初五is the fifth day of the Chinese New Year. 初 means start or beginning and 五 means five. Easy, no?

It was quite a relaxed day so far. Lexie woke up at 5.45 to drink and went back to sleep for a few more hours afterwards. Yes indeed, me too Well, you can’t blame us:

For once we can be sure that it is fog and not smog, since the factories are still closed. Miserable and cold weather.

Since PIL are driving me nuts by being in our house all the time we thought of a plan. Lexie went to their house at 12.00 and we will pick her up later. Mommy and daddy have the afternoon off duty and PIL can go nuts grandparenting away Everybody happy!
HW and I went to eat sushi (hurray to no longer being preggers!), had a coffee and then we went our separate ways. HW went to play tennis on one of the few courts that are roofed and I went to the gym. I was welcomed in hardcore chinese style: “wow, you are so fat”. OK…… stupid b*tch*s!!! UGH!!! And that on the first day I finally felt a bit better about my post partum body I had a good work out nevertheless. It was hard to cancel out the happy hardcore versions of Chinese New Year’s songs though. Muse and Nirvana did a reasonably good job.

After the gym I stopped by at PIL’s. I figured since they are coming here unannounced all the time, I can do the same. Hihi. They even had the heating on in Qiang’s old room since it is so cold. Wow, they don’t turn on the heating for anybody else!! Lexie was doing OK but was not very happy. I gave her a little feed and that seemed to help a bit. Then I went home to do some stuff around the house.

As you can see I even had some time left to write a blog

Hello, finally a post from me again. Something weird is going on with uploading pictures and it took forever to get these on here. Lexie is sleeping and HW is working on some stuff. It is very cold here; only 6C right now. That is extremely chilly in an un insulated house with no central heating. The air conditioner is blowing hot air now but that is only helping so much. When the air stops it’s cold almost instantly. I must say that the cold is not bothering me as much as before. A side effect after pregnancy?? HW seems to feel the cold more now and that is a strange new event in our relationship

Happy aunties
We seem to have survived all the Chinese New Year’s activities. Dinner, lunch, dinner, dinner, visit plus lunch in Shunde and one more dinner. Don’t think that we are all fat now; we didn’t eat that much. Lexie was the star, of course. She behaved very well and was only crying when we got home. Poor thing!! So many aunties and uncles up in her face. I would have cried on the spot!!

Very, uhmmm, ‘beautiful’ things in Shunde
Lexie turned 3 months old yesterday. Such a big girl already! She is cooing a lot now and even changing tones while doing so.

It’s hard to find time to write now. By the time Lexie is asleep at night I’m ready for bed too. Last night she slept until 7.00. That was super nice. Only downside was that the milk factory was about to explode Not so nice but after some pressure release everything was OK again.

All and all, all is well here in South China.

On Thursday Haiwen and I went to HongKong. Haiwen had to take care of some business and asked me to come along. OK! We were a bit tired because we had New Year’s drinks with the Dutch Consulate and the Bencham the night before. The event was held at the Paulaner brewery in the new TaiKooHui mall. That is a super bling bling mall in Tianhe. We had a good time and some nice beers. Lexie spent the night at grandparents Feng because we got home late and had to leave early in the morning.

Bodysuit by auntie Monica.

We got on the 9.03 through train, which was sold out. Actually all the trains up to 12.12 were sold out. Luckily we already bought tickets earlier. I was a bit afraid that traffic might be bad and the train station chaotic but everything went smoothly. A big difference between the East railway station and Central staion. Last few weeks there were about 800.000 people leaving from there each day (!). It’s exodus time leading up to Chinese New Year. Pfff, two New Years in one month is a bit much!

The plus side of taking the through train is that there are only so many people to go through customs at the same time; no more than can fit on the train. Other border crossings, like LuoHu, are packed with people.

Since Haiwen and I have a HongKong ID card now, getting through customs was a breeze. We inserted our card, went through, left a fingerprint and, tadaaa, we were in HK Very, very nice!

