Shamian Island, for those of you who don't know, it pretty much just for tourists and the workers of the souvenir shops. Some people live there, but not very many. It's a great place to shop for small items and take some pictures. Back in 2014 when we adopted our first son, Gabriel, we had stamps made with both our English names and Chinese characters, so today, we had a stamp made for Andrew with his English name and his Chinese name, Shen Yang Ju, written in Chinese characters. Howie and I also finally purchased silks ourselves to wear on special occasions like Chinese New Year. Howie purchased a shirt, and Ipurchased a dress for a pretty good price. Before I tried on the dress, the shopkeeper asked me if I would take off my clothes to try it on. Mind you, there was no dressing room in site, and the door to the shop was wide open to the street. I declined and tried it on over my outfit. Andrew was given a silk outfit and a special Inner Mongolian hat by his orphanage, but he won't be able to wear that until he's five years old or so.
While shopping, we were approached by a few middle school students who were conducting a survey for school on how different cultures handle various occasions. When they asked us where we were from and we told them "Indiana, USA, " they shrieked with delight! You would have thought we were superstars! The question they asked was, "At family reunions, who sits at the table first? The elderly or the women?" We said, "We all do!" They were surprised, made note of it, and then asked to take their picture with us. We also had our guide snap a picture of us on Howie's phone. Then, a little while later, Guangzhou conducted a test of their Emergency Broadcast System outside. We asked our guide if that was for weather, and she said, "No, we get those warnings on our phone." But she didn't say what it was for. It sounded like air raid sirens, so we think that was the test they were doing. It was kind of scary.
After this, we took Andrew to the famous Shamian Island statue of children. The idea is that you are supposed to place your child in line with the children and take a picture. Andrew just started screaming and crying, and Howie got a picture of it, but we can't figure out how to transfer pictures from his phone to the tablet.
Because we had eaten a late breakfast, we weren't hungry enough to eat at Lucy's, the famous western restaurant on the Island, so we ended up buying take-out from a nearby McDonalds around 2:30. We all ate chicken nuggets and fries. What a healthy lunch! Ha!
Shortly after that, Howie asked if he could have some quiet time for a nap, so Andrew and I went off to explore the hotel. We looked in a couple of shops on the ground floor and then ventured to the fourth floor mainly to check out the Prime restaurant and possibly see just how expensive that was. To our delight, though, on our way to Prime, we found an indoor kiddie playland, so Andrew and I played there for awhile. We tossed a ball back and forth and then I helped him slide down the little slide several times. He was so happy to do that! He also found some large Lego/ Mega blocks and tried to stack them but couldn't quite get it, so instead, he placed a block into his mouth. I promptly took it out and he promptly put it back in again. Well, I guess he had to start building up his immune system at some point. I'm sure we'll return there tomorrow just because it broke up the monotony of being in the hotel room and allowed me to talk with some other adoptive parents as well.
Later today, we met up with an adoptive family whom we had met on Facebook before we left. They don't live too far from us (near Chicago), and they adopted a little girl. We all ate at Fandino's Pizza place togther, and it was so nice to dine with friends. I had Andrew on my lap, and he was in true "mischief maker" form tonight! We ordered him chicken spaghetti, and let's just say he got a little more pasta in his belly than he did on Mama and himself! lol He also threw the wipes he was mistakenly given by me and had a wonderful time doing so!
Have I mentioned that he throws every single object that he grabs? lol And that he grabs every single object that catches his attention? lol He is keeping us on our toes every second of every minute, but he's so darn cute and has such a charming grin on his face when he's doing all of this, that we just can't help but laugh and hug and kiss him when we're not correcting him. His favorite phrases right now continue to be "Go, go, go!" "Get it!" "Bye bye," and we've heard him say "car" a few times and "hi" a couple of times. He's a pretty smart kid we think! My favorite moments with him are the moments he lets me hold him, and he snuggles in against me. I also love chasing him in the hotel room and asking him to chase me. When he chases me, I stop at a certain point, turn toward him, and kneel down. I hold my arms open, and he runs into them and gives me a big hug. :) The most challenging moments are taking objects away from him that he shouldn't have, because he lives by the "finders keepers" philosophy and trying to put him to bed during nap time and at night. It takes us about an hour each time before he finally just wears himself out and passes out. He just doesn't want to stop playing because his parents are just too much fun. Right? lol We need to figure out some way to get him to bed faster, but that will have to likely wait until we're home and have a more regular routine. We are so happy that he seems to be bonding equally to both of us, calling out for us specifically by name at various times and asking both of us to hold him. He's such a sweetie. I'm looking forward to when Gabriel and he get to know each other. I think they'll end up eventually being the best of friends. :)
Tomorrow, we're going to go to a Catholic church over here that has an English service. It will be interesting to see which things are the same and which are different due to government regulation. We're looking forward to it!
I'll now leave you with some more pictures of Andrew that we have taken over the past several days. :) We can't wait for you to meet him in person. We're sure you'll fall in love with him just as we have.
Have a great Saturday! I'm off to clean off any leftover noodles from dinner and then going to bed. Also, I started prednisone today from my back (medicine that I originally bought for my ears in case they didn't recover from the plane ride as was the case the last time we flew to China), and I'm already slowly starting to feel some of the pain subside. Hopefully tomorrow, I will feel much better. Thanks for the prayers. We truly appreciate them and are ready to be home to thank you in person.
Blessings,
Jennifer
Looking Great. Sounds like Gabriel had some good cousin time today at the house. Looking forward to seeing you Thursday Night.
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