Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl

One of the greatest challenges of living overseas is staying connected with family. We've been pretty darn creative though. We have phone calls, we have Skype calls, we have video i chats, we have care packages going back and forth... I have to admit though that there's no replacement for having family come visit and there's no replacement for us heading back to the States to spend time with them. Within the past year, we've had Grandma Barbara, Grandpa Earl, Aunt Susan, Grandma Dotty, Grandma Bill and Mary, Great-Aunt Rhonda, Great-Uncle Jack, and we have Aunt Sissy and Unca' Bubba heading our way at the end of March. We have been very, very lucky!

As soon as Barb and Earl arrived this time, Maddie was right in step with them. There was no warming up time needed... it was just instantaneous adoration. They have come to school a couple of times while they have been here and Maddie has loved it. They came for Chinese New Year celebrations and Maddie's teacher, Ms. Preeti, video-taped some of the performances on that day. In today's elementary assembly, Ms. Preeti showed the movie and Maddie sat right in front and re-lived having her Grandma and Grandpa at school. She yelled "GRANDPA" when she saw him flash across the screen! When Barbara and Earl came to school in the middle of the assembly to walk her home from school, she was absolutely giddy! This truly has been quality family time and that is irreplaceable!

Dad and School

Having your father work at your school must be terrific when you are three years old. I knew that it was important to Maddie, but I really didn't how important it was until Andy was gone recruiting in the States for over two weeks. In short, Maddie was miserable, I was miserable... and we were really good at being miserable together! On the first night that Andy was gone, we made a sign that spelled out WELCOME BACK!!!. We then proceeded to color one letter each night before heading off to bed. This was our way of counting the number of sleeps until Daddy came home. I don't think she has a real concept of how long (or short if you're an optimist) two weeks really is so this helped her count it out each night. Big things happened while he was away. Maddie wrote her name all by herself for the first time and she had M Day at school where she was responsible to bring in items that started with her letter. Ms. Zhou, Mommy, and Maddie made muffins and she brought them to school to share! Of course we recorded all of this on our sign for Daddy! She was really happy before when Andy visited her classroom... now she's just down right thrilled to have her father work in her school!

Today was a big day for Maddie! When we visited her classroom, she did not see us so we were able to spy a little bit to see her in her true form. She's quite the bossy one at times, especially with Justin who she was very articulately telling how to properly put the glue on the back of the mitten in order to stick it on the banner correctly. She also go a new pink coat from Grandma Barbara.... such a monkey! Pink is definitely the color of choice these days!! Pink coat, pink Converse shoes... I guess she'll just have to dress up for the assembly tomorrow when her daddy comes as a special guest to read to the early elementary kids!

Back to School!

Maddie LOVES school. She was so torn this morning at about 7:15. Andy and I were walking out the door for school and Maddie couldn't decide if she wanted to come with us or wait until after 7:30 when Ms. Zhou arrives. She also wanted to walk to school with Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl. It was almost too much to handle, but in the end, school won. She raced to the car with her backpack and coat! We played in the school office with dad and the office ladies for about 15 minutes before heading to class. She couldn't wait to gallop into class to hug Ms. Preeti. As Maddie says, Ms. Preeti is her friend!

I see Maddie every single day at 12:00 on the button. It's the end of my lunch period and the beginning of hers. I think I can honestly say that it's my favorite time of the day! She actually goes to the lunch room with her class, holding onto a jump rope the entire way so that she stays in line. She sits down and grabs the appropriate drink of the day and then waits.... for me! (At least I like to think so!!) As soon as she sees me coming, she always jumps up, always yells "mommy" in a sing song voice at the top of her lungs, and she always, always runs to me with absolute glee. I will always, always, always treasure these moments even when she decides that it's just too embarrassing to act that way in front of her friends. Maybe that won't happen until she's 18, ya think?

A Sunday Brunch minus the Funnies!

Sometimes you just want a newspaper.... a big, thick newspaper full of ads, coupons, stories, weather, and of course the Sunday funnies. We all sat around the Sunday Brunch table today on the 38th floor of the JW Marriott Hotel realizing that Maddie will probably never yearn for that particular comfort. She's a digital native and can get all of the good stuff online, including the funnies and the ads!


It was a very cloudy day in Shanghai today, but you could still see forever. When you sit in a boat on the ocean, you see ocean forever. Well, when you sit on the 38th floor of the JW Marriott, you see Shanghai forever! We had a great picture of People's Square!


Maddie is such a delight to be around these days that you can take her to posh places that serve champagne brunches complete with lobster, king crab legs, beef wellington, Beijing duck, and Maddie's favorite... the chocolate fountain. After she chowed on fresh shrimp, she dove into the chocolate. Who knew chocolate could look so pretty?! She giggled and laughed and giggled and laugh so I suppose we really did have a Sunday Brunch WITH the Funnies!

The Special Child Syndrome

Maddie is a blond.... Maddie is a blond with curly hair.... Maddie is a blond with curly hair AND blue eyes. What's the big deal we say? Maddie is growing up with Special Child Syndrome as her Grandma Barbara calls it. She's a STAR and people stop us on the sidewalk to take her picture. So then I take pictures of them taking pictures everywhere we go! Part of me is actually amazed that she doesn't get the same treatment when we go home for the summers, but I'm supposed to think that - I'm her mom!!

This morning we woke up to a beautiful Suzhou day and Maddie decided to walk around the city with us on a photography tour. We took a picture of the pagoda at the Ruiguang Ta right behind the Sheraton hotel. The pagoda of the auspicious light is what China is supposed to look like! When we are in Shanghai, you have to look far and wide to catch of glimpse of the non-capitalist, non-cosmopolitan China. Suzhou is close enough to us that we can head there for the weekend and see the history unfold right before your eyes. The Ruiguang Ta is over 2000 years old... now that's impressive! We took pictures of children playing in neighborhoods. We took pictures of the canals around Suzhou. We took pictures of the bicycle taxis. Maddie walked and walked and walked.... and rode on her father's shoulders for a really LONG time!

