We were totally on our own today, so we decided to take the girls for their first Happy Meal at McDonald’s. Zoey ate everything we gave her and Kate about three bites. She has had no appetite since we got her. She spends most of her time playing with her food and re-arranging it on her plate. Baby had his first French fry and we think he liked it.
This afternoon, I found a beauty shop on the street that did massages for $10 an hour. Sweet! We put the girls down for their naps and I went for the massage. Rather than the aromatherapy and soft music you might expect, it was ‘eau de ashtray’ and loud Chinese TV. I prefer not to think about how many people had already used the pillow I put my face on. The girl did give me a good, deep massage but I don’t think I will be going back.
Since I am still avoiding MSG and unable to eat Chinese food (wah!), Jeff decided to take a taxi to Pizza Hut for dinner. We are getting pretty tired of fast food, but at least I don’t have to cook! Baby didn’t eat anything but Kate sure did! Finally! She actually ate a whole piece of pizza and some corn from the salad bar. Zoey is starting to understand what we tell her to do and when I told her to kiss Jeff during dinner, she obediently leaned over and kissed his cheek. Too cute! If he tells her to kiss me, she says, ‘bu yao.’ Yep….I’m still persona non grata. I just laugh and pretend to be offended, which makes her smile. Ohh…the danger of a two-year old with power. It goes right to their heads.
After dinner, we decided to wander through a nearby department store. The department stores here are several floors and often the basement level is a supermarket. I find the supermarket the most interesting, so we headed down. At first we had fun meandering through the aisles, but after awhile, it began to get claustrophobic. There were so many people crowded into one place! Everyone was staring at us and making comments. Most were friendly and nice, but there were a few that made us uncomfortable. I just tried to smile at everyone, as I feel an obligation to represent Americans in a good light. The night took a turn for the worse when we tried to exit the store. The guard (aka Chinese Barney Fife, who took his post VERY seriously), would not let us leave and motioned that we needed to exit via a different part of the store. He waved in a general direction and with a flurry of Chinese words that we couldn’t understand, sent us off. We walked and walked and couldn’t find an exit. We eventually circled around again and tried to make our escape. However, the ever-vigilant Barney Fife pounced on us again. We tried to explain without words that we couldn’t find the exit. Again, he used the identical hand motion to tell us that we had to exit in a different location. Okaaay… that was helpful. We started off again and found a different exit. Ah-ha! We headed in that direction, only to find that it was a loading dock. Drat. We turned around, and feeling like mice in a maze, threaded our way through the dizzying array of food, men’s underwear named “Fatty Pants,” and shampoo. Hark…was that another exit? Yes! Alas…another loading dock. At that point, I had to stifle giggles and maybe a little bit of panic, wondering how many hours we would be wandering through the myriad of aisles in search of the ONE exit that Barney Fife wanted us to use. We eventually found it and here is the kicker… It was just around the corner (by about 3 feet) from where Barney Fife wouldn’t let us exit! Like he couldn’t have just let the foreigners walk three feet through the forbidden zone. Urgh!! As Jeff and I left, we were totally cracking up over the absurdity of the whole thing. I still think that Jeff should have bought those ‘Fatty Pants’ underwear.
Bath time!
The girls are spending more time interacting and it’s so cute. They are actually very good about sharing. This morning, when we were getting ready to go out, Kate went over to Zoey and patted her head. Then she tried putting Zoey’s hat on her, and patted her hand. It was so sweet. Tonight Zoey saw that Kate wanted to draw, so she went over and got her some paper. (She threw it at her, but that is just Zoey’s style!) Kate is feeling better tonight and we are so grateful! Now if I would just stop getting migraines….
Kate looks much taller in this picture but that is because Zoey is standing on her short leg.
