Silly Boy

John and I are learning very quickly that Longji is a silly little boy. Here are some bathtub pictures of our little man being silly. He absolutely loves bath time and it shows with these pictures. Today we went to the Bearden's house for a Memorial Day BBQ and then to my brother's house for another BBQ. Both were fantastic and we all had a great time. To top off the day we took Longji for ice cream and after taste testing a couple of flavors he decided on Peanut Butter Chocolate. He seems to really enjoy ice cream.

Donuts, swimming pools, soccer games, birthday parties, little boy accidents!

Well we are all almost 100% recovered from our jet lag, thankfully. Friday we visited with the Ferlands and the boys played with water guns, water balloons and a water trough. Longji had a great time and we were pleased he actually ate a turkey sandwich. This is good. Sorry, I forgot the camera so there are no pictures to post of Campbell, Cael and Longji. Maybe next time.

Saturday was a very long day for us. Jordyn spent the night Friday and we all woke up early to watch Avry, my niece, play in a 9:00am soccer game. Her team won and she scored a goal! Yay!! We came home, cleaned up and went to a 12:00pm birthday party at the Work's house. Longji ate two whole hotdogs, wiener and buns separately, but that is fine with me. Gramma Work gave Longji a beautiful blanket that she made especially for him. It was so sweet and I honestly tear up when I think about how much support our friends and family have given us over the years...it was such a perfect gift! We left the party at around 3:00pm and John had to tend to my old red truck that Jennifer is driving for now. It apparently had some radiator issues or something. Meanwhile, Jordyn, Longji and myself went to visit my sister's house. We went swimming and played outside for a little bit. Longji did fantastic in the pool. I really need to get him some swimming lessons this summer. After swimming we went outside to see Avry's new scooter and Longji decided to ride one of her old three wheelers...he was way too confident on that thing and well, we had a little accident. On his third ride, he crashed and burned with the pavement. He cried for about 20 seconds and Uncle Randall helped me clean up the facial wounds. I was a mess of course...I know, he is a little boy (all boy) and I need to get used to it. I can hear all of you now telling me to toughen up. It looks worse than it feels apparently since it hasn't slowed him down at all.

We did decide to take things easy today since we have another busy day tomorrow. We all slept in a bit and I hit the grocery store early this morning. We have both been on the computer practicing our alphabet and watching some Veggie Tales. He loves the movies! We did have our first donut this morning. He picked the chocolate one with sprinkles...of course! He seemed to like it, but couldn't finish the entire thing so we wrapped it up for later. As for his scrapes and bruises, he has a very sore lip, but other than that he has not complained about anything. He helped me with some laundry and put away all of the groceries. Everything is such a learning experience. I asked him to take the Bounce dryer sheets to the dryer and later I found out they ended up in his sink in the bathroom. Hey, it is in the same general direction in the house. I think John is going to run some errands with him while I clean house this afternoon. We may hit the sidewalk with some chalk (no faces) later this afternoon. We will see how my little man is feeling.

Tomorrow I should have plenty of pictures to post. We are attending a BBQ at a friends house and another one in the evening at my brother's house. Should be a fun day!

