Luke Makes Progress

Last night, we went out to dinner with another neat family. We walked to the noodle place our guide took us to for lunch the other day. 

We had a great time, and their spicy little girl was so cute washing Luke's face. I think they have the same cheekies in this picture. Luke ate a whole steamed egg (consistency of custard) at dinner! 

After dinner, we stopped at Aeon on the way home. It's kind of like a super Target, I'm told, but we were only on the food floor. It was crowded, particularly at checkout, but we managed to get more water and diapers and such. 

When we got back to the room, we had a Big Moment!  Our first time seeing Luke roll over, belly to back!  He did it twice.  I was so excited. 

This morning Little Man woke up snotty, and after naps, he woke up with a puffy bite under his eye! We'd appreciate prayers that the snotty doesn't turn into a full fledged cold right before we fly. 

Shamian Island and Market Day

Baba was playing with the settings on his camera and caught Katie watching me blog.  

Guangzhou is much more of an international city than Nanchang or Nanning.  Two nights ago, we went out for Mexican food.  It was pretty good!  The "salsa" bowl was catsup, but the rest of it was tasty.  

Our hotel at night.  There's a rotating restaurant at the top, but we were warned that it's quite expensive.  I imagine the view must be breathtaking, the city lights are just incredible here.  

There's no good spot to get a picture that accurately shows the water and lights in front of the hotel.  I'm reminded of Disney's water and light show at California adventure, but without the music.  

My favorite tourist.  Paul's a much better traveler than I am.  He never complains, and he carries like a sherpa.  Baby carrier, backpack, taking the loaded stroller up and down stairs, he's pretty impressive.  I mentioned the other morning that I was sore from hauling Katie around (although she's lighter than Luke, so I'm grateful to be carrying her and not him any more).  Paul told me that I needed to get into shape.  I told him, "Round IS a shape."  

Speaking of which, we're on to grape and peach Oreos now.   I haven't tried the birthday cake ones, because I'm not much of a cake person, and I'm leary of the green ones because last time I tried mint ones here (2010) they were toothpaste flavored.  I don't mind a Thin Mint type taste, like the Oreos at home, but Oreos are not supposed to taste like toothpaste.  

Speaking of the FOOD, I love eating here.  New adventures all the time, and it's all good.  See the spikey pink fruits by the vendor's left hand?  Dragonfruit.  Yum.  The inside is white with black seeds scattered throughout.  We've had it at all 3 breakfast buffets, and I really like it.  Oh, and I tried DRIED RADISH a couple days ago.  I saw it on the buffet and thought, "Why not?"  I was curious, so I grabbed a couple pieces, ate one, and gave one to Paul.  It was interesting.  Not bad, but not something I would seek out.  

Yesterday after Shamian Island, we walked through the Chinese medicine/spice market and the pet market.  Our guide pointed these out to us, "Deer penis."  Now, he has a sense of humor, and I'd like to think he was teasing us, but the other Dad with us was an experienced hunter, and they had a totally straight-faced conversation about it.  Okay then.  I'm not even going to ask what those are used for.  

The way the markets here work is so different from what we're used to at home.  In the US, you have a shopping center with all DIFFERENT types of stores.  A grocery, a laundromat, a nail salon, a UPS store, a pet supply shop, and a health food store.  In China, you have areas where everybody is selling the same things.  Rows of itty bitty shops that all have ___________.  In the photo above, you can see several different stores down the left side.  All have dried seahorse, starfish, flowers, saffron...  Oh, there's some variation from shop to shop, but if you're looking for an herbal cure, you go to this market area and haggle until you find it at the price you like.  

Mushrooms in a variety of colors and sizes.

And of course, the obligatory scorpion shots.  The black ones are the big scorpions.  These suckers are about 6" long.  And they're writhing and fighting each other.  

These are the little scorpions.  They got up to about 1.5" long.  While we were watching, a guy was dumping bags of them into a bucket.  Think about that for a minute.  Bags of live scorpions.  Not clear bags, so you know that you got them all out.  More like burlap or a plastic version of burlap.  So there could be one left in there the next time you pick that bag up.  :shudder:  Oh, and this stall had 3 big buckets of the little guys, and one bucket of the big ones, and TODDLER running around.  What could go wrong there??

Seriously, she's so stinking cute.  

