There was a huge koi pond with ducks and turtles on the grounds of the pavilion. This time Kathleen saw the koi pond and said, "I'm not going swimming, Mommy and Daddy. I already did that and it wasn't fun." She cracks me up! The pavilion sits right on the edge of the Kan River. It used to be the tallest building in Nanchang, but now there are scads of skyscrapers in all directions. It's still a breathtaking view from up at the top. There are three beautiful bridges which cross the river. The one closest to our hotel (Gloria Grand Hotel) is a suspension bridge, which is lit up at night as part of the evening light show of buildings along both sides of the river. There is a ferris wheel along the Kan River on the opposite side as our hotel. Our guide notified us that it was taller than the London Eye. I had never even heard of it. It's HUGE...should we take the kids for a ride?
The rest of the day we ventured out on our own looking for a market to buy Jonathan some shoes and shirts that fit him. As much as I love Walmart (NOT!), their prices were higher than I would have paid for clothes for the kids back home. So, I told our guide that I would look at the local market for a few things. My favorite shirt I picked up today to look at had more spelling and grammatical errors than I could count. It was humorous looking at all the English words on shirts and wonder, "What were they thinking?" Most of them made no sense whatsoever. We found a pair of sandals for Jonathan. (Hope it's not snowing in Idaho when we return.) And one shirt. We are going back tomorrow to look for more shirts, but this time with no strollers. Too many stairs and a scary elevator situation. What's a few missing buttons and doors that don't close all the way on an elevator?
Kathleen and I have spent a little time each day doing "school" together. She is getting so much better with her handwriting. The ladies who work in the lobby restaurant get a kick out of us doing her work there.
The weather was perfect today. Warm, sunny and a little humid! Jonathan is going to have no problem adjusting to Idaho weather. He was a bundle of sweat on Gotcha day in a long sleep shirt and corduroy pants. He's been wearing shorts every day since, but he's not used to them. He keeps trying to pull them down to his ankles. They are long shorts, but not that long, buddy! Maybe the 3T shorts will be "pants" on him!
Kimmer and I both found out today that Jonathan has is strong in many ways. He has very strong legs and arms. So we are thinking we need to teach him the haka (New Zealand) and get him into rugby (I'm not really an American football fan). We already know we have hospital trips waiting for us with him. We may nickname him Bruiser...he runs full force into things and it just doesn't phase him. Kathleen said, "He's a tough cookie!" That he is! He seems to be quite smart, so we don't want to damage the brain cells with too much contact sports at an early age. He has already picked up several English and sign language words. This is only day three! He's called me mama, called Kimmer da-da, and he said Kathleen, potty, drink, wa-wa/water, no (he's almost two...he's GOT to say that one!), quack, hot, and Beep! Beep! He sweetly picked up Kathleen's socks and gave them to her when he saw we were getting ready to go to dinner. He even gave her princess to her that she dropped. He asks for the stroller and loves it. He is really attaching well so far. He mostly wants mama, but there are times he will go to Da-da (like this morning at the pavilion). He had a hard time falling asleep tonight, but that may have been because he slept so long during his afternoon nap AND fell asleep this morning for 45 minutes.
Keep Jonathan's health in your prayers. He has a deep cough and thick green boogies and possibly pink eye. I am debating on giving him the antibiotics we brought. If anyone has advice on that or Erythromycin Ophthalmic Ointment (which I have) for the pink eye, email us! We cannot access our blog from China (at least not in Beijing nor in Nanchang), so leaving a comment there will not help. I also have no access to Facebook from China. Both sights are blocked and heavily filtered. I was thinking I may start the eye ointment and the oral antibiotics in the morning at breakfast, but I would love someone to call a pediatrician or talk to a doctor before I start giving him some. Symptoms for oral antibiotics: deep, raspy cough and you can feel a tightness in his chest and hear wheezing as he breaths; boogies are thick green; he's running a low grade temperature. His ears are bothering him as he picks at them constantly. I cleaned out a TON of wax, but he has a TON I do not want to go deeper to get nor push further in. Symptoms for ophthalmic ointment: green goopies in his eyes daily and very watery. I am super susceptible to pink eye, so I do NOT want to get it if he has it. I'm being extra careful! Thanks for any help you can give via email.
Looking forward to tomorrow...we get to meet and thank his foster parents from the orphanage!
