Sightseeing in New England

We had a weeklong visit from Grandma and Grandpa Kubisiak and Janelle and her two girls at the end of June. We were able to take them to the beach, the children's museum, an audubon preserve as well as a nice trip to SW Vermont. Most of all the kids had a great time playing with eachother and with their grandparents.

What's David up to?

The girls get most of the focus here but David is also a busy little guy. I signed him up for a few classes during the school year. He really liked gymnastics and a nature class. He's pretty good at entertaining himself while the girls are at school too. He loves playing legos, lincoln logs and dress up (just like his Uncle Joe did). He also loves to be outside digging for worms and playing with balls.

School's out

School ended here in Wellesley on June 18th. The last month or so of school was incredibly busy with lots of recitals, parties, projects, playdates etc. The girls had a great year and are happy to know that they'll be in the same school for at least another year.

Grandma Mitzie's 78th birthday

We celebrated Mitzie's 78th birthday a few months back. (March 1st) It has been a difficult year for her as she (and we) struggle with her worsening Alzheimers. She was actually doing fairly well then. We got her out for a haircut and shopping a few days before her birthday. She even went bowling with Tony and the kids and I. Her biggest problems currently are progressive weight loss and weakness, tiredness and difficult behaviors. We just switched her anti-depressant and that seems to be helping with everything but the behavior. Next week she will be getting her remaining bottom teeth extracted so I'm sure that will bring additional challenges.

eating in China

6 months ago we left Shanghai and returned to our lives in the US. While we've settled into our new lives in Boston we still often think about our time in China. We miss friends, food, the unpredictability of living in a different culture (well maybe only Jolene appreciated this) and Blue Frog (the girl's favorite restaurant in China - where Gracie would always order a hamburger and Helen could be counted on to request spaghetti). Mom and dad preferred several Chinese, Indian and Thai restaurants.

Shanghai has a pretty wide range of restaurants although we never found great Mexican food there. We ate out quite a bit but usually in Jinqiao, near our home or Xintiandi, near Tony's office. We also enjoyed the different varieties of fresh fruit that I usually picked up at a small fruit "store" about a 10 minute bike ride from our house. As you can imagine, there were some foods that we encountered that seemed very odd to us. Like the stewed donkey we noticed on a menu board...

We also benefited from having two great Ayis to help with cooking, cleaning, childcare and Carrefour (grocery). Our first ayi, Xin Xiang was a pretty good cook and I enjoyed eating her meals of soup (often chicken broth with a variety of mushrooms, or tofu, green onions, sometimes ground meat etc.) and her stir fried greens, eggplant with lots of garlic, chicken with red and yellow peppers and dumplings.

Our second ayi, Chen Yun Xiao was good at introducing us to more traditional foods that we never would have tried on our own, like bags of spicy pickled vegetables including lotus or nian gao which are glutinous rice cakes used in stir fry, popular in Shanghai during Chinese New Year. Here she is making dumplings during Chinese New Year 2007.

The Joy of Snow

The kids are really excited about the 3 feet or so of snow we've gotten this year. The latest snow made it look like we were living in a snowy wonderland with several inches of snow clinging to everything.

The kids have made a snowman and a fort in the yard, done a bit of sledding and skated on Frog pond in Boston.

2007 Holiday letter

Hello, friend. We hope this letter finds you safe and warm, while we endure our second blizzard in four days (total snowfall: just under 20 inches). As you might guess, we no longer live in Shanghai, where today’s weather is 60 degrees and sunny (albeit with toxic levels of air pollution). We now live in Wellesley, Massachusetts (outside Boston), where three out of every four neighbors are lawyers, so we are making an extra effort to keep our driveway and walkways shoveled.

Some brief highlights of a very busy year:

In February, we spent the Chinese New Year in Phuket, Thailand. It was sunny and warm every day; we rode elephants, swam and snorkeled. Jolene even swam within a few feet of a shark. Tony was too busy trying not to drown, and the kids were too busy tossing bread from the boat to attract fish, so they, unfortunately, missed this thrill. Thailand is inexpensive enough that we could spend a whole week at a five star resort for what a family dinner in Manhattan might cost (trust us, we know).

We traveled to Hangzhou, China for the May holiday. Big mistake, since the entire population of China seemed to be there at the same time. Believe it or not, we have friends from Indianapolis who grew up there (perhaps not so surprising, since Hangzhou is a city with about 2 million people). We spent time with them visiting Hangzhou’s West Lake. Once again, the 3 kids attracted much attention and will be appearing in the photo albums of families all across inner China.

