Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Hong Kong #5 - Of Pandas and Paparazzi

We visited some of Hong Kong's finest attractions, the Panda family, but our Lo stole the show: At one point, more people were following him than staring at the actual Panda bears. We were proud parents.
Chinese culture traditionally adores children, and later in the theme park, we even had people picking up our Lo and kissing him on the cheek--without even asking our permission!

Those cute gray shoes were a Hong Kong purchase. Lo likes them so much, even now he still brings them to me during the day asking me to put them on his feet. But he doesn't like wearing them around the house--after I put them on his feet, he just pokes his finger on them for awhile and then asks to have the shoes removed.


Two pandas munching: one eating bamboo in the background, and one in my arms eating GRAPES! Our Lo needed bribery of sweet, crisp grapes to get through the day sometimes. Lo took a nap soon after our time at the pandas.




And this is what he looks like when he needs a nap. We have been back from Hong Kong for nearly a week now, and still have what Jerry calls "Panda Eyes," which is to say, those dark circles of sleep deprivation. We are almost back to recognizing night and day at their appropriate times, generally sleeping at dark and awakening at light--but remain far from our typical pre-vacation routine. For instance, I put Lo down for what I thought was his second nap of the day yesterday at 3pm. And then he slept, and slept, and slept, until he clambored out of bed at midnight ready to play. I managed to coax him back to sleep by 1am, and now thankfully he is still asleep at this time (5am). I got woken by snow plows at 3-ish, myself, and poor Jerry has been back to the grind leaving for work early in the morning each day since our return, so his body might be more adjusted than Lo and me. Anyway, enough about "panda eyes" and back on to the real pandas! Group shot in front of one panda house. The panda bears are a huge attraction at this theme park, Ocean Park, despite their lack of relevance to anything oceanic. There are multiple panda exhibits and several panda gift shops.


A rare photo with an appearance by Henry (thanks again for being our photographer for the trip): Which is cuter? We are pretty sure that Lo is the cutest panda at the park this day!

6 comments:

Valerie said...

Way cute!

Nora said...

Oh man Courtney...I thought I had it bad taking Reagan to Argentina. Kudos to you for taking Lo halfway around the world! He seriously is the cutest thing in that Panda costume. I definitely would have followed him around with my camera too, if I had been there. I love how people from other countries appreciate babies so much more then they do here. We constantly had people hugging, patting, and playing with Reagan on our trip too. Give Lo a hug for us!

Anna said...

What a stinkin' cutie!! How did you know to bring the costume?

TheTamFam said...

We brought the costume in our suitcases since Ocean Park was high on our list of sightseeing, and we just imagined how cute it would be to get photos with the real panda and our Panda Lo. It happened just like we imagined, except for the part where we imagined the park officials would refund our entrance fee since Lo would become their most popular attraction. That part didn't come true for some reason, but will have to come next time we visit I guess. =)

Melody said...

Oh my goodness, all the pictures of people taking pictures of him are so funny! How adorable!

Becca said...

No wonder why people followed him around! He is ADORABLE in that costume. Good to see you got some more use out of it too.