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Why oh why is it so hard for me to find time to livejournal?! I really dislike it. I feel like I'm having so many great experiences and I don't have time to record them. Blah! And instead of writing now, when I can, I am wasting time complaining, lol :)

Yesterday I walked to the Nanjing University campus. It turns out that I only live about 2 blocks away from this huge, beautiful campus. It may seem strange to you that I've lived here for 2 months and didn't realize this. Perhaps it is, but keep in mind that (1) with the kids in tow I really can't do much neighborhood exploring and (2) our neighborhood is huge! I could explore for weeks and continually find new things. The campus was so fun. I went to Pearl Buck's house! That's right, the Pultizer Prize winning author Pearl Buck lived and taught at Nanjing University. Her home is currently serving as an office for a small company, but there was a plaque over the door at least. The employees let us come in and climb the stairs (the same stairs Pearl Buck walked on!!)

As we were walking into the campus, there were throngs of students all around us. One of them reached out an touched Petey to which he promptly told her "Don't touch me!" in Chinese. She understood him! She said "Sorry" in English, while all her friends giggled at her and Petey. While on campus we also found a huge Lake Tai rock that the boys climb on (and in) for about a half hour. I love that they can be so easily entertained at times.

I went to the campus with another Tina. At least, Tina is her English name. She's married to the BYU professor who is here over seeing the study abroad program. He is much older than her, probably by almost 35 years, but it is obvious they are very much in love. They have 2 young boys, ages 2 and 16 months. While we strolled around the campus, her 2 year old wanted to push Connor in the stroller. Connor was not keen on that idea and neither was idea. I did let him for a moment or two, but he kept running the stroller into the bikes parked on the sidewalk. I waited for the other Tina to speak up and tell him he couldn't push my stroller, but she never did. He couldn't even see over the top of it. So, finally I said "Connor only likes me to push him. He doesn't even like it when Chris pushes him." I know, it sounds lame, but it is partially true. Plus, this kid is younger than Connor. I just was not comfortable with a baby pushing my baby's stroller. When I instited that I push, her son threw a fit. Ok, I understand that is the normal 2 year old thing to do, so I tried not to feel to guilty about it. I just walked on and let her deal with it. Well, he broke away from her and tried to rush back over to where I was and was almost run over by a bike. His mom screamed at the top of her lungs, and thank goodness the biker had quick reflexes! He stopped literally within an inch or two of running into the little boy. It was super scary and of course I immediately felt guilty as if it were my fault for not letting him push the stroller.

Because the national holiday is coming up soon, there was an old Republican army jeep on display on campus along with a man wearing an antique army uniform. He was quite the wise-cracker and enjoyed teasing the kids. He heard them say "Uh-oh" and asked the other Tina what it meant. After she explained it to him, he kept repeating it over and over. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. Petey had Spike with him (Spike is his most favorite toy in the world, a blue Neopet with yellow stars.) The guard would take Spike and put him in his pocket and say "uh-oh!" then pretend to walk away.

Ok, I need to sign off. I'm out of batteries on this laptop. Patty, I'll send pics in the morning. I had a computer glitch tonight.

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For Petey's birthday (his actual birthday was yesterday)their Chinese language teacher took them to a kindergarten to play with kids and practice their Chinese. They had so much fun! Petey wanted to follow them into the classroom. They all sang Happy Birthday to him, both in English and Chinese.

He had a great birthday. He loved the packages from both Grandmom's (I've been reading Little Critter nonstop, Mom.) and he had soooo much fun spending his birthday money from Grandpa Bill. Of course the fact that he was handed 2 crisp 100 yuan bills put a huge smile on his face too!

Let me know how this widget works. This is the first time I've tried it. Mom, let me know if it is too much for your internet connection to handle and I'll go back to the old way of posting photos.