Pearl River Cruise and the Guangzhou Zoo

This whole plan of posting in the evening after the kids go to bed would be brilliant if Benjamin could figure out the concept of going to bed.  He won't sleep at all if he's not next to Brian, and wants to spend about 1.5-2 hours playing and kicking.  Any attempt to get him to sleep involves screaming at the top of his lungs.  Christopher is so overtired from being kept up til 10 or so every night that it's not funny.  Needless to say, this whole blog thing only gets to happen in spits and spurts.

So last night, we went on the Pearl River cruise.  For anyone coming to Guangzhou, it is totally worth it.  Even if your kids are up late, I would recommend it.  Benjamin spent the whole time just staring, and Christopher was bouncing out of his shoes trying to see everything, and tell us all about it.  It takes about 2 hours - the first 45 minutes or so is a buffet dinner while you cruise up the river.  The lights are starting to come on just as the boat turns around to come down the river.  It's absolutely amazing.  None of our pictures do it any justice at all.

After all the excitement of the cruise, and getting to bed super late, we decided to let the kids sleep in as long as possible in the morning.  No one woke up until about 8:30, which was a miracle (and much needed)

We had a free day from all the planned tours and actual adoption stuff.  The other families we're travelling with and us decided to go to the zoo.  Our guide told us it was very easy to get to, and she was right.  Us country folk managed to figure out the subway system in China, and we all got there without getting lost.

It's actually easier than the Metro in Montreal, and is probably the cleanest one I've ever been on.  We're planning on taking it tomorrow to go to Shamian Island.

The zoo was great, and all the kids had a great time.  The heat was again a killer, and most of the adults faded pretty quick.  For some reason, Christopher was like the Energizer Bunny, and ran all over the place.  If we walked a mile, he probably ran 2 miles.

There are tons of different animals, and a few we don't often see at zoos at home.  The red pandas are interesting - I think they look like funny colored, slightly larger racoons, but they are still interesting.  Benjamin was really excited to see most of the animals, particularly the deer.  Brian was wondering if it means he'll like to hunt.....

Benjamin really wanted to walk today and do everything that Christopher was doing.  It was pretty funny, as he'd try to repeat whatever Christopher told him, using the same tone of voice.  It was like copycat, with 2 kids speaking 2 different languages :)

We headed home just after lunchtime, as it was getting way too hot.  We tried getting both kids down for naps, but as anyone with more than one kid knows, that's a losing battle.  Benjamin actually fell asleep, and Christopher tried to sit quietly (aka - made a lot of noise and fidgeted, but no actual hollering)

Once everyone woke up, we packed up all of us and our bags for another trip to Trust Mart.  We found a shortcut across the main road that made it much easier for Mom.  If you take the bridge over the road, you have to climb about 2 flights of stairs with no railing, cross over the road, and then come down 2 flights of stairs with no railing.  She had a really hard time with it the last time we went.  If you cut through the subway station directly in front of the hotel, you just ride a bunch of escalators and walk across the station.  Brilliant!

Trust Mart is always an adventure - I really like going to see what you would buy in a typical Chinese store.  The prices crack me up as well - things here are so much cheaper than at home.  We started stocking up on food and some snack type things, as we'll be in Hong Kong for 2.5 days, and the prices there are significantly more than here.  We figured if we could bring as much with us as possible, it would probably be easier for us. 

We finished shopping, and headed to find a regular restaurant for supper.  The fast food thing is OK, but as long as I'm in China, I want to have real Chinese food.  The food here is amazing, but a bit different.  The English translations of some of the food is pretty interesting, and some of it you couldn't pay me enough to eat (goose intestine comes to mind, from tonight's menu).  Brian will try anything, and really actually liked the octopus in today's seafood rice.  For anyone coming to Guangzhou, try Nathan's Restaurant (on the right hand side of the road going up the road to Trust Mart).  The food was incredible, and pretty cheap.  For 6 of us for dinner (with 5 Cokes as well) was 172 yuan - not even $30.

Notice that Benjamin is too busy stuffing his face to face the camera :)  That kid eats more than the average adult.  I swear he's gained about 5 pounds since we got him.  He has definitely got more muscle tone, just from playing and walking all the time.

So here are the random cute pictures from yesterday and today.

