A day of rest ....sort of.

We had no official appointments today and actually got a little sleep last night. Olivia slept from 7:30 last night until 6:00 this morning, but woke up every hour to tell us a little of her life story and went right back to sleep each time, and of course we would awake every hour right along with her. We are really getting to see a little of her personality now and she definitely has no trouble telling us if she doesn't like something. There's a playroom for babies down the hall at our hotel and we took her in there to see if anything was interesting to her and Ron had her playing the xylaphone in no time. She completely understood how to get noise from it and loves anything that she can bang like a drum. So far, I seem to be the one who can calm her down or get her to really eat, but Ron is the only one who can get her really smiling and giggling - otherwise, she is comfortable with us both equally and really looks for us if one of us leaves the room. She is a total bed hog - I had to put her in my bed as she keeps getting her legs stuck in the slats of the crib, but she always seems to work her way to the middle of my bed and sprawl out. At one point, she had my whole bed and I had to climb in with Ron in the small beds we have. She started eating a lot better since last night and I've been slowly transitioning her to the formula I brought as the Chinese formula is really little more than milk powder. We will have a little more meat on her bones in no time. She seems to be the exception to the rule and is the only Chinese baby I've ever heard of that really doesn't like congee (a milky, watery, rice soup) that every baby seems to love. She LOVES banana bread though.

Today our guide took us to the Embroidery Factory/Museum, which you might not think sounds all that interesting, but it was really amazing. The ladies that do the work sometimes spend up to two years on one piece working on it 8 hours a day. The work looks like photographs until you are right up close - incredible skill and patience these ladies have. Right outside our hotel is the largest ferris wheel in China. It looks just like the one in Paris. It has several gondolas attached and I'm sure you could see almost to our house from the top! We haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but if the cars are air conditioned, I just might consider it. It is around 35 degrees and very very humid here everyday and sometimes the smog gets pretty heavy. There's plenty to do here thought that we haven't even got to yet. There is a state of the art bowling alley in the hotel, as well as a billiards room, lounges, swimming pool, playrooms, etc. The service here is excellent and North Americans could really take lessons from the Chinese about how to treat others. The people here have been so kind and so gracious and just love the babies. We haven't come across the clothing police yet (the little old Chinese ladies that tell you there aren't enought layers of clothing on your child), but I think that's because it's too hot.

I haven't been able to attach any photo's at all to the blog, but thankfully, our friend Jen has been making sure the photos are getting to the blog for us via email - don't you just love the computer age? Pics to follow...

Ps - It is so humid here that my hair is starting to look just like Monica Geller in the Friend's episode where they went to Barbados.