Our Journey to Carson

Day Two...and Everything's New

We had an appointment this morning back at the registration office. When I went to get Carson out of bed, he was all smiles and silliness. As I picked him up, out from under the covers flopped the photo album we had sent him back in July (he takes it everywhere with him). Meggie said she placed it at the foot of his bed last night...he must have crawled down there and snuck it under the covers!

At breakfast, he was acting up a little more than yesterday. It occurred to me it is probably because we all stare at him constantly...he feels he's expected to put on a show. It's hard, though, not to stare at that face! We're working on it...

He is a total neat freak when it comes to eating! We gave him a croissant with breakfast and he was driven to total distraction by the crumbs that resulted on his placemat. He couldn't continue eating his rice and yogurt until we shook off the crumbs! How funny!!

When we arrived at the registration office, Lisa suggested I take a picture of this...
..and I'm glad she did! I have to admit, this building sorta wigged me out today. Nothing to be nervous about today, but the memories of the anxiety of Gotcha Day still loomed pretty large for some reason. We were back in the same room as yesterday. Carson got a little wigged out...he was bouncing off the stinking walls! The little girl who was hitting her mom in the head yesterday was there...very calm and content. She kept looking at Carson like he was annoying her!! (Has she forgotten her actions of 24 hours ago???!!)

Today was document day. We had to place our thumbprint on an official document and Carson's handprint was also part of the process...nothing like placing a wigged-out four year old's hand in red ink! Lisa handled the messy part for us...
After that was over, we went into another room to have our family picture taken (without Meggie, though...she doesn't count as "family" in China!) and to be interviewed by the registration officer. She asked questions like were we happy with the child we received, why did we choose to adopt from China, would we promise to never hurt or abandon him. It was so bizarre to be asked such weird questions point blank like that...we did fine and answered everything as Lisa had prepped us to do.

We went back into the main room and Carson was still fit to be tied! The notary officer came into the main room to meet with us and have us sign some documents. Meggie tried her best to rein in our Little Wild Man using her iPod...he liked it for about 30 seconds!
We had to pay tons of fees today...glad to have that cash out of our hotel room! Afterward, we received an official looking document in a bound book and we were finished! It took a total of about 30 minutes to complete the documents. Everyone kept congratulating us, but it felt a little anticlimactic to me.

After we finished at the registration office, we headed to have a little fun. Poor Meggie is crawling out of her skin to get back home, so we asked Lisa to take us to the one place any 14 year old girl would cheer up...(insert angelic chorus here)...the mall!! Our driver dropped us downtown and we walked through thick crowds and ridiculously crazy drivers as we crossed the street. A few pics...
As we got near the entrance to the mall, there was a large crowd of well-dressed men and women in front of it. We asked Lisa what was going on...she said there was a big launch of a new makeup product and that it was a very big deal.
The air is so dusty and dirty that they have long strips of thick plastic (similar to in a car wash) blocking the main doors to the mall...presumably to trap the filth outside. The mall itself was huge and quite impressive. Meggie was in total heaven!! A few pics...
Carson does extremely well in the stroller we borrowed from the hotel, so we figured we ought to buy one for the tours we'll go on and for the airports on the way home. We bought a basic umbrella stroller (with Mickey Mouse on it) for 158 yuan -- about $21. We then headed to the boys' department to see if we could find some clothes to fit him. We were so sure he was going to be small for his age...we were wrong! I had guessed 3T would be on the big side...he's actually probably in 4T already! (I say "probably" because the sizes here are completely different -- he wears a size 100 here! But the 3T stuff we brought just barely fits him in length.) Kevin forgot to exchange enough U.S. dollars into yuan, so we were limited to 280 yuan for the rest of the shopping trip. We ended up getting him a long-sleeved polo shirt and coordinating running pants for 275 yuan -- a little over $37. Carson REALLY needed shoes, but we were out of money. Lisa -- in her well-trained, infinite wisdom -- had brought extra yuan and lent us enough to buy Carson a new pair of gym shoes. As we were heading to the shoe department, he got very excited by a statue in the kids' department.
Carson kept excitedly repeating, "Ulta-man, Ulta-man!" Lisa laughed...she said Ultraman is a Japanese cartoon and she was surprised Carson knew about it. The salesgirls in the shoe department kept swarming us and shoving all kinds of shoes on his poor little feet...one pair of especially hideous Winnie the Pooh gym shoes were WAY too big, but the salesgirl kept insisting they were his size. I found that hysterical since no one bothered to get him out of the stroller and measure his feet! He would have none of it...he had to have "Ulta-man" shoes and that was that!! So we headed back to the Ultraman display and got him a really cute pair of light-up gym shoes...he's actually wearing them in the picture above when he had to pose with "Ulta-man." (When he wants me to take a picture of him, he keeps repeating "Cheeeeeeese!!" so it was easy to figure out he wanted me to snap that shot.)

