Our first full day as a family of four (+grandma)

We’ve been here long enough to fall into a morning pattern. I get up between 4:00 and 5:00 A.M., usually when J bolts upright and says, “I’m hungry!” (his version of good morning) and fill in the previous day on the blog, and Roni either starts listening to his podcast downloads or goes jogging. (In this heat! Amazes me.) Now we’ve added a new cast member, who sleeps the latest as he doesn’t have jet-lag. Poor mite has no idea the way his body clock is going to be screwed up in a few days! A few minutes before we are ready for breakfast, number one son is sent to ring grandma’s bell and ask her if she is awake. Then we eat and eat at the buffet, and we’re ready to head out for another day.

Friday’s big event was the trip to AIT. It went smoothly and relatively quickly – Mei-Ru got us in and up the three flights with no line waiting, and it seemed much faster than last time to be called up to the first window where we got copies of the immigration medical report and D’s medical card and vaccination record and handed over the copies of the court documents that TWCA had given us (we got them back). A wait, and then to the next window where an American official asked us when we’d met D, if we’d know which child we were adopting before we came to Taiwan, and if we’d gotten updates. We also signed and he notarized a vaccination paper (the second time that no one has been interested in the one that JOH has us notarize). Since nothing had changed in our home study details that we hadn’t already sent updates for, that was the end of that part, and we waited for just a few minutes until we were called to the final window, #8, where we got a visa pick-up receipt and were told our visa would be ready on Monday. From the time Mei-Ru picked us up in the lobby to getting back into the car – with a brief stop at a swimming suit store – it was only two hours. Speedy!

We met another family while we were there, adopting a toddler girl who was very energetic and emphatic! They said they weren’t sure who’d break first, them or her. We told them that they had a female J on their hands and to stock up on energy vitamins for themselves.

Mei-Ru is limping badly as she jammed her toe, so she’s pleased that we haven’t needed her guide services this trip. She’d never be able to handle a lot of walking. She did bring to AIT a lot of maps with suggestions for children’s activities which gives us more options for the kids. We’ve signed up for a half day coastal trip for Saturday afternoon, just to see a section of Taiwan that is new to us. Of course, most sections of Taiwan are new to us.

We went later in the day to Taipei 101 with the vague idea of eating at the food court we’ve heard so much about in other families’ postings and then heading to the top. The food court did have great offerings, but it was jammed with people. We wandered with our trays for a long time before giving up and taking them out into the heat again to sit on some cement steps and bolt our food. We won’t do that again! Though J and I loved the sushi and Mom and Roni were happy to find a Subway. D slept through it.

We decided it was too hazy to go up, and we have had a number of views of Taipei anyway, so we spent the money on Hagen-Daz instead and were just as happy. Then we walked over to City Hall and visited the Discovery Center which has some exhibits about how Taipei has developed and changed over the years, from the very earliest settlements through the Japanese occupation and into the modern days. There was a very neat short movie in a circular theater which had 360 degrees of screens and the whole seating area rotated. It was about the wishes children have for what Taipei could be like and explained with pictures and cartoons the plans that the city has for making Taipei a more attractive and environmentally sound city. Really well done and our favorite part of the center.

Kid-wise, it has been a little bit Cain and Abel, though Abel is oblivious to the undercurrents. J really wants to be doing whatever D is doing if it involves his parents. He wants to be carried if D is, but it has to be by the same parent which the parent arm muscles aren’t always up to (looking at you, Johnna). He got in and out of the stroller as if he was a D mirror, and grabs the other hand if one of us is walking with D. The two of them had a bit of a tinker toy war as J didn’t want to give up any of the long sticks and D apparently felt life wasn’t worth living with a short stick. J got hysterical when he and Roni arrived back from getting tickets at the train station and Mom and I, with D, not realizing that J wanted to come too, went down to the lobby to arrange Saturday’s tour.

But J is also doing really well at sharing food, and he still calls him “My D” and saves little stickers and such for him. He’s handed over some of his markers and little cars to share with D. So there is encouragement for the future, once his shaken world falls back into balance. They’d better work it out now while J has the advantage of size and speed, because all indicators are that D will be the bigger of the two as adults, so J will want to be on his good side!

Dinner was at the Mongolian grill restaurant across the street. An eating style that involves steaming hot pots and fire-heated grills in hot, humid weather may not have been the brightest choice, but we enjoyed it anyway. My hair got very curly. D D was persistent in trying to get food balanced on two chopsticks clutched tightly together and did as well as the adults did really – I dropped a lot of little rice bits in my lap. We basically trashed the table, but a bottle of wine (the same Yellow Tail we often have at home) made us not care that we were likely a source of puzzlement and amusement to our table neighbors.

And I have never seen so much red meat being squeezed into a bowl in Mongolian restaurants at home! The Taiwanese diners reversed our ration – their bowls were almost entirely beef, deer, mutton or pork, which a few vegetables balanced on top, while we had a little meat and then crammed in all the veggies we could. But both cultures met equally when it came to the watermelon and ice cream for desert.

All in all, a good first full day as a family of four + grandma.