Macarena with a View

Madelyn, Gwen, and our friend Audrianna did a little dancing in the late afternoon sunshine!
We spent the three day weekend in Sanya, on Hainan Island, off the southern coast of China with four other families.

She's Pretty Wacky

And she's pretty cute, too! Friday was Wacky Day in the elementary school. Madelyn helped Gwen put together this wacky ensemble, complete with mismatched shoes, crazy socks, wild hair and fun jewelry. :-)

Happy Fall

Cookie decorating afternoon with friends, and the yummy and creative results!

After Dinner Fun

Madelyn introduced Gwen to the idea of hanging a spoon on her nose last week one night when the two of them were s-l-o-w-l-y finishing dinner. I was surprised to see that a spoon would actually stay on Gwen's flat little nose! She was pretty pleased to be able to do what her big sister was doing. :-)

Mooncakes in Mid-Autumn

Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up this week. Feels kind of funny to call it "mid-autumn" when it's still as hot as blazes in Shanghai most days in September. Mooncakes are the traditional food enjoyed during this holiday, and Carrefour has been displaying these pretty little round pastries for weeks. On Friday when the girls and I were in the store, they wanted to choose some... not because they are very tasty, but because they're so cute! Traditionally, they are filled with a lard based paste flavored with a variety of different ingredients, such as egg, bean paste, coconut, etc. Last year we got some from Starbucks that had chocolate and hazelnut fillings. Yumm.
This giant mooncake has been displayed in Carrefour for quite a while... I'm sure it's thoroughly stale, but it's size is certainly impressive.
One more note abought the holiday... Mid-Autumn Festival is a one day holiday and this year it falls on Wednesday (it's based on the full moon) of this coming week. In order to get three days in a row off, most local Chinese companies have their employees work both Saturday and Sunday this weekend so after the holiday on Wednesday, everyone can have Thursday and Friday off too. Seems a little goofy to us, but they like it this way!

An Incident

A guest post by Caleb

So last week I had to babysit Gwen and Madelyn, I have to do this pretty much about once every week because my parents feel its necessary to have foot massages every Sunday night, and then about once during the week. So this babysitting started off pretty much the same as any other night, I had to get the two sisters to eat. This started off well, we ate some soup with meatballs, and bread with Nutella, because that’s just how we roll. So after Madelyn ate a large piece of Nutella covered bread, she decided she didn’t like her soup, to be more precise, she decided that she didn’t like half of her soup.

So this brings us to about 3 minutes later as Seth ran out the door to go to one of his meetings for one of the trinjilion things he’s involved in. Madelyn has a bowl of soup without any meatballs because she has eaten all of them because that was the only part she liked. On the other had Gwen has eaten everything but the meatballs, because that was the only part SHE liked. So I’m still eating right, I’m enjoying my meal. I have now finished my meal, and would like to go watch “The Office” in my room, but being the redoubtable babysitter that I am, I wasn’t going to just leave these two eating (or refusing to eat) at the table. So I told them to quickly finish up so they could go play. The both bluntly refused, stating that they did not like their meals. So I, being the punctilious babysitter that I am, told them that they both had five minutes to finish their meals, or they could make their way to bed. So I got out my phone, and set the stopwatch for five minutes.

Gwen and Madelyn, not your average crass young girls, quickly realized that they both had disliked the portion of their meals that the other one had liked, and proceeded to try and quickly switch bowls and finish off their partners’ meal (Gwen eating Madelyn’s non-meatball portion, and Madelyn eating Gwen’s meatballs) So I promptly moved Gwen to the other side of the table, too far away from Madelyn to switch bowls with her. This all happened within 20 seconds or so, so they still had plenty of time to eat half a bowl of soup each. So I encouraged both girls to eat quickly so they could go play, but both girls straight up refused to eat their food, resolving that they would just take the punishment of going to bed. I saw their wit in this instantly, and stated that “going to bed” did not mean lock yourself in your room for the night and just play in there, but that you were in bed with the lights out. This was little motivation for either. After telling Gwen about four times that she liked meatballs, she tried one, and after realizing that it was actually quite good, proceeded to gobble up the remainder of what was left in the bowl. Madelyn was not so easily swayed. She sat in silence for the rest the five minutes, irrevocable in her decision to not touch her food, and take the punishment. So, at the end of the five minutes, I sent her off to bed, and cranked up some music while I did the dishes in the kitchen with Gwen tagging along behind.

While in the kitchen, Gwen, (always trying to look better to me than her older sister), announced that even if mom makes meals she doesn’t like, she eats them anyway, because she wants to get strong. I, being her athletic trainer, agreed, “I do the same thing! How do you think I got these muscles?”, to which she responded, “Yea but its not fair because you drink protein.” This statement made my night. Imagine a six year old Asian girl, drinking protein shakes to try to gain muscle… seriously imagine it. Right now. I’ll wait…. Okay good.

