Chill Day, Wednesday, June 17

After running for days we decided to have an easy morning.  She is a great sleeper.  She sleeps right through the night.  Our girl woke up and seemed to take it all in and conclude that she was still here with us...in the same room and happy to be here.  We had our coffee and played on the bed with her.  She loves to play.  Right when we were getting hungry enough to leave without our sleeping boys....in they walk ready for breakfast.

Breakfast was fun as it has been, we discovered that she loves steamed eggs even more than scrambled...and of course they go down well with a couple of sausages, yogurt, dragon fruit and a pint of two of freshly juiced apples.

We came back up and just had family time with her, we tried some new things with her this morning.  The beach ball is a hit, bubbles are big hit though she is probably still trying to figure out where they go when you touch them. Play-dough ... yeah...not good.  She thinks its food so those of you getting ready to travel to China can leave the Play-dough at home for kids under 2.

Lots more wrestling, and tickling and laughing hysterically and then a little quiet time with her big brother.

She crashed at her usual time but fell asleep on Dad, and we kind of woke her up putting her in her crib so nap time was short today.  We were stir crazy and ready to get out of the room so we struck off for a promised burger for the boys and a stop at Walmart to replace her new squeaky shoes that had a little bow fall of....in Zhengzhou....speaking English....with no receipt because it is the one receipt Dad threw away.  TC said it was worth a try and I laughed, but what the heck.  Off we went to explore.

We stopped at Burger King so the boys could have a Whopper...they loved it as you can imagine.  Then Walmart at the customer service center.  TC has no Mandarin and the girl at the counter had no English and to my knowledge there is no Mandarin-English lingua franca so it was pretty much gesticulation for purchase yesterday and fixee-fixee and TC's patented clap and bow indicating that at least she believes she has made her point, which is pretty cute to watch.

There was no return to be had, but the girl enlisted a couple of her colleagues and a lighter in lieu of a missing or malfunctioning hot glue gun and repaired that little shoe right on the spot.  Good as new!  We gave them very high marks on the customer service satisfaction card.  

Wyatt needed a couple of pictures from the live and partially living fish section to send to his buds back home...

...and we struck out through some local neighbor hoods and alleys seeing what there was to be seen.  Little Xuan just loves being out and about cruising in that stroller...we went for miles and she loves taking it all in.  When the stroller stops she is out and checking everything out...we found a very nice little baby store in a local neighborhood and though we don't know what they were saying she seemed to be a hit with all the girls working in the little place.

We found a great little restaurant row so Mom and Dad could get some local food.  Language issues of course, so pictures and pointing.  The beer part was easy, the food not so much.  The was one dish I though looked like a winner, TC said I was wrong.  I was.  Of the two dishes, what turned out to be liver of some sort with these awesome peppers we've not seen, and lots of chili's and onions.

The other dish nearly killed Dad and Xuan...she was digging into her rice and I guess we used the same spoon to ladle some of the bok choy from the middle of the bowl of this stuff onto her plate.  I had just taken a big bite having no idea it was literally the hottest thing I had ever eaten...the hottest.  I could not breathe.  At the same time little Xuan had gotten a hold of some rice with the sauce and popped it in her mouth....poor little thing.  I know what I was going through and I knew what caused...she did not.  She was trying to wipe her little mouth out and crying until we got some rice and hot tea in her mouth and she was okay, no worse for the wear.  We would make it up to her later.

As it turns out it was stewed pig intestines, which we ate quite a bit and Wyatt tasted, trying to figure out what it was.  So TC was right...I am not allowed to picture order anymore.

On the long walk back to the hotel we had the highlight of the day.  TC ran off from us and and came back with two ice creams cones.  Brilliant!  Xuan looked at this strange thing and tried to take a bite...a little panic because I don't think she has ever had anything cold before and certainly not ice cream.  It freaked her out, but Mama showed her how to lick and she figured it out quick...pure joy.  A little girl enjoying her first ice cream.  We sat there in the crowd videoing it like tourists.   She shared part of the cone with Wyatt and then she took the rest and munched down the rest just cruising in her stroller back to the hotel.

If we figure out how to post a video I will put it up.  It is awesome.  Back to the hotel for Xuan's bath and put her to bed.  The four of us laid down on the bed like we were going to sleep and turned out the lights.  She was out like a light in 5 minutes so we got up and it was bath time for Mom...pool time for Dad and the boys and that was that for chill day.