Family

The house is noisy and not just noisy but loud and noisy. This is my cue to go to expat friendly supermarket on the first floor of our apartment complex. I say “who wants to go to Jenny Lou’s” and Lydia and Elisa respond affirmative. Lydia in her whiny “me, i go” and Elisa in her life affirming “hao ba”. So I wait for Lydia to put on some warmer closes as it has snowed earlier in the day. When Lydia’s done I scan the living room for Elisa but can’t find her so I call out. “Elisa, Elisa”. I here Elisa sounds and walk into the kids room. No Elisa. I turn, my eyes see into the bathroom. Into our standup shower. Down to the small pastic bathtub we use to bathe Elisa. Elisa sitting in the tub, turns and smiles at me. The tub is fill of water and Elisa is fully clothed. ...

Yang’s cell phone rings. It is 8am and we are asleep in our hotel in Jakarta. Aidan is on the line from Beijing. He’s crying. Today is his seventh birthday and Yang’s mom has told him he cannot buy any toys. His cry is not that of the spoiled whine (although to say he is not spoiled is not accurate either) but one of genuine hurt. Yang tells him he can spend 100 RMB on a toy; after all he only spent 159 RMB of his 400 RMB budget when celebrated his birthday last week. As we fall back to sleep I am trying to remember the day Aidan was born. Memoires fade and merge and I wish I could remember more. I try to remember what I was doing that morning. Which causes me to think about who I was working for at that time. Hmmm. Feb 2003. Could either be contracting for the bank or at MechnicNet, but I think I didn’t join MechanicNet until that May, so it would be while I was still making a decent income contracting. It was two weeks before Aidan’s due date (or more properly called Yang’s due date?) and Yang asked me to work from home. Seems there was some sign. She made an appointment with her decrepitly old – I mean experienced doctor – who examined her which resulted in her water breaking. We then checked into the hospital, Yang at first feeling happy and ready. After a few hours no contractions so labor is induced with a drug called pitocin. I remember thinking this was a little quick – we had read induction would be within 24 hours of water breaking – but ok. They hook up Yang to the monitors I am watching them closely for signs of baby distress. There appears to be some, so i mention to the nurse who says it’s not for this room. The nurse also adds that I must be a first time dad. ...

Yang and I are at a gate in the Jakarta airport waiting for our connecting flight to Bali. It is 5:30am in the morning a and we have been waiting for over three hours. It would have been six hours except our flight from Xiamen to Jakarta was delayed by two hours because of some visa problems some fellow passengers had. I am looking for my cell phone. I’ve been looking on and off for 30 minutes. I have looked everywhere on my person and in my carryon when I finally tell Yang. She checks her purse and asks some random airport staff if there is a lost and found. Apparently there is only a lost. We board the plane with my mind already thinking about the next model of phone I will get. I am torn between iPhone, an Android moto, or going with a cheap Nokia. The latter being the best choice for a phone phone, as opposed to a phone/chat/play/vanity object. ...

I am walking with Aidan to the Baskin-Robins in Lido hotel complex. Aidan is talking about dragons. He shows me a card with a three headed dragon on it. He says the dragon likes to eat people. I ask him why not chickens. Or steak. Or..he interrupts me. Aidan says he just likes to eat people. I asked like daddy people, or all people. He says all people and this is a kind of relief. I clarify whether the dragon eats kids or just big people. Aidan says it will eat kids. We continue to discuss the dragon’s eating habits and Aidan is quite animated. Aidan says when the dragon sees people its like when other animals sees chickens. He describes it like a cartoon, at least that’s what I see in my head. When I asked him where the dragon poo-poos, he says the dragon does not poo-poo. I ask what happens after the digests a person and Aidan says the dragon spits the people out of his mouth on a plume of water. Aidan goes on to describe that the dragon lives in the water and not the land but that it can fly and hunt on the land. That the water provides the dragon with a weapon to spit at people like other dragons use fire. ...

We had a light snow last night and at Lydia’s suggestion we head to Side Park to play in the snow. Side is just two blocks away – maybe a five minute walk – but we drive because the ground is still wet, its cold, and we are lazy. It reminds me of a TED video I watched yesterday in which the speaker says we humans are good at solving 99% of the problem but have a hard time with the last one percent because we humans do weird stuff. Anyway, we get to the park and the paved trails (all trails are paved) are clear and alongside the trail is a nice dusting of snow. I am able to make a nice round snow ball and chuck it at Yang, then another at Aidan, and another at Lydia. Aidan is having a hard time making the ball and Lydia is distracted. Yang gets them interested in chasing me and the snow goes back and forth. Then the workers notices us. The workers are sweeping the snow off the trails with bamboo brooms. There are about six in all, sweeping away and no doubt they’ve been at it a while. They are not so keen on us getting snow back on the trail even though its really only a little bit and that bit will melt in the warming day. But I raised well enough to respect the working man and know enough that they are likely being judged by how clean that trail is. ...

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. ...

Last week Aidan had final exams. Aidan is in the first grade. I’m trying to think back to when I had my first final exams. High school maybe. Yea, high school. But they weren’t that formal and not all classes had them. In wasn’t until college that I really knew what final exams where really all about. And I certainly never got the grades Aidan got, but more on that later. ...

Aidan and Lydia are fast asleep as we land at Beijing Airport, completing the flying portion of our return trip home. The day started out at 8AM PST (12AM CST) with me driving to Peet’s coffee, Jamba Juice, and Noah’s bagel (in that order) to satisfy our family’s cravings on our last vacation day in the states. Back to the hotel I help Yang shower the kids and do the final packing. By helping to shower the kids, I mean I tell Lydia and Aidan to keep their towel wrap on until their mom can tell them what to wear. By helping to pack, I mean I carry stuff down to the car. ...

It is Sunday morning and we are driving over Fangcaodi for Aidan’s piano recital. Yang and I are discussing the one parent rule allowed for the recital. I am inclined to abide by the rules and Yang says, never mind, it’s a silly over reaction to the flu scare and we should just go. Besides, if they complain we will say we have two kids since Lydia is also in tow. When we got to Fangcaodi and made it up the four flights of stairs where the music room is (strangely the stairs remind of All Souls) someone asks who Lydia is and outside of that, no one bothers us and the rule turned out not to be a big deal for those who ignored it. ...

Lydia has been in a bit of a whiny mood over the past few days as she gets over a slight fever. She’s been wanting to spend time with her best friends on this earth not named Aidan, namely Naomi from upstairs and her mom. When she can’t get access to these people…well let’s say it isn’t a linear progression once you get to position four. In any case, she has been practicing the piano and is eager to show me what she’s learned. She can read the music and play the notes in her lessons which impresses me because it is more than I can do. Then again she could just be faking it and I would never know. Every now and again she tells me she will play her own music and she in fact does. I won’t go so far as to say she has a gift – after all there are about 100 million other five year olds in china doing the same thing – but I am pretty impressed. ...