Haiwen went to take care of business and I went ahead to meet Ans and Mickey for lunch. Chiel and Haiwen also joined us. What a different set of people we were, compared to the last lunch, a few days before Lexie was born! Ans and Chiel have been in Holland and Florida in the mean time. Chiel ran the Goofy, which is a half and a full marathon in one weekenend and Mickey spent 6 weeks on an ice breaker in the South Pole region, combined with a visit to New Zealand. Well, what changes HW and I went through you already know .

After lunch HW and I took the ferry across the harbor and went to buy a Nespresso machine. We’ve been using it for 2 days now and the coffee is great. Definitely a great parenting tool!!

A visit to H&M was reasonably successful. I just bought some boring basics because the rest still doesn’t fit. Even size L mama collection is not generous enough for my over developed top half now :S Unfortunately the were out of L sized leggings I did buy a nice dress and a red rose to brighten it up a bit.

By then it was almost time to head back to Guangzhou. Boarding started early because the train (17.50 KTT) was sold out. In fact there were no more tickets available for the rest of the day. We were not in the mood for unnecessary queueing so we had a little snack first. When the lines were gone we went in as well. The trip back was fine.

Now it’s Saturday afternoon and I will tell you about that another time.  x

-Grandpa:Big grey wolf! With a long tail!
Right Lexie? He has a long tail doesn’t he?
-Lexie: coooooouuh
-Grandpa:Big grey wolf! With a long tail!
He wants to catch the small white rabbit.
是不是？
But the small white rabbit runs to its little hole.
Doesn’t he Lexie? He runs to his little hole, right?
-Lexie: ankieeeeeeeee
-Grandpa: The wolf can’t get into the hole because it’s too small.
Then what does the small white rabbit do?
-Lexie: grrrooooooo
-Grandpa: the small white rabbit lets one rip!!!
What does he do Lexie? He lets one rip!
Aaah, the wolf says, it’s so stinky!! I’m leaving now!
It is stinky, isn’t it Lexie?
-Lexie: coooo

-THE END-

*Translated and transcribed from Cantonese by J. Tummers*

I blinked once and then it was Sunday night!! I even forgot about blogging this week. Here I am again It was a good week all in all. I went to Zumba twice and that was great fun. Unfortunately our instructor has to go back to Finland next week so class will be suspended until after Chinese new year. My personal trainer from the gym just did her Zumba training and she is willing to take over our group I like all of the styles but especially Cumbia Funk and Reggeaton. Shake it, woohooo!!!

I was also shaking it on the tennis court between shots, hahaha.
This morning.

On Wednesday I went to the GWIC tea. We’ve moved to the Hilton, how decadent! The service was nice and we were chatting amicably.

The weekend was also nice. Yesterday we attended Jade’s first birthday party over in Golden Lake. Lots of parents and kids. Guess that will be our new style of partying now

We started our Sunday with dim sum and then Lexie spent the afternoon with the in laws. Haiwen and I went to the movies. This was not so easy because the parking garage was closed for some weird reason. Traffic was horrible in the streets around the mall. I got out to buy tickets and HW tried his best to find a parking spot. In the end he just left the car in a small side street. After coffee and some light shopping he checked out the situation and the parking was open again. He moved the car and then we could watch the movie without worrying.

We saw Sherlock Holmes but I didn’t really like it. I felt that the special effects (slow motion/normal speed) were a bit far fetched and reminded me of a “Matrix” wannabee spin off. The flow was also off. Never mind; it was still nice to have some time together with hubby.

In the evening we went to IN cafe to meet some family friends. Wouter and Frederique also walked in together with Abel. They are a Dutch couple living here in the same compound as us. Son Abel is 6 weeks younger than Lexie.

Just now Lexie was still wide awake and she was making very cute sounds

I got two things done today:

1. I went to the gym to reactivate my membership. Since this is China I asked my trainer if she was in. She was indeed after 13.00 and we fixed it together. It will be a week before I have my new card, since the old one obviously expired. I can already go to the gym if I want to. I’ll have to call somebody from the staff to tell the people at the register that it is OK for me to go in. Not complicated at all, is it?