Tomorrow we have to be up at the bum crack of dawn for Benjamin's consulate appointment, then we're hoping to get to Shamian Island.  Wednesday night will be our last night in Guangzhou, and then Thursday, we have to pack up this disaster of a hotel room.  The poor housekeeping staff will be so glad to see us leave.  I suppose since they have so many adoptive families here, they've probably seen worse, but it's still a horrow show :)

Still in Guangzhou!

Sorry for being so long between posts - Benjamin has decided that since he is getting more comfortable with everyone, sleep isn't really something he wants to do.  He finally gave in and went to bed around 10 last night, but needless to say, by that point I was like a zombie.  Doing the whole blog thing was right about shoving bamboo shoots under my fingernails on the list of things I wanted to do :)

Guangzhou is an interesting city.  We've decided it's like a combination of Las Vegas and Miami.  It sort of feels like any other city, where Changsha felt much more like China to us.  We've gotten to go out of the hotel and explore a bit more here, as it's easier to get around.  Dad is happier, as there is every typre of Western food under the sun.  One of the other couples here showed us how to get to Trust Mart, which is very simple, and we were able to pick up some stuff we needed (like cheese and lobster flavor potato chips!)  It's amazing what you can buy here at the market - Wal Mart sells everything from diapers and formula to live fish (not as pets.....), and just about anything you can imagine.  I'm hoping we can wander up there again just to look around.

Yesterday, we went to the Yuntai Garden with another of the families here.  It's kind of like a botanical garden, with a lot of statues and stuff.  It was fun to walk through, but it was so stinking hot.  We borrowed a stroller from the hotel for Benjamin, and Christopher did manage to walk the whole way, but was dripping wet when we were done.  I'm sure it's much nicer when it's not so blasted hot.

The gardens really are quite beautiful here

Once we finished with the tour of the gardens, our guide brought the other family with us back to the hotel, and then took us to go do some shopping.  We went to the pearl market, and were able to buy strings of pearls for me, as well as a set each for Benjamin and Christopher to give to their wives when they get married.  She also brought us to another store, where we were able to buy some traditional Chinese outfits for them, and some squeaky shoes for Benjamin.  I tried to find some to bring home for some other folks, but the store we were in didn't have much for sizes.  I'll keep looking. 

We came back to the hotel, and took the kiddos swimming.  After sending Brian back to the room with injuries (watch the pool deck at the Garden, it's slippery as anything!), I took Christopher and Benjamin to the little kids pool.  Benjamin had a blast sitting in the water and kicking.  Christopher practiced his going-unders.  They both had a lot of fun!



Today, we had to go back to the medical exam place to have Benjamin's TB test read.  The place is a madhouse of people - our guide just pushed on through and had his and another little boys read pretty quickly.  We left that, and went to the Six Banyan Temple.  It's a 1400 year old Buddhist temple, and was really amazing to see.  I love looking at the old Chinese buildings, and this was a good place to do it.  Brian got to spend some time taking pictures today, which is neat since he and I take pictures of different styles of things.  The whole reason he got to do all the pictures - I GOT TO CARRY BENJAMIN!!!  He was perfectly happy with me this morning, and stayed with me at breakfast while Brian and Christopher went to explore the gardens.  He came back to the room with me, played for a while, and then sat with me on the bus.  He was getting tired while we were at the temple, but did OK. 

Breakfast with Benjamin.  His favorite thing is to sort things - I love the OCD!

Some pictures from the temple today - very beautiful!!!

Just random cute pictures :)

So Benjamin is definitely opening up more to all of us.  He's much more playful and interacting with everyone.  He still prefers Brian, but will go to me more willingly.  He will play with Christopher, but gets startled easily if Christopher moves too fast or something.  It's fun to see his personality coming out more and more.  For a little boy with leg problems, he can get around like a madman when he wants to.  He can walk if he holds on to something, despite his left foot being very clubbed.  He also likes to scoot on his bum, or will roll from place to place if needed.  When he wants to get around quickly, he puts his forehead on the ground and pushes with his feet.  It looks like it hurts, but he goes like a madman that way. 

