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Here are a few more pictures for the 6-28 update

6-28 China Update

Off to the zoo we went today and while looking forward to going again and letting Hayden see the pandas up close I have to say that the excitement waned as the 200% humidity kicked into HIGH gear.  Seriously people I am telling you that Houston, New Orleans and Florida combined got NOTHING on Chongqing.  I am not one to normally “glisten”….holy Mary, joseph and Jesus I have done nothing but SWEAT like a pig!!!  I could not live here based on the humidity alone.  The temp is not that bad….80’s, but then you add in whatever the heck the humidity is here and it will sit you down and make you pray to the baby Jesus…oh and then add a 30 lb kid who wants to be carried everywhere and a city that is not very conducive to strollers and well you have got yourself a sweaty (I do mean wet and soggy sweaty) and a bit of a CRANKY and feeling like I might puke mama!!!  Hayden’s cheeks were bright red.  Hayden might be from an island, and she might live in a VERY warm state, but DO NOT be fooled; this kid LOATHES being too hot and does not like direct sunlight (which because of pollution there is not a lot of that here) But the heat and the fact that she had to go to the bathroom and still adamantly REFUSES to use a squatty (much to her demise that dayJ  made Hayden a crankapotomus herself.  It was an interesting trip to the zoo we’ll say.  We did get to see a very young panda and that was super cool and fun.  Hayden rode some rides (with mama) and DouDou and enjoyed a lunch at KFCJ where a huge birthday party was going on for a child….I found that hilarious.   There was a play area that was maybe 5X8 and there must have been 30 kids!!! hahahaha

We have had several nights out to dinner and again GREAT food.  If I have not mentioned it….I have eaten SO much and am certain that I have gained weight.  Leave it to me to go to China and gain weightL  They do LOVE whole fish, and I can’t say that I have learned to love it too, and it seems to grace itself at a lot of meals….but trust me I find PLENTY of other stuff to eat off of the FULL round of food.  Every meal also involves most family members.  They seem to do EVERYTHING together and I think that is so awesome.  They all help raise each other’s child and all love each other’s child as their own and seem to love being together.  They really celebrate one another.  Foreign to me as an adult, but obviously very common in the US;  maybe not as common as it used to be.  I grew up living houses away from most of my family and as a child I remember thinking it was awesome and normal.  Now like us most of the people we know do not have family close and have to rely on friends.  But certainly the village mentality is part of the culture here.  Grandparents take care of the children while parents work either during the day or away for long periods of time, and you see grandparents visible and involved as well as Aunts with a whole brood of kids at the movies or the zoo. 

Shiyu has a VERY musical family and so Hayden has gotten to play a lot of piano and today even got to spend some times on the drums….which she was not bad at, but hopefully that memory will fade fast as percussion is NOT on the approved list of instrumentsJ  But she did have fun.  DouDou(aka Katherine) has discovered that she does want to play the drums and had a 2 hour lesson that we watched today and she did AWESOME!!!

This will be short, I have plenty to share about our 12 hour day out today, but we have got to get to bed. 

David will be coming soon and we are very excited to be reunited with Daddy.  I know it will be nice to have another voice that speaks English and does not think of Hayden as royalty!!  LOL

Interesting trip to the grocery store last night. There was much more live food there than we expected. Did not explain to H that they were not selling them as pets...

China Update #3

Shiyu and H at the mall

The turtles (including the one that didn't make it)

Shiyu and her Grandmother

We reached a big milestone today.  12.5 hours of sleep for Hayden and then she even took a 2 hour nap!!!!  That means I got to sleep about 12 hours and an hour nap for me!!!

Well we had a small tragedy; one of the small turtles (mary I think) went to the rainbow bridge.  I am certain it was not from the stress of a 3 year old holding her so much!!  H thinks she is missing in the house right now, but once she gets tired of looking for her I will break the news to her gently. 

Yesterday we ventured into our district city center(still trying to understand this district thing) and went to see Madagascar 3D except Hayden refused to wear the glasses because she is still certain that the octopus in the 3D movie we saw at Sea World when she was 2 was in the movie and going to scare her.  The movie was hilarious and Hayden enjoyed it a lot…..even without the glasses.  She has decided that she wants to see it when she returns to Texas with Ronan and that she is going to wear the glasses.  I guess she realizes the octopus is not in this one. 

We returned home on a VERY slow train….can’t imagine having to fight that traffic everyday either.  Once home we had another delicious dinner.  I was planning on cutting back on eating, and then once home I decided that could wait for another day.  Crab legs and ginger, spicy mussels, sautéed black mushrooms.  Have I mentioned how delicious the food is here??  Shiyu’s dad is an amazing cook.  Hayden enjoys the steamed buns with jam each morning!! 

