May 19: Nanning, Day 2

Our night was pretty much perfect. He slept with me and sat up a couple of times,
but I just lay him back down next to his HUGE Dora the Explorer doll (that
he came with) and he went right back to sleep. Although I know this wasn't
on purpose, he did have one hand on my shoulder for much of the night
which tells me he was at least fairly relaxed. We're now getting ready in
the dark around him and he hasn't budged.
He ate 2 crackers last night that his fmom sent, but that's it. Please
pray that he'll be able to eat/drink with us soon.
Longer post later. We have an appointment with the officials this morning.
Pray that my coughing family doesn't feel the need to cough. Jane
emphasized yesterday how illness could halt the Visa process.

May 19: Nanning, Continued

This morning we tried the Majestic breakfast buffet for the first time.
It’s fine. Not something I’d rave about, but we all found plenty to eat.
Although Anakin says that it’s hard to find Chinese food to eat here
because it’s all so strange that he’s not sure what he’s eating. I’ve
liked the food here okay, but what we’ve had so far has been fairly oily.
By far my favorite was the first restaurant Happy took us to in Beijing.
(Probably more than you wanted to know, but Teddi will care. And,
Teddi, where is the restaurant area that you raved about? Is it the “Baby”
place next door to the left? And how far is the “Nanning Department
Store?” If we ever get out of our hotel rooms, we’d like to visit.)

Back to the comment, “We all found plenty to eat.” Well, GG, not so much.
He did take a cup of warm milk from me. And one bite of congee. But that
was it. I offered him lots of other stuff, even pointing out various
things in the buffet. He adamantly shook his head. And if you don’t
already know this, YOU CANNOT FORCE A 3-year-old TO EAT OR DRINK IF HE
DOESN’T WANT TO. Bummer. But at least he drank something…which was an
improvement over yesterday. Jane suggested we put a variety of things out
for him to graze on. So we put out his crackers. He ate about 1/2 of two.
(Those are the sugar coated ones that I think you mentioned, Sue. They
came with him.) We also tried bits of dried fruit. He ate one piece of
dried kiwi. He’s also willing to drink some kind of drink that the fmom
sent with him. She sent crackers, several drinks, and some sort of gummy
thing in a little plastic container that Jane says is basically candy that
is choky that the fmom’s aren’t supposed to give the kids. He’s eaten a
little of this stuff, but not even much of that. Oh, and the fmom sent
apples. He won’t touch them. He did eat one slice of orange, stuffing it
all in his mouth. I don’t think he’s used to eating more than baby bites
of anything. So anyway, we’re trying everything and I basically think
he’ll eat when he wants to eat. And probably not before. He’s more or
less hunger striking.

After breakfast, Dh and I took GG back to the orphanage hotel
office. The other 3 kids stayed at the hotel room as we knew the meetings
would be short and both LilDude & Anakin were coughing so much that we
were afraid we’d get in trouble. Oh, and we also discovered that LilDude had
a fever and hoped a morning of rest would do him good.

We had two short meetings…one at the orphanage hotel office and one at a
notary, both where we had to verify a few short questions. “Do you want
this boy?” “Will you promise not to abuse him?” Etc. No biggie. We gave
the orphanage the dresses you made, Mom. They gave us a gift. A purse-like
item. A book/brochure on the orphanage. And PHOTOS OF GG FROM WHEN HE WAS LITTLE. Including BABY PHOTOS!

After the meetings, we hung out in the hotel room with coughing kids. When
LilDude’s fever started to rise, we made every effort we could to keep him
and GG apart, but under the circumstances, that’s near to impossible. Yes,
we did bring cough meds. And Ibuprofen/Tylenol. And a bazillion cold meds
and vitamins (C, D, echn/golden seal, zinc/coldease). We’re loading
everyone up. Not sure if it’s doing any good, but we’re trying. I stopped
LilDude from drinking anything cold, Doris. Any other ideas?? I need a
magic pill.

By the afternoon, LilDude’s fever had gone up quite a bit and he continued
to have one even on Ibuprofen. But he doesn’t feel sick. That’s his style.
And he’s even stopped coughing. He sounds a little congested, but nothing
hurts.

