Friday 10/20: Baiyun Mountain

Today was another 'free day' with no adoption related appointments for us.  The appointments start up again on Saturday.  Our sweet girl continues to go to sleep relatively easily at both nap time and bedtime.  She does whimper a few times in the night but doesn't seem to truly wake up.  Bryan and I have been taking turns going to the pack n play to rub or pat her back until she quiets which doesn't take long.  She seems to choose different toys to cling to each day-- last night it was a baby doll bottle and baby doll spoon which she clung to all night while she slept.

Sweet sleeping princess

After breakfast we made plans to go to Baiyun Mountain with our guide.  We have seen many of the sights of Guangzhou before on our previous two adoption trips so we are trying to go to places we haven't seen before.  We took the Chinese version of  Uber to the mountain park and purchased tickets to go to the top.  You can hike, take a golf cart/tram or take a cable car.  We elected to take the tram up and the cable car on the way down.  Once we arrived at the top it was so green and pretty! The weather in Guangzhou was gorgeous today.  It is not common to see such blue skies in most parts of China so this was a real treat!! Our guide said people were going to think we had photoshopped our pictures of China ;)

Heading to the observation area overlooking Guangzhou

It was a really pretty view of the city.  Guangzhou has 14 million people! Our guide, John, was pointing out 'downtown' to us when the whole thing looks like 'downtown' to us!  The climate here is similar to Houston although slightly more tropical. There is a lot of lush vegetation and flowering plants that remind us of bougainvillea we have seen in Mexico.  It was really pretty and a view of Guangzhou that we haven't seen before!

Before we left the hotel our guide showed us a picture of a local dessert he said we must have at the top of the mountain.  He said it was only available there and a local treat! We had told him about some of our eating adventures in Zhengzhou (the capital of Hannah's province) so I think this inspired him to give us a good story from this trip!  We soon found out that the desserts he wanted us to try were gelatin desserts: tofu ginger flavor and another made with brown sugar and TURTLE SHELL.  Nope. Just no.  I told Bryan I would be an observer not a participant in this dining adventure! 

Bryan & John studying the menu. 

John gave Bryan 3 choices: pickled pigs feet, chicken feet or turtle shell jello.

Bryan thought the turtle shell jello sounded the least offensive.

A picture of the menu

Lydia and I awaiting our fate

Lydia LOVED the tofu ginger dessert.  

Bryan eating the turtle shell jello.  He said it was definitely not the worst thing he's ever eaten but he wouldn't order it again.  He is such a good sport!

Happy girl in her stroller after some tofu jello!

We rode the cable car down to the bottom of the mountain where our guide had another Chinese Uber driver waiting for us.  The views from the cable car were pretty although I have to admit I'm not a huge cable car fan!

Getting tired and being a bit wiggly and wild

We ate take out from the Cantonese restaurant in our room for lunch and Lydia took a nice long nap.  Bryan and I enjoyed the downtime watching movies (or in my case a series I downloaded before we came here).  After nap, Lydia played some in the room.  She is starting to move more and try to cruise around the coffee table and even squat down to pick up toys she drops.  We also saw her maneuver over to the coffee table and pull herself up on her knees.  All of these things may not seem like a big deal but we are thrilled to see her moving and strengthening her muscles which just haven't had the opportunity to be used much.  We suspect she spent a lot of time in her crib and didn't have the chance to get down and play on the floor and master those gross motor milestones.

There are no cute pictures from dinner as Little Miss was being a bit ornery :/  We are thankful for another good day in Guangzhou and that Lydia is adjusting so well to life with her new Mama and Baba.  We are officially halfway done with our time here in China (hang in there, grandparents!!!!!)  We wish we could speed up the other appointments we have here but it is what it is.  We are going to try to savor this time bonding with Lydia and enjoying China with her.

Tomorrow is Lydia's medical appointment to qualify for a visa.  After that, we only have one more appointment left (her US consulate appointment) on Tuesday!