Big Playgrounds

We live in Yandlord Town in Pudong. It's a huge gated community with 3 phases. We live in the 1st phase. There are 4 different outdoor playgrounds and 1 indoor playground. There are probably more outdoor playground, but I was only able to find 4 so far.

Here is a pics of one of the playgrounds:


Akemi loves riding on the car!!




This is the playground in front of our building. It's so convenient!!

Pics of our new home

Kitchen



Dining room


Master Bedroom


Akemi's room


Ayumi's room



Balcony View - Below is the community's garden

Aiyi Update

We hired our Kong Aiyi thru an agency and Jonathan's dad picked her. I didn't initially like her when we first met, but his dad convinced me that I needed help to unpack. I haven't been able to sleep well due to the entire Aiyi situation so I decided to let her go yesterday. We hired a new one and she started yesterday. She's been great! She's proactive and seems to able to tidy up the place while watching Ayumi. She's great with the kids so far and her cooking isn't that bad. I'm hoping this one works out.

Today is her 4th day at daycare. She loves it! She carries her backpack and puts her shoes on every morning. I think she really misses interacting with other kids. It's just not the same as hanging out at the playground. The teachers share that she loves to dance! I'm glad that I found something temporarily for her, but I have to find something more permanent soon. There doesn't seem to be that many schools that goes from PreK to grade school. I may have to wait till she's ready for Kindergarden to find a school. When does kindergarden start? 4 or 5 yrs old??

There are alot of fancy international schools here. British, American, French...

On other news, Ayumi has been giggling alot. She's also teething and I could feel her top tooth!!! I keep her home most of the day since she has a running nose. Hopefully when it gets warmer, we'll go explore.

By the way, there are so many bakeries here and they're good!!! I think they use real butter! My goal is to test each bakery and find the best one. I figured it takes me 30 mins to walk to the plaza and eat the pasteries, so I'll burn the calories back home. Right?

First Week

Our first week went pretty well. The first few days are a blur due to lack of sleep and getting ourselves acquainted with the area. There is a grocery store called 'City Shop' on our complex. It's a bit more expensive than the regular grocery store (Carrefore), but it's very convenient. We've gone there for milk runs in the evening.

Akemi has adjusted to Shanghai. I've been taking her to the indoor playground every morning, but lately she seems to be getting bored. From our 24th floor bedroom window, we can see a big elementary school's playground. She keeps telling us that she wants to go there and puts her little pink Hello Kitty backpack on. We finally decided to put her in a Chinese nursery for half a day. It's also conveniently on our complex. Today was her first day and she seemed to liked it. It also gives me a break in the morning to unpack more of our things as the Aiyi watches the baby. The teachers asked if Akemi knew any chinese and were a bit taken back when I said no. They were telling me that Akemi keeps talking to them in English and I didn't know what to say, so I just smiled back and shrugged my shoulders like 'oh well'.


I'm hoping to find her a pre-K soon. I've heard thru other moms that there is a long waiting list. The school here is ridiculously expensive. For kindergarden, it's $22,000 a year!!! We definitely can't afford that so we may need to look at a Chinese school that teaches some English.

Ayumi is going through the 'I want to be held all the time' stage. We're struggling with her sleeping during her naps and bedtime. We've been patting her down constantly and checking on her every few minutes. A few nites, we're so exhausted and we just let her cried to sleep. The poor girl lost part of her voice and would cry in a funny voice the next day. I'm just glad that the girls are both healthy.

Of course, first week into Shanghai, and I caught a cold. The weather here is freezing for a Hawaii girl. It's 35 degrees with crazy winds. All the expat moms just laugh at me and tells me, 'You think this is cold, wait till winter.' I've been keeping Ayumi indoors and bundling up Akemi when we go out.

This afternoon, I caught Aiyi sleeping on our couch. She continued to sleep, even though she knew I was watching her. I finally woke her up and asked her to help me to watch Ayumi so I can sleep. When I woke up from my 45 min nap, I found her still sleeping on the couch with Akemi rolling on the floor. Thankfully Ayumi was in her crib. I was little caught of guard that she would feel at ease to sleep on our couch.

