For breakfast this morning, they finally served fried rice! I have been wondering when they will have fried rice. Also they served my favorite congee (preserved duck eggs). So far this week, they served fish congee, shrimp congee and chicken congee. They have plain congee. The plain congee is literally plain… tasteless.
It has been 4 days since we met Nathan. After spending time with him, I am finding that he is very very very picky eater. Also, he cries too much.
Based on his referral documents, it says that he is a good eater. However, after spending time with him, we are finding that he really isn’t because he is picky at what he eats. He may be used to eating congee, eggs, steam buns, etc for his meal but we can’t keep ordering him congee, eggs or steam buns from a restaurant. We want him to try other foods as well like the Gerber baby food I brought from home. Even if we try to have him eat his congee for dinner or lunch, he won’t eat it next time. So I figured that he is just a very picky eater. I am also finding that he will only eat the first food he eats. If I give him Gerber food then congee afterwards, he won’t eat the congee. If I give him the congee first then Gerber food second, he will not eat the Gerber food. At times, if I give him his milk formula first, he will not eat anything else. So we try not to give him his milk until he is finished with his food.
I have been trying to find ways on how to feed him food that he isn’t used to eating. One early method that we tried with him was that we pretended to eat his food. When he saw that, he wanted to try some too. But Nathan learns quickly though. When he sees us pretending to eat his food, he doesn’t bother to reach for his baby food anymore. I tried another method. At times, Nathan doesn’t like to eat from the spoon. He thinks it is probably nasty food or something. I was thinking that most little kids will grab anything and put it into their mouth. So I put his Gerber baby food on his fingers. When I did that, he actually ate what was on his fingers. I continued this method until he accepted the food from the spoon. I just wonder how long this ‘finger food’ method will last.
His referral documents never mentioned that he cries a lot…. when I say a lot, I mean like 4 or 5 times a day. Of course he’ll cry when he is hungry. But most times he cries because he can’t get things that he wants such as soda or eating utensils like a knife. Of course we won’t allow him to drink our soda or let him play with a knife. If he doesn’t get those things, he will throw a fit! When he throws a fit, we have to distract him from those things. For instance, if he throws a fit in our hotel room, we take him to the window to look at the view. He especially just love looking outside the window watching the buses and cars pass by. Good thing is that he doesn’t cry when we go on our short tour because he gets distracted with other things.
I think his caretaker may have spoiled him. The caretaker must have just given him anything he wanted to make him stop crying. We want to teach our son that he just can’t have everything. He is only 13 months now but hopefully he will understand what ‘No’ means. Since he has been used to being cared by someone else, trying to care for our son our own way will definitely not be easy. We just have to be patient with him.
Of course there are good sides of him. For one thing, I like it when he doesn’t need us around to fall asleep. I don’t need to lay next to him so he can sleep. Like I mentioned before, he does his rolling maneuver until he falls asleep. I guess rocking himself helps him fall asleep. But before he falls asleep, his body has a mind of its own. He eyes would get sleepy but his body is still in play mode. His would kick his legs up, raise his arm or close and open his hands. Also I can tell he tries to keep himself from falling asleep at times because he would like pull his hair or scratch his ears while his eyes are dozing off.
He learns things quickly. This morning at the restaurant, he noticed that my husband or I get up from the table and get food at the buffet. So he wanted to do the same thing. He got one of the small plates on our table and when my husband put him down, he was walking towards the buffet section. When we show him something, he will actually do the same thing. I was stacking up empty containers in our hotel room. When he saw me doing that, he tried to do the same thing.
He makes an effort to talk to us or anyone. Even though he mumbles very loud, at least I would prefer him to do that rather than not hear him talk at all.
I am glad he knows how to walk! Since I thought he would be a crawler, I didn’t bring his shoes from home. Instead I got him pants made for crawling. Luckily, his orphanage gave him shoes.
Overall, he is a happy little boy. He loves to smile a lot. He especially smiles when we play peek-a-boo.
Picture of him laying on the blanket.
At times he loves to walk, but once he gets to his stroller, he doesn’t want to walk.
For our tour today, we visited the Yellow Crane Tower. The story behind this is that there was this old man begging for food from this restaurant owner. Since the restaurant owner was a generous person, she allowed him to eat at the restaurant for several months for free. Since the beggar could not pay her, he decided to draw this yellow crane (bird) and that crane will fly on the walls. Because of the yellow crane, the restaurant owner became very rich. Townspeople came flocking to her restaurant. After years later, the old man returned to the restaurant and asked the owner if she finally got paid for all the free food he got from her. The owner said yes. Then the old man made the crane come out of the wall and he flew away with the crane. The restaurant owner used the money she made to have this Yellow Crane Tower built. Here are some pictures:
After our tour, our guide and I sat down a bit to chat. I have been using my iPhone to take pictures. She asked me if I usually keep all of my pictures on my iPhone. I showed her lots of pictures from my phone. I showed her pictures of our family back home, places we traveled, our house, etc. When I showed her a picture of Nelson and his brother riding Splash Mountain in Disneyland, she told me that Nelson and his brother look alike. Since I remember her telling me she doesn’t have a boyfriend, I told her that his brother is a FREE man. I was joking with her and asked her if she wants to meet him. She was giggling about it. So I told her I will take her picture and show it to Nelson’s brother. This is the picture I took of her.
Then Nelson took a picture of both of us. Not sure why I made the ‘V’ sign. hehehe
When we came back to our hotel, Nelson asked where is a good place to buy noodles. I went back to our hotel room with Nathan while our guide escorted Nelson to this noodle place. Nelson came back with noodle with some weird thick sauce, soup with potstickers and baby bok choy and spicy won ton soup. Nelson said it cost only $3 US.
I just had to take this picture before I publish this blog. I just realized that my husband and his son are sleeping the same way!