Enjoying Home

He's gone to bed twice in a row now without incident. It's a major victory. Tonight it was by nine!

Brady Wenhong had kind of a tough day. He's been so happy every day (except when out in public), that I guess he deserved a tough one. I think we took on too much today and need to back off a bit. Once he catches up on sleep, I'm sure it will be better too.

Note in the picture below how he prefers to ride in the stroller.

Pictures

I'm afraid I haven't taken many pictures since we've been home. Here's a shot of Brady showing his video to Brad's parents, and one with Tsessebe. The Tsessebe shot was supposed to be a very cute hug, but nobody could hold still that long.

I'm Back

I've been asked by a special friend at school to keep blogging, so I'll try.

We've had a few rough nights this week. The first night Brady went to bed at 3:30. The second night at 1:00. We thought we had him turned around (not the first time he proved us to be fools) so we put him to bed at 8:00 the next night. He woke up at 11:00 and was up until 4:00. He did the same thing last night. So today we got him up early, kept him out in the sun most of the day and kept him up until 9:30. We'll see.

Even though he was exhausted, we had a really fun day. We took Amery's newest American citizen (well, I'm assuming that) to the Memorial Day parade and ceremony in town.

Then he had lunch at Dairy Queen (I know, I know... He did have a banana and milk with his chicken). We ran into tons of people from school who have been following the blog and were do excited to meet Brady. He, in usual public form, was less enthused.

Then we went to the school playground for a few hours. He met my friend Janice and warmed up to her quickly. He was talking and smiling. When she left he wanted to go find her.

We also installed a car seat in Brad's truck, threw grass at the neighbors (they started it), made a trip to Alco, and played with lots of toys. We had to stay busy or all of us would have fallen asleep.

He's currently asleep, and I better go to bed too, in case he is up in the middle of the night again.

I've attached a picture of Brad and Brady sharing ice cream at the DQ. Tomorrow I'll try to upload some pics from the camera.

We're Home!

After three grueling flights, we're finally home. Brady slept most of the last two flights so he's still on China time. Brad didn't sleep at all (due to a little guy stealing all this seat room). So I took the first shift last night. Our house looks like a tornado hit it because I let Brady walk around and check everything out. At 3:30 AM he climbed in his bed with Brad and fell asleep. It's 11:30 AM now and they are both still asleep. I feel like I should wake them up to start getting back on the time zone here, but they look so cozy in there.

Here's a couple of photos of the newest US citizen. I meant to change him into a little red, white and blue outfit I bought him, but you know how that goes...

Brady Wenhong

I forgot to tell you, maybe you guessed from my posts, that we are calling him Brady Wenhong for now. He doesn't respond to Brady yet (and only sorta responds to Wenhong :) ).

Wenhong is pronounced differently than it looks. It's "ven" and then the /h/ is voiceless and the "ong" ends in a glottal stop where the air comes out your nose. But it's all run together. So it almost sounds like a terrible German accent.

Last Day in GZ

It's our last night in Guangzhou. It really is a nice place. My favorite of our three stops in China.

We had no plans today. We had breakfast, swam in the bathtub. Walked to Starbucks for Brad's coffee fix, toured the gardens at our hotel, swam in the actual pool, and then Brady crashed. Hard.

We can't figure out how to get him down for a nap, but without it, he's out at 4:30 (instead of his usual 6:00).

The gardens here are amazing. There are two waterfalls, a stream, and paths winding through. There are koi in the streams. We fed them with another family (well, Brady fed them when he couldn't see the other family, otherwise he just watched).

All of our paperwork is in order, and our guide brought Brady's passport and visa this evening. He still has a Chinese passport as he won't become an American citizen until he steps foot in the airport in Seattle (well, knowing him, until Baba steps foot into the airport carrying him).

Speaking of which, our flight leaves at 12:40 tomorrow, our time. So if you are playing along at home, that will be 11:40 PM your time. We leave Seoul at 6:00 pm, which should be 7:00 am your time (which seems wrong - perhaps (I'm miscalculating). We get into Seattle at 11:50 am Seattle time, or 9:50 am your time (on the 24th). You can all have your own private citizenship party for Brady Wenhong at that time. We have a four hour layover there to clear immigration and then off to MPLS. We arrive at 8:17 PM.

Can't wait to see everyone when we get back!

One More

Here's a picture after our consulate appointment today (no cameras were allowed inside).

This Is How He Sleeps

This is a nap yesterday, but this is the position in which he sleeps. And he sleeps soundly.

Sleeping

Sleeping with YoYo.

Consulate Appointment

Today was Brady's consulate appointment. He was granted a visa to come to the US, which will be picked up tomorrow afternoon. Then, the next morning, we leave for home.

It's a 24 hour journey home, but because of the time difference, we get there just half a day after we leave.

After our appointment today we went to Shamian Island for an hour. Shamian Island is where the US Consulate and medical examination used to be, so all adoptive families used to stay there. The major hotel there is closed for remodeling, so most families are not staying on the island these days.

