April 9th

Today was a much less hectic day. We had breakfast this morning downstairs. Great food and selection today. At 10am, Joel went downstairs to do paperwork for Lilah’s visa with the rest of our group while I unpacked. I like this hotel, it’s close to shopping, restaurants and the rooms are very nice. The rooms are much nicer than the Jian Guo hotel we stayed in in 2003.

Naomi, Lilah and I enjoyed some playtime together on the floor while daddy did paperwork for a while, then Lilah went down for a nap around 10:30 this morning. She napped for three hours – poor peanut was pooped after our hellish trip yesterday.

Naomi didn’t nap until 1:20pm, as I think she’s got some energy to burn and is having a hard time falling asleep because of it. We are still figuring out how to do things when the kids are not napping at the same time. It seems that as soon as one gets up the other goes down. We played soccer up and down the hallway with a beachball, did some colouring and goofed around but it's not the same as running around outside.

Since Naomi was still not up at 2pm and I needed some time alone with Lilah, we decided that I would head out to the Yashow Market to do some shopping with the rest of the group. Joel and Naomi would catch up later (but Naomi napped for three hours so they didn't make it). WOW! Even better than Silk Alley, there is many a deal to be had here and more selection. I bought tons of stuff (a few shoes, outfits for the girls, ornaments, DVD’s, etc) and was thankful that my dad had come on this expedition so that I had someone to help carry the bags. Our whole group is anxious to return as we only had 2 hours to explore. Of the five floors I covered 2.5 of them well, so I’ll definitely be heading back.

When we returned from the market Naomi was just getting up so we got ready and packed up the kids for dinner. We headed out with the Meredith family and explored the street our hotel is on to find a local restaurant with an english menu. The food was amazing and for $50 Canadian we fed 9 people and had beer all around. Lilah seems to be much like Naomi with hating the bland and mushy foods. She’s also obviously never really been fed with a spoon, so I started her on some chicken and rice off my plate tonight. She devoured it and once she was full, fell fast asleep. She did the same thing last night and ended up sleeping through the night so perhaps she’s been more hungry than we thought. Truthfully she’s a good sleeper and has been a very easy baby. I’m sometimes surprised at how easy going she is. Tonight at dinner, one of the waitresses tried to hold her for a moment and she burst into tears and wanted back. Hooray – we’ve started to attach!

Naomi and Maya are really hitting it off. They had a bath together tonight and I think it was the highlight of Naomi’s day. We brought Naomi’s bathtub crayons and the girls were drawing on the wall of the tub. Naomi’s been trying to master a happy face for weeks now. Tonight in the tub she did it, putting the eyes and mouth in the right place, giving the face hair and putting arms on half way down. I was so proud of her for mastering it I took a photo!

Anyhow, I don’t have many photos today for you all, but tomorrow we’re headed to a Jade factory and to the Great Wall of China. I’ve asked our guide to take us to a less steep area that is about 30 minutes north of the place we went last time. It’s more famous and Naomi will enjoy being able to run around with her friend Maya more. Hopefully I’ll get some good shots of the group there!