Happy New Year: part 2

There is just so much going on for the New Year around here I have to break up the posts. So here is another New Year activity that we participated in.

Tim's school put on a huge Chinese New Year assembly, organized by the fantastic Mandarin teachers. I was asked to join the choir of female parents and teachers to sing a traditional song in Chinese. Since I have nothing resembling Chinese clothes to wear for the performance, this required a trip to Ningbo to the tailor to find some silk and be fitted for a Chinese-style top!

So Allyson and I loaded the boys into her minivan. The boys ages 2-1/2 and 3. The boys who were both in the beginning to middle stages of potty training. And off we went to the Ningbo fabric market.

Here are Milan and William right after we arrived at the tailor:

And here they are 10 minutes into the shopping:

I can't stop cracking up every time I see this picture

It pretty much went downhill from there.

This was the first time Milan had left the house for any significant amount of time with underwear on. He was doing great using the potty at home, but we had yet to tackle the public restroom, most of which are "Chinese potties" (as Milan calls them) - squatter toilets. Tim and I had a squatter in Kenya, of course, and I am rather partial to them. To the clean ones, anyway. I was a little dissapointed that we didn't have one in our apartment here.

Almost on cue, both boys said they needed to pee just as we were starting to (try to) communicate with the tailor. So we headed in the direction of the toilets. As soon as we walked in, both boys turned tail and said no way, no thanks, never mind. The bathrooms were pretty stinky and, of course, all squatters. I tried to convince Milan that he doesn't have to touch anything, just stand up and pee into the toilet. He was not having anything to do with it. So I backed off. I had a diaper and a change of clothes in my bag (I'm not completely insane) and we'd deal with whatever happens. William, on the other hand, really needed to go. So Allyson spent at least 30 minutes in there with him while Milan and I wandered around the market, repairing broken manikins and having a snack.

Finally the intrepid team returned, triumphant! William peed in the stinky squatter! Hooray! I took the boys to ride on the mechanical rides while Allyson worked with the tailor, designing clothes and negotiating prices. When I ran out of coins for the rides we found the minivan and rested there until she was able to finish up with the tailoring business.

We drove a few blocks to a nearby McDonald's and headed for the bathroom. At this point, Milan had held it since we left the house at 9:30 that morning. It was now 1 pm. He was still a little skeptical about the (very clean) squatters at Micky D's, but that didn't last long and he too conquered the squatter toilet! With no accidents!

The clothes were made, the song was rehearsed, cheat-sheets were made for us non-Chinese-speaking singers, and the show was a success! Tim also performed in the assembly as one of the Dragon Dancers (no special costume required).

Tim and his dragon

Sarah and Allyson

By the way, I am happy to say that Milan's potty training days are over - consider him trained! It took alot of Skittles and chocolate, and then a difficult period of weaning off the Skittles and chocolate, but we made it. Hooray for Milan! Hooray for us!