We're staying at the Asia International Hotel this week. On Friday or Saturday we have to move to the Garden Hotel. It's really a pain to have to move hotels in the middle of the Guangzhou trip, but since we're traveling on short notice it couldn't be helped. So far the hotel rooms haven't had microwaves so we've had to improvise a little bit and heat baby food up in the water boiler.
The breakfast at both hotels so far have been very good. Lot's of selections that we're familiar with...and a few (like beef stomach) that we'd rather not see 1st thing in the morning. Here's a picture of us holding our two youngest...I was showing Sydney how I like to hold my little girls.
Sydney's little legs seem very weak so we let her walk as often as she wants to:
She doesn't really care for the hat...
but if we distract her with food she seems to forget about it.
"Hey...is that hat back on my head?!?!?"
After breakfast we went to Shaiman Island which is where the White Swan hotel and the US Consulate is located. We didn't spend a whole lot yet, but we did make the mistake of buying some stuff at the 1st store we went to, then found out we could have gotten it for $5 or $10 cheaper somewhere else. Oh well...live and learn. Speaking of that...we learned that Chinese laundry is not as cheap as we would have thought. We heard from a few people that we should just pack a few days worth of clothes and then have them washed. We sent off what would have been 1 load at home and it cost us 350 Yuan ($45 US dollars)! Each piece seemed to have been pressed and were in their own little bag....but sheesh! My new plan is to fill the tub with water and shampoo and throw all our dirty clothes in there...then give London $2 to jump in and twirl things around. Somehow having London being an "agitator" seems fitting doesn't it? Victoria would certainly agree. :)
We're in Monsoon season here in Guangzhou so we've been having lots of rain. In fact, last night London and I went down to the pool and Ginger, Sydney, Victoria, and the Keegans went strolling around in our new strollers that we bought at the "Friendship store". (The Friendship Store looks like an American mall and had name brands that we'd be familiar with. I guess they call it a Friendship Store because they're allowing Western goods to be sold there.) They hadn't been gone too long and it started raining...then came the lightening...then came as fierce a storm as I've ever seen in Louisiana. Lightening was flashing all around and there was a constant booming of thunder. The pool was in a huge room with plexiglass ceilings and it sounded like a tornado the rain was coming down so hard. When the ceiling started leaking the pool attendant made us get out.
London and I went back up to the room and prayed for Ginger and the girls that they were in a safe spot...and they were. They were huddled up in a mall with lots of Chinese folks. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but they don't see many foreigner's and they're not scared to stare unabashedly. We've had a few come up and ask to take pictures with us. While they were waiting for the rain to slack off a Chinese woman came up and asked about Sydney. She asked Ginger regarding Victoria, "She loves her little sister huh?". Ginger replied yes and she said "Lucky little girl"
OK...back on track now...here we are in the rain on Shaiman Island:
Here's London looking at all the goodies at a store named "Jennifer's Place"
We only shopped for about an hour and then we decided it was time to get back to higher ground. The river apparently overflowed and the streets were filling up fast.
We made it safely to the bus, but had to pull off our socks and shoes and wade through calf deep water. We don't even want to think about the sanitary state of the water...at least we didn't see anything floating by except a little street trash. The Chinese people are very clean and we have been very impressed with how clean the streets are. In fact, when we landed in Beijing at midnight...there were about 5 guys wiping down all of the baggage carousels.
Here we are safe from the flood.
This afternoon we had a couple of bouts of crying. Sydney started wailing when Ginger took away a snickers bar that she was trying to unwrap. Later she cried when we took a little toy away to go do something else. She also has not pooped since the day we got her. Our guide seemed very concerned...she is a Taoist and they believe very much in keeping balance (Yin/Yang) and they like to poop right after eating (take something out after putting something in.) We've been trying to find prune juice, but haven't located a grocery store yet. Today our guide gave us a few little vials. I thought it was something like a laxative and I asked her if we squirted it in her mouth with some food. Her eyes got real wide and she said "No, no, no...it goes in the other end!" Then I read the lable...glycerin enemas. Yikes.
Speaking of yikes...that's what Sydney yelled when Ginger administered it! She cried for a minute or two. Ginger walked her around a little bit so they could take effect. If you're thinking that liquid glycerin works a lot faster than regular supositories...you'd be right; too bad we didn't think of that! About two minutes later the yin came out the yang and we had a little mess! We rushed her to the pottie and a lot more yang came out...so fast that it scared Sydney and she wailed some more.
She also wailed when Ginger tried to lay her down for a nap while she was still awake (hey...it worked at night time.) So Ginger walked her around a little bit singing to her and then she sacked out hard enough for us to lay her down.
After nap time we went out and walked the streets of Guangzhou.
Finally...here's her movie star pose:
Ginger just put her down for bed (it's 8:40 here now) and she wailed again. A soft little hoarse wail though (she's put her vocal chord to good use today.) Ginger decided to just leave her down and sang "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" to let Sydney know that she was still in the room. The little hoarse cries got softer and softer...now sweet silence. Goodnight Sydney...sweet dreams.
Here are another couple of clips from her 1st day with us right after we 1st met:
Here she is the 1st night with us playing before bedtime
Here she is walking with us for the 1st time...check out that tongue action:
Playing with Mommy:
Sisters playing in the bed this morning:
She doesn't really know how to crawl properly...I guess she wasn't on the ground much. She kind of scoots her knees along. This was this morning...she's already crawling better.
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