Day 9 and 10 - Guangzhou

Cow and Bridge - an excellent Thai restaurant 20 steps from our hotel.  

Gwyndolin and me after our consulate appointment.

Gwyndolin and Kallen in the pool.

Walking to lunch Tuesday - Samian Island

Gwyndolin and Daddy

This is one of the little streets by our hotel.  We are on Shamian Island, Guangzhou.

At lunch today - the food was disgusting!

Mi mi, the male cat in one of the stores.

Lucy's a favorite restaurant.  They have a nice patio where we can eat, catch a breeze off the river and let the boys get up and play!

Gwyndolin sleeping - this her taking a nap as I write this.

Sleeping baby.

O.K., well here are some pictures from the last couple days.  We are staying on Shamian Island in Guangzhou and it is absolutely gorgeous here!  The foliage and gardens are stunning!  This is a very old part of town and it use to be a very international area - hence the style.  It is truly an island Paradise.  When out, there are always brides and grooms having their wedding photos taken.  On our first day, I thought that perhaps there was a big bridal photo shoot going on, but then I learned that they were all actual couples.  They come to the island to do their photos because of the beauty.  The only thing is it is very hot and even more HUMID!  We all feel like total slime balls!  Gwyndolin keeps changing every day.  She likes to pull herself up.  She is feeling more secure all the time and will sit on the floor and play happily.  She loves to try and get into things.  She loves to take off her shoes and take out her hair clips.  She is perfect!  The last three nights have been rough though - last night being the worst!  She wakes up screaming and very upset.  If we pick her up she calms right down, but she is very restless and will cry out every minute or so.  We are not sure what is going on.  We are not sure if she is having night terrors, if she is grieving leaving her orphanage (she was well cared for,) or if she is afraid we aren't going to be there.  The reality is that she probably doesn't even know.  What is important now is that we respond to her every cry and make her learn what a Mama and Daddy are.  She will slowly learn that we are here for her always.  With that said, we are TIRED!  The last few nights, putting her in bed with us has worked, but last night it didn't.  We had to be standing and moving.  After a while, I got her to calm down enough to take a bottle and then she slept for the rest of the night in my arm.  Today, she has been cranky from the lack of sleep.  We had our US Consulate appointment this morning and tomorrow we will get her visa.  After that we are good to go!!!  I posted a picture of "Cow and Bridge" a Thai restaurant.  We ate there Sunday night and it was excellent.  Todd and I have spend a lot of time in Thailand and eating there was the best Thai food we have had since we were there.  I'm totally jumping around here... Yesterday, we had a free day and chose not to go to the Zoo because it was too hot, so we went swimming instead.  The hotel pool is only open until noon and then re opens at 5:00pm - which makes NO sense to us!  We always seem to get kicked out of the pool at noon.  We wish it was open for the afternoon so we could have somewhere cool to hang out.  Our room has excellent air conditioning though...  O.K., I'm practically nodding off, so I'm going to go catch 30 minutes of "Zzzz's" before Gwyndolin wakes up and before we head off to dinner.  We will be home on Sunday...  It will be nice to come home to all the comforts, but we are not looking forward to having to get back in the groove.  I can hardly remember what I need to do for school for the boys and such...  Oh well...  We head to Hong Kong on Thursday - we are hoping it will be less humid there, but it will probably be equally miserable.  O.K., I'm really signing off now...  Thanks for following along.  XO