From Mike: We are doing our best to bond with Eli even as his schedule is difficult to maintain. At his foster home, he would be put down for almost 3 hours each day for nap. Thus far, we have only been able to put him down for about 1 1/2 hours. He also was potty trained but right now he will pee in his pull ups and only tell us, actually just me when he needs to go poop. In China, kids wear clothing that is split at the seam where the legs meet. That way, the child can just squat wherever he or she is and go to the bathroom. For the obvious yuck factor and also since this is not something that people do in the U.S. it is not a behavior we are continuing so he has not gotten used to asking to go pee yet. He also is a fitful sleeper. We have tried to keep his bedtime consistent but he talks in his sleep, just like a certain 4th grader that I know, and doesn't seem to be getting that good REM sleep. That is why at nighttime he tends to get a bit squirrelly, somethings giggling over the silliest things like shouting his new favorite t.v. program in English "Mickey Mouse" or sometimes he cries when he wants something, usually food, that we say he can't have. I am looking forward to being able to establish a consistent schedule once we get home so that everyone will be able to see his outgoing personality like we do throughout the entire day and not just in bits and pieces. It is wintertime in Jinan and the Chinese take this time of year seriously. I know us in Minnesota spend a tremendous amount of time talking about the weather; rain totals, snow amounts, soil temperature, etc but the Chinese are obsessed with this time of year. Not like a certain 2nd grader I know that has to watch the forecast on t.v. each day before school type of obsession but they fear this season. To me, it isn't that cold compared to what we experience but to everyone we meet, this weather is freezing. As I look out the hotel window there are still trees and bushes with leaves on it and water puddled on the sidewalk is not freezing. The Chinese try to protect their trees by painting the first four to six week of the trunk. They paint it white to attract sunlight supposedly but the smog keeps that from happening often. To the Chinese, it is time to hunker down into multiple layers, especially if you are a child. They dress their children up in so many layers that they look like the offspring of the Michelin man. We don't and have been paying for it ever since. When we put Eli into the baby carrier, women will come by and start tugging on his pants legs if there is any exposed skin visible. And that includes women that we don't know. More than one woman has suggested to us that we need to put Eli into more than one pair of pants because "it is so cold". They are very concerned that he is not wearing gloves even though we have tried but he doesn't want them because he cannot carry around his matchbox cars with them on. While Eli slept and Jodi rested I ventured out to a section of town nearby that had rows of street food vendors selling a variety of products. As you can imagine, there are not too many Americans here and we are celebrities of sorts. Can you imagine the stares I received when I was by myself in a non-tourist part of town? They don't want to be disrespectful and come right up to you. Instead the Chinese will slowly turn their heads to stare and if you catch them they will continue their gaze as if they were intending to look at something else and were just pausing to look at you. They also take pictures of us but again often they will wait until we have passed or get a side view. Luckily I was working out frequently before China because there are quite a few people with pictures of my behind in this city. At the market people would start to smile and giggle when I approached their food stand. I brought along a guidebook to help me with numbers and the rest we were able to communicate through gestures. It seemed to be a source of pride that the tall American was at their stand buying something. And I would like to stress the "something" there because often I did not know what I was buying. I just used my sense of smell and which vendors had longer lines to determine what was popular. At the stands, the vendor became impressed when I did not shy away from things that to our eyes would be unusual. One vendor in particular could not believe I was buying what looked like wingless cicadas on a stick that are fried, smoked and spiced. Once I bought the food, the novelty of my visit became an object of hilarity as I began to sweat due to the amount of spice included on the food items. I tried to use my fingers to say little but apparently they interpreted that to mean the thickness of the spice layer on the food. Then I became the unique sweaty American with a large pod of giggling young Chinese following behind me.