Carter Makes Five: Pearls, Pizza, and Pandas

Yesterday was a busy but fun day. We started the morning with Carter's medical exam. We are not traveling with a group which is fairly unusual for our agency but has been a mixed blessing for us. It can be a little lonely to not have a lot of other adopting families to share your journey, BUT everything takes a lot less time. For example, this medical clinic is usually packed with families, but when we got there yesterday morning we were the only ones waiting! Since Carter is usually on the move, not having to wait long at all of the official places we've had to visit is truly a good thing.

Empty waiting room = Playground for Carter

His exam was fast and easy, which it should be considering that he seems perfectly healthy. He was fine with the first doctor until she reached around to listen to his lungs and he thought she was trying to pick him up. Then he was just mad. None of my kids have ever liked going to the doctor (irony) so he is just showing us one more way that he fits right in.

The second doctor did an ENT exam very briefly. Carter loves to take small toys or pens and point them at our mouths and say, "Aaahh..." Justin says he should be a dentist when he grows up because he has so much fun telling everyone to open up and even does it himself. We thought this would be great at his exam, but nope. He clamped down as soon as the doctor went towards his mouth. I think he knew the difference between his game and this scary doctor with a mask trying to mess with him.

In the afternoon, Mom, Camdyn, and I went to the pearl market with our guide. It was so much fun to look at all the strands of pearls. We bought a few gifts and I got a pearl necklace to save for Carter's future wife. (It seems crazy to think of something so far in the future, but I wanted something from his birth country to give her should that day ever come.)

Camdyn picked out and paid for her own pearl bracelets.

Last night we went on a cruise on the Pearl River. The boat has the option of doing a dinner cruise but our guide suggested we order Papa Johns pizza and have a pizza party on board instead. Based on what other families said, the food served on the cruise is not great, so ten points to our guide for that.

Justin is impressed with the world's 2nd tallest building.

Carter has probably never been on a boat before and clearly had never seen anything like the sights we saw last night. He kept saying, "Boat! Mama! Bo-boat!" Every time another boat passed and "Mama! Li-li!" for all the lights. Over and over and over. He loved the motion and the noise. If I did not seem just as excited as him, ( It is hard to maintain total excitement for two hours) he would grab my cheeks, look right in my face and say, "Mama! Mama! Boat! Boat!"

He is picking up new English words every day and in just a week he can say about 10 words. I know that means he will soon stop speaking Chinese and that makes me a little sad. But, he is a boy who wants to communicate and is much happier when he feels like we understand what he wants so I expect his speech to continue to move along pretty quickly.

This morning we went to the Guangzhou Zoo. We did not stay long because it was hot and humid and in spite of coating ourselves in bug spray, the mosquitos were eating us alive. It was fun while it lasted and Carter seemed to enjoy it most of all. He loved seeing the animals!