Akiva and Kenaz Updates

Whenever Jesse and I want to say something we don’t want kids to hear, we spell out the word like “Do you want to watch ‘m. o. v. i. e’ after kids sleep? ”. We learned that from our friends Heidi and Eric. It works great to keep a little secret from Akiva and Kenaz.

Yesterday I took Akiva and Kenaz to to an indoor play ground while Jesse was at home working on his project. They had a great time playing a ball pool and trampoline. Two hours passed very quickly and Kenaz needed to take a nap. When we came out the play ground, a next door ice cream shop had a promotion for get two scoops and give one scoop free (we cannot miss it). While we were indulging ice cream, Akiva said to me we cannot tell daddy we had ice cream because he would be jealous. I agreed with him.

When we got home, Akiva told Jesse, “After the play ground, we went to a ‘o. p. p .p. e’ store”. Of cores Jesse didn’t understand what Akiva was talking about because his spelling was complete out of no where. However I was laughing because Akiva did understood a little secret should spelling out.

Akiva now can write his name on the board. We have been teaching him writing ABCs over this vacation.

Kenaz started asking “why?” whenever we ask him to do things.

Since the Times Square Shopping Mall has opened, we go to a Burger King and Toysrus often. Last night Kenaz had a little bit of stomach issue. He didn’t want to walk. He kept asking me to pick up. He ate a bit of French fries at a Burger King and we went to a Toysrus. When Kenaz squatted and rode a display police wagon, he called me and said “poop came out”. Because Kenaz’s toilet training was easy and perfect, he never wet his pants. I didn’t understand what he said. I thought he wanted to go to a bath room. The closest bathroom is very far we have to go down stairs from 3rd floor to 1st floor and go out of building and go in another building. I asked him if he can hold it or if I should carry him and run to the bath room. Kenaz said “no, I already pooped so do not pick me up”. It was his first time said not pick up.

New Years Hardships (and restaurant review included)

This is actually the first Chinese New Years we have spend in China (except for when we were here in 1992). I realize that we always travel at this time, as we have 10 days of vacation. This year we did not go travelling because of several reasons:

a) we thought we may need this time to search for a new nanny because our old nanny's daughter had a baby.
b) we want to save money
c) we want to go back to USA for Passover this year.

Well...hopefully I will never spend another Chinese New Years in China. On the day of Akiva's birthday, from around 5PM to 4AM, non-stop fireworks. In the courtyard in-front and behind our apartment. We are not talking about little bottle-rockets. We are talking about sky-rockets that shoot up higher than our 16 story building and them go BOOM! with a plume of red phosphorous fire. Not just around our apartment too. Every apartment building, in the whole city. Did I mention that Haga is sick and had a headache?

The next day we went out to eat. But of course all the restaurants are closed. So we found this Koren place in Shi Hui Fang (师惠方）that specializes in ox meat soup.

Broiled Beef tendon

In the back they have this big pot that supposedly cooks beef 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We ordered beef tendon hot-plate, beef meet soup, seafood pancake, and Binbin-bop (uh...clay pot sizzling rice). The tendon was very soft, but not much flavor in itself. The food was altogether very good, although pretty expensive... we paid 230RMB (around $30USD). The owner looks like he is 22 years old and his wife looks pretty young too...they are 36. Haga says that tendon is pure collagen and its great for the skin. So if are around Suzhou and you need hot soup and you think that eating collagen is good for your skin, check out that place.

Practicing ABCs

On Monday we stayed inside most of the day. In the morning we practiced ABCs. I took the kids to an in-door pool in the afternoon at the Chateau Regency hotel. The water was pretty warm. Not much to do but the kids had a good time. We were the only ones there.

The weather has been very good lately. It was about 12C today, and sunny in the morning. It may rain tomorrow. We walked out to the park and the kids played in an inflatable playground.

When we returned we received presents from Grandma and Grandpa in America. Powerrangers Mystic Force Jungle Fury All Terrain Vehicle set. Awsome! Also checkers (which I found out is a little too advanced for Akiva) and Hungry Hungry Hippo. The first several times we played HHH I won. I am a HHH god. But Akiva cried.

I beat Akiva at Hungry Hungry Hippo

After Akiva won a couple of times he started to like it. Kenaz likes it too and is a natural.

Happy 4 Years Old

Akiva is imitating a facial expression from transformer robots.

Akiva had his 4th Birthday Party at Gymboree on Friday. Actually his birthday is on 1/25, but Chinese New Years is starting and many friends would be out of town or having dinner with family on Chinese New Years, so we had his Birthday party early.

Everyone had a fun time. We ate chocolate moose cake and had a lot of sugary snacks. Akiva is a great party host. He tends to share his time equally amoung his friends in order to create harmony (gets that from his mother). We had Japanese friends, Chinese friends, and 2 Americans (although one of those spoke Chinese and the other spoke Japanese).

