Hooray for Kate

We had a great meal tonight in the Chinese restaurant here in the hotel. In true Chinese style, we all ordered something different and share everything! Great meal! And I have to say, I really enjoy the 500 ml beers @ 15 yuan each. Yep, that's move the decimal pint to the left then add half of that (15/10)+(15/10*.5)=2.25 each. And they're 10% alcohol.

Kate sat thru 90% of the meal in the highchair. The first 3 or 4 minutes were a bit hairy, but once she calmed down and realized that I would not let her out, she was fine. It made the meal much more enjoyable. A kid stuck to you like glue sure is tiring. She flaked out in about 10 minutes tonight. Much easier than the hour and a bit last night.

Jen got "rock star mobbed" today. When we were leaving the tower heading to the tea house, there was 20 or so older women walking towards us and they were waving and saying something in Chinese. She said Hello in Chinese to them so they all came over towards her. I threw her the bag of Canadian lapel pins that I got and she started handing them out and people started coming from everywhere. She was quite overwhelmed by it (in a good way) and I just stood back on a bench and enjoyed the moment and snapped a couple pics. Unfortunately, this was close to the end, but it gives you an idea of what she encountered. See for yourself. Also, as we were heading out, 2 teen aged girls, dressed in trendy clothing, stopped Jen in her tracks and wanted a pic. Being a good husband, I jumped in and offered to take pics for them. It must be her height and red hair.
While on our trip to the Trust Mart yesterday, we took a different route as the doctor and pharmacist in our group wanted to check out a local pharmacy to see how different it was from home. Well, I stumbled across a Chinese dollar store (or I guess it would be a Yuan store in China) It's everything we'd find in our dollar stores at home, just priced at the Chinese equivalent... 14 cents Canadian. What a hoot! I had to get a pic. The lady was all smiles when she saw that I wanted to take a pic and the people across the street actually stopped what they were doing to see why a Caucasian was having his picture taken in front of just an ordinary store front. Quite comical. There was also a sign above the street saying to not honk your horn in this neighborhood, but that didn't seem to work at all. It's their national pastime. People honk all the time, but there's no road rage. They just lay on the horn, then drive along like nothing was wrong. very odd.
Her'e a lcoal street being dug up. How would you like to work in these conditions?This guy has a huge cart of this stuff that he's been pushign around outside of the Trust Mart since we got here. This is the first time I saw him sell his "birdseed and candy" cake so I just had to get a picture of him in action. Not much else to report. I do know that as Kate's mourning is lessening and every day we're seeing small improvements in things. As she comes out of her shell I know it's more and more work for us as she's busier which means the updates may be less frequent and detailed but I'll try my best to keep everyone up to date.

I'll leave you all with a couple more pics while I have the time...

This was at the junction of the rivers this morning... a giant ring. I said that it's the tribute to international adoption... a giant Cheerio... the lifesaver food we have to calm Kate. And I don't see there is any need to bring them... the restaurant in the hotel in Beijing had them and the restaurant here has them too. People who didn't bring them just steal a Tupperware container each morning.
And this pic is for my mother... who always has a tissue with her. Mom, she's your grandchild for sure. These are Kate's 2 favorite toys... a Kleenex package which crinkes when she plays with it and a stacking cup. She hasnt taken to soft toys yet... probably because we didnt see many in the orphange so she doesnt knwo what to do with them.And I just have to end the day with this pic. How cute is this??? Take care everyone and we cant wait to see you all at the airport!