Merry Christmas!

A good time was had by all the kiddies.  Everyone seemed to be pleased with what Santa brought and they've been very good about swapping their toys around.  YiLin got a camera (Fisher Price) that everyone agrees is very cool.  Shaeleigh got the dsi she's talked about for 2 years.  And Chancie got a box full of Gameboy games and and assorted Spiderman toys.  The only real bummer has been the Transformers Chance got that are too complicated for anyone to actually transform.

YiLin is doing well.  He, Shaeleigh and Chance are getting along really well.  Shaeleigh fully turned on teacher mode this afternoon and very patiently and proudly worked on teaching him how to play memory during Chance's naptime.  Yesterday the two made rubberband balls together,  Well, I made two rubberband balls and the two to them took turns handing me rubberbands.  But, it was an hour spent together in harmony.

YiLin and Chance are doing a fine job tearing the place up.  Actually, all three seem to have teamed up to play some kind of Spiderman game which has resulted in only a few minor injuries.  Stinkin' wet weather has kept them from playing outside and the house is too small for all the running this particular Spiderman game seems to involve.  But, it is good to see them getting along in the various pairings.

We are still working on YiLin being about to play on his own.  When things get rowdy and we tell folks to calm down, YiLin doesn't really have that piece of the puzzle under control yet.  He will either cling onto my leg or try to "help" in a variety of ways that are not so very helpful.  But, he is getting better and better at many things - puzzles, cars, coloring, etc. - if someone sits with him so to compare the YiLin who sat for at least 45 minutes to make a rubberband ball with the kid in the hotel room in China really helps put it all in perspective.

Some photos from Christmas:

 

Mailing their letters to Santa.  We did go to see Santa but only Shaeleigh consented to sit on his lap.

 

 

Teeny Tiny Gingerbread House. I got the cutest kits at 5 and Below.  They were 2 for a $1.  Hahaha.  The house pieces were made of potato starch and the kit came with a "pen" full of red icing.  Chance ate all his pieces like little jelly sandwiches despite Shaeleigh's attempt to help him put it together. 

 

  

We did the traditional cookie making. In case you can't see it in the phot above:

 

 

Here's a close-up of the man least interested in making cookies.  He wins the prize for sprinkle consumption.

 

 

He also wins the prize for ornament breakage.  And the number of times "Sorry Mom" was said in a single day. 

 

 

This is what the majority of us ate on Christmas morning. Chance, of course, ate one bite and then ran off to bigger and better things.

 

 

YiLin preferred to eat leftover Chengs.

 

 

YiLin on his new bike. At first it appeared that he knew how to ride. He took off right away.  Unfortunately, he only really knew how to pedal. We learned too late that he didn't understand how to steer or brake.  The bike turned itself toward the neighbor's driveway and when it hit the bump poor YiLin flew right off.  After that he lost his confidence a bit.

 

 

But.... Chance took a liking to YiLin's big bike and YiLin seemed quite happy to ride Chance's bike which is smaller and let's him put his feet on the ground.  It's way too small for him though so hopefully he'll start to feel comforable enough to ride the bigger bike again.  In the interim, everyone is happy.

YiLin went to the ENT today.  The doctor got out several huge clumps of wax and other assorted goop from his ears.  After that, he sailed through his hearing test - no issues.  He even got the hang of the test where he had to raise his hand when he heard a sound.  He was so cute.  Poor kid also went back to the pediatrician and had to get 3 shots plus the TB test shot (yes, the same test he just got a few weeks ago). 

We are going to try to get him started in school after the Christmas break.  Not sure how that's going to work.  Our local public school deemed him, "too tall" for Kindergarten.  I expressed my concerns very candidly but was told that he will get better support in a 1st grade classroom.  I'll give them a week but we may have to push back and get him placed in Kindergarten.  It just doesn't make sense to set him up for failure and then have him repeat 1st grade when he could have just started in Kindergarten.

