Winter at the Summer Palace

on 1-19-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: The Summer Palace (Yíhé Yuán, 颐和园) Beijing, China

I love the way the Summer Palace looks in the winter.  I feel like Cole should be marching out to Bjork’s Army of Me.  It’s my favorite place to bring Cole in Beijing so far, he can run from garden to garden, stepping through thresholds and running along ledges.  He’s getting even more brave.  On this day, a Chinese woman was cooing at him, so he grabbed her hand and brought her over to the souvenir stand.  When that didn’t produce a toy, he lifted his arms up, so she’d pick him up (and she did), which the crowd gathering around them though was hilarious, and they spent 10 minutes looking at bracelets and souvenirs.  Someone called him “Bābǐ wáwá” which I had recently learned is the Chinese name for Barbie Doll.  He does look like a little doll, tearing up the Imperial pavilion.

“I Put Pants On for This?”

on 1-19-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: Hou Hai Lake, Beijing, China

I had this vision. I’d take Cole out into the wintry wonderland and show him how to make snow angels and throw snowballs. We’d go ice skating and drink hot chocolate (hot milk tea for me). His cheeks would get ruddy from the cold but he’d be happy and we’d laugh and laugh and…

Okay, so there is no snow in Beijing this year and my son is too little for the cold. Still, I thought pushing him around Hou Hai Lake might be a suitable middle ground. As you can see, Cole did not agree. Too bad you can’t ice skate in the tropics. On the upside, Drew did manage to take a quick video of these ice chairs, something I’ve only ever seen in China.

At home, this is what we do for fun instead.

TV Counts as Cultural Immersion (Right?)

on 1-19-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: Beijing, China watching 喜羊羊与灰太狼 on youku.com

The nanny starts on Tuesday, a Hebei-transplant who doesn’t speak any English but who is sweet and can at least pretend to understand my slightly mispronounced and wrong-toned Mandarin.  I consider her hire a big milestone for me, not only did I conduct the interview in Mandarin (with prepared notes) but managed such niceties as “would you like something to drink?” (no, she did not) and “please have a seat” (she did).  When I’m watching chinese cartoons with Cole, I recognize the individual words now, even if I can’t tell you what they mean.  Little things.  Maybe Cole is learning too.  He seems riveted to his shows whether it’s in English or Mandarin.  He has noticed that we’ve been swapping out the language on some of his favorite movies (the first time we played Toy Story in Mandarin he kept looking at us, like “uh, guys, did you slip something in my drink because I’m freaking losing my mind here.”).  Sorry bubs!  Didn’t think you’d notice.  That is totally messed up though, swapping out all his favorite movies for Mandarin versions.  That’s the kind of thing that your child will bring up when they’re 30 and having kids of their own.  ”Mom, did you replace all my cartoons when I was 2? I have some weird memory about Woody sounding just like Jackie Chan.”  Hmm, nope, not that I can recall dear.

Pop Quiz: Parenting #Fail

on 1-19-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: Some hotel, Beijing, China

Can you guess the number of parenting fails in this photo?  Let me get you started:

1. Despite my entirely misleading photo last week of Cole clothed, and outside, this is in fact a lie, and he has been nearly naked for almost a month now.

2.  My son is naked sitting on a hotel chair, where invariably, other people have sat.  Naked.  I try not to think about it.

3.  We are in a HOTEL.  Not an apartment, not in a flat, but in a hotel room because after approaching a month in Beijing we still haven’t figured out where to live.

4.  This is the 10th hotel we’ve been at as we’ve moved around the city.  And my child is still talking to me.  Well not talking, more like making screeching noises at me.  Hmmm.  Maybe he’s trying to tell me something.

5.  He’s watching a movie.  Puss in Boots.  Which despite all my child-free ideas about parenting, I have not actually given him a television-free childhood or succeeded in only showing him educational films, unless you consider  Antonio Banderas’ Spanish accent something of a cross-cultural immersion study (um, no? damn).

6.  Given that the words naked, hotel and puss are in this post, I’m probably going to want to stab myself in the face later when I see the search traffic landing on this page (although sometimes it works in my favor… I have a post How to Have Sex on the Road and Not Wake Your Child and it ranks well for “how to have sex without waking my parents“.  I can just imagine the horrified expressions on these teenagers’ faces as they realize that while they were trying to figure out how to get it on in the next room, so were their parents. Honestly, I consider it a public service).

And that’s just off the top of my head.

“Dude, I think it’s your turn.”

on 1-19-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: Dōngchéng district, Běijīng

We wandered through the ‘old man park’ where men sit outside in their parkas and jaunty cossack caps, playing a board game that looks to me like checkers, but might be Chinese Chess (Xiàngqí) if my googlese is any good.  We chatted with this little girl’s parents in the only language we shared — cooing at our child, taking photos and smiling.  Hmmm, maybe my letter worked.