Ugh...jet lag

Okay, so I have never really experienced jet lag before. It stinks! The first few days were really tough and we are all slowly recovering, but getting on a regular schedule is difficult. I think John is suffering the most. Longji and I are sleeping a little better day by day, but it is taking some time. In the last few days we have had a lot of firsts here in the Laymon household. Longji has decided he wants to sleep in the bottom bunk for now. He started out on the top bed, but our first night home he did not sleep well at all. He climbed out of bed and into ours. Day two John slept, well tried to sleep, in his room. Longji chose the bottom bunk and John took the floor. Neither slept. I didn't either. By day three we decided to take away naps and deal with a grumpy six year old boy. We NEED him to be tired enough to actually sleep at night. Our plan worked for day three. Jennifer slept on the floor and Longji actually slept in his bed. We stuck with the same strategy the next day and Longji was out 15 minutes after we stepped out of the bathtub. John put him in bed and he slept all night by himself! He did the same last night. Now if John and I could just get a good night's rest we would all be happy. We have taken him to McDonald's a couple of times to wear him out on the playground and also to the park one morning. He does not care for hamburgers and french fries so John and I just order drinks and watch him play. He does get bored without a play partner so we need school to be out quick! We have done some clothes and shoe shopping. His Aunt Casey and Uncle Jeff bought him his first pair of tennis shoes! Thanks you two. He also had his first haircut with us. He and Ba Ba got their hair cut together. He is adjusting amazingly well. I can't complain. He is also more comfortable here at the house. He would not go into his room or bathroom alone until yesterday. Now he runs around and walks into every room with confidence. I am looking into summer programs and different kinds of classes...swim lessons, martial arts, etc. to keep him busy this summer. Next week is our first doctor's appointment and then from there we will schedule appointments with the dentist and eye doctor. We know he probably needs glasses and we are pretty positive he has a number of cavities as this is pretty common with children from the orphanages. I am posting a few pictures from our Flip Video so I hope they turn out okay. There is a snapshot from a pool video at the White Swan I wanted to post. He is so adorable in his spiderman swim trunks. I can't wait to take him to Avry's pool. She is his seven year old cousin. I should be better about posting now since I am slowly recovering from the jet lag. Just to clarify the attached pictures. One is from the swimming pool and our first haircut. Longji is great about brushing his teeth, but he wanted a water bottle the first few nights to do it because that is what we had to do in China. He is now used to using the running tap water. The picture from his room is him opening his hot wheel boxes and placing them in his hot wheel case. We asked him the color of every car and he does this "thinking face" when we do this.

We are home!

I don't want to be on a plane again for at least...well, for a while. The trip home seemed longer than the trip there. Wait, it was! We took a train Friday to Hong Kong. That was a disaster. Then we flew Saturday 12 hours to San Francisco, arriving before our departure time because of the time change, had a 4 hour layover there and it took a little over three hours to fly home. Longji did fantastic! He is so strong willed...he refused to fall asleep. He took about a two and a half hour nap from Hong Kong to San Francisco and then maybe 45 minutes from San Francisco to San Antonio. He did not want to miss a thing. I think I slept maybe two hours and John a little more. We were too anxious and too worried about him to close our eyes for very long. Our family (and the Ferlands!) greeted us at the airport with hugs and kisses and signs! Oh, it was a treat to see everyone once we reached home. Longji did well meeting everyone and it was so nice to see Cael and Campbell, future BFFs of Longji! I can't wait to get the three together! I think he did so well meeting everyone because he saw most everybody on Skype for two weeks. He was ready to meet the people on the other side of the computer. We did not realize it, but the girls (Jennifer, Johnna, Jordyn and my niece, Avry) all decorated the house inside and out for our homecoming. Longji was beside himself. It was a rough night sleeping and tonight will probably be the same, but we are hoping to get on a regular schedule here soon. He loves his dogs very much and all of his toys. We know this because he doesn't stop kissing them. Tomorrow we are headed out for a haircut for both Dad and son and we need to get Longji a good pair of tennis shoes. Enjoy all of the pictures. I will keep posting as things move along. We are so happy to be home!

Travel group photo

Sorry, I forgot to post the travel group photo from Wednesday. I guess I posted a bunch with Longji and me and not the group photo which was what I wanted to post. Our group is awesome! Yesterday was the oath ceremony which was pretty basic. There are no pictures to post because there are no cameras allowed and really the whole ceremony takes a couple of minutes. We wrapped up the shopping and ate dinner with some other families at Lucy's...again. I can't wait to get home and have some Mexican food! I hope Longji can find something he likes on the menu at home. We catch our train this afternoon and stay in Hong Kong for the night. Tomorrow we fly out at 11:45am. We are counting down the hours.

