Shamian Island Rocks!!

Greetings from Guangzhou! This city is in the very southern part of China, very near Hong Kong. We are in a section of the city called Shamian Island. We love it!! Our hotel, The Victory, is very nice and there are tons of little shops all around the neighborhood. I love to barter and I am getting better every day! We took our scummy clothes to a nearby laundry yesterday afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised when we picked them up this morning! All pressed and individually wrapped. And it was cheap!!! Can I take a Chinese Laundry woman home as a souvenior? Do I have to declare that?

There is an awesome Thai restuarant next door called Cow and Bridge. Dude! Fresh snow peas in garlic sauce and all kinds of neato fresh fruit drinks. Jude likes the watermelon juice best! But I think the banana is mighty tasty. He is helping me to improve my chopstick skills. Today we got him a stroller(which he loves!), even though I think my poor back has already formed a hump!! Loves to be carried and I have a hard time resisting the chance to squeeze my peapod. Right now he is napping. We went for a walk this morning and saw a group of ladies dancing in the park. Jude loves to dance so he joined right in. That kid can really get his groove on. Gets that from his mama (a shaker from way back). Everything is lovely on the island and many people speak english. We miss our guide and driver from Shenyang, but we are doing okay on our own. There is a guide from the agency to help with paperwork, thank goodness! Tomorrow morning we are going to the electronics market to spend some yuan(as in "yuander where it all went) and then in the afternoon we will be going to the Amercian Consulate for the swearing in ceremony. :) I was told that there are no pictures allowed during that. Jude will likely be pleased with that as I am sure he is sick of posing. Several families from our agency met today at the famous White Swan Hotel for the traditional kiddo photo on their red couch. Well, after a billion photos, JUde was overwhelmed and headed for the hills. He sat in a corner and rocked himself, scared to death. But Mama fixed it all with several hugs and kisses. The agency reps then really put the pressure on to finish the photos and I had to put the "smack down", so to speak. I said if he wanted more pictures then fine, but if my kid was gonna freak out then forget it. Jude comes first. Not somebody's scrapbook!! I finally agreed to sit behind the red couch and hold his hand. After 60 seconds he got up and ran around to me. I said "That's it." We packed up and headed out. I mean, really, does the kid need any more issues to tell his therapist about in a few years? With me for a mother, he will have plenty of issues already!!! :) Don't mess with my boy. I am one tough mama. ;)
Well, I think I will try to shop just a bit before the monkey wakes up. (Don't worry, Poppy is watching him.) We decided yesterday that not only is he a poppet and a monkey, he is POPPET MONKEY. That is the most rare kind of monkey, you know. I had to come half way around the world just to find a poppet monkey of my very own. :)

Goodbye Shenyang.

We are just about to leave for the airport. We are flying to Guangzhou, which is our last stop in China! We are staying the Victory Hotel and a lot of American families stay there. I hope to meet up with some folks I have met through online groups and out adoption agency. We will really miss Shenyang and our guide, Sarah. Traders Hotel has been excellent and the staff has treated us like royalty. We had a blast shopping all around the neighborhood. We discovered yesterday that Walmart in only 2 blocks away from the hotel! Don't ask why we didn't realize this sooner!! Silly Americans. :)

Yesterday Jude got a present form Grandpa. A harmonica!!! He loves it. I mean loves it! He thanked Grandpa (Lao Ye) about 5 times and even bowed to him. Then he played and danced around. It is his favorite toy so far. And now Grandpa is his buddy.

We also went to an underground shopping mall yesterday. It is just as big as the mall at home but the halls are very narrow and the shops are tiny. In the center is a food court. Very cool. Mama can't really shop much for clothes though. My size here is 2XL. Not great for the ego! :) I have lost a few pounds here in China (probaly from sweating all the time) but I can't buy any cute pants in my size!! I am like an amazon woman here. I did find a swimsuit today at Walmart and I had to indicate to the clerk that needed a "big" one. She nodded and found an XL. Pretty funny, huh?

Better go catch up with Jude and the folks. I will post next from Guangzhou!

