The Great Wall - Saturday, December 7th

Today was the first day we had to set an alarm to get up! We were meeting our guide in the lobby at 9:00 and had to eat breakfast first. We were all so exhausted from traveling, and getting the kids up and ready wasn't easy. Some chocolate muffins at breakfast helped to brighten their spirits a little. Right at 9:00 our guide and driver met us in the lobby and we headed out to the Great Wall. Between the traffic and the distance it took us almost an hour to get there. Of course Lily was crying on and off because she wanted to walk around. Seriously cannot wait for that carseat! Then all of a sudden we pull over and they have taken us to a jade factory, AKA tourist trap. Our guide wasn't super verbal, so I'm hoping that he didn't think that this was what we had signed up for, but I was pretty sure that it was an extra stop. I was very thankful that we had already been in China for 2 weeks and knew what prices were competitive. This place was super overpriced! But it was cool to see people actually carving the jade and to look at the giant dragon boat sculptures. We were done rather quickly since we weren't planning on buying anything and then had to look to find our guide. We walked through the factory twice before we saw him. We piled back in the van and headed to the Great Wall.

I knew that the smog in Beijing was bad, but man was it terrible. We drove all through the city and could hardly see any of it, and by the time we got to the Great Wall my throat was literally burning from the pollution. It was hard to even see the tops of the mountains that the wall is on. So sad that such a beautiful place is so clouded by pollution. Our guide showed us where to go to climb the wall, and then left us to explore on our own. I had Lily in the Ergo, and Caroline was having a hard time thinking that we were going to leave her behind somewhere and wanted to be carried so Brian had her. That left Matthew to hike the wall on his own. I gave him a lollipop for extra energy and it worked! I was so proud of that kid. The steps were incredibly steep, even hard for me to climb some of them, and he climbed every single one! He held tight to my hand and we took breaks whenever he needed them. I was glad to have those breaks too! It took us about 30-45 minutes of climbing to get to the watchtower. Matthew was so proud of himself. Mom bought him a medal engraved with his name on it that said "I climbed the Great Wall". He's going to take it to show and tell at school, and wanted to wear it with his name facing out so everyone could see it. Precious boy. Then we had to climb down! That was a little more tricky because I couldn't really see my feet, and Matthew was a little more timid about going down the steps. I held the hand rail with one hand, him with the other, and we slowly made our way down. So many people touched Matthew's head or smiled at him or talked to him on the stairs. One man said "Hello beautiful boy" and Matthew asked me why everyone was talking to him and touching him. I explained that he looked different than everyone here and that they thought he was handsome :o) I was very thankful that Lily slept the entire climb until the end when we wanted to take some pictures. I can't imagine how I would have made it down with a writhing baby attached to me! Once we got to the bottom both kids were tired, hungry, and cold. We still had about 30 minutes until it was time to go so we walked around a little pagoda that was there and got them each a snack.

The next part of our tour was to the Summer Palace. The temperature seemed to drop about 10 degrees between the Great Wall and Summer Palace, and we Florida crackers do not have proper winter attire. And all the kids fell asleep in the car and did not like being woken up when we got there. So to say that the trip to the palace was not as enjoyable would be a bit of understatement. Matthew was crying because he was cold, Caroline cried every time Brian put her down, and Lily was crying because she didn't want to be in the Ergo. Plus it was lunch time and we didn't have an official lunch. While we were standing there buying tickets with multiple crying children I had two different Chinese ladies come up to me and point out that Lily's pant leg wasn't all the way down. Yes, thank you, I'm sure that the two inches of leg skin that are showing are the cause of her screaming fit. I definitely do not have more important things to worry about right now. Please scold me again. Gotta love the Chinese.

The palace was really beautiful, but once again spoiled by pollution. There is a beautiful lake in the center with views of the emperor's home, the longevity temple, and gorgeous scenery all around, but the smog was so thick that we could hardly see any of it unless we were right in front of it. I loved the intricate details, the art work, and architecture and I would have loved to see this palace at the time when the emperor actually lived there. Matthew was pretty miserable and cold the entire time, so we made the tour kind of quick and headed back to the warm van.

