Dim Sum -- Tasty Tidbits from China

It’s 2 AM in Nanchang and I woke up to get some Advil. Wanted to share some quick stories from the trip so far:

On the frigid bus trip from the airport to hotel, De handed out a sheet of paper that listed the name of everyone in the group, their hotel room AND (drum roll, please) their BIRTH DATE. YIKES!!!!! I have trouble admitting my age to people I know, let alone a group of people I’m just meeting.

Well – no surprise -- yours truly wins the award for Geezer Mom of the group. No one even comes close. What that saying about , “With Age Comes Great Wisdom.”

I hope.

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Yesterday during a meeting to complete a stack of paperwork, my sister took Libby Doodle Doo to the back of the room and played with her with some toys we had brought with us. Soon several other parents joined her in an impromptu “play group.”

When the meeting was over, my sister relayed an amazing story.

“You won’t believe what she did.”

“What?”

“She would offer one of her toys to another baby. I thought, ‘Oh my, what great sharing skills she has.’ Then, when the baby comes close to grabbing the toy, Libby Doodle Doo pulled it back and started to giggle like crazy. If the other baby was able to get the toy, Libby would give the baby a little slap on the back of the hand and start giggling even more.”

Oh my!

We tried it with Libby. I offered her a toy and pulled it back just as she was about to grab it. She just crack up. I let her grab the toy and pretended like I was going to hit her hand. She howled with laughter.

Oh my!!!

What an interesting “sharing” game I need to help my daughter unlearn.

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We got busted by the Chinese Clothing Police – TWICE.

As I said before – Nanchang is COLD. Wicked, Stinging COLD.

Yesterday afternoon we took Libby Doodle Doo out and walked to a grocery store (3 doors from the hotel) to get some water, baby food, cereal and teething biscuits.

She was wearing knit pants with socks, a long sleeve onesie, a sweater, a snowsuit with hood (that we had borrowed from another family), baby mittens, a tie-on knit hat under the hood .

She cried as all of these layers went on – especially the mittens that blocked access to her favorite sucking thumb. We put the crying Libby Doodle Doo in a stroller (provided by the hotel) and tucked a fleece blanket around her. A small slit for her eyes was the only Libby Doodle Doo that anyone could see.

At first, people passed us, looked at the bundle in the stroller and nodded approvingly.

As we continued to the store, Libby Doodle Doo started to kick her legs up and down – constantly kicking off the firmly-tucked blanket. I had to stop every few feet and re-tuck her.

Her kicking legs blew our cover.

Once we got to the multistory store and entered (the main floor was not heated by the way – very interesting), a sales clerk approached us, crouched down to look at Libby Doodle Doo and as she looked at my daughter, she subtly squeezed her calf. She said something to her coworkers.

About 5 minutes later, a shopper did the same thing and I realized what was going on. They were checking out how many layers I had on her legs. If Libby Doodle Doo was dressed properly in enough layers she would not have been able to move her legs at all. In other words (to paraphrase Johnny Cocorhan):

“If the Leg can Kick, The Layers Aren’t Thick.”

After we bought the groceries, we took Libby Doodle Doo out of the stroller, used that for our grocery bags, and I carried her – covered in a blanket – back to the hotel. She was thankfully immobile on the way back.

We have to take the babies out to our appointments tomorrow. I’m already plotting my strategy to pass the watchful standards of the Chinese Clothing Police.

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My insomnia caught up with me big time at about 4PM yesterday. I suddenly got horribly tired. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Finally at about 6PM I had to lay down. My wonderful sister gave Libby Doodle Doo her evening bottle and dinner, changed her for bed and tucked her in for the night. I occasionally woke up to the activities between the two, but was mostly out of it.

A big thank you to my sister for pitching in and taking over all of my jobs last night. We both missed dinner because of my zombie-like state. I owe that woman BIG TIME.

I'm going to go back to sleep now so that I'm fully-charged to go tomorrow.