Ready to Go Home

Life with two toddlers is...never dull. These two crack me up. There
is quite a bit of competition going on between them. If I'm holding
Lily, Seth wants to climb on me too. If Rob is holding Seth, Lily runs
over and pounds on him to get him to pick her up. This is all so new
for them both. Seth is used to sharing me with Caleb and Gabriel, but
they are not babies, and he is fighting to maintain his role as the
family baby. God knew what he was doing when he put it in our hearts
to adopt a child older than Seth. However, Lily is still very much a
baby herself, and I'm content babying her, hoping to build attachment
and trying to make up for 2 lost years. At meal times, I feel very
much like a mama bird putting food into her squawking, open-mouthed
babies...minus the regurgitation part. I have to be very careful to
feed them one turn at a time, equally, though it's tempting to feed
the one that is making the most noise. I just don't want to encourage
that behavior, and I want both children to know that mommies feed
their babies good food, and that they do not have to make the most
ruckus to get what they need.

Yesterday we visited the Chen Family Temple, which really isn't a
temple at all but the huge estate of the oh-so wealthy Chen family
which has been turned into a museum of sorts. It houses tons of
exquisite folk art from this area, including sculptures, paintings,
drawings, ivory carving, and, our favorite, needlework tapestry that
blew our minds. In one of the shops was the most beautiful oil
painting of a small Tibetian boy, his face was sweet and haunting at
the same time. I can stop thinking about it, and depending on how much
spending money I have left...I may have to take a Taxi back to there
to buy it. :o) This was my favorite spot so far. I believe that that
art here really represent Lily's part of China, and that is very
special to me. And it will be to her. I took TONS of pictures.

Today, we went to XiangJiang Safari Park. It is cold and rainy, so
instead of riding the little train around the zoo, we stayed in the
bus/van and drove the trail with the windows open. The animals were
all out in the open, and many of them walked right up next to the van.
Lily absolutely loved it. She screamed with delight the entire visit.
And at almost all the animals she squealed, pointed and said "MooMoo!"
I asked Jasmine our guide if there was any animal whose Chinese word
sounded like "MooMoo" and she said, "No, just the sound a cow makes."
So Lily saw a LOT of cows today, all sorts of shapes and colors! Seth
loved the zoo too, and I spent the trip trying to keep him from
climbing out the window of the van. Sadly enough, we didn't get to see
any of the cool stuff, like the Giant Panda's, because it was so cold
and rainy, and all three kids (Seth, Lily, and Dory Ellen) have the
sniffles and a bit of a cough. The part of the park that has the Giant
Panda required a lot of walking, and it just wasn't worth it to risk
the babies getting sicker. So we left.

Afterwards we went out to pizza hut for lunch. I was happy for some
Western food, surprisingly enough. It was very busy there. We were
seated at one of the last available tables, next to the entrance
windows. Not long afterwards we noticed that a long line, probably 30
people deep, had formed at the entrance, everyone wanting a couple
slices of pizza for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. No way would anyone
wait in a such a line for pizza in America. No one seemed grumpy or
impatient; they just waited. Oh, and stared. Seth kept making silly
faces at his spectators, sticking his tongue out, throwing his head
back, wrinkling up his nose, so that he bacame quite the attraction
from the other side of the window. I felt like we were on display!
Seth really does attract a crowd EVERYWHERE we go. I'm learning that
if I really don't want to stop and have a stranger ogling my baby, I
just have to cruise fast and not make eye contact. I hate doing that,
but it takes me twice as long to get anything done, because there are
always 2 or 3 people talking to or trying to touch Seth. I'm sure it
will be similar for Lily when we return to the States, especially in
our area which is not that ethnically diverse.

Well, the babies are stirring, so I need to go. Enjoy the pictures for
today, and I'll post again soon!

Love to you all,
Jody