Mostly spending time at home: Jan 25-Feb 2

Following Clancy's visit Kim caught a terrible cold... or cough.... or, well, whatever, she "got real sick". [sic]
(Major bummer - stateside Clancy had the same bug. What a lame souvenir!) And because the weather only got colder and wetter, it meant spending a lot of time indoors.

Fortunately, it's not so terrible to stay home - especially since Christian was on vacation. Though Kim was sick, she had a lot of fun.

Connor has a blast playing with monkey and Dad. Jan 25

 We also got some small fun chores done like... Rocking Horse Assembly! Jan 25

Hay! Stop horsing around!

Finishing touches!

Christian worked diligently assembling this lovely rocking horse. Assembled just in time for Connor to use it.... sometime next year!
(Remember from last post? This was the free gift we got with the stroller & highchair purchase.)

We also assembled the highchair. Though we didn't get any photos of that process we do have some fun after shots to share that show off some of the chairs functions. Jan 28

We don't know a lot about highchairs, but shopping for them here we discovered most of the highchair options available have three uses; highchair, table & chair and a rocker.

The highchair as a highchair!

<--- This photo shows the highchair as a highchair!

Examine the photo carefully and you might be able to see where the chair section can lift off from the base. Remove the food tray, lift off the seat and rotate to reveal table and seat (see photo below)! Rotate the table/base another way and place the seat on top to make a rocker (sorry, no photo).

The highchair in the table and chair configuration.

Ever mindful, Master Yoda decides to test the chair before we try it out on baby Connor.

The chair passes Master Yoda's test!

Now it's time to place Connor in the chair to see what he thinks... 

Connor examines the buckle.

Connor: "Ok, now what!?"

Just to round this out, here's a shot of Connor in his stroller... in the apartment. 

We'd been dealing with some tantrums every time we put him in the stroller after getting outside so we followed some advice to try it in apartment a little first just to get him used to being in the stroller. It seemed to work for us and we got to play a fun "game" with it pretending his stroller was the space shuttle Endeavor. 

Connor looking a little concerned before the
next "flight"... Feb 1.

Other fun times in the apartment...

Connor laughs hysterically after a bath! Jan 28

Connor curls his body and grabs the hot pepper on the mobile. Jan 26

A long twist to grab the penguin. Jan 29

Connor stands with Dad's help. Jan 29

Connor and Dad compare feet size. Jan 29

Connor and Dad play a crazy game! Jan 29

Connor recognizes images of himself on the coffee mug! Jan 30

Through all this Kim was pretty sick (notice a deficit of "Kim" photos here) but staying cooped up inside was getting really old... so a  brief outing was in order.

We bundled up and went to eat lunch at Cafe 85 followed by a short walk to check out a new flower display before heading home. 

Christian looks like an advertisement for the cafe.  Jan 28

Connor asleep in his stroller. Jan 28

Kim and Connor beneath the phoenix statue's new flower display. Jan 28

On a random shopping trip we
ran into this cut out of Mr. Bean.  Jan 26

Also, we were lucky to try a new treat. A friend gave us some homemade egg dumplings. Essentially the skin of the dumplings has been made with eggs instead of dough. They are very good! Or, 很好吃！

Egg skinned dumplings

 ~That concludes this short post~

Next up, a visit from Connor's Uncle Robert!

爷爷 (ye ye - grandpa) Clancy comes to visit: Jan 19-24

We were so happy when 爷爷 Clancy decided to make the trip to China to visit us and meet his newest grandchild, who, as fate would have it, is the only male grandchild carrying on the Potter family name.

Not the most heroic sigil, but at least
it's not an onion

After a long journey, Clancy finally got to meet little Connor face-to-face. 

A proper human introduction. Jan 19

爷爷 working Connor into hysterical laughter.
Jan 20

   

The pair really hit it off, especially after Clancy started asking Connor "Are you a baby?" - a question that almost instantly made Connor squeal in delight! 

Despite some chilly and drizzling weather (it rained everyday of Clancy's visit!), we were able to go out quite a bit with 爷爷 to explore the city and some of the surrounding area. It was a blast to walk around and show him some places we'd become a bit familiar with these past few months in Wuhu...

Walking Street - Jan 20

 ... and it was equally fun to venture out to new areas!