China observations:

They serve the most incredible caramel corn at the movies.  They do not serve buttered popcorn, and as good as this caramel corn was I don’t ever need buttered again. 

They have assigned seating at the movies.  Yep we were late and walked in and it was full….Shiyu said no worries, that is our row right there in the middle we have assigned seats!!  It was GREAT!!!  And the seats were awesome too.  They only had squatties in the bathroom, so that was the downside.

They have the biggest and nicest malls I have ever seen.  They go on and on and seem to be about every 10 blocks.  They have really nice stores in all of them and there seems to be an endless supply of people shopping at them.  They also have H&M here that we visited.  No worries David, it seemed to be stuff I have already seen or bought at oursJ  They have women in uniforms that walk around with tongs and baskets and pick up any little tiny piece of trash they see.  Then there are people with cameras and they walk around getting you to take your picture, they print them on these portable printers….I was surprised how many people seem to stop and take them. 

Split pants are alive and well and the idea of potty training ANYWHERE is definitely the norm.  It took forever to get Hayden to go on the potty, can’t imagine trying to get her to go out in the middle of public!  LOL

Food is the center of EVERYTHING here.  Everywhere you go there is a GIANT area to get a variety of food from fresh juices to bubble tea to chicken feet(seems to be a favorite here) They seem to be talking about what is for lunch while they are eating breakfast.  They also seem to not eat anything that comes from a box, jar or can.  Everything is fresh.  I have NO IDEA how Shiyu lasted 10 months with us!!  For those who know me know that I am not the best cook, nor do I strive to be and the cooking I do usually involves a box, a can and jarJ  I have decided this is something that I need to work on.  Her dad whips up the best stuff in minutes and it is all FRESH!!

The beds are still hard as a rock (for those that have been here before)  But when you sleep on a tempurpedic(like we do now) it makes the transition not so bad.  I have actually slept quite well while being here.  I have been given the “softest” bed and it feels like a board with a thin comforter on top of it.

Everyone wants an American name.  DouDou who is shiyu’s cousin and is 10 yrs old knows she will do the exchange program when she is in HS(and yes she will live with us when she comes)  Her English teacher gave her the name Angel.  We told her that was not going to workJ  So we spent 2 full days picking a name.  She has picked Katherine.  She is THRILLED with her name.  Shiyu’s best friend Pig has picked Abby!!!  It cracks me up that now they all want to be called by their American names!!!  

More China Pics

Auntie's neighborhood

Dodo and H on carousel

Indoor Korean BBQ Cookout

First thing other than rice since landing

China Update 6-26

Today we reached 10 hours of sleep for Hayden…we are slowly inching towards a normal sleep pattern for her and with it brings a good frame of mind and adjustment to a very different day to day life. 

Yesterday we had what is a very typical Sunday for most families….not necessarily our family, but a lot of families all over the world.  We spent the day over at Shiyu’s aunt’s house (pronounced joomau) upon arrival the shower of gifts upon the princess started!!!  Holy smokesJ  It started with a blonde hair, blue eyed doll that is almost as big as H….have no idea how I will get the thing home???  Then a beautiful dress and what started out as some small “high” heels that were a wee bit big and were immediately exchanged(before we left) for some super cute and comfortable sandals.  Then during lunch her “red envelope” was handed to her (let’s just say it was WAY TOO much $$$) but it is tradition and I am trying to teach Hayden to be gracious….something I am not always very good at accepting.  We had a delicious lunch and Hayden enjoyed meeting Shiyu’s grandparents, the talking bird(who says Ni Hao and guay, guay, guay…cute, cute, cute) and watched JooMau feed her fish.  Then she felt that Hayden and DouDou needed to go to the “park” across the street.  Well a park to us is a swing set and jungle gym.  Not in China; double decker carousal, some other rides and sand pits etc. with beautiful landscaping to boot.  Of course it was not free and on the way we had to stop and buy Hayden an umbrella because….well she wanted one and JooMau was not going to let her go without.  Did I already say I have some retraining to do when we get home??? LOL We had a great time despite the VERY muggy conditions.  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Chinese cartoons and snacking on a variety of goodies, visiting and watching JooMau and her ayi (housekeeper/nanny) do origami for the kids.  Then we headed out for a delicious dinner of hot pot which is very famous here in Chongqing.  It was a wonderful evening and by the time we got home we were all full of food and exhausted. 

