Funny Video

I’m a big fan of magic, puppets, and funny little hand tricks. This fits all of the above...

*and I needed something to post to try out my new fall color scheme on the blog!

Woodland Park Zoo

On a bit of a whim, we decided to take Kai and Shen to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle on Tuesday. We had decided not to send Kai to school that day because his already long bus ride was going to be even longer due to a road construction project. A full day, “out of town” trip to the zoo seemed a bit over the top, but since I am beginning a new job next Monday (after 3 months of being out of work) this was also a bit of a celebratory treat, and a way to take advantage of the last of my “time off” to do something fun with the boys. Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day in the middle of rainy streak we’ve been having lately, so we had a great day! We didn’t bring a stroller with us, and the boys had no problem keeping up. We ended up spending over 5 hours exploring the park and seeing all the animals before going home, all of us very, very tired!

"Dad, Tell Mommy about the blood coming out of the TV!"

Kai says, "Dad, Tell Mommy about the blood coming out of the TV!"

No, we weren’t watching Poltergeist or The Shining. We have been having problems with the television cable signal for the last couple weeks. It mostly affects the lower channels rendering any recordings off the major networks unwatchable. The PBS Kids recordings have still been okay so it hasn’t been an emergency.

I finally got around to calling Comcast to have them check it out. The guy that came to work on it was talking to me about the problem and was explaining that all the different devices we have stacked on top of one another: amplifier dvd player, vcr, Tivo box, cable modem, wireless router, Vonage box, stereo speakers - all these things can “BLEED” radio frequency signals. He talked about how signal interference can “BLEED” from one device to another, that bad cables can “BLEED” signals too, and that “BLEED-over” can affect your TV picture.

Even after Tina and I explained to Kai that the word “bleed” meant something different the way the cable-guy was using it and that their wasn’t any blood in the TV, Kai continued to insist the problem was blood. He then went on to pretend to be a cable-guy and acted out fixing an imaginary television. He was able to locate and successfully stop the blood from coming out of a number of components.

Family Day!

Today was the third anniversary of the day we met Kai in China. One of our family traditions over the last three years has been to dress Kai in the clothes he wore the day we met him. I’m not sure how many more years we’ll get to do this!

We still struggle a bit with what exactly to call this day, mostly we stick with family day, (as it isn’t the day we adopted him, it can’t be “Adoption Day”) but we use “Gotcha Day” too. Though some people don’t like the sound of that, but the boys love running up and grabbing us, or us grabbing them, or both, and all of us shouting “Gotcha” and hugging tight. We did this over and over while they squealed with laughter and begged to do it more!


Shen’s first Family Day anniversary was on August 5th and while we celebrated the day with him, we didn’t manage to get the photos of him in his outfit. So we did his photo today too. It was actually nice doing them both at the same time and the boys really enjoyed it. We were surprised at how well Shen fit in his clothes, but when we looked back at the photos of him from a year ago we saw that the outfit was much too big for him that day.


It’s amazing to see how much Kai’s feet have grown as well. While he can still squeeze into the clothes, there isn’t a chance of getting the shoes on!

Kai & Shen mugging for the camera

We made egg flower soup for dinner again this evening. That’s the second time this week, but it’s Kai’s favorite and it was his pick. We called the asian market to see if they had any mooncakes left over and fortunately they did. Kai has developed quite the taste for the lotus-seed paste filled ones, so we picked up a couple more to have for dessert. Since the day we met Kai was the first time we ever bought mooncakes (in Beijing) this seemed quite appropriate.

We finished the day by looking at the picture books we made for Kai and Shen about their adoption stories which they both love to read again and again.

Soccer

Kai and Shen got to play indoor soccer at the Sportsplex Tuesday morning. They have a 1-hour drop-in “Tot Soccer” program that consists of instructor lead games and activities, and lots of running and kicking. There were a number of other children there that Kai and Shen knew, they all had a great time as well as a good workout!

