Mia chips in.

Mia has joined the working class to help support her lazy and self indulgent parents.  She doesn't seem to know she is being exploited so where's the harm?

We took Lily to a shoot and the clothing rep saw Mia and asked if they could use her as well.  You betcha!

To Rich and I's credit we are teaching English once a week, Rich is doing some engineering drawings for an Austin firm and I am working on an export endeavor. It's random but it keeps us fed.

Yeah, A friend for Matt!

Matt has had a hard time adjusting to China.  He is a social kid and there is no 'social' here.  Unless you count nine hours of homework a night as engaging.  We have been unable to find any nine year old boys for him to hang out with...until now and suddenly China is not so bad. 

We met Jayden through a friend at church and he and Matt clicked.  We get them together as much as possible.  Which isn't super easy since he is two metro transfers and a taxi ride away.  But if that's what it takes, so be it.

To impress Jayden, Matt is saving his money for this outfit.

Looka Looka, Cheapa Cheapa

Here's what we've been up to....

Matt's day with dad. They went to the Bund; which is on the west bank of the Huangpu River.

Then to wrap up their day, they went and looked at dead animals.

Good times.

We went to a water town called Zhou Zhuang. When Rich described what a water town was he used Venice as a comparison. It was no Venice, but it was nice. It was green, the air was clear and I could stretch out both arms without taking out another human being. When we pulled into town Mia looked around and asked if we were still in China. I replied yes, to which she responded, 'wow, it isn't even very crappy.'

This is still one of the weirdest things to me, strangers that want to take pictures with my kids. It happens everywhere, I don't get it. Of course I think they're adorable but why would you want pictures with some kids you don't know?

This is the oldest lady I've ever met, she is 96. That is really old!

You can buy a fish to honor your ancestors and place it in the pond.  That is a lot of hungary ancestors.

Everywhere you went the peddlers try to lure you over to there stand by saying, 'looka looka, cheapa cheapa'.

Biggest news of the day...Piper poops in the potty!  We started potty training six months ago and have had on again off again success. When she hit her third birthday and was still dropping a load in her drawers I decided to use the 'Kristen Hilton Method'. Here's the scene. Piper peeing on her special red potty whenever I sit her on it but refusing to poop, even though it has been three days. Having decided we are done with diapers I pull her underwear up and wait for her to go and hide (after awhile she didn't even bother hiding). Telltale sign the deed was done, she would say, 'I'm not stinky.' I would then ask, 'Piper, did you poop in your pants?' The girl, without any hesitation, would say ‘no’. So I let her walk around with her hot little nugget until she would ask me to change her. We would then go in the bathroom where she had to clean herself, and her underwear up. I thought after doing it once she would never want to do it again so she would use the toilet. Nope, instead she got quite proficient at it. Finally, after a week of this she got tired of it and said 'I don't want stinky pants; I want to go poops on my little potty.' Halleluiah! We've been going clean and strong for four days. Let’s hope it sticks. Thanks Kristen, I owe you one.