Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
All is well!
Wow ... I haven't posted in a while! I'm not sure if anyone will be reading this anymore since we are home now. All safe and sound! We have been home for almost a month now. We couldn't be happier, really. Elijah is such a sweet and happy little boy. What makes my day is coming home after work, seeing him in Jims arms, watching his face develop into a huge smile as Jim hands him to me, and then the crazy giggles and kicks and happiness that follows! I am thinking he loves me too? :D He then takes me by a finger and leads me in to where his toys are (all over the living room) and invites me to sit and play. So my house is a huge mess (by my standards) ... but my DH has been superman and manages to keep the kitchen clean. Part of that mess is mine ... I have been trying to get our China photos in an album, but only get maybe an hour a day to work on it. That's okay though. I would rather play with lincoln logs, cars, and big bouncy balls anyway! Jim bought him a sled the other day. So last night while it was snowing a bit ... we ran circles around the driveway, me pulling him. He was laughing those deep belly laughs that we love. But what I think what he was really laughing about was Griz running next to us and then stopping to close to the still moving sled and then having to jump out of the way. Poor Griz! He also occasionally gets chased with a ball in the house too. He must not mind it too much ... because he comes right back to Elijah. I am happy that they seem to enjoy eachother. Griz REALLY enjoys mealtime and the food that tumbles to the follor or that Elijah would rather hand to him than eat himself. :) Typical kid! I don't think I have any photos of the two of them yet ... so that will be my goal for this weekend. We are truly very happy! When I get more time to spend on the computer I will post some pics of this last month, our first month home. Maybe I will do monthly updates again for a while? All the best,
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, November 20
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| Listening to the music in the plane |
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| Trying to sleep. |
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| First car ride in a car seat! |
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| Welcome to America, Elijah! We love you, Tiger! |
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| Comfortable in his new ride. |
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| Welcome home! "Hey! This hotel has pictures of me here!" |
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| "Open it, Baba!" Thank you grandparents, auntie and cousin! |
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| First milk-dunked-peanut-butter-sandwich! :) Yummm! |
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 19
We opted not to pay for the internet service while in Hong Kong ... and were to tired to figure out other options ... so this is why this post is later.
Friday after we picked up SenLins visa and 'brown envelope' we caught the train to Hong Kong. It was no big deal to SenLin ... he looked through the magazine that was on the train and then he pretty much slept the whole time. Once we arrived we found a taxi driver, showed him our printout to the hotel we had reservations for, Skyline Marriot, and he said he could take us. All six of us! (We left Guangzhou with another family) So ... during the taxi ride to the hotel we had different conversations and the cab driver jumped in occasionally. We talked about Hong Kong and thought it was nice that our hotel was going to be so close to the airport. That's why we were TOTALLY surprised when we arrived to the Marriot, and couldn't get checked in because ... we were at the wrong hotel. GRRRR! So, we took ANOTHER 45 minute cab ride to the correct Marriot. It was late, we were tired and the kids were hungry but did pretty well. Rush hour was over by now so the traffic was much better. As we were driving through a tunnel, SenLin reached out for the door lock. I caught his hand, told him sternly 'no' ... and like lightening his hand reached out again, only to open our cab door. OMG! I was holding it shut while the cab driver stopped the car so he could shut it himself. While this was happening, the little girl on the other side of the car thought, "hey, we are getting out here." And opened her door as well. Needless to say, we rode in silence for a good part of the rest of the ride, while holding on to little hands. Once to our destination we ate at a restaurant in our hotel. I ordered a pizza, which the little guy did NOT like. But he did enjoy babas fries! The rice went untouched. I guess he has had enough of that for awhile ... at least as long as there are french fries available! :) Tomorrow is our long day home!
Friday after we picked up SenLins visa and 'brown envelope' we caught the train to Hong Kong. It was no big deal to SenLin ... he looked through the magazine that was on the train and then he pretty much slept the whole time. Once we arrived we found a taxi driver, showed him our printout to the hotel we had reservations for, Skyline Marriot, and he said he could take us. All six of us! (We left Guangzhou with another family) So ... during the taxi ride to the hotel we had different conversations and the cab driver jumped in occasionally. We talked about Hong Kong and thought it was nice that our hotel was going to be so close to the airport. That's why we were TOTALLY surprised when we arrived to the Marriot, and couldn't get checked in because ... we were at the wrong hotel. GRRRR! So, we took ANOTHER 45 minute cab ride to the correct Marriot. It was late, we were tired and the kids were hungry but did pretty well. Rush hour was over by now so the traffic was much better. As we were driving through a tunnel, SenLin reached out for the door lock. I caught his hand, told him sternly 'no' ... and like lightening his hand reached out again, only to open our cab door. OMG! I was holding it shut while the cab driver stopped the car so he could shut it himself. While this was happening, the little girl on the other side of the car thought, "hey, we are getting out here." And opened her door as well. Needless to say, we rode in silence for a good part of the rest of the ride, while holding on to little hands. Once to our destination we ate at a restaurant in our hotel. I ordered a pizza, which the little guy did NOT like. But he did enjoy babas fries! The rice went untouched. I guess he has had enough of that for awhile ... at least as long as there are french fries available! :) Tomorrow is our long day home!
Monday, November 22, 2010
We are Home!
We are doing well. Adjusting to the time difference ... and making good progress I think.
I promise to back post our travel home days soon. Maybe during nap time. :)
I am uploading my photos onto my computer now. 1443 images and video! So ... beware if you ask to see our photos!!! :)
I promise to back post our travel home days soon. Maybe during nap time. :)
I am uploading my photos onto my computer now. 1443 images and video! So ... beware if you ask to see our photos!!! :)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Thursday, November 18
To market, to market ....
