Back Again

Sorry for a week of no postings. We have still not seen our Dell repair person, but our hard drive was full, meaning no new pictures could download and Chris was busy with the computer a lot so I just did not get around to it. Well, Olympics have been over for a week but I still have pictures from our last weekend of events (track and field and baseball). I will save those for another day though and just talk about our week.

Today was the most beautiful we (or people who have lived here for many years) have ever seen here. Not just a beautiful blue sky and sunshine, but clean, crisp air. It felt like fall is coming and was without any shred of the humidity that has been with us for much of August.



We decided we could not stay inside today so after Austin's nap we got a KFC picnic and went to a nearby park, the Yuan Ming Yuan, which was the Summer Palace grounds under the Ming Dynasty. It was very pleasant and Austin had lots of fun running around and exploring. He was into every rock and lake and bridge and leaf on the ground...he is very curious these days. He also has a definite will of his own and is really beginning to test the boundaries of what Mommy and Daddy will allow. He also has had a very clingy week and is happy as long as Mommy is playing or paying attention to him and definitely NOT happy if I have to wash dishes, take a shower or basically try anything that I have to do outside of Austin. We are hoping this will not last into the baby coming, but trying to prepare for it if it (most likely) does.

Other cute things he is doing...
praying -sometimes he will stop and fold his hands and bow his head and mumble some things- usually at random times like riding down the elevator or playing outside. I usually catch "Jesus" and "thank you" among the mumbling. He also bows his head when we pray together- its really cute.

more "helping"- he likes to wash dishes now. He will stand on a stool at the sink and hold the sponge and wash his plastic bowls or spoons. He usually gets pretty wet but has a good time.

pouring- He loves to pour- anything. Pour out his toy boxes all over the floor, pour water in the bath, in the sink or just on the floor- anything that can be poured he tries. Fortunately he hasn't tried pouring out his milk or daddy's coffee or anything...yet.

Here are some pictures from our outing in the park today. The many faces of Austin.

What happened to US track and field?

While I am not as into the gold medal count as the Chinese or my husband, I do want to see the U.S. do well. I am really bummed now because I just watched both the US men AND women drop the baton and be disqualified from the 4 x 100 meter relay. I am especially sad because we are going to watch the finals of both events tomorrow night at the Bird's Nest! Sad. I am not sure they could have beat the Jamaicans anyway, but we were supposed to have good shots at medals for both men and women. Chris and I are both really hoping to see some American win a medal tomorrow night so we can hear the national anthem live, at least once. Maybe the decathalon- an American is currently in the lead and it also finishes tomorrow.

Speaking of America, today I went to the US Embassy to renew my passport, which expires soon. It was pouring down rain today (maybe you saw that on Olympic news) and not a fun day to go across town, but it went pretty smoothly. It was busy- a lot more Americans in town than normal. The man in front of me was a coach of some kind whose passport had been stolen here.

That's all the news from here- sorry for no pictures lately. Chris has had the camera out at lots of events lately and now the battery needs charging. But we hopefully will get good pictures tomorrow night in the Bird's Nest- stay tuned.

Didi coming

As I am now about to hit the 5 week mark until my due date (September 27) I am pretty actively talking to Austin about our "didi" (little brother) to try and somewhat prepare him for what I am sure will be a big shock. So we are talking about the fact that didi is coming soon and what Austin can do when he comes. At this point, Austin will say didi coming, hug, kiss, and share. I think that is a pretty good start. We have talked about how he can give him hugs and kisses and share his toys with him. Austin is starting to really understand about sharing. He is actually very good about sharing things with other kids on the playground or at friends' houses. But he also fully expects all other kids to do the same, so if he sees someone outside with a ball he says "Austin turn now. Share Austin have it"...basically meaning this kids has to share with me. He had a little fit on the playground today because this other kid had a ball that he wanted. He also tells Mommy and Daddy to share things with him, usually things he can't have like scissors or coffee.

Back to didi, he will put his hand on my stomach now and occasionally long enough to feel him moving. If he isn't moving, Austin always says "Didi sleeping". I try to use this to tell him that didi will probably be sleeping a lot when we comes out. He also knows now that Nana is coming when didi comes and that makes him excited ( though in Austin's world, everyone has an other or pair so he can't understand how Nana can come without Bop).

