Today was an off day for us (nothing scheduled) so Holt recommended for families to take a taxi to Shamian Island. The Zhujiang River flows through the city of Guangzhou and creates many water ways through the city. One area of town, kind of like a park/shops/historic area, boarders the river and has small water causeways that surround it making it like an island in the middle of the city. After breakfast, we loaded up in a cab and headed for the island. Luckily, Holt provided us with a paper in Chinese that said "Take us to Shamian Island" so we could hand it to the taxi driver because they do not speak English at all. The island was beautiful and kind of reminded Bobby of New Orleans with a Chinese flair. There is a famous hotel on one corner of the island called the "White Swan" where adopting families usually stay but it is being renovated now which is why we are at a different hotel. However, because of this there a several Chinese souvenir giftshops that have been set up to cater to all of the international families coming to the area. So, we got to do some sweet gift shopping and we picked up some gifts for Mila that we want to give her in the future as a reminder of her country. The island boarders a river, so after shopping we walked up through a park that is along the river. It was a beautiful day with the sun out and the smell of the water made us homesick for Delaware. There was more elderly Chinese people dancing in formation in the park and some were doing a dance with fans. Mila just loved sitting and watching them. Then there was a nice kids play area right next to the dancers just perfect for Mila to play on. And boy did she ever! She just giggled with joy as she got to run around with the other children and slide down the slide. We can tell from watching her that she is very intelligent and figures things out quickly. She also seems to have a bit of a daredevil streak and she is pretty tough to taking bonks to the head. After the playground, we ate lunch at Lucy's (named after I Love Lucy) that served western food.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for Milas nap and some rest time for Mama and Baba. Having a new toddler wears new parents out! After her nap, we headed down to the Holzmeisters room to visit with them before dinner and let Mila play with their kids. Their son Austin is so cute! For dinner, a lady we had met on Facebook organized for a large group of us to go out to dinner to a mexican restaurant. It was very good! And it was nice to talk to other families going through the same things we are.
Mila had a very good day today. No meltdowns and she really started playing with Baba and even coming to him for hugs and kisses so a big improvement today! We are starting to get worried about her teeth. They are in an awful state. Poor thing can only eat soft foods and then she has to bite into everything on the side of her mouth using her molars. And unfortunately today she cried a couple of times while holding the side of her jaw and we are concerned she is having pain in one of her teeth. We gave he children's tylonol before bed and we think that helped her some, but we are debating about whether to have her seen by a western doctor while we are here. It is troubling for us to see her in pain and not be able to know why. It could be something simple though like maybe she scraped her gum with a cracker. We are hoping it is ok.
