Yuntai Garden - Wednesday, December 4th

The past few days we've been enjoying not having to meet until 11:30 and taking our time to get ready. After some play time in the room this morning we went down to breakfast around 9:00. Today we learned that Lily has been spending her free time learning to be a magician, and she demonstrated her "yank the tablecloth out from under breakable objects" trick. Turns out she needs more practice, and we needed some help cleaning up the broken glass and orange juice that ended up on the floor. After breakfast we of course visited the fish, where both Matthew and Caroline took a spill and needed bandaids. We were planning to go to the playground, but we stopped by the room first for some first aid. Turns out, they were cleaning it and we couldn't get in. That's another interesting thing here, when they're cleaning your room they close the door and lock you out. Completely. Like you can't get in with your key. Why are you allowed to be in my room with all of my stuff and the door locked? What exactly are you doing that is so secretive? And no joke, as I'm writing this with Lily asleep on me in the Ergo, they just came to clean the room so I have been kicked out to mom's room across the hall.

Anyway, back to the playground. No bandaids, so the kids were tough and we headed up to the hotel playground. We met another family up there who we have seen and talked to several times throughout our stay here. Their daughter is from Guangdong province too, so we saw them at Gotcha Day, Adoption Day, and even on most of our sightseeing adventures. It was so great to actually be able to talk to them for a while and share stories. Their daughter loved watching Matthew go down the slide and would laugh hilariously at him. And you know Matthew, all he needs is an audience! Meanwhile Lily was enjoying climbing up and around the stairs and watching the other kids play. We got some adorable pictures of all three of our kids playing on the bulldozer thingy (no idea what these are called, but you can see it in the picture below). Once we had worn them out and they were tired of getting shocked by the static electricity from the slide, we got ready for today's outing.

Our adventure today was to the Yuntai Garden. Since China is so full of buildings and concrete, they take extra care of their parks and green areas. This one was no different. It had lots of beautiful plants and flowers, Chinese statues, and Dutch figures and buildings? Not quite sure what wooden shoes, windmills, swans, and milking cows have to do with China, but they sure made for some cute photo ops!

I know I have mentioned a few times how people just love taking pictures of and with Caroline over here. Well today I think was the worst. Not because there were lots of people doing it, but because this time they weren't polite or discreet. One girl asked and Caroline was scared so we said no, and then she proceeded to follow us around the garden, standing conspicuously close to Caroline while her boyfriend stood nearby taking pictures. But the worst one happened when this older woman took the stroller away from Matthew (Caroline was in it at the time) and started pushing it like Caroline was her child. Umm, excuse me, no! I mean, what exactly are you going to put as your caption in your photo scrapbook - I had a blond baby, or Look what I bought at the store today? I'm pretty sure no one is going to believe you. And it's just weird. Then when Brian went to take the stroller back from her, she wouldn't let go! Finally he forcefully took it and we continued on our way.

We had another dinner outing with the Dusseaults later that evening. (We actually got home early enough for a normal naptime and didn't have to wake the kids up for dinner!) We decided to try the Irish pub since we thought they could more easily accommodate all 11 of us. We put Lily and James next to each other again, and Amanda and I were thoroughly entertained by them. Lily would chuck something on the floor, and poor James would get very concerned and point to it like, aren't you going to pick that up? He was also very kind to share his Cheerios with Lily since we were out and that's pretty much the only thing that will keep her occupied in a high chair. At one point Lily actually pointed at James and said "Guo Guo" which is his Chinese name! So cute! But I think my favorite moment was when we were still waiting for our food and all three of my kids started crying at the same time. Does anyone else hear that noise? No? Good. I'll just continue to look over here as if none of this is happening right now. Thankfully our food arrived shortly after, and it was amazing how quiet it got!