One other thing before I go. I have been reading some articles by the humor columnist Dave Barry, who write for the Miami Herald. Dave has been in Beijing for the Olympics and has written quite a few columns on his China experience and they are hilarious. If you have never been to China you might not think so, but if you live here or have visited, you should check out this website

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry

Scroll down just a little and start with some of his articles ( for example: Haggling should be an Olympic sport, If you want harmony try the Forbidden City, one about taxi rides and another about the interesting food here). It is good entertainment.

Austin's Olympic sports

Austin has been exploring and discovering new sources of entertainment or accomplishments lately. While I don't think we will see any of these "sports" at the London 2012 Olympics, Austin is enthralled with them.

Jumping...Austin has watched many events with jumping in them...like diving (jumping in the water), a little track and field and gymnastics (which in his estimation involved jumping). So he cannot actually jump, but will stand there and move up and down and say "Austin jumping".

Hanging...I think this started in Thailand, where we often rode "songtows", a kind of truck with seats that also has a bar above your head that you hold on to. When we rode the songtow, Austin would often want to "hang"- put both hands on the bar, though he wouldn't actually completely hang enough to hold his own weight. Now on the subway he wants to "hang" onto the hand rail. When we go outside he wants to hang on the jungle gym. He has seen the shu shu's (uncles) hanging during gymnastics routines. Today though marked an Austin record. He hung on a bar on the swing set by himself holding all his weight. His feet were about 6 inches off the ground, so it wasn't high but he was pretty proud of himself. "Austin hanging" is what he says.

Slingshot- today Austin found a big rubber band. For about 30 minutes after getting it, he kept popping it with his two hands so it would fly across the room. He would switch which hand would release it and you never knew which direction it would fly in. I think that was part of the fun- he would laugh every time and then do it again. And yesterday he discovered a measuring tape. We had guests still with us and our friend Josh would hold the base while Austin would pull the tape out as far as it would go and then release it, giggling in delight as it flew back into the holder.

Boom- Not sure what else to call this sport, since that is what Austin calls it. He will run as fast as he can straight into the couch and "boom" down on the seat cushion. He used to want me or Chris to pick him up and "throw" him on the couch, but thankfully for my pregnant back, he now will just run and throw himself onto it. Maybe practice for the longjump?

Well, that is it for the Austin Olympics...though he may have created new sports by the time you read this. A treat today was getting a brief visit with friends Matt and Laura- they flew up from their city in the south to go to the Olympics for a few days and they stopped by before heading to the airport. It is fun to have good friends see where you live and be in your home...since most of my best friends have never done that. All right, that is it for today.

Half way through

We are a little more than half way through the Olympics...and there isn't much else to write about on the blog. We are trying to enjoy the beginning of track and field, though the past few nights they weren't even showing it on TV until really late. Tonight it has been on some. The gold medal (not overall medals, but gold medal count) appears about every half-hour on the TV, in the subway, on the radio, etc. China is definitely established itself way ahead of the world and is very proud of it.

The big news today though was one person who won't be winning a gold medal for China now- the 110-meter hurdler Liu Xiang. His race has been the most looked-forward to and he is the highest profile Olympian in China and the nation is truly in shock and upset that he is injured and will not compete. I felt sorry for him- he has lived such a tightly controlled and high pressured life these past 4 years since his first gold medal it seemed almost impossible to live up to. The news kept showing his coach literally sobbing at a press conference. I am guessing a lot of tickets might open up for tomorrow night's 110 meter race now. I am watching the news again and it is showing his limping off the track today for about the 100th time since 4 pm this afternoon since the first time I checked the news today.

In other news, I am writing on the blog tonight because the Dell computer guy did not come today or call, after waiting at home all day. Chris stayed up late last night backing up everything and when he does come we will probably be offline for a few days getting everything re-installed.

This week Chris has quite a few more events (baseball, indoor cycling and wrestling finals) and we both will go to track and field Friday night and the gold medal baseball game Saturday.

As fun as all this Olympics is, it will also be nice to get back to regular life in another week.

Well, that's all the news from here

Yeah America!

