Daddy at Home with the Little Girls

Daddy did a great job with Lucia and Magdalena when Mama was in Shanghai.  They were all clean, fed, and rested when they picked me up on Sunday afternoon, and no one seemed to have missed me too much.  To me, this was a good sign of a successful weekend.

Thursday I had prepped a macaroni and cheese (Linden, E Ben - we have made your mac n cheese at least five or six times this past year :-) for Alex to pop in the oven, with some cut broccoli in the steamer just waiting to be switched on.


Here they are eating dinner on Thursday.  Note the shorter purple candle that is NOT lit for me (our Advent candles transformed to representations of each family member for several months after Christmas):

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On Friday, our ayi stayed with Magdalena all day. She also brought her own daughter who is just a few months younger than Lucia. Alex took Lucia to school and Juanzi picked her up. Lucia still talks about how Juanzi picked her up and brought her little girl! This may have been the highlight of the weekend. I asked Juanzi if it was difficult to watch three kids at the same time and she said no. She's definitely got one up on me, as I think it would be pretty challenging!


Here are some pics Alex took of the three girls when he got home Friday night:

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I finally memorized Juanzi's daughter's name: Wang Nan (Cathy - what are the tones?). Though the tones are most definitely not the same, I remember it now because the word "wang" means forget and "nan" means difficult. So her name should be memorable! :-)

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The next day, Saturday, our driver brought Alex some of the delicious slow-cooked pork filled "sandwiches" that we love.  Chen told Alex before I left that he would bring food on Saturday so Alex wouldn't have to worry about cooking. Alex felt a little insulted, especially since the ayi had already expressed her concern to me about Alex watching the girls on his own all weekend, and offering to be "on call" if he needed help.  But I think the sandwiches were gratefully received, even if Alex was the one who ate most of them.  I believe the girls made do with leftover jaozi that Juanzi made for lunch.


These sandwiches are DEEE-LISH!

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Alex also got some cute shots of the girls talking with Ama and Apa (my parents) on Skype. They get so excited to talk to them this way at least 4 or 5 times a week:

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My parents were having fun too:

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Saturday night, Alex courageously ventured taking both girls downtown for Church on his own.  Normally they are both little rebels at Mass, seeing as there are no pews to contain them and the "rows" consist of spaced out chairs or stools, the girls don't truly comprehend the gravity and grace of the situation.  Consequently, Alex and I usually are not able to pay that much attention either, as we try to herd our daughters away from walking up the center aisle and doing laps around rows of half-filled chairs.  However, Alex said the girls were as good as gold for him on the Saturday that I was away.   Apparently Lucia sat quietly in the back with the woman who plays piano, and Magdalena sat still and calmly on Alex's lap the WHOLE time!  Needless to say, as they returned to their usual antics last Sunday, I was VERY jealous.

After Mass, Alex and another family whose wife was also in Shanghai (on a different girls' weekend than mine, though), took the 5 kids between them (aged 13, 12, and 10 for the other family, so a bit less hectic there) to our favorite Dalian restaurant, the Brooklyn Bar. Lucia has become so accustomed to eating pizza after Church, that while in the US it was her mantra to ask for doughnuts after Mass, now she understands implicitly that she will get pizza after Mass.   Glad Alex didn't let them down!

Sunday morning, Alex relaxed at home while Lucia offered to clean the house. Here is a cute shot of her vacuuming - I guess she wanted to make sure everything looked nice for my arrival:

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The only mishap occurred as the whole gang trooped off to pick me up at the airport and Magdalena stumbled down the stairs outside, resulting in a small bruise and cut on the side of her head. Not much harm done, there, though and I was very happy to see my whole family when they picked me up back in good old Dalian!