Moon Festival Fun

Moon Festival was Sunday. We celebrated by going to the Mei Hua Chinese School’s party on Saturday night. Kai and Shen made paper lanterns and a calligrapher wrote the Chinese characters for their names for them. There were a bunch of musical performances. A group of children sang a song called "Jasmine Flower" that Shen thought he knew and he was singing along.

On Sunday night we celebrated by having our friends the Gudmundsens over for a homemade Chinese dinner. We kept to a pretty simple menu: fried rice, egg flour soup and pot sticker dumplings. Cooking for 8 meant lots of chopping and mixing and some math for doubling recipes. Egg flower soup is very simple to make and is Kai’s absolute favorite food. The trick to fried rice is using day old rice so we had cooked up lots of jasmine rice the day before. We considered using packaged wrappers for the pot stickers, but in the end did the right thing and made our own. The dough is really simple and a little goes a long way. We made over 40 of them which was pretty labor intensive, but definitely worth it as these were the hit of the dinner!

After dinner we ate mooncakes. We bought fewer mooncakes this year because we’ve had too many in the past. I think they are something of an acquired taste if you haven’t had them before. They aren’t like a regular western cake, and their diminutive size does not convey the heavy richness inside. This is the fourth year we’ve celebrated Moon Festival and now I find myself looking forward to mooncakes. Kai and Shen both really like them too, so we probably could have done with a few more this year. We had a bunch of little ones with a sweet pineapple filling and two large lotus-seed ones with the duck egg yolk inside. Shen preferred the sweeter pineapple ones while Kai really loves the lotus-seed ones (these ones remind me of peanut butter bars). I was disappointed we couldn’t find any of the red bean paste ones locally this year, but there’s always next year.

After eating mooncake we waited for it to get dark then went outside and looked at the moon. We have had beautiful clear weather lately so it was warm and the moon was very, very bright. It was almost 9 o’clock before the moon cleared the trees around our house so the boys had to stay up pretty late to see it, then it was straight to bed!

Catch Up Blogging - or, "What We Did During Summer Vacation"

Okay, so I didn’t blog for a couple months. I have my excuses. But I had no idea how hard it would be to get started again. I thought habits were harder to break? So, this is going to be a catch up entry - sort of a Kitchen Sink post, as I throw a bunch of stuff in from over the summer. What follows is a great example of how selective editing can really improve your life, and that when the going gets tough, the tough go party...

We celebrated July 4th at my Sister Kris’ house. (Shen calls her “Uncle Kris”) Since my mom had all three of her children, their spouses, and all the grandkids there she insisted on getting a family portrait for her Christmas cards. 43 pictures were taken of the group with my camera and there wasn’t a good one in the bunch. When Mom was visiting last week she wanted to know why she hadn’t gotten a copy from us yet, so I showed her what I had. She agreed, it was not good. But, thank goodness for Photoshop! I was able to move heads around from 8 different pictures to produce this miracle shot - all of us looking at the camera with relatively pleasant expressions. A beautiful moment that never really happened...



We had Shen’s One Year Post Placement Interview with our social worker. Which also means we celebrated Shen’s Adoption Day. Here’s the photo we provided to prove he’s still alive and living happily with us. It looks pretty convincing, and I swear it isn’t Photoshopped...


We went to the Lynden Fair where we saw all the animals, ate fair food, heard live music and rode a bunch of kiddy rides...



We celebrated Ben’s 18th Birthday and Brittni’s 20th. Here’s a photo our neighbor Stephen snapped us singing Happy Birthday!


We played in the pool at Grandma’s Condo...




We went to Priest Lake with Aunt (uncle) Kris and Uncle Mark too.
We got to drive Uncle Mark’s Boat!


And go inner-tubing!


And build sandcastles!


We visited our friend Jasper and his parents, Pat and Paula at their beach house on Padilla Bay. Uncle Pat took us for a ride in the row boat...


Kai started school last week. Here’s a photo of him waiting for the bus with Gramma. I love the pensive look on his face, but he wasn’t really worried about school, just annoyed at having to pose for pictures.


Well, that almost gets us caught up! Now we can move on to current posting. I’m going to try hard to get back in the habit so I hope you follow along.

