It is Saturday night and I am watching Elisa by myself for maybe the second time in her first 18 months. We are getting along fine and I take a seat on the sofa and zone out for 30 seconds. I hear a noise and look down and there is Elisa – dragging her high chair in front of me. This was he subtle way of letting me know she was hungry.

It is maybe the second time I’ve watched Elisa for this long without the help of Yang, a mother-in-law, or an ayi. When I say “without the help of” I mean I’m pretty much the last person to watch Elisa when other people are around. But on this night, it is just me and her. The other time I watched her alone, coincidently, was the day before on “take your kids to work day” in which I spent Friday afternoon watching Aidan, Lydia, and Elisa play in what is otherwise known vas the basement of my office building. They must think I have a really easy job, one that consists of watching kids paint, draw, and eat cookies.

Why am I asked to watch Elisa alone? What caused this perfect storm to reach the 4th string help? Well, Yang’s mom was in Hainan, we only have one Ayi on Saturdays and she left at 6pm, and Yang was with Aidan taping a TV show (more on that in a minute). Lydia? She was a few flights up at her best friends house for a sleep over. When Lydia left at 5pm my smile and mouthing of “two nights ok” may have given me away. Anyway, Elisa and I had fun. I found out she isn’t a huge fan of Ted talks but does like to play with stuffed animals. She also likes to walk around (roadtrip!) and wander the halls. She’s less fond of naps that I would have hoped. She’s quite pleased when you change her wet diaper.

Meanwhile, Yang was with Aidan for the taping of a kids TV show which will play on Beijing TV this Friday. Aidan was cast along with a bunch of other kids – mostly older than he is. His role is fairly small in the show compared to others but Yang said he was best liked by the beautiful female co-host. That’s my boy. In the morning, everyone but Elisa went down to the TV studio to watch the rehearsal. I was pretty impressed with the state of the art facility and what appeared to be a pretty well run operation. We got out on time and everything. Here are a couple of photos from the evening shoo that Yang took. In the photo on the right, Aidan is the smallest of the herd of sheep standing next to the rightmost host.

Anyway, with all this Elisa watching and our late lunch I had not eaten dinner by the time Elisa fell asleep in my arms at 9:30pm. I put her down on the bed, made sure she was tucked in, and raced to the kitchen to make a quick dinner. Dinner ready, water glass filled, napkin at hand I got ready for my first bite. Phone rings. It’s Lydia. “Bobbi, I want to come home.” My smile is actually bigger than when she left. The mom of her friend delivers her a few minutes later and says the Lydia was missing her mom, her brother, and her sister. A pause. “…and her father”. Lydia is a bit hungry as well. The other family is half french and it seems the wine, cheese, baguette thing is less filling without the wine. Lydia is really pleased to get home and we finish dinner together. And wait for Yang and Aidan to get home which they do shortly thereafter. By that time Elisa is awake again and the three kids can hardly contain themselves they are so happy to be back together.

Me, I head for bed and sleep soundly.