A Few Recent Pics of Super Reece

Reece being forced to pose for potential Christmas card photos (note, this is not the one I used)

First Thanksgiving!

His first taste of REAL turkey, straight off the bird.  None of that baby puree turkey!

He liked it, but was quite the serious eater!

Another Thanksgiving celebration…this one was pool-side!  Carlos stole Reece's hat.  I think he looks like Mr. Magoo

My happy little turkey

I took this to show genetics are a funny thing.  The child sits like me!  My feet are hardly ever planted on the floor when I'm siting on a chair (exception is when I'm somewhere nice in public of course!)  But at work or home…oh forget about sitting properly!

Reece has new wheels!  Thanks Yai Yai!

Taking in the tree for the first time.  Notice the bottom of the tree is not decorated :)

This would've been so cute had Reece not turned out blurry.  I need to become a better photographer

My dare--devil.  Across the couch, over the pillow, and hanging over the edge so that he can pull the coasters toward him.  And what do I do?  Take his picture :)

Reece built a gingerbread house at school!  Well, his teacher and I built the house while Reece snacked on a graham cracker and watched.  He offered very little help, but sure did enjoy his cracker!

Beijing and Back Part 3…and the END!

In the interest of wrapping up this drawn out saga (because now I need closure and have to finish blogging about the trip), I vow to end this 1+ months of posting about our China trip.  If not for all of you, I'm doing this for myself as well.  I need to move on with my life and not have this hanging over me :)

I'm not even sure what I remember at this point, so I'm going to try and keep the next two days of our trip somewhat brief (yes, for all you non-believers out there, I can be brief).

Saturday morning we woke and hurried downstairs to grab a quick, and hopefully filling, breakfast before we headed out to the Wall.  We were going to need our energy!

The journey out to the Wall (at least the part we were headed to) was about a 1-1.5 hours drive.  On the way out, we stopped first at the jade factory where they had the most amazing sculptures made/carved completely out of jade.  The details were amazing.

This doesn't look that impressive in the pic, but this was an entire village scene completed over 3 years of carving

the artist did even the tiniest of details in every bit.  This is a closeup of one  of the miniature temples carved in the sculpture

Anyway, after shopping around for a bit, we were off and heading to the Great Wall.  We had one small near death experience while on our way.  As I previously mentioned, people drive like maniacs in Beijing.  This time was no exception when in the smaller laned rural area we were in, a car thought it would be wise to pass a bus by driving into our lane almost causing a head on collision with our van.  Fortunately, we had a very experienced driver and he was able to avoid the car, the bus, and even the random things on the side of the road.  I'd like to tell you how he did it, but I just had my hand on Reece in his car seat and my eyes closed.  I thought it was over for all of us.

When we got to the Wall, we were told "go left to the more difficult climb, go right for an easier climb."  So what does my husband say?  "We are going left!"  Mind you, this is a man who does pretty much zero physical activity.  He thinks because he looks in shape that he is in shape, but it's all a ruse.  I kindly reminded him that he was going to be the one carrying the baby in the carrier while doing the climb, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.  I just made sure to have my camera because I knew how this was going to go down :)  I'll stop here to take a minute to tell you that it was simply amazing to be out in this mountainous area of China and seeing such history before us.  We could look all around and see different parts of the Great Wall and see just how far it keeps going.  If we had come to China and only saw/stood on/climbed the Great Wall, it still would've been totally worth it.  The other stuff was just bonus, but this, this was why we were here.  As we began our climb, my husband received cheers from various folks along the way for  climbing with the baby.  One Chinese man said "with baby?  Go Go Go!"  I think Carlos needed this cheering squad because I could tell early on he was wondering what he got himself into.  Funny thing about the Wall.  They must not have believed in symmetry back then because one step up would be about 12 inches and the next 4 inches.  It was interesting, but just had to be that much more careful.  We stopped periodically so that we could take pictures…and so Carlos could rest, although he would never ask to rest, so I just threw him the occasional bone and said "wait I want to get pictures."  I knew he was hurting :)  Carrying Reece up this VERY STEEP wall was climbing with an extra 16 pounds!  I'm glad I wasn't doing it!

