The week before we arrived to the US Will and I were at the park playing. He was chasing the birds and yelling at them, and getting quite frustrated when they'd fly away just as he was about to catch them. Finally he got fed up with it and looked in the trees where the birds flew to and yelled out, 'Xia lai xiao niao!' (Get down little bird).
Will loves baths and always is pretty excited to play in the tub. Last night he hopped in and saw his bubble bath with a picture of a bear reading a book and Will says, 'Xiao xiong kan shu.' (The little bear is reading).
Sunday, May 8, 2011
USA, and China
USA
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Today was an interesting day. It started in Manila, Philippines at 4am with my wake up call. I was out of my hotel by 4:30 and in a taxi bound for the airport. I then flew to Shanghai where Jen met me for about 20 min. She brought we a new suitcase with fresh clothes. We said a quick hello and then I flew to Nagoya, Japan for a 5pm meeting. It's 11:30pm and I've just returned to my hotel. Tomorrow's wake up call is at 6am and then I'm off to the airport to go to Beijing. I'm tired and really missing the beach in Cebu. I had breakfast in Manila, lunch in Shanghai, and dinner in Japan...strange.
The highlight was seeing Jen and Will at the airport. He was full of hugs and kisses and was running wild at the airport. He charmed his way into some candy from the girls at the ticket counter. He loved it. Jen is still working at getting pictures for the blog.
The highlight was seeing Jen and Will at the airport. He was full of hugs and kisses and was running wild at the airport. He charmed his way into some candy from the girls at the ticket counter. He loved it. Jen is still working at getting pictures for the blog.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Jen's Post
During our stay in Cebu we were able to attend a session at the Cebu, Philippines Temple, which opened last summer. Since we went on vacation with friends from home TP and I were able to attend together. Since it's a new temple everything was just so beautiful and clean. The grounds were immaculate, as always. It's nice to be able to do this when we can since we have limited opportunities where we live.
TP was really sweet and gave me such a thoughtful gift: a 'Mommy-to-be' massage at the resort spa. I was curious as to how this would work since it's uncomfortable lying on stomach, and back, but they had me lie on my side. It was really relaxing, and such a sweet gesture.
Fri. night we were able to attend a Philippine BBQ at the resort, complete with a whole roasted pig, and lots of mango for dessert. The mango was the best I've ever tasted...like in Taiwan. After dinner there was a show of cultural dancing from different parts of the island. Will loved getting into the drumming. He would head bang in rhythm, while drumming his little chubby hands. It was a nice way to end our week of fun.
One highlight of the trip was our grassy knoll. We called it the grassy knoll because of the rolling green hills with reclined sun chairs. It was always nice and shady-and empty since everyone was at the beach. Will loved chasing the birds here. He's come to like little birdies that 'flap-flap-flap' learned from one of his most favorite buddies, Elmo (Sesame Street). He'd flap his little arms while singing the song "flap-flap-flap" over and over again. Then he'd do this loud call to the birds with his stomach sticking out--kind of like a war call, and then he'd charge straight into a cluster of birds. Will has gotten very fast, but the birds were always just a bit quicker than him.
Last night we had to leave and head home. Now it's time to get Will back on a somewhat normal sleeping schedule. TP left the following day for Manila, and then will head to Japan for meetings, and then to Beijing on Wed. for a dinner with current Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, along with some business students from Utah State. TP will be speaking to these students and getting them excited to finish their degree ;)
So unfortunately, this meant W. and I had to travel back home, alone. Our first leg of the trip left at 1 AM, then a 3 hr. layover from Korea to China this morning. W. did well and slept the entire first flight. TP gave me his gold card to get into the lounges-we had hoped. The rule is that only the person who holds the card can enter the lounge, along with guests, if any. So there was chance I would be refused. In Korea, I entered the lounge and handed them my silver card (silver is not high enough to enter the lounge) and TP's Gold. The nice counter lady asked for our boarding tickets. She looked at the gold card and looked at William, and said, "Is this William?" "Yes," I said. She checked our boarding passes and gave a warm welcome to Will and let us in. She thought Will was TP-(good thing they have the same name). I wondered if she had wondered why the baby travels enough to be Gold, where the mother only has Silver status...I was grateful anyhow to be let in, and have a place for Will to relax, eat, and gear up for the next flight. All the nice lounge ladies took a liking to Will. He flirted with them, danced with them, showed off for them by doing his spin move, talked with them, held their hands...they just loved it. They loved him. They even brought him a special plate of fruit not offered at the food bar. They brought it covered in a napkin to be conspicuous to others. The front desk lady who let us in came in and gave a welcome to Will. I think he liked this attention.