Rainy day

Rained all day today so we mostly stayed in until this afternoon. Then we went to an International Christian Church that our driver found for us. There were people there from all over the world that are in Shenyang for one reason or another. But we were very sad to find out that our guide, Sarah, and our driver, Mr Chong, were not allowed to atttend the service with us!!! It is illegal for Chinese to attend church services with foreigners apparently. There is a service earlier in the day just for Chinese, but no foreigners. Crazy and so sad. We take so much granted, don't we?
Jude was angel during church and they sang Jesus Loves Me just for him. He knows almost all the words already!! I sing it to him at bedtime. :) He loves music and singing.

After church we went out to eat at Pizza Hut. This is an "expensive"
dinner in China and very popular on dates. The staff was all dressed up like pirates for some reason that is still not clear to me. The menu is also a bit different. The veggie pizza has corn and pineapple on it. And since it is a one trip salad bar, the Chinese take great time and care with making their salad. One woman was at that salad bar for maybe 15 minutes layering cucumber slices around the edge of her bowl. Jude likes pizza but he LOVES spaghetti. Mama can handle that dish no problem. Boil water and open jar.

He was so tired and went to sleep in about 5 minutes. We are doing great and he is like a little learning sponge. Grandpa is now okay since he shaved off his beard. :) Tomorrow we plan to just wander around in the shops near our hotel. Hopefully it won't be raining. But we did discover that Jude loves umbrellas. He had so much fun just playing with our cheap travel umbrellas in our room today! He also can find a million uses for empty plastic bottles. :) Very creative. I am still amazed at how much he is like my nephew, Ian. If those two team up, the rest of us don't stand a chance!!! :)

Busy day

Okay, what a great day! This morning we went to huge park. Jude went fishing for the first time and caught a goldfish. He wasn't really sure if he liked that or not! There was a big lake at the park and some paddle boats, but he is too unpredictable for that right now. :) I will post a picture of a water attraction, I guess you would say. I don't know what to call it but basically it is a huge clear plastic bubble with a zipped opening. A child gets in and they blow air into it and seal it!!! It floats in the lake with the kid inside!! Can you say "death trap"? That's what Mama called it. Our guide didn't understand why I thought it was so bad. Like sealing your child in plastic and setting them afloat is just a fun day at the park. Uh, okay. Think I'll pass.

But anyway, the park was fun. We saw a puppy and Jude wanted to follow it from a distance. But then the pup (maybe 5 pounds) started to come toward us. Jude completely freaked out and took off running the other direction and screaming. Whipped past me and Grandma, but Grandpa got him. He was beside himself!! This is going to be a problem at home. In case you don't know, Mama has 2 dogs. Definitely need to work on this issue. :) We were very popular at the park. Three times people came up to have their picture taken with me! It is like being a celebrity. But without the $$$$$$.



This afternoon we went to Walmart. It was 3 or 4 stories and jam packed. Our guide said "It isn't very busy today." Imagine the mall on the day after Thanksgiving. Now multiply that by 3. And people stand right up against you. No concept of personal space since there just isn't any space to spare! But Jude got to ride in a cart shaped like a car and he had a blast. He also picked up a couple new toys. ;) We bought 2 carts full of food and stuff and a new copy of the latest Harry Potter book (my ine was in my packpack that was stolen) and it all was only 600 yuan. That is less than $80!!!! And 200 yuan was for the book! (I was only half way through and I need to know how it comes out!) We bought tomato flavoered potato chips, as well as cucumber flavor. But we passed on the Shrimp Flakes.

Jude is simply amazing. He loves to sing and learn new words. He has been refusing to take a nap, although I know he had one every day in the orphanage. Throught the guide, I asked him why he wouldn't nap even though he admits he is tired. He said he is just too excited and happy to sleep! So sweet. And I also asked why he seems afraid of Grandpa. He said he was afraid of his beard! Apparently beards are very uncommon in CHina. So when we got back to the hotel, Grandpa promptly shaved it all off and let Jude feel his smooth face. :)

Jude also told our driver today that he loves us all very much! He is so cute!! Always gives mama a drink from his water bottle and tries to feed me. He eats and eats and eats! He will try most anything and he makes the funniest face when he hates something, such as honey. He is a joy. Just a joy. :) Oh, I think they are closing the computer room so I will post pix in the am.

