Cruise

We came back a few days ago for a 5 day cruise. Alex had lots of fun as we were with him almost all the time and went for various activities. We tried the day care service on the ship but he cried badly saying "mom" or "dada hug". We felt so bad to go away the second time and just hid outside to wait for him to calm down. After 10 minutes, we couldn't bare any more and took him out. Once we went back to our cabin, he started playing the light switches mounted on the wall, which he has been obsessed since beginning then said in Chinese "Baobao gao xing" -- Alex is happy!. I was so surprised to hear that he actually expressed his feeling so promptly and appropriately.

The second night on the ship was an formal elegant night. We all dressed up formally before going for the dinner. I was wearing a long skirt and a top with animal print. He saw me and said in Chinese "Mama yifu piao liang". Mama's clothes is beautiful! I was so happy to hear that at the moment.

On the way back on the airport, there was a long wait before our flight home. We were sitting in some resting area and he started to socialize with two passagers that we don't know. When he saw one had a bottle of water, he held up his to her and said "Cheers!" She said "cheers" in response and they did this a few more times. He then told her "open". She just couldn't stop laughing, but still complied and opened the bottle. He then said "drink". Finally, he also asked her to close the cap after drinking ("close"). They repeated this cycle several times.

At one point, I went to a farther seat which was just vacated. Laurence said to one of the ladies that we maybe should go away a bit so that Alex does not keep "cheersing" them. She said "no, I don't mind. No, really I really don't mind".

The other woman had a large red toy lobster as a carry on for pillow. Alex went to take it away. I tried to stop him and they all said it's fine. It seemed that they really enjoyed playing with him. Later on at the airplane, they all called out his name when we were getting on the plane. It was too bad that we didn't sit close to them.

When we were waiting by the gate at one point I got up and told Laurence I was going to get some hot tea. Alex came with me, following behind and made sure to say "hot tea!" to every passenger we passed. A couple of people had their heads down reading or using laptops, and he ducked down to catch their eye before telling them "hot tea!". Almost all of them started smiling at him and responded to him.

At the age of a little over two year old, Alex has really been enjoyed his time being a little happy person.