Today we spent the day in doing some laundry and just resting and letting Hayden play, it rained all day.   Shiyu is taking the GRE in August so we spent a lot of the day studying.  We did go over to Shiyu’s best friend’s (Pig is her nickname) house for lunch and enjoyed that a lot.  She is a great girl and a great cook.  Hayden LOVES Pig, so Hayden had a great time and loved that she got to use her umbrella for more than keeping the sun off her.  Tonight we did the most awesome thing.  We did Korean bbq….but in the kitchen.  Yep a fire pit was erected in the kitchen and grilling commenced.  Again the food was delicious (are you sensing a trend here yet??) and we had a lot of fun.  But the VERY best thing about it was the fact that my child who has chosen to eat almost nothing but rice with soy sauce and who almost NEVER eats meat decided that she wanted to eat.  She went on to devour 7 sticks of beef!!  Every single person in the house (10 of us) was elated to see her finally eat something besides rice.  They are all worried she is not getting enough food.  I of course am mostly ignoring her and figure she will get hungry enough to eat something else, and tonight she finally did!!!    She LOVED it!!  She wouldn’t try anything else, but I will take what she did eat. 

Tomorrow we are headed to see Madagascar.  So we are looking forward to it.  Shiyu has assured Hayden we will not see the 3D version so that she will agree to go with us!!  LOL

Thanks for the nice comments and sure wish I had access to FB.  But David is doing a great job of keeping us connected.  We are having the best time and I am so grateful to have the opportunity and to do it with Hayden. 

Someone asked how the Mandarin is coming.  It is going great!!  It helps when you are surrounded by people who only speak Mandarin and who desperately what you to learn it.  They think Hayden is doing awesome and that her pronunciation is great too.  I am learning a ton, but I would not say my pronunciation is as good as Hayden’s!!  In fact it pretty much stinks.  But I get an A for giving it a good college try!!

Well good night from us and good morning to you.

Princess Hayden the Celebrity

Well a week has passed since our departure and all I can say is what a whirlwind we have been on.  This trip has been in the works for a really long time, as it grew closer my concerns of taking a 3.5 year old halfway around the world for 30 days…..well let’s just say my anxiety grew to heights I never have experienced.  The plane ride was a huge concern; I mean anyone with a preschooler that is even getting on a 2 hour flight has to pack a week of food and activities.  I knew that 19 hours of planes and 2 days of travel were going to present challenges.  But as I said before Hayden actually did amazing for all of the schlepping, waiting, and sitting that she had to do.  Initially she seemed pretty good with the time change, but I think she was just running on adrenaline and it actually took about 4 days to finally acclimate and that presented its own special set of issuesJ  But let’s say that now that we are here and settled in and sleeping fairly normal we are mostly just enjoying the abundance that China has to offer. 

Dragon boat festival is this weekend and so we drove to Chengdu for the 3 day weekend.  We spent the night in a beautiful resort where people come to spend the summers to be cool.  We had an amazing dinner and enjoyed the beautiful gardens that surrounded the resort….no one does gardens and parks like the Chinese.  We got up and ventured to one of the oldest irrigation systems in the world and in fact the way this system works from dividing the river and they have tried and tried to replicate and have never been able to do so.  One side is used for flood control and the other is used strictly for irrigation in Chengdu.  It was actually really interesting and to think something like the 3 gorges dam could be built, but yet something that seemed so simple could not be re-created.   Hayden had a great time here; she was splashing everyone with water from the fountains and fed the biggest and most aggressive koi I have EVER seen.  She walked across a VERY wiggly bridge (that she was not sure about) We then walked to have lunch in an open air market where each owner has their own open air kitchen.  They keep all of their “FRESH” choices out for your choosing; so the chickens were in their cages, along with bunnies and several other choice birds.  Then the fresh fish were swimming in their tubs, frogs sitting with nets over them….you get the picture.  Well Hayden was THRILLED, she exclaimed “mommy look at all of the pets” “can we go pet them??”   I flipped my head around to Shiyu and quietly said “please don’t tell her they are lunch”  We all had a great laugh at how excited Hayden was to have lunch surrounded by the menagerie of animals.  We had a delicious lunch and there were NO animals harmed in the cooking of our lunch.  I can’t speak for the tables around us though. 

While we are on the subject of food…..Hayden is primarily consuming only rice and soy sauce.  The Chinese do not use soy sauce really as a condiment.  It is used to cook with.  Everyone is laughing because it is considered “country or poor” to put soy sauce on your rice.  Because they say when you are poor that is all you have to put on itJ well let me tell you Hayden being the trendsetter she is, has everyone trying it and thinking it is quite good!!  Shiyu kindly found us fresh baked bread and the jar of peanut butter I brought is coming in handy.  But we have yet to experience Shiyu’s grandmother whom I am told is going to be deathly worried that all Hayden is eating is rice!!!  LOL She is actually eating fruit too, but she is being VERY picky to say the least!!!  I am doing my best to not make a big deal out of it because the bigger the deal the more stubborn someone becomes .

As we walked back to the car we had to walk across a long covered bridge that had hundreds of people sitting and resting, cooling off etc.  I look down and realize that Hayden is walking very slowly in front of me and alternating waving very slowly to both sides.  I asked her what she was doing and she said she was doing her princess wave for “her people”  Shiyu and I about died!  It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen her do.  She had this ridiculous smile on her face and just kept slowly waving. 

We set off for “The Big Buddha” today and boy is he BIG and my goodness there were a lot of people that wanted to see him too.  Thankfully we were there early and did not have to wait as long as SO many others.  We did stand in a queue for at least an hour in the muggy heat and that gave a lot of people time to stare and say hello to “the American with the Chinese baby”  a few brave ones were able to attempt a guess at the situation.  Interestingly enough adoption was NEVER one of the guesses.  Mostly people think Shiyu must be my daughter in law and I am the grandma caring for the baby!!!  LOL   We made it down the 71 meters with Hayden on my hip, we gave a little donation to Buddha and gave him a little bow and then realized that now we had to go UP!!!  GAH is all I am going to say about this experience!!!  It was NOT pretty, and again Hayden was on my hip!!  Surely I worked off 5 lbs!!!just in sweat I am guessing.  Hayden’s observation of Buddha was that he was “the angry Buddha” because someone took his shoes!!!  Alrightly then!!

We then headed for The Dinosaur museum.  It was about 3 hours away and we had to drive thru the countryside to get there.  This will be a post in and of itself.  I will say as we made that humbling drive I must have counted my blessings a thousand times.  When most of us think of having nothing or “being poor” we actually have ZERO concept of poverty.  The people in the countryside literally live off the land and use those goods to barter and earn a small income that then they use to send their children to school.  You mostly see senior citizens and children as the working age have all gone off to the big cities to help try to earn a living for everyone and have typically had to leave their children behind for the grandparents to raise.  In these cases they come home perhaps once or twice a year to see their family.  That concept is SO foreign to us that I think in most cases it would seem unbelievable.  So using the monies made for their children to go to school and get an education is not only invaluable and important, it is CRITICAL.  It is the only way to change the cycle.  Seeing this with my own eyes makes you understand better how adoption makes its way into this scenario.   Again I would like to say how grateful I am for the life that I live and there is absolutely NOTHING I need and am embarrassed by anything I remotely want.  Very humbling experience!!

Hayden has had a thing for dinosaurs lately and we have talked thru the ice age, and that they are extinct and do not exist anymore.  She has seen some dinosaurs on TV, but I am not sure when you say BIG or HUGE to her that she has a concept of what that grand scale actually is.  Well she found out today and let me say that it scared the bejeesus out of her!!!  I had to make her venture all the way in, I mean we had driven 3 hours and paid to go just for HER…..we were not going to turn around and walk out.  She did not get out of my arms the entire time and once in and convinced that they didn’t move or make sound she became curious and wanted to see and learn(but only from my hip)  It was a very cool and they have discovered over 200 dinosaurs in this area and you could even see an excavating area which was amazing.  Once we left Hayden decided it was VERY cool and she decided she would like to go back (not going to happen…too far away)

We are having an amazing time and just keep pinching myself that we are here.  I wish David could be here with us the entire time and certainly Hayden is missing her daddy immensely.  We talk about him all the time and we are anxious for him to come.  But we are just enjoying Shiyu’s family so much.  I have told so many of you that they are the nicest people I have EVER met and now I am pretty sure that no one can top them.  They are a very tight knit family who lives very close to one another and spend a great deal of time together.  We are all spending the day at aunty’s today with lunch and a visit to a beautiful park, turtle buying for Hayden, and then a big dinner together.  They embrace us as though we are family and are VERY protective of Hayden and just seem to enjoy her so much.  I do not think they have any idea what this means to David and I.  What they are giving to us and to Hayden is invaluable.  I have said before we don’t have the afforded luxury of doing this in Taiwan, but this is certainly a link to Hayden’s culture and while she doesn’t understand it now someday she will.  We are very blessed to call them family and no wonder Shiyu is such an amazing girl…..she comes from an amazing family. 

We will try and update again in a day or two.  Enjoy the pictures!!

