Letting us in

Every day our little boy lets us in just a little more. When we are out and about, he is absorbing everything he sees, and he doesn't smile or talk much. When we are in the room, after he expresses his initial dissatisfaction with returning to the room, he settles in and plays and talks and laughs.
 

Yesterday I was singing in the shower--which has marvelous acoustics, despite its slightly odd configuration, which I much get a photo of--and John said Michael kept talking about Mama and pointing to me. Then he launched into his own sweet little song in Chinese--or Chinese babble, we'll never know which. I caught the end of his song when I came out, and it was so very dear. Of course, I didn't capture it on video, but it was a beautiful little moment to hear him singing with confidence and comfort, hanging out with his father while they played on the floor.

They are quite entertaining to watch.



Michael has decided that the hammer we had picked to bring to his Gotcha Day is OK, and he is carrying it around in lieu of the red stacking cup he had chosen.



Yesterday was the day for Michael's medical check, a requirement before we can take him back home.



Everyone was very nice, and Michael cried at each of the three stations we went to. That's actually a good sign that he's crying and reaching for us, and it was hard to believe that we had just met him a few days earlier. I don't know how many days we have been here. All sense of time is lost. I was fine filling out the form until I got to "date" at the bottom. I couldn't even think of the month. All I know is every day we get to know Michael a little better and we get a day closer to seeing Louis again. (And every day we hear about another natural disaster at home--earthquake, hurricane, what next?)

Michael was less nervous boarding the bus yesterday. We have had to go somewhere every day on the bus, and he always seems a little anxious.


As we walked to the medical check, Michael fell asleep. That would be more surprising if he had slept better the night before. He woke up at 2:30 and would only fall asleep on top of me. Then he'd wake up every time I tried to roll him off. I think we got up at 5. I don't really remember. Last night was better and I insisted that Michael sleep on the mattress rather than on top of his mother. He slept right up against me, with one arm across my neck, pushing me closer and closer to the edge of the bed. He slept! He slept! He's still asleep now, letting me type this blog.

We'll take sleep however it comes. Yesterday that meant napping in the stroller on Shamian Island.



A sleeping Michael held Baba's finger while we waited.



They have a special thing going, those two. So do Michael and I. It's fun to see our relationships grow and impossible to believe we just met him on Monday.



Have I mentioned our guides who take us everywhere? Joyce is our guide for a lot of what we do, and she's fantastic. Here she is talking with John and Michael while we wait.

Michael was unimpressed with the medical check, though the doctors seemed to come alive with the excitement of reading Michael's file. Hey, what can we say. He's a fascinating boy. In the ENT evaluation, the doctor squeezed squeaky toys on either side of his head to see if he could hear.

Then he got weighed (he's more than 25 pounds, which is what I was guessing from our hotel room scale), measured, poked, squeezed, undressed, redressed, and told more than once how handsome he is. So, he's indisputably handsome, as confirmed by Chinese medical authorities.

Yesterday he wore the hat his Aunt Maureen bought for him. He seems to like it--and he has had plenty of comments on it. Maybe Michael will be a hat wearer.

While we were on the island, we dropped off our laundry at Susan's Place, borrowed a stroller from Dong--and Michael was OK, though not thrilled, with riding in the stroller--and did a little shopping.

We have been wanting to go back to Jordan's, where Jordan, the owner, does a Chinese calligraphy version of your child's English name for free. It's a great business strategy--just as Dong's tea service is--because it keeps you in the store and you spend more money.

I had just told Sue, one of our fellow adoptive parents, that the shopkeepers all remember John but not me. Then Jordan spotted us partway down the block and yelled out to me--not John--"Good to see you again! How long has it been! You were just here a few years ago!" We had a wonderful time catching up, and he told me that he remembered me because I had spent so much in his shop last time (oops) and because "to a Chinese person you are 100 percent white." It made me laugh.



John and I always enjoy visiting Jordan's. What surprised us was how much someone else lit up while we were there.



Michael spotted some Pleasant Goat merchandise and started saying the Chinese word for goat. (Pleasant Goat is a popular TV show here, and we have bought a few--OK, more than a few--Pleasant Goat items here. We suspected that Michael knew Pleasant Goat because they have a ride-on Pleasant Goat character at his orphanage.

Then Michael saw something else: a green, knobby ball like the one he had in the orphanage. He asked to get out of my arms and immediately grabbed the ball.



Then he started trotting around the store.

Jordan's shop is full of tea sets and porcelain figurines and all kinds of things we can afford individually, but not if we smash the entire store. We finally decided to confiscate the ball until we got outside.

But as soon as we got back to the hotel, Michael and the green ball were reunited.

So maybe our boy likes shopping after all.

Or, as Baba pointed out, maybe he just likes shopping for toys.

Somehow that reminds me of two other guys I know. This boy is going to fit right into our family.

 

We're enjoying our time here--the two-week trip really does help so much with bonding and getting to know one another and building some good (and not-so-good) habits. But we just can't wait to get him home and introduce him to his big brother.