Chinese Wal Mart

Chinese Wal Mart

Saturday (day 7) was our first unscheduled day. Although it was raining and rather cold, we walked to Starbucks for lunch and caught a cab to WalMart. Crazy. It was 3 stories. China has these escalator type things without stairs so you just roll your cart on it. I think it is magnetic so your cart doesn’t move. Carson was pretty comfortable tossing things into the cart. We bought snacks and clothes for him. We later learned that the thing he is eating the most is dried squid. He also loves sunflower seeds and pistachios. He chose nearly 20 more books. As we were heading toward the exit, which was super crowded, I had what felt like my first mommy to my son moment. As we entered the crush of people, he reached for the side of the cart and stayed very close to me. Seems like such a small thing but it felt like he was depending on me for the first time.

Keith had to stand in the rain for 15 minutes to get a cab but we made it back to the hotel. Carson was happy to stay in the room and watch cartoons and read. Keith went down to KFC again and brought dinner back. Sooooo tired of KFC but we know Carson will eat the chicken and we can easily order there. He had picked out ramen noodles at Walmart as well, so he made several bowls of that. He is a very independent child. He was very funny when I opened the window. They pump the heat into the rooms until you are ready to sleep on the cooler bathroom tile. He acted like he would freeze to death with the window open so he started moving the table and chairs so that he could move his bed a couple of feet from the window. They really believe in bundling children up here and I think the kids think they will get sick from open air in a room. We all went to sleep about 9.

Today, (day 8) we woke up rested for the first time. I facilitated today’s bathing with Carson. Today was also the first time without a flooded bathroom. I tried to communicate that he was taking a shower instead of a bath. These tubs are quite shallow. Even though I removed everything that I thought could be used as a plug, he circumvented me again. He took the round soap and put that over the drain. Dang, it worked. Anyway, he floated in the water and did not splash even one time! As one of my yahoo adoption friends put it, he may have figured out that you don’t mess with mama jama.

We went to the zoo today. This is the largest zoo in Shenyang; we were disappointed. We were freezing as the weather was in the high 30’s. It took just a few minutes to walk around the exhibits. There were only about 3 animals out because it was so cold. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get on the bus. Then we were driven sardine style through the zoo with stops at various points where we remained in the bus. The animals were fed through the front window. Pretty weird to see a slab of meat hanging off a stick for the tigers to eat. There were huge, tigers, lions, bears, etc., that ate and followed the bus until we left their area.

Our driver drove us to a public pool so that we could buy a suit for Carson. Keith walked over to see the pool at the hotel next door but Carson says he would rather read or watch dvd’s for now. It appears that the Intercontinental has more restaurants with English writing so if behavior holds up, we will attempt that tonight.
Tomorrow we will go to a park with a playground. I am praying for warmer weather because I cannot stay outside long in 30 something degree weather. I think Carson does better when it is just the three of us. Maybe he feels he has to appear loyal to his f mother still for appearances sake. Who knows. He was pretty loving last night so I’m hoping that lovely little boy comes back today,

8 days down and 11 to go…………..