Saturday, December 12, 2009
DOCTORS AND......UGGGGGGH SHOTS

We woke up this morning a little later than usual. We were all a bit tired from the travel yesterday I think. When we had the girls dressed and ready we headed for the breakfast here at the White Swan. I remembered it as being spectacularly good. I wasn’t disappointed. It really is about the best breakfast I’ve ever seen in my life. The selection of foods is unreal. I could eat there every morning for the rest of my life and probably not get sick of it. We fueled up!

After breakfast we all came back up to the room for our customary morning pit stops. We try to get the girls to use our hotel bathrooms. They are much cleaner and nicer than what is outside the room. When they were all finished we headed to the lobby to meet the guide and head to the physical appointments for Opal and Sophie. Opal for some reason decided that today would be a day of testing. I told her several times to stop yelling in the elevator on the way down to the lobby. She simply wouldn’t stop. I wound up hauling her back up to the room for a time-out. I would have liked to make the time-out much longer. She was being down right defiant. I was in a bit of a pinch because the whole group was waiting for us. She did get the message though. No more screaming for the rest of the morning.

When we got to the clinic the doctors and nurses there ran Opal and Sophie through a myriad of tests. They checked their hearing, eyesight, height, weight, blood pressure, temperature, etc….. The place was PACKED! I’m not sure exactly how many kids they were taking care of this morning, but it was a lot. I’d guess around 50 or so. There were people everywhere and our guide Kelly did a wonderful job of navigating us through the crowd.

When we had visited all the requisite rooms one final last detail remained. Updating the girl’s vaccinations. Oh boy, doesn’t that sound like fun? We waited for what seemed like forever. All and all we spent three hours in the clinic. Half of that was waiting for the shots. The girls played while we waited. Luckily Brandy had brought some granola bars with her. By the time we were done it was way past lunch time. Sophie only needed one shot. To my surprise she didn’t cry at all. She even gave me the thumbs up sign when she was done. The nurse gave her a little butterfly band aid. She seemed happy with it. Opal on the other hand needed 5 shots. I guess they do a better job with the immunizations at the CWI in Beijing. Opal was also NOT happy with the situation. She was sitting on my lap chattering away at Kelly. When I asked Kelly what Opal was saying she told me that she was saying she didn’t like needles and she didn’t like nurses. Smart little girl. She was crying before the first shot even came close. Since she was on my lap I was able to keep her from kicking the nurse, but it took all of Fessick’s power to hold down this tiny little 32 pound fireball. I think if I hadn’t been there those nurses might have had their hands full and then some. She had some powerful lungs too. I think I was as relieved as Opal when the whole thing was over.

Since we took so long at the clinic we weren’t back to the room in time to get to the puppet show. We decided that lunch at Lucy’s was the thing to do. Lucy’s is a restaurant that is pretty much right outside the hotel that has a lot of American foods. They have the entire street in front of the hotel torn up because Guangzhou is hosting the 2010 Asian Games. It’s like the Olympics, just for Asia. All the construction makes it a bit tricky to walk around Shamian Island. Many of the sidewalks are torn up as well. We managed to dodge the cars and make it to Lucy’s around 1:45 p.m.

We ordered orange juice for the girls to drink. I was surprised when it arrived in tall glasses. Definitely not little girl friendly. Opal decided to take hers off the table so that she could comfortably reach the straw. Brandy was watching Opal and said, “I hope she doesn’t spill tha…….” Before she could finish the sentence AMALE knocked HER glass over breaking the glass and filling Brandy’s lap with juice. Brandy finished the word “………t” covered in OJ. We moved tables. Brandy walked back to the hotel to get some dry pants while we waited for the food. At that point I’d have to say, the day had been mostly sucky!

When we got back to the room I told Amalie that I would take her swimming. Opal meanwhile had purchased another time-out. I could tell by Brandy’s body language and by Opal’s demeanor that this was going to be a LONG one. What Opal did not realize is that we had nothing to do for the rest of the day except relax, and work on her attitude. :o)………….. I took Sophie and Amalie down to the pool.

Amalie was proudly leading the way. She couldn’t wait to introduce her sister to the joys of swimming. Brandy and I had blown up 2 pink floaties. The stupid things weren’t exactly easy to inflate. At one point I thought I might give myself an aneurism. It was worth it though, to see my two little girls proudly parading across the hotel as if to say, “Oh Yeah, you know we’ve got it going ON!” We got to the pool and took off our shoes.