Cue Neil.......

Our last few days in Shanghai were spent shopping at the fake markets, NOT teaching dance or yoga (wahoo, it was so nice to just BE with Oliver those last few days), and singing quite a bit of the classic Neil Diamond song, "Coming to America."  I had it all planned out to listen to on our descent in to LA, but with a very tired Oliver on my lap, and not wanting him to remember that we owned an iPad (i.e. he can't see it without playing with it), I sadly just had to sing it in my head.

Clarke and I had the fun and yet annoying chance of shopping at the ginormous underground market in Pudong the last few days before I left.  I seriously had not done any real shopping there in the year that we have been there.  It is in the subway station closest to our house, so we passed through for a few small things here and there, but never really went to bargain and see what they had there.  It was fun, but also highly annoying.  When we lived in Nanjing and Shanghai in 2005-2006 it was much easier, more like a playful banter between shop keeper and shopper.  But in the 5 years since, China has hosted the Olympics and most recently in Shanghai, the World Expo (ahh, miss those blue skies Expo), and I think the influx of foreigners has really taken bargaining to a whole new level.  Some shop keepers the angry at you when you bargain, and some shops now even outright refuse to bargain.  And you used to be able to pretty much start   Hence, the not so much fun anymore.  But we did get some fun things for our families.  Fake Toms shoes, fun purses, fake Crocs, and even remote control cars. 

The both of us on our scooters, riding home in the pouring rain, with huge black backs full of stuff from the market was quite a sight to see.  One foreigner on a scooter is enough to gawk at, but two in the rain, looking like they are carrying everything the own made for some double takes.

Here we are on our way to the airport.  Our awesome friends the Breinholts were kind enough to lend us their driver to get to the airport.  Yes, they have a driver.  Many foreigners that we know here have a driver.  Obviously as students, we don't, hence the scooters.

Notice the lack of a car seat.  All American mothers looking at this are probably horrified.  But to us, unfortunately, this is our way of life in Shanghai.  We become human seat belts.  The Breinholts of course have car seats in their car for their children, but they were already on their way to the States and took them with them.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time so Oli and Clarke had some time to run and skip around together.  We flew Asiana airlines and so glad we did.  Mothers with children can walk up to the business class check in and fly past the hoards of people in the coach check in.  Brilliant!

Somehow Clarke managed to click on a business class seat for us when he was checking us in the night before.  I'm not really sure how this worked, but the computer seemed to be OK with it.  I think the stewardesses were confused as to how we got up there, but didn't say anything, and neither did we!  Too bad this was our 1.5 hour flight to Korea and not our 12 hour flight to LA!  It was kind of cool and horrible to see how the other half lives.  The extra space was brilliant, and our seats reclined quite a bit, but since neither of us were sleeping (even though this was technically Oliver's nap time) it didn't really do us a lot of good.

It was especially harsh getting off de-planing in Korea, going through security again, and then getting right back on the same plane, just in the coach section.  We were the first row of coach seats, and we could see right in to our old seats, and there were open seats around them.  I just wanted so badly for a stewardess to say, "Oh you poor lady.  Traveling alone with a child, let's just move you up here where you have more room."  Too bad, so sad.  We were stuck back with all the other cattle, "Moo!"

 

Oliver was actually a trooper on the plane.  We spent the first few hours playing and reading.  The playdough proved to be a brilliant last minute addition to my stash of "let's keep Oliver entertained and Mommy from going CRAZY!" things.  He played with it for probably an hour.  He kept making "snowmen," this is one of the many snowmen he made.  I would make the balls and he would stack them, which turned in to smashing them together.  I will never fly without playdough again! 

I finally looked out the window after a while and was happy to see this.  Having lived in a place where you don't really see the sunset because the sun is hiding behind the pollution and many large buildings, this was a treat.  I took a lot of pictures of the setting sun as we flew away from it.

I let Oliver finally have the iPad after dinner (honestly, I was amazed and happy that he didn't beg for it sooner).  I let him watch Despicable Me, or "Aspicable Me" as he calls it.  It was nearly 11 pm to his body's time when it was done, and he did not nap at all during the day.  So I was super happy when I stuck the Bink in (yes, it is horrible that I still use it, but that thing is like MAGIC, and I knew I would need it for these plane rides.  we are planning on de-binking when we get over jet-lag in Shanghai), and he pretty much went straight to sleep in my arms.

The next 5-6 hours were filled with trying to keep him asleep.  I held him for the first 2 hours.  Then I finally moved him to my lap, and as the night, or whatever that was, moved on, I moved progressively more to the corner of my seat, as Oliver moved more and more into mine.  By the time they made us open the windows (Ahhh, I hate that.  And note to self, they do that a full TWO HOURS before you land!) I was just standing next to my seat, holding a blanket over his head trying to keep it a little dark.  But considering what a light sleeper Oliver can be he was AMAZING.  He slept the whole last 5ish hours of the flight.  Too bad I didn't, but a sleeping child is worth it!

Oliver even slept through breakfast.  And this is what he looked like as we were landing in LA.  I was getting excited and wanted that Neil song blaring in my ears, but alas, Oliver "needed" to twiddle my hair.  I am a human lovey to that kid.  He has loved my hair since he was nursing (he used to rub my eyebrows!) and you will often find him draping on my, twiddling my hair.  If he is really tired or sad he will say, "Mom, I wanna touch youw haywer."

Hooray AMERICA!  Even though they have smog in L.A. they still have blue skies above them!  Seriously, the pollution has been one of the hardest parts of living in Shanghai for me.

By the time we got through customs, and walked from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 and got checked in to our flight to SLC, we had about 3 hours left to blow.  Thankfully we have friends that live literally a 10-15 minute drive from the airport and they were kind enough to come and get us.  Oliver loved playing with toys and eating homemade popsicles, and I loved the warm sun, the beautiful ocean air, speaking English, and having a shower! 

We stayed at the Gray's house until the last minute possible and then pretty much just zipped to the airport and practically on to the plane.  We both reached a point of critical exhaustion on the ride from L.A to Salt Lake.  Oliver slept almost the whole hour and a half, and I even conked out on top of him for probably 20-30 minutes.

It took us a while to get off the plane and go potty etc.  It was such a great feeling to see my Mom waiting for us!  We hugged and cried.  In that sea of strangers it was such a wonderful feeling to see the face of someone that loves you.

It was 10:30 pm by the time we got to Mom and Dad's, and Oliver was super excited to be there.  He looked all around the house, and wanted a snack.  I stayed up way too late.  By the time we went to bed it was almost 12:00 pm in Utah, and I had been up for over 30 hours. 

More to come soon...... 4th of July in Utah.