We made it safe and sound and truly can not tell you what a GREAT traveler Hayden Magee is......She did amazing.  Our day started very early on Sun and got on a 7:25 flt to Detroit where we met up with Shiyu who was exhausted from 3 weeks of working summer orientation at Denison.  We were a bit concerned about whether we would actually get on the flight to Shanghai, it was really full and for a bit it was not looking promising(gotta love the perks of standby travel as an airline employee)  But we were fortunate enough to be 3 of the lucky 6 that got on.....Shiyu scoring a business class seat as me and the 3 year old headed for coach:)  I was thrilled we sat next to a super nice lady from NC who was going on business and was not at all wearing the face of "winner of the short straw" I am sitting next to a pre-schooler for the next 15 hours!!  Hayden did have some issues with the fact that Shiyu sat in business and she was sent packing to coach.....She pretty much talked about the travesty of it all all the way here and is still discussing it.  When we boarded our flight to Chongqing we were seated next to each other but the row across was empty and Shiyu "attempted" a move over there to give us more room......that did not work out and we "all" sat snug as bugs in a rug:)  Someone is also already discussing where everyone is sitting on the way home. 

 

Anyway, I have to say and sadly admit I was basically terrified of this flight and what was to come.  Hayden is a professional traveler, she loves to travel, and we have had very few problems or issues with her on the plane.  However we do not make a habit of 15 hour flights and 26 hour travel days.  But let me just just tell you that she was AWESOME!!!  I know she was awesome because the people around us complimented her on a job well done.  She only slept about 4 hours of the flight.  1 hour at the beginning and 3 at the end.  Yep the rest of the time she watched movies, colored, talked, ate, played with her dogs(thanks lexie) and basically just chilled out.  She fought the sleep really hard, but in general I would say she did better than I did.  I had really had enough at hours 7 and then was ready to bail by hour 10.  But she handled it like a pro and I have to say I am incredibly proud of her. 

 

We spent the first day in Shanghai and all I can say is WOW!!!  What a beautiful city and full of grandeur and architecture.  We had lunch at a very famous dumpling house that we had eaten at in Taipei.  We met Shiyu best friend Chaio and had a GREAT time.  She is in town doing an internship for the summer and she was just so gracious to come and meet us and entertain us for the afternoon.  We rode a ferry, went to the world financial center building and then rode the magnetic train back to the airport(7 minutes people at 300 mph) it was AWESOME!!! 

 

We then boarded our flight for Chongqing and by midnight we landed and were greeted by EVERYONE that Shiyu is related to, is friends with, or perhaps has EVER met!!  LOL they take this meeting and departing the airport thing REALLY seriously.    I was handed the BIGGEST most beautiful bouquet of flowers I have EVER seen and we were met with hugs and more excitement than you can imagine.  Hayden did well for about 3 min, and then the I am SO tired, and there are WAY TOO many people trying to say hi, touch, or hold me that I can deal with.....and broke out into full blown melt down mode:(   She recovered and while is still adjusting a bit to the time change is doing fairly well.  Around 4-6 p.m. is when she starts melting and to be honest that is not that much different from home.  The famous witching hour. 

 

Anyway, we are here and feels great to unpack, and see Shiyu surrounded by those she loves so dearly.  I love that this family embraces Hayden as their own.  They could not be happier or more excited about her visiting.  They have again rolled out the red carpet and already done WAY too much.  Everything to make sure the princess is comfortable. 

 

I have to tell you that when we were here before we did not have Hayden yet.....and so we did get some stares, but nothing that unusual.  When we had Hayden in Taiwan, we didn't go out that much because Hayden was grieving so hard.  So I had very little interaction with eyes staring or mouths whispering.  But MAN this trip is totally different.  The stares are just uncomfortable and filled with curiosity as well as a bit of ....well I am not actually sure, but for the most part it does not feel that positive.  It seems Hayden had not really taken notice and hoping that continues.  Today someone was certain that I must be Shiyu's mother in law and Hayden was my granddaughter.  Yesterday at the airport we had a girl walking with a friend that literally almost fell down because she wasn't paying attention to walking and instead was too busy staring at Hayden and I....it was funny and hard  not to laugh.

 

Well we are off to Chengdu this weekend for the Dragon boat festival and hopefully see the panda sanctuary.  Should be a blast and I think Hayden will have a great time. 

I am mailing my posts as it seems that I can not get on blogger.   So updates will not come everyday.  I also can not access FaceBook.  Seems the Chinese are not interested in where I want to go online!!

 

Thanks for sending us good thoughts for the flight, I would say it worked 10 times over. 

 

enjoy the pictures.