Today started and ended pretty rough, but there were lots of great moments in the middle. Peng Peng is pretty sick. If we were home at this point I would have taken him in to the doctor's. But, we are not home. All I can do is share my concerns with my guides. They then relay that information to a pharmacist, who is like the local doctor here, and then trust that they know my son best without meeting or seeing him. Yesterday Peng Peng woke up from coughing throughout the night and when we tried to give him his Diarrhea medication in his bottle, he took it, then a minute later threw it all up. He was coughing so hard and his diarrhea was so bad we decided to have him skip breakfast and took turns going for food while the other entertained him. We left Zhengzhou at 10:00 and arrived at the airport around 11. Our flight took off at 12:50 and we arrived in Guangzhou at 3:00. Traffic was long and we ended up at our new hotel close to two hours later, at almost 5:00.
During those travels our buddy was a real trooper. He was tired, hungry, sick of taking medications, and coughing so hard he was sweating several times. But, he laughed. He smiled. He played. AND he kissed me. I have loved torturing him with my kisses, and he actually seems to greatly enjoy these moments, but today he kissed me for the first time. Be still my heart.
Peng Peng also got to ride an airplane for the first time. We had brought some toys from home centered around airplanes for these trips and brought some toys with us for the plane ride. He pointed and laughed in excitement when we looked out the window at the other airplanes. He also learned how to sign airplane and help today. He usually says, "Aya" for "help" - which we think is the Chinese word for help.
The plane ride was actually really good, but every day closer to traveling home makes me a little more nervous for the long flight we will have with him on our lap. I am sure we will be thankful we saved the $1,000, but just thinking of that duration with him confined to a 4' squared space scares me a bit. Peng Peng's favorite activity on the plane was shoving a bun into a cup and then holding it upside down over his head and anticipating it falling on him. It was very cute. Adam and I have learned how to work the crowds, so we were able to get on and off everything just fine. People were very sweet with us having a baby too - a man got up out of his seat for me to sit with him on my lap during the bus ride to the plane. Very sweet as I am sure he waited in line just to get that coveted space.
Kathy is the name of our guide here in Guangzhou. When we leave here on Thursday by van to Hong Kong we will be without any guide the final two days. Kathy is helping us with our doctor's visit on Tuesday and is helping us get Christian's visa for travel as well. She is also taking us on a few tours.
The hotel here is magnificent. It is extremely classy and spacious and lots of people speak English, which is helpful for these crazy Americans who traveled with fewer than five Chinese words in their vocabularies. People don't stare at us here either - or if they do they are much more discrete. Our room is awesome. We have a big tv in the middle of the room that swivels and serves as a barrier to the living space, so lots of room for our active boy to run and play and if somebody (ie Adam) wants to take a nap they can do so with a little noise in the background.
We did an upgrade for our room, and I am so glad that we did. We had gotten a Marriott card about a month before we traveled, and as a result one of our rooms in Hong Kong will be free and we get free wifi for the whole week instead of paying $15 a day. We also get a free breakfast, which would have cost about $20 and access to the executive suite, which we ate our free dinner at with delicious foods and endless pop and water (a few of which might have ended up in our diaper bag for a drink in the room later). So, we were pretty proud of our decision to upgrade. The major purpose of the upgrade was the bigger space, but well worth the money. We walked around and explored the hotel and there are lots of great things. There is a huge pool on the fourth floor, which can be seen from our hotel room. There is also a play room with balls and a slide for Peng Peng.
Kathy went to two pharmacies last night to get medication for his cough. I am almost positive it is bronchitis. Kathy thought so too. Adam thought I was a nervous nelly, but was not about to tell me no to this medication as he is just as sleep deprived as I am. You can feel something, maybe fluid in his lungs, when you hold your hand to his chest. So, now we are up to four medications twice a day with an additional medication in the middle of the day. One of them can be mixed with formula, but the other three cannot and have to be forced into his mouth with a syringe. Not ideal for any parent/ child, but especially not when we can't reason with him yet due to a language barrier and he has not fully established trust with us yet. I can't use, "first this terrible medicine, then the yummy sucker" he just doesn't understand. But, as we are consistently seeing, he is a trooper. He cries when we give the medicine and usually lectures me afterwards by walking away (stomping away) and yelling while pointing at me, "Ay Mama! Ay Mama!". After a minute or so he can be redirected and is his happy normal self.
Little buddy did not want to go to sleep tonight, but eventually fell into a deep sleep, as did we!
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