Nanchang 11/4

Today was mostly a free day. The only thing we were required to do was to have the agency pediatrician an check Halle. She received a very good report. The doctor's only concern was that she still has her soft spot on her head. The doctor thinks her calcium is low. We can take care of that when we get home. We are all totally craving milk. I've had a tiny amount in my cereal in the morning but that is it. Our guide told us that he won't let his wife give his son any milk from China. He is now 7 years old drinking American baby formula.

We had quite a lazy morning. We were up early again at 4:00am. Halle had 3 naps before lunch. After lunch we went for a walk around the hotel. Jacob was very concerned about going somewhere where we would have to cross the street. I think I wrote earlier about the traffic. It is just crazy. We are usually traveling in a big bus and can just look down and see walkers/bikers/cars/buses/scooters come within inches. It is just wild. Anyway it was very interesting. We are definitely the celebrities here. People are very curious about us. It is okay to stare in China. I just try to smile. Most of the time they smile back. We had the first people give us the thumbs up which I hear is very common here. We have a Buddhists/Daoist/Confucius temple right outside our window. We walked over there. We couldn't go inside but were able to walk around the gardens around it. There were several other buildings around it too. In the first building there were two Chinese girls there that wanted to take our picture. They took several pictures of us and we took some of them too. In the next building they pulled Paul into a back room and asked him to pray. Then they wanted $100! He gave them $10 instead.

For dinner we went with most of our group to a restaurant next door to the hotel. It was fun. Lots of interesting food. I tried most, no, make that some of it ;) The rice with pork shoulder was the best. Again, the big kids did great. I think they tried everything, even the really spicy stuff. Sami's face got bright red and her eyes were watering. It was pretty funny.

After dinner we went to a place in the hotel that is a wide open space with some toys for the kids. Halle really let loose. It was first time where she really showed her little personality. She was scampering and belly laughing with the kids. They would go around the corner and you could hear her squeal in delight. She is really taken with her bigger siblings. She is still most definitely a daddy's girl. He is the only one she wants when she is upset. For the most part she has taken on the philosophy of "love the one your with" other times. When she latches on to one of us that is it. They are the only one that is allowed to hold her or walk with her. Luckily she is very fickle and it changes quite often. It is very hard not to be able to comfort her but I keep telling Paul he is the one that is going to have to deal with her for 16 hours on the plane ;)