Good Mates

We spent the day in Puxi visiting with some good friends. Here are the two buddies at the top of a double slide.
Introducing the beautiful princess Maeva.
I guess Blake forgot which hand his snack was in.
Here he is seconds after throwing the soccer ball.
Still a little small to mind this net.
Kilani found a shopping trolley to play with.
Blake still LOVES slides, but we may have a new fave - the swing was a big hit!

Uh Oh

Look who's learned to take off his own nappy.

This could get messy!
One of Blake's favorite activities lately has been standing up on a hope chest playing in my jewelry boxes. Opening the box, closing the box. Pulling out the drawers, pushing in the drawers. And emptying everything out of everything.

If you are a robber casing our joint, let me save you the trouble. These 20 kuai 'pearl' bracelets are about my most valuable possession.

Life is Good

Sitting in the early morning sun, reading a book. Life is gooooood.

Celebrity

Have I blogged about this already?
I can't remember, but I'll do it again because it cracks me up!

When we walk into Carrefour we are immediately mobbed by a group of ladies who work there. All of them calling, "Blak-uh, Blak-uh," and all of them scrambling to find some food to offer him. A few weeks ago there was a new twist. The lady in the orange shirt above, a cigarette & honey saleswoman (the two things go together so nicely), rushed over to us, grabbed the baby and two kuai out of her cash register and rushed over to this little yellow car and plonked him in and started the machine.

It was very clear to us that this was not Blake's first turn in the yellow car. He grabbed the steering wheel and started driving.

Today Scott got his haircut in the Salon behind the car while Blake basked in adoration of his Carrefour buddies.

Having a baby in China is at times the most difficult and at times the easiest place in the world. Difficult because safety standards are low or non-existent. Difficult because heaven only knows what is in the sandpit or in the water or in the food. Difficult because when things go wrong we are VERY far from our families
But there are some incredible perks:
No one would ever expect a mother and her baby to have to wait in a queue in China. Even in the most official places, like customs lines at the airport, we are whisked to the head of the line and treated like visiting royalty.
The whole country loves Blake and gets giddy at the thought of holding him or touching his little hand and they line up to have their photo taken with him.
For the first time in four years we have genuine interactions with the people who live here. Yes, they are all about Blake, but they are real.

It's a wild ride, but it sure is fun.

Sunny Days in Shanghai

They don't come too often. They don't always come on weekends or holidays.
So when the sun does make a surprise appearance, the best thing to do is to get outside and enjoy it!
Throw some bark and stones around. Climb on top of pillars. Get kisses from dad. Lovely.

Bloodshed

A few months ago Blake was biting everything in sight, including Scott and myself. I was getting a little bit worried that he would be that kid at preschool, you know, the biting kid. But then one day I realized he hadn't bitten anyone in over a week. We had made it through the biting stage without any bloodshed.

Lately, Blake has been pinching us. Like biting, he does it when happy and when sad, when joyful and when miserable.

Today while riding on Scotty's shoulders he reached down and gave his dad a big, loving pinch on the cheek. And cut him! It bled and bled and bled.

Hope he's not the pinchy kid at preschool.

Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

Today Scott, Blake and I went with some friends to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. By Chinese zoo standards it was a pretty nice facility. Clean, safe, organized, full of cool stuff.
Hard to say which part Blake hated the most. It could have been the crowds, though he's certainly been surrounded by that many people before - we do live in China. Though he clearly wanted to borrow someone's camera and no one would let him. It might have been the gigantic fish. Maybe it was the dim lighting or the ocean sounds piped in. We know he's not a big fan of the ocean.
Whatever it was, Blake did not have a good time at the aquarium. He started whining, by the middle of the tunnel he was full on crying and when he started screaming we said goodbye to our friends and high tailed it to the exit.
Outside, Blake cheered up pretty quickly, happy to be away from the fish, dark, music & whatever else was bugging him down there.
That's when things got sucky for Scott and I, though. Some cheeky devil unzipped our backpack and lifted my camera right out!
So no pictures of the cranky baby in front of the fish tanks.

Surprises

Surprise #1
Today when Scott came home from practice he poured himself an ice cold glass of lemonade straight out of the fridge. Out came the lemonade AND two pencils!!
I know what you're thinking - sue the company and win a million dollars. Good idea. Only these were Shanghai American School pencils, which means they were put in the carton in our house, not at the factory.

Surprise #2
Later on I was making some pasta for dinner and there in the spaghetti canister was a blue bouncy ball.

Blake is a curious kid. He loves exploring indoors and out. He loves opening and closing doors and putting on lids and then taking them off. And clearly he likes putting stuff in other stuff.

Everyday is an adventure.

Spaghetti for Dinner

Blake had just had a bath and was ready for bed when he decided to have some of dad's spaghetti. He got sauce on his face, tummy, legs and even in his nappy.
So after Blake's second dinner, he had a second bath in the sink.

Blake just loves noodles.

Bathtime

Bathtime around our house is a pretty fun time.

And there's nothing cuter than Blake sitting in his towel after getting out of the tub.