Something that I wasn't expecting in China but that I'm loving is the fact that they have Christmas stuff everywhere. There's a huge tree in our hotel lobby, decorations all over the place, and they play Christmas music in the elevators and in the speakers around the hotel. And I believe I even heard a Christmas hymn the other day! I'm definitely still thankful that we will be home soon though, and able to have all sorts of Christmas fun when we get back. I didn't really want to spend Christmas in China ;o)

Shamian Island - Tuesday, December 3rd

Are you ready for this earth-shattering news? This morning Brian and I got to go workout together! My mom brought Matthew and Caroline over while Lily was sleeping, and I actually got to run on the treadmill instead of doing a Jillian Michaels video in the room. Woohoo! We only went for 30 minutes so that we'd hopefully be back before Lily woke up, but when we got back she was happily sitting on the floor playing with her siblings. I was amazed! As soon as she saw me though she stopped and wanted to sit in my lap. This made me happy because it shows that she is recognizing me as her mommy and prefers to be with me.

We were almost ready to go down to breakfast when there was a knock on the door. It was the Dusseaults, and we got to meet James! He is just so precious and it's so amazing to see his face with his family instead of in a picture at the orphanage. Lily walked right over to him, and they kind of looked at each other. I'm not sure if she recognized him or not, it was almost like "Of course he's here, I see him every day. What took you so long James?"

Today we didn't have to be anywhere until 11:30, so we took our time going down to breakfast, looking at the fish, and getting ready for the day. Lily actually took a short nap on me around 10:30 until it was time to leave, which was good because normally as soon as we get somewhere it's her naptime and she gets super cranky and cries and then I end up spending the entire adventure trying to calm her down and get her to sleep and as a result missing everything. But I am getting some amazing arm workouts! Plus, today's outing was shopping so I really needed my hands to be free ;o)

Today's outing was to Shamian Island. A few years ago this was where every adoptive family stayed when they were in Guangzhou, at the White Swan Hotel. As a result there are tons of shops on the island with all kinds of traditional Chinese items and gifts for cheap prices. Now almost everyone stays at the Garden because the White Swan has been undergoing renovations since 2011 and is closed. It won't open again for a few years. The US Consulate and medical center also used to be on the island, but those have moved as well. So now most people just spend a day visiting the island to do some shopping, take pictures with some of the statues there, and eat lunch at Lucy's.

Obviously shopping is not the preferred activity for Brian and the kids, so he entertained them outside feeding them lunch while mom and I went in the shops. It's a bit overwhelming to shop in China. The shopkeepers follow you around, and most items don't have prices so you have to ask them how much everything costs. Of course it's in yuan, so it all seems like funny money and you're having to divide by six in your head, all the while trying to decide if this is actually a good price or if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Sometimes you feel like a walking dollar sign. And of course you can bargain too, so it comes down to a game of chicken with the shopkeeper who keeps telling you "this very good price, very good price" and your willingness to believe them or not.

My favorite store was Michael's. They seemed to have some of the best prices, and one of the store owners entertained Lily for me so I could shop! She kept giving her different toys to play with and sat next to her on the floor while I looked around. She even gave me a little toy phone as a gift for her! I think that we bought most things in this store. I got more of the 18 gifts for Lily on each birthday, a tea set for myself, and several Christmas gifts for people. I had sent Brian ahead to Lucy's with Matthew and Caroline, and mom and I just had Lily, and she had left us quite the gift in her diaper. But of course, I have no diapers because they are with Brian! So after Michael's we headed over to Lucy's to find him. They had just finished eating and were going to play on the playground. We cleaned Lily up and she had a great time going down the slide with Brian. She seemed to be doing well playing, so mom and I left and went back to a few more stores before it was time to meet the bus. The last store we were in the shopkeeper was amazed that mom was a grandma. She kept telling her how young she looked and how thin she was. She said most grandmas are old and big. Haha! Then she wanted to take a picture with mom and gave her a business card and asked her to email her the picture. Hilarious! Meanwhile, Brian was preventing Lily from plummeting off the playground and trying to teach her to look down before she walks down the stairs or off a ledge. She's at the age where she's a complete danger to herself!

