Erbizui Park.

We wanted to give the kids a chance to run around a little so we visited Erbizui Park. 

It's a historical fort and the only park I've ever been to that had light fixtures in the shapes on helmets, guns, and grenades.

 Christina swore that the bubbles in China were superior to the ones in the US.  She was right.  

The kids totally got some of these bubble frogs.

 There was a neat boardwalk along the river.

 You're supposed to get a good view of the bridge from here, but it obviously wasn't happening today.  The good news was that even as bad as the smog was, it wasn't ad enough to warrant face masks.  Apparently, it's even worse in Beijing this time of year.

The boys ventured down to the water.  Christina says when she was in grade school, her class would come to this beach every year for a field trip.

Around Jiangyin- February 1.

The haze and smog cleared and we had an absolutely clear and lovely day in Jiangyin, so I headed out to do some exploring. 

Here's a typical view down a residential street.

 And looking down at businesses, though most were closed for New Year's.

But little stands selling fireworks were open everywhere.  The man who worked at this shop was very pleased that I was taking a picture and we had a nice exchange, though neither of us understood a word being said.

 This is the back of Christina's parent's building.

And the front entrance.

 In the afternoon, a banquet was held for Charlie's first birthday.

 He even had a cake.

 Guess who got to eat cake before lunch?  Both boys were very good during all of the long meals.  I don't trust that my kids could have remained so well behaved.

Another shot of a typical celebratory meal of the week.

Some of Christina's friends from school joined us for the meal.

After the meal, we headed out to see the Jiangyin Bridge that crosses the Yangtze River. 

 When it was completed in 1997, it was the most seaward bridge across the Yangtze and the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world.  (It's still in the top 10.)

 You can see how much snog has rolled in since the morning.

This also marked the day Charlie started feeling better and actually warmed up to some of us.  

I think these boys may have been getting spoiled by not having to sit in car seats.  It granted a much better view cross the bridge.

Charlie didn't last long.

Back at home, the boys tried on some new clothes/

Still no touching, but he did grant a few smiles.

 James and I built this Thomas the Train set and I really started missing 3-year-old Henry at this point.

Look, there's no parent attached!

New Year's Day- January 31.

On Chinese New Year, everyone goes shopping.  We left the boys at home with Grandma and ventured down to the biggest mall in town and got to work.

Good thing there was food to fortify us.  First up was stinky tofu- which was as stinky as you can imagine and impossible to describe.  Naturally, I loved it.

I'm not even joking, but for weeks after my return home, I would wake up in the middle of the night craving the smell and taste of this fermented tofu goodness.

Christina also wanted to get the soft tofu soup- her favorite. 

Salty, fishy delicious goodness.

Too bad this guy missed out on the fun.

  

Here's the mall we visited.  The streets were shut down for traffic so people could shop.  And the haze was a good indication of how many fireworks were set off during the night. 

2014 is the Year of the Horse and there were no shortage of decorations that June would have loved! 

You can see down at the end of the street more fireworks being shot off.  You wouldn't believe how many there were.  We saw people sticking their arms out their windows and shooting them off (made me nervous for their fingers).  And I even saw a truck you could hire to come fire them at your house or business to scare off bad spirits. 

Too bad this guy missed out on the fun.

New Year's Day began 7 days of heavy eating.  Twice a day, we'd go to a hotel where we'd meet up with Christina's family and friends and sit at a table this size.  The food laid out is just how we started the meal.  By the end of the meal 3 hours later, there would be at least 25 dishes jammed on the lazy susan. It was incredible.  By the end of the week, I'd had the chance to eat shrimp, lobster, pork fat, beef stomach and kidneys, lots of whole fish, sashimi, whole ducks, chicken feet, pigs feet, lobster, and famous Shanghai hairy crabs.  Plus, I was usually seated next to a kind auntie who insisted that nothing was better for a pregnant lady that lots of eel and turtle.  