Our guide asked us if we wanted to stop for afternoon tea at a tea house. We decided to risk it, even with cranky kids. I'm so glad we did! We went to a tea house called Dr. Tea, and were led to a large table for a tea demonstration. The woman taught us about four different kinds of tea, what they are used for, and how to drink them, and we got to sample each one. We had jasmine tea, oolong tea, puer tea, and fruit tea. The kids tried them too, and actually liked them. It was also free, because the Chinese government wants to educate people about the importance of tea. Thanks China! At this point it was 4:00 so we headed back to the hotel and ended our tour. Since no one got much sleep last night Brian walked down the block to get some takeout so we could feed the kids in the room and get them to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in China!

Back to the Island and off to Beijing - Friday, December 6th

For our last day in Guangzhou we decided to head back to Shamian Island to do a bit more shopping and to enjoy the gorgeous weather before freezing our tails off in Beijing. We enjoyed one last AMAZING breakfast buffet, and even got upgraded to the 30th floor restaurant so we didn't have to wait. Amanda and I sat with the grandmas and babies again, and Brian and Beau had the other 3 kids. It was of course delicious, and I am already going through hash brown and bacon withdrawals. The Dusseaults headed off on their first sightseeing adventure, and we made one last visit to the fish. We stole little pieces of Lily's croissant to feed the fish when she wasn't looking, and then this nice young guy gave Matthew a piece of bread to feed them some more. Matthew had fun trying to get the one all black fish the food out of the hundreds of fish. I think he was even successful once or twice. The kids were so precious saying goodbye to the fish, my favorite was when they said "see you next time!"

I attempted to do a bit more packing before heading to Shamian Island, because we had to have our bags ready by 4:00 and I didn't know when we'd be back. Then we grabbed a taxi and off we went! I am really dreading/looking forward to Lily having a car seat when we get home. I'm pretty sure she's going to scream her head off while she's in it because she hates being restrained, but at least I won't have to hold her while she's screaming in the back of a taxi anymore!

We were able to find the two stores that we had missed when we were here earlier in the week. One of them A Gift from China, donates all of their profits to orphans. They had some beautiful Christian wooden carvings and displays of verses translated into Chinese so we got some for our house. My mom also bought several gifts, and made me happy because one was for me and it was also helping someone in need. My favorite kind of gift! We bought a couple more things next door at Jenny’s then headed to find some food for our starving children. I was so excited to be able to order some stir fry broccoli! I never thought I would miss vegetables so much, but I guess when you can’t have something you want it! We let the kids play for a bit longer on the playground there, and then made one last stop back at Michael’s to buy an additional suitcase. Side note - I just love how there are people doing modeling photo shoots all over the island. I think we saw at least 15 brides in the two times we were there, and countless other models as well. I’d like to know where these ads are so I can see how they turn out! It was getting close to 3:00, and if you remember our bags had to be ready by 4:00 and I wasn’t quite done packing. We headed to get a taxi, and I started to get worried when several minutes went by and we hadn’t found one. Finally we flagged one down, and then I got more worried when we sat in traffic forever! It’s tough when you have no idea how far away you are from your destination and you have a deadline. And it’s not like you can really communicate with your driver to find out if you’re getting close. We made it back to the hotel at 3:15 and I entered hyperdrive packing mode! We put the kids in their pajamas for the flight since it was going to be late at night, shoved everything into the suitcases somewhat organized, and barely squeaked by getting everything ready.

