Birthday Girl
I took Friday off work in order to celebrate Lydia’s last day of being four. I spoiled her, because, you know, she never gets what she wants. I spoiled her, because, you know, the last day of being four is a bitch. I spoiled her because, well, you know.
We started out the day at the water park, inside Tuanjiehu Park just on the other side of the 3rd ring road from the main business district of Beijing. While Aidan went on the slides, Lydia was happy to play with another little girl in the shallow water. Next stop, lunch at Annie’s, our favorite casual Italian fare. After lunch onto Fan Dazzle an indoor playground near our old apartment that is still one of their favorites. After a few hour there we headed home for a rest. For dinner we went to Wangjing, sat outside and ate light Chinese fare. Followed by more games, this one involving Aidan and Lydia sitting inside an inflatable clear plastic ball and rolling in water, not unlike this picture for a couple months back
After dinner, the highlight of the day, Lydia could pick out any gift she wanted from the toy store upstairs, compliments of her American Grandparents. At least that’s what I told her, expecting her to stay inside the budget. But then Lydia went off the map, and asked for a floor tile. I am not kidding. A floor title, which happened to have her favorite cartoon character on it, but nevertheless a floor tile. A small tantrum later she was onto the barbies and we hit pay dirt. An authentic barbie that came with body stickers. She could not wait to open it but knew she couldn’t until her real birthday. When she did open it, she loved it.
On her real birthday day, we drove about 90 minutes away to a Hyatt Regency Resort hotel. The place looked like a castle. Literally Yang had gotten a great deal on a suite and the hotel itself was amazing and luxurious. Mostly empty – seems it is the cornerstone of a large complex that remains unfinished – but that did not deter us. Nor Lydia. A cake was delivered to our room (compliments of the hotel) and we held the official happy birthday.