 

 

Shaeleigh - lost to the world of the DSI.  We have our reservations but have warned her that when school starts we will limit her use.  I have already declared a "no video games in the van" rule (we didn't get the dvd player in the van, I don't want video games either....   for now......).  I also told them, "no video games while grandma and grandpa were over" for Christmas dinner.  This lead to:

Chance:  Grandpa, I have a question.

Grandpa:  Yes, Chance?

Chance:  When are you leaving?

Nice.  So my lesson in manners was not quite clear.  We'll work on it.

 

 

Shaeleigh reluctantly put the DSI down to go outside to play (testing out Chance's remote control car).

 

  

And the boys take a spin.

 

 

"Hey, pull over there Chance.  That place makes some great pickled eggs!"

Ho ho ho......

 

 

Well we've been home a week.  We've been through more bananas, eggs, and tomatos in this week then this household has been in 5 years.  We went to our first dinner together as a family of five (IHOP was the victim of this adventure) and we've only had a couple of giant meltdowns from YiLin and not a single incident of jealousy from Shaeleigh and Chance.  

YiLin loves to go out.  He just likes to go.  Highlight of his day is picking up Shaeleigh and Chance from school.  All of Chance's classmates greet him each day, "YiLin!  YiLin!" and he jumps up and down waving goodbye to everyone.  Hopefully once he starts school, he'll enjoy his own class as much as he enjoys visiting Chance's.

We have spent much of the week going to various doctor's appointments - dentist, pediatrician, optomotrist.  He was great at the dentist.  Okay at the pediatrician.  A bit of a nightmare at the optomistrist.  I think he's a good gauge for the quality of doctor's waiting rooms and how well they keep to their appointment times.

The dentist visit was very postive.  His teeth cleaned right up and the scraggly/cracked one in the front turns out to be an extra front tooth.  He will need to have it extracted to make room for the real tooth but beyond that, his teeth were in good condition.

The Eye Doctor determined that he is far sighted. This is what it causing his eyes to cross and maybe be why he struggles to write and understand things such as mazes and tracing letters and numbers.  It may also impact his speech as kids apparently learn language from watching people's lips.  Glasses are on order.

The Pediatrician noted his ears were full of debris and impacting his hearing.  And so we have an ENT appointment the week after Christmas.  Although we are making some headway with behavior and learning, I think having all these other things normalized will definitely help as well.

 

A few photos from China:

 

 

This was a nice little path/walkway that was part of the hotel.  YiLin is a big fan of fish so he enjoyed going out and looking at the big fish (da yu).

 

 

That's YiLin in the middle of the photo.  He kept dropping leaves in the water and the fish thought it was food so he attracted a crowd.

 

 

Silly fish kept falling for it. They would take the leaves in their mouths but then spit it out.

 

 

This is at the zoo.  They had a goldfish area where you could try to catch your own goldfish with buckets.  Look closely and you can see that most of the fishing was being done by the moms.

 

YiLin did his own fishing. 

 

 

When not feeding the fish.... At least the giraffe's LIKED eating plants.

 

 

We went to the safari in Guangzhou which was the best day for YiLin by far. He loved the animals. The safari was great too and our guide, Elsie, got us to every show 2 minutes before it started. She rocked. Here the elephants were sucking up trunkfuls of water and spraying them on anyone who would stand by to watch. YiLin and another little girl in our travel group did not budge from the fence.

 

 

Elsie helped keep the wildman under control with the flag again. He did fairly well. And being out all day (we left at 9:00 and did not get back until after 4:00) is probably the best reason it was the best day. He was fully engaged for the majority of the day.

 

 

He had no fear of the costume characters.   Just enjoyed pretty much every minute.

 

 

Ha. That's just funny.

 

 

And that's a real panda. It looks fake. The background is painted but the panda is real. Really.

 

 

Back at the zoo (which is not nearly as nice as the safari but still a fun distraction).

So at the Washington Zoo they will sell you a hot dog for $5.00 and a drink for $3.00.  In Guangzhou they will sell you a giant vat of noodles for only $1.20.  But thank goodness for the zoo. All week he told me he wanted noodles from the hotel buffet in the morning and then he never ate them. These he ate. Apparently he likes cheap, salty ramen noodles.

