China episode 4: Having too much fun to leave

The hot spring pictures my mom took with her phone: 

 Michael elected to stay with grandmas, aunt and uncle while Enoch went hiking with us, here is a pic taken with my mom's phone as well. It is interesting to see that an almost 4 years old boy can charm people to carry him around in China, my mom's words: 4 years olds are still babies here.

Our boys loved the evening playing time there. They would usually take a nap in the afternoon and we would go out to play after dinner. They'd ride scooters, mini auto-motorcycle and other riding toys. They also have some fun toys at the park that kids loved. I think they were kind of sad that they had to go to bed after dinner now that we are home.

This was a huge park that we went to. 

Peter loved it

Yep, he charmed his uncle to carry him around again.

Enoch and Michael absolutely loved sharing a bed and Peter sometimes got to try out with them, but always ended up being sent back to his crib later. Now that they are home, they keep asking to share a bed again ;(


Of course they loved not having to stay in their car seats all the time. This is typical of how many people we fit in the back of the car.  Now on our third day home, Peter threw a huge fit during the car ride home from the park and tried to get out of his car seat...

And of course the haircut was not really fun for them.

Peter was a mess ;)

They got to go to a Chinese "Chuck E Cheese" play area twice and played tons of games there. 

That play area has a grocery/shopping center and they even had little kids' shopping carts. The boys were in heaven!

They also loved watching a Chinese children's tv show " Boonie Bear". Here is a conversation we had before we leave: 

Enoch: I don't want to go back to Houston. It's boring in Houston. 

Daddy: Why is Houston boring? 

Enoch: Because grandma (You)'s house has really good Boonie Bear tv shows that we never watched before. But we don't have that many tv shows at our home in Houston. 

So we promised him to find more Boonie Bear tv shows on youtube when we get home. 

Peter learned to ask for grandma You when Sam and I punished him for doing wrong things, usually was hitting his brothers. One night we were driving home from the city after being treated to a nice dinner by one of my aunts, Peter hit me out of frustration and I held his arms to tell him no. He immediately started crying " I want nang nang (the nick name the boys call grandma You)! I want nang nang! " and even tried to climb to the driver's seat to be with my mom. 

It was really hard to say goodbye at the airport. My mom cried and I felt really bad for her. I hope that she can visit us soon! 

On the way home we got to stay in Beijing for one night because our airline compensated a flight change with a one night free hotel stay in Beijing . Of course I couldn't pass out the opportunity to eat my favorite Beijing food: Peking Duck.

The hotel room we had had two bedrooms with 4 twin beds. Enoch, Michael and Sam got their own beds, and Peter got to sleep in my bed. He fell asleep quickly and stayed on his side of bed most of the time which was amazing. Although I was woken up a lot trying to stop him from accidentally hitting his head on the wall. This baby has a tough head ;)

This pic was taken at the lobby of our hotel.

Here are some fun videos we took of our kids during the trip:

Video 1: Fun with Chinese 2nd cousin and dog:




Video 2: Fun on the scooter with grandpa



Video 3: Enoch on top of Lao Shan giving a speech about our day in Chinese




Video 4: Enoch and Michael play on the Teeter-totter:




Video 5: Peter riding on the frog/scissor scooter




Video 6: You will be really impressed that one year old Peter can jump off stairs like this. At least, I was!!





Video 7:  Three brothers play "train" with different motorcycle, scooter and bike. Enoch is pushing Peter with his mini motorcycle. It was a fun game that they loved playing.




Video 8: I have been amazed by how coordinated Peter is and how mature he appears compares to his age. Here he is riding a mini motorcycle and he knows to control where he is going.




To wrap up our China Trip. It was a really fun trip. The flights home were not bad. It helped a lot that we had an overnight layover in Beijing so we were relatively rested before the 15 hour flight home the next day. All our boys slept a lot and well entertained by the overhead tv with minor headaches.

Jet legs have not been fun. The boys and I slept until almost 2pm the first day home, and then I slept from 11pm till 4:30pm yesterday. Had to take some benadryl before bed so I could sleep last night. Kids had been cranky at night with lots of crying and midnight wakings. It's all expected though. It will pass, just need some time to adjust. It's good to be home. And every time I came back from China, I feel more grateful for the clear air with less or no second-hand smoke, convenient life style, and clean bathrooms.