We made our way to the Garden of the Master of the Nets. The garden was originally laid out if the 12th century and was restored in the 18th century. We were there early enough so that it was quiet and we could get good photos. Maddie is into acoustic experiences though and has to stomp on all of the wood walkways and squeal a bit as she turns corners, pretending to see monsters. We kept trying to convince her that it was like a hotel, but we had very little luck! She's a Special Child and it is her job to be a peanut at any cost!

Adventures in Suzhou!

I’ve mentioned how Maddie really knows how to travel. She’s getting quite flexible in her old age! Today she managed a two hour car ride to Suzhou which is a canal town northwest of Shanghai. Maddie checked us into the Sheraton (hey, it’s all about the airline miles!) which is a gorgeous hotel that is built with pagodas and authentic Chinese architecture. We then traveled via taxi to the Yang Yang Shui Jiao Guan restaurant which serves the cheapest and best dumplings ever… well, next to Ms. Zhou’s of course! Maddie chowed on dumplings filled with beef/coriander, shrimp, and other mystery meats. The only struggle up to this point was the lack of a sit down toilet! She used to be really go at going anywhere, but she’s getting very opinionated in her old age and refuses to go in a squat toilet no matter how clean it is. Thank goodness you can distract her from almost anything if you just ask her to write her name. She wrote her name by herself for the first time a few weeks ago and now she just loves to show it off!

After a trip to the DVD shop to purchase a new movie, Maddie took us to the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory. She was able to pick up silk worm cocoons and shake them to hear the worms inside. The coolest part for Maddie was watching the women work the machine that pulled the silk off of the cocoons to make reels of silk thread. Somewhere between 8-10 cocoons had their threads started and then were pulled through a single hole in the machine up the spinning reels. What’s funny is that we went there to watch the workers, but the workers spent much of their time watching Maddie! In another part of the factory, Maddie watched women soak the cocoons in water and then tear them open to take the worms out. The women then stretched the single cocoon into a 8” x 11” sheet. The sheets were dried and then were made several layers thick. Four other women then took the dried sheets and pulled them out so that they were as big as a king size bed. The pulled several sheets to make duvets of varying thickness. It was amazing to watch! To top it off, we could walk out of the factory with a silk filled king size duvet for about 600 RMB… that’s less than $100!

After a short rest back at the hotel, we ventured out again to the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. You know you’ve found a good place when you walk in and you are the only foreigners there! The meal started off with a man filling our team pots with what looked like an oil can with a very, very, very long spout. The tea mugs had dried flowers in them so he added hot water to make a very earthy tasting tea. Maddie has recently become a tea addict and she couldn’t get enough of it! Barbara and I ordered for the table so we ordered the traditional Beijing duck. Beijing duck is made my filled the ducks with air so that the skin detaches from the meat. Then the air is sucked out of the duck to bring the skin back in. The whole duck is then roasted and brought to the table so that it can be carved right in front of you. You then take the carved duck and place it into a rice tortilla, put thinly sliced radishes inside, and top it off with a sweet Hoisin sauce. WOW!!! Maddie had one but ate mostly the baby bok choy greens!! She made it back to the hotel and had an “after dinner drink” of apple juice before heading off to bed. She’s out cold after her day of adventures in Suzhou!

The Circus in Shanghai!

I have to laugh because when Maddie travels, she knows what she is doing and she tells us exactly what to do. When we were in the Shangri-La last week, she reminded us to be quiet in the hallways because people could be sleeping. Today she insisted on having her own ticket for the subway and insisted on standing by herself. She's brave because when she is on her own, she knows that people will always enter her personal space by playing with her hair. She stands out and people stare, point, smile, touch, whisper, yell, take pictures with cameras/cell phones... all of which make her very uncomfortable. She survived the subway ride quite well though and we arrived at our destination an hour later. We had made it to the very authentic Shanghainese restaurant across from the Shanghai Circus World. She tries everything that we try on the menu with no fear. Her favorites today were the chicken (because it was served with the very cute head) and the tofu with clams.

Maddie was anxious to get to the ERA - Intersection of Time show where we sat in the third row from the stage. She sat there for two straight hours, clapping on cue and telling me all about the wonderful things that were happening in front of her. She turned to me at the end of the show and said, "Mommy, I can do that!" So, she can toss four bowls at a time from her foot to the top of her head while teetering on a piece of wood sitting on a big pipe. She can toss 40lb. Ming vases into the air and catch them on the back of her neck. She can do acrobats through moving hoops. She can fly through the air with only a piece of silk wrapped around her wrist holding her up. She can ride motorcycles at top speed in a big (not THAT big) metal sphere. She CAN entertain us for hours and hours on end!

Happy Year of the Golden Pig!

As I sat in the audience at the elementary assembly last week, I was completely amazed at how confident Maddie was up on stage. She IS the minority here yet she doesn't even notice... unless of course we're walking around Shanghai! She had spent the entire week preparing for her very first on stage performance. Lessons were filled with the meaning of Chinese New Year and she made lanterns and scrolls filled with Chinese characters. I very simply asked her what they said and she very simply told me, "Shin nien quai le." "Of course it did," I thought as I searched the files in my brain to recall that little tidbit I had forgotten! We had a Chinese dress made for her at the fabric market in the fall and she just managed to squeeze into one last time for the New Year celebration at school. After a big meal full of homemade dumplings and visits from Grandpa Earl and Grandma Barbara, she was off to perform her two songs on stage with her peers! It was a perfect start to a perfect holiday!