Girls Day Out!

Maddie is becoming a great shopper. In spite of her shyness, she manages to talk to people that have the potential of selling her something that she really wants. Today, she really wanted a cricket cage. They are very simple metal cages that look to be size of a Christmas ornament and she LOVES them! Sissy, Maddie, and I hopped on the subway and then walked over to Dong Tai Lu which is the old antique street. It has become even more touristy since I arrived in Shanghai two years ago, but you can still get some pretty cool stuff there. Sissy managed to pick up some funky things like golden pigs and golden buddhas, Maddie's cuteness did not serve her well as the sellers would not budge from 80rmb for a cricket cage!

After romping around Dong Tai Lu, we hopped in a taxi and headed down to the Bund. We had shown Sissy the Bund at night but during the day was a whole different story! We watched the ships go by and then headed up to New Heights for a classic Girls Lunch! Maddie was thrilled because the servers brought her the chocolate ice cream BEFORE her meal - she knew she was getting away with something! After the lovely lunch, we made our way down the Bund to what I call the Love Tunnel. In actuality it's called the Pedestrian Walkway, but that just doesn't sound exciting!

The Love Tunnel is a tram that takes people under the river to and from the Pudong to Puxi sides. There is a light show and a commentator talking about love and heaven and hell... very intersesting. As soon as we boarded the tram, Maddie remembered why she didn't like the whole experience in the first place. There are three huge "dolls" that are kept straight up and moving because of air being pumped through them. They remind me of the balloons in front of car dealers back home that bring attention to the dealership so they sell more cars. Anyway, Maddie hates them, but she survived the tram ride as it was less than 10 minutes.

After a ride home on the subway and taxi, Maddie was zonked from the Girls Day Out! She stayed home with Alice, one of my students, and we made our way to dinner at the Grill. Girls Day Out can be exhausting!!

Goodbye to Old Shanghai

There is a photographer in Shanghai, Gangfeng Wang, who is actually quite famous in our little community here and beyond. He grew up in Shanghai amongst the Shikumen houses off of Wuxing Lu. He gave us a walking tour of a very large city block that will be torn down within the month as it was just bought by Hong Kong developers for $2 billion. We found out the developers are not actually buying the land - they are leasing the land for 50 years. So they will tear down the old - quickly. They will build the modern new buildings - quickly. They will start earning their money back and then some - quickly. In the end, the Chinese government will get the land and buildings.

The photographer walked us through the alleyways and eventually into people's homes. He explained how the homes used to belong to one family and then were divided after 1949 so that many families would have access. In all of the shikumen, the first floor was a worn down kitchen where there were five to six "stoves" and five to six gas meters for the five to six tenants. The remaining floors were former bedrooms where families of five to six would live in each room. The most amazing part of the day was everybody we ran into was extremely happy. It could have been because of the intense negotiations going on between the tenants and the government, but everybody was happy from the postman to the milkman. It was amazing to see and it's something I'll never forget.

Maddie did not go with us on this day as it was a taxing four hour walking tour. In the end, she probably would've handled just fine if I brought enough snacks, but I had heard about how there was no plumbing in the homes and thought that may send her over the edge! So I write this for Maddie and will continue to share with her the pictures and future moments of saying goodbye to old Shanghai.

Blocked in China? Yes, Blocked in China.

One of the coolest days we've experienced in the blogosphere world occurred on March 19, 2007. In a nutshell, the whole reason I got into blogging was because of Beckett-To-Be's Blog. Beckett is a young lad that lives in Texas where his dad, Christian, eloquently deciphers his babbles on a daily basis and then shares this with the world via a blog. Go check out his March 19 entry and perhaps you'll see somebody you know! I had "boose-gumps" running all over my skin the entire day when I saw Maddie on Beckett's blog. Every single one of 90+ 8th grade students gathered around computers throughout the day to see how famous Maddie had become.... to be mentioned clear across the world like that just makes the drive even greater to document life.