So all week long the hotel has been decorating the inside and outside for Christmas. The entire front is covered in lights (which we saw them putting up like 5 days ago and have been anxiously awaiting for them to turn on), there’s a huge tree in the lobby that literally changes every day, and it seems like each morning there are additional decorations around. Turns out they were getting ready for a Christmas celebration starting at 5:30 tonight and we were going to miss it! There was going to be free turkey and roast beef, champagne, wine, other food, Christmas caroling, Santa’s arrival, and all sorts of fun stuff. We were originally supposed to have our bags ready at 4:00, pick up Lily’s passport in the lobby at 4:15, check out of the hotel at 4:30 and head to the airport. We were so bummed! Plus, our flight wasn’t until 9:00, was a domestic flight, and we had Beau and Amanda’s rooms to hang out in after we checked out. Simon and Miko were great, and let us stay until a little after 6:00 so we could enjoy our friends and the festivities. Unfortunately, not everything went as planned. After the super stressful packing situation ended we went down to the Dusseaults’ rooms, but Henry and James were sleeping and Amanda and Beverly had gone shopping. We hung out in Beverly’s room, which was great because the kids got to watch some Chinese tv and Lily got to walk around, but we didn’t get to spend time with our friends. When it got close to 5 we decided to head down to the lobby because we thought the celebration was going to start then. Plus we needed to visit the ATM and replenish our Cheerios stock for the bottomless pit herself. We got down there and they were still getting everything ready. We probably should have just gone back upstairs, but we didn’t have a key to use in the elevator and we thought it would be starting any minute. So Brian left for the Cheerios and my mom and I attempted to entertain the kids while preventing Lily from injuring herself. After a few escalator rides we settled on pretending to ice skate on the blue rug and backdrop where I’m assuming Santa would be coming. This actually meant the kids running around in circles, falling on their knees, and shrieking. Did I mention that once again my kids were in their pajamas? Man, when are those crazy Americans going to leave?! Finally at 5:30 they started passing trays with food and drinks and I enjoyed some free champagne. If I had known what the next few hours were going to hold, I would have opted for more than one glass!

After a few Christmas carols and watching them carve two turkeys we decided it was time to get out of the chaos and piled into the van. Traffic was terrible and it seemed to take forever to get to the airport! Or maybe that was just because Lily was crying… Anyway, Miko accompanied us inside and helped us get to the right counter and check in for our flight. We said goodbye to her at the security line, and now we were on our own! We made it through security easily. I laughed at Matthew and Caroline running away from the woman with the wand trying to make sure they weren’t smuggling any weapons in their pajamas.

 

 

The Guangzhou airport is much nicer than the Beijing airport, but apparently not as English-friendly. They started announcing stuff and people just got in line at the gate, so we joined in. No idea who they were boarding, but I guess it was ok because they didn’t turn us away. They did however forget to give us back our boarding passes after they tore off the stub and the military officer stationed on the jetway refused to let us enter the plane without seeing them. They also took our stroller from us and told us that we would get it back later. Turns out that didn’t happen, but that’s a story for later. Brian ran back, got the boarding passes, and we were finally allowed on the plane. We sat down and it wasn’t 2 minutes before Lily started crying. Genius me realizes it’s past time for her bottle, so we get it out and Brian goes to ask the flight attendant for water. Lily saw this transaction go down, and was not happy! I think that literally every person on the plane was staring at me and their eyes were saying “Why are you trying to steal this Chinese baby? She obviously isn’t yours because she seems terrified of you and is screaming her head off. And you obviously should not be allowed to be her parent if you can’t stop the screaming.” That’s one thing about the Chinese – they are not discreet. Yesterday on the island this older man just stopped in front of us and stared, going back and forth from Lily to Caroline, for a good 2 minutes. Even my evil stare back didn’t seem to faze him. After what seemed like an eternity, the Brian got the bottle back from the flight attendant. Turns out she was nicely trying to boil water for us, that takes about 10 minutes. We, again, are not up to China parenting standards because we have never used boiled or even warm water for Lily’s bottle. She just doesn’t seem to care! Crisis #1 averted. Happy baby drinking her bottle. After the bottle ran out I attempted to get her to sleep. The flight wasn’t horrific, but it also was not even close to peaceful or easy. Lily slept on and off, but when she wasn’t sleeping she was crying. It may have been the rather loud action movie that was playing overhead (I don’t know why it wasn’t set to play with headphones, but loud cell phone rings, gun shots, and sirens are not helpful for sleep) that kept waking her up, or the fact that they never turned the lights in the cabin off. Caroline was also a bit of a mess, and she cried several times too. Especially during the descent.  By the time we did land, all three kids were asleep and we had to wrangle all three of them and all the bags.

