A wonderful day.

Today was just what the doctor ordered...relaxed and fun.  It also turned out to be the Day of Many Firsts for James.

First we headed with the other adoptive family and our new wonderful friends The Abells to the very lovely Chongqing Zoo (James' first trip  to a zoo).  Guess what we saw?

Yep!!  Pandas!

Sweet, beautiful, plump panda bears.

It really is such a pretty zoo.

Random statue- sweet picture.

Roll Tide!  (I just had to)

My view.  He is being tickled by the palm leaves..pretty sure it was his first for this too. 

Afterwards, he was carried by Daddy for the first time to his first trip to see the Papa. (John that is).

This guy loves to count and organize.  So he did both with every single puff we brought.  

Remember Monchichi's?  They are STILL cool in China.  Along with Hello Kitty, Dora, SpongeBob, and now Minions from Dispicable Me.

 

So we went back to the crazy store to buy swim caps...more on that later.  I got to take some pictures this time.

These are giant grapefruit that come from the WanZhou area.  You can by one like these that have been gentley carved into bunnies to give as a present or to enjoy it as a centerpiece before eating it.

You can also touch all the raw meat in order to select just the right cut.

Or pick up a tentacle to try.

Many of the little creature in these shells were still moving around.

But they weren't moving bear as much as the fish and eels in these tanks.

These poor little crabs were all tied up and couldn't move at all.

Thank goodness for the 5x5 glass cube these BULLFROGS were in or they'd just hop away.

You can imagine how horrified my frog-loving girls were to see the frogs.  Lillianna asked me (in all seriousness) if we could please buy them all so no one could eat them.  'Thats so mean and unfair!'

I asked her to think about how all these chickens felt. :)

I almost bought some chicken feet to make keychain souvenirs but I realized I didn't bring my hot glue gun to China.

I love the giant bins of rice.  I kinda really love this store.  Seriously, four rows over from the chicken, you can buy a man's suit.

Then we went for ice cream and we tried the green tea flavor which LaLa and I thought was delicious. Ebug...not so much.

Up on the wall- instructions in using the fire extinguisher.  I love the super friendly, cartoon character.  Most public signs are like this- designed for 6 year olds to read.  Which is really funny on the highway.  I saw one that indicated the height of an upcoming bridge...by showing a cartoon giraffe driving a car.  Love it.

Jiao Jiao missed this 'first' since he was snoozing.  Good thing the Parsons eat a lot of ice cream!  He can try it tomorrow.

Can you tell me what's funny about these elevator numbers?  Oh, I'll just tell you.  There's no 4.  No fourth floor or 14th or 24th.  The number 4 is that unlucky in China.  So glad I'm the third daughter.

This guy woke up and was so happy to see his cars.

Homework time!

And then Swimming time! See why we needed the swim caps.  Except we couldn't find them so I bought shower caps and then we acted surprised when the hotel pool lady explained the difference.  She felt sorry for the children of such confused parents and let us swim anyway. 

James actually has one because our friends let us borrow it.  This was a big first for him since his first time in a big bathtub was just a few days ago.  He had been sponge bathed in a sink at the orphanage.  He LOVES the bath!  He just sort of liked the pool.  I think he takes after his Mom who also prefers warm water. 

Then we came back for a quiet night in the room.  James really started coming out his shell by scooting, crawling, and cruising all over the room.  He also LOVED for me to stand him on his head and flip him over.  He would crawl up the my lap and then bend backwards for me to ease him down to a head stand a flip him over and then he lays there and giggles.  Then gets up, still giggling and crawls back for more. He is loving all the physical activity he is getting!  We are loving how much he loves it!

He looks so big and (so cool) here.  Big deal for him to be standing all by himself. He's still very wobbly in his foot so I've got to be there...he falls easily.

We stayed up so Lillianna couldfacetime with her 2nd grade class in Arkansas.

Isn't technology wonderful?  They were so cute and have been so excited for Lillianna and for James.  What a blessing!

Another wonderful day for us.  We are so grateful for all your thoughts and prayers.  No doubt they are carrying us through this adventure.  We are loving our time here but starting to wish we could be at home wth James.  We leave Friday afternoon (China time) and fly to Guanzhou China where we will be til Thursday the 24th.  We are there to pick up James' US Visa so he can travel back to US.  Won't be long til we will really be home!!