Pearl River Dinner Cruise

Sorry...my earlier post is all messed up. I will try to delete the other one, and hopefully this one posts correctly. I guess I attached too many pics! I will post those separately.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Karen Townsend" <townsend.karen7@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 14, 2010 7:29 AM
Subject: Pearl River Dinner Cruise
To: "Me" <townsend.karen7@gmail.com>, "townsend.karen7.littlep@blogger.com" <townsend.karen7.littlep@blogger.com>

I had a little meltdown yesterday after my last blog post. Darren and Peyton were napping, the room was quiet, and my kitties had been on my mind all day, especially Riley. I am miss them terribly. I also miss my bed, water you can drink from the tap, the dry Colorado air, texting and talking on the phone, and good American and Mexican food. I am tired of living out of a suitcase, feeling sweaty and dirty every day even after I've showered, and dragging my little girl and husband all over China. The air is thick and smelly, and I just want to come home. So, I guess everything caught up with me, and I lost it. I bawled and could not stop crying. I went into the bathroom to blow my nose, and Darren came in and held me in his arms while I sobbed. I was glad Peyton was sleeping so she couldn't see me cry.

We talked while our baby girl slept, and then Darren went to pick up out laundry. He brought it back, and it was all nice and neatly packaged and perfectly folded. All of the shirts were in one sealed plastic bag, all of the underwear in another, and so on. I took a picture with my Nikon but forgot to take one with my phone to post.

I was never so happy for clean clothes. I only brought 2 pairs of pants, and I'd worn the same ones for 5 days in a row. We wanted to drop laundry off on. Saturday when we got here, but we didn't know the lay of the land yet. We tried dropping off Sunday morning before we left the hotel, but they weren't open, so by the time we dropped off Sunday afternoon, it was going to be late Monday before we could pick up. My old pants were so smelly, I felt they might walk on their own! I stripped down immediately and put on fresh clothes. I didn't have time for a shower, but I am sure I instantly smelled better! We will do laundry again on Wednesday so that doesn't happen again. When Darren picked up my pants to put them in the laundry bag, he told me the smell resembled locker room, only not quite as strong. So embarrassing! I was the stinky girl!

Peyton took a really good nap. We had to wake her up after 3 hours so we could leave. That's the first time we've had to wake her up, so we weren't sure how that would go. She woke up with a smile and was happy to put her shoes and socks on so we could go!

She melted when she saw outside and the busses and couldn't get on one. She pitched a fit. It made me sad because she doesn't understand a word I am saying to her, and I am sure that has to have a lot to do with her fits.  Sandra, Glen, and Lori...if you are reading this, can you tell me if this was something you experienced with Jazzie and Norah? Darren is sure she has serious behavioral issues, but I think it's A) she's 3; B) she is learning boundaries with us; and C) she has no idea what we are trying to communicate to her.

We were finally able to board the bus, and she was so happy, but melted when we got there because she couldn't go where SHE wanted to go, so I tried to restrain her fit as she thrased in my arms. It reminded me of the story my dad tells of how he had to do something similar with me in church. He'd pull my legs to my chest, cross my arms and hold me until I finally exhausted myself and went to sleep I told Darren about that and he said, "So you were a tool when you were little too?" I said, "Yep!" The other day, my dad emailed me and said that the mother's curse must still work on an adopted child too! She also likes to have one of everything in each hand. I'll be sure not to cut a pickle in half, mom and dad, so we don't have an episode like you had with me after Grandpa Z did that, which caused the mother of all tantrums and I made myself pass out!

Once we were on the boat, she was fine and ate a bowl of soup. They didn't have any congee. She also ate a couple of shrimp things. Then, she got antsy, so I took her up to the upper level of the boat, where it was open, and she could see the lights. I was able to contain one fit, and she sat and smiled and pointed at everything she could see. At one point she slid down on my lap and laid across my lap and pointed to her diaper. Sad that we've changed her diaper in public so much that she knows that drill! So, I changed her diaper right there! I am THAT parent. Oh boy. Some things have to change when we get back home. We are living and acting like heathens here!

The sights from the boat were neat, but the food wasn't very good. I'm glad we did it though. It was a nice evening for a dinner cruise.

We let Peyton play for a while when we got back to the hotel, and then I gave her Benadryl around 9:15 because she has been itching badly since the day we took her to the clinic, but I didn't want to do anything that would effect the TB test. Since we were all clear on that, I thought she'd benefit from having a dose. The other benefit is that she didn't fight sleep when I turned out the lights! She slept until 6:00 this morning. She woke up wanting a bottle today, but she didn't drink the whole thing. She was sweet and snuggly and us now lying in bed with us eating Teddy Grahams!

Today, we are going to the zoo! They have a lands there. I am excited to see the panda! Hopefully Peyton likes the zoo too.

I didn't take any pictures last night with my phone to post, so I an posting pics of a banyan (sp?) tree trunk. They are so cool! Banyan trees here symbolize long life. The other pictures are of children in their school uniforms we passed on our walk to the clinic yesterday.

Hugs and kisses to all! Only 4 more days here, then off to Hong Kong, and finally home!