Visit from Gramma O

We had Gramma here with us for a visit the last few days which Kai and Shen thoroughly enjoyed! There’s nothing better than an extra grown-up around who is always willing to cuddle, or read stories, or fetch you snacks and drinks, or best of all to watch you show off! Gramma went out to parks with us, and on shopping trips and had a good time just hanging out and visiting. It was nice for Scott & Tina too, to have someone else to watch the boys while we got some bigger chores done around the house! When Gramma wasn’t doting on “The Littles” she was busy knitting custom mittens - a hot commodity in the “limb difference world”. We miss you already Gramma!

Who Needs Hong Kong Disneyland?

We are on our own for most of the day today so we had breakfast late then went out for a walk. The staring here is REALLY intense! Tina and I are quite amused as we speculate what's going on in their heads. Foreign adoption is not commonly known about within mainland China. I think when we're with Bob people assume he is Kai's father, Tina is Bob's wife and I'm the brother-in-law, Uncle Scott. When it's just Tina, me and Kai the looks we get make it appear that there is no reasonable explanation for what they are seeing.
So anyway, we headed out away from the hotel in hopes of finding a park. We only had to go a few large city blocks before we found a really sweet deal. There was a beautiful little park with a man-made lake with islands and bridges where they were renting paddle-boats.



This sounded like a great idea to Kai. You know, paddle-boats look much more serene then they really are.



I wish I could tell you that the well-maintained state-of-the-art engineering behind the propulsion systems on these ones made them a joy to peddle, but all I can really say is I'll be feeling that ride tomorrow.
There was also a set of carnival type rides there as well, which Kai absolutely loves, so we let him pick one out to ride.

But not this one.



or this one.

He settled on this one, but didn't really understand the point of the ride.



Until the kindly ride operator hopped on his car in motion and explained how the guns worked.


These are targets that you shoot to make them animate!


Soon Kai was joyfully shooting up the animals like a pro!


This ride went on for about 15 minutes or more. At one point two older boys came along who were itching to ride spaceships and shoot at animals too, so one of the workers used brute force to stop the cars and let them on. After a while the operators moved around behind the control booth like they were going to end the ride, but they were only taking a smoke break. When some other kids came along and wanted on they stopped it again, and this time I stepped in to remove Kai. Even though the deal was "only one ride" it cost us this balloon to get out of the park and back to the hotel without a tantrum.


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Old and New

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Mmmm... Italian Red Meat Flavor!

Free sample that came with the very hard to find plain potato chips. Ketchup and Tomato appeared to be the most popular flavors. Also saw Spicy Seafood and Korean Kimchee flavors.

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A Note We Found Slipped Under The Door

Apology Letter
Dear guest:
Our hotel will repair the wall of our building from tomorrow to 15 Aug . So you need to notice something:1.Plese close the door and windows when nobody in the room.2.Please Dont approach the building avoid hurting yourself.3.Please stop the car 10 meters out of the building to avoid hurting your car. We hope you could understand it if it make you trouble.

Heng Tong Fortune Center Hotel

Nothing Like Blogging From China To Increase Your Hit Count!

Hits are way way up. It makes it fun to write when you know people are reading. Of course it's much easier to write when you're over your head in subject matter.
Comments and email are very welcome - sorry that responses aren't too great - most of my writing focus is centered here. I used to require comments to be approved before allowing them up, but for now your comments are posted immediately, so thanks for all your good wishes!
Here's where all the exciting blogging action is happening - one of the tidier areas of the room.



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Going Bonkers In Baoding

Today was the first day we woke up in China (I actually woke up a couple times in China this morning). We met Bob in the lobby at 9:30 AM.



