Day 3-- Justin's first post

Everything is going as good as we could have expected. Yesterday we spend our first full day with Tyler. After you hear everything we did you will understand why we didn’t post anything.

It is noon on Tuesday. Sara and Ty are sleeping so if I begin to ramble on it is because I have nothing to do besides watch Fox News our only real English news channel. Fair and balanced as long as you are a Republican…but I digress. You want to know about our trip, not Bill O’Reilly and Rupert Murdock dominating the Asian market.

We just got back from the doctors office. Everything medically seems good. The doctor’s English name was Justin and he worked at Boston’s Children Hospital for one year. He attended two Red Sox games while he was in Boston so we know he is a good doctor. Ty’s size and speech is a little behind but we knew that before and there is nothing serious. We have read that this can be typical for children who spend time at a facility like he has been. The doctor told us we should have nothing to worry about.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Cheng Ching Lake park. It is a nice park with great views and architecture. There was lots of walking, running and playing which all alone would have been a full day for a typical sedentary person which I fancy myself.

But, yesterday was also the last day of the New Year festival. How many chances do you get in ones life to attend this kind of celebration? So in all our wisdom we decided on our first full night with Ty to pack up our stuff and take a taxi to the party. It actually went really well. We ate all kinds of stuff that tasted great but alas we will never know what it was or what it was called. For blogging purposes so you can picture it, let us refer to them as shrimp cakes on a stick and corn dog like foods. That said I have no valid reason to really think it was shrimp, it could have been any seafood. I hope it was seafood. Ty was great, he didn’t fuss, ate everything, and had an all around fun time. I got some great video of Sara and Ty dancing in the street.

It is probably a good time to mention that a white male approaching 6 feet tall wearing a t-shirt and shorts has a tendency to stick out. That said, everyone has been very nice. It is a very safe city. My only criticism is that the people here have very poor internal body temperature control. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is 75 degrees and more than half the people are wearing thick winter coats. I may try and get a picture of me sweating in my t-shirt standing next to one of these guys wearing a puffy Nike down coat looking chilly.

When we got back from the festival we gave Tyler his first bath with us. He is a very neat kid. He likes everything just so. He hates when his hands are dirty. Clearly he and I were destined to be together. He loved the bath Sara gave him so much that he cried a little when we made him get out.

Time for bedtime. Based on the amount of running and playing during the day and how late it was getting this should have been easy. It couldn’t be harder than attending a festival where you don’t speak that language with a two year old boy right? Laying in a darkened room with soft classical music seemed like a recipe for success. But there he was standing up and dancing. Let’s try laying him down again. Boom, more standing and dancing. It was soft Beethoven not Pussy Cat Dolls! Let’s try shutting off the CD. No luck. So I tried walking him in the stroller. Seemed logical every other stroller ride he took he napped. There I am walking up and down the hall catching looks…refer to earlier sticking out like a sore thumb paragraph…with Ty who was sat quietly but was clearly ready to wait me out. 20 minutes of walking in circles later I tried to put him back in the crib. Tears…lovely. After a quick debate, I can’t let this kid cry our first night. So I pick him up. Let the spoiling begin. But, this is when we started making headway. He was content to lay against my chest in our bed. Several still, hopeful minutes later SUCCESS! A few minutes later I put him in the crib and he slept all night without waking.

Sara just woke up and can’t believe I am still typing. She is afraid I am going to say something embarrassing in our blog. I hope I didn’t disappoint. That reminds me, Tyler hasn’t done a poop since we got him 24 hours ago. This next one is going to be a mess of biblical proportions! He eats so much! Oh my god, he ate those “shrimp cakes” and a cornish dog! He is saving it specifically for when it is my turn to change him, I can tell. I think that is why he smiles at me. If Sara doesn’t let me blog again we miss and love everyone.