The Gift of You

Evan and XinYue having a blast playing together!

Evan and Caleb in their new Chinese outfits! They are so handsome!


Everyone on the bus...we were waiting out the rain so we could go to Summer Palace but it didn't stop. Sam J (Tracy's son) is standing up in the front (left) and you can see XinYue peeking around the corner at the right. In the very front right is Tracey and Bob's son, Sebastian and he and Caleb are getting along great! Sebastian even enjoys listening to Caleb's endless stories so that works out well :-)

A fish tank at the Aquarium

Caleb feeding the fish frenzy at the Aquarium

Evan and Caleb at the Aquarium


Our days here in Beijing are much busier than our days in Nanning. We start our days around 9:30 with tours and they usually last all day. By the time supper time comes, we are all pretty tired!

-

The kids in the travel group have really started to have fun together and interact with each other. It is awesome to hear them talking to each other in Chinese. Evan has really taken to XinYue (pronounced Shin You-Ay). She is Malcolm and Adrienne's daughter and they love to talk, chase each other and play. We are getting a big kick out of watching and listening to them. The other day we were traveling back from the Great Wall (about 1.5 hour drive) and the two of them were chattering non stop and singing songs. We were able to get alot of it on video. At one point, the guide reprimanded the two of them and we asked what they were saying. It seems they were laughing and talking about "sh!t". Another time, she told them to stop again and this time little XinYue told Evan something outside looked like his a$$ and Evan said "No, it looks like your a$$!" So, since they knew we couldn't understand them they took full advantage of using their potty mouths! Hee hee! What a hoot!

-

Evan also enjoys repeating all the names of the people in our family...He'll say "Mommy!" and when I look at him he says, "mommy, daddy, alyssa, dylan, cala" with a big smile on his face. And then he'll point to himself and say "Evan". He showed me today his action for an airplane and said "Can.a.da."

-

The other day the guide was talking to Evan in Chinese and Evan said "No, I know some English words!" as if he wanted to talk in English. He doesn't know enough yet to talk in sentences but he knows lots of words and now understands some of our instructions in English like "are you hungry", "take it to daddy", "Sit down", etc... He also told our guide that he doesn't want to be called Jun Jun anymore, only Evan. I still like to call him Evan Jun Jun though!

-

Evan has quickly picked up many "signs" or actions to let us know what he wants. We especially like the one he does when he wants to take a shower...he mimics washing under his arms and his bum. We have all come up with our own signs but we all understand each other when we use them. It's funny how it all falls into place.

-

Yesterday we were supposed to visit the Panda Bear Zoo (Chris and I have already been there) but we heard about a wonderful Aquarium that is at the zoo so we decided to go there instead. We saw a dolphin show and TONS of great sharks, fish, turtles, etc... There are huge water tanks that you walk beside and you can see everything. It was really neat. The only downfall was there were souvenir toy gift shops all along the tunnels where we were looking at fish tanks. So, the whole time we were there was trying to figure out how to distract Evan from freaking out over the toys. We had a few battle of wills but overall we all enjoyed the Aquarium very much.

-

We were supposed to visit the Summer Palace but after lunch a downpour started so we decided to skip that and we all went to the silk factory. Oh my goodness...wait until you see the dress I bought for Alyssa. I could have shopped there for a long time but Chris kept telling me to move on....and he was carrying a sleeping Evan and it was very hot so I didn't stay too long. We bought traditional chinese outfits for our 3 boys and then a traditional outfit and dress for Alyssa. I can't wait to get their photos done in the outfits!

-

The group came back to the hotel and all the kids played in the hallway....we are noticing that with a group of older children, what they really need is time to burn off some energy, not more shopping trips! Each family brought different toys so the hall was filled with guns (guess who had the guns? Yup, us!), balloons, cars, blow up dolphins, running, sceaming, laughing, and lots of good fun. it was the best thing for the kids all day.

-

After all that fun and excitement, we headed off the see a Chinese Acrobatic show. Caleb and Evan really enjoyed this!!! Chris and I had seen it last time we were in China but we were still amazed by it. I was so tired, though, that I kept falling asleep. It must have been the dim lights.... So, we are down to 3 days and then we get to see Dylan and Alyssa again! I know they are very excited about finally meeting Evan!

-

Enjoy today's pictures!

**************************************