Guangzhou Safari Park-Monday

Today we visited the Guangzhou Safari Park. Also known as a really big zoo. We had to wake the kids up, which I hate doing. We are all finally sleeping in and sleeping so well.

One not so fun thing that happened this morning. We were getting off the elevator to come back to our room after breakfast. Syler runs off, Mark and I step off. I look back and Malaine, holding Fei Fei is STILL on as the doors close. EEK!! Talk about panic! Mark took another elevator down while I waited on our floor crying. Syler just kept watching me and watching the elevators. Poor Malaine was so upset and I felt horrible. My children can now add this to the stories they use to make fun of me! Remember when Mom.... 

On to the zoo! 

The safari is huge and Syler was SOOO excited when we pulled up. He took the map and studied it and started pointing and talking about the pandas as soon as he found them on the map. (when I say talking I mean making noise, of course he knows we don’t understand him!)

They have a tram ride through the animals that is actually pretty impressive. You can drive through in your car or ride the tram. The animals are so close and I can promise you, Syler has never seen anything like that! His whole face would light up and he would smile so big, pointing at the animals, pulling on us to make sure we would look.

I was in tears just thinking how something like a zoo, which is SO ordinary for us, is so extraordinary for my sweet son.  I prayed that he would never lose this sense of wonder, and that WE would also remember how blessed we are. That we would take more time to stop and enjoy the little things.

For lunch we dined in the Panda Restaurant.  It has glass overlooking pandas. Which sounded much more exciting than it was. We had pigtails for lunch. Literally pig tails. It was in a pot with boiled peanuts. Actually not so bad.

After lunch Mercie was tired. She REFUSES to go in a stroller, and so we take turns carrying her. But when she is tired, she wants Malaine ONLY. Who of course can’t carry her long. So we spent about 2 hours walking around with her SCREAMING. We had no option, we were there alone with no communication, just a pick up time. We were all super stressed out by the time we got back to the hotel!

We did let the kids feed the giraffes (which they loved) AND baby tigers .In 2008 we fed the baby tiger with Mavery. Malaine has wanted to do it ever since. We looked ALL day for this baby tiger and praise the Lord right before we left we found it! I am not sure it was nearly as exciting as Malaine thought it would be, but we did it.

We were not in the van 2 minutes and both kids were OUT.

We went to the playground and then had dinner in the executive lounge. Have I mentioned how nice that is? Menu changes nightly. Tonight it was mini enchiladas, sandwiches, hot dogs (Syler ate 5!) waffle fries, salad bar, fruit, desserts etc.. SO easy with the kids.

We played UNO back in the room, hide and seek and Mark wrestled the kids. Syler LOVES his daddy. If you know Mark you know he is just amazing with kids in general. He plays with them, and makes them laugh SO loud!  Syler was much more interactive tonight with Malaine. His mood overall just seems more settled.  Right now he and Malaine are watching High School Musical. J

Mercie is still up and down. If she is comfortable, she is happy. So in the room, eating, breakfast, playground etc. BUT if it is a new situation, watch out. You can see she is just scared to death. She is VERY attached to Malaine and it seems the more we try to stop that attachment, the worse she gets. So right now we are in survival mode. She does do well letting me feed her, change her and willingly comes to me. When she is tired though, we ALL struggle!

I have been fighting a headache all day. I am going to blame it on the stress of a screaming baby!

We are pretty amazed at how quickly Syler is learning things already. Today at lunch when he was finished he clearly said “LET’s GO!”  .

He also says:

Baba(daddy in Chinese) go night night!

Baba no tickle! Or Baba YES tickle.

When playing hide and seek he calls out, Baba, Baba! SO sweet!

Night Night

Mama

Baba

Lainey

Yes

No

Tickle

Shoes

Counts to 7 clearly.

He will also repeat whatever we tell him to say, often adding SAY which cracks us up. “Say Sawyer, Say Kenna! Etc..!

I am trying to upload pictures and it is just so slow for some reason. Going to just let Amy add them in another post. 

Tomorrow is Pearl Shopping. I am sure that Syler will be thrilled.  I am thrilled though we are meeting up with another family with our agency. They are staying at the other hotel. We are missing having a travel group on this trip.