Monday

Today Tia was feeling much better. I think she was just a little overtired and needed a day of rest with just her Mom and Dad.

We went to the Temple of Six Banyan Trees. It was wonderful. The pictures do not begin to capture the beauty and peacefulness there. It is in the heart of the city of Guangzhou, but once inside the gates there is a peacefulness that settles in. I would have loved to stay longer but it was so hot and humid. Plus Tia had a leaky diaper on the bus over and I had pee pee on my pants. Not fun on a hot and humid day. We got off the bus and I was putting Tia in the stroller and I look up at the bus driver and he is looking at us and chuckling. I think he is looking at Tia until I look at him again and he points to my pants. Then I realized two things. One, I have pee pee on my pants, and two, he is laughing at me. At that point I just started laughing too.

Once back at the hotel Tia took a nice nap for about two hours. After she got up we were playing on the couch with her Dad when Tia got a little quite (yes, she found her voice!). All of a sudden we smell something and I look down and guess what is leaking out of her diaper? Yup, but that is not all it did. She had an explosion! We stripped her down and put her in the tub. All I could do was laugh again. I got laughing so hard I was crying. We have definitely made it to parenthood! No pictures of that though!

Sunday

Today Tia was not feeling so well so we did not go to Yuntai Garden. We stayed back at the hotel and she took a three hour nap that she very much needed. When she woke up she was in much better spirits. We had fun playing on the floor and then later went to the playroom with Stacy and John after dinner. There was a really good thunderstorm this afternoon too. It was pretty neat watching it from the 16th floor window.

We are hoping Tia feels better to go to the Temple of Six Banyan Trees on Monday.

Saturday

Today we had the medical exam for Tia. She of course did fine. She didn't mind them looking in her ears, down her throat or checking her hearing. She didn't like being put on the scale. Typical girl!

Tia also had her first ride in a stroller today! At first she wasn't too happy until she realized she could see a lot more of what is going on than when in our arms. After that Miss Nosy Pants was fine. She even fell asleep in it.

Tomorrow we are going to Yuntai Garden.

Friday

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It has been a great birthday year. Our guide Helen even had the hotel send up a birthday cake to room to celebrate.

Today we went to Luihuahu Lake Park. It was very pretty there. We saw a lot of Bonsai, gardens and people exercising. It was a nice walk around by the lake with Tia checking everything out. She is very curious and has to know what is going on. She is also a magnet. Everybody has to say hi to her. It is really funny. We can't walk through the lobby without people coming over to us.

After the park we just came back to the hotel to relax. We went to the pool for the first time, but that was not such a big hit. She loves the bath but not the pool.

Tomorrow we have her medical exam.

Thursday Outing

Today we went to The Ancestral Temple of the Chen Family and then to Shamian Island. The weather here is very hot and humid so if we look a little wet or drained, we are. The weather here is worse than the weather in August at home.

The Temple was beautiful as you can see from some of the pictures. The details on the outside of the Temple are incredible and all hand carved and painted. They are now using the temple as an arts and crafts museum. It was really interesting as they had some demonstrations while we were there. There was a gentleman showing us how to do hand painting. Watching him take a blank piece of paper and turning it into a picture with only his hand was pretty cool. The picture was a of a waterfall scene with bamboo. The picture of me feeding Tia is at the Temple. Whenever she gets her bottle she puts her feet in the air while she eats. The picture with the two pits are olive pits that they use to do carvings.

Then we went to the famous Shamian Island. This is where all adopted families used to come and stay until the last year. The U. S. Consulate moved off the Island to another location in the city. Families found hotels that were newer than the White Swan with larger rooms closer to the Consulate to stay at. After visiting the Island yesterday, I can see why people stayed there though. It is a nice little community with parks and little shops to walk around to. It is not as crowed as the city it self either. I really liked it.

We did not do the dinner cruise as it got over too late for Tia and we were all drained from the heat. Instead we went for a walk in the garden at the hotel with the other family that is here with us. They're John and Stacy Moore with their daughter Grace and son Conrad.

Sorry for no labels on the pictures and them being out of order. I am using a different app and have not quite figured it all out. It seems to put the pictures in whatever order it wants.