All the News

Here's all the news from the past few days. First the pictures.



Here we are in all our glory! Amelia having her first chance to feed Graham. They both loved it! Walmart: hungry anyone? People were everywhere...seemed like Thousands! Amelia in front of the Olympic characters. These were at Yellow Crane Tower. They are everywhere!

Climbing the stairs at Yellow Crane Tower. Looking up at Mama!

Yellow Crane Tower..."Very Famous"!

View from our window at our Hotel. The square is huge - about 4 football lengths square. Fountain lights up at night. Will do all those pictures later.

Helping out at the East Lake. Graham loves to see what's going on. The seatbelt doesn't do much good!

At East Lake. Where Graham loves to be best - being held by his Baba!

In front of the Hubei Provincial Museum. Very beautiful buildings. Reminds us inside of The Getty in Southern CA. Well done. We enjoyed it.

Amelia having a Hot Dog. It tasted sweet if you can imagine. Go Bears!

Happy Baby Graham waiting for Pizza at Pizza Hut. Notice the pink Boa on the stairwell to the back of the picture. Mardigras at Pizza Hut!

Amelia and Tom enjoying a Father-Daughter moment over 7-up at Pizza Hut!

I'm so embarrased to say...his first french fries at McDonalds! He loves them! :) (Bad Mama!)

And here's the news...We have been busy bees here in Wuhan, China. As you can see from the pictures, over the past few days we have visited East Lake (a gorgeous scenic lake in the middle of the city), tried to see Chairman Mao's Villa on East Lake (it was closed to the public - they were having an official meeting there), toured the local Museum where we saw and heard some of the largest bronze bells in China (2,000 years old from a discovered tomb), toured up the "White Crane Tower" (favored home of Chinese poets for the past 1,000 years or so) and even fit in a visit to the local Super Walmart! Whew!...

The children are doing great. Amelia is settling in, and has decided that for the most part, brother is ok. Graham is so easy going! He just loves being out in public and seeing the people. He falls asleep in the van as we travel - or on Tom's shoulder - or in his stroller - just wherever, as long as he has his bottle with warm formula in it, he's happy. He has a good routine, which fits our family just fine. He's up around 6:30am, then naps around 10:00, then again at 1:00, and lights out around 8:30 or 9:00pm. This is a good routine, and we'll try to keep it at home as well. Especially since Amelia still naps from 1:00 - 3:00 daily, I'll do my best to keep them to it.

Tom is still the most favored one! When Graham is tired or fussy (he's teething hard), it's his "Baba" he wants. I'm just fine with it this time, since I know Mama will have the bulk of the child care once we're home. He really loves Tom! And Tom is in heaven. He keeps hugging me and telling me how amazed he is at our little family! It sure is different than his 30 plus years of bachelorhood - that's for sure!

Oh, when you see the orange "tag" on Amelia's dress, it's an information card she likes to wear. It's in Chinese and it says, "Hello, My name is Amelia. I am an American child. I speak English, not Chinese. Thank you." Our local kindergarten mandarin teacher wrote it for us, and she loves wearing it. It gets her lots of attention, and everyone who reads it loves it. They always laugh and smile at her. When people read it, they usually read it outloud, which is fun to hear.

Shopping here in Wuhan is OK. If you like women's shoes, and you have a wide foot, you will love it ---ooh, we just had a little earthquake! I'm feeling it moving as I write this. We're 18 floors up, so I hope this building has good steel holding it up! ha. It feels pretty long - a minute or so at least...Tom just came in, and he felt it as he walked from the elevator to the room door.

I looked out and the street level seems normal. I guess we Californian's brought it with us. Good thing we trust in the Lord! :)...but I'm putting my pants on and grabbing the passports just in case! :)

Anyway, back to shopping. The shoes are great. I'm having to restrain myself. There are lots of shoe stores, but it's pick and choose on the rest of the stuff, although there's a department store down the street that is as nice as any Nordstrom's - with comprable pricing too. I found Graham some cute outfits there on sale. I've been shopping while the kids sleep. The worst was waiting in line to check out for 50 minutes!! at the local supermarket. Unbelievable.

We are packing today (Monday) since we now have all the legal documentation we need to leave the city. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we fly to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) where the American Embassy is, and will finish all our documents Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday we pick up Graham's Visa, take the train to Hong Kong, and then Saturday we're home.

I'm not rushing this trip, it's just been pretty difficult this time. Our guide doesn't speak English very well, so every encounter with her is difficult. The hotel is not used to Americans, and they have few English speaking staff, and for some reason it's been difficult to get good food. Breakfast is OK, there's a buffet, and usually eggs and toast and cereal and fruit (along with so many strange things I can't even write them all down - we don't eat them anyway), lunch we've been getting room service for steamed rice and a pork noodle soup. But dinner has been hit and miss.

Last night we were at the Super Walmart and they have a cooked food section. We got a roasted chicken (the size of a game hen), steamed rice (not allowed to get alone, only with 2 sides...but we don't want 2 sides, only 1, so double on the side of cucumber stew), corn on the cob, and noodles. Sounds simple, and only cost $3.00U.S., but tasted disgusting. There was so much salt on the chicken I couldn't eat it, the corn was frozen and just barely warmed up soaked in oil, and gummy noodles and salty cucumbers...but the experience! :) At least Amelia ate the chicken and rice, Tom ate it all, I just drank water. This is just one story. This is why we are guilty of eating at McDonalds and Pizza Hut...I can't believe we did that, but we were so hungry for "normal tasting" food...I will no longer judge the "ugly americans" who go to these fast food joints! This is quite different than the last trip...then we never went to any fast food and feasted on delicious Chinese food the entire time. Also, Amelia never even had McDonalds french fries for at least 1 year after we came home. Graham loves them!

Oh, I have to tell a funny China story. Yesterday we were at the Yellow Crane Tower. There are about 10,000 steps at this place. Up and down, up and down...it was a workout! Well, last night when we were at Walmart, I really had to use the restroom. So I found out where it was (just past the checkout counters - all 66 of them), just like at home. The similarity ended there. As I walked down the hallway towards the bathrooms I noticed a nasty smell getting stronger. Oh no, I thought...PLEASE let there be normal toilets in here...at least one! But when I arrived, I waited in line, and as I looked in the stalls, all were the famous "squatty potties". Well, there was one normal one, but that stall was being used as a storage stall with mops, and papers etc., all piled up inside it. So, thankful I had brought my tissue with me (all stalls are stocked with only a trash can for paper waste - no toilet paper in sight), I proceeded to squat and go. Well, one thing I had forgotten is that I don't normally do 10,000 stairs a day in my exercise routine! And when I began to "unsquat", the brain was willing, but the legs were weak. I thought, stand up, and my thighs began to quiver - like "you've got to be kidding"...and the thought raced through my brain, please don't fall because this floor is the most stinky, disgusting thing you've ever walked on...and just in the nick of time, the legs responded and I stood, thankful for years of running that gave me at least a vestige of strength when I really needed it! The moral of this story is that the next time you're in Target or Safeway or the local gas station, and need to avail yourself of the facilities, no matter how gross and dirty they may be, just be thankful you can actually cover the seat and sit, and don't have to squat!

I'll write more later, but I think this is long enough as it is. Please know we are thinking of you all, and thankful for our friends and family. We can't wait to get home.

Love ya!