Chen Clan Temple

We started early this morning and had to wake our sweet baby up in order to get to breakfast and on the bus in time. This morning in the hotel resteraunt was total chaos! All of the other families arrived from their respective provinces last night, so imagine 42 American families with their new daughters taking over! It was loud to say the least!

Our tour today was of the Chen Clan Temple. Historically this was the weathiest family in Guangzhou. Sadly most of the furniture and stuff inside was burned during the cultural revolution. The outside was very ornate as you can see from the first two pictures.


Our guides told us that you could tell how wealthy a family was by the size of their doors. These doors were about 30 feet tall, so it is easy to see that the Clan family was really rich!


The Americans are taking over (or at least that's what it felt like...)

The temple now houses a folk art museum. Different rooms are set up displaying various types of traditional Chinese arts. They had ivory carvings, jade carvings, silk, tea sets, cloisenae, paintings, and sand art pictures. They also had some rooms set up as they would have appeared 100 years ago. This set of blue glass etched windows was one of my favorites.




There was a beautiful courtyard with many sculptures. It was a serene setting. Kylie is really enjoying the carrier. She has learned to relax in it and when she is sleepy she will just conk out while I'm walking. We're thrilled that she is learning to be a "on the run" baby. It is nice to discover that before we get home.





We are loving the signs! We saw many "warm notices" and "warm hints" today.

Here's proof that she doesn't mind sleeping on the go. This nap lasted about 1 1/2 hours ~ the only disadvantage is that she gets REALLY hot!!! But let me tell you the sweat is worth it!






We stopped back by the friendship store to restock on essentials like bottled water, diapers, formula, diet coke, and some snacks. Ian and I didn't need to buy much, so we spent some time exploring what was available. Here we see some Campbell's flavors that didn't make it in the states...






After we got back, we had some play time while daddy took a nap to try and fight off a cold. Her playtime equals my paparatzi time as indicated in the previous post. But here is my favorite close up of the day, I just love the way she holds her lips when she is figuring something out. And yes, I chose one with drool on the chin on purpose. It is to document the teething that is going on ~ she has her two bottom teeth and we can see her top left one starting to break through !
Beyond the spaceship series, this was one of my favorite playtime moments. Can you see the indecision on my child's face? "Hmm, do I want to play with this colorful book with Elmo and the gang that makes band noises that mommy and daddy crammed into my suitcase and brought all the way from North Carolina, or do I want to play with this wadded up paper towel?" I'm gonna let you guess which toy won ~ and why did I bother to pack any?
We're finding that Kylie is now beginning to watch us when we walk out of the room. She even begins to fuss when we disappear from sight (one of us stays with her while the other leaves...). It is amazing that less than a week ago we were strangers to her and now she reaches for us if someone else from the group holds her for a minute.





We went to the hotel's Japanese resteraunt for dinner as a group tonight. Here is Gail and baby Hallie. And below you can see my steak! Heavens to Betsy was it good, no sauce, no seasonings, just a hunk of red meat! Yummo!!!

Here is baby Grace going to town on her mommy's noodles. Donna just about couldn't shovel them in fast enough. Grace has the funniest eating method. She chews some and then rubs her tongue on her upper lip until she gets the desired food down to the bottom of her tongue and then chews some more. Grace is one of the quietest babies in the group.



I'm including one more closeup of Kylie because this one shows a breakthrough. Until just seconds before this picture was taken, the only things going in her mouth were her bottle and her thumb. Now, don't get me wrong, it was kinda nice knowing that a toy could hit the ground and go back into her hands without worrying about it going into her mouth. In fact I was almost irritated with Ian that he started the game with her that he did, I was liking not worrying about choking hazards yet. But I didn't stay irritated with him for long... We decided that maybe since she'd put something in her mouth that we'd try a piece of rice. She wasn't ready for that yet and had a serious gag reflex. That caused a massive spit up (about half a bottle's worth) which may have triggered the blow out diaper (we found out how much prune baby food is too much) all while Ian was holding her. He very calmly excused himself from the table and took her back to the room for a bath and clothes change for both of them. All the moms were amazed at what a good sport Ian was and the dads were ready to pass out cigars and welcome him to the parenting club. Luckily that was the end of the spit-up! A few minutes later Ian re-emerged with Kylie and she was happy as can be.

When we came back upstairs, Shannon brought baby Lottie up to do some laundry in our apartment. The girls played together quietly while we chatted. We are very thankful that Shannon, Battle and Lottie live in Raleigh so that we can continue to see one another when we are back in America. It almost sounds strange to type "back in America," life with Kylie seems so natural that it feels like we must have always been here with her. Of course we are anxious to be back with our family and friends! We can't wait for you all to meet this precious gift God has blessed us with! And Ms. Teniah, Kylie thinks she is ready to start preschool gymnastics. She says, "Look at me, I can make a bridge!"