The Things We Do For Love, Part 2

Oops, forgot to attach the photo from today.  Enjoy!

The Things We Do For Love

Today we had to wait in our room for an hour to see if the phone would ring regarding our kid's visas (notice that's a lower case v). No news was good news, and we had no news. We can go home when the time finally arrives, and gee, ma, we all wanna go home.

Tried the pool again today. No go. Someone is going to have to break it to Maryn Da Qing that swimming lessons will be on her social calendar when we get home. She's got to be water safe. Perhaps she'll do better in a pool with a zero depth shallow end she can walk into. Now if we can just get passed the challenge of putting the swimming suit on. Can you take swimming lessons in shorts and a t-shirt? After the pool, Baba gave her a mani-pedi for a little close time, and she loved it, here and there giving him instructions on how to do it right. This girl is all about the beauty thing. The first thing she does every morning after the toidy is to wet her hair with a comb and get it clipped back. She sees me put lotion on my face, and she wants it to. She's using eye cream these days and tonight after her bath, she got my deodorant out to put on. I had to let her know she didn't need it to go to bed. I thought maybe she'd be a sporty girl, but right now it looks like she won't want to break a nail.

Highlight of the day: We were walking down the hall to the elevator this morning headed to breakfast, when we heard "beeeyoutiful" come out of her mouth. Isn't that a great first word in English? Beeeyoutiful. The word for the day, and we've been saying it repeatedly since.

Taking a Dip

It worked, she got in the pool this morning without hesitation!  Didn't move off the ladder, but we are thrilled with such progress.  She even put her face in the water a lot and enjoyed it when Baba put water on her head repeatedly. 

 

We had to go back to the site of the medical exam to have the TB test read.  That resulted in a chest x-ray which looked fine.  As of July 1, the TB test is a new step in the neverending process of paperwork.  She passed, and we won't be stuck here.  Good news.  Tomorrow we have to hang out in the room for an hour to hope we don't receive a phone call telling us there is a problem with the rest of our paperwork.  An hour in the room, yikes!  Just kidding, it's just that we don't want to miss a minute in the pool with our Chinese fish.

Legal Notice

I tried my best to follow all the rules, but the temptation was too great. I'll leave it up to you to decide just which one I broke.

Today's Beauty

Sweatin' and Splashin'

It's a toss up.  We've been to Rio de Janeiro in January and Guangzhou in August.  It's hot and humid in both places, but I think Rio might have a slight edge in the hot and humid category.  I'm glad we got the word that we should pack like we're going to the equator.  We packed wickaway shirts, but there's nowhere to wick it to.  Those in the travel group who were interested went to a park across the street from the hotel this morning.  Normally we live in fear of the words "across the street" in China, but right in front of our hotel are underground walkways so we only have to fear crossing the front drive at the hotel.  Don't get in anyone's way because this ain't California, baby.  Nobody cares if they're about to find you on the hood of their car.  The park was packed (redundant, I know), with people playing badminton anywhere they could find space or ping pong on the permanent concrete ping pong tables, doing tai chi, playing hackysack, etc.  Something for everyone.  There is a little area of amusement park rides so we gave that a shot.  It started out with Baba buying tokens to ride on the animal thing you see in the picture.  Da Qing wanted nothing to do with it, so our guide gave her a nudge in Mandarin, and she obliged.  After that she wanted to ride that and that and that.  She had to be enjoying herself, but she kept the smile on low.  It's difficult for her to be out in public, but she is hanging in there.  Someday she'll have a blast at Disneyland.

This afternoon many of the families were in the pool enjoying themselves, and we watched from the sideline.  Some were trying to interest her by tossing a balls to her from the pool, and she would throw them back and then retreat.  During a brief rainshower, I took her back upstairs to see if she might have an interest in donning the suit, but there's no way to explain to her that she doesn't have to go in the water if she doesn't want to.  No interest in the pool.  I got in the pool.  Nothing.  Tom was busy signing papers while all this was going on, and when we went to check on him I asked the guide to talk to her about swimming.  Baby step.  The guide came up to our room with us, gave her a nudge in Mandarin, and she put the suit on.  We went back down to the pool, but by now all the families in the group were gone, and there were too many others staring to get too close, a subtle response from her, but we are aware of it.  So the next best thing was the dip your feet in as you walk out to the pool pool.  I know, I know, it sounds disgusting, but it really wasn't as bad as your prior experience is making you recall, and it was a start.  It was like splashing in a puddle, and I think it might be the miracle that's going to get her in or closer to the pool tomorrow.  Tonight she took a bath in her suit with the goggles on (wish I could show you the pictures because they are adorable, but no tub shots on the internet for us) and she was trying to swim in the tub.  The three of us kept saying you yong (like yo yong) which means swimming.  Mingtian you yong (tomorrow swimming).  She seems to be bitten by the bug.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. 

Typhoon No Phun

I forgot to update you on our visitor from the (north)east.  Her name is Coral and she is from Hangzhou.  She was a student at our local university, and she was our first "daughter" from China.  She stayed with us on a regular basis, helping us with our Chinese, calling us mom and dad and just being a joy.  We took a wonderful vacation together before she returned home in March 2008, and we miss her dearly.  She had planned to fly to Guangzhou yesterday and return today, but she couldn't get out of Hangzhou because of the typhoon.  : (  We are all sad because we needed to hug each other again, and she really wanted to meet her mei mei.  To be on the other side of the world, so close and yet so far, is more than a bummer.  We will meet up again someday, and, until then, we'll send her some adorable photos of her little sister.