It's nice to be home!

So we are back from China.

It seems that the past month went by so fast that it was a blur for me. I took Kai to China, and just when his schedule stabilized Justin and the fam came, we toured around(without Kai), got Kai back with us, came home, jet-lagged for a few days, then Halloween came, then all of a sudden I'm looking at the calender saying November. The thought of 2009 will soon come to an end makes me shudder a little bit. Wow this year went by fast.

So I'll back up just a little bit.

I was saying in my last post how I was dreading taking Kai by myself to China. It turned out that he was a FANTASTIC baby on the flight. He slept and ate (even yucky plane food!) and played, was greatly entertained by two older ladies that were sitting by us (I'm so grateful for them. It would have been a lot harder without their help).

So Kai slept for only the first 3 hours on our long stretch of flight, and stayed up almost the whole rest of the way until the last half an hour of our last flight. I guess it was his way of getting over jet-lag---stay up with the sun. Though he was being good, he still refused to be held by anybody but me, so my shoulders had HUGE knots after the plane trip...

After we finally got home, because he'd fallen asleep on the car-ride, he had a little freak-out moment of about 15 minutes, where he just cried and clung onto me. I ran out of ideas quickly (running on a straight 24 hours with no sleep tend to do that to you...) and just decided to put him in a bath. Good job mom for getting the little plastic blow-up pool for Kai to take baths in---Chinese households generally don't have bath tubs. Kai calmed down right away, and ate a little dinner with smiles on his face. We went to bed that night at around 10:00 PM, and he amazingly slept until 5:30 AM the next day.

Over the next two weeks I mostly hung out at home with him and my parents, trying to get him down to a good schedule and to make sure that he gets familiar with the new environment. He loved anything and everything my Mom made, and would climb onto his high chair to wait to be fed when he felt hungry---it was pretty darn cute. I was worried that he'd get sick in China because the environment is so different, and frankly it is just not as clean, but he was a trooper and didn't even have a runny nose during the whole month that he was there. I snuck in a couple of shopping trips in there but it's just not as fun without Justin around (I know, I actually really like shopping with him, weird huh?)

So then Justin came with Jared, Shannon, Tara and John to meet me in Beijing. It was good to see Justin again after two long weeks. They were all exhausted from the trip and unfortunately my plane to Beijing was late, so they had to sit in a cafe in the airport waiting for me for an hour and half... poor guys. Most of the following days were fun , for me mainly because I'm busy playing the slave-driver herding everybody to do all the things we've (I've) packed into the short schedule.

The funniest thing that happened on the trip was the first dinner we had in China. After we got to the hotel from the airport, everyone was famished and we set out to hunt. After walking past some street vendors selling squid tentacles and restaurants with steaming hot-pots, I decided that a little crowded dumpling restaurant would best suite our various taste-buds (and stomach-strengths--I didn't want anyone to get sick from street vendor food right away). So we walked in and sat down---this whole place had maybe 10 tables and we had to sit smack in the middle... people were gawking all around us. I was starting to feel like a traitor hanging out with a bunch of white people... I had to just press on and order food and hope that people would stop staring.

Food came, everything turned out to be good---Shannon especially enjoyed the cucumbers since that's the only thing she can really eat (poor girl... China sure is an adventurous food world). Just when we were finishing up, a group of local Chinese guys came in and sat at the table behind us. One of them watched us (Justin and the others, not me really) eat and was impressed with their chopsticks skills, and was cracking jokes in Chinese. I translated, and everyone laughed. Just when we stood up to leave, those Chinese guys came to shake everyones' hand and wish us a good trip in China.

The farewell scene got carried away and someone handed Jared a cup of Chinese alcohol. He took a sip and all those guys cheered, and they laughed and clapped for him to keep going---and being Jared, he did (it was a good 3 oz. of 100 proof alcohol... the kind that smell and taste more like a rubbing alcohol than a drink). We left the restaurant, and within three minutes Jared's face was already red. He commented on how strong that drink was, and clutched his stomach:'I think my ulcer is acting up.' Shannon looked at him like he was crazy: 'What are you talking about? You don't have an ulcer.' He said,'I'm starting to get one though.' And then soon after that, he said something, and giggled out loud. So we decided that it was gonna be a great trip because Jared got sloshed within the first 4 hours of being in China.

Well it's getting late and I really should be getting to bed. I guess the rest of the China stories would have to wait (I couldn't have finished all of them in one post anyway) and there'll be pictures to come.


So... until next time!