14-15 February 2009 Happy Valentines Day! We had a relatively quiet day today, with just one sightseeing trip to a local park. Tari woke up crying this morrning, and proceeded to be quite "precious" all morning. She has decided that only Mummy will do! Poor Daddy isn't even allowed to touch her, without tears! It's funny, after yesterday's play time...when Daddy was da man! We met in the lobby at 10am, and all boarded the bus to the park. It started to rain, but we decided, it was only a light sprinkling, so we'd still go. It was all ok, til the light sprinkling turned into constant rain! We did manage to find shelter, but we were all pretty damp by the time we got back to the hotel. We changed Tari. Gave her some lunch. And put her to bed. Todd said he'd stay with her, while she slept, so I could go shopping! Ooooh! Music to my ears?!! I met with another Mum from our batch and we set off around Shamian Island for a bargain! I managed to get Tari about 6 tradition dresses/outfits, a surprise for Mikayla and Harrison, and 3 pairs of shoes for Tari = less than AUS$100. I'm VERY happy with my special purchases. When I got back to our room, Todd was out cold, and Tari was quietly playing in her cot! She is SUCH a good sleeper. (she slept last night from 830pm til 7am) She is happy to go to bed awake, and plays for a bit before falling asleep. We went out to dinner with another couple and their beautiful daughter, which ended up being a little harder than we thought, as it appears the Chinese folk are REALLY into Valentine's Day! So there were line ups into most restaurants! We ended up finding a nice place, who'd just happened to hike up their prices, just for Valentine's! Our food was good, even if it was pricey! I'm dog tired. I actually slept til about 545am today...a miracle! Maybe I can sleep til 7am tomorrow?! Even with the few teary moments today, Tari still continues to amaze us. She is so beautiful, resiliant, funny and loving. She bursts with personality. I find it so incredible, after such a huge upheaval in her short life. We had many people stop us today to look at Tari, many asking where she is from. They are so happy to hear she is from Guangdong. Some more side notes: *Tari is WAY tiny. She is wearing 6-12month clothing, and they hang off her. She needs that size for her height, but I need to pin the waist in her pants, otherwise they fall straight down! *Tari's nanny said, she rarely cries. Which is sad really, as she cried quite a few times today, and we attended to her immediately, and she stopped straight away. Its amazing how quickly they work out, "if I cry, I will get the attention I need". *Tari has already started to "try it on"! Fake crying!! We laugh at her, she stops and pulls her funny face. Not a huge amount of photos today, took more video. Enjoy the few I did take...the last one is for you Krista! The pjs are a little big...but gosh she looks gorgeous in them! Tari LOVES the shoes I bought. She played with them for about an hour! She particularly likes the hot pink brocade ones!! Ahhh....she IS my daughter. At Park     Naptime   Shoe Queen     Ready for Bed   Chen Family Temple & Shamian Island We went to the Chen Family Temple in the morning. Sorry, no pics, my camera went flat, so we used our little pocket digital that we don't have the download lead for! Absolutely amazing carvings. We only stayed about an hour, and that appeared to be enough for the babies! We went back to the hotel for lunch and sleeps. (sleep plural...baby's and Mummy's and Daddy's!!!) We decided to skip the Buddha Temple, in the afternoon. Tari is a bit grizzly today; I'm thinking its the massive tooth we can see, trying to break through her gum, at the front. She's also getting very clingy to Mummy!!! Poor Daddy is starting to get a bit of a complex...even though he's resigned himself to the fact, that he is now "bad cop" and Mummy is "good cop"!!! Its incredible how quickly all the babies have all worked out if they cry they will be attended to immediately!!! Tari even decided to try and cry when we put her to bed! We ignored her (fake) crying, and she was asleep in about 3 minutes!!! We went to a Pizzeria for tea...really was authentic italian food...I'm still feeling stuffed (3 hours after we ate!!) Tari loves to eat what we eat. But she is still eating soft food (she only has 3 teeth and one on the way!). We've tried her on a small piece of chicken, she gagged...was a bit scary! So we'll stick with soft food, for now! Tari won't feed herself. If I put food on her tray, she just looks at it. She has played with it a bit, but will not put anything in her mouth. I guess that's good, coz no dodgey stuff goes in her mouth... but its a bit frustrating, coz I've got to hand feed her everything!!! *To Mikayla's class - SORRY! I forgot to give you the answer yesterday!!! The largest city in China is BEIJING it has around 17 million people... almost as many as in the WHOLE of Australia!!! Ok, today's question is - which Emporer had the Terracotta Warriors made?* More side ntoes: *I went to the hairdresser the night before we left for China, to have a treatment & my hair straightened! Best thing I could'a done! Was a waaay better job than I could've done, and lasted me 5 days!! I did bring a straightener to China, which is working fine, but the humidity here, in Guangzhou, kinda makes it a waste of time!!! *We brought lots of medicines etc. although we haven't used all of them, I'm glad we brought it all, as some babies have needed it. *I brought about 6 bottles. I'd recommend bringing 2 or 3...Tari isn't even using one! *I love my mini laptop. It fits into the safe. I do my posts/emails after Tari goes to bed, at night. Also great to do Skype with the kids at home (sorry guys...we've been slackers...we plan on calling tomorrow night!) *If you want "authentic chinese gear", and you're in Guangzhou. Get it on Shamian Island, I don't think you'll get it cheaper anywhere else. Sorry for the dismal amount of photos, will try and get more up, in the next couple of days!       This page hosted by