After sleeping a full 9 hours, we wake up. We are happy about the 9 hours because he only slept 7 hours the night before, mostly because we got him to bed too late on Sunday night. Nathanael wakes up hungry. Two things you should know about Nathanael. Number 1 is he loves to eat. When you bring out the food he immediately starts reaching for it. When you feed him he is like a little bird the way he opens his mouth. So feeding him is definitely not a problem. And if he doesn't like something, he spits it out. Keyanna has seen a lot of babies, and she has never seen a 14 month old spit like he can. It doesn't just fall out of his mouth or run down his chin; it actually projectiles out with surprising distance. Hopefully this won't be much of a problem because he likes almost everything. Number 2 thing you should know about him is he does not want to be held by anyone but Mommy. Believe me, I have tried. Once he warms up to you, he will smile at you and play with you, but he won't let you hold him. We brought a baby carrier with us that he HATES. So this means Keyanna has to carry him everywhere when we go out. As long as we are in happy room, he is usually too busy playing to be held. But when we leave happy room, it is Mommy all the way. This really takes its toll on Mommy's arms and back, which is another reason it is difficult to leave happy room. Even when we are in happy room, much of the time he doesn't allow Mommy to get off the bed without letting us know his displeasure. Keyanna thinks she might be getting bed sores! So Daddy has to do everything else while Mommy sits on the bed. I get the bottle ready, bring food, bring toys, diapers and anything else. He holds his own bottle. He does let me feed him the jar food which is nice and good for bonding with Daddy.
Tuesday, 7:30 AM
After getting showers and skyping with friends, we go down to breakfast. Oh, before we left happy room, Keyanna got Nathanael to sleep in the carrier, not without some resistance and crying. But we did manage to get down the elevator with him asleep, which was definitely good because the elevator kept stopping at other floors on the way down. It was by far the longest elevator ride since we've been here, and the elevator was packed with people by the time we reached the bottom. Thank God he was sleeping! Breakfast was the usual: fried rice, noodles, chicken sausage, fried egg, fruit, toast with strawberry jam. They actually had some shrimp this morning! I only ate one. It was not very good.
Tasted a little better than it looks, but not much.
Nathanael slept halfway through breakfast
Daddy being silly
Not laughing at Daddy. Still not fully awake.
Tuesday, 9:30 AM
We met our guide Jerry in the lobby for the orphanage visit. Getting in the van brought on more crying, but he calmed down after a minute or two. We had no idea what to expect at the orphanage. Looking at the facilities and seeing the nannies with the babies there, we were very encouraged to know Nathanael was well cared for during the first few months of his life. The waiting room where we first walked in was chilly. Like the buildings we were in yesterday, no heat. And they keep the doors and windows wide open. Nathanael had to give his hand print and foot print on a document with a red ink pad. He did not like that at all and cried. Then we went to see the orphanage. It was 3 separate buildings. We went in 2 of the 3 buildings. The 3rd building that we did not go inside of was the hospital part. First building was for the special needs children. The lady said Nathanael was never living in that building. The rooms with babies had heaters and it was very warm. Plus, needless to say, they were like little Michelin babies with all the layers of clothing. Nathanael immediately wanted to get down play with all the toys. He loves toys, especially ones that make noises and have buttons to push. He smiled at the babies and was just as happy as can be. Next we went to the other building where Nathanael used to stay. We met several ladies in there who immediately recognized him and smiled and called out his name. We went into a few more rooms with more children, but we didn't really see that many children, or not as many as we expected. All total we only saw about 15 kids in the 4 rooms we visited. We figured there were more rooms they didn't show us. Overall, it was a good visit and we left encouraged and impressed by the orphanage.
Building where Nathanael lived before going to stay with his foster family
Inside that building
First nanny who knew Nathanael
Baby room. Lots of cribs in the background. Nathanael loved playing with the toys. Lady on right is the social worker who showed us around. She says Nathanael is very smart and already can recognize many words in Chinese.