After the medicine market (yes, the scorpions are used medicinally; good for arthritis, I hear), we walked through the pet market.  Again, dozens of vendors, all selling animals or animal wares (and in some cases "wears" as I saw dog clothing there this time).  Katie does not like animals.  

This was a good opportunity for her to see that Baba will protect her from the scary fishies and bunnies.  

These guys reminded me of Annaliese's turtle.  Same kind.  LOTS of buckets of turtles here.

Crabs

A guy checking out a kitten.  There were lots of cages of cute kitties.  I would have liked to pet some, but we were warned against touching the animals last time we were here.  And I don't need to get any closer to the fleas, lol.  (Last time we walked through there, I ended up with 12 huge welts on my legs from flea bites.  This time, I came prepared with bug spray.  I got two mosquito (I think) bites at Safari Park, and only ONE flea bite from the pet market this time.  Pretty happy about that.  It still feels like someone stuck an M&M under my skin, and they itch like mad, but 3 is much more bearable than 12.  

All sorts of birds.

Dogs, which "froke" Katie out.  (That's a Furbyism.)

Bunnies front and center, and then more fish/turtles around the corner on the right.

Mice.  I didn't see many of these.

Ugly fish.

Even uglier frogs.  They look like animal fetus specimens in formaldehyde.  Except moving.  Woof.  

Okay, so when we were at Safari Park, we all kind of laughed to see DEER on display.  I mean, deer are sort of a suburban nuisance here, right?  We used to see them all the time when we lived out in the country.  We were sort of teasing, "What's next, raccoons?"  Not quite a raccoon, but we were pretty surprised to see SQUIRREL in a cage.

More aquatic creatures.  Oh, and you can't see any in this picture, but I found it interesting that they have large open bags of pet food here, so you can buy just a scoop or so at a time.  I guess it makes sense, that when many people do not drive, you don't want to be schlepping a 25# bag of cat food home.  

Fishies!

These were probably my favorite weird thing from yesterday.  I have no idea what kind of fish these are, but they just look so different than anything I'm used to seeing, I had to snag the camera from Paul and get a picture of them.  There are dozens and dozens of pictures I'm NOT showing every day.  You're welcome.  Maybe after we get home and I can download all the pictures onto my computer and see them full sized, I'll go back and share some more trip pictures.  But I have a feeling, at least at first, I'll have PLENTY of fresh blog fodder with Katie and Luke settling in to family life, doctors' appointments, other family stuff, etc.

After Shamian Island, the medicine market, and the pet market, it was time to go back to the hotel for NAPS!  

And now for something different

These pictures are from the little camera. They go back to my last day in Nanchang.

In the airport. See that little yellow square that says delayed?  Yup.  That's my flight. 

Once we finally got on the plane, Luke screamed so much that the reseated the gentleman next to me in first class. Which meant Luke got a free seat. 

And so he did this once he quit hollering. Had to have a picture of his first flight, right?

Paul using the hair dryer to dry his socks in Nanning. We did laundry a little late, and we were really running out of clothes. I actually just did more laundry today. The four of us generate an alarming amount of it. 

Ah yes. Here is Paul in the bathroom again, but this time he's brushing Luke's teeth. He's got him cornered in the dry tub because Luke is strong and mad and throws himself when he's ticked. I'm surprised I don't have bruises on my collarbone yet from all the times he's reared back and clonked me. We kind of got the impression Luke was not accustomed to tooth brushing. He screamed bloody murder, and his gums bled profusely. 

Now Baba is brushing Katie's teeth. She may not like it, but she doesn't flip out like Luke does. 

Here we have Paul giving me his best "Seriously?" face. This was Katie's first flight, when we went from Nanning to Guangzhou. Mr. Luke was an old pro and slept this time, too. 

Today, we went to Shamian Island. These ladies were having a dance lesson. 

The island has a bit of a New Orleans feel to it.

Beautiful plants, singing birds, and pretty buildings make it a popular spot for wedding pictures, and we did see a bridal party today.

The island feels different than it did when we were here with Hannah. Many of the shops have closed or disappeared. I did do some shopping, but not as much as I would have liked to. Our guide told us to meet him back in one hour. Even I can't do much damage in one hour. 

Not to mention, Luke and I walked a long way in the wrong direction first. It was fine, it was nice to see the sights, but it did cut into my shopping time considerably. 