Will also flirted with the stewardesses on the plane. He was playing peek-a-boo with them, and saying 'hi', and 'bye' while waving. We often had more than a few stewardesses playing with him. As we landed and were exiting the plane Will insisted on holding hands with one stewardess, and he wouldn't let her go. She had to accompany us off the plane, holding hands with Will. She loved it.
W. just has a way of making people smile. He sure makes us smile. He makes living in China much more enjoyable since everyone's always smiling at him, and me, too, since I'm his mom.
We are looking forward to TP's return on Wed. (it's actually Thursday- TP)
TP was really sweet and gave me such a thoughtful gift: a 'Mommy-to-be' massage at the resort spa. I was curious as to how this would work since it's uncomfortable lying on stomach, and back, but they had me lie on my side. It was really relaxing, and such a sweet gesture.
Fri. night we were able to attend a Philippine BBQ at the resort, complete with a whole roasted pig, and lots of mango for dessert. The mango was the best I've ever tasted...like in Taiwan. After dinner there was a show of cultural dancing from different parts of the island. Will loved getting into the drumming. He would head bang in rhythm, while drumming his little chubby hands. It was a nice way to end our week of fun.
One highlight of the trip was our grassy knoll. We called it the grassy knoll because of the rolling green hills with reclined sun chairs. It was always nice and shady-and empty since everyone was at the beach. Will loved chasing the birds here. He's come to like little birdies that 'flap-flap-flap' learned from one of his most favorite buddies, Elmo (Sesame Street). He'd flap his little arms while singing the song "flap-flap-flap" over and over again. Then he'd do this loud call to the birds with his stomach sticking out--kind of like a war call, and then he'd charge straight into a cluster of birds. Will has gotten very fast, but the birds were always just a bit quicker than him.
Last night we had to leave and head home. Now it's time to get Will back on a somewhat normal sleeping schedule. TP left the following day for Manila, and then will head to Japan for meetings, and then to Beijing on Wed. for a dinner with current Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, along with some business students from Utah State. TP will be speaking to these students and getting them excited to finish their degree ;)
So unfortunately, this meant W. and I had to travel back home, alone. Our first leg of the trip left at 1 AM, then a 3 hr. layover from Korea to China this morning. W. did well and slept the entire first flight. TP gave me his gold card to get into the lounges-we had hoped. The rule is that only the person who holds the card can enter the lounge, along with guests, if any. So there was chance I would be refused. In Korea, I entered the lounge and handed them my silver card (silver is not high enough to enter the lounge) and TP's Gold. The nice counter lady asked for our boarding tickets. She looked at the gold card and looked at William, and said, "Is this William?" "Yes," I said. She checked our boarding passes and gave a warm welcome to Will and let us in. She thought Will was TP-(good thing they have the same name). I wondered if she had wondered why the baby travels enough to be Gold, where the mother only has Silver status...I was grateful anyhow to be let in, and have a place for Will to relax, eat, and gear up for the next flight. All the nice lounge ladies took a liking to Will. He flirted with them, danced with them, showed off for them by doing his spin move, talked with them, held their hands...they just loved it. They loved him. They even brought him a special plate of fruit not offered at the food bar. They brought it covered in a napkin to be conspicuous to others. The front desk lady who let us in came in and gave a welcome to Will. I think he liked this attention.
Will also flirted with the stewardesses on the plane. He was playing peek-a-boo with them, and saying 'hi', and 'bye' while waving. We often had more than a few stewardesses playing with him. As we landed and were exiting the plane Will insisted on holding hands with one stewardess, and he wouldn't let her go. She had to accompany us off the plane, holding hands with Will. She loved it.
W. just has a way of making people smile. He sure makes us smile. He makes living in China much more enjoyable since everyone's always smiling at him, and me, too, since I'm his mom.
We are looking forward to TP's return on Wed. (it's actually Thursday- TP)
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Can't Play Forever
I just got back from dropping Jen and Will off at the airport in Cebu. They are heading back to Shanghai tonight. They are on a red eye flight but we used miles to get it and we got Will his own seat so they should both be able to sleep well. Tomorrow my crazy few days will start as I will head to Manila for a day and a half for some meetings and then I'll fly to Nagoya, Japan for about 20 hours for just a quick meeting. Then it's off to Beijing to meet with USU's MBA students. While in Beijing we'll also have a meeting with Ambassador Huntsman, yes he is still there until April, which should be interesting.
