Hope: Day 8

Steve and I have jokingly said that we have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde child--except that Jekyll is a whining two year-old and Hyde is a bright, cheerful six year-old. We're getting used to the fact that Hope typically has little tantrums and/or wants to be held anytime we're in public. Like many two-year olds, her favorite word during her "trying" moments is "no" and Steve and I both feel like we've heard "bu yao" (the equivalent of "I don't want") enough times over the last week to last us a lifetime. However, despite the challenges, we're so excited to have the opportunity to parent this little blessing. Right now, all is well and we're sitting in our hotel room, where, for the last hour and a half, Hope has been excitedly "singing" and signing songs with us, including "Jesus Loves Me" and has been enjoying playing "What color is this?" with a box of crayons, and writing her numbers from one to ten. She wanted me to keep writing the numbers beyond what she could write, so, I was counting "Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two..." After I finished, she started counting in a mixture of Mandarin and English and in random order, "Twenty-san. Twenty yi. Twenty liu."

It's actually taking me a bit to finish typing this because we had to take a break to play "Lan and Nai-Nai". The Davies gave us a CD to use that has Chinese children's songs on it and if we're understanding the gist of one story-type song, Mama says not to go to the door for strangers. The wolf knocks and the kids don't go to the door. There's a second knock and Mama goes to the door, but there's Nai-Nai (Grandma), a welcome guest. Now we play this game where we take turns being the wolf or Grandma at the door. Hope last said that she'd be the little wolf and Daddy would be the big wolf and then I was supposed to pretend karate chop at them both. It was nice to actually understand what she was saying in Chinese. As long as she keeps it to words like "wolf, big, and little" we do okay. Of course, all games must come to an end and now Hope is have a protesting pout on the bed. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted :)

Our guide ended up taking us on a little tour today after all. We went to a temple which is now just a historical landmark and to an open-air wholesale market which was interesting to see. We spent most of the time walking down the street known as the medicine market. Thought you'd enjoy seeing some of those pictures--especially the pictures of things like dried turtles on sticks and scorpions (which they pick up with chopsticks to bag up for people). I decided it would be too rude, but I really wanted to zoom my picture in the faces of some of the people on "Food Street" to show all the fried and BBQ'd delicacies like frog legs (which I've actually had before, but somehow on a stick they just don't look as appetizing), and crunchy scorpions. Mmm-mmm? Nope, we weren't brave enough to try them.