Our Journey to Carson

Just Another Monday in China...

Carson had another good night and slept 'til nearly 7AM...I actually could have gotten my shower before he awakened if I hadn't sat at the computer first when I woke up at 6:20AM.

This morning's outing was a city tour. As we walked to meet the group, we saw this...
...and nearly every blog I've seen from China has a picture like this, so I figured we were due to post one! I just love walking around Shamian Island (the part of Guangzhou where we're staying)...it's such a quaint little town and we enjoy watching the people here as much as they clearly enjoy watching us! I don't know if this is a lucky week to get married in China or if every bride in Guangzhou comes to Shamian Island for pictures, but we have literally seen five or six brides having professional photos taken outside as we've walked about the last two days.

Our first stop on the city tour today was a temple. Our guide, Jason, told us lots of history of Guangzhou and of the sights we visited today...sorry, I didn't take notes and I'm a little fuzzy-headed from the stupid cold I caught so I can't recount it all. It was very interesting, though.

Some pictures...

Offerings before the Buddha
(apples, oranges, peanuts, and cans of soda are staple offerings)

Carson throwing coins in a traditional game...with Daddy's help
(anything involving throwing is right up Carson's alley)

The blessing of the children by the Buddhist monkKevin, Carson and Meggie placing the incense
(stupid incense nearly caused me to have an asthma attack...
they burned it EVERYWHERE at this temple!)Family picture

Don't worry, folks at home, we didn't convert to Buddhism while we were here. The blessing and incense are traditional practices and we wanted to let Carson participate out of respect for the local people at the temple.

Our next stop was an art museum. The building actually used to be the home of the Chen family (of which Jackie Chan is a descendent, according to our guide). The rooftop detail ALONE was like an art museum in itself...

Carson reading up on the offerings at the museumThe combination of my head cold (thanks, Kevin, for sharing your germs!) and Meggie's teenage disposition led to the following discourse...yes, we got silly here, much like at the Hefei Zoo...

"Meggie, are you having fun at the museum?"

"But, Meggie, this place has great historical value to the city of Guangzhou...""Come on, let's go look at the embroidery room, and the ivory room, and the..."

Yes, folks, Meggie and I had had enough! I've never been one to suffer from short attention span, but I'm losing my marbles over here!!

A few parking lot photo opportunities...

Meggie "carrying" Carson to the bus...and I use the term "carrying" loosely
'cause she's nearly dropping him here!

The boys out for a short stroll...
killing time while waiting for the rest of our crowd to assemble We discovered one phrase that translates perfectly in Chinese and English...
"How cool!" Carson says it everytime he wears these...

Back on the bus, Carson started to melt down. Looked at my watch...oh, darn, it's NAP TIME!!
Less than a minute later, he stopped screaming. When I peeked over at him, I saw this...

Ahhhhhhh....blessed, blessed silence! (Glad he can sleep ANYWHERE!!)

That power nap got us through the next visit on the tour...a provincial arts and crafts shopping expedition. Some people went hog wild and bought all kinds of crazy stuff...sorry, folks at home, we're not as rich as those people and we need to eat for three more days in this town. But we did a lot of looking around...

After a quick lunch, we headed to our appointment of the day...the physical! Now, Carson already had a physical in Hefei, but for some reason they do it again here. (That "some reason" is probably the 500 yuan they charged us...) A few pictures...

This sign was at the back of the clinic.
I found it funny, like we were being sent to the "back of the bus," so to speak.
In reality, it was the nicest part of the clinic...roomier and quieter!

Since Carson likes to wrestle and play when Daddy's holding him,

Mommy was on duty at the clinic visit.
Here, one of the docs is trying to get Carson to mimic his hand movements,
to see if Carson can move his hand backward (he cannot, by the way).We were told our children would need to be stripped down. Carson had to endure a three-second exam of his genitals, then they proceeded to do an in-depth exam of his legs and feet WHILE HE WAS STILL NAKED FROM THE WAIST DOWN!! Kinda humiliating...
After they finished looking at his Pretzel Boy legs, one of the docs looked at me quizzically and said, "Does he WALK?" Oh, yes, he does...and run, and jump, and climb...Carson tolerating the ear exam. I wanted to laugh that this guy wore a mask -- and all he did was look in Carson's ears and mouth -- but no one ever washed their hands or wore gloves (even for the genital exam)!This super cool scale was run by remote (see it, in the nurse's hand?). After Carson stood straight and tall, she pushed a button on the remote and the scale scanned him...
it displayed his weight AND height after about five seconds.
Very advanced technology...yet the nurses still wear caps here

(which, as a nurse myself, I find quite old-fashioned)! Meggie has been a good sport these past two weeks...and I'm not kidding you, this trip has had its rough patches! She is DYING to get away from Carson for a breather and is counting on hanging out with her girlfriends all day Saturday. When I told her ALL of her homework had to be finished before that would happen, she suddenly stole the laptop and got incredibly motivated...

A few of my favorite pics from the past two days...

Carson and Daddy playing "Ultraman" at the Cow & Bridge restaurant last night...
thanks, Eric, for sending this to me!

The "cool" boys strike again...still as close as two peas in a very goofy pod!

Carson interrupting Meggie's homework for some silly sound making......which erupted into a scream-in-each-other's-face marathon!!!How sweet are these two??
(And no, folks, Meggie does NOT take a bad photograph. Disgusting, isn't it??!)

Carson heading up to bed after dinner...and carrying his OWN leftover bag

since he wasted his entire PB&J sandwich!I'm heading off to dreamland, folks, 'cause I have NyQuil on board. More to come tomorrow...