Before I blog about this afternoon, a few thoughts.  First, on the lighter note:

• I realized that China had a one-child policy before I left, but I had NO clue they had a one-roll of toilet paper rule.  And, to make matters worse, it is rarely a full roll!  It’s like there is some guy in the basement taking two-ply, splitting it into one-ply and rolling it back on a roll (and don’t act like your parents at some point in your life didn’t do that!).
• Banana peels CAN go down the toilet.  Caleb has proven this.  I’m assuming he never had a “typical” toilet before because he is fascinated by it and what goes down it.  I have a feeling that the banana incident was somehow secretly sent to him by Mia through Skype as part of their coordinated effort against us.  We will see what else transpires.
• “Bin Qua” is ice.  Remember that.  We spent much time last night trying to draw pictures and use hand gestures just to get a little bucket of gross tasting ice.  They don’t use it here in their drinks and they think us quite strange to ask for it.
• There is a period where, I am assuming, an adoptive child’s body has to adjust to eating more “American” food.  This period of time can be, well … somewhat smelly if I have to be frank.  Caleb was passing some of the worst gas yesterday and he did it ALL day long.  At one point when he was watching a movie, I thought Taylor and I were going to pass out!  I mentioned to the girls that I had smelled his gas SO MUCH yesterday that I was starting to think that that was the natural smell of the city we were in.  Either he did better today, or the smell sensors in our noses were so badly damaged yesterday that we just were unable to smell it anymore.  That is, unfortunately, completely feasible.

On a more serious note, I have been so impressed with how Caleb has progressed in that last couple of days.  On Monday he was an crazy kid with about no self control.  I wasn’t sure if we were EVERY going to get him to sit still and control himself.  But, by today, he was doing so much better.  He held my hand through most of the part and rarely tried to run off.  The couple of times he did, he stopped when we called him.  He now sits in the restaurants, rather than yelling and standing on his chair.  And, he has learned to whisper in the elevator rather than talk at the top of his lungs.  It was so cute tonight when he pulled Brittany over and was whispering in her ear as we went up to our room.  She has no clue what he said, but at least it was in a civilized voice.  I am truly amazed at how far he has come in just a few short. days.

This afternoon Caleb and Brittany were playing and he fell and hit his head on the table.  Kelly was able to give him some of the motherly comfort that she is so good at giving.

That said, we went to a four-story mall tonight.  He LOVES escalators and he was dragging me around from one escalator to the next!  I felt that I was taking Hershey, our month’s old dog, for a walk!  It was exhausting…  As we left the Mall, here was the view of all the bikes and scooters that greeted us:

As I told you yesterday, we have been looking for a park and, in the end, there was one a block away from our hotel, jut in a direction that we had not been going!  It is called the “People’s Park” and it was quite nice!

The park is surrounding a large lake with paddle boats.

There are walkways and bridges all through the park that are very ornate and beautiful.

As is typical, people gather at these parks to play games,

practice their drumming,

and exercise.

They also play this game (? I guess?) where they have a large top and they hit it with a type of whip that keeps the top spinning.

I have no idea what it was called, but there were a TON of people doing it!

In addition, I guess this was the park to have your wedding pictures taken, because that was a pretty common occurrence while we were there!

OK, quick note on the way the Chinese people dress their babies.  First, it was almost 70 degrees out today and they still had their kids dressed up in snow suites.  However, these suits have an interesting feature.  There is a slit cut in the back.  This allows the little kids to go to the bathroom without taking everything off!  Unfortunately that means that they don’t wear any underwear, so their bare bottoms are hanging out.  Taylor says that is OK because everyone’s bottom looks the same anyway.  I think she may need some counseling when she gets home.

The park had many interesting items like sculptures and buildings that all surrounded the lake.

However, what interested Caleb the MOST was the paddle boats.  He was bound and determined that he was riding one of those boats.  So, we gave in!  A very, very nice lady at the boat talk kind of took us by the hand and showed us what we needed to do to rent them.  We thought $100 (about $15 US) was kind of a lot for these people to pay!  It wasn’t until we came back to the dock and she walked us through the process that we realized that the $100 was just a DEPOSIT and we got $75 of that back.  So, $2.50US for a boat ride was very, very reasonable!

We all piled into our “duck” boat with Taylor and myself providing the power! 

It didn’t take long before Caleb wanted to “drive” …

… and then wanted to peddle.  He ended up peddling by himself for much of the ride.

Brittany ended up doing much of the navigating, including taking us through this treacherous area twice!

Kelly and Taylor excelled at looking pretty!

Unlike this guy, whose picture I took earlier in the afternoon.  However, I just LOVE the faces of these people.  I wish I had an afternoon just to go out and take face shots.  But, I’m not here for the photography!

After we got off the boat, we went looking for where they were flying kites and ended up in another park that was next door to the “People’s Park”.

A lot of people where masks here.  I’m not sure if it is because of the pollution, concern about avaiary flu (sp?), or the pollen from the poplar trees.  Maybe it is a combination of both.

Brittany and Caleb had a good time.

The park was preparing for a big festival this weekend.

In this park, we found an older gentleman who was selling the tops and sticks that we had seen previously.  He LOVED Brittany and spent a bunch of time with both her and Caleb showing them how to do it.

Do you think there may be a little hockey in Caleb’s future?

In the end, I paid the guy $1.50US for a stick and a top … and a little plastic toy that Caleb liked.  But, he was a nice guy and I didn’t mind!

That about raps it up for today.  Tomorrow we head to Guangzhou, the last trip on our journey!

Cameron