Shanghai With the BIG GIRLS

We went to Shanghai as a family last September (see blog post here). It was awesome, but with the little girls, virtually impossible to do any good shopping.

THIS time, however, I took my very first weekend away from both Alex and the girls. Before I describe the incredible weekend, however, let me fill you in on a little history regarding our parenting for this past 15 months:

• First: Alex and I took two weekends away last year before coming to China (both for Engaged Encounters) - my parents watched the girls, and I was pumping breastmilk the whole time. Not exactly relaxing.
• Since arriving in China on March 24, 2010, I have only been away from both my daughters for ONE NIGHT. When we were in the States, Alex and I spent one night alone in our hotel the week before my brother's wedding, so we had roughly 15 hours without the kids.
• Next, Lucia stayed with my parents over the week of Magdalena's surgery, and I stayed in her hospital room. And one other night in Portland, I had just Magdalena at the Cornett's house without Lucia.
• Then Alex returned to China for three weeks without all three of us (sad, but he did get to do some trips and get lots of good sleep).
• On our second home leave in October/November, I flew back two weeks early with the girls, so again Alex had some time to himself here in China. Granted my parents were there to help me, but I was still the one getting up in the middle of the night for a week to get them through jet lag, and I was still the one bathing them and putting them to bed as both kids preferred to have me do this than my parents (especially since I was right there). There was one other night in this time frame when I had just Magdalena at Benannie's house, but again - not just to myself.

Thus, in the 12 months since being in China, I have had only one night away from both kids, and NONE for any personal travel. Needless to say, I was READY.

The other good thing about preparing for the long weekend to Shanghai was that I finally kicked it in gear and weaned Magdalena. Though I nursed Lucia for two weeks past her first birthday, circumstances allowed (forced?) me to nurse Magdalena until February 17 - 6 days past her 16 month mark. I had many reasons for doing this, not the least of which was trying to give her some good antibodies through the cold winter here in Dalian. But if I had known how she would start going to bed from ~7:15 pm to 7 am instead of 6:30 pm to 5:45 am after being weaned, let me tell you - I probably would have done it a LOT sooner!

So there is the setup.

Now - on to the goods!

We had SO MUCH FUN! Basically we shopped, shopped, and shopped some more. Being with 5 other women who all enjoy shopping and bargaining as much as I do (it's much easier to bargain without two whining toddlers - made it fun again!). I went solo late Thursday night (the other ladies all went Thurs morning), and returned in the early afternoon Sunday (again, most ladies left either late Sunday or afternoon Monday - I felt too guilty leaving Alex on bedtime duty four nights in a row, especially considering that he had never had both girls for a whole weekend without me before).

Friday we bought pearls from Anna's Pearls in YuYuan garden. There is a family here who hosted Anna when she lived in Dalian for a time, so she gave us all really good deals. I had contacted her ahead of time to prepare strings of pearls and matching earrings for me and my family members (gifts for my immediate family members, and for my cousin and her immediate family too). While at the store, I ended up buying several more necklaces, and loved them all!

Then we went to the Antique Market where I actually found a nice crucifix for 100 RMB (about US $15). I was pretty shocked at that one! Finally, in the afternoon, we went to this awesome shopping "mall" type area where vendors set up tons of stalls of things like purses, other bags, jeans, clothes, shoes, kids clothes, quilts, jewelry, trinkets, etc. It was so fun to find good deals, and I ended up buying a lot there too.

We had good food both nights, though we only drank one night (and had too much chocolate lava cake to the point where the caffeine literally kept me up till 5 am!). Then on Saturday we did it all again - returned to YuYuan to get some jewelry that people had custom made, took a walk on the Bund as some of the girls had never seen it and having a picture with the Pearl Tower is mandatory for a Shanghai visit, then back to Taobao for some more shopping! The next day, I returned to Taobao as one quilt I bought had a pillowcase that did not match, and ended up buying another last minute quilt. Somehow I managed to cram it all into my suitcase, and caught a cab to the Maglev train to catch my plane.

All in all, I had such a great time. The Radisson New World Hotel treated us VERY well, and I really enjoyed staying up and chatting with my roomie, Amy. It was also a lot of fun to get to know the other girls better and enjoy a terrific weekend free of our family responsibilities.

Thanks to Alex for being such a great husband and letting me go! I'll repay you back in the US, honey! And a forthcoming blog will describe their fun weekend too.

Here are the pics to recap:




Anna of Anna's Pearls: Yu Yuan Garden - First Asia Jewelry - 3rd Floor shop 3002 right off the escalators - can't miss her:

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While his daughter snapped our photo, we hijacked this man to sit in our picture in front of the criss-cross bridge at YuYuan (so that ghosts don't follow you or something, quite famous):

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A stall at the Antique Market, Amy bought the yellow platters that you see:

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My spoils from Day 1 Morning:

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Purse, anyone? Note - behind the back wall there is a door to a "back room," and even in there they slide back a wall to reveal the "Super Special" purses - basically the good, better, and BEST copies of Coach, Guess, D&G (what I bought), and many more:

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The jeans on the top are mine - two pairs of Sevens, and one True Religion. I bought some for Alex too, but they don't fit him quite right, so we may be giving them to his brother. :-) Each pair was 100 RMB or about $15 US.  How could I resist? This is Day 1 Afternoon Spoils (the two small purses are for my girls!):

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Here we are at the bar at Maya Mexican Restaurant in Shanghai - very sophisticated and delicious restaurant, where the British manager, Rob, catered to our every need:

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After we got our table I made Rob take our picture:

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Here we are on the Bund with the requisite photo of the Pearl Tower in the background:

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Day 2 morning spoils - those bracelets were 5 RMB each. That's about $0.80 to you and me:

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Day 2 afternoon spoils- you can tell one blue pillowcase is darker than the others. Oh, and those "Colombia" gloves that cost me 25 RMB (about $4) - are SUPER warm!

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On the way home the Maglev got up to it's top speed: 431 km/hour or 268 mph!

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And since the second quilt here was my last (but not least!) purchase, I took the picture after I returned home (with the newly exchanged for the right color pillowcase):

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WHEW! Did I mention that we had SO MUCH FUN?!?!