2. I got my bicycle wheels inflated. I know, I know: *deep bow*
The problem was that they were completely deflated after not being used for about 10 months. Since we have no pump (who does when it only costs 0,50 RMB to have them inflated swiftly by a pressured pump?) I had to venture out to on of the many bicycle repair places around my house. I choose the one towards the left because the one towards the river is always so grumpy. The outer tyre got a little bit out of whack when the somewhat nicer guy inflated it. He fixed it in a blink and now I have a fully functional bicycle again. Oh, the freedom!!!

So I’m trying to come up with a blog post here.To be honest, I’m drawing a blank. My brain has switched off and it feels like it is never going to come back on. I know, ‘never’ is a strong word, but it is how I feel at this moment. I’ve been thinking about how to organize my life from now on and have come up with a very meager plan. I’ll work on it for a bit and then tell you guys about it. Not even sure if it is going to lead to anything.

Totally random pic, not related to this post at all

We went to a New Years party last night and that was quite nice. I was busy with Lexie mostly and got a very achy back from carrying her around and feeding her in between. There were many people that held her for a bit too, so that was nice. By 22.30 I was super tired and we went back home. Lexie did not want to sleep until 1.00 (just had a busy evening, of course) but she did sleep until 8.00! That’s 2 nights of 7 hours sleep in a row.

So, that’s what’s been going on here. Not much but still a lot somehow.

I went to the hospital yesterday because it still hurts when Lexie is drinking. Very uncool! I wanted to go the day before but that was not possible due to the public holiday. We made an appointment online and I got a confirmation by text. That is a new system here in town. Otherwise you have to go stand in line from 6.00 onwards to get a number. With a number you can go to the doctor and wait outside the office. If you are queueing late you can’t get a number for the same morning or possibly that day.  Hip hip hurray for online booking!

Before
The good news is that I don’t have an infection. The problems I have are being caused by too much milk. I got a dressing with some herbs on and that felt nice. It did add 2 more cup sizes….. not quite necessary at this moment in time I had it on for about 8 hours. I also got herbs to make tea as you can see in these pictures.

After
The tea tastes absolutely horrible but not as bad as the last prescription. Maybe I’m just getting used to bitter TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). It hurt a lot less today when Lexie was drinking so fingers crossed!

(Almost) newborn Lexie

January 3, 2012 in Babies, Portraits

Collage Lexie/Metteli.com/Nikon D90+Nikon85mm f/1.8

Little cutie Lexie was six weeks at the time of this shoot. For babies this small it is a bit hard to get them to focus their eyes, but Lexie was doing a great job! And I think pictures where you can really catch their eyes are so much better. Don’t get me wrong though, sleeping newborns are adorable too!

Lexie proved to be quite strong, even though she was really small she actually lifted her neck and posed for the camera when we put her in the little basket.

Such a strong little girl. Lexie lifting her head in the basket/Metteli.com

Lexie in the basket/Metteli.com

Lexie six weeks. Even lying on her tummy she wanted to move/Metteli.com

Lexie chilling out and playing with her fingers/Metteli.com

It is so much fun taking pictures of small babies, even if they are just lying still you can get a lot of expressions and details. And it obviously helps to have such a cute little model…

Do you have kids? I would love to shoot them (No, of course not shoot shoot. Just shoot with camera. I really think they should come up with a better word than shooting….)

Where does time go? It’s 22.03 now and it feels like 19.00 or so. Lexie is sitting comfortably in her massage chair. One more feed later and then it is bedtime!

Today I went to a Zumba class. The instructor is Finnish and is on holiday in Guangzhou. She doesn’t like to work out alone so she prefers to have a class. We only pay the rent of the room. It was fun and my arms are tired now. Next class is Thursday and I want to go then as well.

Lexie is making the cutest noises at times now. She cried for about an hour this afternoon but was happy the rest of the time. Haiwen was supposed to have a day off today but that did not work out because the office in Holland was open and some emergency came up.