New Day in a New Place

New territory to explore! We are having fun exploring a new area but are missing our previous home in Nanchang. First of all, in the last hotel, we were all on the same floor so we had hall parties every night! That meant people to help entertain us as well as entertain and help us watch Carter! Guangzhou is very different – much more big city feel. It is much more Western as well. I’ve seen at least three McDonald’s and there is a Starbucks in the Hotel complex. We were given forks at lunch time today – unheard of! J There is a metro station below our hotel. We had a nice dinner down the street this evening but it didn’t compare to the amazing food we’ve been having. I think we may be biased as well because Nanchang is near our daughter’s birthplace…

This morning we went to Shamian Island to have Gracie Lin’s photo taken and medical check for her US Visa. After that we were free to explore the Island a little. I have to explain that it isn’t really an island as you would imagine it, it is a piece of land that has a canal or moat around it separating it from the rest of the city. The French and English, I’m pretty sure she said both, had ownership of this property which is why it is separated. The architecture is very different and there are banyan trees!! It reminded me of a combination of Boca (of course) and Charleston because of the architecture. We had fun shopping for little satin outfits for Gracie Lin and I got Carter a pair of squeaky shoes. He is having the best time in them! Parker bought some kind of flute that he’s been entertaining us with.

Interesting sleeping habits... We were told we got babies last week that they all would sleep on their backs. Girls in China are placed on their backs on a special pillow to flatten the back of the head for pretty ponytails. They really do make a pretty ponytail head! So I was to hold Gracie Lin for 15-20 minutes after she falls asleep then lay her on her back. That worked for the first week and now the transition to crib isn’t going so well. Each night she seemed to feel more and more freedom to move around in her sleep. Starting last night, it became impossible to transition her to the crib. First of all, I don’t think she has ever slept in one. Now that she is side and tummy sleeping, she doesn’t want me to lay her down on her back. So we’ve had some battles over bedtime which I didn’t expect to fight until we got home. One hour tonight was the falling asleep process between the two little ones. I watched Gracie as she feel asleep on her tummy, in the crib, clutching her snugglie (from Ella Claire) and she has the same routine she had lying against my chest. She’s going to do just fine after a little while!

Babies nap time today. Carter even layed down his head in the middle of Mickey Mouse he was so tired; and when I said, it's time for sleeping music, he said 'Noooooo (it got softer and softer)'. Night, night.

Trying fried rice. She has been trying so many things that I'm sure she has never had but she eats pretty much everything. She is getting a little face rash today and I don't know if it's from all of the new foods or heat. Maybe we'll slow down on the exploring food to see how it does.