Now, let me take a minute and tell you what my plan was for this trip. I packed our carry-on suitcase with everything that we would need in Beijing in case our luggage got lost. This included all of our coats for easy access. In my mind, I was not going to bother digging out coats to put on because a) all three kids were somewhat asleep and b)we only had to walk from the airport to our waiting car and from the car to the hotel.

Ok, so we had figured out how to each carry a sleeping kid and the bags, and we only had to make it to the stroller which we should be getting back once we got off the plane, then we could put Caroline in there. So we get to the door of the plane and discover that we are not walking into a jetway to our gate, we are walking outside in the freezing cold to get on a tram that is packed full of people. And our stroller is nowhere in sight! So we wait for the second tram, Matthew is almost crying at this point because he's cold, and stumble on with all of our stuff. One nice man offers us a seat, but I can't use it with the Ergo so mom and Matthew sit and cuddle. Then we embark on the LONGEST RIDE EVER. I think we were at least two miles from the airport, and I had to hold on with one hand while straddling luggage and holding Lily. When we can finally get off we have to walk outside again. And to the woman behind me not so discreetly and rudely commenting on what a terrible mother I am because I don't have a coat for my kids, you're lucky my hands are full of luggage and a baby or I might punch you.

 

We finally get inside and go ahead and find the kids' coats so they can stop shivering. Then we find the baggage claim area and wait for our bags. Now Lily is awake and mad that she's in the Ergo, and Caroline is afraid that we're going to leave her somewhere so every time someone walks away she starts crying and wants to go with them. So here we are standing in the middle of the airport with two crying kids while Brian gets our bags. Our stroller still has yet to show up, so we inquire at the baggage desk. They tell us it will show up somewhere else, Brian checks, not there. At this point it's 1:00 in the morning and we decide to just leave the stroller behind. We find our driver in the terminal and he helps us take our bags to the van and drives us to the hotel. Hiring a driver was the best decision ever, especially since the taxi line was crazy long, outside, and in the cold. We get checked in, make it to our rooms, and fall into bed around 2:15. Good night!

Consulate Appointment - Thursday, December 5th

Today was our last official adoption appointment! We put Lily in a red dress and wore some semblance of red, white and blue to visit the US consulate. There were massive amounts of people waiting in line outside, but thankfully we got to walk right past all of them. I think it's probably the closest I'll get to feeling like a celebrity, everyone that we walked past turned to look at us and stare. They probably would have taken pictures too, but you can't have cameras or electronics inside the consulate so nobody had one. Our guide brought us to the door and then we went on to our appt with another family from our group. For the first time we waited in an empty room, and people spoke English to us! And they sounded like Americans too! I wanted to bust out in "God Bless the USA" but restrained myself to the relief of those around me. Another great thing about the consulate, they had toys for the kids to play with in the waiting room. Once we had take a number and signed in a USCIS officer spoke to us and told us what to expect. Then we took an oath, handed over our paperwork, signed a few forms, got fingerprinted for another oath and we were done! No more paperwork!!!! Tomorrow afternoon Lilys Chinese passport will have an American immigrant visa in it and she will be a US citizen when we land in Detroit Sunday evening.

 

To continue our day of Americana we decided to eat at McDonalds for lunch. Not being able to have any vegetables makes their sandwiches somewhat less desirable but at least the fries were still good! While we were sitting there eating Caroline kept saying "We're not at Old McDonald's. When are we going to Old McDonald's?" Poor baby thought we were going to a farm not a restaurant. Shows how much we eat McDonalds at home! When lunch was over we walked down to Martyrs Park to play on the playground. Matthew was a great helper pushing Lily in the stroller and she even fell asleep for a bit! Yesterday Lily was only happy in the stroller if she thought I was pushing her, so Matthew and I would switch off when she wasn't looking. Today she was actually ok with Matthew pushing her. Another baby step!

