Thursday 2010-08-19
This morning Jonathan woke up early – about 5:30 and it took
Michele some time to quite him back down. He slept fitfully for
another hour but then settled down and let his parents get some more
sleep, until he got up at 7:30. We took a short stroll outside and
then went to breakfast in the cafe again.
For our morning adventure, Helen came over and we took a taxi
around the lake to a place called “Panda World”. They have seven
Pandas there, including one that travels all over the world doing
performances (she's 30 years old which is
really old for a
panda – they usually live in captivity to about 20). We saw red
panda's too that look like red raccoons – we even saw a “show”
where they did tricks with their trainers. We then walked from there
back to the lake, through parks (with rides like the fair) and back
around where we walked last night. All in all it was a couple of
miles. The weather was a bit more bearable today – probably in the
high 80's. It rained more last night and kept it a little cooler.
The humidity was REALLY high though. Michele ended up carrying
Jonathan most of the way – by the time we were nearing the end he
was sound asleep in her arms.
After washing out our clothes when we got back, we sat down with
Helen and went over the next set of paperwork for Jonathan's
passport. After she left we talked with each set of our parents
(both IM'ing and talking on the phone).
Michele was thrilled yesterday – Jonathan gave his first hug and
kiss. She was bent over playing with him and he put his chubby
little arms around her, squeezed and kissed the top of her head. She
grinned, hugged and kissed him back and he did it again.
Interesting cultural difference here when it comes to potty
training. Children are in diapers as infants, but once they are up
and walking, the diapers are removed (except for sleeping) and they
wear pants with the crotch missing. Then they just “go” where
ever they happen to be. Carpet isn't common at all here – most
floors are tile or wood. The parent just mops it up and gradually
helps the child to figure out to do it in the toilet. Even when they
go out in public, the child wears “open crotched” pants (or a
dress with no underpants for a girl). If they are out at the park,
they just squat and “go” like a dog. We assume if it's a poo,
then the parent does something to clean it up. Its not unusual to be
out and see a little boy squatting and watering the flowers :-).
Jonathan ended up taking a long nap today – between getting to
bed a little late last night and getting up early this morning, he
slept 3 ½ hours! Michele napped a bit during that time and Charles
even got a little sleep off and on. It was nice just relaxing
though, after the craziness of the last few days.
After nap time Michele took Jonathan for another “get your
energy out” stroll, while Charles figured out what to do for
dinner. We had originally planned on eating at the cafe downstairs
for dinner tonight. But then we saw the prices! Ugh. It was
equivalent to about $27 US dollars each! Ouch. Considering one of
our previous dinners this week was only $1.50 each. (We eat
breakfast at the cafe each morning because it's included in the price
of our hotel – which Charles corrected me on, including breakfast
it's about $75 a night – not bad!). So for dinner, we ended up
taking a walk into town. Walking into town is a bit difficult with a
rather stubborn little boy. He would only let Michele carry
him and half the time he wanted to walk – the other
direction. We finally found a restaurant that was the “cheap
Chinese” version of McDonalds. It only cost us a total of about
$5.50 US dollars to eat there – not too bad and the food, was well,
“interesting” (Charles had sandwich that was pretty good). Then
we came home, bathed Jonathan and “forced” him to go to bed. He
wasn't cooperating much in that department – but he finally settled
down :-).