Yesterday morning we wanted Chloe to sleep for as long as possible after our disastrous evening, so I woke Caleb and we went down for breakfast. Kevin was staying with Chloe and we were just going to pick her up and go at 8:30 in the same clothes she had worn the day before and that she slept in. She woke up ok and on the bus I fed her breakfast. She seemed to be in a good mood.
The first stop was to take a picture for her US visa. She did well and then we went for her physical exam. It was a basic physical exam with height, weight and examining her ears, nose, mouth, heart and lungs. I guess she passed because no one said anything to the contrary. Next we had some free time to walk around Shamian Island.
The Island use to be operated by the British and the buildings and gardens were absolutely beautiful! This is the place where most of the foreigner adopters do their souvenir shopping. We were not too much in the mood to shop because it was hot and we were tired, so we basically walked around. We went to a little park and it was neat because there were all kinds of people around. There were groups dancing to music and a group singing songs. It is very interesting to me how healthy the Chinese population seems minus the smoking, which apparently a large percent of the male population does. I have hardly seen any overweight individuals and definitely no obese individuals since we have been here. The groups dancing seemed to have a lot of older people and I guess they do that for exercise.
After that outing we went back to the hotel and Chloe took a much needed nap. She slept about 3 hours. Then we went swimming. You know us Eden’s love the water, so this is something important for her to enjoy. I put on her swimsuit and off we went. She had her sort of deer in the headlights look that we have seen a lot of, but she did not cry or get upset. She even started splashing around. She seemed mesmerized with the people swimming. And at the swimming pool is where she started to do a lot of walking. In her province at the park she had taken a couple steps unassisted. But here she did a lot more walking. Her development has been amazing. I love the proud look she gets on her face when she has accomplished something. The great part is I think Kevin got it all on video!
Last night was super fun to watch. Chloe has continued to come out of her shell. She has said very little up until last night and she and Caleb were playing on the floor and she was doing all kinds of baby talk. She was laughing and they were having a great time. She continues to amaze us with the things she is learning. She knows her nose, eyes and her mouth. She can play a little peek a boo game and do a fake cough. So cute. Caleb use to do the fake cough when he was about her age.
Today we went to church back on Shamian Island. It was a beautiful little church and was packed to capacity. They even had an overflow room which was full. It was a Mandarin/ English service. Some songs were sung in Chinese and some in English. The sermon was translated for both and the topic was prayer. It was truly an amazing sight.
The group took a trip to a jewelry wholesale place which had 6 floors of shops all selling a variety of jewelry. It was kind of boring for Caleb and the other little girl with us. We tried to find the toy store without any luck because all of the signs were in Chinese. So instead I suggested we go get ice cream at McDonalds. I have never in my life seen more people crammed into a McDonalds. Many were ordering ice cream. Kevin gets to the front and orders and disappointingly they ran out of ice cream! What an ordeal.
Now we are back at the hotel. Chloe attempted to take a nap. She had a hard time sleeping last night and sort of cried out every 10 minutes or so from around 2am until we finally got up. Sounds like fun. Right? Kevin and I have sort of laughed. Some of the parenting videos we watched talked about keeping things simple for the adjustment period. Chloe has had nothing but over stimulation since we got her. Some of the things are even over stimulating to me. So we are anticipating another long night.
We may go to a park that is close to the hotel this evening and have a picnic dinner. I will try and have Kevin post some pictures from the last couple of days.
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