So here’s the thing: flying with young kids is either really, really, really great or really, really, really bad. It truly is that simple. For our roundtrip from Shanghai to the States we upgraded to Business Class for what could be the last time for a long time to come. This is the last time we only pay 20% of a full fare – from here on out it will be 80% of a full fare for both girls! You can see from the look on Andy’s face that he was sooooo looking forward to the flight. Now take a look at the second photo – yes, that’s Amelia in an open seat next to him.

Looks stressful, right?

Author’s Note: Mom has been busy! She has been busy enjoying life and she has been a terrible blogger lately.  Now that we are back in Shanghai, we’ll do our best to catch up!  This is the first installment of what I hope is many….

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It started as a PreK3 class and then it was a PreK4 class and then it was K this year! Maddie is officially moving into single digit numbers for her grade level.  Maddie absolutely adored her Kindergarten year in school.  It was everything that it was supposed to be for her.  Her teacher was wonderful with Maddie and always seemed to know what she needed from day to day.  Her classmates all got along and they formed some great bonds.  Maddie learned a bit of Polish because of Hubert and I’m pretty sure that Hubert learned a bit of English because of Maddie.  She enjoyed her 5th grade reading buddies and managed to make herself known to even more students in our school… everybody knows who Maddie is and I think she kind of likes that!

And the girl continues to grow….

Every year Maddie has done a Celebration of Learning presentation at the end of the school year to show off her stuff.  When she was three years old, I was simply bamboozled that the word “chrysalis”  came out of her mouth! When she was four, I was ecstatic that she loved learning more than anything.  This year was no different and it was a very special event indeed.  I cannot believe how much she has grown and what she has accomplished this school year.  She’s just happy all of the time.  I always thought kids would wake up with belly aches sometimes and need days home from school to just chill.  Maddie is not one of those kids though. Everyday, no matter what, she wants to go to school!

The celebration of learning event was a bit different though than the other ones… this time daddy couldn’t be with us in the flesh because he had to spend the day in Puxi.  But look who Maddie’s parents are!!! Daddy very simply left his meeting at 1:00, mom turned at the computer at 1:00 in Maddie’s classroom and dad Skyped in so that Maddie could share some of the favorite items out of her portfolio with both of us at the same time.  I actually think that this made her celebration that much more special! Of course, the other kids in the class could hardly concentrate on their own presentations because they were enthralled with Andy on the computer.  Even a few parents could hardly contain the awe as they marvelled at our ingenious plan!

Maddie Anna – we are so proud of you.  Oh my gosh child!!! You’ve lost teeth this year, practiced your reading, learned how to ride a bike… you’ve challenged yourself and have grown in leaps and bounds! We love you so much and we are so proud of you peanut!

Maddie's View on Skype

Dad's View on Skype

Here’s proof for ya: courage is a state of mind!

Maddie has not ridden her bicycle most of this year. Her old bike has been too small and training wheels do not it on her new bike so she has simply chosen not to even bother. But then she had her “fake” birthday party where she sort of, kind of, not really turned six years old! I came home from school today and looked ahead of me to see a kid on a bike with a pink helmet coming at me. Who else could it be but Maddie with the pink helmet. And then it hit me.. she was riding her bicycle AND nobody was holding on that bicycle as she rode it.

Fortunately, I had my camera in right in my computer bag so you can at least catch my absolute shock and joy at seeing Maddie’s achieve this milestone! Make sure you go to Maddie’s blog if you are getting this in email so that you can see the video. It’s like she woke up and just decided that she had the courage to ride a bike without training wheels.

We were so proud of her and she just smiled and said, “Well, I am six… sort of!”

Amelia, of course, wanted to do everything her sister was doing so she found a helmet all by herself and insisted that we put it on her. She then hopped on Maddie’s old bicycle and pulled herself along even though she couldn’t sit on the seat. She eventually decided that she did NOT like the helmet one bit and settled on keeping the helmet on the handlebars!

Not my words!  Maddie herself called it her “fake” 6th birthday!

For the past couple of years, Maddie’s birthday has kind of been at an interesting time of the year.  On August 5th, we are usually back in Shanghai but there are not really any other kids back but work is in full swing so we haven’t had a kid birthday party yet.  This year we decided to have an early birthday party for Maddie with her friends that she has had in class all year long. It was a fun day indeed!  We ordered a huge cake for Maddie’s class, had gft bags for every kid in class, and gave the kids icecream just add a bit more sugar to their systems! Maddie’s classmates made a book for her where each person drew a picture and wrote a sentence about what they like about her.  As she read each page (and she did read them), she gigged in delight.  She was so happy….

The kids sang happy birthday to Maddie in English, Korean and Mandarin – where are we and how did we get here?

Make sure you actually go to Maddie’s blog to see the video below!