Sept 5th--Sunday..

Happy 18month birthday Robyn!!! We are already seeing some really nifty changes here. Of course there is the testing, but more fun. She blows kisses and now responds to Robyn!!! It's great! Instead of clapping she pats her tummy!!.. it's soo cute. She's as smart as a whip. Just show her something once and she's pretty much got it. She LOVES her stacking cups (Thank you Jim & Kate), any crinkly packaging and paper. She loves paper.. cards, sheets.. anything. She'll had you something and go "ah".. then you offer it back and she'll take it. Today we did much better with the temper tantrums.. we tried the distract method.. and just did our best to set her up for success if ya know what I mean.Holy moly.. a blue sky!! Yes we saw one today.. with clouds and everything! The smog is present, but because of the all the rain the last two days, it's not oppressive.. yet.So after a .. yes again.. most delicious breakfast. Oh.. wait.. we sat near a gentleman who is from Oregon. He was in town for this large Audio conv that is being held here. He lives in Shanghai with his wife who is Chinese. It was really nifty to hear his perspective on China and such.Anyway after breakfast it was time to head out for our tour of a buddist temple where we got a blessing from one of the monks. The Chen Family house(the 5th most common name in China) and then an upscale store for some shopping. Robyn did amazingly well.. until the shopping. I mean we were pushing it. She was tired.. we fed her in the van but she wanted more.. so we had a meltdown and eventually she fell asleep on David. The other family with us were totally cool with it. Turns out their little girl started to fuss just as Robyn fell asleep. Guess it was a tag team event! Robyn slept a bit, but that was it. David tried to get her asleep while I went out to pick up our laundry and a chop.. I think it's called. A stone stamp that David had ordered the day before. It has her name in English and Chinese on it. With an OX, her Chinese Zodiac. (she sure can be as stubborn as one!) good thing she's just so garsh darn cute!!! Many Chinese and fellow Americans note how cute she is! Daddy is gonna need a shotgun.. ok he has one.. he'll just need to get it all cleaned up!So.. I went to pick up the Stamp.. And David had told me about this man who was in the shop that had all this wonderful tea. I was in that shop for like .. forever.. with Dong.. yes that's his name and his wife Susie. I picked out some fabric to have a blouse made and got all sorts of fun books for Robyn. One with English/Pinyin and Chinese. Susie said it helped her learn English! Then a Chinese lullaby CD a puzzle of China.. Lots of fun stuff. Susie was amazed that how small I am for an American. Tall and small she said. She asked if I eat? Or exercise. Trying to explain a high metabolism was very difficult!Then I tried some of Mr. Dong's tea. The oolong was fab, the green tea and my favorite was the Chinese black tea. Which doesn't have as much caffine.. nice. So, after some shopping therapy I picked up the laundry and got back to the room and David was like.. now ya know why it took me so long yesterday!!! We changed into some clean clothes.. (you'll notice in today's and yesterday's pictures.. I have the same clothes on.. it was all that I had!).. we gave Robyn a bath then we grabbed the stroller and headed out for a walk and some dinner. We ate at JM Chefs. Which is a Cantonese restaurant. Was a bit fancy.. Robyn was a trooper.. she had a lot of rice. We had some what we call rapini with dried beef.. that was "re-consituted" with a light orange sauce of some type. And some deep fried pork bacon or something like that. How can one go wrong with deep fried bacon!!! And some goose. I didn't care for the flavor.. the goose was fine it was just the sauce it was prepared in. David enjoyed it. Forgot to take a picture of our meal.. and out front there were lots of tanks of fresh fish you could either order to be prepared as your meal or take home. From all sorts of shrimp, clams, Goey duck, eels, snake, swimming bugs.. (no really!) all alive. We will go by the place tomorrow(it's just down the street) and get some pictures. Then after dinner we went back to Suzie's for more tea. And show them Robyn and some pictures we brought with us. They were amazed at the size of our home. And we tried to explain that our house is very small compared to most Americans. Dong offered to be our maid! We were like..no no we work hard for what we have too. But ya know.. you can't compare China to America. It's like apples and oranges. Tomorrow we go back to get my blouse! I'm excited!It's now 10pm.. Both David and Robyn are asleep. We found that walking is the best way to get her to sleep. David did several laps around our hotel floor.. it's a circle of sorts.. so that works well. I just got 2.5days updated on the blog.. sorry for no post yesterday. Tomorrow we meet in the Lobby for the famous White Swan Red Couch photo(search google images to see what I mean). Then off to the Pearl Market. We are doing to do our best to keep Robyn happy and maybe buy some pearls!! No official stuff to do.. seeing that it's Labor Day and the US Consulate is closed for the holiday! I think after tomorrow's Pearl Market Thing.. We don't have anywhere to be until Thursday for our oath at the Consulate. Which will be nice to be able to hang out and chill here at the resort.Good night.. I'm tired. ZaiJian~DonnaPhoto captions.

Blue sky-our view from hotel room of Pearl River--Buddist temple tower thingy--Buddas in temple one for Past, Present & Future, Monk Blessing--meltdown.. diaper change in van!--Chen Family house/museum(2)..playing with Mommy before bedtime.