We made it to the park and the playground. We had to pay like $1 for each kid to get into the playground part, and there were rides you could pay for too. Matthew headed straight for these tall slides made out of some type of rock. They went really fast and he loved them! Caroline was a little too small so she went into the trampoline section and jumped for a while. For some reason she has been very clumsy lately, and fell and skinned her knee. Then she was jumping all over the place and I was imagining all of the Chinese germs that were getting in there. This playground was far from clean. I don't known if it's the pollution, the large quantity of people using it, or if they are never cleaned, but my kids' hands are always black after playing here. Lily happily sat in her stroller for a while, then saw how much fun Matthew and Caroline were having in the ball pit and joined in. It was so cute watching them play together! Matthew also had a great time playing with Cade, the son of another family in our group. They had a blast racing each other down the stone slides. Caroline wanted to join in, but her legs were just short enough to get caught on the sides. There are lots of signs around China about safety and watching your children, but they don't actually seem to spend a lot of time making things safe for children. I guess people are more responsible here than in the US... at home there would be lawsuits like crazy for "unsafe equipment". We let the kids pick one ride to go on, and of course they picked the train. Again, not so much emphasis on making things safe here. Thank goodness it had seatbelts, because that train went really fast and whipped them around the track! Caroline squealed with delight the entire time.

At some point we had promised the kids ice cream, and Matthew does not forget things like that, so we walked back to the McDonald's and got ice cream cones for everyone. Lily fell asleep in the Ergo (Hallelujah!) so I actually got to enjoy mine without playing keep-away the entire time. She may have gotten some cone crumbs in her hair, but I claim no responsibility for those. Back at the hotel we put the kids down for naps and I attempted to start packing. Talk about overwhelming!!! How did three suitcases of stuff multiply so quickly?! Definitely going to need to buy a cheap carry-on suitcase for the flight home.

Since it was our last night in China with the Dusseaults we wanted to eat dinner together again, but we didn't really want to drag everyone out again. So we decided to try out the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. I think it may have actually been my favorite meal! I got a sliced chicken porcelain bowl, which I learned is a bowl of rice, vegetables, and chicken. Delicious! Lily fully enjoyed it as well, as evidenced by the massive quantities of rice, vegetables, and chicken all over her face, hair, hands, clothes, high chair, and the floor. Those bussers really earned their tip! Off to bed for our last night at the Garden Hotel!

Yuntai Garden - Wednesday, December 4th

The past few days we've been enjoying not having to meet until 11:30 and taking our time to get ready. After some play time in the room this morning we went down to breakfast around 9:00. Today we learned that Lily has been spending her free time learning to be a magician, and she demonstrated her "yank the tablecloth out from under breakable objects" trick. Turns out she needs more practice, and we needed some help cleaning up the broken glass and orange juice that ended up on the floor. After breakfast we of course visited the fish, where both Matthew and Caroline took a spill and needed bandaids. We were planning to go to the playground, but we stopped by the room first for some first aid. Turns out, they were cleaning it and we couldn't get in. That's another interesting thing here, when they're cleaning your room they close the door and lock you out. Completely. Like you can't get in with your key. Why are you allowed to be in my room with all of my stuff and the door locked? What exactly are you doing that is so secretive? And no joke, as I'm writing this with Lily asleep on me in the Ergo, they just came to clean the room so I have been kicked out to mom's room across the hall.

Anyway, back to the playground. No bandaids, so the kids were tough and we headed up to the hotel playground. We met another family up there who we have seen and talked to several times throughout our stay here. Their daughter is from Guangdong province too, so we saw them at Gotcha Day, Adoption Day, and even on most of our sightseeing adventures. It was so great to actually be able to talk to them for a while and share stories. Their daughter loved watching Matthew go down the slide and would laugh hilariously at him. And you know Matthew, all he needs is an audience! Meanwhile Lily was enjoying climbing up and around the stairs and watching the other kids play. We got some adorable pictures of all three of our kids playing on the bulldozer thingy (no idea what these are called, but you can see it in the picture below). Once we had worn them out and they were tired of getting shocked by the static electricity from the slide, we got ready for today's outing.

Our adventure today was to the Yuntai Garden. Since China is so full of buildings and concrete, they take extra care of their parks and green areas. This one was no different. It had lots of beautiful plants and flowers, Chinese statues, and Dutch figures and buildings? Not quite sure what wooden shoes, windmills, swans, and milking cows have to do with China, but they sure made for some cute photo ops!

