TB tests, Safaris, and Fish-napping.

First and foremost, #4’s TB test was negative, so we will turn in the last of the paperwork tomorrow and visit the consulate to take the oath.  Yippee!  We’re on the homestretch.

In other news, it looks like “Rudolpho” with the rolling “r” is sticking.  Much to my dismay, Little Weed #4 will be known on this blog as Rudolpho from henceforth.  Or until I can convince Sticks to create a secondary nickname.  “The Fish Whisperer” might one day seem more appropriate.  Read on.

Okay, back to the play by play of our day.  We left the hotel at 9:30 for our 10AM appointment at the medical clinic.  We were in and out of there in 5 minutes.  We hopped back in the van and drove out to the Safari Park, the largest zoo in Asia.  It was really neat, but hot, ho,t hot.  One major bonus was that children 120 cm and under get in free.  I have one child who is 120 cm and another who is 119 cm.  Score 1 for being on the bottom of the growth curve!

We started out with the Safari on Wheels.  It was pretty neat – very similar to the Animal Kingdom safari ride in Orlando, actually. 

 We then went to visit the more traditional side of the zoo. One of our first stops was to feed the giraffes.  Rudolpho had prime positioning for his feeding task.  J

The giraffe stop brings me to the funny signage we saw.  There were several that we loved, but these two were our favorite.  The second one is especially for my good friend, Bill. 

 Sweet One was thrilled to hear that she would see pandas, so we headed back to that section.  We saw not one, not two, but twelve pandas.  They were pretty active, and we watched and laughed and enjoyed their air conditioned environment. 

Our next stop was ice cold refreshment.  Yes, this is the second time on this trip that ice cream has taken the place of a solid nutritional lunch.  Again, I’d like to assert that desperate times call for desperate measures. 

After our ice cream stop, we decided we were all wilting and needed to head back to the front of the zoo.  Rudolpho had seen a watch with a dinosaur on it when we first entered the zoo, and I had told him that after we saw the animals, he could pick out one thing to buy.  He was starting to obsess on the watch in a similar way to the infamous helicopter episode.  It didn’t deteriorate in the same way because our communication was better this time around, but it was heading in that direction.  We tried to get back to that gift shop as quickly as possible so that we could reinforce patience with the watch reward rather than stubborn tears.  We were just in the nick of time.  He got his watch, and LOVES it.  He likes to compare it to his daddy’s and tells Ziggity not to cry because he doesn’t have one.  LOL.

One thing we have noticed in the last few days is Rudolpho’s response to correction.  He is very obedient when he understands what is being asked of him.  Unfortunately, the communication gap doesn’t always allow that.  (Both of our guides have commented on what a very well-behaved boy he is.  They are right!)  We think he is used to being a very good boy.  It is part of his identity.  He is definitely a pleaser, shares willingly, is thoughtful of his siblings’ needs, and puffs up proudly when complimented.  When he starts to misbehave (and his “misbehavior” is mild), it is almost always because he doesn’t understand the current situation fully or is feeling wounded because of a correction due to a misunderstanding.  I feel so badly for him. If I could only become completely fluent in Mandarin overnight, it would make things so much easier for him.

 We talked about it last night a bit with Ziggity.  Ziggity, being the oldest, is having some trouble keeping himself from parenting and correcting Rudolpho.  We pointed out that Ziggity is also a very “good boy” and asked him to think about how he would feel if he was suddenly thrust into a game in which he didn’t understand the rules and then people around him suddenly started yelling at him and telling him no all the time.  He seemed to grasp the comparison and did much better with encouraging rather than correcting today.

When we got back to the hotel, we all needed some veg time.  I did some laundry in the tub again (kicking myself for not having our guide order laundry pick up for today!) while the kids watched TV and Sticks and Fairy Godmother read and rested.  At some point, one of the kids inadvertently hit the emergency call button next to the bed, which is essentially the same as dialing 9-1-1.  Security and the hotel manager showed up at our door.  Oops.  I apologized and sent them on their way. 

After dinner, Rudolpho and I sat down to work on some English.  I had talked with our guide earlier today about the fact that Rudolpho came to us very chatty.  He talked to us a LOT in Chinese and was attempting several English words as well.  In the past two days, he’s stopped using Chinese most of the time, resorting to a lot of sign language and charades.  He does this even with our guide, who speaks Chinese.  Our guide has been assisting adoptive families for 13 years now and says that, in her experience, it is very common for the older kids to stop using much Chinese after about a week.  She thinks it is when they start to make the switch from Chinese to English in many ways.  I’m sad that he is already dropping it (mostly because it’s useless to make us understand what he’s thinking) and hope that when we get home we can use the resources around us to help him keep his first language.  I’m told that if we don’t expose him to Mandarin nearly daily, that he will lose it completely in 3-6 months.  Unbelievable.

Back to the English lesson.  While at the Safari park, I had picked up a bucket of plastic animals.  We pulled those out and worked on the names of the animals.  Rudolpho may not be able to tell you he’s hungry, but he can tell you if he sees a lion or a tiger now!  We also pulled out a picture book I brought and paged through that.  He pointed to items on each page and we practiced saying them in English.  He pointed to one picture set with people doing a variety of recreational activities.  He pointed to a woman hang gliding and said, “Mama.”  He pointed to a football player and said, “Baba.”  (So far, so good.)  He pointed to a man fishing and said, “Rudolpho!”  (Okay, he didn’t say, “Rudolpho.”  He said his Chinese name, but you get what I mean.) 

This leads me to the end of the evening story.  We went for a walk down by the fish again.  Sticks had described the fishing prowess last night, so I wanted to see for myself.  We started out feeding the koi some pizza crusts that we had saved from dinner.  (Bowing my head in shame for being in China and having pizza two out of three nights.)  After a few minutes he walked me over a bridge to show me that there were teeny little minnows hanging out nearby.  He squatted down, reached out, and grabbed one!  I had a Starbucks coffee cup with me and we popped the little fish in it (with water, not coffee).  We watched him swim around for a bit before convincing Rudolpho that the fish would be much better off with his minnow friends.  He let him go only to have immediate second thoughts.  He went to catch another one.  It took him less than a minute!  He later lost that one in a water refill incident, but was quick to catch a third one.  There was no separating him from this one.  He was eager to show off his success to Baba an Jia Jia (big sister), so I guiltily walked through the lobby with our fish-napped hostage minnow in a Starbuck’s cup.  I’m sure the poor little guy won’t survive till the morning, but it’s a small price to pay for such a great start as a fish whisperer.  J

Tomorrow we have an early appointment at the consulate, so I’m heading to bed.  Have a great Monday!  We did.