China Trip

We went for a 2 week trip to China to visit family in Shanghai, just me and the boys. This was Evan's 2nd trip abroad. Some highlights of the trip for Evan include:

1. 电梯 (Elevator)

We stayed at my great aunt's condo which is on the 17th floor of a high-rise. Luckily for Evan that meant getting to ride the elevator everyday. We quickly figured out that the best way to distract him was to go for a elevator ride. He wouldn't normally let 外公 (grandpa) carry him, but if there's an elevator ride involved, then he'd happily go with 外公. It became their daily routine where 外公 would take Evan to ride the elevator up and down a few times every morning.

Second to elevators, the next best thing is stairs. He's gotten a lot braver at climbing stairs now and would often insist on doing it all my himself (no holding hands).

2. Mama's Boy

Evan got used to getting carried by me, especially from the plane ride. The two words that Evan uttered the most on the trip was probably "抱抱" (carry me). He was rather clingy the entire trip and often wouldn't let me out of his sight. Perhaps it's meeting too many new people that made him more clingy to me.

3. Sliding Doors

Doors has always been Evan's thing, but he's never stayed in a place with so many sliding doors (including kitchen and bathroom doors). I think the sliding mechanism is a little different than closet doors here in the US, and he ended up hurting his finger several times. But usually after a few good cries he'll go straight back to doing the same thing again.

4. Taxi cabs, bridges, and tunnels

Going for a car ride in China is so much more exciting because there's no car seat or seat belts! Evan's usually rolling around trying to open the windows, standing up on the seat and looking out the rear window, or reaching for the light switches on the ceiling, basically doing everything except sitting still. He also loved going over bridges ("桥") and under tunnels ("地道"), though he often gets the two mixed up.

5. Not so great eater

I had often told my parents how great an eater Evan was, but he did not live up to his reputation this time. The longer we stayed in China the pickier he became. Towards the end he was basically surviving on 肉松 and rice. He even started rejecting milk. Nathan was the same. I resorted to taking the kids to MacDonalds (which they normally hate) and that was probably the most that both of them ate. I guess they just wanted something familiar. Here's a picture of Evan feeding 外公 some fries:

6. Home sweet home

Being away for 2 weeks definitely made Evan appreciate home more. He really missed 阿姨 (nanny Sarah) and Vavo ("grandma" next door). He did cry on the way back from the airport in order to protest having to sit in a car seat again, but after coming home and seeing all his familiar toys again, it was all smiles!