First full day in Gangzhou

 Our first full day in Quangzhou was a pretty good day and a pretty busy day. It wasn't such a good day for little Jack. :-(  We stared out with an early breakfast buffet which was wonderful. They have a lot of American style foods to choose from. We also got to see a bunch of the families we met in Beijing with their new little ones. There are a lot of beautiful little children going to good new homes in the USA. By 8:30 a.m., we had to meet to make a 10 minute walk over to the medical clinic. Part of the group had to get their medical exams and and part did their TB test. Jack was in the latter group. It was pretty much a mad house there. By the time we were next in line, Jack heard the other kids crying and started to cry, knowing something not so pleasant was about to happen. This of course had mama in tears. Baba (dad) took him in and held him and he really cried when they stuck him with the needle. But then we were done and were free to make our way back to the hotel. We took a leisurely stroll back to the room, relaxed a little and tried to get a nap in before lunch. Well, they are working on the outside of the hotel and using hammer drills about twice on every floor right outside of our window. So there was a lot of drilling and the loud noise scared Jack to death. He was crying and shaking. So mommy sat out in the hall with him and rocked him to sleep. The poor little guy was absolutely terrified. After his nap, we packed up to go get some lunch. A little place outside the hotel called Lucy's has American style food, so we tried that. Leslie is still not liking the native food, and outside of breakfast & the one visit to McDonalds, we haven't had an American style meal that we liked. I however love the native food and I am tired of trying their crappy versions of American food...oh well. So daddy had to leave lunch early to go to a paperwork meeting. Meanwhile mom & Jack finished lunch and did a little shopping on the way back to the hotel. We then found a Subway to try for supper...Aweful!!!! At least the sandwhiches we got were. The other part of Jack's rough day was...his first two fits! So he is pushing us to set boundaries and getting comfortable enough with us to push us for the structure kids need. His fits are not wild or crazy fits. He covers his mouth and nose with both hands, cries, and likes to bury his head in a chair or bed etc. The first one came after he fattened daddies lip by busting him in the mouth with the thermometer that we were letting him play with. I took it out of his hands and put it up. He didn't like that at all. Mommy wasn't too happy with daddy at that point either. The second came later in the evening, while daddy was getting ready to Skype the kids back home. Jack hit me on the leg several times while jabbering some Chinese jibberish. (really the kid never stops talking...we just have no clue what he is saying). So I calmly got up, picked him up and set him on the bed to tell him "boo" (which means no) and the second fit kicked in. This one lasted longer than the first. I just held him, told him I loved him several times and waited it out. Mommy wasn't too happy with me over this one either. Sometimes dads just can't win.  :-) But the day ended pretty well and he didn't stay mad at us at all. As you can see in some of the pics, he made some new friends and is really good about sharing his snacks. He is just a sweet little guy. He has taken to mimicking us which is really quite funny. If we sigh, he sighs. If we burp, he makes a burping sound. Last night I was getting a drink from a water bottle and Leslie fell out laughing...she said "do that again and watch him". So I unscrewed the cap and he made twisting motions with his hands. I took a drink and he held his fist up to his mouth and tipped his head back. I screwed the cap back on and he once again made twisting motions with his hands. I of course ran with it and did different itterations of these actions and he mimicked every one while continually laughing at himself the whole time. The kid is a hoot. Then a little later, as we were trying get him to lay down for bed time, he out of the blue hopped up and folded his blanket and laid it by the pillow. He then moved on to towels that were laying on the end of the bed. These towels are huge so mommy helped him with one end. The kid is a professional clothes folder (which we desperately need at our house :-). He keeps us entertained, BUSY, and only on a rare occasion, frustrated. So he is pretty normal...and we love him to pieces!