We asked the Aiyi if her schedule is flexible where one day she may come at 8am vs 9am. She shared that she has to work another job since we don't pay her enough. I was a little annoyed that it's only been her first week and the subject of a pay raise is coming up. Jonathan and I are planning to have a talk with her and share that we will pay her the rate we agreed for this month and if she does well, then we'll pay her 200 rmb more, but not 600 rmb that she's asking for. It's also customary that we pay her 1 month extra salary for chinese new years and she gets that 2 weeks off paid. We'll see how the conversation goes as well as sharing 'No sleeping on the job'.

Jet Lag

It took 4 days for our girls to get over the jetlag. The first two days were horrible. Both girls were cranky all night. Akemi kept waking up at 3am and would go back to sleep at 7am for a nap to wake up at 10am, then back to sleep at 3pm till the following day. Jonathan and I felt like pulling our hair out at times! We thought it would never end. Finally by Monday, Akemi started waking up at her normal time and been going to bed at 8:30pm.

Our first few meals were dumplings (frozen dumplings that were steamed). By Sunday, we finally hired an Aiyi (helper) through an Aiyi agency. I should of taken a picture of the agency, but the office is literally the size of a walkin closet. There were tons of women all packed in the office sitting in stools. Jonathan's dad would ask a series of questions and those who didn't qualify or didn't want to do the job, would leave the office and go outside. In the end, Jonathan's dad found a Aiyi and seemed to think she was good compare to the others. Personally I think he liked her because she seemed to be more modern and decent looking compare to the other women. I was very skeptical since she didn't seem like she worked hard in her life, but we would only test her out for a few days before committing to anything. So far, she's been great. I'm not sure she's ready to take care of the kids so I've been asking her to come with me to the indoor playground every morning.

By the way, it's freezing here! I came totally unprepared. Poor Ayumi (4 mos) doesn't have the thick winter coats that everyone has. All the other Aiyis been commenting to my Aiyi that she looks cold. We've been trying to layer her, but you should see these kids walking around looking like puffy marshmellows. I'm hoping to go check out some stores near by to see if they sell anything warm for a baby.

I haven't run into any expats yet. Our complex has a indoor playground but whenever we go, it's full of kids and their Aiyis. I guess most of the expats stay home or have their kids go to school. I'm hoping once the weather gets warmer, we'll run into a few at the outdoor playground.

I'll try to take pictures soon of our place, once we tidy it up.

We Finally made it

We finally made it to Shanghai after 24 hours of transit. Our day started at 5am as I started to get sandwiches and snacks ready for the plane ride. We left the house around 8am and of course, Ayumi cried half way to the airport. At least she's improving. She was crying all the way to the airport and home during the last two attempts.

We had some issues at LAX with checkin. They couldn't find our 6th luggage and asked us to check with ANA when we got to Narita. Thankfully, they had our luggage when we checked in Japan.

The 12 hour flight was long. Akemi was very restless but was pretty well behaved for the most part. I'm glad I brought extra change of clothes because midway, she threw up. She was chasing another toddler around the plane and guess she lost her snack. Yuck.

Ayumi was good, only because we held her the entire time!!! Now, we're paying for it because all she wants is to be held.

Akemi had some trouble sleeping but we got her to sleep a few hours on the flight. At one point, she fell off the seat. Oops! We were both preoccupied with Ayumi and didn't see Akemi roll off.

We had the entire row to ourselves which was nice. I don't know how we would of done it with just 3 seats. Akemi is just too tall!!!

In Narita, the kids and I hung out at the ANA lounge while Jonathan went to sort out the luggage issue. ANA lounge is pretty sleek! They have wifi, free BEER, and UDON!!!! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to have beer, but at least Akemi had some udon.

After two carts of six luggages, 3 carry ons, 2 kids, and a stroller in 2 vans (1 van just to hold our luggage, 1 van to hold us), we finally got to the apartment at 11pm Thursday. We were exhausted, the kids were super GRUMPY...we 'tried' to sleep in the king bed with the kids. By 3am, Akemi was wide-AWAKE and Ayumi was still fussy, we decided to get up and make some dumplings.