He's also starting to talk more and more.  We can't tell if he's just babbling, or what he might be talking about.  He will occasionally say Dada, water, Mama, and banana in a way that's hard to understand.  He also has a bunch of Chinese phrases, but we don't understand.  One particularly interesting one is something like "nah gah doo" followed by the funniest pursed lip face I've ever seen.  He did pick up a new word in English today though.  Brian was getting our room ready for him and Benjamin to take a nap - Benjamin started walking towards our room, turned to me, waved, and said "bye bye" clear as day :)

We're heading out this evening for the Pearl River dinner cruise.  It's a 2 hour cruise around the river here, and the lights of the city.  There is so much neon and LED here, and all the pictures I've seen of it look amazing.  I know the kids will be up a bit late, but we have a free day tomorrow, so they can sleep in.  If we're still wide awake, I'll try to post pictures when we get back tonight.

Thank you all for the messages and emails and prayers, particularly when things were tough with Benjamin.  Things are going so much better, and all your thoughts and prayers certainly helped.  We really appreciate it!

Welcome to Guangzhou!

Sorry to have been a blogging slacker for the past few days.  Thursday was exhausting, Friday was busy, and I'm finally sitting down now to catch up while Benjamin is out for a nap.

Thursday began by going back to the Civil Affairs office to complete the formal adoption stuff.  Benjamin hates that place, and as soon as we walked in, he shut right down again.  The officials give you the final adoption paperwork, and you should then be all set.  Of course, ours was messed up. When we were filling out the paperwork, I had asked our guide about whether to use our mailing address or home address.  I think that something got lost in translation - I put our PO Box address, but when she got the paperwork back, said that it had to be redone to have our actual street address.  It won't make us stay any longer, but just involved more paperwork.

You can see from the look on Christopher's faced just how much he is enjoying this.....  Angry Birds was required to keep him happy for the whole adoption ceremony stuff.

We left Civil Affairs, and went to the Hunan Provincial Museum.  It was kind of a long day, and I think all of us were pretty tired by then.  The museum is from a series of tombs that were excavated about 40 years ago, and is all the relics from about 2000 years ago that were in there.  It might have been more interesting if it weren't so crowded and loud.  We kind of rushed through, just to get the kids home.  We spent the afternoon hanging out in the hotel, and starting to pack.  Our guide took us out for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that was incredible.  I want to find Chinese food like that back home!  Christopher was most excited about a cold mashed potato dish they make that they then cover with ice cream toppings.  It is very much like real ice cream, with a funny texture.  Benjamin, however, was more impressed with tofu, and probably ate the whole plate of it by himself.

Friday morning, we met our guide to go to the Yuelu Academy.  It was raining pretty steady, but totally worth being out in the rain.  It is a 1000 year old school, that is part of the Hunan college system right now.  If I were going to school in the middle of something so beautiful, I would never get any work done (not that I really did in school anyways, so I'm not really sure that was a valid comparison)  If you shut your eyes and picture what you think China should be, this is it.  Very lush, with the old style buidlings and open courtyards.  I'm fairly sure Brian and I both filled entire memory cards :)

So, forgive the million pictures, but I couldn't really pick my favorites :)

The last two are pictures at the entrance to the Academy, where they have a platform with Chinese characters on either side.  To the right is the character for luck, and the to the right, is the character for longevity.  When you enter the grounds, it's tradition to touch both characters.  The bottom picture is Christopher with our guide, Celia.  He loved her, and she did a great job with him.

It was definitely interesting being a few of the only Caucasian folks around.  Every time we'd turn around, someone was taking a picture.  Today it wasn't just Christopher, but all of us.  My Mom turned into a photo shoot with a bunch of teenage girls :)

We left the Academy, and Celia brought us to a dim sum style restaurant for lunch.  For anyone who knows my family well, you'd be impressed.  Not only did my father manage to find food he liked, he also actually ate some of it with chopsticks!

We went back to the hotel, finished packing, and headed out to the airport.  Our flight got delayed for a while - we boarded about 30 minutes late, and then spent another 30 minutes on the tarmac.  It's never a good sign when the flight attendants are passing out water and snacks before the plane moves an inch :)  The positive side of Benjamin only wanting Daddy is that Brian had an hour flight with a loud, cranky 2 year old, while I had an hour with a sleeping 5 year old :)  Well, the sleeping only began after he serenaded the plane with every song he knows at the top of his lungs.  We ended up getting in to the hotel around 11:00, with 2 very cranky kids in tow.  Christopher passed out pretty quickly, while Benjamin stayed up screaming for about 2 hours.  Yikes!  To the folks on the 13 floor of the Garden Hotel, we'd like to apologize for the screaming.

