In Other News...

Updates in no particular order:

We've had a long-standing leak problem in our apartment -- mystery water under the floor wicking its way up the walls in various rooms.  Our landlady put us up in some fancy temporary digs while her contractors tried to find the source.  We stayed only a few blocks away, but it felt like a world away.  The area is more Western, more isolated, and more likely to make me lose my mind or burst into tears.  While it had a very nice playground, I hated it.  Made me appreciate our more Chinese neighborhood.  I missed pajama man.  I missed the fruit man.  I missed the vegetable chopping ladies.  I'm very glad to be home.

Naomi has survived her trial month in seventh grade.  Looks like they're keeping her. She started out the school year in sixth grade, but for various reasons it seemed seventh would be a better fit.  So far so good.  Academically, she's keeping up really well.  Organizationally, she's...um...coming along.  She blows our mind daily with her ability to handle all the changes of the past year so gracefully.  Except for when she reminds us that we ruined her life :). 

Townes is the new fourth grade boy representative to the school's student council.  Nate Silver called it months ago, but we weren't sure until the final votes were tallied.  The first meeting is today.  He was elected with a mandate to improve the lunch food. 

Eli can now make the following sounds -- "f" "sh" "v" and yes a burgeoning "s" sound!  We're very excited and proud.  But not nearly as proud as he is. 

Matthew's had a lull in his travel schedule of late.  It's been nice to have him around.  That will end soon with India next week, Thailand after that, maybe Myanmar or Bangladesh next.  Oh, and he invited 30 people over for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Besides maintaining my busy Tai Tai lifestyle, I also have two volunteer gigs.  I'm a class rep from Townes' class to the executive committee of the school's Parent Support Group (oh the power!), and I'm working with Shanghai Sunrise to help expand their sponsorship program.  They help low income Shanghai families send their kids to high school and university.  Public school in China is only free until ninth grade.  After that, families must pay, and often it is beyond their financial ability to do so.

Shanghai Sunrise kids who I got to hang out with recently.  Really inspirational kids.

Wow, this post is sounding way too much like a family Christmas card.  Enough of that, time to skip to the photos.

Celebrating with Obama-cake.

Those are pomelos.  From the pomelo trees at the playground.

My new friend Ellen took me to the beautiful local library.  I now have a library card.  Woot!

We checked this place out.

And we were very happy we did so.

Finally, we're most excited about the upcoming visit of Aunt Lizzy!  She arrives on Thursday.  After 20+ hours of travel, we will give her 15 hours to recover before we make her get back on an airplane with us to Chengdu.  We will make it worth her while, as we will get to see these guys in person:



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