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Cousins!

My brother, who now lives in China, was in town visiting this week with his family and I enjoyed literally every minute of it.  We stayed up late imbibing and reminiscing about our shared childhood.  It made me really glad that I've given Alex and Genoa each a sibling.  Maybe someday when they're 31 and 34, they can sit up till the wee hours sharing stories and finding out how differently they remember the same exact events.

The best thing was finally getting to get my grubby mitts on Dan's adorable offspring, Thomas, who is now 8-months-old.  He is so sweet that a single smile can give you brain freeze.  Getting to witness my brother as a father was an experience, too.  It turns out he's a natural at it and the whole thing was a lot less strange and weird than I expected it to be. 

The strange and weird part was hearing how differently they raise children in China.  It wasn't weird because of old Chinese medicine practices, either.  The weird part is how much HELP they have.  Elita's mom (my brother's mother in law) literally comes to their apartment every single day of the week to help them.  She's usually there for at least a half day and does every piece of their laundry, much of their cooking and 100% of their housekeeping.  My brother says the only thing she wants in return is the favor of letting her occasionally change the baby's diaper.

Because my brother works from home in China, his wife is almost never home alone with the baby.  If they drive anywhere, he is always with her and she always has either her mother or my brother there to help her with the baby.  I found this utterly shocking.  Not that I would WANT to be in that situation; I have a fierce independent streak that would greatly interfere with anyone trying to help me that much, but wow.  I had no idea how the other half lived!