Visit to Shekou

Aldie in his new Sack n' seat portable chair!

After a long first week settling in, we headed south to Shekou for brunch, Al fresco by the ocean ish. Shekou is the expat area of the city, and also where one ferry departs to HK.
We ate at Mama's,  open air bacon and pancakes for T(78rmb) and a croissandwich with salmon and home fries (42) and a caramel roll (25). It was in a cool area of restaurants mostly western with a large open plaza like Santa Monica. At the end of the plaza was a small cruise ship. It was a hotel and restaurant, with palm trees on its open deck. Hotel Rooms began at around 500rmb. We boarded the shop only to find it was docked in a teeny body of water,  and we still a ways from the actual ocean. Funny thing was that there was a whole mess  of people on the ship deck taking photos and sitting next smoking,  then a lady with a no came up and yelled at us to all get of the ship!  As we made out way down,  more groups of people were trying to board the ship. It's a pretty cool idea and seemed to be in partnership with Paulaner.

We also got to try out Alden's new fabric chair- which was awesome! He is grabbing and reaching for everything, so it was relief to be able to eat together without juggling him back and forth, except that he kept chucking his toys on the floor. He can throw surprisingly far. Ok - its not really throwing, but he can wave his arms a great deal and release his grip at the same time = toy across the room. But he's not quite aware and sit there confused... like, "Where did my toy go??"

The char is easy to use. Slide it on the back, buckle around the seat (so he can't stand up and pop it off the back) and then buckle the strap under his armpits through upper loops which is an upwards seatbelt if you will. The shoulder straps were a bit big for him- as you can see, his 6 month little arms can't quite reach around the straps to hold things with both hands.

First weekend shenzhen

Sunday afternoon naptime

Horse performance- reenacting a battle. Flaming arrows, and other cool tricks.

Splendid China park with mini versions of famous historical places of China, and also replicas of minority homes. We saw a war reenactment on horse, zip line over a mini west lake. And took naps.

 The first parking lot - walmart I've ever seen in China.

Other sights

woof woof! our adorable 6 month old

 

On the way to Xin'an ancient city

At the Ren ren le grocery store

security tagged toe-shoes - who would steal these?! Lots of weeping willows.

Shenzhen week 1: off to a running start

We came down to Shenzhen about 2 weeks ago, but didn't start to live in our apt until this past week, starting Monday.

It went something like this:

Monday: Toilet clogged. Bad.Took Alden for a walk down Gongxin Zhong 4 rd to metro station, discovered a several evening al fresco eateries and the university.

Tuesday: Plumber came, yay! Alden started solid foods- rice cereal! Saw a huge cockroach in Alden's room- freaked out at 4am.

Wednesday: Strained a back muscle- I am totally out of commission keeled over like a hunchback, and cannot lift our little one : (  Got roach traps and set them up.

Thursday: Saw more roaches in kitchen now- HUGE and gross! We didn't catch the one in Alden's room since Timon stepped in that trap...

I couldn't sit nor stand without back pain. Visited sports medicine rehabilitation center in futian, got lost in the sports block and in pain, went to a convenience store to sit down and cry. The fella there listened to Timon's directions and graciously escorted me to the clinic (while holding my handbag) The Dr.s at the clinic were super nice and helped me so I can walk better now!

Discovered several cool eateries on the way home from the metro (1st time) including Liz Pizza and more al fresco eats and a basketball court in an empty swimming pool. 

Friday: Thats today! Apt is still in disarray, and going back to the clinic in the afternoon.

Whew! We look forward to finish setting up house and also visiting the beach with Timon's team from work.

heading to shenzhen

In 5 days we go 'move' to Shenzhen for T's work project. We are packing light, as we'll only be away for 4 months.

Another city, new to us. We don't know anyone there. Its exciting and a tad daunting- they'll speak cantonese there. And since it is farther south it has more of a tropical climate. Beach!

Shenzhen, city of 7 million, made it big when it became a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 1979. Its also one of the busiest ports in China. I've only been there to visit factories and once, a trade show. Shenzhen is in the Guangdong province along with Guanzhou is roughly 2 hrs NW of Shenzhen, with Dongguan slightly in between. Hong Kong is just across the water from us, about 1 hr by ferry! We are really excited to be able to go there on the weekends.

 So the last time I was in Shenzhen was for a tradeshow.... and was booked a hotel room in a hotel that didn't house foreigners. And it was along a dirt road with nothing in the area. And I sat in the hotel room all day since some other complications wouldn't allow me into the trade show.

I'm feeling a little bit like a migrant worker. Packing to the next city for work. Knowing nothing but hoping for the best. I don't know if a hotel is booked, we have no apt so there's no where to ship Alden's crib or anything. 

Anyways, back to packing and list making!

Alden's 4 months

Alden's 4 months pic. I think he is starting to look more like T in this picture.

-He can grab things in put them in his mouth (toys, my hair, your shirt)
-He gurgles and squeaks, giggles and coos
-He likes to watch people
-He cries when momma leaves for work
-He kicks a lot
-He sleeps on his belly and tucks his knees underneath him
-He think peeing on the wall is hilarious

4.5 months a mother

Every blog post signifies yet another morning spent with tech support to get on our vpn.

I now sit with a sweaty baby strapped to me, straining to see the computer screen. Please Alden, let mommy eat. He's been crying all evening not wanting to sleep even with rubbing his eyes and all. Timon's away on business so its just us two. He's fed, clean diapered, and I read him a good night story and pray he will nod off and blissfully drift off to dreamland.

But this is not so. Its more like a battle. He just might be winning. I'm exhausted and wondering if I can microwave a plate and eat it before it gets cold....

Here we are playing on the floor. I love Alden so much I even let him grab my under chin fat.

While I nurse him I read the news. I read about the good and the bad, the drama and politics of life and wonder how I will be able, one day, to talk to him about the realities of life. I mean if he asks. For now I'll just savor his cute cheeks and innocent looks after he's yanked on my hair.

I've been working part-time now for almost 2 months. Our helper comes in the morning and I run to the office and then come home after lunchtime to feed baby and feed myself. Then Alden and I have the afternoon to ourselves to read books, sing songs and try to take photos for the grandparents. about 80% of them are blurry or he's waving his arms in front of the camera. I eat dinner around 5:30pm Then baba comes home around 7pm and plays with Alden while I put dinner on the table (yes, I eat again) and then we hang out and talk about the ups and down of work and our upcoming social calendar. I. am. tired.

Cinnamon rolls in 90 minutes! Pre-icing.

This past weekend was Timon-less so Alden was privileged to accompany to an urgent work review (approving samples to ship out that day) SH artists community luncheon, then Alpha. Later that night we made cinnamon rolls for brunch the next day. Sunday, we hosted group - iced the cinnamon rolls and asked helpful people to help reach tall things and be in charge of coffee. We lunched at Elephante with some old friends in town (we all knew each other pre-kids) awesome, with a touch of babies and kids! Then we Skyped T for a while and begin our evening trying to get baby to sleep routine.

Some days seem like groundhog day. But I know that he will grow quickly and we will cherish these young days of cuddling and enjoying simple things like tickling!