We only had a few minutes to make it back for the second bus (our guide Miko arranged for one bus to come back a little later since lots of people wanted to stay on the island) but I wanted to get some statue pictures on the way. We found the famous statue with children following a musician and one open space where you have your child stand. Lily actually did a great job standing there, but this random Chinese boy would not leave her alone! He kept hugging her and walking all around while we were trying to take a picture. Apparently in China it's normal to have random people in your photos, because his dad made no effort to have him move. He only came close when the kid was about to shove Lily out of the way, and then he was in the picture as well. Sheesh! But, you can get the idea anyway. We were the only family that actually showed up to take the second bus home (others decided to get a taxi) so we enjoyed a private bus ride across Guangzhou. Matthew wanted to sit in the back, so all six of us sat across the back row with a whole empty bus in front of us.

Nap time back at the hotel. Today I wasn't so fortunate to have free time during Lily's nap because she was on me most of the time, and I couldn't sleep either because my back was hurting. I finally managed to escape at some point and had a few minutes kid-free before dinner. We went to dinner with the Dusseaults and decided to try the Mexican restaurant nearby. When in China... eat Mexican? In the US, Mexican food is usually a pretty cheap dinner option. In China it's one of the most expensive. But, we wanted something that wasn't Chinese so we splurged. It was great to have chips and salsa. I really wanted a margarita, but since we can't have ice those were out. We put James and Lily next to each other at the end of the table, and Lily definitely felt comfortable throwing an occasional piece of food at James, reaching for his food, or swatting his hand out of the way if he got too close to hers. She really enjoyed her food - a lot! It was everywhere! The other kids didn't have such a great time. Poor Henry was sick, so he fell asleep on Beau. Caroline was in meltdown mode ever since we woke her up for dinner so she kept crying and laying on Brian and refusing to eat the chicken nuggets she had requested (although she was very sweet and kept handing Lily her fries). And Matthew was happy as long as he was allowed to play with Brian's phone. But at least the adults got to talk! And my mom and Beverly discovered that they are the same person - same birthday, birthplace, career, and married to a Brian!

Bedtime back at the hotel. I made Lily lay down next to me, she wasn't happy at first but cried only for a second and then went to sleep. Score! Tomorrow is our last official sightseeing day at Yuntai Garden. Then Thursday is our consulate appointment, Friday is a free day, and we head to Beijing Friday night. We spend Saturday at the Great Wall, Sunday morning doing some more sightseeing there, and then leave Sunday evening. And, we arrive home on Sunday night! Gotta love jet lag :)

Zoo and Riverboat Cruise - Monday, December 2nd

Aside from the day we met Lily, today was my favorite day in China by far! We started off with breakfast with the Dusseaults. We were hoping to all eat together, but this clearly baffled the hostess. 10 people? At one table? How about 3 tables? Yes, 3 tables will definitely give us the same dining experience as one. We managed to fit at 2 tables - Brian and Beau with Henry, Matthew, and Caroline, and Amanda, Beverly, my mom, me, and Lily at another. I definitely think we had the easier end of that deal, because every time I looked up at least one of the guys was gone from their table getting something for the kids. A few times the kids were there all by themselves. I'm pretty sure I caught one man nearby giving them a strange look, like they had somehow managed to serve themselves food and were just hanging out eating together with no adults in sight. Those crazy Americans...

After breakfast we parted ways with the Dusseaults who had a meeting and then would be heading off to meet James!!! We gathered our things and headed back down to the lobby for a trip to the Guangzhou City Zoo. It was really nice to have another day doing something that the kids enjoyed. We started off our tour of the zoo with rides on these little shuttles that took us all around to see the animals at a glance. We stopped at the panda house to see the two baby pandas, but unfortunately they were hiding inside and we couldn't really see them. Our guides took us down the hill to the giraffes and we got to feed them again! There was one baby, and both Matthew and Caroline were in love and wanted to feed it. This time we got 4 branches for 4 yuan, at the safari park it was 15 yuan for one branch. Smaller zoo, smaller prices! We had fun feeding and watching the giraffes for a bit. Let me tell you, those suckers have some long tongues! If they think there's a chance you'll feed them they start sticking out their tongues like they're going to wrap them around your arm and pull you in. Wearing green might have been a mistake...

