A Mistake I Will Never Forget

So, do I have your curiosity brewing? This morning while we were hanging in our hotel room in Guangzhou I was trying to figure out how to copy pictures onto the hard drive of the computer. Yep, the worst thing possibly...I hit the wrong button and deleted every video since adopting Eli. Of course we hadn't figured out how to make a copy of the videos, so everything is gone...I was devastated to say the least!!
Moving on to better topics...Jace did fantastic on his first plane ride. He fell asleep midway through the three hour flight. So far, he is such a calm child. Arriving at the airport, we found out that we have the same guide, Helen, that we had when we were here with Eli. It has been great to chat with her as we are much more relaxed this time around and can ask a lot more cultural questions. She is so accommodating. For example, we received a memory book from Jace's orphanage and she offered to translate the pages for us!
This morning, we met a family from Wisconsin that was heading home as they adoption was finalized yesterday. We also met a family from Grand Rapids, Michigan that we will do a few things with as we have the same guide. They adopted a little boy about three years old. All of us met down in the lobby this morning to walk to Shaimen Island for visa pictures and medical exams. Jace passed the medical exam with flying colors. He refused to have a nurse pick him up to put him on the baby scale. Rob brought him to the big kid scale, he jumped up and stood there. Then, it was time for the shots....OUCH! He had to get three shots and his TB test. Being Rob's little shadow, Rob had the priviledge of holding him during the shots. Oh boy did our little boy cry...it may have had more to do with the people touching him than anything. After the medical exam, we walked to Lucy's and had an American lunch. We also went into a Chinese restaurant that had tanks of live fish, squid, snakes, various bugs just ready for someone to order. I took lots of pictures except for the snakes! The island is very peaceful right now as a lot of the construction is wrapping up. It was sad to hear that some shops had to close due to all of the construction hurting their business. During our walk back to the hotel, we walk through tiny streets with lots of vendors (I asked Rob what he would call that area and he said a shopping mall...yeah, not quite my idea of a shopping mall). The vendors sell anything from medicinal herbs, junk toys, clothes, fish, dried scorpions, an entire alley of fish and tanks, and lots of puppies (yeah, just grosses me out to think what might happen to them). It is quite a sight...something you wouldn't see on Shamien Island. Once we got back from the island, Helen came up to review our paperwork...big relief that we had everything in order!
It's bullet time:
* Jace is already starting to respond to his name.
* Loves to play peek-a-boo.
* M&M's and mango juice don't taste very good together.
* Started to play with his toys without one of us sitting by his side.
* Does a lot babbling.
* Loves to be tickled. He will even point to areas that he wants us to tickle.
* Enjoys baths and swimming pools (just not being placed in a floatie)
* Loves checking out the view from our window
* Weighs 24 pounds
* Only likes to have one thing on his plate at a time...he will push a plate to the very edge just to get it out of his sight
* Noodles, watermelon, bananas, hot oatmeal, and fried rice are his favorites to eat
Tonight we went as a large group for dinner at a fabulous Chinese restaurant. The sweet and sour chicken was the best I ever had! The soy sauce in the States is so different compared to here...much better here! Rob loved the the dim sum shrimp, beef, and the pork dishes. For dessert, we even had Dim Sum (?) for dessert. It had bananas, nuts, and some type of crust...looked scary but tasted great. Jace kept begging for the shrimp and fried rice!