Obligingly, I ate everything. (By the way, the only thing I didn't like was the jellyfish.)  And for the first time in my pregnancy, I felt great.  Surely, a big part of it was not being at home and having the opportunity to sleep often.  But now I think it was probably the only time in my pregnancy that I was eating enough protein and wasn't anemic.  Those aunts knew what they were doing!

China!- January 27-31.

Now, I'd been feeling pretty lousy for the past 30 weeks, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from taking one last trip abroad before #4 made its appearance.  

I geared up and flew out of Greenville feeling very excited about my trip to China with my cousin Andy and his family.  The prospect of a few weeks off from 3 kids is enough to perk a lady up considerably.  I flew to DC and on to Chicago and spent the night- allowing me to spend a little time in very cold conditions and to actually see some snow.  The next morning, I took a 13 hour trip to Shanghai, next to a very concerned Indian man who was nice, but not entirely sure a woman in my condition should be traveling abroad.  Luckily, the flight was without any excitement on the part of #4.

At the airport I met up with my cousin Andy and his wife Christina, their two boys Charlie and James, and met Christina's parents, Agun (Grandpa) and Abu (Grandma).

Poor Charlie did not adjust to the 13 hour time difference and spent most of the trip awake and asleep at odd hours and mostly not enjoying the adventure.  Agun didn't mind holding the youngest while the rest of us explored.

James, on the other hand, was ready to go, and we had a good time playing together.

I had a good time playing the fun aunt who didn't have any responsibilities.

We all visited a traditional market and were pleased to find a common love of street food and got down to trying out chunks of ground, marinated tofu on a stick and warm soy milk. 

We visited a train museum in Shanghai.  James really loved the big trains!

We left Shanghai to travel to Christina's hometown of Jiangyin.  (She called it a very small town- though it has a population of 1.2 million.)  

Grandma and Grandpa had presents waiting for the boys when we arrived.

Great Grandma came up every day to watch James terrorize the toes of everyone in the apartment!

In preparation for Chinese New Year, we spent the day getting hair cuts and entertaining the boys at the big grocery store down the block.  

And Abu made so many dumplings and stick rice balls!

A big tradition of the New Year is firecrackers.  The louder, the better.  Here are some that Grandpa set off.  The box was the size of case of beer and from what I could tell, NOT the biggest fire crackers you could by.  But they did make some noise.

Still super jet-lagged, none of us made it to midnight, but I did wake up at midnight to more fireworks.  I'd say it kept up at this level all night long and well into the next day. They then slowed down a bit, but were steady through the whole week of new year celebrations.

January leftovers.

I thought I made it through all of the January shots, but I guess not.  (Remember, we use 3 devices for photos.  Isn't technology great?(

It's impossible to get Henry to actually smile for a posed shot, but sometimes you can catch a smile.

We borrowed this LaLaLoopsy costume for Halloween, but Jo wouldn't put it on until January, during which she wore it all the time.

The boots and the wig really make this costume.  I love this girl.  As much as we wanted to ship Georgie back to South Carolina during her year in Maryland, she has really gown into a fun kid.  She is still a non-stop talker who feels everything at 1000%- good or bad.  She's also grown to be a pretty funny kid who will do just about anything to get attention.

 She likes to follow her older brother and sister's example of eschewing all food, but periodically you can get her to try something new.  For example, she ate a bunch of spicy Indian snack mix with me one day, but now refuses to eat it when Henry and June are around.

 The weather must has been relatively warm one day, so papa took the kids to Greenville for a day at Falls Park.

The highlight of the park is obviously the falls.  There's a big bridge that goes over the falls.

We've gotten a bunch of rain this winter- I've never seen the falls this strong.

Typical family picture- Henry smiling goofily, June is some weird pose and Georgie immediately looks in the opposite direction when you yell "Look here!"

Running in an old building by the river.

And socking up some much needed sun.