Day of Rest

Today, there wasn't a lot on the agenda. Since we went to Datong on Tuesday, Emma asked if we'd like to go to a museum. Of course we would !!!

Mari-Grace was exhausted after the long car ride. She also has a bit of a cold. At breakfast, she was just kinda withdrawn and very tired acting, so I decided to stay at the hotel with her, and let Kelley and Hannah go to the museum. I'll have to get Hannah to post about that adventure.

Mari-Grace and I stayed in the hotel room and played. I got to hear her first attempts at making noise. She laughed out loud a lot, and smiled a lot.
I got a little bit of a video with my camera of her throwing her blocks. She loves those blocks and hairbows !!!

She also walked a tiny bit for me. She is so unsteady on her legs, I'm not convinced that she's been walking very long at all. She's catching on though!

Kelley, Emma, and Hannah came back and got us for lunch. We walked to a restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel. The main street of China shows the hustle and bustle of life. The side streets show REAL life. We passed a market ... with meat laid out right in the open for sale. There was a fruit stand with the most colorful fruit I've ever seen. There were kids playing, and men sitting around talking and playing cards. It is amazing how really simple life is here.

When we got to the restaurant, Emma took us to the food counter to order. We were clueless about what to get, so we asked her to order for us.

She ordered us a vegetable dish, a meat dish, and then a dumpling dish.
They brought out the veggies first ... corn with some kind of lilly that was a combination in flavor of a bell pepper and celery ... and something white ... we thought it was onion but it wasn't. This was DIVINE !!!
Next came the meat ... fried chicken with peanuts and peppers. Spicy but YUMMO !!! Last they brought out some steamed dumplings. We cut into one ... and it was interesting to say the least. It had rice noodles, mushrooms, cucumber, and something else inside. The dough was light and fluffy ... about the consistency of white sandwich bread. At first, we were hesitant to try it. We never convinced Hannah to try. OH MY !!!! It was heavenly !!!

For me, Mari-Grace, Kelley, and Hannah ... lunch was 139 yuan ... or $20 bucks USD ... and the amount of food was incredible. I wish SKYPE was able to let you all taste this food. In the words of Hannah ... it was AMAZING !!!!

After lunch came nap-time. Mari-Grace wants the room dark and quiet when she goes to sleep. Kelley and Hannah kept talking and just as she'd doze off, someone would say something and little miss curious would get up. SO, we went to Kelley's room to take a nap.

After nap-time, we ate supper at the hotel....came back upstairs, and got ready for bed.

Mari-Grace mananged to roll off the bed...she never even woke up, she was so tired. I decided it was easier to sleep sideways in the bed than regular way.

At 3 am, she must have had a bad dream ... she woke me up crying. I just held her and cried a bit too. Then she decided she wanted a cookie ... and milk ... so we had milk and cookies at 3 am !!!

She slept well the rest of the night .... and so did I !!!!

Mari-Grace is very attached to me. That's good. She won't hold her own bottle and drink .. unless she forgets. Most of the time, she picks it up, hands it to me, then opens her mouth for me to give her a drink.

She will let me feed her ... unless I'm going too slow ... then she will just start eating with her hands.

All in all, she's doing well. We are still waiting for that first ... very important ...poop. If she doesn't go on her own by Thursday afternoon, mama may have to pull out the suppostiories ... oh wait .... I forgot to bring those....hmm...will try cherrios, apples, juice, water ... no cheese .. no milk ... no bananas !!