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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Originally posted on Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - Evening
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 10:51 AM CST
Subject: Photos and Update
Ni Hao from Beijing!
Today was a nice relaxing and fun day. We started out by have a slow relaxing morning in the room and taking our time getting ready. We went down to breakfast around 7:30 am and then met our guide at 9:30 am. She took us to Wal-Mart where we shopped for clothes, a stroller, DVD's, CD's and books for our girls. After getting everything we wanted for rediculously low price, we headed off to lunch at a traditional Beijing Noodle Shop. This was quite an experience. When we first walked in, all the waiters started yelling something in Chinese. Once we were seated, our guide explained to us that whenever someone enters the noodle shop, the head waiter announces you to the restaurant, something like "4 people entering". Then the rest of the waiters respond to him, by yelling something back. The food we had was all very good. But we didn't look very good trying to eat noodles with chopsticks. :)
After lunch, we came back to the hotel where our guide dropped us off. Our guide Annie help Xue Zheng out of the van and when Lisa got out, Xue Zheng started reaching for Mama. We thought this was a very good sign. Then when our guide got back in the van to leave and we didn't go with her, Xue Zheng had her first melt down of the day. She was so extremely sad to see our guide go. We think part of this was that she was tired and hadn't yet had her nap for the day. But we think it is also partially due to her knowing that Annie is her only link to communicate with us. She seems to understand the fact that we don't understand Chinese. It only took us about 5 - 10 minutes to calm her down today instead of the 30-60 minutes yesterday.
After Xue Zheng calmed down, housekeeping came, wanting to clean our room, so we decided to go for a walk with our new stroller. Xue Zheng enjoyed that very much. She seems to love being out and about and she is very observant, watching everything and everyone around her. We made our way to a mall a few blocks from our hotel. It was the same mall we visited 2 years ago when we were here for Emilie's adoption. We returned to the hotel around 4:00 pm and Xue Zheng and Lisa took a short nap.
Around 6:00 pm we headed to a restaurant next door, where our guide had made reservations for us and had already pre-ordered everything for us. It was the same Peking Duck restaurant we went to in 2003. Everything was very good. In fact, we both thought the duck was better this time than it was the first time we tried it.
Finally we headed back to the hotel and gave Xue Zheng her first bath. This brought about her second melt down of the day. She definitely did not like having a bath. I'm sure that will change soon enough, as we know Emilie didn't like baths to begin with either, but she loves them now.
After playing in the room for a bit, Xue Zheng went to bed by herself and is now sleeping soundly. Besides for the two melt downs, she really has been a very happy girl all day today. She has even started giving Mama hugs. :) She also laughs uncontrollably when daddy asks for a hug and gives one to Mama instead. :) I think she
is going to be just as much of a clown as her big sister.
I have spent a good share of the evening catching up with the pictures and have finally gotten several uploaded to the group. I hope you all enjoy them.
Emilie, mommy and daddy miss you and love you very much!
Hope you are all doing well.
Love,
Steve, Lisa and Xue Zheng
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