Back to the shuttles to finish off the zoo loop, then we had time to explore on our own. This part of the visit will now be titled "Lily vs. Mommy: Lessons on Power Struggles". In just a few short days I have already learned how to distinguish Lily's "I'm scared" cry where she immediately needs to be picked up and snuggled and her "I'm ticked off" cry when she doesn't like something and just wants to throw a fit. I'm sure that in the orphanage this was a main way to get attention, but in our house this will not fly! While it may seem harsh to let her cry a bit and not give in, we are also establishing boundaries for our roles as parents and her role as the child. So, we put her in the stroller with her snack cup in the hopes that she would hang out and give my arms a rest. This lasted about 2.5 seconds. She started crying because she wanted to be held. I stayed in her sight and reassured her, rubbing her back and trying to hold her hand so she knew that I was close and she was safe. Still mad. Then we thought we'd have Brian get her out and "rescue" her to work on establishing that bond. Better, but still mad. She at least let him hold her though, and wasn't doing the "I'm scared" cry, just the "I'm ticked off" cry. He got her to calm down a few times, but she kept starting up again. Another fun thing about all of our sightseeing is that they occur around 11:00, and her naptime was 12:00 at the orphanage. What time is it now, you ask? 11:55. After several minutes of continued crying fits he handed her off to me so that I could try to get her to sleep. I rocked her for a few minutes and she was out. This is when I am oh so sneaky and put the Ergo on. I have free hands and she doesn't know she's restrained! Small break from "Lily vs. Mommy: Lessons on Power Struggles".

I just have to take a minute and brag on Matthew. He has been such an amazing helper and big brother on this trip. His favorite new "big brother" job is to push the stroller for us. He loves it so much, that he doesn't want any help and gets upset if one of us starts to push it. He even goes up all the ramps and says "I can do it by myself. I'm strong." You sure are buddy!

So at this point Matthew is pushing Caroline, Lily's asleep in the Ergo, and all the adults are loving life! We saw a few sleeping bears, some white lions, and lots of ducks and swans swimming around in the pond. We didn't have a ton of time so we asked the kids what was the last section they wanted to see and they chose the reptiles! Matthew showed us how to get there by following all the marked signs and maps. Something interesting (and possibly not humane) about the zoo here is that the animals have hardly any room, and there are lots of them in small areas. The reptiles were all in tiny cages, and many were piled on top of each other. There was one tank of iguanas or lizards of some sort (all the labels are in Chinese so we just made up names for everything. There were lots of lizards and iguanas) and there were so many that it looked like the rock and branches they were on were made of lizards. I mean they were piled on top of each other. I kind of felt like they were staring at me creepily and had to move away. Here's another fun fact about China zoos: they leave live food in the tanks for the animals to eat. So here we are looking at all these lovely reptiles, and Matthew and Caroline are oohing and aahing over the cute little mice, ducklings, and baby bunnies sharing their tanks. Thankfully none of them were in the mood for a meal, or we would have had some fun conversations. Matthew did notice one snake awake and we were trying to move him quickly past it and he starts saying "Is the snake going to eat the ducklings? Why is that gross? I want to see?" No Matthew, he's just going to play with them. Push the stroller over here and look at these cool... lizards? iguanas? chameleons?

