We have had our fair share of really smooth travels, so one could say we were 'due' for some mishaps, and well they came...(overall it was still smooth, but all put together in four days and we were worn thin).
Our biggest concern was Sophia's potty training, but overall she did great, as will come out in the story of our weekend. We sat on the runway in China in our provincial capital, one flight down, one to go. This itself was no small feat as it had rained in our city non stop for a week.I hate to fly in the rain. David assured me, it is not the taking off in the rain that is a problem, it is landing. Don't tell me that, then, if it is raining when we are about to land I will be a nervous wreck...but it wasn't.
So here we sit on our second flight and they ask for us to get our passports out. There are 160 people on the plane and only 159 had been 'stamped' or registered. This is cause for pause in this day and age. Someone is on the plane who is not supposed to be, or they just forgot to stamp his passport. The latter was correct, but it took them looking through all our passports two times and over an hour to get that figured out (people would move seats, and on and on).
We get to our guest house and it is great. Sophia makes a new friend, whom she dubs: 'the other Caleb' (as opposed to our neighbors and close friends' son). This Caleb was her age and they had a fun time playing together.
So far Sophia has done great in the new (to her) bathrooms and interesting potties. Sometimes she is scared and says: 'I can't do it right now.' But no accidents...yet.
Friday we go to the hospital for Isabella's shots, during which Sophia shouts at the doctor: 'NO!' 'NO!' She is trying to protect her meimei (little sis). But we must explain why the pain is good for her...hard for us all to learn.
Next it is off to the mall, play place for Sophia and Daddy, grocery shopping (stocking up) for Mommy. Here is where David comes to find me and tell me that Sophia has done number 2 in her pants, and I have all the extra clothes, etc. ....ugh, awful, crazy. Well, it still wasn't that bad, because the poor girl still has really solid stool (don't her parents feed her veg?), he cleans her up and he is obviously traumatized by the incident, and off they go. At lunch he says, 'I know I need to get over it, but I had just asked her two minutes before.' She was in a play place, who wants to stop all that fun just to go to the bathroom? I also reminded him to be thankful it wasn't messy. Which he was.
Friday night we hang out at the guest house and eat pizza with new friends.
Saturday, we venture to a bigger mall, on the hunt for a 'buggy board,' a thing you attach to your stroller so a toddler can stand on it while an infant sits in the stroller. Sophia and her new friend Caleb played while we took turns shopping around. We found and debated the buggy board (about $25 more expensive than in the US, but with shipping costs we went with it), in the end we loved our purchase. I will post pics later. Sophia cruises on the back and gets us through airports quickly without a huge double stroller!
Sunday, our travel back day. We get to the immigration line and it turns out David has overextended his stay by a few months. 'WHAT in the world?' As it really turns out they did not stamp his passport on the way in so it looks like he has been hanging out in Thailand for a long time. As we say in China: 'mafan of all mafans.' I take the kids (on the new buggy board thank good ness), and David waits for them to sort out their mishap. We go to Burger King and then to our little nook at Starbucks which is perfect because it is secluded for nursing and Sophia can watch all the airplanes come and go. Finally David does join us, legal and accounted for. We keep asking Sophia if she needs to go potty, 'no, no, not yet.'
While David is in the restroom (quite a good walk away), I am feeding Isabella. Sophia stops in her tracks and says: 'I have to go poo poo.' hmm....what in the world will I do? I have 1, 2, 3, 4 bags total (2 small and 2 backpacks), a newborn on my shoulder, a stroller, and a girl who is really about to go in her pants. In my mind I try to decide which bag to just 'forget,' which one can I do without if someone takes it? That would be the baby bag of diapers, etc. Except it has my wallet in it. So, I pile all the bags on the stroller (a very small portable stroller mind you), drive it with one hand (difficult), prop Isabella as stable as possible on my shoulder and guide Sophia through a few restaurants to get to the bathroom where David is so I can get help. Sophia on the way has her dress pulled all the way up. All the stares assure me most people think this is cute, little do they know that a puddle (or worse) is sure to come. I convince her to put her dress down (it will at least be less obvious that way), and we make our way....(hold it Sophia!). I get a man to go to the men's bathroom, ask for David, and tell him his wife needs him...except there is no David in that bathroom....finally I see him way across the hall, unashamedly yell his name, and he comes to the rescue...
