Day 3 with Kate

Greetings from Kunming again!

Kate is resting comfortably in her crib, so I’ve got a few minutes to type this post for you to read Tuesday morning.

We just got back from a tourist trip to an “Ethnic Village” with the other two couples and our escort Xiulan, or as I like to call her Edna from The Incredibles movie. More on that in a minute.

This Ethnic village features all the different ethnic groups from the country, each with their own pavilion. (Imagine that… A place to see the other ethnic groups. Just think if we had this in the States? “And on your left is the Irish pavilion… don’t get too close or they’ll get you drunk. Now, say Hola to the Hispanic pavilion!” The comedic value would be just too much.)

Anyway, the place was kind of like Disney World where you can see the entire country in one place, though without Mickey and Minnie for the kids. Instead there was a bunch of old people who stare at you when you walk by, say something that is invariably derogatory to you in Chinese, and want to come and hold your child. I’ll take Mickey and Minnie any day.

All humor aside, it was pretty cool and we got some good pictures of the different groups. Oh, and Jen rode on a zip line. Now that’s something you don’t see every day!

Note: if you’ve made it this far in the blog, I will buy you a beer when I get back.

Now back to the reason why we’re on this trip: Kate!

We’re really having a tough go on our third day with her. She still doesn’t like to be held by anyone but me/John, and isn’t very fond of the stroller, so I/John get to carry her around all day. Xiulan/Edna can’t believe that I’m carrying her around all the time, and says that all the men in the hotel are calling me a Chinese housewife. I suppose I’ve been called worse.

This is also causing great frustration with Xiulan/Edna who thought she could take Kate in the stroller away from us, and try to “break” her from her hysterical crying. Fifteen minutes later we could still hear her screams from about 50 yards away and it was too much for Jen so she went and got her. Of course when she arrived, the requisite group of old people had surrounded Xiulan/Edna and were taking turns holding Kate. So I got to carry Kate for the rest of the day. My arms are going to be HUGE after this trip!

Needless to say we’re getting a bit tired of Xiulan/Edna telling us what to do with Kate and how to treat her. She’s
very old-school with children, and reminds me of the Edna character in the movie The Incredibles. You should really rent the movie. Sixty nine years old, short in stature, huge glasses, and super tough as nails. (Heck, she rode her bike to the hotel today with a load of laundry on it! Imagine your own grandmother doing that?) She literally tells the group what to do at all times, and today at lunch I had enough of her, so when she told us to put Kate in the stroller to feed her I said no pretty sternly. I think she got the picture that we’ll do what we want with Kate.

(Now if I recall correctly, we went through this crying experience with Cito, as have most parents, and it was just as trying on our collective patience and our abilities back then as it is today. How soon we forget.)

All right, I’m sure everyone who’s made it this far in the blog is asleep or is invariably saying something derogatory to me/John in English and just wants it to end.

Until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading