Everyone loves a laowai baby!

Chinese people love my child. LOVE. 

We had to run some errands today. It takes forever to run errands here. First we had to catch a bus (15 minutes), then we had to ride it to pay the water bill (30 minutes), then wait for another bus to go do our other errands, etc. I had Liam in the Moby, and he was pretty tired, so he was just kind of looking around docile-like at everyone.

On the way to the water bill place, an old granny sat down next to me. She couldn't stop smiling and staring at Liam. And then this random girl who was standing near us reached across the old granny's lap and held Liam's hand for probably a good 6 stops. Even when more people crowded and pushed their way onto the bus, this girl held on to Liam's hand for dear life as she was drowned in the sea of people.

Everyone would ask how old he was. In my poor Chinese I would say he was about 4 months old, and they would smile. One old man even said in broken English, "[something, something, something] little boy!" How sweet...

Did I mention the fact that I will always have a seat on the bus when I have Liam with me? Even if the bus is completely crowded, someone (and for some reason, it's always a female) will get up and offer their seat to the poor, weighted down mother. Hey, I don't object! Well, I do at first, but that's just the Chinese way.

Not many Chinese see laowai (foreigners), let alone a laowai baby, with their big blue eyes. So they are enraptured at first glance. I do consider it a joy to share Liam's cuteness with them. The new and improved happy stares are much better than the old ones.