It's 1pm and Akemi is finally taking her nap. Ayumi is still screaming to be picked up in her crib. Jonathan is snoring on the couch and I'm glad that this trip is over!!! I don't think I'll travel again with the kids.

Our Shanghai Move

Thursday' morning started off a little rocky, but nothing unexpected. Ayumi somehow peed all over her pajamas even with the #3 diaper, which is a size bigger than her usual. I had to rummage through the suitcase to find her a new pjs. I didn't want to use the extra outfits in the carry on luggage. With Ayumi dressed and all six luggage packed in the van the nite before, we were ready to leave.

We got to the airport around 7:20am. Jonathan unloaded all six luggage and pushed two carts into the checkout counter as I stayed behind with the kids in the van. Once I got the 'signal' from Jonathan, I started to take Akemi out of the carseat and into the stroller and carried Ayumi in my arms into the airport. The checkout lady shared that our SFO to Shanghai (PVG) flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers. We should of took it as a 'hint', that we might of not make our flight. Concerned, we asked if we would miss that flight and she shared that we would make it if everything goes accordingly.

Going through security was fine. After years of traveling as a consultant, I've become a pro at unloading and reloading, even with two kids. Ayumi in the Bjorn, I pass through and Jonathan & Akemi followed behind me. We were two hours before our flight and had plenty of time.

As it started to approach our departure time, we noticed that our flight was getting delayed by 30mins. We were cutting it close but we still had time for our transfer flight. We didn't take off from LA till 11am. Our transfer flight out of SFO was at 11:18 a boarding. I knew we missed it, but Jonathan seemed to be hopeful, since the checkout lady gave him the reassurance that they will hold the flight since the airline knew they had transfers. I knew that it was a 'liner', but didn't want to rain on the parade and didn't say anything to Jonathan. Midway through our flight, the stewardess reports that she had bad news. Our flight to Shanghai departed and UA will try to accommodate those that missed the flight.

By the time we get to SFO, it was 12pm. We hurried to the customer service desk and Jonathan asked for next available flights. The next one was Friday from SFO to Japan (NRT) and then to PVG. However there was no guarantees that we could all sit together and they would not accommodate us overnite at a hotel. The customer service lady gave us a flyer with a hotel discount. After an hour with her, Jonathan called the premier executive line and finds out that there were no seats available for all of us to sit together in economy plus. Only in coach near the last rows in the center aisle. Furious, Jonathan goes back to the customer service desk.

Coincidentally, another passenger requested for a supervisor, so we spoke with her. She saw Akemi running around the area and Ayumi in the Bjorn. She comped us a room at the Hilton airport. In the end, we decided to fly back to LAX at no charge and book a new flight entirely. The supervisor gave us food vouchers and we had a very late lunch at the airport.

Through this experience, Akemi was great. She ran around the airport, played peek a boo behind signs, and managed to find her snacks in the duffle bag. Thank goodness that I overpacked the bag with snacks. I forgot to feed her lunch and we didn't eat till 2pm.

By the time we left the airport it was 3pm. We borrowed a carseat from UA and was planning on getting a rental car till we found out it would of been $150 to rent one for a day. We opted to go straight to the hotel. Jonathan shared our story with the Hotel checkin lady , who recently had a baby. To our surprise she gave us a 2 bedroom suite.

We didn't think the day could get any worse and decided to take the free shuttle into town (Burlingame) and grab a bite to eat. I should of known better since the kids didn't sleep much on the plane and had a long day. By the time we found a place to eat and sat down to order food, Akemi had a meltdown. We got our food packed up and caught the cab back to our hotel. Both kids passed out in the cab ride. At least we had a quiet dinner in the hotel room.

Unfortunately at nite, Ayumi was so tired, she wouldn't sleep at all. We had a very LONG nite.

We learned our lesson and had breakfast via room service.

In the end, we flew back around 2pm on Friday and arrived around 5pm. Stuck in LA Friday traffic with Ayumi crying all the way home, we were finally home.