And so now we're home we picked up a few different flavors at the fish ones the best so far (yes, our house stinks with all the fish noodles and eggs). Yesterday the ones we made were really spicey. But he kept on eating them. He was waving his hand in front of his mouth, face all scrunched up - two fists his water cup and chugs it down - says, "la, la, la" which means "hot, hot, hot" and "bu hao chi" which means "bad food" - but the poor kid keeps eating.  It's going to take a little time to get him to understand that he doesn't have to eat everything in sight.

 

 

Ah... Christmas in Guangzhou. 

 

 

This was our view from the Garden Hotel (14th floor). 

 

 

It was directly across the street from a shopping mall/friendship store.  We wandered over one day to see what we could find. YiLin was facinated by the parking garage. Stood quite awhile watching the cars go down. I wish I knew what he was thinking.

 

 

This is a backflash to the day YiLin drank the ketchup soup. 

 

 

This is YiLin standing by the sign for his school. He had only been going to school since September so not too long but this was the only time he really looked proud to me.  He ran right up to the sign and asked that I take a photo.  So cute.

 

 

And finally, here are the boys at play. Loud, shirts off, at ease. Chance is very funny. On one hand, he seems to be looking out for YiLin - when he hears him calling for me from their bedroom, he either helps him call or he comes out to tell me that YiLin needs him. He also has been tutoring him on counting from 1-10. On the other hand, when YiLin fell out of bed the first night, Kenn discovered him on the floor (still asleep) and asked Chance, "did you know he fell out of bed?" Chance just looks down at his poor brother, nd says, "Yeah," and then goes back to playing Gameboy in the top bunk.

And now, I'm falling asleep again.  Either days with YiLin are wearing me out, or I am still jetlagged and can't keep to my old schedule yet.  9 days to Christmas!  Yikes!

Yes, we're home!

I think I'm back on the right time clock (and am now heading to bed so I don't mess it up).  The photos are coming.  Meanwhile....

 

We went to get our Christmas tree today.  The three are getting along well thus far.  YiLin is very happy to have siblings and the siblings are being very good to him.

 

 

Our three munchkins.  Shaeleigh is about an inch or two taller.  YiLin is only 4 pound heavier but for whatever reason seems like 15. 

Not going to make this a long one. Just a shortie to let everyone know that they are home and all are well. Flight got in on time and Grandpa, Uncle Tommy, Me and kids were there to greet them. Of course, it is their tomorrow morning so they will likely be up all night. I am sure Joanie will post as soon as she is rested and finds a peaceful moment.

Cheers!

Kenn

No photos today. I've packed away the USB cord along with everything else. We are heading home bright and early tomorrow. I dread the flight except for I know that home is at the end of the 36 hour trip. That's a pretty big light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll post photos when we get home. I suspect I'll have a few jetlagged early mornings with nothing to do (unless YiLin is suffering the same).

Here's hoping to less than 5 meltdowns.

Joanie and Grandma

Yes, we are counting down the days. Two full days left in Guangzhou and then one horrid day of airplanes and layovers. Then we will be home!

Tomorrow we have our US Consulate Appointment and that's the last official step. YiLin's TB test came back a-okay this morning so after the Consulate Appointment we just need to wait one day for his Visa and then we can leave on the 8th bright and early. We're confident we'll make Beijing okay but it's the layover and then the flight from Beijing to Dulles that has us concerned. We'll survive - just might not be pretty.

Our group of 9 families went to a big park yesterday. It was very interesting but YiLin is struggling with environments that have a lot of stimulus. Very typical for kids raised in an orphanage environment but it's been our number one challenge. YiLin seems to be the only kid in the group having issues (three kids are older and doing really well, the rest are under 3 and are easier to manage) so the guides have been good about helping us to keep him under control. They let him be the line leader for our group. He took the job pretty seriously (although he did frequently tell the group to "hurry up") but ultimately I had to have him give up the flag as he went into Kung Fu mode and started swinging it about.

