Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Second Day and already called by the Teacher
So much for a great second day at school! I already got a call from Ashley’s teacher! She called to let me know that Ashley wasn’t herself at school today and she refused to eat lunch and kept saying she was tired. So I went and picker her up early, brought her home and she went to sleep. She woke up with a fever, so she’s either sick or the rabies shot she got affected her a bit. I hope she’s not sick as that would be a bummer for a first week at school, to miss out on that from being sick. Liz was also not herself today at school, very quiet and also not eating much, which is completely unlike her. I think for her it was definitely the shot and not getting enough sleep last night. I’m hoping they will sleep good tonight, although it’s not starting out well. Anthony is away tonight at a business dinner, and the girls have finally calmed down enough and are laying quietly in bed. It’s taken me over an hour to get them in bed from the time I first said it was bedtime. Thankfully, Ryken went to sleep fairly easily tonight
Update on kids
School has started – what a relief! Yes, sometimes I feel like a horrible parent for feeling so happy that school is here. Ashley just thrives in social situations and it has been so tough on her being at home without any sort of schedule or consistency to her days. She was so excited yesterday when she went to school, barely giving me a second glance in her rush to go in her classroom. She is wearing a uniform and looks so cute! It helps that the shirt is light blue as it matches her eyes. She told me that she made 3 friends yesterday at school. Of course, when I took her to school this morning, she wasn’t so happy, she did start to cry a bit and I read a page of a book to her while she got comfortable sitting in “circle time” on the floor and then she seemed fine – gave me a hug and kiss goodbye. I was told that while all the kids were excited yesterday, today there have been many more tears as it sets in that they are going to school all day without mom around.
Liz is now in school everyday – ½ days – so she comes home after lunch. I have given up on her taking naps now – she’s been fighting them everyday, screaming and crying to not take one. It was taking too much energy to get her down for one – so she’s got an early bedtime and hopefully it will work. She’s learning Mandarin at her school and seems to be doing well.
We took the girls last night to the doctor for a checkup and to ask some questions about things. They are both caught up on shots (had to have rabies done last night – it was pretty awful as they cry from the fear of the shot – so as soon as the nurse appears). We are going to have to keep an eye on Liz and what she eats – she’s on the heavy side and although it’s not bad right now – if she keeps with the same pace, she’ll be overweight. So, we’ve got to watch what she eats and how much she eats. She also has flat feet and some possible turning in of one leg – so we’ll keep an eye on that also. May explain why we have trouble with her refusing to walk and saying her feet hurt. We have just been assuming it was a phase she was going through, but maybe there is some reason behind it. The doctor said for now, just to get some good shoes for her (not sure how to do that here in China!) and keep an eye on it.
Ashley’s doing good too – we talked with the doctor about bed wetting as Ashley has some issues with that but since it doesn’t bother her at all yet, there’s not really anything to be done with it. He said to wait it out and see what happens over the next 6 months or so. She also apparently has some flat feet issues – not as much as Liz – so same thing – good shoes with good arch support. If it continues or seems to worsen, then we’ll have to get some arch supports made for them both.
Ryken also went in yesterday for his 6 month checkup. He’s going GREAT. His stats: 71 cm long (28 inches), 9.2 kg weight (20.28 lbs), 45 cm head circumference (17.73 inches). All in all, that’s about in the 85%. He got one shot yesterday and didn’t even cry – he started to until the nurse starting talking to him in baby talk, then he smiled! He’s starting to be able to sit on his own, with some support and pushes up on his hands. He can roll over, back to front and front to back, although he doesn’t do that very often. He’s eating oatmeal cereal now – we think he’s allergic or sensitive to rice cereal since he got a rash and threw up after eating it. We’ll start trying some new foods soon also – starting with veggies. He doesn’t seem to like the oatmeal very much so far. When he sleeps good, he’ll sleep 8-9 hour stretches a night – but it’s pretty inconsistent as he does still wake up fairly often to nurse or just to fuss. He loves playing with his toys – more so than I remember the girls ever doing. He likes feeling new things on his toys and grabbing at toys hanging above him.
Liz is now in school everyday – ½ days – so she comes home after lunch. I have given up on her taking naps now – she’s been fighting them everyday, screaming and crying to not take one. It was taking too much energy to get her down for one – so she’s got an early bedtime and hopefully it will work. She’s learning Mandarin at her school and seems to be doing well.