This morning, we brought Benjamin to the medical exam to get his visa.  Christopher stayed at the hotel with Grama and Grampa.  Thank gosh for that!  The building is a bit crazy for the exams, and they move the kids through pretty quickly.  What they consider a comprehensive exam and TB test maybe takes 5 minutes.  I'm very sure they didn't actually see anything, since it only took 2 minutes for a full medical exam.  Even in my fastest day, I couldn't do that.  The doctor was most concerned about his foot, and wondered if he has rickets.  Interesting idea, and I hadn't really considered it.  It's funny how something like that wouldn't be a problem in the US, but apparently is a big problem in China. 

Benjamin is doing very well.  He eats like a horse, and everything the orphanage folks told us he likes and doesn't like seems to be wrong.  They said he hates fatty foods, but he loves potatoes, noodles, and dumplings.  They also said he loves congee, but he won't eat it for us.  He has been loving watermelon, sweet bread, and apples.  He is still Daddy's boy, but is settling down slightly.  He will let me feed him, play with him if Daddy is nearby, and has slightly less of a hissy fit if I have to carry him somewhere.  Still baby steps, but some progress. 

Brian is loving the baby carrier look (NOT!!!!).  Apparently it's not a very manly look.  He will really love it now that we're in Guangzhou, and it's hotter than the gates of you-know-where :)  If Benjamin keeps up with the "only Daddy may hold me" thing, I'll be looking for carriers in camo when we get home.

We met up again with the other couple we were with in Beijing.  Their daughter is absolutely adorable.  There's another couple with us as well, and they have a 6 year old daughter, as well as the 2 year old boy they adopted.  Christopher will be some glad to have a friend here to play with!

Our hotel is amazing here.  We actually have a suite, with a king size bed!!!!  Space to sprawl out again, although Benjamin did have another temper tantrum last night when he realized he didn't get to go to bed with just Daddy.  Christopher is pretty excited about the remote control window shade for the bathroom :)

I'll try to be less of a slacker for posting so the next won't be so long.

Changsha and the Embroidery Museum

Today we actually had no adoption related stuff to do.  We got everyone down to breakfast relatively early, and we've started to find a few more things Benjamin likes to eat.  Our paperwork from the orphanage director said he eats congee a lot - apparently they must make it differently than any of the types in the restaurant, because it is not a hit.  He will eat rice any time of day, and yesterday wanted sweet potatoes for breakfast.  This morning, he discovered the wonders of Cheerios.  Thank gosh in all of my couponing we have quite the stockpile of them at home :)

The hotel has a small playground just outside the breakfast buffet, so we let them play there for a while after breakfast.  Benjamin wasn't completely convinced about the ball pit, or about the small see-saw, but was definitely Ok with the rocking horse.  You know, the one just like the one I figured we'd never need and sold at the yard sale last year......

We met our guide after that, and went to the Hunan Embroidery Museum.  I wasn't expecting it to be as amazing as it was.  The emboidery was spectular, and watching the people do that kind of work was unbelievable.  The threads are so fine, the silk so thin, and the finished products are wonderful.  We wandered through the store, but the prices were really high.  Celia told us to come with her to another store where we could buy some of the embroidery much cheaper, so we went.  Any excuse to shop!

She took us from there to a local mall, where we wandered around for a while, and found some gifts for the kids at home.  We also found a Pizza Hut, and figured we'd give my Dad a break and let him have some food he wasn't terrified of :)  By the end of lunch, Benjamin was feeding Christopher the spaghetti off Christopher's plate - it was hysterical, and none of the pictures really do it justice.  But of course, I have to try....

We went back to the hotel, and Brian tried to get Benjamin down for a nap.  Key word being "tried"  Christopher and I went to the pool, where apparently he became the subject of a PR film they were shooting at the hotel.  The camera crew filmed him for about 10 minutes just swmming around, and practicing his new jumping into the float ring skills.  I should hire myself out as his agent.