So as this exciting world opens up to our family, it was completely put to a stand still by China that very day. As I sat down to post an entry into Maddie's Minute, the page seemed to take forever to load... and then more forever... and then more forever. Patience had run thin so I did a bit of research to find out what was going on. (The image from The Shanghaiist about sums it up!) Sure enough.... blogspot had been blocked. I've moped for well over a week now, but my trusty hubby has come to the rescue. Without revealing too many secrets, we are back online once again! I can post to my heart's content and share with you the exciting things that have happened in our world over the past nine days. Blogspot has this wonderful feature where you can change the date of your entries so I may go back and use that little trick to catch you up. So go back and read the entries before this one to find out what you've missed! Blocked in China? I think not! So... thank you for unblocking Maddie - she's definitely opinionated, but what three year old isn't?

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes!!!

Should a three year old have a tailor? One of the many nice things about Shanghai is the fabric market. When we first arrived in Shanghai, the fabric market was in an outside area with a "roof" of sorts and very dim lighting. The floors were dirt and the whole thing was musky yet very charming. Now, because of the Expo arriving in 2010, the fabric market has been moved to a shiny new building with shiny floors and bright lights. This means the price of fabric has gone up, but it's still downright cheap.

Today we took Jan and Greg to the fabric market so that Greg could get a suit and cashmere coat made and Jan could get a coat and other fabric for Taylor Zhu. Well, we kind of stopped at my favorite brocade silk stall at the market and the guy recognized Madeline immediately. We had a Chinese dress made for her early in August by the same man. I know I mentioned that she has grown out of that dress, so we decided to get a new one made for her. He actually charged us less than last time if you can believe that one. 200 rmb for the silk brocade fabric and tailoring... where else in the world does this happen? Maddie got measured by a man she didn't even know and I was amazed at her bravery. She's SOOOOOO shy with new people and the fact that she put her hands straight out and let him take a bunch of measurements amazed me!

We came home just in time to have Tailor Zhu's arrival. Tailor Zhu comes to our house whenever we want. We have the fabric and either have something to copy or an "idea" about what we want. Then he measures us, makes us and comes back to our house for a fitting before giving us the final product a week later. He does really, really great work and great finishing. Anyway, he is making a few dresses for Maddie this time. Is it normal for a three year old to have her own tailor??!!! ;)

Friday Guests to School

Almost all of our guests have come to school this year. Jan and Greg came a second day to read to the class and spend some quality "center" time with the kids. Maddie and the rest of the kids love being read to and often follow up by playing teacher themselves, reading to each other and holding the book up for others to see. Reading upside down is a true art form and takes years of practice - they might as well start the training now!

Greg read a book about ambulances as Travis, my nephew, is a paramedic/emt/firefighter for the Air Force. Jan also read a book and then they helped the kids in their centers with play-doh and painting. Ain't it fun to be three???!!!! I sure hope they are enjoying getting over jetlag!!

Aunt Sissy and Uncle Bubba Come to School!

Our last set of guests of the school year arrived last night and to "help" them get over jet lag we invited them to school to visit Maddie's classroom. It was a beautiful day here at Shanghai Links so they walked to school and I met them near the entrance as the guard escorted them onto the school grounds. Sissy was so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about being escorted by Chinese guards. I had Patty cover my class for me so that I could take Jan and Greg to the Pre-K, K, 1 Chinese performance. (Did I mention that I LOVE being a teacher in Maddie's school?!)

So here's the thing with 3 year olds on stage... they either perform for the audience or ignore the audience and go about their lives. Maddie chose to do the latter and we were cracking up the entire time! She saw me walk into the auditorium and her demeanor immediately perked up... I've always seen other children perk up when their parents walked in, but this was Maddie perking up at seeing me, her mom, walk into the auditorium! (Love being a mom - just love it!) Maddie was very cute for the first song, and I suppose was cute in her own way for the second and third songs. But the attitude definitely came through!! Another student bumped her accidentally so she bumped him back not so accidentally and the proceeded to pout about it the rest of the song. During the third song, she thwacked Jordy one, twice, three times was a charm for no apparent reason. I think she just felt like it. The other parents just looked at me and laughed... ah, what to do but say.... "she must learn this from her father!"

Welcome to Jan and Greg! I hope that we can show you all that Shanghai has to offer while you are here! Maddie sure loves showing off her life for you!!

Finallly.... a haircut for the peanut

I mentioned awhile ago how easy it really is to get Maddie's haircut here. Well, I finally got it together and made the call! We hopped in the car and she "helped" me drive the three blocks to Cheryl's house (Read: honking horn, lights turning off and on, blinkers blinking, windshield wipers frantically wiping the front window.)

