A day of shopping

This morning we ventured out to the Silk Market for some shopping.

It was complete-total chaos.

You know how much I love to shop, well, let me tell you I did not enjoy today's shopping one bit. It was as if we were being accosted by the vendors. Some even grabbed me my the arm pulling me into their booth.

I was not a happy camper but my main goal was to find some nice original clothing for Bethany. Tim was on a shirt shopping spree while I wandered about with Bethany. Everyone wanted to sell me Chinese dresses for my "beautiful baby".

I made the big mistake of stopping in one booth. Well I didn't really have much of a choice because she reached to grab Bethany and then pulled my arm into her booth. So I gave in and asked to see a dress for my baby. She pulled out a couple and oh boy they were adorable. I tried to walk away several times telling her that I had to check with my husband because he was the one that was going to buy it. This woman followed me to where Tim was and kept hounding me.

As Tim took his time trying on several shirts I sat down on a bench playing and feeding Bethany her cheerios snack. Many people walking by stopped to say that she was beautiful and asking me if she was my baby. Some even said "she looks just like her Mama"...I am getting very used to hearing this and loving it each time someone says it.

No sooner did Tim finish, this woman came right up behind me and literally put her arm around mine and pulled me to her booth. Needless to say, Tim bought 2 dresses for Bethany after much persistence and a huge bargaining session. It really works that I walk away as if I do not like it because that's when they insist on bringing the price right down just to make the sale. This hounding/harassment is way too much for my liking especially when the woman said to Tim "buy 2 or 3 for your baby" but he responded that it was too much and she said to him "it's not too much if you love your baby". So before I could respond unfavourably to that comment I walked far away...and very quickly.

Others tried to grab my arm but by this time I'd had enought so I just pulled my arm away and kept walking as I "firmly" said NO! It worked because they did not speak to me after that....well, they spoke Chinese and goodness knows what they were calling me but as long as they stopped harassing me I didn't care.
Overall, I can't say I was impressed with the quality of the merchandise or the harassing manner of the vendors. But as I've been told, you get what you pay for; however, it was quite the experience and Bethany did score big with Daddy and that's all that matters. As you can see from this picture....Bethany showing off her expanding ward robe, courtesy of Daddy.

Looks like she will be a shoe-aholic just like her Daddy.

On another note, I must say that everywhere we go Bethany attracts people to her. It's not even the adopted child gawking like the Canadian couples in our group. She is absolutely adorable and has a killer smile especially when she opens and closes her hands to say hello. So, that could be it but whether Tim is carrying her or me, people walk up to us and ask us how old she is and tell us she is cute and beautiful. That is not what bothers me, I actually love that. What really bothers me is that they want to hold her! I mean really! They don't do this in Toronto...EVER!
It gets very annoying because one thing about adopted children is that they learn to be held by many different people so they tend to go when anyone calls them. It is different for Tim and I because we are teacher her to go to "Baba" or "Mama" only so she knows we are her parents. I've decided that from now on when someone calls her I will have to tell them to stop that and pull away with Bethany. She is very friendly so we've got allot of work to do on this issue. She has to learn not to go to strangers....family and friends are the exception.
It seems she is the only one of the girls who gets all this attention everywhere we go. No matter where we are we are guaranteed to have a couple/few women hovering around us all cooing over her. Tim always has a huge smile on his face...I have to smile when I see him with her and think to myself.....is he just being a proud Daddy or is he thinking "wow, I have my own chick magnet"...LOL!
OH, but wait, there's more than just the hovering, cooing and calling to pick her up. It started when we were at the Forbidden City. I was with our guide Ting-Ting, I kid you not, that is her name but let me tell you she is the most caring and wonderful person we have ever met. She has been instrumental from the beginning of our life changing experience...we all LOVE Auntie Ting-Ting.

As I was walking around, a couple of older ladies walked up to me and were talking in Chinese to me so I asked Ting-Ting to translate for me. They wanted to know how old she was and when we told them she was 10 months old they started chattering loudly as they looked at each other and nodded. I was very curious to find out what they were saying. Ting-Ting translated to me that the women were saying that "my baby is fat". How rude??? I asked Ting-Ting to respond for me by saying "don't call my baby fat!" but then she continued to tell me that they are very happy and congratulating me because of my good fortune since I have a gorgeous healthy baby. It so happens that in this culture, chubby or "fat" babies represent happiness and prosperity because it means the baby is well nourished and will grow up healthy and very smart. It signifies good fortune that the child's family has enough money to feed her healthy foods. It felt so good to hear them saying such wonderful things about Bethany's culture. It meant allot coming from these elderly ladies and so I didn't feel so bad about them calling our baby girl "fat". You learn something new everyday here in Beijing.

Hey, who called me fat?...I prefer to be called bodacious