Guangzhou Day 4

Today was another mellow day for us.  We joined up with the other families traveling on our general schedule, and trekked to the medical clinic to have the TB tests read. Everyone passed--one little kiddo in the group was borderline, but all was fine in the end. 

After this, we traveled to Shamian Island, a European area of Guangzhou where the US Consulate used to be located (and thus, where many adopting families would stay).  Shamian Island is quiet, beautiful, and green. While it is very, very humid and hot here, we had a nice stroll along the main area called The Bund, and did a little souvenir shopping.  After lunch at the famous Lucy's, we headed back to our hotel, where L went down for a nap.  He slept badly last night, seemingly having nightmares or night terrors, so a nap was definitely in order.  We are hoping for a better night tonight.

We planned on staying in for a dinner of instant noodles and fruit, and this turned out to be an inadvertently excellent choice.  We ventured out after his nap to Trust Co, which is essentially WalMart, and it began to rain.  Now, we are used to rain--I mean, really used to rain.  This was something else entirely, sheets of downpour turning the roads into rivers.  We quickly finished up our shopping, which included some new construction-vehicle toys and a play bus for L, some new snacks, and wipes (he's potty trained, but is a pretty messy eater at times).  We were soaked by the time we got back to the hotel, which is when the craziness really began.  Lightning and thunder cracked across the sky about every 30 seconds for several hours, the lights flickered, and the rain is still coming down.  We are seeing some flashes now and again, but the fireworks have mostly passed.  This, plus L deciding to take a ginormous poop in the bathtub, made for an exciting evening.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, will be another quiet day.  The group is heading to a park with a big playground on the outskirts of town for the morning while we wait for L's US visa to be processed.

L continues to do well.  He seems interested in us, wants only us to hold him, is concerned when we are not around, and identifies us by Mama and Baba.  He is showing more control issues around food--all of the food on the table is his, right?  He does not stop eating until all of the food is gone, so we are giving him kid-sized portions of everything until he can understand when he is full.   Things to work on.  On the plus side, he's now eating all kinds of veggies and fruit, especially corn, watermelon, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  We'll keep giving him as many veggies as we can until he realizes he can say no.  We also figured out the name situation, as he doesn't respond to anyone using his name, even native speakers.  I finally showed him a picture of himself, and asked who it was. While the name he used is correct, he pronounces it completely differently from the numerous other versions we've heard--he drops most of the consonants and has a different order of names than we'd seen in the past.  Once we got that down, we've been able to get his attention far more easily. 

So things are fine here in our weird little international adopting world.  L is a joy and we are so fortunate to have him as our son.  He gets cuter by the minute, is outgoing and friendly, and is super smart and interested in everything.  He's amazing, and we are so lucky.