We took the girls last night to the doctor for a checkup and to ask some questions about things. They are both caught up on shots (had to have rabies done last night – it was pretty awful as they cry from the fear of the shot – so as soon as the nurse appears). We are going to have to keep an eye on Liz and what she eats – she’s on the heavy side and although it’s not bad right now – if she keeps with the same pace, she’ll be overweight. So, we’ve got to watch what she eats and how much she eats. She also has flat feet and some possible turning in of one leg – so we’ll keep an eye on that also. May explain why we have trouble with her refusing to walk and saying her feet hurt. We have just been assuming it was a phase she was going through, but maybe there is some reason behind it. The doctor said for now, just to get some good shoes for her (not sure how to do that here in China!) and keep an eye on it.
Ashley’s doing good too – we talked with the doctor about bed wetting as Ashley has some issues with that but since it doesn’t bother her at all yet, there’s not really anything to be done with it. He said to wait it out and see what happens over the next 6 months or so. She also apparently has some flat feet issues – not as much as Liz – so same thing – good shoes with good arch support. If it continues or seems to worsen, then we’ll have to get some arch supports made for them both.
Ryken also went in yesterday for his 6 month checkup. He’s going GREAT. His stats: 71 cm long (28 inches), 9.2 kg weight (20.28 lbs), 45 cm head circumference (17.73 inches). All in all, that’s about in the 85%. He got one shot yesterday and didn’t even cry – he started to until the nurse starting talking to him in baby talk, then he smiled! He’s starting to be able to sit on his own, with some support and pushes up on his hands. He can roll over, back to front and front to back, although he doesn’t do that very often. He’s eating oatmeal cereal now – we think he’s allergic or sensitive to rice cereal since he got a rash and threw up after eating it. We’ll start trying some new foods soon also – starting with veggies. He doesn’t seem to like the oatmeal very much so far. When he sleeps good, he’ll sleep 8-9 hour stretches a night – but it’s pretty inconsistent as he does still wake up fairly often to nurse or just to fuss. He loves playing with his toys – more so than I remember the girls ever doing. He likes feeling new things on his toys and grabbing at toys hanging above him.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunny Sanya, Hainan, China
We just got back from a 5 day vacation to a wonderful place in Hainan, China – a town called Sanya. This place is touted as China’s “Hawaii” and it’s close. There are definitely some things they could improve on, as far as tourism and stuff, but overall, we had a great time – of course, staying at a five star resort with it’s own private beach probably helped that quite a bit! We stayed at the Marriot and it was gorgeous. Beautiful pools, beach, rooms, gardens, restaurants, etc. We really enjoyed the time and even had some relaxing moments with Ryken asleep in the stroller and the girls playing in the sand. We were unsure how the trip was going to go – as we had a few problems to start with.
I booked the trip through a Chinese travel agency located in Sanya and was asked to bring cash with us to pay for it – now, for those that aren’t familiar with the Chinese RMB (money) system – the largest denomination bill they make is 100 RMB (worth about 12 US dollars) – so we had to pay for a trip using all RMB – that’s a large amount of cash to be carrying around. We decided to wait and get the cash when we got to Sanya so we wouldn’t be carrying around that much money. We also had no tickets, no authorization, no paperwork, basically, just the travel agent info, and the flight numbers we were booked on. When we arrived at the airport and went to check in, we didn’t have e-tickets and didn’t have paper tickets, so we couldn’t check in. UH-OH. We got a hold of the travel agent who quickly fixed the situation, but it was a bit hairy and we weren’t sure what was going on! We did make our flight and Ryken and I even had a whole row to ourselves to stretch out and relax. When we got to Sanya, Anthony tried to get money out of an ATM and it didn’t work with our China account or our international card – oops. Luckily, the travel agency was very accommodating and allowed us to come up with other ways of making payments (eventually we did manage to get money using the ATM at the hotel). So we didn’t end up actually paying for our trip until the very end. Seems like an unusual way to do business as a travel agency. For those who may want the info – we used Caddie at www.sunnysanya.com – we highly recommend her as she was helpful and accommodating for us.
Ryken was very cranky – for a few days before the trip, he’d been sick – he had hand, foot and mouth virus – which causes high fever, painful spots in the mouth, vomiting and spots on the rest of his body. Although he was doing better, no fever, he was still quite fussy. Turns out he was also getting teeth in as his first tooth broke through the first night of vacation. He was much happier after that and slept well in the crib provided by the hotel. He’s got two teeth now. He had fun, enjoyed the pool and the stroller quite a bit. He managed to get a bit too much sun in the first day of being outside – even with sunblock and being kept in the shade for all but about 10 minutes. He didn’t get to enjoy the sand or waves much, due to me being afraid of getting him really sunburned or him eating too much sand, since all he does is put his hands in his mouth.
