It's Lily's birthday today... or is it technically her birthday tomorrow? After all, she was born in Canada; 7 years ago right now in Pacific Standard Time I was sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of how our lives would change with the birth of our first child. At the time, I couldn't imagine how beautiful and princess-y she would be at 7- gap tooth grin and all! God has totally blessed us big time with our first born. We bought her a bike on Saturday (Kyle has fixed it a couple of times already) and she has lent it out to all of the neighborhood kids, much to my dislpleasure, not wanting to be liable when the handle bars fall off in some poor kid's hands. You get what you pay for.

I was glad to find a Starbuck's in Kaifaqu (Kai-fa-choo). It is exactly the same all over the world...smells, looks and merchandise. I was surprised it wasn't busy so I thought it would be a nice place to sit with Lily and John while Kyle picked out Lily's bike with Zoe. I ordered a blended tea and a croissant and then realized why Starbucks in China is empty...it costs more than back home! my order was 40 yuan, which is about 7 bucks!!!!!! Well, John decided everything was for him so I had to go back and get another croissant for Lily. I handed the guy a 10 yuan bill and walked away feeling pretty good, because even though the place was expensive, I could give him a tip.

I got back to the table and realized John needed his diaper changed- NOW. As I noticed that there was no bathroom in Starbucks, I looked up and the guy that was behind the counter was standing there politely. Ummmm Shir ar... he said and pointed at Lily. I must have looked lost. He said it again and gestured at Lily again. "....Shir ar....ummmm". " oh," I said "what age? She's seven". He shook his head looking completely flustered and motions to his co-worker to come over. After talking to her, she says "Excuse me, croissant is 12 yuan". WHAT?!? 12 yuan for bread? In China???? That's almost 2 dollars! I pay a housekeeper $2.50 per HOUR to clean our house!

I paid of course, and was glad to see Kyle had returned with Zoe riding a brand new bike. Now I could go change John across the road at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Well he takes one look out the window at Lily's present and started screaming "Gike! Gike! GIIIIIIIKE! at the top of his lungs. I hustled him out of there and started across the road. He's freaking out and thrashing, "GIIIIKE! Oh GIIIIIIKE!!!! We get into KFC, he's trying to hit me now, "GIIIIIIIIIKE!", I finally see the bathroom sign "GIIIIIIIKE", and we rounded the corner... only to stand at the end of an 8 person line up for the women's bathroom. "GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!!!!!"

Long story short, we waited in line about 20 minutes, John unable to forget the bike, with everyone staring at us, so I could change his diaper on the bathroom floor next to a squattie. I soaked us both in Purrell on the way out. I'm sure the disapproving ladies still in line wondered why I didn't wash my hands. I am starting to really not care what people think.

Ahhhhhhhh motherhood... (in China)