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| turtles and mice |
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| Dried Seahorses |
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| mushrooms |
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| Bird nests for soup. The red ones cost much more than the white |
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| centipedes |
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| scorpions |
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| lizards .... on a steeck! |
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| deer 'elbows' |
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| ants |
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| scorpions |
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| cleaning tiny birds |
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| frogs |
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| cats everywhere. no mice. |
Wednesday, November 17
Today was a very long day. (Have I said that before?) There were no problems with our consulate papers that Veronica turned in for us, so that was good. We then met the group for the days outing. We were going to pass on it and hang around the island for the day ... but we thought we may regret it later. In exchange for the busy day, we got one crabby little overtired boy who didn't get a descent lunch. We managed though.
Our first stop was to the Pearl Market. A very large shopping complex filled with many stores that sold pearls, sterling silver, crystals, gems, jade, etc. We were brought to one of the stores that sold good quality pearls. We were told that we didn't have to worry about price from store to store because they all competed with eachother so the price was good no matter where you went. I had figured I wouldn't buy any pearls because I never wear them ..... but ...... they are so pretty! So I walked out of the store with a necklace and two pairs of earrings. :) Then we scooted over to Yuntai Park. Which is a nice flower garden with neat little features tucked in and around the area. SenLin was too tired to enjoy it. We had a hard time getting him to smile. But on the ride back to the hotel he sat on babas lap and waved at everyone we passed. We only had time for a half hour nap before we had to leave again. Poor little boy. The best advice we got before we left was from brother Bob, "Beware the Tired Child." You weren't kidding! Good Lord!
So we went to our oath taking ceremony. We were 30 minutes early and they were 15 minutes late. I have brought some of his crackers to snack on while we waited. He has the sign for 'more' down pretty well. And he even started to say 'more' as he signed it and said 'please' a couple of times as well. :) For the ceremony we all (30 families this day) had to stand and raise our right hand and repeat that the paperwork we provided was correct to the best of our knowledge. Then they called each family up (we were the second one) to sign a paper saying that we took the oath. They checked our passports and then handed us a copy of SenLins passport so we could give it to our guide so she could pick up our Visas. We are almost done!!!
When we returned to Shamian Island we went to our fave Cantonese restaurant for dinner. SenLin was not happy! He cried because he was so hungry. He couldn't understand why we couldn't have the food on other peoples tables. He cried because I couldn't get him his food fast enough when it came and that he couldn't get his potatoes to stay on his spoon. He cried because he wanted the meat that Baba was eating. He was so happy when the milk tarts came ... he made the servers laugh with his excitement. But they were too hot to eat right away and that made him cry. Then I thought it had cooled enough ... but it was still hot on the underside and it burned his mouth when he took a bite. Ugh! Poor baby! I really regretted not staying on the island at this point! I should trust my gut! He was a wound up child ... making faces and singing nonsense all the way back to the room. He was asleep in no time at all. I thought for sure he would be up early early the next morning ... but he slept until we all got up. It probably doesn't help that I caught his cold and my head is not so clear today. A good nights sleep will do us all good.
Our first stop was to the Pearl Market. A very large shopping complex filled with many stores that sold pearls, sterling silver, crystals, gems, jade, etc. We were brought to one of the stores that sold good quality pearls. We were told that we didn't have to worry about price from store to store because they all competed with eachother so the price was good no matter where you went. I had figured I wouldn't buy any pearls because I never wear them ..... but ...... they are so pretty! So I walked out of the store with a necklace and two pairs of earrings. :) Then we scooted over to Yuntai Park. Which is a nice flower garden with neat little features tucked in and around the area. SenLin was too tired to enjoy it. We had a hard time getting him to smile. But on the ride back to the hotel he sat on babas lap and waved at everyone we passed. We only had time for a half hour nap before we had to leave again. Poor little boy. The best advice we got before we left was from brother Bob, "Beware the Tired Child." You weren't kidding! Good Lord!
So we went to our oath taking ceremony. We were 30 minutes early and they were 15 minutes late. I have brought some of his crackers to snack on while we waited. He has the sign for 'more' down pretty well. And he even started to say 'more' as he signed it and said 'please' a couple of times as well. :) For the ceremony we all (30 families this day) had to stand and raise our right hand and repeat that the paperwork we provided was correct to the best of our knowledge. Then they called each family up (we were the second one) to sign a paper saying that we took the oath. They checked our passports and then handed us a copy of SenLins passport so we could give it to our guide so she could pick up our Visas. We are almost done!!!
When we returned to Shamian Island we went to our fave Cantonese restaurant for dinner. SenLin was not happy! He cried because he was so hungry. He couldn't understand why we couldn't have the food on other peoples tables. He cried because I couldn't get him his food fast enough when it came and that he couldn't get his potatoes to stay on his spoon. He cried because he wanted the meat that Baba was eating. He was so happy when the milk tarts came ... he made the servers laugh with his excitement. But they were too hot to eat right away and that made him cry. Then I thought it had cooled enough ... but it was still hot on the underside and it burned his mouth when he took a bite. Ugh! Poor baby! I really regretted not staying on the island at this point! I should trust my gut! He was a wound up child ... making faces and singing nonsense all the way back to the room. He was asleep in no time at all. I thought for sure he would be up early early the next morning ... but he slept until we all got up. It probably doesn't help that I caught his cold and my head is not so clear today. A good nights sleep will do us all good.
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| Good Morning Sunshine! :) |
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| A few of the shops in the Pearl Market |
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| Informing us on how to tell the best pearls |
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| So pretty! |
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| Tying my necklace |
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| SenLin with his little girl friend Isobelle |
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| Yuntai Park |
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| I think this was 'toy talk' with the tots. |
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| Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming! |
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| Bus ride back to the hotel |
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| I LOVE this shot! This is going to get framed for the bedroom. |
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