Red Couch

We took the famous red couch photos today. You can see all of the adorable children who were adopted in our travel group. Two of the families were here for their second and third times. Longji is the oldest in the group and one of two boys. The kids were adorable! We also took pictures of our travel group which is priceless to me. We all share this experience together and there is quite the bond between families. Longji was adorable in his traditional Chinese outfit. He personally did not care much for it, but I loved it. John was handsome too in his dragon shirt. We finished up some shopping this afternoon and tomorrow we will purchase a third suitcase to return home with. We also have an official oath ceremony to bring this process to an end. We are very much looking forward to our departure here in Guangzhou. We are just ready to be in our own beds and get Longji transitioned to American life.

Chen Family Temple, Safari and PIZZA

Ok, so we caved and ordered a pizza for dinner Monday night. The "boys" went out for pizza and finally returned two hours later...the best pizza ever. We tried the Pearl River beer with the pizza. Not so bad. Yesterday we visited the Chen Family Temple. Longji decided to hold hands with one of the other daughters in our group. Her name is Maya and she is precious. She was adopted at ten months and her parents returned for number two this month. I think she is 5 1/2. She and Longji made friends in the pool the day before so he had someone to hang out with while the adults were learning about the Temple. We took a boat taxi with another family in the afternoon. It is was Longji's first boat ride ever. Today we went to the Guangdong Safari and it was amazing. The animals were beautiful! It was hot and sticky, but worth it. Tomorrow we take the famous red couch photos so I had to run out this evening to buy some traditional clothes for Longji. I hope he cooperates with the photographer. We did take some photos today after breakfast of the hotel. This really is a beautiful place to stay. I will try to post red couch photos tomorrow as soon as possible.

Six Banyan Tree Temple

Today we visited the Six Banyan Tree Temple with the rest of our travel group. Not too exciting for the kids, but interesting. We opted to not have Longji blessed by the Buddhist monks...just not our thing. We returned to the local grocery store to pick up a few items and lunch. Tonight John and all of the other dads are "hunting" for pizza. We will see how that goes. Longji and I will probably take a walk around the island and wait for dad's return with dinner. We did go back to the pool today, but I did not take but a couple of pictures. They did not come out very good. I am posting a picture of Longji trying on John's shorts. He is always being silly. We skipped nap time again so I am hoping bedtime won't be an issue. Tomorrow we tour again and then I am getting a massage. These beds are terrible and I am feeling it!

Good Day

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Last night Longji was grumpy and we were finding out that he is not used to the word "no." It was a rough one last night and I went to bed praying today would be a better day. It was thankfully. We met some of the other families this morning at breakfast who started out with our original travel group. They all flew in last night. Apparently some of them are struggling with their little ones as well when it comes to the word "no." Longji did wake up in a good mood, ate a big breakfast and made two more boats with the placemats for some of the other kids. This was a free day so we spent it shopping, at Starbucks and at the pool. I, however, forgot the camera at the pool so hopefully another day we can get cute pool pictures. I think this was his first time because he was way excited and very hesitant at the same time. We skipped our nap again in hopes of a good night's rest. We had Lucy's for dinner and right now we are in our dinosaur pajamas making a helicopter with the legos. Tomorrow we are scheduled to tour with some of the other families. Not exactly sure where yet, but we meet in the lobby at 10:00. Badminton is a big sport here so I think we are going to find a set for us to play with at the park. It was very wet today after last night's big storm so hopefully tomorrow will be dry enough to play outside. We have been working on our "please and thank yous." He is great at "you're welcome" and he does like to tell us "no." He just does not like to hear it told to him. I guess this is typical for a six year old, right?  

