Here we are in Guangzhou

Hello everyone,

I know it has been a couple of days since I have updated this! We traveled from Chongqing to Guangzhou. Maya did pretty well on the flight. It was 1 1/2 hours so it was kind of a test run for the long trip home. We are here on Shaiman Island at teh White Swan Hotel. It is very pleasant here and we have a great view of the Pearl River! For us landlocked folks, this is fantastic!

Yesterday, we went and had Maya's passport photo taken and had her medical examination. She was asleep for most of it. We had to wake her up for the passport photo and she was very upset about this! You can imagine the photo! She promptly went back to sleep and slept through part of her physical exam as well. It is very warm here and extremely humid and I am sure that doesn't help anything. Guangzhou is very different from Chongqing and equally interesting. There are lots of touristy shops so it will be fun to hunt for souveniers. It is easy to walk around and there are so many things to see.

Today we went to the Chen Family Temple and this was very interesting. We are resting now as it is the very hottest part of the day and then we will regroup and decide what we want to do later. There is a playroom here as well as a pool and I think we might explore one of these with Maya.

Her personality is starting to come out and she is feeling comfortable expressing what she wants and what she doesn't want! Her legs are geting stronger and she rolls over like a real champ. We are looking forward to seeing her crawl. She is just not quite there yet. She is starting to laugh at silly things and also when she is pleased with something. Today, we took some of the hotel banana bread on our outing for a snack for her and she was all smiles over that. Thumbs up for banana bread! You can better believe that we will bring some on our trip!

I am posting some pictures taken yesterday of Maya in the crib playing yesterday. She prefers this crib to the one in the Chongqing hotel. She can see out of this one and dosn't mind sitting in there when we are getting things read to go. I know that many of you have been waiting so see her smile! Here she goes!

It is ironic that as I post these happy pictures, Allen just took Maya on a stroll throught he hotel because she is fussy and we have tried everything else...

We are still learning about this baby and parenting, that is for sure!!!

See all of you soon!

Love, Karen, Allen, and Maya