Now back to our story. Loud sobbing could clearly be heard from Madelyn’s bedroom. But I, being the austere babysitter that I was, ignored it, because Madelyn had made her decision, and I was not going to let her off easy. After about ten minutes, Gwen, being the loyal younger sister that she was, reported to me that Madelyn was out in the dining room on the computer. So I calmly walked out into the dining room, and reproved Madelyn for coming out of her bedroom, reminding her (still calmly) that by not finishing her dinner, that she had made the decision to go to bed for the night. This dialogue continued for a good ten minutes, Madelyn started sobbing while she was arguing, told me that she did not like me at all, and some other things which I took as drivel, and things transgressed quite quickly, until it was to the point were I was quite pissed off. I had sternly told Madelyn, “Go to your room right now” and had her response be a flat, “No”. For any of you parents out there I’m sure you know better than I how frustrating it can be to have your authority be ignored. Side note: I have been trying quite hard over the past few years not to yell at my sisters, (primarily Madelyn) while I am babysitting, because this type of situation has happened before. But anyway now that you know this, and if you have been paying attention to the last 790 words at all, you will know that I have not yelled, or even raised my voice up to this point. But at the current state, and the tension between us, I was so ready to yell at her. But, I decided to take a different route. I asked her in a semi-raised voice, (after being told that she did not have to listen to me again) “Do you want me to yell at you?!” and to my surprise, the answer was, “Yes!!!” this was not the answer I was looking for. And it surprised me so much, that I, being the equitable babysitter that I am, kept my sangfroid, and replied, “well I’m not going to” and walked back into the kitchen.

This is pretty much the end of my not very climactic story. But the night is not yet over, my mom has not returned home yet. So now your going to sit there and read what happened the rest of the night. Madelyn went back into her bedroom after a little more arguing in which I kept my aplomb, and did not raise my voice. Then after a little while ventured back out into the dining room and said that she would finish her soup. After trying to fill a sippie cup with soup and get off easy, I informed her that I had put her half empty, meatball-less bowl in the fridge, knowing that she would probably come out and eat it later on. So she warmed it back up and ate part of it, then went back into her room, called for me, asked me for some pencil lead, to which I replied, “If you finish your soup I’ll give you some”. So I went to my room, retrieved her lead, and traded it to her, for her empty bowl of soup.

I apologize for the terribly long sentences, misused punctuation, excessive use of commas,,, lack of a solid plot line, and use of big vocabulary words (which I took straight from my vocabulary book to sound more sophisticated, I’m sure it sounded bombastic to most of you).

If you like my writing, please tell my mom, and maybe I can work out a deal to get paid for a monthly blog post or something. Thanks –Caleb Liptak

Hangin' with the Sculpted

I think these funny looking granite people, in their traditional Chinese granite outfits, were our favorite sculptures at the sculpture park. There were so many of them, in all different poses. The girls had fun climbing on these funky folks, and trying to mimic their positions, as you can see Gwen doing in the picture above.
Standing on some heads!
I am admiring this woman's darling little granite baby. :-)

Surrounded

How many times do you feel like you are truly in the minority?

Last week the girls and I had a field trip day that took us to a pretty cool sculpture park on the other side of Shanghai. We are used to being in the minority as Westerners in Shanghai, but there are usually a few other foreigners around. Not at this park! We were the ONLY ones, in the midst of numerous school groups of kids of all ages. While climbing on these fun bouncy nets, Madelyn was suddenly surrounded by this group of friendly young teens, all peppering her with questions. She knows enough Chinese to know they were asking her name, which she answered, but they wouldn't leave her alone even after she did. She said they laughed at the sound of her name, which was perhaps why they asked it again and again. None of them seemed mean spirited, they were just curious about her.

Do you see Gwen, in the upper right of the picture? They didn't notice her. Huh.

Dress-Up Day

A couple of photos from the girls' dress-up day last week with their friends. So fun to be fancy!

A Few Minutes This Afternoon

It's 3 o'clock-ish, the afternoon of the last day of school. Madelyn and Gwen are playing outside in the rain in their swimsuits. Suddenly the door opens and Gwen runs in, dripping.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to get something."

She heads into the kitchen and takes a teaspoon out of the silverware drawer.

"Why do you need a spoon, Gwen?" I ask, imagining that maybe the girls are playing in the sand pit.

"For a bird."

Hmmm. A spoon for a bird.

I offer her two plastic spoons in exchange for the stainless steel one. She hesitates, then accepts them.

"Why do you need a spoon for a bird?" I ask again.

"It's a dead bird."

Oh. Of course, it's a dead bird.

