Aiden slept until 5:30. He is still taking a bottle with rice cereal in the morning and evenings, so we got his bottle ready. After his bottle, we tried to get him interested in toys again. Nothing was working until we showed him the Color Wonder. I remembered Daisy telling me that he loved to draw. He perked up and began coloring. Then he realized he could get Alana to pick the markers up if he threw them on the floor. This is when we first heard Aiden's sweet laugh. This only lasted about 2 minutes, but it was so fun to get a glimpse of his personality and see him begin to relax.
Then he went back to just sitting and checking things out. We went ahead and got showered and dressed for breakfast. At breakfast, Aiden took a few bites of fried egg and rice. All of the other children were sitting in high chairs but we knew not to even try that with him. When we hold him, he clings to us so tightly. He hates for us to sit down while holding him. He says, "hug me standing", in Chinese. Our guides think it is the cutest thing and so do we.
After breakfast we went back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize our adoption. This is the same place we got Aiden yesterday. Most of the children in our group were playing with the toys they have there, so David took Aiden over but he showed no interest. Then Aiden saw the fountain out the window that David had taken him to yesterday and he began pointing. David took him to the fountain while I filled out more paperwork.
Once all of the paper work was completed, we had a small ceremony. A man thanked us for adopting children from the Henan province and providing a better life for them. He then called each child by name, and the child and parents walked to him to receive the official paperwork while everyone else applauded.. Aiden Xubin is now officially an Ivarson!
We drove to a notary next and completed MORE paperwork. I'm tired of the paperwork. We had to change Aiden's diaper while we were there. We hate doing this out in public because people just stare and I am sure they think we are torturing him by the way he screams. It takes both of us to change his diaper because this kid is strong! Once that was over, we headed back to the hotel.
After not having good food in a few days, we decided to splurge and eat at an Italian restaurant in the hotel. I pulled some goldfish, puffs and raisins out for Aiden. He turned around on me and actually sat on my lap. He sits so awkwardly bc it hurts him to sit this way. The waiter brought him a kiddie cup, fork and bowl. Aiden became playful and he played for 15 minutes moving the food from his snack trap, to the cup, and to the bowl. He even ate some of his snacks. It is so good to see these moments and we just soak them in because they are rare right now. Our food was so delicious! David had a pizza, and Alana and I had chicken dishes. We were almost through with our meal when all of sudden Aiden began saying "knee yaow" which means diaper and screaming. David took him from me to go to the room and change him while Alana and I finished.
We learned later that David taking him from me wasn't a good thing. Aiden would have nothing to do with Baba after his nap for several hours. That's hard to see but we knew to expect this and we are learning from it.
After nap time, we had to go to WalMart for more diapers and to look for powder for Aiden's rash. It is so dirty in this city and the pollution almost burns your nose. We were not looking forward to going back out but made ourselves.
After getting the things from WalMart, we headed back to the hotel. We passed a bakery and went in to check it out. We ended up ordering a turkey sandwich for Alana and Aiden to share, a chocolate chip pastry and a blueberry smoothie. Aiden wouldn't eat but Alana loved the sandwich and we all enjoyed the pastry and smoothie. It felt good to sit down in AC.
When we got back to the room, we gave Aiden his bath. He cried just seeing us turn the water on. We made the mistake of getting water in his eyes the night before and he was not a fan. I stepped in the tub with him to help calm him down. We decided not to wash his hair and it made things a little better. After his bath we put the powder on his bottom we had just purchased. Immediately Aiden got down on the floor, pointed to his shoes so Alana put them on (he loves his shoes) and he began walking around! Again for only 2 minutes but it was so exciting. I was beginning to worry about him not knowing how to walk. He does struggle a bit, but it was great to see.
We put him to bed and he slept great again. David and Alana ordered room service for supper because it was already 8:00. David had a burger and Alana had a club sandwich. They said it was so good and did not regret not venturing outside the hotel again.
Tomorrow we will visit Aiden's orphanage. This is a 4 hour car ride so we are not looking forward to that with a 2 year old that is not in a car seat. We do know it is important for us to see where Aiden has lived so that we can tell him and show him pictures when he is older.