The Family has arrived in Beijing

We’re here in Beijing finally! It’s been a LONG four months being off and on separated from Anthony and it’s nice to be together, even though he’s worked everyday we’ve been here.

The flight here was uneventful. The kids did pretty well. We forgot to request a bassinet on the long flight, so they didn’t have one for us. Instead, Ryken spent the majority of the time in the sling with me or in Liz’s carseat, if she would sit in a seat. The flight was not full, so we had an extra seat available for her to use. Ashley complained a lot of stomach pain, but we think it was from not eating. She pretty much refuses to eat anything offered by American Airlines unless it’s cookies or brownies or candy. We stopped in Tokyo for a layover, where the girls enjoyed the foot massager in the JAL lounge. We were told by several people that we had cute girls and that they did well on the flight over. There were definitely some moments of distress, mainly with Liz – as she had several timeouts in the planes bathroom. I’m sure only about ½ the plane had to listen to her screaming for a few minutes at a time. There was one point where all three kids were crying, but we managed to get it under control fairly quickly. I tried to watch some movies, but with American Airlines system of movie playing, it’s too difficult when you have kids. I much prefer other airlines, where you have on demand moves and can stop and start them on your own. On our flight from Tokyo to Beijing, we flew JAL and I was impressed with the service and quality of seats. They did have a bassinet, so I was able to lay Ryken in it and have some time alone for about 2 hours while he slept, that was FANTASTIC! We arrived in Beijing after a bumpy flight at around 9:30 pm and had a minivan waiting to take us home. With 6 people and tons of luggage, it was a feat fitting it all in, but we managed. The drive was short, about 20 minutes. I was very excited to be going to the place where we’ll be living.

We arrived at night, so it was dark coming into the complex – so I didn’t really get a good look around, plus I was EXHAUSTED. Anthony kept pointing stuff out to me, but that was pretty useless since I couldn’t really even focus. We pulled up to the house and Ashley remarked that the place was “GORGEOUS”. And it did look so. It is a very nice house, so much better than the tiny apartment in Taiwan. I am very pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. It is 2 stories, with a kitchen, dining room, living room, playroom and ½ bath downstairs. There are 3 bedrooms each with their own baths and an area at the top of the stairs we’re using for a study. Anthony had the girls room painted purple and Ryken’s room painted baby blue –it really is so nice to have color. There is a LARGE balcony off of the girls room, which they haven’t discovered yet, thank goodness and there is a smaller balcony off of the master bedroom. We have a yard, yes, a yard. It is big compared to what I thought it was going to be. There’s a front yard with rose bushes and some vines climbing over the fence/wall. The whole place is surrounded by a wall for some privacy. The backyard has several trees and a patio area complete with patio furniture. The grass is new and someone comes by to water it. It really is nice and the girls can run around to their hearts content.

I’m extremely happy with our accommodations here. The place we are living is a large community, with many families. Today is Saturday and I’ve seen kids (and adults) out on bikes, rollerblades and walking all day long. There are several playgrounds with sand and swings – that is just heaven for the girls as they both just want to swing and play in the sand. There is a clubhouse with indoor/outdoor swimming pool, some restaurants, a kids playroom and a small grocery store. Such a change from living in Taiwan.

So far the days have been nice. A bit polluted – the sky just continually looks gray. And there are these strange little gnats flying around everywhere. They get in your clothes and hair and eyes, if you aren’t careful. Strange. We are across the street from a park and there are lots of trees nearby so we have a nice view.

We are all suffering from jet lag – the girls are getting up around 3am and not going back to sleep, it’s been pretty miserable for us all!

Our Ayi (helper), Xiaoshu, is working out wonderfully. She has been a great help to us! It’s taking some getting used to, having someone here all day long, and having someone do things that I normally do, but it is so good. I’m able to take the girls to the park or play with them or write this for the blog while she takes care of meals or watches Ryken. Or she’ll take the girls to the park while I am feeding Ryken or when he’s sleeping. It is so nice to be able to spend some quality time with the kids, especially after the months of being alone and not being able to do things with them. She is going to spoil Ryken for sure, as she loves holding him. The girls are getting used to her being here and have started asking for her to do things with them, which is good.

We are off tomorrow for a little vacation (yes, I know, already!) to Qingdao – supposed to be a beach/seafront touristy town. Should be nice, although it’s definitely not going to be beach weather. Hopefully the hotel has an indoor pool that we can hang out at. I’ll write more when we get back from our vacation.