The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hotels and vacations. They both slept wonderfully sharing a bed and we had no problems getting them to sleep every night. Guess all that running around in the sand and water helps tire them both out. Ashley seems to prefer the beach and sand and waves to play in while Liz prefers the pool. Ashley would be playing at the beach and Liz would go every 5 minutes and wash the sand off her body in the showers they have at the beach. That was her favorite part – not playing in the sand, but washing it off herself.
Unfortunately, the trip ended badly, as our plane was delayed from noon until 6 pm, first due to “mechanical problems” and then due to “weather” – we don’t really think there was bad weather. We had to wait around this itty bitty stinky airport for 6 hours with three kids and then take a 3.75 hour flight back home. Not fun. I heard that the government stipulates that individuals get their money back for flights that are delayed more than 3 hours for mechanical problems – hence the reason it was changed to “weather” – so people wouldn’t get reimbursed.
All in all, we had a great trip and enjoyed some relaxing times. We are now ready for school to start!!!!
I booked the trip through a Chinese travel agency located in Sanya and was asked to bring cash with us to pay for it – now, for those that aren’t familiar with the Chinese RMB (money) system – the largest denomination bill they make is 100 RMB (worth about 12 US dollars) – so we had to pay for a trip using all RMB – that’s a large amount of cash to be carrying around. We decided to wait and get the cash when we got to Sanya so we wouldn’t be carrying around that much money. We also had no tickets, no authorization, no paperwork, basically, just the travel agent info, and the flight numbers we were booked on. When we arrived at the airport and went to check in, we didn’t have e-tickets and didn’t have paper tickets, so we couldn’t check in. UH-OH. We got a hold of the travel agent who quickly fixed the situation, but it was a bit hairy and we weren’t sure what was going on! We did make our flight and Ryken and I even had a whole row to ourselves to stretch out and relax. When we got to Sanya, Anthony tried to get money out of an ATM and it didn’t work with our China account or our international card – oops. Luckily, the travel agency was very accommodating and allowed us to come up with other ways of making payments (eventually we did manage to get money using the ATM at the hotel). So we didn’t end up actually paying for our trip until the very end. Seems like an unusual way to do business as a travel agency. For those who may want the info – we used Caddie at www.sunnysanya.com – we highly recommend her as she was helpful and accommodating for us.
Ryken was very cranky – for a few days before the trip, he’d been sick – he had hand, foot and mouth virus – which causes high fever, painful spots in the mouth, vomiting and spots on the rest of his body. Although he was doing better, no fever, he was still quite fussy. Turns out he was also getting teeth in as his first tooth broke through the first night of vacation. He was much happier after that and slept well in the crib provided by the hotel. He’s got two teeth now. He had fun, enjoyed the pool and the stroller quite a bit. He managed to get a bit too much sun in the first day of being outside – even with sunblock and being kept in the shade for all but about 10 minutes. He didn’t get to enjoy the sand or waves much, due to me being afraid of getting him really sunburned or him eating too much sand, since all he does is put his hands in his mouth.
The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hotels and vacations. They both slept wonderfully sharing a bed and we had no problems getting them to sleep every night. Guess all that running around in the sand and water helps tire them both out. Ashley seems to prefer the beach and sand and waves to play in while Liz prefers the pool. Ashley would be playing at the beach and Liz would go every 5 minutes and wash the sand off her body in the showers they have at the beach. That was her favorite part – not playing in the sand, but washing it off herself.
Unfortunately, the trip ended badly, as our plane was delayed from noon until 6 pm, first due to “mechanical problems” and then due to “weather” – we don’t really think there was bad weather. We had to wait around this itty bitty stinky airport for 6 hours with three kids and then take a 3.75 hour flight back home. Not fun. I heard that the government stipulates that individuals get their money back for flights that are delayed more than 3 hours for mechanical problems – hence the reason it was changed to “weather” – so people wouldn’t get reimbursed.
All in all, we had a great trip and enjoyed some relaxing times. We are now ready for school to start!!!!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Cheap Haircuts
Anthony got his hair cut today - at a local place, outside of our complex. Guess how much it cost him? 8 RMB - that is ONE US DOLLAR!!!! They wash it, cut/shave it and wash it again. He spent about 20 minutes there and they did a pretty good job - a bit short in the top back, but it doesn't look bad. We all walked there this evening - the weather was beautiful. It's about a 15 minute walk away, in some hutongs outside of our complex. There's also a local grocery store and fruit stand and frame shop where I had some cute kid prints framed a few weeks ago. We have a double stroller that we are borrowing from friends here and so we're able to go for walks with Ryken and Liz in the stroller and Ashley on her bike. Works well.
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