Today was a lovely day. We slept in, had breakfast, and walked to the park that is less than ten minutes away. I thought it was "just a park" but boy was I wrong. This place was magical. It was huge - maybe 100+ acres? There were flowers, weeping willows, coi ponds, statues, musicians, lots of children, and even an amusement park in the back corner. Adam felt it was a bit too over-stimulating for him, but I loved it. The musicians were using instruments I have never seen before. I kept trying to talk him into asking one of the musicians singing if we could try a song and to sing "I'll fly away," which we have sung a few times at church together, but he said no :(
We noticed a lot of grandparents walking with their grandchild. It is very common in China for retired parents to move in with their child and to watch the grandchildren while the parents work. School runs from Monday-Saturday at five hours a day, but the grandparents had little ones with them. It was very sweet. They were very gentle and kind to the children. There was lots of love and tenderness today. Adam and I chose to wear our badges that we were given to show people if they stare or seem curious that states we are adoptive parents and that this is our child. It felt good to have a way to show people who tried to strike up conversations.
One lady tried to see if Christian would go to her by putting out her arms. It was very uncomfortable to me and I told Adam it really made me upset. Doesn't she know that my child has only been mine a few days and how confusing it is to test him and see if he would go to her or not? Fortunately he wanted to stay with me and I politely ran away from her (walked very quickly). I was a bit surprised to see the mama bear come out with a grammy wanting to smile to my adorable child, but it did. I can handle the stares because I know people are curious and we are very visibly different than what people are used to seeing here, but to mess with my kid right now just doesn't sit right.
We spent the morning at the park. We let Christian walk and walk and run and climb and when he couldn't go anymore we would give him a snack or drink and then go for more. He has an endless supply of energy, and we were happy to see him have so much fun without constantly telling him, "no" or "be careful". I think his favorite thing at the park was the coi fish in the huge pond. He learned how to sign "fish" today and used the word many many times to get to go down by the water to see the fish. Peng Peng is so smart. I can't get over how fast he is understanding our English and picking up on sign language. You can just see the excitement and joy in his eyes when you understand what he is trying to say.
Once he was consistently rubbing his eyes we went back to the hotel room. I started cleaning/ packing for our travels tomorrow and Adam walked the mile to Walmart to get some more water and snacks while Peng Peng napped. We then hung out and played in the hotel for about an hour before we went back to the park. Peng Peng has not been feeling very good and I think the morning might have been a bit too much fun. He mostly wanted to be carried, so we walked around the water a few times, had some snacks, and went on one amusement ride. It was like a little roller coaster that you can go on very very slowly. Each car gets to hold a net and try to catch the balls blowing out of the fish in the middle. I caught the balls, then Peng Peng took them out of the net and threw them back. He had more fun throwing than anything. I think he is going to love baseball and sports in general! Tonight we also let Peng Peng pick out a toy from a little vendor. I wish I could have captured his smile and the twinkle in his eyes when he got to help pick out and buy what might be his very own first toy that he picked, but I was too busy enjoying the moment in person. He hugged that little plastic truck for over half an hour.
We finally found the turtle restaurant. The food was good, but maybe a bit too adventurous for my liking. The shrimp still had eyes on them, the tea was loose in my water, the chicken might have been joints, and the rice was called "rice with stupid egg". :) I toyed with eating turtle just for the experience, but when I turned to the page with the pictures of turtles on it, I couldn't do it! In high school I had a pet turtle, Rosie, and I just kept picturing poor Rosie eating out of my hand. So, stupid egg and chicken joints it was. Peng Peng's cough was pretty bad tonight - it sounds like the beginning of croup maybe. He is also very congested, so I am worried about bronchitis. I wouldn't be so worried if we were back home, but we are in a bit of a tricky position to get medical help here at this point. He is a trooper though and other than his coughing, runny nose, and almost throwing up when he gets too congested, you would never guess he is sick. His nose has been bleeding ever since we met him as well - very faintly, but visible every once and again - so I put an email out to the U of M craniofacial team who we have our scheduled appointment with on October 1st to see if I can bump up the appointment to the week we return.
After dinner we came back to the hotel. We met Vivian to get Christian's very own passport. She video taped herself saying a few words so we could practice them without feeling like fools. We also just sat and talked for a little while as Christian practiced pitching by throwing blocks across the room. The kid has a good arm! We talked about how blessed we are. Vivian said everything has gone exceptionally well for us and how she has been really amazed with how easy everything has been. Adam shared with her how many people are praying for and supporting us from back home and how we believe in the power of prayer. It was a great conversation and a good reminder of how all our friends and family are actively helping us from across the world.
We ended our night with his favorite activity - bath time! He splashed and splashed and splashed some more. We are still working on sitting in the tub, so after two warnings we ended bath time a little early for his next favorite activity - eating :) We actually had a warm bottle of formula for him and he took turns snuggling in our arms. He had a little harder time falling asleep, I think because of how he is feeling, but a few bedtime songs did the trick and now he is picture perfect adorable sleeping in his fireman pajamas :)
I am so glad we went to the park today. I was initially disappointed that we couldn't go on a big adventure - I had researched a few ideas ahead of time. With Christian not feeling well and another big day of traveling ahead tomorrow, it really was the best thing for us to do. Christian loved it and we got to be outdoors without worrying about getting run over. Plus, it was just beautiful. Off to bed and then to pack early in the morning.
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