K: These Shoes were Made for Walking

Our primary mode of transportation since our return to China has been our bikes. We go everywhere on our bikes – school, the store, friends’ homes, our favorite restaurants. We even installed a kiddo seat on the back of N’s bike and S loves to zip around town behind daddy.

We bought our bikes more for recreation than for transportation during our first year in China when we were both teaching full-time and had very few expenses. They’re GIANT road bikes, and they’re fast, light and spiffy. We have taken good care of these bikes by parking them in guarded bike lots, making sure they’re locked, and/or carrying them upstairs to our apartment. We’ve been very grateful this year that we made that investment when we did and having had our bikes for almost four years, we’re not unaware that we’ve had a good run of it.

Yesterday my bike was stolen from the third floor landing of our stairwell. After carrying it upstairs, I neglected to lock it. I got comfortable. I felt safe. And now I’m sad. I know there are bigger injustices in this world, and as I’m reminded by everyone, both Chinese and foreign, when I tell them I “lost” my bike, this is life in China. But this “the way things are” explanation doesn’t help.

Once during college I had something stolen. Some kid smashed my driver-side window and yanked my CD player. I remember feeling sad then too. Grieved that distrust is the rule and honesty the exception; that selfishness and greed are insatiable gods. But in my reflections on human nature and my recent albeit superficial wound, I’m comforted that my most valuable treasure isn’t here where thieves steal, and that someday I will live in a land where honesty, integrity, and looking to others’ interests are the rule, where there are no exceptions to that rule.

But for now, these shoes were made for walking, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

N: Laundry

S doesn't have a free ride around here.  This was taken a couple days before he turned one.

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N: A Toddling Todd

Taken just a couple days ago.

K: My Kid Waves in Chinese

On Friday mornings from 8:00-10:00 I go to character writing class with N. Which means S has a babysitter. N and I call her "Wang Jie" (Big Sister Wang) and to S she is "Aiyi" (Auntie). S’s Chinese name is Qingze which means “clean/clear/pure pool of water.” To Aiyi he is "Qingqing" (an affectionate nickname). Aiyi speaks only Chinese.

Today when I came home from class, Aiyi and Qingqing said their goodbyes.

“Zaijian, Qingqing.” (Goodbye, Qingqing.) And S looked up at her from my arms and waved.

My kid can wave in Chinese. I’m a proud mommy today.

K: “Now YOU smell the flowers.”

S’s favorite book is Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. What a classic! First published in 1940, it’s probably easier to count the number of us who did not have a copy of Pat the Bunny than those of us who did. And as it is with all classic literature, there is much to be learned from the reading and rereading and rereading… and rereading of this favorite.

“Paul can smell the flowers. Now YOU smell the flowers.” And mimicking mommy, S presses his tiny little nose into the pages of the book.

Over the weekend we went outside to play in the courtyard of our apartment complex. There are flower beds in the center of the courtyard where bright colored roses are blooming.

“Look S, mommy can smell the roses. Now YOU smell the roses.” And while mommy spots him, S bends over and presses his tiny little nose into the petals of a rose.

There are many roses in the flowerbeds and S is an equal opportunity sniffer. He successfully bent over to smell several roses (without help), and then it happened… He tumbled. Face first. Into a bed of rose bushes. N came running, I scooped him up, S came up hollering, and I honestly don’t know who was the most traumatized by the experience. Blood oozed from the scratches on his face while daddy removed a thorn from his scalp and mommy hunted for further injury.

S recovered emotionally even before the bleeding stopped, and his scratches are healing very quickly. But we’ll probably practice some more with Paul and Judy before we stop to smell the roses again.

“That’s all. Bye-bye. Can you say Bye-bye? Paul and Judy are waving Bye-bye to YOU.”