We got him a 250RMB Transformer toy, and a 80RMB Transformer toy. At Toys R'Us, they have Transformers in Very Large, Large, Medium (the 250RMB), and small. They also have new "Animated series" Large, Medium, and small (80RMB). They also have non-transforming Transformer "figures". We got Kenaz the small Animated series Transformer called "Bumblebee". But its a little too difficult for him. And the medium size "Optimus Prime" Transformer was too difficult for Akiva. So the next day I returned it to the store and bought a six pack of small transformers (they did not havre the small Animated Series Optimus Prime in stock ... Akiva can probably play with that one). But of the six-pack of small Transformers - which costs around 250RMB... the toy quality is that of a Cracker-Jack toy. Already one of the six - "Megatron" has broken. But anyway Akiva is happy with his toys.

Catching bubbles.

Jumping off from a neck of diplodocus.
The other bumber is that somehow all the pictures we took of the party got corrupted. I think that maybe there was a bad USB connection on the camera when Haga transfered them to my computer. So we had to borrow other people's pictures to post here. It does not matter though. The party was good. Kids had a lot of fun. The Gymboree staff played games like "jump from the head of the dinosaur" (pictured above). The staff cut out early when they brought out the Gym-Bo Clown to dance with...Akiva and his friends went into Ultraman mode and kept attacking it without mercy.

Its now -1C - -6C outside. Chinese New Years started and the country is shutting down. My office assistants are both riding hard-seat 25 hour-plus train rides so that they can get back to their families for the New Years. We are going to just have fun staying inside and playing with toys for a few days.

Visit from Japan

My mom came with two of her grand daughters, Shiholi (8 years) and Nahoko (5 years) to see us in Suzhou.

Akiva and Kenaz were very excited to meet their cousins. So was Naho-chan. She wanted to sleep, take a shower with her cousins.

First day, we had a brunch at dim sum restaurant near the lake. We had excellent shrimp dim sum which Akiva always loves. Later we went to a silk factory to see the process of silk making. It was Sunday. We had a really hard time to find a taxi to go anywhere from there. Jesse took one for Kenaz to go home first so Kenaz (and Jesse) could take a nap. The rest of us couldn’t find a taxi for a while. Kids still had a good time running around out side. My mom and I were freezing cold. Finally we found a taxi. We didn’t want to go anywhere. We decided to go back to close to our apartment and grab some Cold Stone ice creams (it is great to eat ice cream in cold day which makes me feel warm!).

Next day we went to a Stone Forest Garden. All kids loved there. It was like a big mystery stone mountain with caves and tunnels.

Kids went up and down to find a way out. Kenaz was a little bit frustrated keeping up with older kids. Three hours after Kenaz was tired and slipped off from slippery stone stars. It was time to go get lunch. We went to our favorite gyoza dumpling restaurant.
Monday, we went to a Shanghai zoo to see pandas. Shi-chan and Naho-chan were really looking forward. We left Suzhou early to catch up a zoo feeding time. We got the zoo on perfect time. The pandas were eating bamboo trees. Tigers were having fiesta. My high light was a baby gorilla and fight between daddy gorilla and silver boss gorilla. I had goose bumps to look at their small nature. We were at zoo too long. We almost missed our train.

Tuesday early morning, my mom, Shi-chan and Naho-chan took off. It was a very short visit. However, we all had a great time.
Shi-chan and Naho-chan are wonderful kids. They are very mature for their age. I was very surprised how Shi-chan was able to re-direct attention when my boys got too wild or started attacking her (as if she was a monster and they the super heros). Naho-chan fit into Akiva and Kenaz as if she was always their sister. She was able to teach Akiva how to pose in front of camera like a cutie. Later, when Akiva went back to his preschool it was a picture taking day. His teachers were amazed how well Akiva posed to camera. Naho She often guided Kenaz when he didn’t want to walk. In fact, Shi-chan and Naho-chan took care of my boys at home. Jesse and I could relax and sit on the sofa (normally Akiva and Kenaz jumping on us if we sit).

Hanukkah, New Years, and Toys'R'Us

First of all...Happy New Years and belated Happy Hanukkah!

[This post is late...was having Great Firewall of China related connection problems...sorry.]

My New Years Resolutions:
1. The usual stuff (be a better father, get in shape, be a better husband, etc)
2. Make at least 10K USD more money this year than last year...even if it means taking a night job teaching English to dumb kids.
3. Lose 1 pound a month over the next year in weight.
4. Start a new business stories blog to compliment this blog, so that I can sell myself as a business expert.
5. Take Akiva to at least one service at a Jewish temple this year.

In other news...



We didn't buy the kids any toys (except some cheap $2 plastic lightsabers to fight with). We want to save money, but the real reason is that we have too many toys around the house and right now the kids are very happy to play with lego blocks and other block variants. Also, anytime we get a new toy, we need to get the same toy for both boys, even if it is not age-appropriate for Kenaz. Anyway, Akiva's birthday is comming up on January 25th. We already got some new Ultraman spaceship-planes. And recently, Toys R'Us openned up.



We walked around today and bought Twister and 4 more cheap swords. But anyway, this means that things are going to be tougher for the Grandparents...not good to ship toys from the US, which are made in China, when we can now buy the same toys here in China. That being said...[this comment for Grandparents]... they did not have an American checkers set.