Wednesday in Schjiazhuang

Wednesday morning was a great improvement upon Tuesday, as Bo woke up feeling OK and he didn't turn down any foods at the breakfast buffet. Directly across the street from our hotel is a large supermarket on the two basement levels and a mall in the remaining 6 levels. This was the same building that the Pizza Hut that we went to resides in, but neither of us could really tell what else they had there based upon our initial visit. Shopping with Bo wasn't real bad, as we picked out a car for him, which he held in his one hand, and he picked out a Ultraman dvd which he held in his other hand. Alison still had to drag him everywhere and say 'no, no, no' as they made their way down each aisle. He acts as if he has eaten all these strange foods (lots of sugary jells, fruit drinks, etc), though he may have just seen them advertised and now has the opportunity to eat them, etc.

After this trip we returned to the hotel room to eat more noodles. Lunch went smoothly and we quickly found that he REALLY enjoyed the Ultraman dvds. We found that they really altered his behavior and really brought out his kicking, biting, scratching side (at least with me) during our dinner - and those dvds have been put up for the time being and we might aim for something a little softer - like Finding Nemo or Madagascar.

During the afternoon we went to the indoor pool and attempted to coax Bo into the water, but it did not work and he kept his racecar in his hand and his sweatshirt on.

Next we made our way to a children's park that is a few blocks away. The weather was very cold and we had sleet coming down for most of our visit to the park. The park itself was really neat, and was quite busy with adults everywhere (doing group exercises, tai chi, and a number of older gentlemen were playing a game where you have a whip attached to a stick which is used to spin a large top around). The children's portion of the playground wasn't real memorable other than the fact that it seemed very dangerous with rusty metal and un-rounded edges everywhere. The students at the local school were still in-session as we walked by on the way to the park, which helped leave the playground fairly wide-open.

For dinner, we joined the Smith family and went to a traditional Chinese restaurant that we had found during our earlier visit to the mall. Here they served everything hot-pot style, so we selected four different meats, a few vegetables, and noodles which were all cooked right in front of us. Towards the end of our meal, Bo decided that he needed to use the restroom once again (and yes, we have gotten better about making sure he goes before we go anywhere), so I began to lead him down a hallway. When we found that it was a dead-end, Bo just whips it out and suggests that he will just go at the end of the hallway in the mall. We have a definite habit to break before he comes to Louisiana. I ended up quickly pulling his pants back up and carried him to a restroom without further incident. When we returned to the table I found that our total bill was 100 yuen (or approximately $14 U.S.) which was split between the two families. When we left a tip on the table, the hostess tracked us down after we left the restaurant and gave us our money back. We knew that the tipping culture for food service was a bit different here, but didn't know it was non-existant in some cases.

After a rough dinner we returned to the room and after watching another episode of Ultraman, Bo was given a bath. He then watched one more episode then crawled into bed with me at around 8:15 and quickly crashed out.

I am typing this by the light of the computer screen, and don't want to wake Bo up by attempting to download photos from our camera, so we will make sure to post photos in a few hours after we wake up and catch breakfast (approx. 8pm Eastern).

Ryan