I know I have mentioned a few times how people just love taking pictures of and with Caroline over here. Well today I think was the worst. Not because there were lots of people doing it, but because this time they weren't polite or discreet. One girl asked and Caroline was scared so we said no, and then she proceeded to follow us around the garden, standing conspicuously close to Caroline while her boyfriend stood nearby taking pictures. But the worst one happened when this older woman took the stroller away from Matthew (Caroline was in it at the time) and started pushing it like Caroline was her child. Umm, excuse me, no! I mean, what exactly are you going to put as your caption in your photo scrapbook - I had a blond baby, or Look what I bought at the store today? I'm pretty sure no one is going to believe you. And it's just weird. Then when Brian went to take the stroller back from her, she wouldn't let go! Finally he forcefully took it and we continued on our way.

We had another dinner outing with the Dusseaults later that evening. (We actually got home early enough for a normal naptime and didn't have to wake the kids up for dinner!) We decided to try the Irish pub since we thought they could more easily accommodate all 11 of us. We put Lily and James next to each other again, and Amanda and I were thoroughly entertained by them. Lily would chuck something on the floor, and poor James would get very concerned and point to it like, aren't you going to pick that up? He was also very kind to share his Cheerios with Lily since we were out and that's pretty much the only thing that will keep her occupied in a high chair. At one point Lily actually pointed at James and said "Guo Guo" which is his Chinese name! So cute! But I think my favorite moment was when we were still waiting for our food and all three of my kids started crying at the same time. Does anyone else hear that noise? No? Good. I'll just continue to look over here as if none of this is happening right now. Thankfully our food arrived shortly after, and it was amazing how quiet it got!

Something that I wasn't expecting in China but that I'm loving is the fact that they have Christmas stuff everywhere. There's a huge tree in our hotel lobby, decorations all over the place, and they play Christmas music in the elevators and in the speakers around the hotel. And I believe I even heard a Christmas hymn the other day! I'm definitely still thankful that we will be home soon though, and able to have all sorts of Christmas fun when we get back. I didn't really want to spend Christmas in China ;o)

Shamian Island - Tuesday, December 3rd

Are you ready for this earth-shattering news? This morning Brian and I got to go workout together! My mom brought Matthew and Caroline over while Lily was sleeping, and I actually got to run on the treadmill instead of doing a Jillian Michaels video in the room. Woohoo! We only went for 30 minutes so that we'd hopefully be back before Lily woke up, but when we got back she was happily sitting on the floor playing with her siblings. I was amazed! As soon as she saw me though she stopped and wanted to sit in my lap. This made me happy because it shows that she is recognizing me as her mommy and prefers to be with me.

We were almost ready to go down to breakfast when there was a knock on the door. It was the Dusseaults, and we got to meet James! He is just so precious and it's so amazing to see his face with his family instead of in a picture at the orphanage. Lily walked right over to him, and they kind of looked at each other. I'm not sure if she recognized him or not, it was almost like "Of course he's here, I see him every day. What took you so long James?"

Today we didn't have to be anywhere until 11:30, so we took our time going down to breakfast, looking at the fish, and getting ready for the day. Lily actually took a short nap on me around 10:30 until it was time to leave, which was good because normally as soon as we get somewhere it's her naptime and she gets super cranky and cries and then I end up spending the entire adventure trying to calm her down and get her to sleep and as a result missing everything. But I am getting some amazing arm workouts! Plus, today's outing was shopping so I really needed my hands to be free ;o)

Today's outing was to Shamian Island. A few years ago this was where every adoptive family stayed when they were in Guangzhou, at the White Swan Hotel. As a result there are tons of shops on the island with all kinds of traditional Chinese items and gifts for cheap prices. Now almost everyone stays at the Garden because the White Swan has been undergoing renovations since 2011 and is closed. It won't open again for a few years. The US Consulate and medical center also used to be on the island, but those have moved as well. So now most people just spend a day visiting the island to do some shopping, take pictures with some of the statues there, and eat lunch at Lucy's.