Since we were up in our room at about 6:00 AM, this gave us plenty of time to get ourselves sort of put together and have breakfast first. The hotel we're staying in is not one I'd recommend, but it's not too bad. The "buffet" has very few western items, and I'm not quite brave enough to venture into the Chinese breakfast staples yet. We did alright though, and got a kick out of the amusement we provided to the staff. After breakfast we headed straight to the S.W.I. where Kai used to live for a visit. It appears being granted the opportunity for this visit was quite fortunate on our part. Another family who was just here to adopt was refused by the director. Bob told us that when he first inquired about our visit with the S.W.I. director he was refused as well, so he contacted the local governor who gave his approval. Basically Bob went over the director's head. We aren't sure why the director doesn't want familiies visiting, but the nannies and the assistant directors made us feel very welcome. We worried a bit about how Kai would do during this visit. Would he be frightened that we might leave him? Would he truly remember his nanny? Would he behave? As Bob drove closer to the S.W.I. Tina and I began to recognise the area from our trip to adopt Kai, and then we were pullling in to the compound. When Kai saw the entrance to the offices he proclaimed, "China!" He finally felt we had arrived.

We went in to the same office where we first met Kai; the assistant director we met two years ago called out, "Hui-Hui!"



She greeted us, and Bob explained that we would be allowed to take pictures outside, but not inside, then a few other adults joined us and we headed to see the new children's building. The assistant director took Kai's hand and he went with her willingly. As soon as we got the children's building Kai's nanny, Chin-yen appeared and scooped him up! Kai was actually thrilled to see her!





The language barrier is so frustrating, even with an interpretor it was very difficult to communicate what we wanted to say. We have looked at pictures of her so often with Kai, that meeting her again was almost like encountering a mythical being! There is a play-structure in the atrium of the new building that Kai was dying to play on, so they let him in and we all followed him. We had a short list of children who we know have adoptive parents waiting to come get them, so they brought these children down for us to photograph. I have a lot photos of these children, but the internet connection is too slow for me to upload them all now. Hopefully it will be faster in Xi'an and I will get them all uploaded to our Walgreen's site then. Kai had a great time playing and visiting with the nannies, and one little girl in particular who was close to his age. We only saw a few other children besides the ones on our list, and we weren't allowed to see their living areas. but the nannies were very gracious and truly thrilled to see Kai. They were all over him, and at one point his main nanny scooped him up and took him up the stairs. It was clear that Tina and I were not to follow, and even when she took him out of view, he was fine with her. It was actually quite strange the way he was so at ease. He seemed to be enjoying the visit every bit as much as they were.























We brought a few gifts of clothes and art supplies for the children and asked the nannies what they could use. They told us that they really needed disposable diapers and formula for the very young babies, as they seemed to be getting more of these lately. So we went to a store and bought some more of these items and returned with them later in the day.

We invited the directors to lunch but they declined. Bob felt that this was probably due to our visit being arranged in spite of the head director initially declining our request. He had met with us out of obligation, but was going no further. So we went to a very nice lunch at a beautiful Chinese restaurant with Bob. The rest of the day we spent touring the former governor's estate/office, and the Lotus Pond Gardens. The former governor was a very high ranking position and the offices were layed out like a small version of the forbidden city. The Lotus Pond Gardens, were formally owned a by a very wealthy landowner and are amazingly beautiful. Kai particularly enjoyed the gardens as he was able to run and play outdoors. Bob was very indulgant of him and played games of make-believe that Kai initiated. The day was very warm and humid, but the rains from last night had cleared the air and we had blue skies overhead and good visibility. In spite of feeling a bit sticky, it was a very beautiful day for site-seeing.











Kai had a few very minor melt-downs, but on the whole he has continued to be extremely cooperative and eager to go and see whatever is next. He loves talking with Bob, who is way too indulgant. The staff at the S.W.I. were this way too, he was definitely spoiled today and was the star of the show. Considering though, how things will shift for him when we receive Shen, we are glad that Kai is able to be the main focus for this part of the trip.

We continue to receive lots of intense stares from people when we are out. It's mainly the site of us with Kai that seems to puzzle people. I went alone to a little grocery store down the street from the hotel on my own to pick up a few snack items and was hardly noticed, but add the woman with curly red hair, and the little Chinese boy speaking English to us, and we become something like a UFO siting.

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