Sightseeing

So today We went sightseeing.

    I started out the morning feel worse than yesterday morning.  Ugh  Very green around the gills.  We felt bad telling our guide no and just told him to take it easy on us.  This is all green tea you see in the background.  I have lots to say on that subject but it'll have to wait.

 This is a Stream We saw while walking into the temple.  It was very beautiful there and blissfully peaceful, no honking horns or constant jackhammering.  We ended up really enjoying ourselves today.  I have more pictures I will post later of course.  We started out by heading to a laundry service.  Apparently it is very expensive and takes a long time to have laundry done here.  That is not what we understood so we packed light to save room for other things in the suitcase.  We had a whole garbage bag full of items and it took both the guide and our driver to convince this place that they could have it done by tomorrow because we fly out to Guanzghou.  So they proceed to go through every item and count it right in front of the guys underwear and all!  How embarrassing!  We then headed to west lake and went on a boat tour.  The lake is so calm its unbelievable, I was very glad due to my upset stomach.  We then went to the temple where we saw amazing architecture and pagodas as well as that Buddha thing and other statues.  It was hard not to feel a little weird there with people burning incense and bowing to the statues but we tried to just think of it as a cultural experience and leave it at that.  We then went to Tea Village.  All the land surrounding this whole area is nothing but tea bushes, it is a very interesting subject for sure. We also ate another traditional Chinese meal and get this, I even ate a little bit!  It tasted amazing but I only ate a tiny bit because last night I had one chicken wing and about 1/3 cup of mashed potatoes from KFC and was sick as ever.  So far so good though, no ill effects:)  It was fairly cold and very damp, drizzly, rainy.  Kai decided to fall asleep right as we got to the temple and I was having to carry him due to Reuben's ankle.  Normally I'm pretty sure a mom's strength grows as their child grows but I am not used to carrying a nearly three year old especially being a little weak from not eating much.  My arms were absolutely on fire!  Finally our guide  offered to carry him for a while.  AAH

        So enough about our day and a little about Kai.  Yesterday was very good for him to just be at the hotel, he really enjoyed it.  The last few days every time he goes to sleep and wakes up we have to really try to pull him out of his shell again and he gets those really sad eyes.  As of this morning he took about 5 min to be just fine after waking up and even then it was more just sleepiness than sadness, he gives pecks on the lips if asked, you only have to look at him and wave or smile and he will run over and put his arms up to be picked up.  He is full of energy, When we are at the hotel he smiles almost constantly, laughs, babbles, he has called me MaMa a couple of times but we are not sure if he is using BaBa in context yet or just babbling.  If we leave the room, he goes into complete dead fish mode, no facial expression, very limp, lays his head down, won't say a word.  We think he feels very insecure and maybe thinks we might take him back?  The minute that room door opens, it's like flipping a switch!  We notice some institutional behaviors,  if we lay him in bed for a nap or at night, no matter how not tired he is he WILL NOT try to get up.  He will lay there and babble, play little games with his hands and pretty much self soothe until he falls asleep.  I'm sure he has spent many hours doing that.  We also noticed that he seems to want to mess his pants rather than going in the toilet.  We try really hard to time it right and get him to use the potty but he won't.  We think he likes the closeness of me caring for him and not getting angry and loving on him, I'm sure he got reprimanded for doing that in the orphanage.  I guess I will just keep changing him for now.  Once laundry is not an issue we can get a little braver with no diaper and see if that makes a difference.
  We really have been very blessed with his transition so far and hopefully it will continue to go well.  Well it's time to put my feet up for a while and hope whatever I eat for supper sits ok!  Poor Reuben's foot looks horrible,  all purple and black.  Prob no post tomorrow since we are flying to the next city.  Pray all goes well and our second week in China is 100% better than the first!  Thanks:)