Our Journey to Carson

Another Day in Hefei

Hello from Hefei on day four with our Little Man! He woke up early (again) and climbed in bed with Mommy and Daddy. Meggie joined us and we all ended up wrestling and giggling...HUGE mistake! Kevin used to wrestle a lot with Meggie when she was smaller, but she was able to easily tone it back down when they were finished. Carson absolutely cannot rein himself back in! It was like we launched a rocket ship that we couldn't catch...breakfast was a mess. He whined, he cried, he refused to eat. Lesson learned...save the wrestling for after dinner!

After breakfast, we put in a Veggie Tales DVD to try to calm him down...cartoons tend to put him in a trance and give us a few minutes of rest from his active little self. (Trying not to abuse that, of course!) I laid on the bed...and look who joined me...
Yesterday, I tried to put some Bedhead in Carson's hair to spike it up....ooooohh, he HATED it!! He kept rubbing the top of his head on the walls, the bedspread, whatever he could find to flatten out his hair. Knowing that, imagine my surprise when I found him doing this today...
...yes, folks, he's wearing a shiny silver headband he stole from his big sister!! He'll play with makeup brushes and wear headbands, but no spiky hair?? I just don't GET this kid!! =)

Our outing today was a trip to the Lotus Center to shop for gifts for the orphanage. Lisa walked us around and suggested things that would be especially handy to the orphanage...we ended up buying socks, underwear, PJs, some outfits, and some shoes. We mostly geared our purchases to boys (partly to pay the orphanage back for the clothes Carson was wearing when we got him, partly because Lisa said there are a larger number of boys at the Hefei orphanage right now than usual). A few pictures from our outing...

Just like a man, crabbing while we shop!

Trying to make decisions (that 129.90 is in yuan, which is about $17.50 in U.S. money)Lisa helping Kevin check out

We found some Ultraman videos in a multi-pack and had to buy them for Carson...he was SO excited. Of course, he didn't understand why we couldn't take EVERY box of Ultraman videos! We found some smaller (and MUCH quieter) Ultraman figures at this store...that monstrosity we found at the zoo gives me a serious headache! We let him carry the figures around and, when we took them from him to pay, he had a FIT!!!Of course, once they were paid for, all was well again. (Notice the puddles of tears on the top of his sweatshirt...)They have this really cool system to get you from one floor of the store to another...sort of like an escalator for carts. Check it out...After we walked back to the hotel from the store, Carson was just beside himself. He was so sleepy, so out of control...another meltdown, only much milder. He let me put him in bed and, while he was crying, he relaxed and actually waved bye-bye to me...his sign that he's ready to go to bed alone and we can leave the room.

Meggie found herself some comfort food at the Lotus Center and we, of course, bought it for her. Here is one happy teenager enjoying...
...Oreos!!! She also got a two-liter of orange pop, so at least we got some smiles out of her today!! Awesome big sister that she is, she shared her Oreos with Carson after he woke from his nap. He has learned how to adapt tasks to make up for his mobility issues. What's so funny is that he actually has strong arms (remember the picture of him swinging the purple bolster in the play room on Gotcha Day?) and his elbows bend just fine. However, he thinks his hands can't come up to his mouth...so he brings his mouth to his hands. As a result, we spend most of every meal looking at the top of his head...
...like this. I can't WAIT to get this boy some physical and occupational therapy!!! After the Oreos, Meggie decided that what Carson really needed to break up his day was a fort. Awesome idea, Meggie!! She used to LOVE when we built forts for her...we would use chairs, boxes, blankets. She would play for HOURS in her forts. Here is what they built together...
...and Carson loved it! We were all starved by then, so we headed to lunch around 1:30. There is a Brazilian restaurant on the first floor of the hotel...it's where we had lunch on Gotcha Day...so we thought we'd try that and stay clear of the hotel restaurant today. Unfortunately, the Brazilian restaurant was closed until dinner hours, so we were stuck eating in the lobby restaurant...complete with annoying waitresses!

Last night, we ordered wonton chicken soup and it came out in a small bowl, looking and tasting like Campbell's chicken noodle soup only with much thinner noodles. Today we ordered the exact same thing and got an enormous bowl of noodles, dumplings, and some sort of green veggies. I thought Meggie was gonna lose it!! She was a good sport, though, and actually ate some of it...she even tried to eat it with chopsticks!!

Today, Carson's little trick to get the waitresses' attention was to yell at me that the food was too hot. We've learned quite a few Chinese words and can tell what he's saying. "Hot" was a new one, but the food was NOT too hot. In fact, when he started yelling this (once the waitress was close enough to hear) he had already eaten two bites of that same dumpling! The waitress heard him yell and she came over and scolded me for feeding "the baby" food that was too hot! Excuse me??!! The boy drinks hot water with meals...that dumpling was NOT too hot. (Yeah, kids drink everything hot or warm and his favorite drink with meals is hot water. Weird!!)

After the late lunch and a rousing game of smack-the-beach-ball-around-the-room (a family favorite!), we decided we'd head to the pool. When we got down there, we were surprised at how big the pool was! Why hadn't we tried this before?? I'll tell you why...'cause the pool wasn't heated!! Meggie was a trouper and jumped in first...you should have seen how quickly she jumped right back out! Carson wouldn't TOUCH the water, but we still got a few cute pictures...

Puffing up his chest, trying to prove how BRAVE he is around water

Look at those guns, would ya?!

My adorable, freezing family"Dude, that water is COLD!!"

So right back upstairs we went. Instead of the pool, Kevin and Meggie took Carson outside to blow bubbles...he's a huge fan of that!! I stayed in the room and organized the gifts for the orphanage visit tomorrow, removing all the price tags and such. A few pictures from the bubble blowing... All in all, today was decent! Carson has figured there are certain things he does that drive us CRAZY...like throwing things on the floor from his high chair and pushing the speaker button on the phone. He did those things a lot this morning, when he was wound, and laughed when we corrected him. By evening, though, he was back to cooperating. We watched one of his Ultraman videos on the computer before bathtime...what a cheese-fest that was!! Carson, however, was in HEAVEN!! At one point during the video, I asked Kevin a question...I was really trying to follow the plot...and Carson shushed me! What a riot!

Lisa told me she talked to Carson today about going to the orphanage tomorrow and kept reminding him it was only a visit. She said he kept asking her, "A visit?" She laughed...she thinks he'll do fine and she got the impression that he doesn't want to go back there to live. Let's hope.

I'm heading to bed early tonight...don't know if it's lack of real nutrition, not enough water, or what but we're all starting to feel a little puny today. Not sick exactly, but definitely not 100%. We're all starting to pop the occasional ibuprofen...we wanna come HOME!

One more picture...
...and we'll see you tomorrow!!