Having been there today, I would have rather stayed on the island. There were much fewer people on the island then in the expensive downtown district where we are staying. Most of the streets are pedestrian only, so you don't risk your life every time you venture out (I got "bumped" by a car yesterday). However, because of the lack of traffic, some shops have closed down.

We were only there for an hour, and with a toddler who insists on being carried, and the heat, we didn't get much shopping done. It was a lovely place though.

The rest of the day we spent at the pool and dinner. Check out the plastic gloves that were sent with Brad's leftover pizza.

We have nothing to do tomorrow. Just hang out here and wait to go home. I'm mildly jealous of the families here who came in groups because they have activities and sightseeing planned all of the days.

You should see this hotel we are in. It's a far cry from the tiny rooms in Beijing and Taiyuan. It's a two room suite with a huge living room area. The bathroom is also huge and has the aforementioned shower/tub combo room, which is great fun. It has a rain shower and an electric screen that comes down to separate it from the bedroom. Our breakfast buffet is huge. There is so much food, and so many varied types of food, it is incredible. And there's a waterfall and garden by the pool. When you go to the pool, they follow you out to bring you towels and drinking water.

See ya in a few!

Good News

Brady Wenhong passed his TB test this morning, which is good news, I guess on several levels. Mostly because it means he is cleared to travel to the US.

Another great thing today is that Brady held my hand and walked to his appointment. He sat on my lap in the cab and at his appointment. He also held my hand as we walked to the Trust Mart for water and snacks. It's the first time he's been okay with that. And it's nice because it gives Baba a break.

He knows a bunch of words in English now, but doesn't speak any. He knows key, shoes, garbage, go, bath, teeth brush, potty, and sit. I think there's more that I can't think of now. He continues to talk constantly on the hotel room. His sentences are huge.

He does have two cute gestures. Both involve holding his hands out in front of him, palms out, fingertips up. Both involve moving his hands side to size. One means "I don't want it". The other means " I want it.". There's a subtle difference between the two.

This afternoon we head to the pool with another family who have a 5 year old and a newly adopted three year old. I hope he'll go in. He doesn't like to do anything out in public.

Check out the pictures below. We gave him a little stuffed Tsessebe dog. He ran around with it moving it like it was barking and yelling "Yo yo yo yo" which must be the sound dog's make in China.

Th Ugly Americans

Yup, that's us. We took three baths today, for a total of about 2.5 hours with the water running. We trashed our hotel room. It wasn't pretty.

We tried to go to the zoo, but only lasted about an hour. Brady Wenhong hadn't napped, and was kind of glazed over. Combine that with 90 some degree temperatures, ridiculous humidity, and a little boy who insists on being carried at all times. It wasn't fun.

Then we came back to the hotel and everyone was in full meltdown mode. So we ordered ridiculously expensive room service burgers and broccoli, and crashed on the couch.

Three more days here. Our bathtub/pool is saving us, but we don't know how we are going to do three more days. It's too hot to even go anywhere and buy water and carry it back. I was told that Guangzhou is where we should do our shopping, but I don't know where or even how we'd do it in this heat.

Thank goodness for this reasonable sized hotel room, because I think we're stuck here. We'll have Brady Wenhong's TB test read tomorrow and then try to hit the actual pool. Perhaps we'll take a cab "to the island" for dinner tomorrow night.

Brushing Teeth?

Is there an equivalent to bathtub swimming for warming up to baths for tooth brushing? He's obviously seen a toothbrush before and knows how to put the paste on, but brushing his teeth is a whole 'nother story...

He Went To Bed

Tonight, he went to bed with no crying. First, he layed there and talked to us for an hour. I'd love to know what he's saying. The kid talks and talks. Then he magically fell asleep. I know when he wakes up he'll be disoriented and sad, but this was a good night.

Oh and speaking of the talking... Brady Wenhong almost never speaks when we are out in public, nor does he look at the person speaking to him. But, the Mandarin speakers who have heard him speak all tell us "he's very clever". Clever appears to be Chinese code for "naughty". :)

And Now Here's Something We Hope You'll Really Like

We had a great day today. Well, there was some melting down, but that was Brad and me, so I guess that's for another blog.

Brady Wenhong had his mandatory physical this morning. He actually let them look in his mouth and ears without a fight. He cried when he had to strip down for the physical exam, but really, who can blame him. He also cried for the TB test, but recovered quickly. After hearing horror stories about the medical exam, we were in and out quickly, and on with the rest of our day.

The rest of the day was great. We had a few moments of toy throwing and the like, but he really did well. It rained all afternoon (Though how you would realize it is raining in this staggering heat and humidity is beyond me. Seriously, it's beastly here.), so we decided to get over the bath fear.

Did I mention we have this awesome bathtub, shower room combo? We made full use of it today. We started just playing trucks in the water. Then Brad put his suit on and got in. He started splashing Brady Wenhong. Pretty soon Brady Wenhong was soaked, and decided to get in the tub. Finally, he got sick of his wet clothes and had a proper bath. No screaming, no dirty fingernails. I wonder how we will handle this at home.