Now while we are enjoying these lovely reptile displays, little koala wakes up and realizes she's in the Ergo. Not happy! Resume "Lily vs. Mommy: Lessons on Power Struggles". I know that all she wants is to get out, but she is safe and being held and I can tell she is testing the waters. I hold her close, tell her it's ok, rub her back, and rock her. Still mad. She starts arching her back and attempts to catapult herself out. I hold her closer and tell her no sternly in her ear. She relaxes a bit but is still crying. This cycle continues for what seems like an eternity. Chinese people are giving me strange looks like I am torturing this child and should definitely not be allowed to leave the country with her. It is really hard knowing what to do at this point, because the rules are different with adopted children. But I am relying on my parenting instincts and doing what I think is best at this point. Finally when we have reached the front of the park and our group she stops crying. I praise her like crazy and immediately take her out of the Ergo. She's happy as can be again. Victory! Then we discover stairs. She loves to walk/throw herself down stairs. Unfortunately for her, it's time to go, so we don't have time to go back up the stairs. I carried her away, and when I put her down she turned around and headed right back for them. This happened twice and then I carried her (not too happily) to the bus. She is persistant!

After the zoo our guide took us to a Cantonese restaurant for lunch. It's so nice when he does this because he orders everything for us, and gets things that he knows we will eat. Today we had bbq pork, sweet and sour pork, green beans (delicious!), sweet potato and pumpkin soup (my favorite), goose neck (yikes!), bok choy, rice, tea, and there might have been a few more things but I can't remember what they are.

We came back to the hotel and had some time for naps before our dinner cruise. Today was the first time that Lily took a nap and was not on top of me! I actually got to leave the bedroom once she went to sleep! It was amazing :o) We had to wake all three kids up to go on the boat. They all had bed head and were super sleepy, but perked up when we got there and saw the cool lit-up boats. We had assigned tables in the dining area, and couldn't find ours anywhere! Then we realized that there were people already sitting at it, because it had a great view right next to the window. I don't think so! We showed them our ticket and they moved. We Americans are not as foolish as you may think ;o) We enjoyed sitting next to another family from Florida who just adopted a 10-month-old little girl, and hope to keep in touch with them when we return home. Rumor had it (even from our guide) that the food wasn't that great, so we brought PBJ sandwiches for the kids to eat. I wasn't really hungry at all since we'd had a big lunch so I didn't even go through the buffet. Brian said the highlights were the chicken feet and the whole duck (including the head and bill) on a platter. Delicious! Lily had fun walking around right next to our table and eating her dinner on the go.

After dinner we went up to the top deck. The view and the lights of the city were gorgeous, but I had a little trouble enjoying them because littlest miss wanted to walk around. Not such a good idea when you're unsteady on your feet, are on a moving boat, it's dark, and there are people everywhere looking up at all the lights, not down at their feet where a tiny munchkin might be. Oh, and there were two staircases which must have been screaming "walk down me" loudly in Chinese because that's where Lily kept heading. I took her back down to the dining floor, and once again had to kick someone out of our table. This time I just sat down across from the man without saying anything and he got up and moved.

 Look who's sitting with Daddy!

The last part of the cruise was the entertainment. A Chinese woman dressed sort of like a clown put on a show for the kids that included juggling and balloon animals. To be honest I don't really know what she was doing because I was watching Lily walk around the room and get right up next to the lady to see what she was doing. She is definitely not shy! We are finding out more and more about our daughter every day.

 

When got back to the hotel we got to hear about the Dusseaults' gotcha day, then it was off to bed for the munchkins. Good night from China!

Shopping - Sunday, December 1st

The past few days have really brought out Lily's personality! She is quite adventurous and a total ham. Matthew taught her his favorite trick of hitting himself in the head and then falling down, and now she walks around hitting herself in the head to make people laugh. Thanks Matthew, I could have done without that hilarious joke continuing! She loves to chase Matthew and Caroline around, and give them random objects. There is also apparently no need to buy her any toys, because she entertains herself with empty waterbottles, plastic cups, and snack wrappers. She has also gotten more and more brave and comfortable being away from me. Tonight she even walked across the hall to mom's room and played in there with everyone but me for a while! And I'm not sure because I was kind of already asleep when they came back, but she may have fallen asleep next to me instead of on me. I remember her climbing up to snuggle, but I didn't wake up with a sore back so I don't think she was there very long. She's also making strides with Brian. Today she walked around the gardens holding his hand, she let him change her diaper (score!) and is spending more time with him without me. She still won't let him hold her while she eats her bottle or carry her though. Baby steps!