The park had a very unique playground. Which YiLin enjoyed. He was a little tentative at first with this slide - he went up the stairs but then the other kids were going by him one by one and sliding down. I went down with him the first time and then the second time, another mother asked the other kids to wait at the bottom until "Didi" (little brother) came down. That was very sweet of her.

Who would have guessed that we'd come across a field of sunflowers here in China in December! I love sunflowers.

And Christmas is going up everywhere! Our hotel lobby has a spectacular tree. There is another one outside as well and decorations of all sorts - well, mostly the gawdy sort - everywhere.

Tomorrow we are going to a safari park and then Wednesday we have a free day. Not sure what we'll do that day as our guides are busy taking the other families to either their consulate appointments or to the airport. Two more days!!!

We are happy to have made it to Guangzhou. YiLin had his "medical exam" today which is mostly a bunch of nonsense but it does include a TB test. YiLin didn't even flinch when he got the shot. We go back in 2 days to see if he's cleared. Beyond some small bits of paperwork, we don't have too many official tasks here is Guangzhou until our consulate appointment on the 6th and so we will have time to relax and let YiLin play. He's pretty much done with the boring appointments. We waited 2+ hours at the Police Station in Jinan for his passport the day we had to leave. Our guide waiting the entire afternoon for us the day before only to be told to come back. Michael asked us to come with him the following day since he thought having us there might be more incentive for them. YiLin did not have a lot of patience with that.

We flew to Guangzhou yesterday. It was about a 2 1/2 hour flight and YiLin did well. I do think the 2 1/2 hours was about his limit so we're hoping he sleeps some on the flight home. By some, I mean 10 hours.

But, it was obviously a big adventure for him - I was very happy that we got a window seat and he enjoyed looking out (all wide eyed and excited). The best part thought - getting our baggage from the baggage carousel at the end. He had been very reluctant to let us check it in (although Michael explained that we would get it back) and when we went to the carousel and he saw the bags coming out he was like a kid at Christmas. By the time the last one came he was jumping up and down and laughing and helping me tug it off. Too funny.

When we got to the hotel, he insisted on pulling the one bag himself - would not let the bellman do it. He's quite a helper. Of course this morning when we went down for breakfast he zipped it up and tried to bring it along too. Hahaha.

The day was not without it's challenges but YiLin is starting to show himself more and more. Poor Shaeleigh is not getting the quiet shy brother she was hoping for. No.... Chance is getting a rowdy partner in crime.

Kicking back at the airport with my Orange Juice.

"Helping" by washing the dishes. This is the face I get when I ask him to "Smile" - perhaps I need to re-check my Chinese. Maybe I'm saying something other than smile?

Eating oranges in my underwear. This kid eats everything. All the time. He ate so vigorously on the airplane that the flight attendant walked by, gave us a smile and then came back and quietly handed us some extra handy-wipes.

We went to Lucy's on Shamian Island today and had some real french fries. Mmm... YiLin LOVED them. Or maybe it was the ketchup. He ate the whole bowl of ketchup and then when there was just a little bit left, he pour water in the bowl and drank it like soup.

We found a playground. This made for a happy boy!

And, we found some giant fish to feed which made for a very happy boy. Leaving did not go so well but one thing at a time.

 Howdy!

Yes, we are alive and well in Jinan where we traded our rain for snow last night. I have stories to tell and photos to post but I suspect most will have to wait until we are home. It's tough to post during the day time as YiLin doesn't really care for Mom to sit at the laptop for more than a few minutes and since we are all sharing one room here in the hotel, it's hard to stay up and type without keeping him up. No matter. We will be home soon.

The good new is, YiLin is doing well. He is a character. It's going to take some time to get him settled into a new normal but it's easy to tell he is a bright kid with a big heart and a good sense of humor. He's more like 2 than almost 7 but that's typical.

