Saturday, February 3.

It is Sunday morning now and Alex and Hailey are looking over my shoulder as i write this. We had another great night as Hailey slept straight through.

Lets start from yesterday morning as i signed off to go to Shirley's room to meet with the Tailor. I joined Ma Ma who was already excitedly leafing through the catalogues and material samples. All of the new parents and babies were together in the room and Man Man had a chance to sit and play briefly with her sisters from the Orphanage. We picked out a beautiful jacket and pants for Man Man in a traditional Chinese children's style. Ma Ma also picked out a stunning 3/4 length jacket in matching fabric. The pattern is a light green with a simple flower motif. They will look beautiful together! I picked out a jacket in a darker green but with a more manly cool dragon pattern. We are anxiously looking forward to getting these back and trying them on.

After a quick rest we packed up for an adventure out to Shaimen Island. This island in the Pearl river is a quick half hour walk from the hotel. It was another beautiful day, 20 c and sunny and hot. We wound our way down winding streets filled with street vendors, teaming with hard working locals. We saw stores of chicken parts, baskets of spices, huge mushrooms, and more. They recycle everything here. There are stores with old water taps, wall switches, plugs, almost anything you can imagine, they repurpose. The sights and smells are so unusual, and laundry hangs from every window. The people here are very kind and love children so much. We are constantly engaged by locals that want to look and talk to the baby. They try to practice their english, while we try and practice our new (limited) Chinese vocabulary. (try being the operative word here- i find myself greeting people with "thank you"). We made it down to the highway that crawls along the water side and crossed the bridge to the walkway. Then we crossed one of the many old bridges to the island. The island is an old part of Guangzhou, as there are many British and French buildings here. We enjoyed haggling with local souvenir vendors over future Gotcha day gifts for the cute little princess. We picked up a handmade chess set, 4 traditional size dresses at different sizes, a bracelet, and some other small things. After a few hours of shopping, we found a Blendz coffee shop and picked up some brewed coffee (our hotel only has instant- yuk!). We made it back to the hotel after an adventure in the winding streets. It is a good thing you can see our hotel over the rooftops, because you have to keep turning onto new streets and making corrections to find your way back. It would be impossible to drive here without a knowledge of the city. What a contrast from Bejing with its wide, straight streets.

More to come, diaper to change.