Visiting New Locations

Heaven's Gate ---Jan 21

Based on a recommendation, we ventured out to a scenic place on the outskirts of the city called Heaven's Gate. When we arrived it was a  little scary because no one else was around (you can probably imagine that this doesn't happen often in China) but we figured they were probably deterred by the bad weather.

<-- "Detail" of the statue

Clancy, Kim & Connor at the base of Heaven's Gate.

The base of Heaven's Gate had some interesting features - a dock, a canteen, some buildings where we briefly saw a monk and a barbecue tent.

Huge barbecue tent. When the weather is good this tent
could be packed with at least 100 people.

The winter landscape of this area looked really beautiful! Bet this place will look great in Spring time when the trees are budding and flowers are in bloom.

Christian excited for the adventure ahead. Jan 21

Also at the base of Heaven's Gate is a small group trees covered in red ribbons. The red ribbons are tied to trees, most usually in monasteries, as a wish for good fortune

Red ribbons are tied to trees in monasteries to wish for good fortune.
The person tying the ribbon can write the name of a specific person they wish good fortune for, the family name to wish good fortune to a whole family or they can tie the ribbon without writing a name.

After fully exploring the base of Heaven's Gate we were ready to climb the mountain! 

(really it's a just a big hill, not a mountain)

A couple shots of the steps at the location to give an idea how steep this hill is.. 

Unfortunately, as we climbed the hill, it started raining and got progressively colder. 

Kim brandishing an umbrella while carrying a bundled up Connor in the Bjorn.
Days like this one make the Bjorn cover really worth while.

As we climbed the weather got worse and worse, and eventually the nice steps stopped so we had to walk on increasingly muddy earth to reach the summit. As we walked, the hill became steeper and steeper, as well as muddier! But we were determined to reach the top, a place immortalized in some well known local poetry, and where visitors can see three branches of the Yangzi river meet.

 

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the top, the weather got so bad we could only barely make out the sandbar below, let alone see the river converge.

The real prize at the peak turned out to be an electrical tower... aptly placed at the peak of a hill that's promoted as a tourist attraction. The price of fast development rears its ugly head.

Getting home from Heaven's Gate was pretty difficult. We took a small three wheeled cart to the main road and from there, unsuccessful in hailing a cab, caught a local bus into the city. We road for nearly an hour before the bus reached the bus station and informed everyone to exit the bus as it was the last stop. As fate would have it, the rain started down pouring as we had to exit the bus and it took close to 20 minutes to hail a cab since everyone was in the same position of needing one.

But, it was an adventure!

Wuhu Sculpture Park --- Jan 23

The second new-to-us location we visited with Clancy was Wuhu Sculpture Park which displays the Liu Kaiqu International Sculpture contest winning sculptures. Despite some cold weather, we all enjoyed the beautiful landscape and sculptures the park provided. 

Connor ready to go! Jan 23

While it was still a cold day, the weather was considerably better than it was the day we climbed Heaven's Gate. We all still bundled up but our umbrella wasn't going to be necessary.

Inside the park there is a large lake which is the home to many sculptures. The lake combined with the natural landscape make the area a lovely to spend an afternoon.

 Here's a few shots of some of the interesting sculptures and the landscape this park has to offer...

The sound of this mechanized sculpture adds to its beauty.

Showing off more of the landscaping...
This sculpture of birds were sculpted by Dina Merhav.

Four posts each depicting a different plant which represents a different season is intended to rust. By Feng Chongli

This beautiful park is in a part of the city that is in the process of being developed. Actually, the park itself is pretty new as well. It opened in 2011.

Christian and Connor pose in front of a sculpture.
You can see development in this part of the city going on behind them. 

Because of the weather, and maybe the location (there isn't much to do in an area of town that is in the process of being developed!) we were almost alone in the park.

Christian, Clancy and Connor stroll through the park. Sculpture by Lin Gang. Jan 23

Kim and Connor chillin' out. Jan 23

Christian cracks up... a frequent occurrence when
hanging out with Clancy. Jan 23

Christian snaps a photo while Clancy and Kim struggle to pose Connor with a sculpture...

We don't succeed in getting him to pose alone.

One of the downfalls of visiting a place in an area of town that is being developed is it's hard to catch a cab home. When we finished viewing the park, we had to walk 2km to a main road on which we could hail a cab. On the way, we got a better view of some the building going on. It looks almost futuristic - or as a part of the set of a dystopian movie. 