Cheryl's son, Andrew, was gracious enough to take pics while the task was done. We do the same thing each time as Maddie seems to be a real creature of habit. I sit down and put my cape on and then Maddie sits on my lap and gets her cape on. Her cape is much more interesting though with the ice cream cones! She sits quietly almost afraid to move the entire time, but I think she really feels like a BIG girl when she gets this done. One of these days she'll ask to put make-up on before getting this done! So... mother of year! The peanut has her haircut!!

Turtles and Frogs

Maddie REALLY needs a haircut. It actually couldn't be any easier. I call Cheryl who lives down the street, make an appointment for the next day, and then Maddie and I walk down to her house. So why can't I get it together enough to just CALL??!! Today has nothing to do with a haircut but when I download pics, the first thing I see is Maddie's hair. Mother of the Year Award - part 100! ;)

We did a major shopping excursion today to prepare for Jan and Greg's arrival on Wednesday. Andy was downright amazing as I usually hear about how I'm hording JELLO (ha, ha), but today he mentioned nothing about the massive amounts of food I was putting into the cart. We went to METRO this time which is usually Maddie's favorite place because of the fish section. METRO always has live and not-so-live fish in tanks, but the most interesting is the huge frogs and turtles in the tanks. She has always looked at them with great interest and is usually very excited, but today she just kind of stood back a bit, eyeing the frogs and turtles with a bit of apprehension.

After we go grocery shopping, it's a tradition to go OUT to eat and not cook so we made our way to Syzygy in the German Centre for some good food. Of course, Maddie chowed on fresh shrimp the entire time which meant that she at nothing for dinner. I finally figured out what was going on in her mind all day about those frogs and turtles though. As she was telling me what she was going to dream about tonight before falling asleep she said, "Mommy - I don't like to eat turtles and frogs." I quickly changed the subject and said that I'll make sure she gets a haircut tomorrow!

We live in China!

We live in China. HELLO!!! We live in China. Sometimes I forget that believe it or not! It really hit home a week ago Friday when Andy and I were in a taxi coming home from a lovely night out with Jeff and Daneah. We were crossing the Nanpu Bridge at 11:30 and Andy's phone rang. I thought it was Jeff and Daneah calling, but his words were quick and to the point. "OK. We will be home in 15-20 minutes." Ms. Zhou's exact words to him were this; "Maddie sick." My first thought was that this is the first time in two years that our incredible ayi has called us while we've been out. My second thought was WHY didn't I continue with my Mandarin lessons? We communicate great in person, but on the phone? Not so much!

In the end Maddie was not as bad as I had imagined on the 45 minute taxi ride home. Her fever was high and it held on to her fiercely for three days straight. By then she was coughing so bad that we kept her home from school anyway. She was stir crazy to say the least and was very ready for school on Thursday. She spent all Thursday morning trying to convince me that it really was okay to wear her jammies to school that day (her last day of school on Friday was PJ Day)! It was a good yet rough couple of days for her as she just wasn't quite herself, but she was able to participate in lots of fun stuff over two days! Ms. Preeti wrote the following in the class newsletter:

For several months now, a group of children have been very interested in trucks and are making increasingly more complex road and building structures with wood blocks. I have been monitoring their play and it seems to me that it is inspired by the construction sites they must see from the school bus on their way to school every morning. This interest is apparent in their journal entries as well as stories that they have been dictating to me. This week, we went to look at the construction site of the soon to be made HS building on our own campus. This site is ideally located as we can go to the first or second floor of the HS and see it from the big windows- a perfect viewpoint. We will be making regular “field trips” to this area to watch the buildings come up.

We have been reading and learning about leprechauns and shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (March 17). It is rumored that a leprechaun has been seen in the Early Childhood Section of SAS, Pudong. There have been some funny things happening in our classroom - a couple of times, when we came back from somewhere; we found the room messed up...(photo collage of leprechaun activities coming soon!) merely frivolous or fun.

So here's what I've learned this week: Your children get sick everywhere and anywhere in the world, you get to celebrate St. Patty's Day at school without having to worry about the separation of church and state, and I should've continued on with my Mandarin lessons no matter how busy I was at the time. Thank goodness we live in China!