Memorial Hall, Tea and Pearls

So we are wrapping up breakfast this morning and Longji decides to take the paper placemat and build a boat. We eat breakfast every day with the view of the Pearl River and we generally talk about the boats going by so I can see the reasoning behind building a paper boat. Here I am thinking he is just going to fold the paper a couple of times and call it a boat. No, he really took his time and meticulously folded every piece perfectly to build a boat. Meanwhile John was attempting to fold a paper airplane with his placemat and Longji unfolded it and made a better plane. He is our origami master! Everyone around us was giggling. We met Kelly at 9:30 this morning and headed to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall. Very beautiful place as you can see in the picture. Not nearly as exciting as the emperor's tomb yesterday. Longji was bored, tired and hungry...not a good combination. After the walk around the memorial hall we headed to the Pearl Market. He did sit patiently with John while I shopped for pearls and while I visited a gift shop near the market. After this we headed for tea which was a fantastic experience. I was so excited to try the different teas and learn about the culture of tea drinking in China. I certainly could not walk away empty handed...so I bought some tea and a tea set that can be used and passed on to Longji and his future wife. She also got a strand of pearls today...even though we don't know her yet. We wanted to leave with some things that he can share one day with his wife. After all of this, Longji returned to the clinic for his TB test reading...what a champ he was! Negative! Kelly took us to a "hole in the wall" Chinese restaurant and it was by far the best we have had and so cheap! We will definitely re-visit the restaurant a few more times before we leave. Longji did not eat, but I think he is still recovering from yesterday and he seems a bit overwhelmed at times with all of the activities. When we got back to the room he decided to line up all of his toys...this has to be a sign of some sort. He likes to build things so I am thinking maybe a future in engineering. We are skipping the nap today so that we can settle down a little easier this evening. He has a hard time getting comfortable in bed at night. John took some pictures of the area around the hotel and I am posting these so that everyone can see how pretty it is. There is a lot of construction going on, but there are parts of the island that look so beautiful we have to show everyone. Tomorrow is a free day so we are not sure exactly what is on the agenda for us yet. We are definitely going to try the pool I think and maybe take a taxi somewhere. We will see how brave we are when we get up.  

McDonalds, Tours and Shopping

Well, today started out a little rough. Longji woke up with a big smile as he has been all week and then John asked him to help make the bed and put his pj's away and he sat on the floor and did nothing. We figured reality was setting in and he was upset, but as it turned out he just had an upset stomach. He ended up throwing up on the hotel carpet. Needless to say, we did not really enjoy the breakfast buffet this morning. We gave him a Tylenol and let him lie down for a while before heading out. He seemed better by 10:00am so we decided to attempt the activities of the day. We visited the Nanyue Tomb and he was absolutely fascinated. He held on to our guide's hand the entire time and asked a billion questions which is great. However, he did stop between questions to throw up again in the middle of the exhibit. We asked him if he wanted to stop and head back to the hotel, but he wanted to get to the actual tomb. What a trooper...he later told Kelly he wanted to be an emperor. Well, he is ours. After the tour we decided to stop at the fabric market so I could actually do a little shopping. Longji and Ba Ba sat patiently and let me pick out some scarves to take home. Back in the van we asked him if he would like McDonalds and he told Kelly he had only seen commercials on television and had never been. John and I teared up at that point...so of course we went to McDonalds for lunch. He ate a little, but really was not up for eating too much. I was so upset because they only had girl toys for the happy meal so his first trip ever and he gets a little pink cosmetic bag! We then took a stroll through one of the oldest markets and headed back to the hotel. Ba Ba built a lego plane for Longji and he picked one out at one of the local shops. So he played around in the hotel room with both planes. He was feeling much better at this point. Good enough to eat some noodles for dinner. Bath time is always an experience. I put extra bubbles in the tub tonight and he absolutely loved it! Tomorrow we have a busy day planned and I am hoping we can get to the pool soon when he is back to 100%. We will see about heading back to the clinic for his TB test reading. Last night we headed that way to eat at a Thai restaurant and he stopped us in the street to tell us he did not want anymore shots. Oh, he is a smart young man. Again, I am hoping my pictures are coming through. We are having technical difficulties on this side of the world and it is frustrating! Good night to all!