Friday night and Saturday Morning- Dinner out and Shopping

Last night we went to dinner with the Sanders family.  They adopted Mason, who is one of Reid's best buddies from the orphanage.  They have three more sons with them here as well, one who was aging out and was adopted last year.  I helped advocate for him and his two friends.  It has been so cool to have been able to meet him and to see him with his forever family.  He is doing well and the boys all just adore him, including Reid.   We went to the Irish Paddy Pub for dinner.  It was decorated very neat and the food was good.  I had no idea how big the portions would be or I would not have ordered so much.  The kids meals were even huge.   Have I mentioned how much Reid LOVES ketchup?   Yep- he loves ketchup so much that he sucks ketchup packets from McDonalds and licks the remaining ketchup off his plate after eating.   We had a fun time- it is really nice to get out of the hotel and socialize with people.

 Evan and Jayden, one of the Sanders' boys.

 Reid and Mason.

 The food!

 Reid with Seth who was once upon a time advocated for as Dusty.

 Cow and Bridge and the Irish Paddy are two good restaurants in the same building.

 Another only in China....a police bike on a stand with flashing lights.  No police officer in sight.

After we got back to the hotel, our guide came to our room to go over paperwork for our consulate appointment on Monday.  She said how much she just loves my boys and how well behaved they are.  Well...let me tell you- they are pretty good, but they are not always well behaved...lol.    She said she can tell how much Reid loves me by how much he is calling me mama and how he is acting.  That was nice to hear.   We skyped with our family afterwards and Evan ended up falling asleep on the little couch.  Reid and I got ready for bed.

This morning we had breakfast- saw a lot of new faces since many people who adopted from other provinces arrived in Guangzhou last night.  We met a couple families and then decided to go with the Sanders family back in the lobby to head to the One Link Plaza shopping center by taxi.  We didn't feel like an hour yesterday there was enough.  We found some cool things and had fun hanging out.   Reid tires out easily after walking a lot- he needed to sit a number of times.  I think as funny as it may look, I may try to take a stroller from our hotel for this afternoon for him.   We headed back to the hotel for lunch in our room.  We ate some of our leftovers and Reid had a peanut butter sandwich, leftovers, and a couple of the packaged chicken feet he got when we went to the Trust Mart a few days ago.  I couldn't really watch him eat them, but he did like them!    We skyped with Rick and Jayce who was still awake after a late night of fireworks.  In just a bit we are going to meet our group down in the lobby to head to Shamian Island and the Pearl Market.  I hope to get some of the last few things on my list that I know I can get on the island.  I know I will have to order some things and go back before we leave to pick them up from Michael's Place.   Looking forward to the peace of the island for a couple hours.

 Sometimes they get along great!

 Having fun with some of our treasures we found today- little Lego guys and light-up tops.

 Eating the chicken feet.  The picture below is what the package looks like.