The Amusement Park
sidenote: I hope the pages are still working fine and quickly for everyone. Here in China the pages are only coming up about 1/2 the time when we try to go to them and we are having a lot of trouble even uploading them. I think it's just a problem with our Internet Connection here, but that's also why we aren't getting too many photos up... I apologize for that.
Today, Friday, started at as all our other days. Showers and breakfast by 8:00. There was one thing much nicer about today than the past couple of days though, it was sunny! We were going to get to go outside and do things again today. It is so much nicer getting to go out and walk around, time goes much faster.
Amy told us to meet her in the lobby of the hotel at 9:00 and we would go to the park in the middle of the lake. The first part of the park that we run in to is just a beautifully landscaped park with a lot of flowers and a few things to do. There isn't any playground equipment, but there always seems to be a lot of people here. This is the same park that Danni and I came to a few days ago. Amy took us around the edge of the park next to the water, so mom still hasn't gotten to see the main areas of the park that we like the best.
We went on through this park and over a bridge to get to an amusement park. They had several rides, a lot that we didn't get to see. The only reason I know that is because we can see a ferris wheel and something else from the hotel that we didn't see at the park. The area of the amusement park that we were in just had a lot of smaller rides. The roller coaster was smaller and one car went at a time, it was also very slow compared to our roller coasters and had brakes several times through the ride. We tried to take Tyler on the bumper cars, but they wouldn't allow him on because he was too young.
We found some general playground equipment, including a slide and let Tyler slide down it. He didn't look real enthused about trying it, but he did - once. He wasn't upset afterward, but didn't seem to want to go again either. We walked on and found some kids riding little toy horses that you bounced up and down on to make them go. We thought Tyler could try that and paid the 5 Yuan (62.5 cents) to ride for 5 minutes. He didn't want anything to do with this either. We know he is smart enough that if he had wanted to, he could have easily figured it out from us helping him and from the other two girls who were riding. I don't think Tyler likes to do things, especially fnew things, in front of strangers. The amusement park is probably totally new to Tyler since he has always been in an orphanage and is probably just a little much for him so soon anyway. We walked on and saw another interesting thing. People would get inside big 8' or so round, soft plastic balls filled with air and then be let out on to the water. You then try to walk, run or whatever in the ball. It looked like a lot of fun.
We left the amusement park after this and started back towards the hotel on the streets instead of back through the parks. When we came out of the parks, there was a sign 'to the zoo', the zoo we had been to earlier. We walked past the zoo and past Panda World again. When we had gone to Panda World, we passed an area where we heard a lot of kids playing or signing or something. We walked past this area again and saw a lot of kids out playing. Amy stopped for us to watch as the elementary school started a physical education class. The kids, probably about 4th - 6th grade age, seemed very interested in us as they kept looking over at us. The teacher, who's back was to us, looked our way to see what they were looking at a couple times. I'm not sure if the teacher considered us to be distractive or not, but Amy was just standing there watching, so we did as well.
As we got to the street to turn back to the hotel, Amy asked if we wanted to walk futher up the street past more shops. As we walked, we came to a store selling ice cream and each got some. Tyler, Danni and I got a sundae cone for 3 Yuan (37.5 cents) each, mom got frozen fruit juice on a stick for 1.5 Yuan and Amy got an ice cream bar for 1 Yuan (12.5 cents). Wouldn't those prices be wonderful in the US? We walked as we ate our ice cream and came to a local market. This was like a grocery store of produce and meat, but it was all fresh merchandise and laid out on the tables for you to choose. There were a lot of people buying while we were there. We started back towards the hotel again and stopped to eat lunch. Nothing really looked good at the place we stopped, so we ordered some 'vegetables', or lettuce and some noodles. I don't think I have seen lettuce served cold and uncooked anywhere in china yet, it is always cooked and warm - but it isn't too bad anyway. The noodles were covered in a peanut oil or something and weren't too bad either. The four of us, including Tyler, split the two plates of food while Amy had her own. This meal cost us 7 Yuan (87.5 cents). So far in Fuzhou, we've stuck with the Americanized food for the most part.
We got back to the hotel and had about an hour before mom & Tyler had to go with Amy to get Tyler's passport. Tyler found a shoe horn in the closet of the hotel room and started playing policeman, soldier and samari with it. His serious look is so adorable as well! :) At one point, he was changing the channels on the tv and stopped on a show that we dind't think he should be watching, so I used the remote to change the channel. We hadn't used the remote at all up until today, but Tyler knew what it was before we ever started using it. After I did this, he wanted the remote to change the channels, and I wouldn't give it to him. Maybe, this was one of his first tantrums.... if you call it a tantrum. He stood and looked at me and whined, and I just said no, I'm not giving it to you, he'd whine again and again. Finally I just laid back on the bed and ignored him and he'd whine a little over and over around the corner from me. I could tell that he was getting sleepy from the sound of his whines. He quit whining and I got up and looked and he had just fallen asleep sitting by the corner. We woke him right up so he wouldn't actually fall completely asleep since he had to go for his passport in another 10 minutes.
The only other tantrum that may have been considered a tantrum came yesterday. It was rainy outside in the morning and we were planning on being in the hotel room all day. We decided that it would pass the time quicker if Tyler took his afternoon nap that they say he usually took at the orphange anyway. I laid down with him and he wanted on the outside of the bed instead of against the wall. We were there for a little bit and I pretended to be asleep just to see what he would do. As soon as he looked at me and thought I was asleep, he tried to get up out of bed. I put him back in bed, but made him get between me and the wall this time. Now, he was very upset that he was actually going to have to take a nap and cried himself to sleep within minutes. He only slept for about an hour and when he woke up, he wouldn't talk to us or play with us. It had quit raining and although it was wet outside, it wasn't bad enough that we couldn't go out. When we first got Tyler, it helped to walk outside, so I took him for a walk and picked him a flower. When we got back, he was better, not completely, but better than he was. It didn't take too long for him to get back to the way he usually was. If these are the types of tantrums he throws, we shouldn't have too much trouble. A lot of adoptive families say it takes them 4 or 5 days just to get down to 1 or 2 major fit, throw themselves on the floor bawling and kicking type tantrums. So far, we've had two very mild tantrums in 5 days.
By the time mom and Tyler got back from getting his passport, he was better. At one point during the night, he wanted the remote again and I wouldn't give it to him, but he was fine with that... he learned to accept that he wasn't going to get everything he wanted. Also during the evening, I was working on my computer and showed him the pictures he had taken with my camera of sis and mama. He realized he didn't take a picture of me and wanted my camera to take a picture of me, so I let him. Of course, I didn't encourage him to take a picture of me, he realized it on his own and wanted to. Once it's bedtime, we usually all just get in bed and before very long, Tyler joins us. We don't have to force him in to bed or anything.... it makes it easy that way and he willingly comes.
Tomorrow's the orphanage visit.... we'll see how that goes. We are concerned about it, hopefully he won't throw a fit when we leave his old home behind.....
Continue on to Orphanage Visit or go back to the Main Page.
I'd like to welcome you to come along with us by checking out this site every day for updates. You can also visit my mom's web site at http://www.rainbowhorses.com/tyler.html, and I strongly encourage you to join us at our forum to ask questions, post comments or anything else.
Thanks for checking out our page!
Print