Daddy Daughter Day

Well today Alex was all about her Daddy! He even got several kisses from her! As you can see from most of the pictures I was following behind the two of them hand in hand. It is so sweet to see the way she has taken to him. Alex will look to make sure Mama is near by, so she wants me around- that's at least reassuring- but if I try to take her hand she shakes her head no and runs over to Daddy. Too Funny! It's interesting that several of the girls have taken to their Daddies in our group. Usually the kids will attach to one of the parents while in China and typically it's the mother but we must have a bunch of awesome Dads because our kids are loving them!

We have had a lot of rain while we have been in Guangzhou. It has rained everyday and sometimes pretty heavy storms. Yesterday we headed to the park near our hotel. It's beautiful with a couple of lakes and lots of trees and flowers. We weren't there 10 min. and a storm started to roll in. So we snapped a few pictures in front of the beautiful white restaurant and headed back. We got caught in the rain a bit and Alex thought it was hysterical. I love to hear her laugh!

In the afternoon we made a quick trip to the police station for Alex's passport photo. Even though she is officially our daughter she is still a Chinese citizen until she steps foot on US soil so she will be traveling on a Chinese passport. After that we had an early dinner at Pizza Hut. It was good pizza, better than in the US. We placed a special order for a pepperoni only pizza (it's not on the menu) while others in our group ordered the supreme. The supreme had a few surprises for toppings. Some things I don't think we ever figured out but it was fun to try! Alex ate an entire order of what Pizza Hut is know for.... fried rice. Yep! Pizza Hut has fried rice in China and it was really good- our girl ate it all! She also tried her first piece of pizza. She liked it but either it wasn't her favorite or she had already filled up on the rice.

Overall Alex is much more comfortable with us and particularly Bobby. She is a good sleeper (thank you God!) and eats very well. Several of you have asked about the language. She does not speak English but we are managing really well. Mama and Baba are the Chinese words for mother and father so they are very similar/the same. I use a translator for the big verbs like eat and sleep and have learned a few key Chinese words like bathroom. Alex is already starting to mimic us in English. She will say "baby night night" when she puts her doll to bed and can say "No" like a champ- imagine that!

Special Alert! Special Alert! The red shoes are off! I don't know if anyone noticed from the pictures but Alex put on a pair of flip flops I brought with us this morning. She put them on to go to breakfast and we went with it! This was the first thing many in our group noticed about her today. These red shoes are taking on a life of their own!

Tomorrow (well today for us) Alex will have her medical exam. She will likely have to have some shots- I'm hoping not too many. Keep us in your prayers!