Today is Julia's 40th birthday and she will never forget celebrating it in China with our new son. This morning we got up after another peaceful night to find Zach somewhat out of sorts. He was not his normal sunny disposition. This is not to say he was terribly difficult. He was just a little more like a normal toddler than he had been. The heat rash that we had mentioned in previous blog posts had gotten worse. Over the course of the day, we did some research on the internet and confirmed that what he has is definitely heat rash and not a food allergy or other similar malady. The condition can be caused by bundling a child up which prevents sweat from evaporating leading to blockage of sweat ducts, which leads to the rash, which apparently feels somewhat like a nasty sunburn. The Chinese put some importance on bundling small children up in multiple layers and heat rash is a common malady among Chinese children because of this. Julia and I came to a decision that we are going to stop worrying about what the people on the street think and begin dressing Zach in a more American fashion. Granted, we will keep him warm but we are dispensing with the bundling.


Today's activity was a trip to the Beijing Zoo. It was a nice trip which Zach seemed to enjoy but in many ways was kind of sad as well. The zoo here reminded us of the older zoos we saw in America as children. The animals are contained in mostly cement enclosures, unlike the modern American zoos, such as Zoo Atlanta that attempt to better approximate the animals' natural habitat. We saw Pandas, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears (oh my!). Zach actually paid more attention to the other people around him than to the animals. Of all of the animals, the bears seemed to hold the most interest for him. The animals all were pacing and didn't appear to be happy in their situations.



After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and Zach took a snooze. After that, we got up and went down the block to a childrens' clothing store where we bought Zach a few short-sleeve shirts. On the way back, we stopped at McDonalds to get dinner. It was a 3 story McDonalds full of young people and was swelteringly hot. There also were no tables to be had, so we walked back to the hotel where the staff had a rose and a birthday cake waiting for Julia. We ate our food and had some cake while Zach played with some empty plastic bottles, stacking, tossing, and punting.

At one point, Zach found something unbearably funny and threw himself on the floor laughing hysterically and pounding the floor. We have yet to know what exactly tickled his funny bone, but it was a sight to see.

Tomorrow brings a trip to a temple, the name of which escapes us at the moment. More to come tomorrow.