Friday, March 28, 2008

3.28.08

Joshua is very slowly coming out of his shell a tiny bit at a time. We can't view our blog, but if that picture of him in the red hat is still on the side, that is the exact expression he has had for two straight days without any change until just about an hour ago.

He stared at some of the toys we brought for him, but didn't seem to know how to play with them. There was no visible response to anything we would say except to just stare at us solemnly and he has hardly made a peep, even as he patiently watched us try to figure his bottle out for well over five minutes.

He appears to get overstimulated very easily and falls asleep. I have no problem understanding that. The streets of Hangzhou are every bit as crowded as you might imagine that China would be, the sidewalks are full of people, most of them gawking and even pointing at us (one man almost fell off his bike while staring at us). The cars will occasionally drive up on some of the sidewalks without warning (this apparently is allowed) and all the bikes are even scarier. It seems like there are near-crashes all the time but nobody is very concerned.

Our group also made a trip to China's version of Walmart. Picture Walmart in the US with 20 times as many people and shrill music playing and every time you pick out something reasonably expensive, you have to go up front and pay for it before you can keep shopping. If that gives you a headache, then you know how we felt.

As the day wore on, though, Joshua, began to develop an obvious attachment to Phil. Whenever he sees him, he will hold out his arms to him and cry if Phil leaves the room. He doesn't mind if I hold him occasionally, but for the most part, he is a daddy's boy. This is a picture of him waiting by the bathroom door for Daddy to come out.


Phil is truly Mr. Popularity over here. There is an old woman who always seems to appear outside our hotel trying to sell miscellaneous junk. Every time she sees Phil, her whole face brightens up and she runs over starts shoving pinwheels or something similar in his face.

Another time when we were in the park, a family with what I believe to be the world's fattest baby ever spotted Phil and kept waving and pointing to him so the baby could see him. Then they came over, handed Phil their baby and began taking pictures of him with their child.

We tried to feed Joshua some Asian-style noodles but he wasn't interested. Pizza, however was another story. I think he is going to do just fine eating at our house.

Later this evening, he figured out how to play with stacking cups and especially enjoyed playing with them in the tub. We were cheering for him and he rewarded us with a small smile.

He had a hard time settling down tonight even after his bottle. He would look at both of us and look over both his shoulders and back at each of us for probably 20 minutes. Finally Phil held out his arms and Joshua snuggled into his chest and went to sleep.

2 comments:

JB said...

What a sweetie! You can see him thinking hard in those photos! Glad to hear he's warming up and found a friend in his Daddy!

Rob and Beth Baker said...

Congratultations! We can't wait to meet him! He's very cute and we can have pizza at our house too ;) Braeden thinks he'll like cheeseburgers, too! We'll be praying for you and looking forward to seeing you soon!