends

What a pair these two are. The one mothering (aka smothering) and the other taking it it like a champ (and actually loving it most of the time).

Tonight we sat at the kitchen table watching them laugh and laugh at each other. There sure is a lot of love there.

Sometimes they're a handful and I have to find inventive ways to entertain...but then they play like this:

Lately Miss A has been "helping" Brother a lot. She helps him hold things, tries to feed him, helps him hold his arms, and tells him how to say the prayer. 

4 1/2 months old!

She shares her favorite blanket and he shares his adoration for her.

If you ask me, 17 months is the perfect age gap. ;)

The Great Wall

Sometimes, we're kind of crazy.

By crazy I mean we live in China, we travel to Beijing on a whim, we bring two children and a stroller and a suitcase to the Great Wall.

It wasn't our plan (the suitcase on the wall part), but you do what you've gotta do.

We took a two hour bus ride to the closest wall site. Then we waited in line. When I say line I really mean huge mass. The Chinese don't do lines. We were getting passed right and left until we blocked the way with ourselves, the stroller, and the suitcase (blessed suitcase). 

It only took an hour.

We squeezed in to a moving lift, and off we went!

Every person that passed us said something about our cute polka-dot suitcase. There were a lot of people.

With 6 hours of travel (there and back) we didn't have much time on the actual wall,

but those 10 minutes were oh, so fun!

"Woohoo!"

Sometimes crazy is pretty worth it.

When in Beijing

We were given a warm welcome Sunday night at our Beijing hotel

by cockroaches.

Other than that...we had a perfect trip. Traveling, kids, and all! It was so fun to play a tourist for the weekend and to have Mister all to ourselves. When in Beijing we...

play with dad

stop for a few pictures

rub the lucky door

visit the Forbidden City

walk by hundreds of rooms, beautiful architecture, and bumpy floors

see the gardens where the concubines liked to take a stroll back in the day

play with friends old and new

admire (but not try) bottles of Beijing yogurt

watch the amazing Chinese acrobats

and pray they don't die

watch Miss A loving it

see cool buildings

kick to our heart's content

and spend the night eating delicious pizza and playing with good, good friends.

Dear Beijing, thank you for the perfect weather and wonderful memories.

We Get Around

Fact: Traveling in China has been an adventure.

Buying train tickets seems pretty complicated.

The bullet train is probably the best way to travel longer distances. Plus, the seats turn around so you can have a party with your friends!!

The Maglev is SO fast.  

Long train rides make great friends. Miss A and this cute Russian girl played the whole way to Beijing.

Subway stations are easy enough for a toddler (but sometimes not for me!).

Also, this is a completely acceptable ensemble in China. 

Bringing lots of water and a handsome interpreter helps. 

A cute baby can't hurt, either.

Strollers are a convenient way to travel...except when the ground is made of carved stone bricks, or when you have to carry it up and down the subway stairs, or when you are a rambunctious toddler.

Greyhound style buses are much cheaper ($2/seat) than taxis ($30) for a 2 hour ride to the Great Wall. It's great as long as you are tough enough to hold your own in a line of people who don't believe in lines and as long as you bring an umbrella for the wait in the hot sun.

When you are trying to take luggage and babies and a stroller to the great wall, it is a good idea to get a ride.
I feared for my life on this one.

Miss A might have been a little afraid too...

Finally, the "best" of them all. A sleeper car. The name is quite deceiving. We took one of these for our 10 hour overnight ride home from Beijing. Picture it: Our family and 4 other Chinese guys. Our two children sleeping against the wall up top while I spread across the edge to keep them from falling. Mister sharing a bottom seat with luggage and another person... Little sleep was had.

Fact: I am excited ecstatic to have a car and drive it too.