Seeing the sights...

Little man has decided that the crib is not for him.  We have to hold him until he falls asleep and transfer him into the crib.  He will stay there for some amount of time and then end up in my bed for the rest of the night.  I must have slept walked and carried him because when I awoke, he was next to me.  I swore Priscilla must have gotten him in the night but she doesn't remember him getting in there either.  Anyway, we both awoke surprised to find him in bed with us.  He has gotten better about not screaming in absolute terror as long as we hold him. 

We went to Shamian Island to shop and walk around and get a few iconic pictures that all adoptive families get while they're in town.  We tried out a stroller today and thankfully he loved it, so much in fact, he passed out during our stroll and slept through lunch at Lucy's.  Lucy's is full of American fare and American movie memorabilia on the walls.  We can only handle so much noodles and white rice... those cheeseburgers were delicious. 

Sleeping through lunch... no cheeseburger for Luke

We came back to the room for Abigail to work on her online class homework.  Luke was not interested in having Abigail divide her attention so he was tugging on her feet and climbing on her while she worked.  I'm thinking our school year is going to be quite unproductive this year.  When she wouldn't give him attention, she went and emptied the suitcases and Abby's backpack.  He's becoming quite the rascal.  

Why bother putting a GLASS door on the bathroom?  Luke likes to mess with the toilet.  Yeah!

In the evening, we took the subway again (starting to love this subway system, so clean and easy to use and so cheap) and went to what they call the Toy ad Gift Wholesale Market.  It was like a six story massive mall with small flea market type vendors weaved in throughout the entire building.  It's hard to explain how massive this place is and how overwhelming it is.  It was filled with toys, lego knockoffs (so incredibly cheap), housewares and all sorts of items   I strapped him in with the carrier and he eventually fell asleep... probably because he has overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people and stuff.  

This is the toy and gift wholesale market.... 6 stories of this!  Really cheap prices.

This boy loves pizza!  

Today we joined a group of other families and went to the Guangzhou Zoo.  We had gone to the safari park last time but our guide wasn't encouraging that trip this year because they increased the prices so much for the summer and its so HOT and a long day.  So we opted for the closer, smaller and less time out.  Luke did get excited to see a few of the animals but probably got most excited to see the giant goldfish.  There were lions, tigers and pandas but the goldfish held his attention the longest.  

Honey, should we buy him a fish? 

There were two pandas at this zoo but after seeing the amazing pandas at the reserves, these just looked sad and HOT! 

After the zoo, we headed back to the room for Abby to work on her classwork and amazingly I was able to get Luke to sleep for a nap with minimal fussing.  Success!! 

We ventured out on the subway again and visited Beijing Road which is a popular local shopping road.  We found a decent restaurant  with pictures and some english and successfully ordered dinner.  This sounds silly but we've had such a hard time finding places that we could order dinner.  The waitress kept trying to take Luke from me.  I was trying to keep calm about it knowing this may be a cultural thing but Abigail nearly went protective sister bear and yelled at the waitress.  

We're all getting antsy and ready to go home but making the most of it while we are here.  Luke's is opening up more and feeling safer with us.  He really enjoys being strapped to me and going out and around the city.  He loves to people watch.  Whenever we get into a car or bus, he yells, "beep, beep" out the window and the proceeds to fall asleep.  I think he will be a good road tripper as long as he can embrace car seats.  No one uses car seats in this country but they really should... driving is terrifying.  

Tomorrow morning we have a very early appointment at the US Consulate.  After that, we wait three more days to get his visa and we can leave for Hong Kong.