Today the weather was beautiful - clear, blue sky with white puffy clouds. It was pretty hot, but nice weather after a very rainy (and even hailstorm) day yesterday. A pretty low-key day for us at home, but we got to enjoy some American victories on TV like Phelps winning gold medal number 6 and the US women taking gold and silver for best all-around gymnastics.

Austin learned another new phrase "Yeah (or go) ..Merica!". We tried to teach him which flag was the American one as he waved one around. I also made him his own gold medal out of paper and ribbon. He wore it around his neck, after wanting mommy and daddy to also have turns wearing it.



Chris took a local friend to a baseball game tonight, while I am home watching the US women play the Chinese in volleyball. So far it is a very close match.

Austin's other vocabulary advances include asking "What's that?" A LOT. Half the time I can't figure out what he is pointing to or asking about. He also has started answering questions like this:

Austin "Doggie!"

Mommy "Is that a doggie?"

Austin: "Yeah it is"

OR

Austin "Austin make rice"

Mommy "Did you make rice?"

Austin "yeah I did"

Its pretty funny- he will often answer these questions that way, even if the grammar doesn't quite match.



Here is a clip of his cheer for America.

In other news, our computer has been having lots of problems, including getting so hot it almost burns you. We finally tracked down the Chinese Dell service number and discovered through talking to them that we need a new hard drive as well as a new fan. Thank goodness we bought the three year warranty- we always get good use out of it. They will come Monday. I don't know how long it will take us to get everything set up again with a new hard drive- hopefully not too long. I don't know what we will do without a computer even for a few days...its amazing how much we use it in a day, especially during the Olympics. If you don't hear from us for a few days starting Monday, that is probably why.

Jia You!

Monday we went to a rowing event. After having been there, I still cannot tell you exactly what events they rowed - some with two people, some with one, I think it was 2000 meters, but not positive. But I do know that we took Austin and two local friends and that the crowd liked Austin about as much as the rowing. Austin has learned to say "boat race", "gold medal" and what impressed the crowd the most at this event "Jia You" (if you remember from a previous post, it means "add oil" - but is a cheer at sporting events). He learned to say Jia You at this race and had the crowd enjoying his cheering.

Yesterday Chris took one of his basketball coach friends to the Chinese women's basketball game- where they beat New Zealand by a lot. We also sadly watched the US women lost to China in gymnastics- on TV, not in person unfortunately. I think we are done buying tickets now. We have some friends coming to stay with us tonight through the weekend for the Olympics.

Here are some pictures from the rowing event.

Here we are at the Shunyi Rowing Center - it was an almost two hour trip from our house here (it is way past the airport). It was very humid, if you can tell how sweaty we were!

Yeah! Austin was excited. He now keeps saying "Austin have it. Gold medal." (meaning he wants one)As one of the races was finishing, this was where our crowd was looking! We kept trying to get them to focus on the race, but it was a vain attempt.

Here is Austin saying "Jia You!". And don't worry, we don't actually let him drink Coke, just play with the bottle.

Exciting Day!

t


We had a very exciting day at the Olympics. Yesterday (Saturday) we suddenly found ourselves with both gymnastics and swimming tickets - at reasonable prices too. After rushing back from church this morning, Chris and I found ourselves on the subway heading to the Olympic park. We met a Chinese guy on the subway also going to gymnastics and made a new friend- who offered Chris tickets to the wrestling finals. We got in the Olympic park after a not-too-long wait at security. It was very overcast and rained a good part of the day, but still was so fun to be out there.

We got to the gymnastics qualifying event about twenty minutes before it started and found out we were going to see the USA women compete! It was perfect. Our seats were kind of high up but in the middle and we had a pretty good view. It was so fun to see the American women, who are in second now after China after this first qualifying round. THE Americans had a couple of mistakes in the beginning, but ended almost perfect on the beam, their last event. Here we are at gymnastics.

Outside the National Indoor Stadium, home to the gymnastics competition.

Inside the Stadium overlooking the floor. The vault was right in front of us as well as the floor exercises mat, with balance beam to our right and uneven bars to the left.

This is Shawn Johnson on the balance beam. All four USA girls did excellent on the beam- which to (very inexperienced me) seems like the hardest or scariest of the four events.

