Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The penultimate day in China!

Excited and a little sad that we'll be leaving tomorrow. We have to get out of the hotel or the energy being built up by all of the kids will likely explode at some point!

I don't have much of a reason for writing other than the fact that the boys and momma are down on the fourth floor playground/courtyard ripping it up with Liena and I'm finally in a quiet room by myself for a change.

Yesterday we went to the U.S. consolate for a oath taking ceremony and to get some final paperwork to give to the immigration station in Chicago when we land that they will stamp and do whatever else they need to so that Caleb will officially be a citizen of the U.S.

Other than that little outing, we had a mostly free day. Mom went down and did some exit paperwork at 2:30 and I took the boys swimming.

It was 72 degrees, mostly cloudy and a little too breezy to be in a pool but the hotel is kind of U shaped so you're shielded from the wind a little. Robby couldn't have cared less about the temp or the wind, but Caleb, who is a little gun shy in the pool anyway, didn't care much for it. I tried to occupy him as best as I could but he was much happier sitting in the chair next to the pool, covered in towels and laughing at his fish-like brother.

We came back up to the room to get cleaned up and dressed so that we could go out to dinner with the Gonsalves, or Liena's family. We tried to go to a Mexican joint on Shamian Island but we couldn't get any cabbies to take us. They were getting hostile at the bell hops apparently because we had too many people. They would get noticably irritated and wave their finger in a way to say, "get the heck out of here", and off they would drive. I think we were shunned by 5 cabs before we gave up and decided to walk to a restaurant in the park across from the hotel.

We ate outside on the waterfront patio. The food was good. Liena's dad and I had a Guiness Stout which is not the same as what you would get in the states. I tried to get another one later at the 7-11 but they were out. I wanted to take a photo of it and compare labels once I got back to the states, so I may try to seek one out at a different store later today.

After we were done eating and the kids were going bonkers, I picked up Caleb to take him over and show him the water. He really likes to look at water, just not to be in it. He grabbed my glasses off of my face and threw them at the water. They bounced off the top of the railing and fell. I couldn't hear where they landed because Robby and Liena were dancing and singing right next to me. I squinted the best I could and looked over the railing to see if there were any ripples in the water. It was dark out with no breeze and some really pretty lights across the pond from us so I figured I would be able to see ripples at the very least. Thankfully there were none.

Okay then. That means that they're on the floor somewhere and I've still got two kids (R & L) dancing and going crazy so I now figured I've dodged the water bullet but they're going to get crunched.

It must have been my lucky day because my blind self found them underneath Liena's grandpas chair. Whew...

I nearly threw the car keys in the ocean while we were on a ferry visiting the NC Outer Banks and now the glasses in China. Sounds like there's a song in there somewhere!

I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was scolding a laughing Caleb, Robby and Liena were working out the details of this mornings play date. That's where they are now.

We walked back to the hotel and spent about an hour trying to get the boys settled in for bed (read that as wicked wrestling and tickling matches until Momma laid down the law with the boys!).

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