Has it only been 3 days?

This morning I woke up the boys with a JA zhou, TJ zhou, and GW zhou.  I got a "Mama zhou" from TJ!  I'll take it!  We also played Go Fish!  with this later this afternoon and both boys were easily calling us Mama and Baba and also calling JA by his name.  Most of the time, though GW just calls me "Ma".  It makes me feel a little like Caroline on Little House on the Prairie. 

 

In many ways, it feels like TJ has been a part of our family for a long time.  GW has been with us just over a week.  I can tell that he is getting a little bored with all of the "touristy" stuff - typical 14 yr old boy!  He doesn't want his picture taken much - I can't say I blame him.  We probably have nearly 500 of him already (ok, maybe not quite that many).  TJ is still content to have his pic taken. 

 

Today, we visited a brocade museum (just what three boys want to do - NOT!) and a jade museum.  My dad would have loved the brocade museum as he worked in a fabric mill as a young man.  It was quite fascinating to watch, but we didn't stay too long.  The same for the jade museum.  Interesting information, but pretty boring for a 14yr old.  TJ, liked reading and watching almost all of it. 

 

We got back to the hotel and the big boys and Baba went upstairs while TJ, me and our guide did a little more shopping.  TJ is constantly asking Baba what time it is, so we bought him a watch.  We also needed to buy GW some thermal underwear for Beijing.  I figured we'd have a better chance finding some here rather than in Guangzhou.  We then got some dumplings and took them back to the room for lunch.  Later this afternoon, we went walking around the Confucious Temple area and then took a boat ride through the canals.  I was wondering if Nanjing is known as the Venice of China, but then I realized that Nanjing is probably older than Venice, so Venice might just be the Nanjing of Italy :-)  After our boat ride, we stopped at another local restaurant to enjoy the cuisine and then wandered back to the hotel.  It has been pretty cold, so we haven't wanted to be outside very much. It's even cold inside many of the buildings - but our hotel is nice and warm.

 

TJ has a quick smile and just a very happy laugh.  GW also likes to smile, but it is a more shy, reserved smile.  This evening on our walk back from dinner, GW grabbed TJ's canned drink (unopened) and was playing "keep away" from TJ.  They were having fun, being brothers and tormenting each other.  Finally, Baba got close enough and got his hands on the drink and put it on his head.  He then let it fall off and into TJ's hands. 

 

TJ will make eye contact with us and then look away.  Right now, I think he is "attached" to GW, which isn't a big surprise.  GW does help us with translating for him but TJ will also come up to me or Baba to ask for things.  They both love to laugh and enjoy playing with each other and JA whether it's cards, throwing the ball, batting the balloon or playing on their DS's. 

 

BTW, a friend back home told me the secret to charging the DS's so we solved that problem.  We just plug them into the shaver outlet in the bathroom and Voila!  They charged!  The boys were very happy to have that distraction available to them.  I know they'll be glad when we get to GZ so we can play outside at a park some.  I know they are getting bored in our hotel room. 

 

I am going to try and upload a picture.  We'll see if this works.