Communication Before Elimination

If you walk down the street in our neighborhood you will most likely see quite a few little baby bums peeking out of slits in the back of their clothing. When the child needs to "use the bathroom" he is held out at arms length and just...goes. Some parents have even trained their child to go at the sound of their whistle!

**This is actually a "modern" potty training technique catching wind in the US called Elimination Communication.**

It is usually not a problem, but there is only so much you can do when a baby has got to go! I buy most of our produce from a nearby little market. It is a little room with one aisle and produce on either side. I was in there with Miss A one day when a mother and baby came in and started talking to us. All of the sudden the mom started making funny sounds and, before I knew it, I heard a trickling on the cement floor and felt a little splattering on my feet. Thankfully she didn't just stay right there, but moved outside quickly.

I shall never see that little produce shop the same, though--or any floor for that matter!

Thankfully this potty training technique isn't so popular that we can't find diapers!

In other news, I am 26 weeks along and doing well! I'm working on getting enough iron here, without my daily dose of raisin bran or other cereal (I don't know how I'm surviving without it!). My other usual sources of iron are not readily at hand, but I am figuring things out. My doctor is on vacation so I met with another doctor from Japan. He told me I need to be "more fatter" next time I see him. :) ha. That is nice for a pregnant mama to hear!

26 weeks with a very busy boy in here!

A Day Trip

I think we could get used to this place.

This past weekend I took a bus all on my own to teach English. Although I overpaid by quite a bit (I was nervous about not paying enough and holding up the line), I made it both ways. What an accomplishment! When there is a choice, I definitely still prefer to be with Mister

especially when we are taking this wiggly one around

or when the bus looks like this. I kept thinking there wasn't even one more inch of open space--and then 10 more people would get on!

 I had a doctor's appointment in another part of Nanjing so we decided to make a day out of it. We searched for some authentic Nanjing-style food (a piece of fish chopped off a block and cooked right there--hmm not exactly what I had in mind), watched a friend in a break dance competition, and went around the shops at the Confucius Temple.

Our walk was green and beautiful!

The competition was in the center of a huge mall. People were watching from every floor. 

There were some pretty cool moves going on. Our friend made it to the final four!

The entrance to the Confucius Temple and the shops. Can you see Pizza Hut and Haagen Dazs? 

We took a break in Haagan Dazs and shared some ice-cream while Miss A slept. SO worth it. 

Shops. Mister is a talented haggler! 

When we see a statue like this, Miss A likes to growl at it.

We didn't go into the temple this time, but plan to soon. 

Can you see how beautiful and fun China can be? It is nice to get out and enjoy these beauties rather than focusing on all of the hard changes we're making and the sometimes gross things we see/smell in our everyday living. There is much good here, too!


There are a lot of things to love about this place. The thing I am growing to love the most, though, is the people.

Mister got this picture while standing in a line for food. Miss A and I were waiting in the shade. Look at these lovely people! I understood very little of what they said, but sure did feel their love.

It's hard to capture all of the people. There were crowds and crowds in this open area by the temple.

This man was crouching down to get Miss A to smile. Maybe wanting us to buy a balloon, but mostly just because he was great.

She is signing "please" here. Please can we go home?

What a good, long day!

So This is Life

There are so many things here that surprise us or that we are still getting used to. These things seem to have a greater impact because, often, it feels like we are living our normal life.

We take trips.

After a four hour bus ride to Shanghai for our district conference. There are 600+ members in our district (all foreigners). Church meetings feel so normal.

We eat food.

Eating McDonalds is more normal for Mister than me--my first (and probably last) Big Mac

Shanghai is a foreigner's paradise. Krispy Kreme, McDonalds, Carl's Jr., Dairy Queen, Baskin Robins, 7/11. Woah!

We take walks in the park.

Miss A just wanted to eat the bread, not feed it to the fish. Very typical :)

The water color is not so normal, but these fish were pretty cool!

We have baby showers.

Even more, we have babies!

We make dinner.