We got the passport!

Tonight we were able to get Jude's passport! Our guide, Sarah, spent much of the day back in Jude's hometown of Anshan at the police station trying to get the passport finished. We needed it by Tuesday so we can leave this province. So we are ahead of schedule!! That means a nice relaxing weekend of leisure with no worries of a beauacart nature. Tomorrow we are going to visit a park so Jude can spend some of his endless energy supply. Then we get to go to the Walmart!!! I am so excited to see how it is different from. I bet one thing will be exactly the same: I will spend too much! Jude is fast asleep so I can enjoy some computer time. He was so exhausted that he went to sleep in about 30 seconds tonight. He doesn't want to miss a thing so he really fights sleep. But if you can get him to hold still for just a minute, he's a goner. Sleeps from around 7pm or so til around 3am usually. Then off and on til 5am. That's in my vasr experience of 5 days being his mother! :) He eats and eats and eats. I don't know where he puts it all because he is tiny. My fingers can fit around his upper arm with no problem!! He weighs 40 pounds. One strange thing (forgive me if I already told this) is that he loves to wash his hair. Maybe 5 times a day!! Even if it is just with water. Loves it!! OK, something seems to be biting me in this computer room (no doubt because I am so sweet ;) so I'll sign off now. Gotta get some sleep cause 3am comes pretty quickly these days!

Major Meltdown

OK, so this is motherhood. Jude and I had a battle of wills this morning over a nap. Boy, there is a lot of pressure to show who is boss! But there is a new sheriff in town and her name is Mama. :) My little man is sure stubborn, so I guess he takes after his mama already. Today we went to a huge book store across the street. They actually had some children's books with English as well as Chinese. Much cheaper than Barnes and Noble but no airconditioning. Gotta go! Little man is getting restless. Trying to dismantle the printer. Man, he is EXACTLY like his cousin Ian. Good thing he is cute!!!! Just teasing, wouldn't trade him for all the tea in China. And there is a TON of tea here! :)

Glad to be back in Shenyang!!

Whew! Just got back to Shenyang, the capital city of the province, Liaoning, and man are we glad to be back. The last two days we were in Jude's home town of Anshan. No bueno. Hotel and the town in general were like the twilight zone and not in a good way. The hotel was an OVEN. Sorry, but we could not post from there. We did however get to go to Jude's orphanage yesterday. That was a very hard thing to see. All those precious angels with out homes. It was clean and the kids were well cared for, but very austere. I never saw the nannies hug the children at all. When we took out a sack of little beanie babies, we were swarmed!! The kids were every where, pushing, taking things from each other, mass hysteria. The nannies didn't react at all. That explained a lot to us about JUde's behavior. He has not concept of social graces. He was never taught how to be out in the world. We took him to a gocery store (huge, by the way) and he had never seen so much food. Today he had ice cream for the first time. LOVED IT! He is like a toddler in that all this is completely new to him. But he is simply amazing. So sweet and so very in love with his mama. My parents took him for a walk about 5am today so I could maybe finally get some rest. He had a melt down, screaming for mama. So now he will rarely let me out of his sight for even 2 minutes. He had to sit in the bathroom while I showered! Just not completely sure this whole thing is for keeps yet. Even though has had absolutely nothing of his own his whole life, he is extremely generous. Brings mama water and food very often. Sleeps with mama. Eventually :) The hotel here is very very nice and the staff is great. There is a jumbo store right across the street and also a street market right outside. One thing we don't do is cross the street. You just cannot imagine how people drive here! Dude, seriously. It is just unreal. There are soooooo many people!!! This country has ONE BILLION MORE people that the USA. Yeah I said MORE. Packed and stacked everywhere. And humid. Much more that even Missouri! ;)
Jude is picking up english already. He loves to sing. We sing Jesus LOves Me, ABCs, and The Muffin Man over and over. He already knows the tunes and some of the words. And he can say his #s up to 6. Just learned that today! I taught him to rub his tummy and say "yummy" when he eats somethin he likes. So Smart. Grandma is running out of tricks to entertain the little prince so I better get on with it. I will be able to post everyday from now on as long as he can give me a few minutes away!! :)