After gymnastics ended, we had three hours to hang around the park until the swimming competition at 6:30. We saw the Bird's Nest, visited the Coca-Cola exhibit (basically a 30 minute commercial, but they gave you free Coke and did have an exhibit of past Olympic torches that was pretty cool). We ate at - guess- McDonald's for an early dinner. There wasn't much else to eat except snacks or "convenient noodles". It poured down rain, thundered and lightening-ed so we waited there almost an hour before getting to "the Cube".

The Bird's Nest, with the flame in the background if you can see it ( while the air hasn't been great lately, today really was rainy and foggy with limited visibility).

The Cube is very impressive- I really liked it. The bubbles are really made of this soft plastic, it is well-designed and a very cool venue. We went to this event with two other couple friends here- Mark and Meg(our neighbors) and Chris and Sarah (parents of David from playgroup).
We got to see Michael Phelps swim the 200 meter freestyle and saw the USA men's 100 meter freestyle relay team break a world record! Also very exciting. The atmosphere is very fun inside- lots of foreigners but also lots of Chinese shouting "Jia You" (literally "add oil", a common cheer to encourage athletes) whenever a Chinese made an appearance.

Outside the Cube before we entered.

Here we are with our friends the Shaffars and the Morries'. It was a very fun triple date.

Michael Phelps in lane four during the men's 200 meter freestyle. He was holding back tonight I think- it was only a qualifying heat, so no records broken by him tonight.

The Cube at night- so pretty (a little hard to get a great picture because it was pouring when we came out). We have a few video clips too, but I will post those another time. I need to go to bed).

We ended the night back at McDonald's, since our friends' hadn't had dinner. This McDonald's has several items on the menu that most McDonald's here do not have- like salads and I tried the blueberry yogurt parfait.

It is so convenient to get to the Olympics from where we live- just 1 km walk to the subway, which goes directly there. Austin apparently had a fine night with his babysitters and the Shaffar kids next door and we enjoyed a long, fun date.

In other exciting news, my friend Amy Terry gave birth to a nine pound girl, Caroline Grace! Jia You Amy! Well, it is off to bed for tired me.

More Olympic fever and tickets!

We continue to get into the Olympics, one day after the official start. Friday morning we rode the subway to the Olympic line stop just to see what was going on. We couldn't even get on the Olympic line 8 without an opening ceremony ticket- security was so tight. But we walked around the area and saw many fans. There is a neat section of a long open area flanked by two red columns that provides a direct view to the Bird's Nest- still a couple of miles away at this subway stop. We walked around in the heat and then had lunch at McDonald's (somehow seemed appropriate with the Olympics and Austin loved it). We did what the vast majority of Beijingers did Friday night- watched the ceremony on TV in our neighborhood. We went to a potluck dinner with a large group of people down the road, but then went to our neighbor's house to watch the actual ceremony while Austin slept in his tent. We definitely enjoyed it though had to work hard to stay awake at the end. We ran outside to try and see the fireworks from our apartment, but we were too far or the sky to hazy too see that far.

Exciting news today- on this website we have been using some gymnastics tickets opened up, so tomorrow afternoon Chris and I are going to a qualifying round! We don't know which teams are in our session ( we go to one of four happening tomorrow) but it will be fun. A little while after purchasing those, our neighbor Mark called and said they had gotten 4 swimming tickets for tomorrow night- did we want to go? A definite yes, we want to see something in the Cube. So now we have a full day of events tomorrow. We have two different babysitters to watch Austin- we will be gone most of the day. With security lines, you have to get there early and there isn't enough time to get back in between. So hopefully Austin will have a good day without us.

Here are a few pictures from our outing Friday morning. We hopefully will have some more fun ones tomorrow.

An excited fan outside the subway stop


Outside the security check to get to the Olympic line 8 subway. Yes, my belly is big!

Signs pointing you to different event locations outside the subway.

The bird's nest is at the end of this long column and across fourth ring road...but you could barely see it from here on Friday.

