Tuesday Night Update

Hi everyone, Charlie here again...

Lisa and the boys are settling in after a really nice dinner at La Dolce Vita, followed by a Hagen Dazs ice cream treat at the Deli Store.
I am here at the business center with the "regulars", including an exceedingly interesting man who is an investigative journalist working on a new book.
(Noel, remind me to fill you in, since he's the kind of guy you would find fascinating. Honestly.)

Yesterday, we made a trip to the GZ Zoo here in town.
We had originally been slated for a tour of the Chen Family House/Museum, but for us it was a "been there, done that".
So we arranged, with the help of MJ, to visit the GZ Zoo.  We were guided by the very nice Miss Helen who did a great job of making sure we saw all the good stuff.

The GZ Zoo is an old style zoo, probably outdated by most western standards.
Smallish cages, not a lot of high-end habitats.  But very walkable and a nice way to spend a morning.
The weather was warm and humid, but we only spent the morning.
There was ample shade and the best thing we did was to visit on Monday morning (not Sunday - VERY crowded).
We had the place almost to ourselves, and got a chance to see many of the animals up close.
The famed Panda was pretty reserved, but we did see him move around.
Apparently, most of the time he is lees than energetic, some might even say lazy!
(A major 5-alarm nuclear meltdown was the only downer - but Kyle was able to recover after lunch.)
Lunch yesterday was...wait for it... McDonald's!
MH was really helpful in getting our order right, and we had a mini-picnic lunch just inside the back door of the White Swan.
We enjoyed the air conditioned comfort and the chicken nuggets & burgers on the red chairs and small round tables near the tour entrance (for those of you who know the White Swan).

For the past couple of days we've actually had a lot of free time between appointments.
So we've been in the pool a lot - did I mention it was hot, here?  Humid, too??
Anyway, the Boys, Mom & I spent an hour or so a day enjoying the cool water and the company of other families at the garden pool.
It is quite nice, lots of shade and lots of room to move around.  They even have a small kids pool.
I mentioned this to Kyle and he gave me one of the Kyle looks and said "Kid's Pool?? I don't think so."
So we all ventured into the big pool.  It was 1.6m (I should have studied the metric system a little harder in school, but I think its a little over 5 feet) deep.  The boys each have their own life vests (one of the reasons we have so much luggage!!!) Mom thinks of everything!
Kyle started out tentatively, but soon began feeling his oats.  He has taken to "swimming" on his own.
Most of the time he's fine but occasionally forgets to close his mouth.  Not good.
His vest keeps his head and face safely above the waterline, but he does sometimes get wound up when playing ball with Dylan.
He jumps off the edge of the pool - always into Dad's (or Mom's) arms. He's really changed in the past few days.
I don't know if it's the pressure of looking courageous in Dylan's eyes or not - whatever, he's really gotten much better in the pool.
It's been fun to watch him and Dylan.  Dylan is just really getting used to being in the water and the feel of his life vest.
We should have a lot of fun next week in Hawaii - maybe in the small waves in the ocean.

Dylan had his medical examination at the clinic here in GZ the other day.
We were luckily first-in & first out.
Just as with Kyle, there were 3 stations.
"Ear, Nose & Throat", "Medical & Surgical", and "Height & Weight".  Dylan was extremely calm for all of the poking & prodding.
(Likely due to his condition and having been evaluated for the special needs program.)  He passed all Stations (after a few back & forths between MH and the doctors about his special need).
They wanted to make doubly sure we were aware of his circumstances. Don't worry about that...we are.
Dylan is approx. 29 Pounds (+/- due to metric conversion), and 36 Inches tall - about 4-5 inches smaller than Special K.
He fits the Size 3 Tops and Size 2 Pants that Mom got for the trip.  Momma always knows...
At the clinic, we really just started to notice that he seems to be putting on weight - this is a good thing.
He is a free eater and will try most anything - he always smells unfamiliar foods first - it's funny to see.

One of the things that we found as a diversion for Dylan has been Play-Doh.
We sprung it on him on the plane ride from Shenyang to GZ.  He was instantly enthralled.
I showed him some of the neat stuff he could do and he really enjoyed it.
Play-Doh is now a permanent fixture in the "wanjun" (toy) bag...along with Matchboxes and the full line of "Ice Age 3" toys from McDonalds. (We have them all and we have multiples - We are even considering opening a store.)

One of the nicest things to watch has been Kyle and Dylan playing Play-Doh together on the small kid-sized table in our hotel room. Kyle talking to Dylan in English, explaining what to do (they were making Pizza this afternoon!).
Dylan answering back in Chinese, truly believing that "guge" (pronounced "gugga" = Big Brother) understands every word.
Highly entertaining for Lisa and me...

One other story I must relate - it happened on our walk home from Dinner tonight.
We stopped in one of the island park areas to let Kyle & Dylan push their strollers around & burn off some energy.
They had a lot of fun chasing each other around, while we rested.
We got going again just after that. It was dusk, and Lisa and I were just casually walking side by side pushing the boys toward our ice cream desert.

We walked by an older appartment building on our left - and then, just past that building, but before the next office building, there was a very narrow alley. (Not an uncommon sight here on Shaiman Island).
Lisa and I continued our conversation as we passed slowly by the alley. We both glanced down the alley, not breaking stride. There was a berely imperceptible pause in the flow of conversation.  At the exact moment that she said to me, "Did you see that?"; I said to her "What was that?"   We kept our measured, calm pace. Down that alley we both saw the same thing, but we had trouble making sense of it...

Why would a tall, thin, bearded Chinese man, dressed in what appeared to be some sort of loincloth (like you see on National Geographic when they have shows about how Indians in Bombay bath in the Ganges River) seem to be bathing himself from a large bucket in an alley in Guangzhou, (in 2009)? The kicker was the look on his face when our glance down the alley caught him in mid-rinse, in full loincloth glory? The look was a combination of:  "Why are they looking at me?", "Oh No, they busted me getting a bath in this alley", and "Boy, that was refreshing".  I tell you, I cannot make this stuff up!!!
Thank God the boys didn't see that! I would really have some 'splaining to do!

I have to go now - the boys are hopefully asleep - Mom is definitely asleep!

Good night to all...
C

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