Today, we went to a Buddist temple and Yuntai Park.  We saw some Kindergarten aged children at the Buddist Temple.  They gave out key rings and practiced their English on us.  They were so cute.  The park was very pretty.  We didn’t get a lot of pictures to post because the camera battery wasn’t fully charged.  We got pictures on our phone, so we will have to try to upload them later.

The rest of today is for relaxing.

Debi just noticed not all our posts actually got posted to the site so you might want to go back a read some of the older posts.  Not sure what happened but it did.

Today, we went to the Chen Family Temple.  It was a little crowded.  We did attract attention.  There are 11 families in our group.  Danni is taking about 3 to 4 and sometimes 5 naps a day and sleeping from 7pm – 4:30am at night.  She is still trying to adjust to the change in diet.

MeeMaw is getting a lot of time with Nick.  He has been sleeping in her room just in case Danni has a rough night.  Debi did some good bargaining yesterday.  She got most of the Christmas shopping done for the kids.  We did laundry yesterday.  It was much cheaper than doing laundry in Nanchang.  We did less laundry there and it cost more than Guangzhou.

Danni still wakes up a few times during the night.  We think she is just checking to make sure we are still there.  Nick makes her laugh doing crazy things.  He can just laugh and she will smile and start to laugh.

We arrived in Guangzhou late last night.  We are staying at the White Swan Hotel.  We had to go through security to get into the hotel because the Asian Games are going on here.  When we were at the airport, our guide started talking to Debi in Chinese.  She could tell Debi was part Chinese and assumed she could speak it.  It was interesting to see others talk to her in Chinese.

Nick was happy he got to see Nathan today.  We went to the clinic for Danni’s medical exam.  She passed with flying colors.  She did not have to get any shots because we were non-Hague.  Other families in the group their children had to get shots because they were a Hague.  Most of those children had to get up to 6 shots.  We did a little shopping because we ran out of clothes for Danni.  Her tummy isn’t handling the food change to well, so most of her clothes are getting washed and we washed some by hand too.  Two new teeth have come in since we picked her up on Monday.  She now has 4 teeth.  (Two at the top and two at the bottom)  A couple of the ladies in the shop tried to talk to Debi in Chinese too!  One even mentioned that Debi is quite to negotiator…must be a Gee thing.  Debi will be helping her mom negotiate for better prices now.

She likes Chuck to hold her when he is standing.  If he is sitting and she knows even if sleeping, she will start to cry.  Debi can do either without any crying or whining.  We had dinner at a local place down from the White Swan that served American food.  Nick and Nathan got the same food and drink even 86 on the tomatoes.  It was quite funny seeing them deciding what they were going to eat together so they would get the same thing.  Tomorrow we take a tour and will eat Cantonese food.  We are wondering how that will compare to what we are use to eating.

Today, we take a flight from Nanchang to Guangzhou.  Our guide for Beijing and Nanchang will leave us and we will get a new guide in Guangzhou.  We were kind of worried at first because it took us a while to get through security.  Our poor guide was pacing the floor.  He could not come through security because his flight wasn’t allowing check-in yet.  Danni was listed as a infant seat with Chuck’s name.  We didn’t know until we got through security that Chuck’s name was spelled wrong on the ticket which we think caused the problem.  We aren’t sure since we couldn’t understand the lady at security and our guide couldn’t come in to help us.  We finally made it through.  Out of the 6 families traveling together 4 of us got delayed a little going through security.  Before our flight departed, our guide was able to get his ticket and come through.  He came to our gate to make sure we all got on the flight safely.

Danni does not like flying.  She cried most of the flight.  We can’t imagine what the flight home to the States will be like.  Of course, it might help that we can get up and walk around.  She likes to be up and she can tell the difference even if she is half a sleep.  She is opening up a little.  She still hasn’t laughed but she has been very close to it.  She has a parent preference when she is upset, Debi.  For Chuck, he has to be standing most of the time or she starts to get upset.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Our guide is going to take us somewhere to have a nice meal for Thanksgiving this evening. We will be having duck instead of turkey and probably rice instead of dressing. We are going as a group so we will all spend Thanksgiving together.

Today, we are going to XiangHuPark and relaxing the rest of the day until we go for our Thanksgiving Day Chinese meal. We leave tomorrow for Guangzhou and will meet up with the families we were with in Beijing before we separated into different provinces.

Last night was a little rough. She got her head stuck in the crib once and then her legs. We finally gave up on the crib. She took a lot of naps today. We think all the trauma from getting stuck made her tired.

We went to Teng Wang Park.  We walked around a big circle.  We attracted a lot of attention.  We all started to separate from each other but ended up back in a group.  The locals were a little friendlier than we were expecting.  A few of the families got caught but the clothes ladies.  One dad had to take his jacket off and put it on their child in the stroller.  We were lucky.  Debi had Danni in a carrier then a jacket on over it so they didn’t notice Danni’s legs were showing.  So far 4 out of the 6 families in the group have been caught by the clothes ladies for not enough clothes and skin showing.

We ate at the buffet in the hotel.  We didn’t have much luck at the restuarants near by.  The whole pointing at pictures didn’t work too well.

Last night was a little rough.  Danni got her head stuck in the crib rails.  Debi kept her in the bed the rest of the night.  We went shopping at a 3 story Walmart.  Yep, even in China we can find a Walmart.  It was a little different than Walmart’s in America but it was definitely a Walmart.  MeeMaw is having a good time.  She is getting some 1 on 1 time with Nick.   He stayed in her room.

Danni hasn’t showed her personality yet.  She is still calm and only gets upset when you put on or take off clothes or diapers.   Our first experience with her in the baby bath wasn’t successful at all.  The whole time she cried and screamed.  She stiffened up her body and screamed like we were beating her, so it was a QUICK bath.

In her referral documents, there was a notation about her birth mark, mongolian spot, on her ankle but she also has one on her lower back.

Nick seems to be having fun here.  There is another little boy and a little girl here for him to play with.  We met another family who was the only family in their group at the hotel.  We seemed to be going to all the same places with them.