Love of Reading Week

Last month I mentioned how cool it is for Maddie to have her daddy at school all the time. When I attended the elementary assembly on Monday with Maddie to kick off Love of Reading Week, I was completely gob-smacked when she turned to me and said, "Look Mommy! It's Mr. Torris!"

Even though I'm a professional working woman, I'm also a mom and working in this environment let's me be a mom even when I am working. Everyday I walk to school with Maddie, I think of all those moms back home that drop their children off with family members or day care providers. How lucky am I? Sitting front and center at the assemblies with Maddie lets me talk to her about her day when we get home. We spent the rest of the week talking about Mr. B's silly socks on stage.

To quote Maddie's teacher, "children and teachers have been thoroughly enjoying all activities organized by the Library for Love of Reading Week! On Monday, teachers performed on stage in the auditorium to “kick off” the week. On Tuesday, we wore READ ME shirts- some of the messages on the shirts were great- “Mommy reads to me”, a list of “My favorite books”, a funny quote about sharing by Silverstein, an “innocent” “I didn’t do it” etc. On Wednesday, we Dropped Everything And Read. On Thursday, we wore crazy socks and met with visiting author Kathryn Lasky, who read to us one of her favorite books. We also saw a fantastic musical production of the Kimmel book: “The Greatest of All” performed by Grade 2 students. On Friday, we wore pajamas to school and met with visiting author Eric Kimmel, who read/told us one of our favorite books that we focused on in December - “The Gingerbread Man”."

I can't imagine Maddie actually reading some day, but I suppose that it's only a matter of time! Afterall, I couldn't image her walking, eating real food, talking coherently, singing the alphabet, etc... When we are out and about she is very aware of the letters around her. She'll point out "Maddie's M" or "Sophia's S". I know that we won't push her to read - rather we'll just be normal. We'll read to her throughout the week and we'll let her "read" to us when she wants to do so, but we won't push her. As her father always says, "Life is about the journey...". We'll just turn Love of Reading Week into a Love of Reading Life!

Wedding of the Century/Parent of the Year

We knew that today would be an adventure! Xiebin, our driver from school, gave us an invitation to his wedding about one week ago. All of the Chinese staff at school have been asking all week long, "Is Maddie coming to the wedding?" Maddie has slowly warmed up to Xiebin over the past year and will greet him when she is in a good mood. She put her party dress on and we headed out to The Pacific Hotel right across from People's Square in downtown Shanghai. The hotel was built in 1928 and was at one point the tallest building in Shanghai. The Chinese have been very busy getting married this year because it has been a "double happiness" year. Today marks the actual end of the Chinese Year so Xiebin and Wei Wei were just getting in under the wire!

This is Maddie's second Chinese wedding - the first one was much... calmer. Xiebin is kind of young, footloose and fancy free so we knew that it would be memorable! As soon as Maddie walked in the door she was the center of attention. There were about 350 people at the wedding and we were the only foreigners invited. Chinese weddings are banquet style where all of the guests sit around circular tables and the wedding "ceremony" occurs around everybody throughout the evening. We knew that we were "special" because we were guided to to the only table that had three place settings of knives and forks. It's tradition for all guests to have a picture taken with the bride and groom. Maddie was in about half of all those photos. People just swooped her up and she was center stage - she really was a great sport about it.

Maddie was so excited to be at a party with familiar Chinese faces around her. When Mr. Ma walked in the door, she literally jumped off my lap and ran across the room to him. He's the other driver for the school and is a dear, dear man. She LOVES him and will go to him even if she's cranky! She sat with Carol a lot of the night and of course, Ruby, Eva, Edith, Sam, and numerous strangers had to have their arms around her at some point. At one point, Carol warned me to keep my camera out because Maddie had just been appointed the resident flower girl. It was interesting how all of the "roles" were assigned right before the ceremony started. The ceremony was supposed to start at 5:18 (an auspicious time), but the role assignments took some time so it actually began around 6:30.

The last time Maddie was a flower girl was for Jess and Chad's wedding. She followed a few other flower girls and ended up stopping in the middle of the aisle to pick up their mess. I was amazed that she actually did it this time. She marched right down the aisle in front of the bride and groom, tossing rose petals along the way. The assigned " firecracker people" were popping off the fireworks, the assigned "confetti people" were throwing colored paper everywhere - and she kept on marching!

