Fake it til ya make it.

Finally got to Skype with Nathan and the girls this morning. I told Nathan, "I think it was just the excitement and fresh transfusion that had him so wild- he's much calmer now!"

Jokes on you, Mama.

We slept in this morning because we finally had nowhere to be. First of all, when the foster parents filled out his "schedule", I assumed they just made it up based on approximate averages as I usually do. What time does she eat lunch? Ehhhh ...noon-ish. Sure. Noon sounds good.

Apparently, this was not so. The boy watches the clock like a hawk and when it strikes 7:30, Cinderella's gots to eat! Side note, he has learned to count to six in English because that's when we eat dinner.

Second of all... FOOD IS FUEL. It doesn't matter what he eats (trust me, I'm watching the sugar... even though our guide says she doesn't think it's true that sugar makes kids hyper.... Imma trust my gut on this one.) When he eats, he is revved up and ready to go. Since we had slept in, we were a little off our routine and I forgot to do our calming oils aka liquid Xanax.

It didn't hit me until we headed out the door in search for the Carrefour (Walmart-ish store). I was trying to talk to the hotel staff downstairs about a couple of changes and he was OUT OF CONTROL. I was giving  him my best Mommy looks, too bad he had no idea what they meant. While we were outside waiting for a taxi, he broke the taxi stand and then started shouting, "My mommy did it! She broke it!". Um. No.

I think that's when he figured out what the look meant.

He was acting like he was going to go out into the road, just to test me. I took his hand and since he was trying to jerk it away, held it fairly tight. I felt bad, because I know his friends at the orphanage told him when he got to America, his parents would hurt him if he were naughty. Breaks my heart, but not enough to let him run out into the road, so I held on. He tried digging his fingernails in, then tried biting. I ignored him completely. We finally got a taxi and I thought the taxi driver was going to kick us out.

We found the Carrefour and strapped that little sucker into a shopping cart. Praise Jesus.
He was very good at the store, though.

We stocked up on snacks but unfortunately, I didn't bring a grocery bag with me. So we/I had to carry everything back out. We had been warned that it would be difficult to get a taxi for the ride back, which proved to be true. Luckily (?!) one of the motorized bike taxis finally stopped.

We'll count that as today's adventure!

I laughed so hard at Cale straddling this Chinese man while we zoomed about town. Roman and I were both riding side-saddle in the back. HEAVEN HELP US. Three of us (plus the driver) stacked on this man's little bike, me holding all of our groceries with no bag, and he was squeezing in between cars and buses and driving across intersections during red lights. It's like a roller coaster... fun as long as you don't die.

We got off at our hotel and walked strait to Starbucks. Roman was doing summersaults next to the stirrers. I deserved a venti.

I am the worst selfie taker in the short-but-still-too-long history of selfies, but I was going to attempt to send West a pic of my coffee.

Couldn't help but laugh.

He did get busy with his toy for a minute, so Cale and I attempted to catch up on schoolwork. His teacher put a LOT of work into preparing a binder for him of everything he was going to miss while he was gone. Except if he were home, he would be in school seven hours a day. And there is seven hours a day worth of work in this binder. We don't have seven hours a day. And because we "adopted a firecracker"... we don't have seven minutes a day. We are trying, we really are, but during one math sheet, Roman LITERALLY climbed the drapes and nearly flooded the bathroom.

It's no coincidence that the first English phrases he learned to say completely unprompted are: "Sorry, Cale", "Sorry, Mommy". However, he is very, very good at saying thank you. He says thank you for everything, which is really sweet.  

I spent a lot of time smiling through my teeth today because there really is no other option. Besides medicating with chocolate, that's a viable option.

He has been with us for one week today, which is a weird feeling. How can I be so in love, when we only met one week ago? But I am. How can he be so completely our's, when he hasn't even met his daddy and sisters? But he is.

We leave for Hong Kong in three days! We made arrangements to tour the city tomorrow and do some shopping. Excited to have something to fill our day. Wednesday is our appointment at the Consulate, we pick up his visa on Thursday and then we begin the long journey home!