Getting Sydney - Day 7

Another great night with our new daughter. Her eyes have seemed a little yucky since we got her so we've been sneaking some pink eye drops in there just before she wakes up and her eyes are already a lot better.

One thing that has really amazed us is her fine motor skills. She can really, really control her fingers and do lots of very detailed things like opening small boxes. This morning we tried a new skill that she seemed to really enjoy...brushing her teeth:

Her gross motor skills are not very good at all, but she has already improved a good bit on those. She can now stand almost on her own and is walking much better while we are holding her fingers. She's also saying little words...when she hands us something she says "bah-la-la". She works her tongue when she says that and it's sooooo cute. She also absolutely loves rice. When Ginger gets a bowl of rice Sydney stares at it, leans towards it, and sticks her tongue out. We truly have her undivided attention when we have a bowl of rice.

Today we went to the Guangzhou Folk Art museum.

Here's Sydney enjoying a not-too-hot, rainy day. Her parents love days like this. I'll take wet and cool over dry and sweltering any day.

And where there's rain...my (now middle) child is sure to find a way to get wet


Here's a cute shot of Sydney through some colored glass:


The Chinese craftsman are incredibly detailed...the carvings are so intricate that they defy belief. Our guide told me that some workers would do just one great piece in their life and that some would go blind by the time they finished it. Wood carvings like this are all over the place:



Here are a few bones that have been carved with incredible detail:





This next picture is of a carving that started out as a cylinder of bone. To do these type of carvings, the craftsmen shape it into a ball, and then bore holes into the center of it. Then, starting on the inside, they carve a tiny piece into a little ball. Working outwards, they carve a larger sphere, and then a larger, etc. Each sphere is hollow and contains the smaller spheres. This one ball has a total of 43 spheres inside!!!



Here is an ancient Chinese bed...those two marble boxes were their pillows. To this day the Chinese prefer very hard beds; something Ginger and I can attest to first hand.



This next picture doesn't show it very well, but this is a threshold

They are definitely not wheelchair accessible around here. All the museums and old palaces have these large thresholds that you must step over. The reason for this is twofold: one reason is because you have to look down as you step over it so you are automatically bowing to the owner of the house. The other is to keep the little demons out. It didn't work, London and I got in anyway :)

Everyone knows that visiting Chinese folk art museums makes one sleepy...Sydney just couldn't keep her eyes open.



After visiting the folk art museum we went to a jade and pearl shopping area. Jade is very precious to the Chinese people; it is the stone containing the "five virtues," but right now we can't remember which five virtues. Here's Sydney modeling a pearl bracelet:



And here she is snuggling up to the saleslady to help get us a better deal:



Then we headed back to the hotel for a little R&R



Our traveling partners, the Keegans, had been keeping up with a particular family in America World travel group 104 (this group is here in China now). The other family had adopted a little boy that was in the same orphanage as Miata; in fact, they were crib-mates. They arranged a meeting tonight and we all took a taxi over to the Dong Fang hotel and had a little reunion. It was very sweet when the two children saw each other--they started running around the hotel lobby laughing and cackling. Miata was even calling him by name.

Tonight is travel group 104's last night and we joined them for a traditional Cantonese dinner at a restaurant that served some pretty wild stuff...like water snake:


and....something else:

Here's what London thought of that:

But I was feeling adventurous so I tried a few things that were a little "strange", as our guide put it. I gnawed on this duck wing for a little bit:


Here are the girls eating a more traditional Western-style dinner...cheese crackers:


I didn't eat a lot of anything crazy...but I did eat some snake, crocodile, and last but not least, snake skin:

The snake was actually quite delicious and I would gladly have eaten some more...but that was the most popular of the "strange" food and it was eaten up quickly. I asked about cat and dog (sorry Beverly...but all these animals are pets in one part of the world or another) and they told me that they only eat those in the winter...go figure.

Here we are outside the restaurant:



Eating those crazy foods was nothing compared to taking a taxi ride through Guangzhou! It was kind of fun hailing a cab...we had a card with the hotel name on it so I just showed that to him. About 10 minutes and 5 near misses later we arrived back at our hotel.

Videos:

Sydney loves it when Victoria holds her up on the slippery window sill with slick socks.




Sisters at play:




This one is at the folk art museum...Sydney enjoying a little Chinese formula:

Here she is right before bedtime getting spoilt by her daddy.


OK...I have to go take an Alka-Seltzer now...the water snake is starting to slither around in my belly. Good night everyone.