YiLin speaks in a Jinan dialect so while I'm able to understand some of what he says, most of the time, I have no idea what he's talking about. He does understand me however, and I will say, it's been a big help to be able to ask if he needs to go to the bathroom, if he's hungry, ask him to hold my hand, etc. There are few English speakers in Jinan as well. I've been able to ask a lot of questions and be understood. Sadly, I really don't understand any of the answers. Hahaha. Well, not completely true but for some reason when I ask people to "speak slowly" they don't slow down much.

YiLin is going to be sadly disappointed in American food I think. He eats everything in sight. All kinds of onions and mushrooms and meats and vegetables. He does not seem to like rice (of course, too simple to cook....).

I'm going to post a few photos while I have the chance (YiLin is watching some dance show). Tomorrow we are going to the orphanage and then Friday we will fly to Guangzhou where the weather is warm.

It had stopped raining but YiLin want to play with the umbrella.

And so he carried it along as we toured Jinan.

We went to Daming Lake which was really beautiful but it was too chilly for YiLin after awhile so we headed back.

Nothing like an umbrella because all in all, site seeing is boring for a 6 year old.

Daming Lake

 

Later in the afternoon, Mom and I walked across the street again to the square. YiLin wanted some corn from one of the food stands. He doesn't have any front teeth but that didn't stop him. We went over to the area where the kids were feeding pidgeons on Saturday but I guess that's just a weekend event as it was very quiet. He gave a piece of cornt to one of the birds and it started walk towards him. YiLin started shouting at the bird. I don't know if he was mad or scared but he was giving that bird the what-for.  

There is a whole row of statues like this at the park. YiLin is getting more comfortable and he went statue to statue getting his photo taken. So now I have 100 pictures of YiLin with an umbrella and another 100 of him with giant statues.

So there you go. More to come.

Joanie says it is still raining in Jinan. Still, a happy looking little guy! This entry may be a little sketchy. I am not quite sure about uploading pics yet. I believe this is just outside the hotel, as I dont believe they have ventured much farther than that yet.

Yi Lin loved the Clifford the Big Red Dog DVD's so much that he over-handled them to the point they are no longer functional. Yikers, they'll have to rely on cartoons on the TV for indoor entertainment until the rain stops. Unfortunately, they are only on TV for about an hour a day! Uh, that leaves 23 hours to fill. Talk about a challenge!

Okay, not so happy in this picture. Guess enough rain will bring anyone down. Nice jacket, though. That smile looks a little forced to me. They leave for Guangzhou on Friday. Hopefully things will be a little brighter there.

Joanie loaded this pic so I am not sure what I can tell you about it other than it came with the title "gingerbread house" I would guess that it may be in the hotel lobby. At least they are still getting a taste of the holiday season.

Back here at home, all is well. We are keeping busy. The kids miss their mom,....me too. We are holding our own, though. Getting homework done, going to the grocery store, making dinner together and splitting up the chores as best we can. I think we can hold on for another 9 days or so.

Hopefully this all loads alright. Will post more as it becomes available. We are planning a Skype session for this evening, if all connections go well. I will try to forward more trip details then.

K and Crew

 Must say, I am whooped. Yep, they wore me out! Joanie and Grannie have got Yi Lin and also have their hands full. Apparently he is a lot like Chancie...full of energy and mischief! I think Shaeleigh will probably end up getting the worst of it, though. Don't think she was counting on two like that!! Should be fun! Skyping has proved troublesome. Made contact once and we all met Yi Lin on there. He proceeded to beat the laptop screen with a coke bottle his mother bought him. She never ceases to amaze me! First it was no syrup (pronouced 'sir-up', not 'sear-up') for Shaeleighs waffles when we first brought her home and now coke for Yi Lin the first day they meet. She'll likely have ended up sorry she did that if the whole sugar thing holds up. And in a small hotel room no less! ha ha ha ha ha!! Serves her right. Poor Grandma.

 

Thats all for tonight. I still have tomorrow morning to face! All in all though, I must say, things are going well on this end.

In the words of my lovely wife....."and so, I am off to bed"

Kenn