We all decided to go wandering the streets for supper, and just get some noodles or something to have in the room so everyone could just chill for a while.  We thought we found some sort of rice stuff for Benjamin, but once we heated it up, it was digusting.  Brian's description was something like rotten pineapple with the texture of tapioca.  It smelled horrible as I was flushing it down the toilet.  We did discover that lime potato chips are pretty good, dried kiwi is excellent, Benjamin and Christopher both love bananas, and that there are lots of flavors of Oreos in the world.  The raspberry / blueberry ones are pretty good - we saved the orange mango, as well as the apple grape for another day.  We'll definitely be bringing some of them home for everyone to try.

There has been some slight progress on the dealing with Mommy front - I can be within 10 feet of him if I happen to have food. Particularly if I have snacks.  It's baby steps, but right now, it feels like taking baby steps to run the Boston Marathon.  I'm sure it will get better, but here and now, it's not a whole lot of fun.  Brian would actually like to shower or give his arm a break, and I just wish I could hold my little boy without a hissy fit.  All in good time, I suppose. 

Tomorrow we have to go back to the Civil Affairs office to get the actual adoption paperwork, and then we're going to another museum.  I'm hoping for an early evening, as we have to clean this mess up and check out on Friday to head to Guangzhou.  I'll have to figure a way to take pictures of the hotel room we have - we have a corner room (bigger than the average size, I guess, with my parents in the adjoining room.  It works out well when Christopher needs a break from everything to go hang out with Grama and Grampa for a while, and for just having us all in the same place.  Hopefully we have the same setup in Guangzhou.

I'll see if I can get more pictures to post tomorrow.  The internet works well, but Brian's computer is slow like death for uploading pics.  Maybe I'll have better news to report on the Mommy front as well :)

Benjamin is offically ours!

Today, we had to go back to the Civil Affairs office where we met Benjamin to finish all of the paperwork to make him actually ours.  You could tell he was not happy to be there.  He got very quiet, and wouldn't play, look at anyone, and was just buried in Brian's shoulder the whole time.  He got really upset when the orphanage director tried to take him from Brian, so it was good to see that he knows where he belongs now.

Putting his footprint on the paperwork to finalize everything!

Our first full day as a family of 4!

Our guide took us from the adoption office to a kid store to buy some things for Benjamin.  He's much tinier than we thought, and even the 12 month old pants we brought for him were falling off.  He came to use in shoes that were about 100 sizes too big, so we needed those too.  He absolutely will not use a sippy cup, and has been drinking from a sippy without a lid, which, needless to say, has been rather messy!  The prices  here are definitely cheaper - it was pretty reasonable to buy shoes, a few pairs of pants, a cup, and a bowl.

He is doing really well with Brian, and loves him to death.  He isn't quite sure what to make of Christopher, but watches him like a hawk,  I, on the other hand, am the devil's spawn :)  He has a fit if I pick him up, touch him, look at him for too long etc.  I guess this is a preview of what having teenagers will be like. :)

If there is a good side to him only wanting Daddy, it's that Christopher gets Mommy to himself.  He's been a good big brother so far, but definitely had moments where he fell apart because Benjamin got a toy or snack that he didn't.  It's been helpful, in a way, that I can hang with him and try to ease him in to the whole idea of a baby brother.  He got to do big kid stuff today like go swimming in the pool for a while.  The pool here at our hotel is absolultely not kid friendly, so there is no way we'll be bringing Benjamin down there.  Maybe when we get to Guangzhou we'll be able to try the pool at the Garden.

So Changsha seems to be a pretty nice city.  From everything I had read online, it was always described as gritty and dirty. I expected something like Newark :)   It's actually really pretty, and much easier to get around than Beijing was.  We haven't gone out to do much exploring, as we've still been tied up with paperwork, nap schedules, and a little boy who desperately wanted to visit the pool.  Later today, our guide is taking us out to do some sightseeing, and to a local park if it doesn't rain again today.  Christopher needs to burn off some energy, and Benjamin loves to have space to walk around, so this would be great.

We really need to get out of the hotel for a while - I think everyone is starting to get a bit stir-crazy.  And my Dad needs to find some food he's willing to eat.  Changsha is not a meat-and-potatoes kind of city :)

Since I couldn't upload pictures yesterday, here's some from yesterday when we got Benjamin.