The Great Wall

The boys slept until 7:00 today. Amazing except I was awake at 4:00. We had to rush it to get down to meet the group by 8:30 to get to the Great Wall. Breakfast was the usual craziness, even more so since it was busy. Normally we are down there before or shortly after it opens so we were actually surprised to see pancakes and fried eggs. Apparently those who sleep in are granted additional Western options, which Everest was thrilled about. Pancakes and syrup and Chinese noodles. I love noodles. I don’t know that I can get sick of them. I think I will probably find out on this trip as we have about a shelf of them that we bought from the store and we’ve been ordering them whenever available.

Last night we went to a local Chinese restaurant near our hotel. We didn’t know of this place previously. It was awesome! Four adults and three kids and one baby ate for $50 US dollars and it was good food! This also included two huge bottles of local Chinese beer. It was great to eat locally. Normally it is quite a drive out for dinner or else we are doing pizza or the restaurant downstairs. Found out that the restaurant had a health code rating of a “B.” Quite impressive really. Kingston also broke a dish within about two seconds of being seated. Just not used to the kid thing. Really going to have to child-proof when we are home.

So, the Great Wall. It was good to be back with Everest and see him enjoy it. He was only somewhat scared of the gondolas and it was more for my attention than anything. He hiked up the entire portion of the wall from the gondola to the top without wanting to be picked up. Kingston, on the other hand, had the privilege of riding on my back in the baby carrier. So glad we bought that thing. I am going to be using it all of the time. Apparently they do not have t-shirts at the Great Wall that say, “I climbed the Great Wall with a 28 lb baby on my back.” They have about everything else though. Kingston walks really well, way better than Everest did and he runs too. I think this must have to do with his skin (more of that in a minute). The boys are loving to chase each other. Today we had our guide Joy translate, “Zhang Tao, chase your brother!” Kingston would look at Everest and just take off after him squealing his not-so-little scream.

Kingston does not appear to have any skin issues. From the pictures we had of him previously he looked to have the same nails and types of hand and feet blisters that Everest had. This is not the case any longer. His nails are growing fine and he does not appear to have a blister on him. It looks like there is scarring as though he has had blisters in the past but it looks like he will not need to be wrapped. It kind of makes me sad for Everest. We had told Everest that Kingston would have “special skin” too. Everest does not seem to be bothered that he does not though. I could always say well, Kingston is special too, he sucks his bottom lip like a beaver and he is going to have two holes from his fangs dug into his bottom lip. No worries.

Tomorrow is a “free day.” Ha! Free day to me means kids in daycare, mom sleeping in. No such luck in Beijing, China. We are taking it easy in the morning. We are going to work out, shower, hit the store to buy Kingston some drawers that fit and then we will go to a park to hang out. While it might seem like this is easy breezy this time around, it is anything but. I do not feel suicidal or homicidal but it is very hard. Love to you all!