Building housing near Wuhu Sculpture Park

Eating!

Of course there was a ton of delicious and fun food to be had while Clancy was in town. We introduced to him some of our favorite treats, he introduced a new place to us!, and we checked out some new restaurants. 

1. Lunch at a new restaurant called Habitat Coffee on Jan 20th. We stumbled across this restaurant on its first day of business! Often in China venues called coffee shops are actually upper middle class restaurants that serve Chinese, Western and fusion food.

A delicious breaded pork dish.

 A couple of beautiful coffee drinks.

A cold coffee drink.

Sometimes beauty overtakes function.
The only chocolate in this mocha is the
syrup on top... 

A cute photo of 爷爷 Clancy and Connor at Habitat Coffee.

2.  Cafe 85° - Clancy introduced this lovely coffee shop and bakery to us. This Taiwanese chain has branches in California. Jan 22nd

Clancy is listening at Cafe 85°. 

3. Thai Food. We brought Clancy to a great Thai restaurant we found shortly before his visit to Wuhu. Jan 22nd.

At first we thought we ordered a bit too much food but when everything else was gone,
we fought over the head of lettuce. 

Clancy poses with Connor
 who isn't cooperating for this photo session.

Christian is shocked to discover there is a live singer in the restaurant.
His exact words as this photo was snapped: "There's a singer here?!"

4. Snack: Wife cookie. This coconut flavored cookie is a local bakery favorite.

5. Fu Jian Cai - Fujian cuisine.  Near our apartment there are 3 Fujian restaurants, and one of them is actually good! When you want a light lunch or dinner, but don't want to cook, Fujian cai is is a good choice. Fujian is famous for, what we call in the West, wontons. Jan 19

爷爷 enjoys some Fujian food!

Shopping - Jan 22

We didn't actually do a lot of shopping during 爷爷's visit, but the shopping we did was important.

Connor tests a highchair in the store.
Check out how huge that surface is!
This is the model we bought.
(More highchair photos in the next post.)

We used Clancy's experience to select the right stroller and highchair for Connor. Choosing a highchair was actually pretty easy, but the stroller was a bit more difficult. I'm pretty sure we examined every stroller model in the store (and half of  them more than once)  before we found the right one.

It's really fun to shop in China sometimes because they let customers do a ton of in store testing. Connor sat in a couple different highchairs and a few different strollers before we made our final choices.

At one point, Connor fell asleep and stayed asleep through at least 2 stroller try outs...

This stroller didn't make the cut.

In the end, this is the stroller we bought.
It looks like Connor is too big for it, but
that's just his huge puffy coat arms.

Connor is surprised at waking up in the
stroller at the store!

Free rocking horse!
Assembled photos to follow in subsequent post.

Another reason its fun to shop in China is you can ask for discounts. You don't always get them but sometimes you do... and sometimes instead of a discount, you get a free gift.
With our purchases, we were given a rocking horse!

Back at the apartment Clancy, Connor and
Christian pose with the new stroller.

Fun, Funny and Cute Pictures that have no where else to go!

Early on in the trip 爷爷 took a liking to sitting in this simple wooden chair under the window...

Jan 20

Jan 23

Three generations of "C.P." guys together. Jan 21

Clancy on campus. Jan 23

Close up to show Connor's eyelashes. We get a lot of  "long eyelash" comments (a positive comment).
Also, some up close proof that sometimes we "double hat" the baby. Jan 21
"Double hat" (v) to dress someone in, or to put on, two hats at once.

Clancy holding Connor. Jan 23

Grandpa Clancy did a really great job of making Connor laugh, and a great job of snapping photos while he did it.  Check out the four cute photos he snapped below. Jan 23

(If you look carefully in the first photo you can see two bottom teeth under the surface of the gum).

Now presenting, a "Have You Seen This Boy" first --  A 4 panel photo comic! Jan 24

爷爷 plays with Connor

Connor thinks 爷爷 is funny.

But Connor falls asleep.

What?

In case it's not clear, we had a lot of fun with Clancy, and Connor laughed so much! It was a really fun jam-packed visit!

Foggy road the morning of Clancy's departure!

The morning of Clancy's departure brought some intense fog that delayed the first flight in the series of flights home. This surprised us all because we'd never seen fog like that in Wuhu before. Crazy, huh?