Wait, it's a DEAD BIRD? Why do we need spoons for a DEAD BIRD? I thought you were playing in the rain in your swimsuit. How did a dead, wet bird join the mix, and why would you need a spoon for this carcass?

I yell out the door to Madelyn. Turns out she wants to put the bird body in the sewer with a spoon. And it was almost a spoon we EAT WITH.

Stay away from dead birds, please. Do not touch them, with or without spoons.

Disaster averted. Playing in the rain in swimsuits continues.

Spectacle

As I walk down the sidewalk, with Madelyn and Gwen ahead of me on their scooters, a group of Chinese construction workers walk toward us. The girls whizz by them, racing each other on their scooters. As the girls pass the men, one at a time each blue hardhatted head turns to stare at the unlikely pair.

I smile and shake my head. China or America, it doesn't matter.

Do sisters have to look alike?

Daddy Daughter Dance, at last!

The long awaited Girl Scout Daddy Daughter Masquerade Ball was last night! Madelyn had been anticipating this event for months. We had a dress made at the fabric market, chose a special purple tie for Daddy, picked out shoes that would be comfortable for dancing, and all along she has been counting down the days and preparing special notes for Scott, to give to him the day of the dance. Gwen couldn't attend the dance, not being a Girl Scout, but she dressed up anyway in the flower girl dress Madelyn wore years ago and joined in the photo session beforehand. You'll have to indulge me a little... I took lots of pictures! The dance was for daddys and daughters only, so I couldn't tag along with my camera, but Scott got some great shots during the dance.

All dressed up and ready for a wonderful evening...

Beautiful sisters together

Joy! Can't believe this day has finally come! Love this sweet little smile~

Scott and Madelyn had practiced their moves for a couple of weeks before the big day came... they had special signals for when he would twirl her around, or dip her back in her arms.

Not sure what this move is!

"You are the dancing queen..."Toward the end of the evening, the girls tossed rose petals from the dinner tables into the air as they twirled on the dance floor... Who is that masked couple?

Back at home, Daddy rests his feet and Madelyn revels in the wonderful evening! And here is one of the special notes Madelyn made for her daddy, with pictures of her through the years... "You are in my heart."

Young Lifeguard

We were in the water a lot last week, and as a result, Gwen gained a lot of confidence swimming and by the end of the week was really doing well. She was able to swim a fair distance in water over her head on her own, as long as she had her goggles on. At one point toward the end of the week, I overheard her calling out to Madelyn, who was out in the middle of the pool, in water well over both her head and Gwen's.

"Madelyn, do you need any help? Can I help you Madelyn?"

Perhaps there is such a thing as too much confidence!


Here the girls demonstrate their tandem diving routine for the camera.

Gwen's School, Madelyn's School

Recently I've felt so much better about Gwen being at school. She is happy to go these days, which makes a huge difference. Her teacher had told me that it usually takes a couple of months in the case of immersion into another language for the child to adjust. Not that she knows Chinese yet, but she knows the routine of the days and feels comfortable with how the school day goes.

I've been making a point to pick her up early here and there, rather than have her ride home in the school van, not only so I can have a bit more time with her, but also so I can see the climate of the classroom at different points during the day. I have to say I am incredibly impressed. It is always a peaceful scene, with small groups of children working with a teacher on something- art, looking at books, working with Montessori materials (various special puzzles, math manipulatives, etc); or playing together in twos and threes; or participating in a group music or dance lesson. The children are taught to eat properly with a knife and fork, to clear their places, and to help wipe the dishes. They all brush their teeth after lunch. :-)

Gwen's teacher writes me a note every day, telling some details of what was presented and how Gwen reacted, how she did at lunch and play, etc. Yesterday she told me of a little interaction where Gwen told her, in Chinese, that another little girl did not like the snack. I was so excited to hear this! I know she has been understanding more and more of the things the teachers say, and she often sings Chinese songs or repeats words to me, but this is the first time she initiated conversation in Chinese.

Madelyn and I are having pretty full school days at home. We read a lot for history and love that time together... this was so much trickier last year with Gwen at home. I have struggled with guilt about having Gwen in school, but as the year progresses and I see both of the girls thriving in their very different environments, I am thankful for the options we have in teaching our children.

Costume Party

The girls and I attended a costume party a couple of moms in our homeschool group put together last Wednesday. Gwen was lent this beautiful princess outfit by her friend, and Madelyn wore her twirly skirt and leotard to be a dancer.

The kids went from station to station in small groups. Here they are at the cupcake decorating station. The hostess of the party had her husband bring candy back from the US... I couldn't get enough of the candy corn!
Clever game idea.... how many pieces of candy corn can you move to the empty bowl in one minute, using only chopsticks?

Paper bag pumpkin painting station

The mom who hosted this party has this entire room in her home devoted to homeschooling... isn't it a lovely space, with all the windows?

Pumpkin bowling!