Wednesday, April 30, 2014

May Day, May Day... We're going down

Greetings from Guangzhou! This is the city where the US Consulate is located, and where Li will hopefully be sworn in as a US citizen. We flew in later in the evening during a torrential downpour of rain- so don't know much- but first impression made me think we are going to be much happier here. The city stretches on FOREVER, and every building is 50 plus stories high. And there are lights on every building- makes Times Square look boring. There's crazy traffic. But it's also very trendy and happening. We felt very underdressed when we walked into the hotel lobby. And it's humid...ahhhhh. 



The hardest part about Harbin was that we got dirty looks from everyone- they were very suspicious if us. From what I'm told, it shouldn't be as bad here. 

The flight here was around 4 hours.... And Li made every minute of it interesting!! Waiting for the flight, Li discovered the moving walkway, so mama and he rode it over, and over, and over. There was another little boy doing the same and the two boys started playing together. At one point Li was jogging along and turned around to see the other boy when his feet got tangled and he went down HARD!! He actually hit his head and was bleeding a little- and his knee has track marks from the walkway:( Luckily Dad fixed him up and a few moments later he was up and running again. Luckily we have 4 days before his medical exam to heal. 

Then we got on the plane.... Let's just say that Li's intro to seat belts was traumatic at best. During takeoff he SCREAMED and fought with the seatbelt. Everyone on the plane turned around and stared.... Everyone. And of course he's screaming Mama.. No!! Mama... No!! This looks horrible. I was sure that the police would be waiting for me when we landed (they weren't). He sat on my lap the rest of the flight. (Luckily he's so small that the flight attendants thought he was a baby so they didn't give us a hard time about holding him). We tried to put his giraffe lovvie in the seatbelt to show him it's no big deal- and he FREAKED out again. So we are really looking forward to the car ride home when he meets his car seat. 

Ava is ok. She's a little down- we think the reality of sharing mom has set in- so I'm trying to give her some more direct attention. It's nice that we have 4 days of fun ahead- so hopefully we can turn her around a little.  

Li is starting to warm up to Chris, but we aren't fully there yet- so when Ava has my attention Li is a little upset (I took Ava to the bathroom in the plane and Li again screamed for Mama the entire time I was gone). Ava also has a bit of a cold/cough, and of course I did not pack mucinix. So, we are going to the travel clinic this morning to see what they can do. 

Li is sleeping better and better each day. We finally figured out to just put him in bed between us.



Oh!! And cudos to the Westin Hotel!!! They noted our need for gluten free foods and at check in took pics of Ava and I so that the staff will recognize us and be prepared when we go into a restaurant to eat!! How cool is that?!?!