Oh, we also celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in May. Don’t ask either of us how we celebrated, as we were consumed with trying to decide whether we would leave China and come back to the U.S. It was difficult to leave the friends we had made (the kids still miss Erica, Mark, Leanna, Caroline, Vivian) but, in the end, we felt we needed to come back to take care of Tony’s mother and to make sure Tony did not die of work-induced stress (mostly self imposed). Jolene still misses her weekly body massages, having an “ayi” around the house to help cook, clean and take care of David, and having a driver to take her everywhere, but Tony feels this is a small sacrifice in order to have access to DirecTV and the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Once we returned to the U.S. in July, we spent some time visiting friends and relatives in Wisconsin (all 16 cousins together in one place), before spending the rest of the summer trying to find a place to live (by the way, Tony took a job as VP, Corporate Development – we don’t know what that means, either – at a small specialty pharmaceuticals company just outside Boston). We ultimately settled on Wellesley, a lovely community anchored by, yes, Wellesley College (alma mater of Jolene’s hero, Hillary Clinton). We’re renting a house, as we are still trying to get over the shock of seeing $1 million plus price tags on 1,800 square foot homes advertised as “fixer uppers” and “needs TLC”. Those of you living on the coasts are probably used to this, but us humble Midwestern hicks naively thought we should at least get air conditioning and modern plumbing for those prices.

We spent Thanksgiving in New York City. We saw the Macy’s parade, ate several great meals (at jaw dropping expense, as noted previously), rode the Ferris Wheel at the Toys ‘R Us in Times Square, saw “The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center, and visited the Museum of Natural History with crowds of people that reminded us of China.

So, how are the kids, you ask? They have held up remarkably well, considering the girls are already attending their fourth school. Helen (7) and Grace (6) have been busy with Brownies, swimming, Chinese, piano, and soccer. David (2) is busy arguing with mama about her desire to get him to stop nursing – at 4:30 or 5:00 every morning; he points at mama and announces “I wanna nurse.” You know who wins that argument.

Helen is a budding marine biologist, at least this month. She was very inspired by her class’s study of sea life. Most of the time we have a difficult time getting her to be serious, as she is too busy being popular. She has made lots of friends in her new school and declares it the best ever. She is a very picky eater, with an instinctive sense for avoiding those things that might be good for her, especially green stuff. She will be a regular at the dentist’s office, having already gotten her first cavity.

Grace is now in first grade. She lost her first two teeth, and kicked her first soccer goal this year. She continues to be our model student. She expresses a desire to go to school on Saturday and Sunday, spends her free time at home playing math games and teaching school to her dolls and stuffed animals, did homework during a play date, and was very disappointed when big sister Helen started receiving homework before her. She also loves High School Musical and drives the rest of us crazy with her very loud renditions of the song “Fabulous.”

David is a delightful child. Well, except for his tendency to chew something for 5 minutes and then spit it out and hand it back to mom or dad, and (as noted above) his total lack of interest in giving up mother’s milk. We fear this means that he’ll still be living in our basement at 25, jobless, without a girlfriend, and spending his time playing video games (in other words, just like his dad).

Jolene has kept busy managing the moves and keeping everyone on schedule. She’s happy to have access to a car and multiple grocery stores and good wine. She was excited about using our gas grill again until the first time she tried to light it and singed her hair & eyelashes. Afterwards everyone thought her hair actually looked better with a slight fringe.

All Tony could think of to add to this part of the letter was an “allegory” about farting in the office one night when he thought everyone had left. Jolene vetoed that idea. He works pretty long hours, so it is a bit surprising that when he comes home all he wants to discuss are his bodily functions (that, and the Jets-Patriots point spread that is “out of whack”).

If you are in Boston please let us know. We’d love to see you and our kids have lots of toys “made in China” that they would love to share with your children, if you don’t mind a little lead exposure. Our new contact information is:

Jolene and Tony Watkins

69 Monadnock Rd

Wellesley, MA 02481

Home Phone: (781) 237-0824

Email: watkinsshanghai@yahoo.com or awatkins@oscient.com

Enjoy the holidays, and have a healthy and happy 2008!

If you absolutely can’t wait until next December to keep up with our “exciting” life you can get up to the minute details at http://jolenewatkins.blogspot.com/.