Hanging Out in Guangzhou

Hannah: WOW! Look at that BEAUTIFUL DRESS!!! (she was nice enough to pose for a picture..I guess she figured it was the only way Hannah would walk on and stop staring and wowing at her!)

PAPA JOHN'S PIZZA! See story below about the two small containers.

Hannah: Let's go swimming!! The sooner the better!
Sadie: hmm..are you SURE this is a good idea?

Eating well at the Thai restaurant

So, ladies..let's get this meeting started. What are today's plans?

Hannah swimming by the waterfall

Wet and cold, but happy!

Swimming makes us hungry!!

How could I resist these dresses when they BOTH loved them?

Hannah with the nice ladies at the embroidery shop we visited.

My sweet girls enjoying the pool.


We are completely enjoying the more laid back schedule here in Guangzhou. And I think Sadie is benefiting from it too. She is doing well. Today she has amused us with her antics and beneath that quiet exterior -she's an extremely funny girl! She and Hannah enjoyed dancing and just being silly a lot today.

Yesterday after my post, we didn't do much at all. We checked out the swimming pool at the hotel. Sadie wasn't too sure about it and didn't last long. We walked around some and ate at the Thai restaurant we enjoyed so much last time. Banana Milkshakes..mmm..both girls were happy. Today, we were supposed to tour this morning, but we called our guide last night and told him we wanted to shop instead and we knew exactly where we wanted to go. So, we headed to the market this morning with all the shops. While there, we ran into Rebecca who was our guide two years ago. It was nice to see her and we enjoyed talking to her a little while. After we ran out of money, we went back to the hotel! After lunch, the girls napped while Super Nana babysat. *I* shopped some more! (thanks to changing money again!). We went swimming again this afternoon and this time, Sadie LOVED it. She stayed with me in the baby pool for a long time laughing and having a great time. Hannah was so sweet and patient with her in the pool too. After changing, want to guess what we did again? MORE shopping! (just a little this time!). I am officially done shopping - well except I want to get ONE more thing. Just one. really. For supper, we had...PAPA JOHN'S! And it tasted like papa john's pizza here too! Okay, if you look at the pizza picture above, I must explain the two containers next to the pizza. One is dipping sauce much like you'd get here. The other is sugar. We asked if they had cinnamon bread (you know, like they do in the U.S. - they had the same kind of pizzas after all). They were confused and didn't understand. So Beth said 'you know..sweet bread, with sugar and cinnamon'. They still didn't seem to get it so she told them never mind. When they delivered the pizza, they sent a container of sugar. I'm sure they're laughing at us wondering why those crazy people want sugar with their pizza! oh well! They really tried.

Sadie has been great today. And she's learned SO much already in the past week. Today, she has been talking a good bit. Mostly baby talk and unintelligible, but she's making sounds. And she clearly says "gong gong" (her name) and "bye bye" and "jie jie" (big sister). She has said mama once in front of a mirror, but she called herself mama..she doesn't get it yet. She also is signing "more" consistently. She's been helping me dress and undress herself today and has shown some understanding of some simple things we are saying. She is eating much better too. Her eye-contact and playfulness has increased tremdendously. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring.

Tomorrow we plan to head to a local playground after breakfast for a while and that's really the only plans we have until we go on a dinner cruise on the river tomorrow evening. I have to be in my hotel room from 11:00 - 12:00 while my guide is at my US consulate appointment for me so he can call in case there are questions. Other than that, we are free to do whatever we'd like. We did a lot of touring in Beijing and Nanjing, so we are quite happy to have more free time now. We have met quite a few other families and some have older children near Hannah's age. So, according to Hannah, she has lots of friends here now.

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed.