Day 10: An Upgrade

 We love Guangzhou.  Love it!  It is green and lush and warm.  The people are friendly, the food is delicious, and we have been upgraded to a suite because we are such dedicated and loyal Marriott members.

In that first picture, you might notice the pile of laundry behind Zoey.  That is LAUNDRY that the Laundry Guy is washing and drying for us and bringing back to our hotel room tomorrow morning!!!  Our guides arranged this luxury and I cannot tell you HOW EXCITED I am to get clean clothes-really clean clothes.  At this point I don’t even care what the price is, I am just so excited that everything will be clean. 

Zoey also needs some clothes-I was told that we only had to bring an outfit or 2 for her and we could go shopping for clothes that would fit her, since we really didn’t know how big she was.  So, I brought a size 3 and 4 each winter clothes and summer clothes.  Well, let me tell you, that we never did find any clothes to buy in Hefei, and 3 year olds can be very messy.  She is also bigger than we thought-about 35 pounds and fairly tall, so the 3s are too small-so my girl is in floods every other day.  She will finally have clean clothes. The picture is her trying to pull down her skirt to her ankles-she was very distraught.  After breakfast, Amy from our group loaned us an outfit so that she would be more comfortable. 

We have been reunited with the rest of our Beijing group-so cute to see everyone with their children.  One couple has a set of 2 year old twin girls, another a 2 and a half year old girl, and the last couple a 2 year old boy.  All of them are so cute.  Tonight the rest of the group arrives-10 more families.  We are all going to dinner tomorrow night-should be a hoot.

The kids had their medical exams today. 

My girl chillin' on the bus on the way to the medical exam.

Guangzhou-notice the greenery??

Walking into the medical exam building.

First stop-visa pics for her to be allowed a visa to qualify her as a US citizen. 

Usually this wait is a nightmare-but since the Tomb Sweeping holiday will take up most of this coming week, only a couple days of consulate appointments are needed for medical exams today, so we were very, very lucky. 

First stop-ENT.

Second stop-height and weight.

Next stop-the actual medical exam. 

The final stop was a TB test.  I put down the camera, but the woman in pink is Maggie, explaining to Zoey what was going to happen.  They put a needle under her skin and injected fluid for the test-I was expecting her to scream and I would rush in to her rescue.  Nope-no screams.  No whining.  Not even a blink. 

She walked out and showed Jenna her trauma.  lol

  When we arrived back from the medical appointment, we went down to give the front desk our Marriott number for the internet service.  They ended up upgrading our room to a SUITE (and we are using Marriott points to stay here, so this is even more exciting)!!!  Woohoo!  We are living large-there is a circle for Zoey to run around-living room to bedroom to bathroom to closet hallway to foyer to living room to...  Around and around and around she goes.  To say that she is very active is somewhat of an understatement… not sure if we are just a manic family, but she is going to fit in just fine.  Go go go go go… pass out.  That is her motto.  But all the while she is super-pleasant and loves humor. 

She had a great day today.  Lots of smiles.  Not a whole heck of a lot of quiet moments - even when the staff at the medical center spoke to her (during the past days that is what usually sets her off is another person speaking her language).  Today, she was pretty perky all day long.  Chatting up a storm-even in front of others.  Her favorite is to say “Hello” over and over again.  She was cracking the guides up on the bus. 

We did walk over to the women and children fashion mall down the street.  Got her a pair of pjs, some socks, and a couple outfits.  She is so cute-we’ll ask her if she likes something and she’ll shake her head yes, or no.  Most girly things she does not like.  She gravitates toward the boy toys-trucks, cars, figurines.  But she loves Hello Kitty.  So-she now owns Hello Kitty socks, leggings, a shirt and a dress. 

Walking back from shopping-she thinks big sis is so cool. 

McDonald's near our hotel-Zoey wanted to stop and have her pic taken here.  lol

New room!

Yes.  That is a glass door on the toilet.  There is a second toilet over to the right with a proper door.  I can't imagine anyone thinking that this would be a cool idea...haha.

Dinner with Chloe

Candy shop in our hotel-she loves gummy anything.  Sam-this is a gummy worm.  Better beware... she'll steal all your candy!

 We had a great dinner at a Chinese restaurant attached to our hotel.  Cold beer-yum.  And the kids were so funny at dinner.  They had a lot of energy left in them, so we headed to the outdoor kids area on the fourth floor of our hotel.

Wearing out the kids.  All of them.  lol

Hands down, the best part of the day was when we were hanging out in the room around lunch time-I was fixing noodles and apples (again), and we all were joking around.  Zoey was being funny and kept doing silly things.  She wanted to get my attention and shouted “Ma ma…” – I stopped and looked at her-she did something silly.  About 5 minutes later, she did it again.  So now I have been upgraded and have a name.  And it was not a fluke-she used it over, and over, and over-about 7-8 times over the next couple hours.  :)  I did notice that during the second half of the day she was more likely to try and get my attention, hide behind me, make contact with me-and smile at me.  She was tired on the way back from shopping and I picked her up-instead of squirming, I got an arm around my neck, then another.  I think we are making progress. 

Lisa and I were talking tonight-we can’t believe how far the girls have come in the short time we’ve been together.  In just 5 days Zoey is learning to communicate with us, and us with her.  She is starting to use a bunch of English words (Jenna is trying to get her to say "buttface" next).  We "get" her personality (and love it) and can read her signals.  While she will likely change when we get back to the US and she meets the rest of the crew, I hope this personality sticks with her.  She is an absolute doll.