Becoming a Master

Akiva has been practicing crawling and also pulling himself up to a standing position while holding onto me or furniture. Every day he practices dripping with sweat on his face. Some time he gets frustrated, but soon he gets back to his practice. It is amazing. Baby’s first year is becoming a master of walking. Makes me wonder if I can put the same effort to something, I can be a master too. While I am watching him, I stretch my inflexible body to dream about becoming a yoga master…..

Dim Sum at The Gu Ting

We went to a Tai Hua department store to research on a new crib for Akiva (I have heard from Japanese moms there is a good selection of baby goods, especially a Japanese baby brand combi). Before shopping, we need to eat! We went back to the dim sum restaurant.Their dim sum is so fresh. A waitress said they make it from fresh after we order. I miss fun of a rolling cart style dim sum, but dim sum taste so good when it just made.Akiva is eating his biter biscuit.

A view from private room

Akiva wants to drink from glass like a big boy

We went to the department store and we couldn’t find a crib we like. Prababoly we will go to Ikea in Shanghai to see what they have.

We walked to a Sheraton Hotel which looks like an old Suzhou style architecture. Their bath room is now into our emergency need list. They have a beautiful outdoor swimming pool.

The Gu Ting Cantonese Cuisine
6 Jia Chen Xian/Gan Jiang Dong Lu, OT
(near Gloria Plaza)
Tel: 0512-6521-3888

Sheration Hotel & Towers
388 Xin Shi Lu, OT
Tel: 0512-6510-3388

Travel with baby

Akiva in a bassinet

Akiva’s second time to cross the Pacific Ocean.

I used to think a cheaper flight is best. All I need is good movies and quiet time to fall in sleep or read a book. American Airline is best. Their flight attendances are often large and old. They don’t do nothing but sitting (One time when I asked a blanket, a flight attendance said “Why can you ask me at once?? I just brought a blanket for other customer”). Now I am traveling with baby. I need a good service.
JAL provids a cute baby meal

Traveling baby is always nervous. But Jesse and I enjoy a first class treat. We don’t need to be a line for check in or boarding (expect SouthWest or could be domestic? by the way, SouthWest calls baby under two a lap baby).Akiva cried and slept a lot on the way fly back to China. He was very tired and sleepy. He has to cry loud before falling in sleep. He was so loud at one point. A flight attendant asked me if he is suffering from a pain of ear infection. Akiva is still on the California time. He is having a difficult time to adjust back to the China time. Jesse thinks because of the day light. The sun is under the clouds and the sun light is so weak in Suzhou (but it still get hot here).

Akiva with Friends

Suzhou Park

Oh My God! I did again. Maybe three years in a row, could be four years, I forgot our wedding anniversary. August 8th. How difficult to remember lucky double 8. Anyway Jesse remembered and I didn’t.

It was nice dry day. I went to souvenirs shopping to a Suzhou Park area. The east side of Suzhou Park is a Park Street has many kids cloths stores. The west side is a Wese Street for men’s outfit.

stretching out her legs while husband is

chilling in the shade.

Mens outfit street to sell a HUGO BOSS or Ralph Lurence logo t-shirt. I couldn't find any cool gift for boys in the state.

Kids street. Most stroller unfrendly street.

Akiva knows Chinese girls get crazy by this smile. He smiled at girls at stores, so they want to hold him while mommy is shopping.

Weekend Shopping

Today we had a full of activities. In the morning, we went to a whole sale market to buy pashmina scarf. In China, there is no mall. Department store is for rich people. You have to know the place and street for shopping. Chinese people like to open the same store right next to their competitors. Streets are often became a shopping street like a tool store street, a kids outfit street, or a kitchen aware street. There is no advertisement. You need to have a network to do successful shopping.I found this whole sale /flea market on blog which is updated by a Japanese wife living in Suzhou. She is very active. Her blog has a lot of good pictures and information about Suzhou. Since I haven’t built a good shopping network, her blog became very useful.Yet I was very skeptical about this market. Chinese stores often sell a lot of junks like what you can find at a dollar store in the US. I still enjoyed hunting around shops when I had no baby in Shanghai. Now I have Akiva. Chinese street is not stroller friendly. I often need to babybjorn him. It is supper hot and muggy. Shopping became pain in a neck. Anyway, Typhoon Matsa has come and gone. It was cool today. We took a taxi to the market. It is a huge market and spread around, looks like you can find any thing there. When I got off from taxi I immediately started having a hunter spirit. Jesse also got excited. He was going to a Chinese chess and knives aisle. Luckily we found scarves. Jesse started having a stomach ache so we went back home for a little bit rest. In the afternoon, we took a taxi to TaiHu lake to meet up Jesse’s friend who is having a vacation at marina club by the lake. We had a lot of catching up with the friend. It is very nice to see our old friend from Shanghai. Then we took a taxi back to home and rest a little bit and meet up another friend for dinner. We went to a Japanese restaurant. We had a good time at the restaurant to discuss a random future business plans. Akiva also had a good time to be held by many Chinese girls today.

Weekend Eat Out - Teppanyaki

Typhoon Matsa is in Suzhou! It is really windy and raining all day. There is small floods clogged streets, but so far no major issues at least I haven’t heard. We went to a Teppanyaki at downstairs of our apartment for dinner. We always see largeish people eating at this restaurant. We know it must be good. We had beef and chicken sets come with rice, soup, and veges. We found very satisfaction in taste and quantity for RMB28.

Electric Bike

Sunday we went to buy an electric bike. We thought it is time for me to be more mobile. We went to Stone Street where a lot of electric bike stores are. After we spoke with several sales people (again Jesse was in charge of dealing with them), we decided to go for a bicycle type instead of a scooter type, because a bicycle type can put a child seat on back. Akiva is still too young to be able to sit on back, but we thought that option is very important. Then we narrowed down to one brand, Shanghai Thousand Crane brand which makes a biggest wheel. The biggest wheel is 26cm. It is still too small for Jesse to ride comfortably. However he has no choice.It is funny. If we were still in the state, it would be a car shopping to switch from a sedan to a family mini van. Here we are in China looking for a bike. I know soon Jesse has to buy a powerful scooter type and carry me and Akiva on his back, and he still has to manage to carry a fridge or bookshelf like other Chinese dad.