After the walk down the aisle, the hotel's MC introduced Xiebin's uncle and he gave his speech and then the MC introduced Andy. Earlier in the evening, Xiebin had personally asked Andy to give a speech and when Andy accepted, Xiebin was down right glowing! Andy spoke in English and Ruby translated. Makes sense to me - 350 people at your wedding and the two people you would want speaking would be your uncle and your employer! After the speeches, the meal began!

Maddie is a shrimp addict, but the entire table looked at her strange when she peeled the shell off the shrimp - it is a good source of calcium ya know! She had her second stare down with a chicken head and all in all, tried almost everything. Wei Wei changed her outfit three times during the wedding. During the second fashion outing, Xiebin and Wei Wei walked around to all of the tables and lit the candle and sparkler in the middle of each table. Our candle didn't have a wick so she took a match and pushed it into the candle to act as a wick. All of the men at the table blew out her lighting candle a few times for a few laughs! During the third fashion show, things got a little wild. Sam had taken an empty plastic bottle of soda that had 6 sides and had convinced Stevie to smoke enough cigarettes to burn 6 holes in it. Sam then put a cigarettes in each hole. When Xiebin and Wei Wei came around to the table for a toast, they made Xiebin light and smoke the 6 cigarettes by breathing through the top of the plastic bottle. Maddie and I were stuck and had a bird's eye view of the whole thing!

So, in the end, it was the most interesting Wedding of the Century and I'm pretty sure that we got Parents of the Year for letting Maddie see some of the things she saw! What an experience!

Birthday Parties!

Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl flew home this morning. We had a WONDERFUL time while they were here and Maddie really loved being a granddaughter while they were here! After Andy left to take them to the airport, Maddie and I went to Rigel's birthday party. Maddie helped wrap the present this morning and made a card where she signed her own name. It was nice having all of the young children together on a Saturday. Roqueya and Malin were there from Maddie's class and Roxanne and Wrenzi were there to help all of the little ones during the dinosaur egg hunt! Ri-Ri as his family and friends call him is in sync with Maddie. They are like magnets to each other and seem to be on the same wavelength. It's fun watching them talk with each other!

Maddie spent most of the party telling him that she got him a present (even while he was preparing to blow out his candles). She had her first stab at hitting a dinosaur egg pinata and played with all of her friends until she could play no more! Now the questions have started....."when's my birthday Maddie?" "Five more months, " I say. The only problem is that she only knows how to measure time in sleeps so she's convinced that her birthday is in five SLEEPS!

Ms. Zhou and Maddie's Fridays

Maddie did not go to school during our first year in China as she was too young. So she stayed home every single day with Ms. Zhou, Maddie's ayi. I was so interesting watching their relationship grow. As Maddie was learning to speak English coherently, she was learning how to understand and speak Chinese. Andy and I quickly learned that we should not even try to speak Chinese to Maddie... it just doesn't make sense for a non-Chinese person to speak Chinese to her. So over the past year and a half, Ms. Zhou has used very little English with Maddie. I love coming home from school and sneaking in the house simply because I can hear them in the back room chattering away in Chinese having tea parties and paint sessions!

Ms. Zhou stays overnight at our house every Friday. She has her own room right next to Maddie's and we all seem to treasure the time. Andy and I get to have an official "date night" to unwind from busy weeks and Maddie gets her Ms. Zhou time back. Since Maddie has started to go to school, she only gets a few hours with Ms. Zhou each day... that's quite a shock after having all day with her! Ms. Zhou picks Maddie up from school everyday and they ride bicycles or walk home. On Fridays, Andy and I make it home for a quick kiss and a hug before they are off to the movies at the children's playhouse where we live. They stay there for a few hours and then head home for a night full of bubble baths and children's books in Chinese. I love it that Ms. Zhou bought a Dora the Explorer book in Chinese about how fun it is to go to the dentist! We have a plan of attack!

Maddie loves this time with Ms. Zhou. Ms. Zhou is in her 50s but her energy is boundless and she just giggles and chatters with Maddie all of the time! Fridays are the true special time though because it's their quality time without mom and dad around!