This past week has been a lot of fun. We took a lot of pictures but we didn't bring the cord to download them to the computer and post them so we'll have to get that done later. Will was a hit at the resort. Most of the other guests were Korean and Will just wanted to chat with most of them, particularly the women. He would run up and hold their hands and try to talk to them. Whenever anyone would walk past us he would call out "bye bye" and would continue this back and forth until the people were no longer in yelling range. He thought it was so funny. Last night there was an outdoor Filipino bbq that was really good and following that they had a cultural dance and music show which Will just loved. He especially loved the drums. He would bob his head back and forth and wave his arms and really get into the beat.
Some of the best parts of this week were: the endless supply of fresh mangos at every meal and all of the mango juices, smoothies, and shakes that we had with every meal, the local food in general is really good - lots of chicken and pork and garlic rice. We enjoyed the beach. This morning we went to feed the fish and play in the water and there were so many fish, it was amazing. During my ocean swim today I found Nemo, the little clown fish. He went swimming by me just before I swam over the top of a school of fish that seemed like it had thousands of fish in it.
We really enjoyed going to the Cebu temple. It opened this past summer so everything was new and very nice. It was much bigger than I expected it to be. There was an old couple that was going through for the first time. They must have been in their 80's, it was really cool to see.
Random: one of the days we were at the beach Jen looked up and saw a girl that she went to high school with! Turns out this girl lives here with her husband and they go to that beach all the time. The other random thing was that her husband went to good ol' Murray High and graduated with my sister's class in 99'. They called us at the hotel the next day and turns out he knows my sister. Small world.
Well, back to reality.
Oh ya, for those who we haven't gotten a hold of yet - Jen is having a Girl! June 24th. Current plan is to have this baby in the US.
This past week has been a lot of fun. We took a lot of pictures but we didn't bring the cord to download them to the computer and post them so we'll have to get that done later. Will was a hit at the resort. Most of the other guests were Korean and Will just wanted to chat with most of them, particularly the women. He would run up and hold their hands and try to talk to them. Whenever anyone would walk past us he would call out "bye bye" and would continue this back and forth until the people were no longer in yelling range. He thought it was so funny. Last night there was an outdoor Filipino bbq that was really good and following that they had a cultural dance and music show which Will just loved. He especially loved the drums. He would bob his head back and forth and wave his arms and really get into the beat.
Some of the best parts of this week were: the endless supply of fresh mangos at every meal and all of the mango juices, smoothies, and shakes that we had with every meal, the local food in general is really good - lots of chicken and pork and garlic rice. We enjoyed the beach. This morning we went to feed the fish and play in the water and there were so many fish, it was amazing. During my ocean swim today I found Nemo, the little clown fish. He went swimming by me just before I swam over the top of a school of fish that seemed like it had thousands of fish in it.
We really enjoyed going to the Cebu temple. It opened this past summer so everything was new and very nice. It was much bigger than I expected it to be. There was an old couple that was going through for the first time. They must have been in their 80's, it was really cool to see.
Random: one of the days we were at the beach Jen looked up and saw a girl that she went to high school with! Turns out this girl lives here with her husband and they go to that beach all the time. The other random thing was that her husband went to good ol' Murray High and graduated with my sister's class in 99'. They called us at the hotel the next day and turns out he knows my sister. Small world.
Well, back to reality.
Oh ya, for those who we haven't gotten a hold of yet - Jen is having a Girl! June 24th. Current plan is to have this baby in the US.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Early Morning
My morning began at 4 AM when I woke up to W. walking around the hotel room. I tried to co-erce him back into bed, unsuccessfully. He kept going to the door and saying, "Qu Qu, ye you" (qu qu means "go out", and "ye you" is his version of "you Yong" or in English, "swimming"). No way was I going to accede to his desires at that hour. He then wanted "Elmo" on the computer. I didn't want to do that either. I finally allowed him to watch Sesame Street on the Iphone, in his bed. He didn't fall asleep and just kept crying to go swim.
Our poor neighbors. What can you do, but let your child have an early morning ocean dip at now 5 AM. My intention was to just walk around, and hopefully have him fall asleep out by the pool--still dark at this hour--in my arms. He wanted to get in. So we continued our walk down to the dark ocean, with bats flying overhead, squeaking their early morning squeals. Will didn't want to sit-only to play in the sand. I let him while I listened to the waves and the tide coming in. It was really beautiful. Then he started throwing rocks. Then he ran toward the ocean. He is getting fast. We watched the sunrise colors of oranges and yellows, and saw the round orange sun fill the sky with light. Will insisted on swimming, and since we rarely have this opportunity I stripped him down and let him play in the ocean. The water was warm after all.