After the shoes, we left the mall and headed to another locale sure to please any tried-and-true kid from America...(re-insert angelic chorus here)...
That's right, folks. We got ourselves some greasy fried American food for lunch! I hate to admit it, but it was AWESOME! Thankfully, Carson loved his Happy Meal of Chicken McNuggets...
...and it felt, just for a few minutes, like we were back home! Lisa fronted us for lunch, too...I felt like an absolute loser for not having enough yuan on us!

On the ride back to the hotel in the van, Carson was really acting weird. He was out of control, shrieking, misbehaving like madness. I had to put down the rules when he decided to stand in the seat while the van was moving. He sat down, but he was so upset and wouldn't look at me the rest of the trip. Lisa kept talking to him in Chinese...that a little bit bugs me 'cause we have no idea what she's saying or what his responses are. I know she's trying to help, but it puts her in the driver's seat, so to speak, when it really needs to be us. Does that make sense??

When we got back to the hotel, it was nap time. Yesterday, he went down without a bit of fuss. Today? Today, he had a complete and utter MELTDOWN! It actually scared me a little, he was so out of control...screaming, throwing his body all around his bed. I grabbed him and placed his head down on the pillow so he wouldn't hurt himself. He screamed like he was in physical pain. I asked him if he wanted Mama to hold him. He nodded that he did and reached his arms out to me. (This was a BIG step...he's been mostly distant with me from the beginning.) I cradled him in my arms like a baby and rocked him for about 20 minutes, all the while whispering, "Don't cry, Qiu Feng" in Chinese. We've been using English with him -- calling him Carson QiuFeng today -- but I just felt like he really needed to hear reassurance in his own language. It worked like a charm. He continued to whimper and cry, but he let me hold him close and the screaming stopped instantly. (Thanks, Gina, for that Chinese language book -- it was an utter lifesaver today!) After 20 minutes, he let me lay him in bed while I laid next to him. He was asleep after a couple of minutes and I was able to leave the room.

When he woke up (after only one hour, when his naps are reportedly typically two hours) he was in a good mood again. Unfortunately, I had a headache verging on a migraine. So, Kevin put Carson in his Ultraman shoes and they went for a walk and outside to play bubbles...gave me an hour to nap.

The rest of tonight, he's been fine...in fact, downright silly. The box his Ultraman shoes came in has become a treasured possession and he said "Ulta-man" repeatedly most of the night. He took his toys out of the backpack and transferred them into the box...
He also insisted I draw "Ulta-man" for him on the Magna-Doodle we gave him on Gotcha Day. I personally think I make Ultraman look like an alien, but Carson is QUITE impressed and kept erasing the picture and making me re-draw it over and over and over and over and over...
We ordered pizza for dinner from room service. Meggie wasn't a fan...she really has not found much she likes this week so she ate peanut butter crackers instead. Carson was a fan of the crust and cheese, but everything else got spit out into his napkin...
...so it was a good thing I had saved his leftover chicken nuggets and fries from lunch. He happily ate that while he sat with ME on the bed! (I think we've turned a corner, Carson and I!)
Bath and brushing of teeth was fine, but bedtime was a challenge tonight. Nothing like nap time (thank goodness), but he cried pretty hard when we took him to bed. We all kissed him goodnight, put on his lullaby CD, and Kevin sat in the chair waiting for Carson to fall asleep. (Unfortunately, Kevin fell asleep first...I had to get him out of the room, his snoring was rattling the windows!!) The lullaby CD lasts about 40 minutes and last night he was asleep after the third song. Tonight, it ended and he yelled out. I went in, not speaking to him, and reset the CD. It just went off for a second time and he's asleep.

By the way, kisses are constant for him now. When I slipped him back into his stroller after we were done eating at McDonald's, I leaned close and whispered, "Love you" in his ear. He turned and kissed me. Since we always say "Love you" after kisses, I said it again...he kissed me again. I ended up getting four kisses before he started giggling himself silly! After his nap, he crawled in bed with me and started making smoochy noises. When I went to kiss him, he turned his head and cracked himself up since my kiss landed on his cheek. Meggie caught it on film...
Meggie and I spent a lot of time tonight wrestling and hugging him. He loves the camera and wants his picture taken constantly...the sillier, the better...
I'm not sure what happened today with his meltdown. Maybe he thought the trip to the registration office meant he was going back with Director Yin. Maybe spending the day surrounded by Chinese people downtown made him miss the days of being in the orphanage with other Chinese kids. Maybe he thought we were a temporary distraction and is beginning to sense this set-up is permanent. Whatever the reason, I feel we handled it as well as could be expected and I personally feel I've created a stronger bond with Carson today.

I had a feeling, as I posted last night, that we enjoyed a "honeymoon period" on Gotcha Day. I didn't really expect the honeymoon to end in one day, but maybe the over-stimulation of a morning spent downtown put the little guy over the edge. Whatever caused it, I sure hope he got the message that Mama and Baba are here to help him through. And I REALLY hope I can handle whatever curve balls he throws us tomorrow.

One more picture of my silly kids...
...and I'll post more tomorrow! Goodnight from Hefei...