We set our destination point in our sights very early and vowed we would make it.  So we climbed and we climbed and we climbed (and paused for pics).  Reece slept on the way up of course :)

When we got to our goal, we stayed at the tower for a good while just soaking it all in.  Absolutely stunning…

Let the fun begin!

Our destination is that tower way at the top

 One of those unstated breaks

 Amazing

 Giving the quads a rest

 we made it!

 the view from up here

 Family photo op on the Great Wall

 Reece's paparazzi.  These folks were amazed by Reece and kept wanting his picture, so I decided to take a picture of them so they knew what it felt like

 What goes up, must come down…slowly! :)

VERY STEEP!

After we got back down, we rewarded ourselves as any good American would…with ice cream!  We loaded up back into the van and off we went to the Ming Tombs.  In between destinations, we stopped to have lunch and all I can say is WOW.  It was a feast and the food was sooooo good!  We also got a tour of the copper making that goes on in China.  It's a very detailed trade!

The Ming Tombs were interesting, but I think at this point of the day since we were all so tired, we were a bit "templed" out.  We walked around, learned about the history, but weren't exactly our excited selves at this stop.

We rounded out our Saturday with a stop at a tea shop where we learned Chinese tea drinking customs and tasted a variety of Chinese teas.  I'll be honest when I say that I am not a tea drinker.  I have tried tea every which way you can imagine.  I want to like tea since I know it is good for me, however, I do not.  So as you can imagine, for a non-tea drinker this stop was not exactly that exciting.  Not wanting to offend anyone though, I participated in this tea drinking party that went on.  I held my cup correctly, made the appropriate Chinese tea drinking noises (yes, there are noises), and to my surprise, I actually liked the taste of what was in my mouth!  So we kept moving along until we had tried the 5 traditional teas and I really did enjoy all of them.  I realized it must be just how pure the tea was and not how we try to make it comparable in the states.  While it was good, I still won't become a tea drinker.  A little taste was good, a cup would probably be too much for me to handle!

Tea drinking

Reece making friends at the tea house

Off to bed we went after another long/late day!  One more day to go!

I can keep Sunday brief since there wasn't much activity.  Sunday morning we had free so Carlos and I put Reece in his stroller and just went for a walk around the area of our hotel.  There were some interesting sights to be seen just being immersed in the local culture.

Playground near the hotel…interesting...

Too many cars, no place to park, so why not park on the sidewalk?  This was rather annoying.

A very popular mode of transportation in China.  Bicycles everywhere!

and they haul EVERYTHING on these bicycles!

a lot of housing area of Beijing don't have private bathrooms, but rather share a bathroom located somewhere in the neighborhood

After we returned from our leisurely stroll, we loaded up and went out to the Summer Palace.  The Summer Palace was the "vacation home" so to say of the "Dragon Lady" otherwise known as the Empress.  I guess you could say it was her personal resort.  The Summer Palace covered a large space of land surrounded by Kunming Lake.  

Again, the details are just unbelievable

 Close up

very peaceful place

 Dragon boats on Kunming Lake

Marble boat with stained glass windows

To sum up our trip, we had a phenomenal time.  Before Guam, I never would've thought I'd travel to China.  Being able to take advantage of trips like this is probably the best perk of being in Guam.  I loved seeing the Chinese culture, and their mega-city of Beijing.  I loved the fusion between old China and the modern China.

On the morning of our departure, I took a few last photos…

Working hard at packing.  We'll worry about the missing sock later

He is so proud of himself :)

Our tour guide Lily had a hard time saying goodbye to Reece.  She just loved spending time with him!

And of course, at the Beijing airport I had to get my Starbucks since we are deprived in Guam!  I'm not ashamed to admit I went twice in the 4 hours we waited for our plane.  But this was out of stupidity on my part.  The first time I ordered my beverage of choice I said to the lady "tall, skim caramel macchiato."  Then as she was making it, I realized I said "tall."  Really??  No 'Bucks in a year and I ordered the smallest size?  What was wrong with me?  So that's why I went back.  To make up for what another year of no 'Bucks is going to do to me :)

So now that I've reached the end and we all returned safely (I'm going to spare you the details of the flight home.  It was uneventful for the most part.  Reece slept, but only if I was holding him, but he slept and that's all that matters) I want to share with you how I/we survived this trip.  There are a few products that made our lives sooooooooooooo much easier during our time in China since we were go-go-go all day, every day (disclaimer:  I am not being paid to endorse these products, although if the companies would like to pay me, I wouldn't complain).