'
I can't do it right now' Sophia says when David takes her to the potty... And this is still just the beginning of our very long day.
We enjoy Dairy Queen (yes it is breakfast time, but who cares at this point), David gets his Frappucino, and off we go to board the plane. Sophia is very scared of the airplane potty, but finally goes pee a little bit. And then we land, thankful that the 'men in masks' don't come on this time, they check our temperature off the plane via camera/radar/ whatever thermal scan thing you want to call it, and don't you know no one gets pulled out of line....except Sophia. Oh my. David and Sophia go back to get her temperature checked. I walk back there, she smiles at me and says: 'they are taking my temperature.' Praise Him she wasn't screaming! And no temperature.
Off to wait for our next plane. It is too early to check in so we stroll around. A few times Sophia says she needs to go pee pee, but when we take her she gets scared and says: 'I can't do it right now.' We keep telling her if she stays clean and dry all day she will get to play with new legos when we get home.
We go to a little restaurant where Sophia can watch the planes and I can nurse, and we purchase the $4.00 Sprite (rental fee) in order to do so. It was at this point Sophia runs over and says she has to go poo poo (which we had just taken her 2x to no avail). And I already knew it was too late... there she went. We were frustrated yes, but I still just felt sorry for her. I took her to clean up. Now, let me explain. Really these squatty potties in this particular airport are not that bad, we have been in ones a million times worse. But somehow with kids who touch everything, it just all seems gross, my first culture shock in five years is starting to emerge. My task now is to get Sophia changed in a 2 foot by 2 foot space that has a squatty and nasty stuff all over the floor, without any part of her touching anything and without falling in the toilet...ha. Shoes off, pants off, only step on your shoes (yeah right), don't touch. One of her feet touch the urine soaked floor, my frustration rises. Finally we get everything taken care of. I tell her why she won't get her legos, she understands: 'because I went poo poo in my panties.' And still I just feel sorry for her, she is learning and doing great, I would be scared of the toilets too....
Now, Because I carry Isabella in a sling most of the time and this is a 'run you over' culture I constantly have to tell people to watch out, sometimes I do have to raise my voice or literally move them from hitting me to do so, not in anger but for protection. This time Isabella was in the stroller out for people to see, Sophia on the buggy and we maneuver to our gate...we almost get pummeled by at least three people who could care less that they really almost seriously hurt our baby...and I am a little angry (umm...more than a little). I start talking to myself: 'love love love, Lorraine, love others.'
We relax (?!!) for a few minutes before boarding (which took us on a bus which took us back to a terminal, up two flights of stairs and onto the plane, seriously, who comes up with this stuff?).
Again we have encountered the oohs and aahs of people amazed by Sophia and Isabella's 'whiteness' and curls, I usually smile and sometimes make small talk. Sophia on the other hand (even in our town) has started to say 'don't touch Sophia' and she came up with that one on her own. But it was my turn this time. A burly man with a big smile pinched and really, really rubbed sophia's cheek as we walked by, and it was just too much (not in a weird way), I removed his hand from her face and said: 'please don't touch her.' That was really the first time I had ever done that. Maybe it was the day I was having, but I just really thought it all too much, accurately protective or overprotective? You decide. No matter what my heart was feeling at the time, I want our kids to love this culture and people, and the more she gets touched and prodded and poked by complete strangers, the less she likes it, so I intervened. When I told David that maybe I wasn't too nice (I didn't feel any anger in my heart, it was just a split second decision that seemed right at the time), he told me to next time just start touching all over their face and ask them if they like it. I chuckle and think that may be a good response, except who wants to touch some stranger's face?
We step off the plane in our city and just sigh. I will never tire of the breathtaking landscape, crisp green rice fields that meet tall mountains in the distance. We are home. David says: 'I have had a grumbling heart today,' I just smile, we know it, we both confess, and thank the Father for such goodness, such goodness. Traveling with toddlers, traveling as much as we do in general, will always give tales to tell, and we fail at thankfulness so often, and the gratitude rises in our hearts, we really are thankful for every last bit of our journey, it teaches us, exposes our weaknesses, makes us RELY.
