We started today with a nice surprise. Patrick Hao slept until 7:00 A.M. and Lucas Ming woke up at 7:45 A.M. We are going to have to expand the scope of our nightly wishes from now on. Maybe to include sleeping through the night with no wake-ups, potty training completed and the ability to drive a John Deere when we get back to the U.S. After the boys woke up we fed them rice cereal, a banana and some milk. Now that the boys have had their first course we went down for breakfast.
After breakfast we went back to the room and the boys played for a while. This is so nice. To be able to watch the boys interact (Ming hitting his brother in the head with a stacking cup) with each other is nice. Lucas Ming is the bull of the pair. He will just drive through Patrick Hao and take whatever he is currently holding. And Patrick will then try to take back his possessions to no avail. This said, one of things that we have found from the beginning is that the boys are willing to share with each other at times. Once Patrick Hao is screaming from having something ripped out of his hand, Lucas Ming will hand him one of the toys back.
After lunch we walked around town. It was hot, hot, hot. We keep hoping for rain to cool things off a little. After all it is the rainy season. Mary lost a screw in the frame of her glasses today. We found a real (prescription) eyeglass store. When we walked in we were hit with an arctic blast, what a relief. We asked the optician (or store clerk), with a combination of Chinese and sign language, if they could fix Mary’s glasses. He spent about 15 minutes replacing the screw, tightening all of the other screws and cleaning the glasses while we sat there with the boys slobbering on the counter enjoying the air-conditioning. When he finished he would not take any money from us. I’m not sure if he felt sorry for us for having twins or whether he was happy that we had adopted twins from China. One of the things that we have found is that most people appear to be grateful that we are adopting children from China. They are happy that the kids are going to be given a good home. Now, this is based on the translations that we’ve been given by our facilitators. The more we interact with people the more surprised they are that we are adopting “shuang bao tai, nan haizi” which means “pair of boy babies” (loosely translated). We have become sort of a side show for all of China. But everyone is very nice about it.
We got back to the room in time to go to dinner. Since we had some success with the stroller we had bought, we thought that tonight we would try the highchair. Well the boys screamed bloody murder when we put them in but once the food was served they were okay with it. Another small step. Now we can eat dinner without the added 25lb weight on our laps. Now that the boys have a better view of the dining room they are seeing other people and children. They don’t want to have anything to do with other adults but they are enamored by other children. They are very curious as to what they are doing and will stare and smile.
After dinner we read them a story and tried to put the boys to bed. Patrick Hao is more difficult and takes more work. Once we get him to lie on his stomach we rub either his face or the back of his neck. This usually works. Lucas Ming is easier for the most part and he likes his back rubbed while he falls asleep. Tonight Lucas Ming is not ready for sleep so he is playing with the stacking cups in his crib. He is quiet except for the banging of the cups. It is a wonder that Patrick doesn’t wake up from this. Finally Lucas goes to sleep at about 8:45-9:00 P.M. At about 11:00 P.M. Patrick woke up screaming. Mary walked him around the suite and rocked him a little and back to sleep he went. This has been a good day.
