Wednesday 1/20/16

Finally a day to relax! Elijah was up multiple times during the night, so we were thankful we didn't have an alarm set. This morning we went for a stroll with Elijah asleep in the baby carrier. We were trying to find an indoor mall but ended up above it in an outdoor park. It was nicely landscaped but way too cold to stay long with a high of 36 degrees. We made it back down to the street and finally found an entrance to the two story mall. We walked around until Elijah woke up and went into a children's store. The shoes he came with had zero tread left and velcro that no longer stuck. The nice sales clerk helped us find shoes that fit him. When I sat down to try both on him, I could hear her phone camera click beside me. We've gotten used to having our picture taken, as this happens at most meals and well, pretty much everywhere we go. We paid for the shoes and Phillip offered to let her take a decent picture of us. The funny part is that she pulled out her tablet to do so. So look for us on Facebook China edition later today. Next we stopped at Gymboree in the mall, which is like a little gym for toddlers. Everyone was super nice and allowed us to play for free. Elijah had a blast climbing and sliding. We ate some sort of boiled fish for lunch, which was brought out in an electric frying pan.

Funny mistranslation of the day: When the waitress brought us hot, white liquid in a pitcher, I poured it into my glass. She laughed, took the cup away, and poured the hot liquid over the fish dish. Oops.

We ate dinner with two other couples at a Korean restaurant. There was only one high chair so I held Elijah on my lap. The waitress was constantly adding food to our big hot plate and occasionally reached over to feed Elijah a bite while I took a bite. She also offered him stickers and a cup to play with. After a while, she reached over to touch his belly. I thought she was tickling him until she told me his belly was full and he had eaten enough. She then removed his plate of noodles from in front of us! He was still motioning for food (and many orphans struggle with food issues), so I continued to feed him scrambled egg. She motioned that he was full and would get sick. She offered to walk him around the restaurant (I assume by her gestures) but I had to say no three times so she would stop trying to pick him up. We had been warned about pushy moms and grandmothers around here, especially about bundling up babies to keep warm. It seems people feel they have some sort of right to tell me how to treat my Asian child since he is apparently foreign to me, even though they met the child a few minutes ago. Ironically, I told Phillip earlier today that the people near us at lunch were probably thinking "those Americans must overfeed that child, look at his cheeks!" But I love those cheeks no matter what others may say. 

Tomorrow we are visiting the Zhengzhou orphanage. I hope it goes well for us, Elijah, and the nannies.