Ahhhhh!

Scroll down. Pictures from December are here.

Big Brother's gonna sit on me!

What's new with Titus & Mike?

After being declared potty-trained, Titus is back in full time diapers. Hypothesis: He is dismayed about wearing four layers of pants (cold apartment), or we pushed him to hard for perfection and he pushed back. Try again later.

Titus' personality is emerging. Telling scenarios:

1. Climbs up on a two-foot stool. Says "jump!" and jumps upwards, then down. Doesn't make a clean landing and face-plants on the nose. Ouch. Some crying, hug and kiss on nose. Says "again" and climbs back up. Titus is not cautious and he's a thrill-seeker. (But he is afraid of a toy lizard that grandparents sent in the mail.)

2. Watching a movie clip about a boat, sitting on a little red chair. Michael wheels over in his walker and starts messing with Titus' chair. After repeating "Mai-Mai, no!" Titus whacks him on the arm. Mom will not have it. Movie over as consequence, short fit thrown. Then, as instructed, Titus says "Sorry Mai-Mai" and gives him a hug and kiss on the arm. "You can't watch the movie because you hit your brother." Titus, with look of solemnity, nods his head, "K. K." Titus is teachable.

As for Mikey boy, he has two teeth! They emerged right around Christmas Day, and are located on the bottom front. Michael gets around the house in his walker. He has a will to wheel into Titus' room to grab for any accessible toys. But Mike probably won't be rolling over or sitting up anytime soon because he wears two fuzzy body suits + two sweater tops + thick overalls, which inhibit movement. Michael is happy and easy-going. He gets lots of love and attention from our neighbors, friends and random whoevers.

Migrant Worker Moms

This shy girl is about the same age as me and her son is a month younger than Titus. She is a migrant worker, having moved from the countryside to the city in order to make more money. She sells homemade snacks on the street outside our university. I don't know if she has any other kind of job here. Her son will remain in the countryside hometown, raised by his grandparents. Twice a year the mom and son will have a visit. As for the girl's husband, he is working in Guangzhou.

I have three girlfriends who are in an identical situation: countryside girl, had a baby boy before age 22, moved to the city for work, baby remains in the countryside raised by grandparents, they see each other twice a year, husband is also a migrant worker in a different city far away.

Rachel Addington, you are filthy rich being able to live together with your two little boys and your husband.

A Wedding

Recently I've been trudging blindfolded through a murky pool of cultural clumsiness, sometimes stumbling but recovering, other times face-planting in the muck. Mud is flying; people are getting hurt. It's the life of an outsider trying to live well in a place she doesn't belong. I take one step forward then one step back. Thankfully, Chinese are gracious to tactless foreigners like me.

Today Drew and I took one step forward! Our friends asked us to deliver a 3-minute speech (of of course in Chinese) at their wedding, which we did with pleasure, using some Proverbs as the substance.

From the picture above, you might observe a couple things about Chinese weddings: Western dress is en vogue, and pictures are taken before the big day. This wedding was particularly interesting because it represented a believer's union, taking place in a church. As the bride was escorted down the aisle by her father, I thought, this is the first generation in 4,000 years of Chinese history to have such a ceremony. A generation ago, the bride's mother probably didn't have a wedding-ritual proper as China was undergoing a phenomenal break from traditions. Two generations ago, the bride's grandmother certainly wore red, and was toted to her husband's home via sedan chair in the midst of an elaborate wedding ritual. Therefore, today we witnessed a dynamic shift occurring in Chinese culture as this couple was married in a Western-style ceremony.

Sweet Potatoes

Mike tried out his first taste of something other than breast milk: sweet potato.

As with Titus, I'm planning to make all the baby fruits and veggies. 'Cept this time I shall be making the rice cereal too. Turns out that it's actually not so difficult to make your own baby porridge from brown rice, oatmeal or barley. Good thing, because China's supermarket shelves don't carry good quality baby rice cereals -- they have sugar and seem so artificial. This is probably because only a small margin of Chinese yuppies are feeding their kids processed rice cereals. My observation is that the vast majority of families have a granny who is making steamed egg yolks, rice porridge, tofu, bananas and sweet potatoes for her grandkid.

And here's a snowsuit photo, as a bonus!

Chinese New Year will inaugurate the Year of the Rabbit, so ugly little bunnies are beginning to show up on all kids of things, hence the hat.

Extended Family Living Structure

Traditionally, Chinese adhere to a patrilineal descent pattern and an extended family living structure. We visited a neighborhood family for lunch and I was impressed by how many family members reside in the same apartment. After asking a few questions, this is my best conjecture as to who lives here. We'll designate three month-old Duo Duo as the ego.

• ego: Duo Duo
• mother
• father
• maternal grandmother
• maternal grandfather
• paternal grandmother (it appears that paternal grandfather is deceased)

and possibly:

• paternal uncle
• paternal uncle's wife
• paternal cousin (six years old)

maternal grandmother prepared the food

six year-old cousin's desk and drawings in the family room,

maternal grandmother cooking a fish

a giant poster of China's greats on the wall: Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Mao Zedong

Duo Duo cried when held by his maternal grandfather, and longed for the comfort of his paternal grandmother's arms

unfortunately for Duo Duo, paternal grandmother was busy with another baby

I You

Titus isn't forming many sentences. He does string together a verb and an object or a subject and a verb occasionally, such as 洗手 (wash hands) or 妈妈抱 (mommy hold). I've been trying to teach him "I love you"/ 我爱你。 In this case he is producing the subject and the object, but not the verb, so he says "I you." Actually he usually says "I you. you you you!" He's also confused because the pronunciation for "love" in Chinese （爱）is quite similar to the word "I" in English.

As for Michael, he says "I You" in his own way. When playing with his dad, he has big eager eyes, as if entirely beguiled by his pops. When he's nursing he stops suddenly to look up and tell me something important and thoughtful, then back to the meal. He smiles at Titus and tries to follow him around the house. He erupts with giggles when big brother tickles him. Michael is such a darling!

This is what our boys looked like today, December 8th, 2010.

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