Obviously shopping is not the preferred activity for Brian and the kids, so he entertained them outside feeding them lunch while mom and I went in the shops. It's a bit overwhelming to shop in China. The shopkeepers follow you around, and most items don't have prices so you have to ask them how much everything costs. Of course it's in yuan, so it all seems like funny money and you're having to divide by six in your head, all the while trying to decide if this is actually a good price or if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Sometimes you feel like a walking dollar sign. And of course you can bargain too, so it comes down to a game of chicken with the shopkeeper who keeps telling you "this very good price, very good price" and your willingness to believe them or not.

My favorite store was Michael's. They seemed to have some of the best prices, and one of the store owners entertained Lily for me so I could shop! She kept giving her different toys to play with and sat next to her on the floor while I looked around. She even gave me a little toy phone as a gift for her! I think that we bought most things in this store. I got more of the 18 gifts for Lily on each birthday, a tea set for myself, and several Christmas gifts for people. I had sent Brian ahead to Lucy's with Matthew and Caroline, and mom and I just had Lily, and she had left us quite the gift in her diaper. But of course, I have no diapers because they are with Brian! So after Michael's we headed over to Lucy's to find him. They had just finished eating and were going to play on the playground. We cleaned Lily up and she had a great time going down the slide with Brian. She seemed to be doing well playing, so mom and I left and went back to a few more stores before it was time to meet the bus. The last store we were in the shopkeeper was amazed that mom was a grandma. She kept telling her how young she looked and how thin she was. She said most grandmas are old and big. Haha! Then she wanted to take a picture with mom and gave her a business card and asked her to email her the picture. Hilarious! Meanwhile, Brian was preventing Lily from plummeting off the playground and trying to teach her to look down before she walks down the stairs or off a ledge. She's at the age where she's a complete danger to herself!

We only had a few minutes to make it back for the second bus (our guide Miko arranged for one bus to come back a little later since lots of people wanted to stay on the island) but I wanted to get some statue pictures on the way. We found the famous statue with children following a musician and one open space where you have your child stand. Lily actually did a great job standing there, but this random Chinese boy would not leave her alone! He kept hugging her and walking all around while we were trying to take a picture. Apparently in China it's normal to have random people in your photos, because his dad made no effort to have him move. He only came close when the kid was about to shove Lily out of the way, and then he was in the picture as well. Sheesh! But, you can get the idea anyway. We were the only family that actually showed up to take the second bus home (others decided to get a taxi) so we enjoyed a private bus ride across Guangzhou. Matthew wanted to sit in the back, so all six of us sat across the back row with a whole empty bus in front of us.

Nap time back at the hotel. Today I wasn't so fortunate to have free time during Lily's nap because she was on me most of the time, and I couldn't sleep either because my back was hurting. I finally managed to escape at some point and had a few minutes kid-free before dinner. We went to dinner with the Dusseaults and decided to try the Mexican restaurant nearby. When in China... eat Mexican? In the US, Mexican food is usually a pretty cheap dinner option. In China it's one of the most expensive. But, we wanted something that wasn't Chinese so we splurged. It was great to have chips and salsa. I really wanted a margarita, but since we can't have ice those were out. We put James and Lily next to each other at the end of the table, and Lily definitely felt comfortable throwing an occasional piece of food at James, reaching for his food, or swatting his hand out of the way if he got too close to hers. She really enjoyed her food - a lot! It was everywhere! The other kids didn't have such a great time. Poor Henry was sick, so he fell asleep on Beau. Caroline was in meltdown mode ever since we woke her up for dinner so she kept crying and laying on Brian and refusing to eat the chicken nuggets she had requested (although she was very sweet and kept handing Lily her fries). And Matthew was happy as long as he was allowed to play with Brian's phone. But at least the adults got to talk! And my mom and Beverly discovered that they are the same person - same birthday, birthplace, career, and married to a Brian!

Bedtime back at the hotel. I made Lily lay down next to me, she wasn't happy at first but cried only for a second and then went to sleep. Score! Tomorrow is our last official sightseeing day at Yuntai Garden. Then Thursday is our consulate appointment, Friday is a free day, and we head to Beijing Friday night. We spend Saturday at the Great Wall, Sunday morning doing some more sightseeing there, and then leave Sunday evening. And, we arrive home on Sunday night! Gotta love jet lag :)