3 Philippino men came down to the ocean with handfuls of bread to feed the fish. I picked up Will so we could see the fishes eat too. We followed them into the ocean knee deep and we watched the fishes jump and leap for the bread. They gave us some to throw in too. I told Will to 'throw hard'. He loves to throw. Because of the lightness of the bread it landed near my legs and soon we had schools of fish surrounding us, touching my legs, all fighting for the bread. I panicked a little-it's a very weird feeling being surrounded by fish. But Will was loving it. We did this for a while, and then as we were walking out of the ocean we saw a blue starfish. I took a stick and touched it, but it didn't move. We watched it until the tide took it away. As we were walking back in the early light W. fell asleep in my arms. Our vacations have changed dramatically since having a child, but it's so worth it. I wouldn't change a thing.
OCEAN SWIM
While W. was napping yesterday I took the opportunity to swim in the ocean. I knew that if I didn't-despite the saltwater in my hair and eyes-I would forevermore wish I had.
I felt a little giddy walking down to the beach, kid-less, and quick. The water was a perfect swimming temperature, nice and cool. Warm after a minute. It took a minute to get used to the thick murky sea-water. I decided to head out to the end of the buoys, where they had a dock. I would swim there and back. It was so awesome to swim with the fish, as long as they didn't touch me. It's a very different experience swimming in the ocean vs. a nice, clean pool. (I have started swimming again with this pregnancy, and have come to love it again). I forgot to breathe out underwater and didn't realize for a minute why I was so out of breath. The ocean is so expansive, and majestic. Quite intimidating. I remembered to breathe just as a wave washed over me and I swallowed a mouthful of sea-water. I continued on after gagging, quite determined. The further I got out the more fish I saw. Beautiful fish, brightly colored. A few strokes from the deck I swam right into a school of those same brightly colored fishes. They were all around me-my legs, and arms, and head, and I panicked a bit. It's such an odd feeling, and I quickly called it good, and swam out of there as fast as I could. It's a lot harder to swim in the ocean over a pool. I got out, showered, and jumped in the pool and did a few laps to clean myself. This was refreshing, but the ocean was such a thrill.
Our poor neighbors. What can you do, but let your child have an early morning ocean dip at now 5 AM. My intention was to just walk around, and hopefully have him fall asleep out by the pool--still dark at this hour--in my arms. He wanted to get in. So we continued our walk down to the dark ocean, with bats flying overhead, squeaking their early morning squeals. Will didn't want to sit-only to play in the sand. I let him while I listened to the waves and the tide coming in. It was really beautiful. Then he started throwing rocks. Then he ran toward the ocean. He is getting fast. We watched the sunrise colors of oranges and yellows, and saw the round orange sun fill the sky with light. Will insisted on swimming, and since we rarely have this opportunity I stripped him down and let him play in the ocean. The water was warm after all.
3 Philippino men came down to the ocean with handfuls of bread to feed the fish. I picked up Will so we could see the fishes eat too. We followed them into the ocean knee deep and we watched the fishes jump and leap for the bread. They gave us some to throw in too. I told Will to 'throw hard'. He loves to throw. Because of the lightness of the bread it landed near my legs and soon we had schools of fish surrounding us, touching my legs, all fighting for the bread. I panicked a little-it's a very weird feeling being surrounded by fish. But Will was loving it. We did this for a while, and then as we were walking out of the ocean we saw a blue starfish. I took a stick and touched it, but it didn't move. We watched it until the tide took it away. As we were walking back in the early light W. fell asleep in my arms. Our vacations have changed dramatically since having a child, but it's so worth it. I wouldn't change a thing.
OCEAN SWIM
While W. was napping yesterday I took the opportunity to swim in the ocean. I knew that if I didn't-despite the saltwater in my hair and eyes-I would forevermore wish I had.
I felt a little giddy walking down to the beach, kid-less, and quick. The water was a perfect swimming temperature, nice and cool. Warm after a minute. It took a minute to get used to the thick murky sea-water. I decided to head out to the end of the buoys, where they had a dock. I would swim there and back. It was so awesome to swim with the fish, as long as they didn't touch me. It's a very different experience swimming in the ocean vs. a nice, clean pool. (I have started swimming again with this pregnancy, and have come to love it again). I forgot to breathe out underwater and didn't realize for a minute why I was so out of breath. The ocean is so expansive, and majestic. Quite intimidating. I remembered to breathe just as a wave washed over me and I swallowed a mouthful of sea-water. I continued on after gagging, quite determined. The further I got out the more fish I saw. Beautiful fish, brightly colored. A few strokes from the deck I swam right into a school of those same brightly colored fishes. They were all around me-my legs, and arms, and head, and I panicked a bit. It's such an odd feeling, and I quickly called it good, and swam out of there as fast as I could. It's a lot harder to swim in the ocean over a pool. I got out, showered, and jumped in the pool and did a few laps to clean myself. This was refreshing, but the ocean was such a thrill.
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