Have I mentioned that we love Guangzhou?
This morning, Larry took Joseph to his medical exam and I took Abigail to the "Central Park" of Guangzhou. Abigail and I had a great time exploring the little trails and paths. We saw small groups of people doing dance routines and tai chi -type stuff all over the park. We also saw a 30 piece orchestra performing in a gazebo, a choir (singing Edelweiss in Chinese) practicing in another gazebo, a man smacking the back of his hand repeatedly on a rock (to toughen it?), a group of old women doing a line dance routine to "I like to Move it Move it", a Koi pond with paddle boats, bamboo gardens, a group of old men playing a type of Badminton using a birdie that was a hacky-sack, and the list could go on.
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| This picture isn't just because I love Abigail. I had her stand there so I could slyly take a picture of the group of people doing some type of exercise routine together (one of an infinite number of such groups). |
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| The wind kept blowing my hair onto Abigail. It cracked her up. |
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| There were signs/ rules posted in the park. I had Abigail translate some of them for me. She said this one means "Do not forget your backpack." |
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| And according to Abigail, this sign means "You must be nice to old people." |
At the medical exam, we found out that Joseph weighs 20 pounds now and is 27 inches long!
We can't believe how much he has grown in a week. One week ago, he was our no-muscle-tone, limp Ramen noodle who easily fit his size 2 Pampers. Now, he needs size 3 Pampers, he can toddle and crawl enough to keep up with his sister in a confined space, his cheeks are chubby, and he is developing plenty of strong muscles. We estimate that he has put on 4-5 pounds in a week and we don't know if that is healthy, even for undernourished kids, but it is hard to say no to him when it comes to food (and at most meals, he eats more than his sister). In February, he was so far below the weight-for-age growth curve from the CDC that he couldn't even see the line. This new measurement puts him at the 5th percentile!! (His height is still below the curve, however.)
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| Welcome to the 5th percentile, son. We hope you are 20 pounds, not 12 pounds with an 8-pound tapeworm or something! |
In the afternoon, we made another trip to the Island to buy souvenirs. This is when Abigail got to pick out what she wanted to spend her own money on. She choose an airplane toy and a Chinese fan. That brings her souvenir total list to: 1 rubber snake (Great Wall), 1 bamboo sword (Shaolin Temple), 1 fuzzy alligator puppet (Wal Mart in Zhengzhou, a bribe for her walking there and back), 4 toy cars (another Wal Mart bribe in Zhengzhou and complete junk we never would have bought her at home), a Jie-Jie t-shirt, a Chinese fan, and an airplane. We also bought Joseph 4 or 5 different silk/satin traditional outfits, of which Abigail has stolen one for herself and had a total meltdown when we told her she can't wear it all day. (She has 10 traditional outfits at home, but are all dresses and she wants the pants outfits, so we may be making another trip back to the Island...)
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| She is very serious when she flies. I personally don't like it when she plays "Plane Crash" |
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| Hey, JieJie! Wake up from nap! I want to play! |
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| Hanging out in the room for a few hours. |
In the evening, we took a dinner cruise on the Pearl River with about half of the families in our travel group. We did this dinner cruise when we adopted Abigail, but it rained the whole time and the food on the boat (a buffet) was (as described by our guides) "disgusting, and we live here." So, we all had pizzas delivered to the boat, had a pizza party on the bottom level and then spent the last hour or so on the top deck enjoying the great weather and beautiful city.
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| Joseph's first pizza. He gave it two greasy, sauce-covered thumbs up |
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| Nom nom nom. My carrier tastes good. |
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| My crazy, wonderful, lovable girl! |
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| Such a beautiful night. |
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| Family pics are even more challenging now to get 2 kids looking at the same time
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