The first was Plum Organics Baby Food.  The baby food is in these squeeze pouches instead of glass baby jars.  MUCH easier for travel and disposal and less mess!  Less mess because the next product, the Boon Spoon, goes with the Plum Organics food by twisting off the cap to the pouch and attaching these plastic spoons onto the end of the squeeze pouch creating this awesome closed feeding system.  Just squeeze the pouch and the food squirts onto the spoon via the neck of the spoon.  Insert the spoon in the baby's mouth and voila!  No jars to scrape, no spillage…totally awesome.  And they come in a convenient pack of two (which is what we needed during our days so we didn't repeat a dirty spoon) and they have a travel case to keep things even cleaner!  Genius!  

The last product that saved us…more on the grand scheme of not having gross, messy laundry to pack…were the Bibsters disposable bibs.  Since sad to say most of Reece's solid feedings occurred while we were in route from one place to the next and he was in his car seat, these Bibsters kept his clothes nice and clean.  They cover quite the surface area!  And when we were all done feeding him, off came the bib and tossed into the next available trash can.  No dried food/crusty/nasty bibs to take back to the hotel and pack in our suitcases to take home and wash.  

Aaaaaahhhh…it's amazing how simple products can make life so good.  When it comes to the babies, it's the easy things that matter!

So there you have it, China all wrapped up in 1+ months :)  This means if I ever travel again (which we will), I probably shouldn't start blogging about it or I may never finish.  Hope you enjoyed and for any of you traveling in the future with babies…see my recs above for a hassle-free time!  

To Beijing and Back…part 2

Well, I'm sure by now all of the suspense I have kept you in has died off.  You might even have thought I took another vacation by my absence.  Sadly, not true.  For the sake of being honest, I just didn't feel like hopping on our blog lately.  After long days at work and mentally draining life decisions (saved for another blog), I chose to just lay in bed and watch whatever junk tv I could relish in (aka…anything and everything on Bravo).

So, back to Beijing (if I still remember the trip!)…

After a quick two hour flight from Korea to Beijing (because after flying for 24 hours to Guam, anything less is now defined as "quick"), we were greeted at the airport by our tour guide Lily (insert Chinese accent here because she spelled it Lily, but pronounced it "Lee-Lee" so Lee Lee it was).  She helped us get loaded up in the car and because of some insight I was given from a co-worker/friend who had gone to China previously and warned us of the erratic driving (including no regard for passenger safety…i.e. baby in a car seat) I stood outside the van until Carlos had Reece safely strapped in his car seat.  I'm sure they were wondering why this crazy American was not getting into the van, but I do believe in my child's safety and they didn't know I was on to them!

On our way to the hotel was when Reece decided to hit his wall.  It started out with mild whimpering, but within minutes turned into full-blown crazy baby screaming.  The lack of sleep officially caught up to Reece and turned him into a demonic monster of sorts.  Into the hotel we went and stayed for the remainder of that day so Reece could nap off and on as needed (and his parents as well).  The good news is we had built this day into the trip just for this reason.

After a somewhat decent night of sleep (Reece knew he was not in his crib and reminded us periodically throughout the night), we got up to start our sightseeing adventure of Beijing.  First stop, Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.  These two alone occupied our entire morning.  The Forbidden City is never ending.  Temple after temple.  You just keep walking through and there is more more more!  It's amazing to see.  The architecture is just simply amazing, down to the finest detail.  I also found it even more interesting that in this huge city of Beijing (the size of the city is the size of a small country) and all its modern buildings, there is this ancient city.  Beijing is quite the fusion between old and new.