This morning the breakfast room was crowded so we got upgraded to the 30th floor restaurant. It has a panoramic view of the city and the same delicious food. Everything is just a bit fancier. So up our alley ;) After breakfast we met our group for today's outing - a visit to YueXiu Park and Shangxiajiu walking street and Liwan Plaza for shopping.

The weather today was great. Slightly warmer but still pleasant and sunny. There were lots of stairs in the park, so we left our stroller on the bus and I was forced to put Lily in the Ergo again. She loved it just as much as the last time I put her in it... I think now it's more because she wants to walk around than be carried, so when we got to the top of the stairs to the 5 Goats Statue I let her walk around. She was much happier then, but I missed the entire historical explanation of the statue since I was following her around. I think it's something about goats coming down from the gods or sending something up to the gods? No idea. It's 5 goats made out of stone, that's all I've got.

Then we went back down the steps to an area of the park where everyone was playing hackeysack. When I picture people playing hackeysack I imagine teens or young adults who are kind of in the skater stereotype playing with brightly colored bean bag type balls. Not in China! In China all the people playing were older, retired people (or as they like to call them here, the aged) and they play with these feather things that look kind of like badminton birdie mixed with a lawn dart. I'm sure they got lots of entertainment out of watching all the uncoordinated Americans try to play. I couldn't participate because I couldn't see my feet with Lily in the carrier. (At least that's the lie I told everyone when I missed.) Caroline was again a bit of a movie star, and another group of people asked to take their picture with her. They are usually pretty polite so I tell them that they can try but she might get scared. She usually gives them the stink eye that she has now perfected and hides behind me.

We walked back to the bus and headed to our next destination - shopping! Our guide Simon took us to a pearl shop and a jade shop that he felt were the best quality and lowest price. We started in the pearl shop and I picked out two strands of South Sea pearls to make into 4 bracelets and 4 pairs of earrings. One set for me, and one for Caroline, Lily, and Matthew's future wife on their wedding days. Mom picked out some beautiful pearls for a necklace for herself too. It was so cool watching the lady make the jewelry right there!

Many Chinese wear a jade circle necklace, so we decided to get one for Lily to have on her 16th birthday. Brian had the idea to get 18 different gifts in China, one for each of Lily's birthdays. That way every year she will have something from China. I'm actually wearing the necklace now, because they told us that the green color in the jade spreads when it is worn. I'm pretty sure I won't be wearing this for the next 15 years, but I will wear it while we're in China. The last stop was an embroidery shop where I was able to get a beautiful fan for Lily's room along with some other gifts for friends and family at home. Then back to the hotel.

Picking out Lily's jade

Thank goodness for iphones!

The embroidery shop

Bus buddies!

I knew the Dusseaults were set to arrive in the early afternoon, and I was hoping that we would run into them in the lobby when we got there. Sure enough, we did! They were just checking in! Matthew and Caroline were so happy to see Henry. After saying our hellos and greetings we went upstairs and let the kids run around the hallway for a bit. Their room is right down the hall from us! Our kids hadn't eaten so we let the Dusseaults get settled and fed our kids some PBJ. Then we took them down to see the fish. Matthew and Caroline have been talking about showing Henry the fish for several days now. They had a great time running all around the gardens. Caroline was starting to get tired, and Matthew had been pretty cranky all day so we said bye to the Dusseaults and headed up for naps. M and C went to sleep in Baba's room and we had to wake them up at 7:00 for dinner! I guess they were pretty tired! Brian and I had fun playing with Lily in our room and I did a little more laundry. Around 5:00 little koala started getting sleepy so we took a short nap together. We decided to have a low key night and Brian went and grabbed a pizza for dinner. Then we let the kids watch a movie and relax and play. Tomorrow we get to go to another zoo and on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River!