Wo hui shuo Ying wen ma? (Do you speak English?)

Today we didn't have any official duties, so we started off the morning by learning what it's like to get two young children ready to be seen in public. I think that took about 3 hours, but I may have blacked out for awhile. We all slept through the night last night, which was WONDERFUL and the world seemed a little brighter today. Owen is getting used to Alex but still having a lot of sibling jealousy, which may be part of his general recalcitrance regarding eating. He has no trouble with fruit, pancakes, bread, and french fries, but anything else might as well be made out of brick for all the trouble it takes us to cram it into him. We brought a lot of instant breakfasts with us and are commencing to use it to give him some extra calories. Alex's eating slowed down a bit today, too. Maybe he's getting confident we will feed him regularly? This morning at breakfast he was hungry but showed no interest in using his hand to feed himself; he was satisfied only if Ellen fed him by hand. Hmmm...a ploy to get some constant one-on-one?


After breakfast, we ventured out to a local city park where we saw several people doing Tai Chi and listened to several groups playing traditional Chinese music and singing, apparently just for their satisfaction and a general contribution to the atmosphere. We attracted a lot of attention at the park and used the red necklace badges our guides provided to inform people that we were not in fact running away with a Chinese baby we happened across. Everyone is especially interested in Owen. People do double-takes when they see him, and nudge each other and point. He's not much for the celebrity status, though, and tends to try to bury himself in us when people get close. We paid 8 Yuan for a carnival ride of small helicopters that went round and round and up and down. That attracted a big crowd, too. We left the park and played human Frogger to get across the street. The rule here is that you get out of the way of anything motorized. Walked down to the photo shop and had a good time communicating about getting film developed from the camera we mailed to Alex in the orphanage. They were determined to communicate and good-natured, and we eventually worked out that it would cost 66 Yuan (about $10) to develop it, and it would be ready tomorrow at 3pm. Left there and got a bit turned around finding the laundry place, so we ducked into a travel agency and asked directions. They were very pleasant and pointed us in the right direction. When we arrived for laundry, a brief flurry of communication ensued, all of it way over my head. I paused a long while and said "Guo yi huir, ma?" (later?), to which they replied "Guo yi huir, gui yi huir." Ah, sweet success!

Hmm...it seems that the changes I've tried to make to this post for the past 10 minutes have been lost, so I'll just wrap up the rest of the day: Got back to the hotel with the laundry, Ellen and Alex stayed at the hotel while Alex napped and Owen and I ventured out with our big group to the Lotus Center (Chinese version of Wal Mart). Store seemed to me to be about 60% snack food, 20% noodles, and 20% gift boxes of liquor. Got diapers, drawing paper for Owen, oatmeal (had a long one-sided conversation with a sales associate about that), and yogurt. Back to the hotel, ordered sichuan noodles for Ellen and me and ham & cheese for Owen. Alex had rice cereal and formula, which he wolfed down. Owen is drawing like crazy and getting very good at writing. Alex played very sweetly by himself with his stacking cups, making adorable little noises and occasionally coming over to snatch a french fry or get us to hold one of the stacking cups for a moment until he grabbed it back and giggled.

Tomorrow we drive with another family to Luohe to see Alex's orphanage. Worried that Alex won't handle it well, but don't want to miss the opportunity to see a place that was so important to Alex at the beginning of his life.