Sweet potatoes, pork chops, and grapes=a pretty usual meal.

We play in our home.

This occurs daily.

It is really crazy, after spending the majority of my day inside our home with Miss A or talking for a few ours with friends, to walk out on the streets. To see crowds of people walking/riding home, to hear horns honking and sellers selling, to smell the smells, to remember: We Are Living In China.

Here's to living--wherever you are.

Bao Bao Baby

Having a baby with you in China makes for a completely different experience. When I am out without Miss A, I am pretty much ignored. When I am with her, we're treated like rock. stars.

It is quite something to see everyone, including grown men, stop and smile and talk sweetly to a little baby. The people here are good. They can also be a little overwhelming to someone not of their culture. It has taken some getting used to!

We frequent the Suguo market (kind of like Walmart, but with no food resembling that at Walmart) close to us. Each time, we have been surrounded by 10+ Chinese women asking questions and giving advice. Once I went without Mister and I seriously felt a hot flash coming on--there were so many people surrounding us and asking me questions I did not understand.

Women giving advice about which books to get for Miss A

I was trying to be sneaky to show all the women gathering. There were at least 7 at this point.

She just loves the attention. PS-we found the best way to get people to leave Miss A alone--start taking pictures. These ladies left in a hurry as soon as they realized I was snapping shots. :)

At the same time, Miss A loves the attention and we have received a lot of help.

-Some young men working in the produce department cut her a huge slice of melon and gave her napkins to wipe her mouth. Every time we see them, they give her a little gift (today it was little apples)
-When buying a stroller the women helped us put it together and told us how to use it. They gave us a deal on it and even took a pair of socks OFF of the shelf and put them on Miss A!
-People pick up things she has dropped, wipe her mouth, and entertain her when she is cranky.
-She has been fed chocolate and doted on enough to last a lifetime.

With all of the love, I still need to protect her little immune system from the new germs her body isn’t used to. This is when the protective momma comes out!

1. When traveling, keep your baby in a stroller or carrier. If you don’t, be prepared for her to be snatched out of your hands.
2. BUCKLE her in the stroller so, when they try to grab her out, they have to put her right back down.
3. Use “the shoulder move”. This is Mister’s go-to-move. He just turns his shoulder into the person to block them from getting to her. I’m not brave enough to do it, but it is quite effective!
4. Just smile and keep walking! It’s the crosswalks and the times when you need to stop to put something in your cart that will get you.
5. If all else fails pretend you don’t understand, smile, and get out of there.
6. Most of all, BEWARE OF THE CLAP SIGNAL. Really, every woman does the same thing if they are going to try to take Miss A. They clap 2-3 times and then open their hands. Right from the clap, I am prepared to keep her away.

It's a good thing she's such a ham--she just eats up all of the attention! If only I could learn to be as easygoing. :)

Look at those chubby little cheeks and belly!

I'm (usually) No Chicken

So, I am still trying to get the hang of cooking here. I have no oven, I have a two-burner "magnetic conduction" stove, and the ingredients available at the store are very different. We have had some successes and a few failures. This one, though, was an experience.

Meat grosses me out. In general, not just here.

Some of you know about my lovely experience on trek (a youth activity where we learned about pioneers by reenacting part of their journey) with a chicken. I get a little shaky just thinking about it now. Each family (group) got a chicken that they had to..."take care of" so that they could eat that night. NO ONE in my group wanted to do it. So I found myself holding a live chicken by the feet--enough said.

I was traumatized.

It took a long time for me to get over this experience. Almost ten years later I decided to be domestic and start cooking a whole chicken in a crockpot. Mister LOVES it and I learned how to make chicken stock out of the bones. I thought this would be a nice meal to make for him here since I can find all of the spices I need and it would be a taste from home. I grabbed a packaged chicken from the meat section of the store and threw it in the freezer when I got home.

A few days later I got the chicken out and prepared to put it in the crockpot. I pulled it out of the bag and ALL of those trek-chicken feelings came reeling back at me.