What? I'm playing here.
View from window of another wing of the orphanage we did not go to.
This is the other building where the lady told us the special needs kids live.
More playing with toys
Only about 6 cribs actually had a baby in it.
Row of bouncy seats. See the humidifier on the right. Those were everywhere. At least 4 in every room we visited.
Baby walker parking
Another shot of the lobby area
Nannies couldn't resist
Another of Nathanael's nannies
Different room, more toys
Another shot of lobby area
Outside shot. Directly in front behind those trees is the hospital part we did not visit.
Entrance
Some art on the building
Tuesday, 11:00 AM
Back to hotel. The rest of the day was so lazy Keyanna almost went coo-koo! To keep Nathanael happy, we can't leave happy room and Mommy can't hardly get off the bed. And the bed, by the way, it hard as a rock. We can't complain though, as much as we've been blessed! After a lunch of noodles and a banana for Troy and instant oatmeal and an apple for Keyanna, Nathanael and Mommy took a 2+ hour nap while Daddy blogged.
Little Monkey
That's right. I'm a big boy with my banana.
Can't think of a good caption, but that sure is a cute face
Want some Daddy?
I love playing with these cabinet doors because it is probably the most dangerous thing in the room.
Nap time. Awwwww.
Tuesday, 4:45 PM
By the time nap was over, we were starting to get hungry again and little man is always hungry. We decided we'd just order from the room service menu which leads to a funny story! Keyanna called them on the phone and tried to order. She first said "English?" then our room number and then gave them the order. She repeated the order and hung up. Then she told me it was dead silence on the other end ever since she gave the room number! Soooo, we didn't know what was going on. A few minutes later, knock on the door. It was one of the ladies from the restaurant holding a menu. She held it out to me. I pointed to what we wanted to order and then I held up 2 fingers. Success! The food was delivered, 2 Club Sandwiches with "Fried Fries". It was so good! Best meal we had since leaving home. We joked about how it was like we were on the TV show Survivor and we had just won our first reward challenge living on rice and water for days. Keyanna said that I ate it like there was a time limit before someone would take the food away. I admit, I did almost inhale it. We'll probably be getting that same order again tomorrow.
Tuesday, 7:30 PM
Nathanael had been playing and happy as long as Mommy was sitting. When Mommy moved even a few feet, he would fuss. I wanted to show something to Keyanna on the laptop and it's not a wireless connection so she got up and walked over to me. Nathanael did not like that at all. He started crying and basically pitching a nice little fit. Keyanna decided she wasn't going to cater to that any more that day so she turned to him, held out her hands and told him to come over to her. He just sat there stubbornly crying while she finished reading the computer screen. I walked over to him and tried to comfort him and play with him without picking him up, but he kept crying. I decided I would try to pick him up. Worth a shot, right? If I could just get him to trust me to hold him, Mommy wouldn't have to carry him everywhere ALL THE TIME. Well, long story shot, it didn't happen. I picked him up and he cried more. Keyanna went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and I kept holding him. In no time, he got very angry. I sang songs to him and rocked him, but he was fighting mad. This went on for probably about 10 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. I didn't want to give in. I thought if he would just give up his will and trust me, it would be so wonderful. But he didn't, this time. When Keyanna was finished in the bathroom she came over and sat on the bed. I was sitting in a chair with him next to the bed. I set him down on his feet in the floor and he walked over to the bed and climbed up in Mommy's lap. The crying immediately ceased. That made Keyanna and I both feel a lot of pain. Keyanna started crying just out of frustration. I was worried that I had made things worse between Nathanael and me. But just a couple of minutes later he wanted me to play with him again as he sat in Mommy's lap. So I guess we will just keep the status quo and hope that gradually he will trust me. We think when we get him home and he sees how Zethan and Trynna, our 2 children at home, interact with me and trust me that will help him. Long day, but we didn't really do that much!
Just before bed he's happy
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