Anyway, another “rule” is that GG naps from 1-3 pm. Yeah, right. I lay
down with him. He tried to get up. I pulled him back. He complained. We
compromised at him staying in bed with me…but with him sitting up. He sat
against the wall, holding Dora, and looking at Liz/Anakin who were playing
Nintendo/doing computer. I finally caught him falling over, asleep, and
lay him down. Then Liz/Anakin woke him up by whispered arguing over who was to
use which electronic gizmo next. So he had about a ten minute nap. But a
long rest. LilDude napped too. So maybe no nap but an early bedtime for
everyone??

After naps, Dh and I took GG on a walk outside. We went to the park
(behind hotel for you Nanning folks) and watched people feed these
humongous fish. They’d throw fish food and fish would rise to the surface,
smacking one another in an attempt to get their share. GG climbed right up
the side of the rail to watch. Probably would have jumped in if I hadn’t
stopped him. This kid is so much like some other boys I know. Right
down to taking the 4 building block pieces he brought with him and putting
them together into the shape of a gun and making pewww, pewww, noises. He
LOVES throwing balls. Likes little cars.

This afternoon, he spent more than an hour with color crayons, using EVERY
PIECE OF PAPER IN THE PAD I brought. Lizzi thought he’d probably not
done this very often. He makes tiny little marks. His fine hand
coordination is remarkable. He loves to fold the papers. He watched
Lizzi make a paper hat; then he unfolded the paper and redid what she’d
done. (Just now he handed Lizzi a crayon and beckoned her over for more
coloring.) He copies everything from the faces LilDude makes to the words
people say. Lizzi was showing him photos in the book I made and having
him repeat who each person was. Before long, he was telling us on his own.
When we Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa he could imitate us in saying
NiHao to “Grandma” and “Grandpa.” He also Skyped with BigSis. He can
easily imitate anything we say in English. It might be Mommy prejudice but
I think he seems very, very smart.

After the park, LilDude (yes, with a fever) and GG played and played and
played ball with Dh. Running and screaming, screaming, screaming. GG
LOVES playing with LilDude. They’d attack Dh with balls, then run into
the room’s foyer and “hide.” This kid giggles and giggles and giggles.
Very good natured. And super eager to learn. He has shown an obsession
with our room card key, which, unfortunately, is used to turn on lights.
So he can’t have it. He thought about crying over it a few times, but he’s
been pretty easily distracted.

Because of LilDude’s fever, we felt forced to cancel our scheduled trip to
Wal-Mart. We looked forward to going (shopping, not to Wal-mart), but we
didn’t feel like we could take LilDude out and we didn’t really want to
split up the group this soon. Tomorrow we are supposed to visit the Green
Mountains, a local country/beauty site, about 45 minutes away. Unless
LilDude is a lot worse, I think we’ll probably drug him up and go. I hate to
waste our entire time in Nanning in a hotel room. I really don’t think
LilDude is contagious. He seems to do this when he has a cold, just his
body’s way of reacting. I can hope he’s not contagious since GG getting
this may mean a problem getting his Visa on time. Prayer is appreciated.
GG does have a slightly runny nose, but it’s been there since we got him.
It’d be nice if he’d eat to keep his energy up. I did FINALLY get him to
take a 4 oz bottle this afternoon. I just held him and wouldn’t let him up
til he drank it. He actually got compliant rather fast and without a lot
of complaint.

A comment on Nanning… We’ve seen a few friendly folk, but a lot of people
stare at us on the street without smiling. I don’t know if they mean to be
unfriendly or if they are so perplexed by us that they can’t smile back.
It does feel a little odd to be out walking around. Definitely different
than Beijing. I wish we had more time to walk around though. I hate being
cooped up in a hotel room when an adventure is outside the window.It feels
like we’re wasting our time here. But I know this is an adoption trip, not
a vacation. We may just have to return!

Jane said that she’d try to schedule an appointment for us to visit a
local school. We thought that would be especially neat for Liz/Anakin. We visit
Green Mts tomorrow and a local village on Thursday.

That’s it from Nanning. Continued prayers for good health and good
transitions are appreciated.

Update at bedtime:
GG ATE! I fed him a cup full of fake congee…otherwise known as instant
grits. I read on an adoptive family forum that instant grits are close to
congee so I picked up some in Atlanta and brought it to China. He ate a
whole packet. Praise the Lord! He also ate apple pieces and drank water.
Hallelujah.

And praise #2! LilDude seems much better tonight with little to no temp. His
med should be wearing off, so I’m hoping this means he’s really better. If
so, that means that the way to get LilDude well is to let him jump from bed
to bed with GG and get really hot and sweaty while playing for an hour or
so. All while screaming and laughing.