One of the columns at the beginning of this park looking out to the Bird's Nest.

countdown

Well, still no blue skies today. In fact, it was very gray and smoggy, but I still will not be surprised if somehow I wake up to blue skies tomorrow. It is hard to believe the Olympics start tomorrow- after 7 years of preparation. I was hoping to head out today to get a picture of one of the numerous countdown signs all over town saying 1 day left (it originally had 1000 days!), but I didn't quite have the energy. It is really hot and really humid...and I'm 8 months pregnant. So you will just have to imagine with me the energy here as the countdown is almost over.

We were able to buy some more tickets yesterday for more events through an official website for overseas buyers. In addition to the track and field tickets we already had, we got the baseball gold medal game, a rowing match, field hockey and Chris got boxing and wrestling as well (I wasn't so into those two sports). There are also some weightlifting and a few other things available, but we stopped there. Life does have to go on in some sense as well.

Other big news- I rode our new subway line for the first time last night. Chris and I had a date and got to venture directly to the other side of town from our stop- a one km walk from our door. It is nice and easy to get a seat at our stop (the last stop on the west side of town). Unfortunately it is still not too stroller friendly- no escalators going down (only up) and an elevator that is never turned on. But convenient when I need to go out alone and it connects directly to the Olympic subway line that goes to the Olympic park.

Subway line 10

Not to forget Austin news...he has recently been observing "shushu's" (uncles- men basically) outside doing work around the complex and copying them. Two days ago we saw a man repairing the tile on a ramp in our complex and he was hammering. Later that night Austin walked around the house with different objects (Chris' guitar capo for one) and banged them on the ground and then proudly said "Austin hammer". Today we saw men mowing the grass. Then later he pushed around this little push toy (bear on a stick) and said "Austin mowing grass". He is getting more creative with his play and definitely likes to imitate.

Olympic fever

It has taken me awhile to catch up, but I am definitely starting to get more Olympic fever. You can feel an excitement in the air. Today there were so many people out and about our neighborhood- it felt sort of like it does right before a holiday. The city is full of flowers and flags and thousands of volunteers- mostly young people wearing blue and white shirts and stationed on almost every corner of the city.

The weather today started out cloudy and so humid, but was somewhat clear and sunny by the afternoon. I am reading news and watching TV more than normal- trying to catch up on who's who in the Olympic world right now. There are quite a few big competitions between the US and China- it should be exciting. We are really looking forward to our August 22 tickets to track and field finals in the Bird's Nest (the nickname of the big National Stadium)...we will be sure to take some pictures. We are still trying to decide how to spend Friday night- the opening ceremony. We have been invited to some friends' house and are trying to decide if it will work with Austin's bedtime schedule. Hopefully even from where we live we will be able to see some of the fireworks. I hear they have spent millions of dollars just on the fireworks. We finally got our cable up and running for the TV, so we can now watch the Olympics - we had never set it up before this. I am sure it will be on every channel starting Friday, though no English. Unfortunately our Slingbox is still not working, so we won't have that option.

I just read on the official Xinhua news site that Beijing' s "weather engineering office" will use everything in their power to make the weather good for at least the three hours Friday night from 8:08 pm to 11 pm. In case you didn't know, the Olympics will start on 8-8-2008 at 8:08 pm- see a theme here? According to this weather article, the Beijing Olympic committee wanted to start the games on August 15, as August 8 traditionally starts the wettest period for Beijing. But the IOC wanted August 8. But in China 8 is a "lucky number", sounding similar to the pronunciation for the word meaning "get rich". So I think most Chinese are happy about it starting the 8th, if they can control the weather enough (41% chance of showers Friday night). If you want to read about it, try this link.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/28/content_8787101.htm

Well, I am off to bed now.

Blue Sky

Well, we finally had two days of really nice (though hot!) weather. Saturday and Sunday both had clear blue skies with pretty, white clouds (as opposed to the usual overall cloud cover). When we went outside Sunday morning, Austin said "sky! blue!" - something he is not used to. We laughed. Today is back to gray and very humid weather - I am guessing there will be a forecast of rain sometime this week before Friday night. We cannot believe the big event is almost upon us, but it is.

Other than that we have had some quiet days here- nothing big to report. Chris has a bad cold though that started yesterday so hopefully it will not last too long and spread to the rest of us.

Sorry no fun pictures lately- we will work on that this week.