The chicken had a head.
And it was staring at me.

Mister said I should take a picture to document the experience. I would rather forget it happened. :) I feel a little bit bad for making you see this, but it isn't too bad since the bag is still on it..

Mister heard my little screams and came in to the kitchen to see what was wrong. He looked at the chicken, chuckled, and patted me on the back. That was it. It was already getting late and I had no ingredients for something else, so I rubbed some seasonings on the chicken and tried to avoid the eyes that I just knew were looking right at me. (Thankfully, when the chicken was done Mister covered the head with his hands while I pulled the meat off). The dinner turned out fine, but I had a hard time eating anything.

In the US you can get a nice, plump chicken (head and feet removed) for $5. We spent about $2 on a skinny chicken that would barely feed 2 people.

Those chicken heads and feet must be very valuable.

Side Note: Mister says they probably really are. We were eating at a little restaurant when a lady came in and said hello to Miss A. As she left, she grabbed a fish head from a deserted plate and put it in her bag. Maybe I need to figure out what these things are used for!

Taxi, Taxi!

I don’t think I would have survived even this long without the other wives who’s husbands are in the program with Mister. This is one in a million examples of why.

Sometimes it is worth the money to take a taxi in Nanjing. Good excuses reasons include: it is raining, you are with enough people that splitting the bill means you pay less than $1, you have too many things to carry and squeeze on the metro, and/or you just have no idea how to get where you need to go.

3 out of 4 applied as we left for a get-together at the Relief Society President’s home. I had never taken a taxi without Mister and had never tried to get one in the rain. Oh, what an experience.

-Green=the taxi is full, yellow=off duty, red=open for business--but not always.
-Chinese are aggressive and WILL steal your cab regardless of who was there first.
-Sometimes you must cross the street in the middle of traffic, praying you won’t get hit, if you want to get a cab.
-You may get rejected, even if all four of you hurry and sit IN the cab before telling the driver where you need to go.
-If you are standing in the rain trying desperately to call a cab, you will get laughed at by onlooking natives.
-You will get a cab eventually, even if the driver grumbles the whole way home.

Do you see that green light on the car next to the bus? THAT is a taxi--a full one. (I seriously tried to get a good picture--I sat at this cross walk until I was getting to many crazy looks to stay any longer. :) )

Doesn't green mean go? I always have to think for a second before waving for a cab since it isn't that way with the taxis.

 

 

 

 

 For good measure, here are some pictures that CAN'T be ruined thanks to the people who are in them.

Miss A kept sharing the books with Great Grandpa :)

She just loves her Aunt J!

The cute girls with their young (great) grandparents!

We have some good things coming to share with you...I

A World Without Baking

is no world at all.

Most people in China do not bake. There are some lovely bread stores around Nanjing, but it is not common to have an oven and baking ingredients are very rare (baking soda, Crisco, vanilla). We love us some baked goods, so I decided to buy a "crockpot" and try using it like an oven.

Here she is in all her glory. There is an off, warm, low, and high setting. It is a ceramic material...it kind of reminds me of a brick.

We haven't been able to figure out how to use our stove and we (really I) were tired of having the instant "oatmeal" we found. SO I did my research and found a delicious french toast casserole receipe for a crockpot. Miraculously, we had all of the ingredients! I could almost taste the good old USA while putting it together.

The aroma of cooking eggs and sugar filled our home all night long.

In the morning I woke up
to a
rock.

Out of 8 pieces of bread, we saved about 2--and ate them right away! Apparently, even crock-pots are different in China.

It seems everything is set to a higher heat here. Maybe this is where I went wrong? Any suggestions or knowledge would be great.

Until then, I will keep trying to feed this little family. And this big belly.

This little boy is growing fast and kicking all the time!

I have some banana bread in the "oven" right now. Your prayers on its success would be much appreciated. :)



Also, we could see the SKY today. The blue sky and white clouds. What a precious gift for a trying-not-to-be-homesick family!