The layout of the Forbidden City

Another warning we had been given prior to leaving Guam was that the people (mostly women) of China are going to be drawn to Reece.  I just thought "of course!  Who wouldn't be!" :)  But I really understood better when we started our sightseeing.  We came to China to see the sights and yet you would've thought we were the tourist attraction!  I know blue eyed, fair-skinned babies are not the norm in China, but WOW.  Everyone kept coming up to us and wanting to touch him (which I politely dodged or angled the baby so they were touching his clothing).  Some folks asked (through our tour guide Lily) if they could take pictures of him, others just snapped away on their cameras.  For once in my life I understood what it was like to be Angelina Jolie with her kiddos (minus the millions of dollars of income, 5 less children, and the looks).  Ok, maybe Angelina Jolie was a bad comparison :)  But seriously, it was like we were being stalked by the paparazzi.  Of course Reece was the celebrity, not us, so everyone in Beijing became known as Reece's fan club or Reece's paparazzi.  Of course my child, regardless if he was sleepy or not LOVED the attention and flashed everyone his charming smile when they gave him one oodle of attention.  He would be fussing one minute then as soon as a stranger came up to him he was all "I'm a cute baby, look at me!"  Oh man, we realized in China just how much trouble we are in later in life.  The child knows how to work it!!


After all the walking (and walking), we came to the end which opens up into a beautiful little garden area.  Numerous cypress trees over 300 years old.  It was actually a very peaceful area even though there were hundreds of people.

Now it was time for our rickshaw ride through one of the local communities to the house providing us lunch.  The tour arranges for a local family to prepare a meal for us (this is a good time to insert that there was another couple with us…from Guam…but we didn't know them prior to the trip since they were from the Air Force Base.  Great couple, glad they were with us!).  I think all of us were a little hesitant about this at first, but as the saying goes…"when in Rome…" except maybe I should change it to "when in China…"

Bad picture, but at least there is a pic

Riding through the town…they carry EVERYTHING on the back of their bicycles

The housing was quite interesting.  Small homes, but then again, because of the government restriction on the number of children, there are mostly small families.  All I can say about the lunch we were served is WOWZER!  By far the best Chinese food I have ever had.  And there was soooooo much food!  The four of us could've sat there all day and just kept eating.  On a side note, I would like to take this moment to applaud myself for using chop stix to the best of my abilities.  I didn't want to be 'that' American.  You know, the one who asks for a fork.  So after a quick tutorial from Sharon and Carlos (the hubs can use chop stix like us regular americans use forks.  He's got mad skills) , I'd like to say I did a-okay.  Let's just put it this way…food went in my mouth and I certainly didn't leave hungry!  I also didn't make a mess on their floor so all in all a very yummy and successful lunch!

After lunch we rickshawed back to where we started, loaded up in the van, and off we went to the Temple of Heaven.  The TOH consists of a few temples, all used for ceremonial purposes.  It is just unbelievable how old these buildings are and to see them up close and unscathed, quite impressive.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests…not one nail used in the construction of the wood structure

Imperial Vault of Heaven

After the TOH, we did a quick visit to the silk factory where we saw the silk making process (interesting) and shopped around a wee bit ;)  Don't worry, we were good.

Finally it was time for dinner.  This particular night was our Peking Duck Dinner special.  Off we went to a restaurant (I couldn't tell you where we were if my life depended on it) where upon sitting down, food immediately started appearing in front of us.  I kick myself for not taking a picture of the spread that was put in front of us, but there was so much food they had to move food to an adjacent table to make room for more food.  We were only 4 people!  Lily enjoyed this time because she got Reece all to herself so Carlos and I could actually eat.  As long as she stayed within eyesight so Reece could lay eyes on me (he isn't happy if he doesn't know where I am), he enjoyed being with Miss Lily and I enjoyed stuffing my face with delicious food!  So.Much.Food.  And again, all chop stix. I was adventurous and tried the duck (my first duck experience) and it was pretty good, but I was really enjoying all the delicious vegetables (yes, I did just use delicious to describe vegetables.  You would've too, trust me) and other dishes.  The thing I learned with real chinese food is that even though you feel like you are eating a lot, we never felt overly full like you do when dining at an american restaurant (or eating americanized Chinese food).  We would eat and eat, but never hit a slump.  We just felt GOOD.  

After dinner, Sharon and Mike went on to the acrobat show, but Carlos and I declined for that night and said we'd catch it a different evening (7:30pm was way too late since Reece's internal Guam clock was saying it was 9:30pm).  Back to the hotel we went to get some good rest for the physical demands the next day would present…climbing the Great Wall!

Stay tuned!