After the island, we walked up and over the foot bridge to the spice market and the pet market. There are a lot of stairs. 

No problem, Paul just carried the whole stroller. He's been an awesome pack mule, but I can't wait to get home to my double stroller. Adopting two non ambulatory children at once might not have been the best thought out plan in some respects. 

All in all, it was a good day, with many more pictures to come from the big camera. 

Paul has gone out to buy diapers and water, and I just started hearing some impressive thunder.

You can't really see it, but it's suddenly pouring rain here. I hope he made it back in before the rain started.

Oops.  The door opened just as I typed the above, and no, he did not escape the rain.  The term "drowned rat" comes to mind. 

Pearl Market Day

Interesting buildings here!  Our guide says the locals call this "the donut."

This building lights up at night in rainbow stripes.  We didn't see it at night, but there was a gorgeous picture on someone else's blog, and I recognized the building when we passed it. 

What this picture *doesn't* portray is the speed at which the vehicle, or the traffic around the vehicle was moving.  The little girl looked to be maybe 10 years old.  

This morning, we didn't have to be anywhere early on, so we had a leisurely breakfast and then when we heard that there was an outdoor play area, we went to check it out.  

Katie went down the slide with Baba the first time, and then was all about going again and again on her own.  She's doing beautifully.  Spunky and opinionated, but fairly easy going at the same time.  The first few days, she was so quiet.  Now she sings in the car and chatters at us, even though she seems to know we don't understand her.  

Luke mostly just sat and drooled, although he did rock on the rocking bulldozer a little bit.  

We met another adoptive family up there, which was nice.  I have to say, our GZ experience has been very different this time.  Last time, we stayed on the island, and we met a few families, but pretty much just did stuff with our travel group.  This time, our "group" is much smaller (one family with a different agency, and one family with ours) but we're surrounded by other adoptive families, and one can literally hang out in the lobby and chat with new people all the time.  

We went out to dinner last night with a couple of families, and had a lot of fun.  I have some video on my phone to share, but I haven't transferred it yet.  

Unfortunately, it started to RAIN again while we were at the playground, so we came in.  Almost as soon as we got to the room, our guide called, so we had to get the kiddos into dry bottoms and go back out again.  I have to say, wet from rain is preferable to wet from sweat.  

You mean we're leaving again??

So, we went to Pearl Market.  It's a huge mall of jewelry vendors.  Many of them wholesale only, but a lot the general public can shop from, too.  I picked up a couple of gifts.  

Katie and I (right) with K and F checking out one of the shops.  Our guide told us which places were good and cheap, good and expensive, or cheap but maybe not so authentic.  

You can imagine how much fun Paul had in this setting, so he started taking pictures.  

I was a little frustrated, because every time I stopped to look at something Paul (and the cash!) kept walking.  

There were dozens of pearl shops with hundreds of bags of pearls and other beads, baubles, and gems sitting around.  They'll string custom orders for you.

Paul's been reading the camera manual and playing a bit.  

I think Brianna would be in heaven here.  Beeeeeeeeads!  

Again, bags and bags and bags of pearls.  

I'm in the back.  Luke is in the foreground.  I was looking for a silver chain, and having a hard time finding what I wanted, but eventually we found something I think will work.  

After Pearl Market, we went to lunch.  Our guide took us to a Chinese noodle shop close to the hotel.  The food was great.  We also got to see them working with the dough and "shaving" chunks of it off to turn into noodles.  I wish we'd gotten more pictures, but it seems we got there at the end of their lunch serving hours, and by the time we left, all the staff was sitting down and eating, which I thought was very cool.  

I was trying to talk Luke (in my lap) into a bite of steamed egg in this shot.  He was Not Having It.  He threw a nice fit while we were here, and I ended up popping him in the stroller and taking him out for a walk.  Walking seems to settle him down.  For now.  Really don't know what to make of these fits.

Our guide walked us back to the hotel by a new route, and we got to walk through some of the garden area outside, which was nice.  There's a koi pond (of course!) but it's not crowded and overpopulated like the last two we've seen.  Katie doesn't like koi, either.  Can't wait until she meets our cat.  

After lunch, we came back to the room for fresh diapers and naps, and now we're having the "I don't know; what do YOU want for dinner?" conversation again.