Nanchang 11/6

Finally a day with no rain :) Halle woke up without much of a fuse and seemed pretty happy. We had a nice big breakfast. We started putting Halle in a highchair and she is basically feeding herself. It can get a little messy when she eats her congee (rice & water). She has started to feed all of us too - lots of ABC food - but they say it is a good sign towards bonding.

We had a great visit to the Prince Teng Pavilion. It was an awesome sight. The temple is 6 stories high and is spectacular. There are several other buildings and nice grounds surrounding it with lots of bronze art pieces. You'd love it mom! We started at 6th floor with a short show. It had singing, fan dancing and a musical instruments piece. Halle was mesmerized with it. She even stopped eating her Cheerios which is significant. We put them in a little red purse to make it a game. She likes to dig them out. Her fine motor skills are much better than I had expected them to be.

We continued down the Pavilion stopping at every floor to see the different art work. Each floor had little shops with souvenirs. We bought a couple things. The guide said we should haggle/barter over the price but Jacob didn't think we should. On the bus ride over they told us how much the average person living in Nanchang makes - about 1150 RMB or about 170 US dollars a month. He said it didn't seem fair to ask them to sell their things for less when it only amounted to a dollar or so to us. Aunt Kathy will be glad to know that she will have something in common with her niece - she was born in the year of the pig!

Sami continues to be the Chosen One of the day. She definitely received her workout for the day climbing all the steps while carrying Halle.

After the Pavilion we walked over to have another family style lunch with all the food on a big lazy Susan in the middle. We all really enjoyed the lunch. When we were leaving the restaurant there were lots of big tanks with live fish, crabs and shrimp in them that you could pick out for your meal. I'm glad our lunch was picked for us and not currently in the "living state" when we arrived.

We didn't do too much in the evening. We mainly hung out in the room and went up to the 11th floor for a little while for Halle to run around. I had everyone leave the room while I gave Halle a bath and put her to bed. We did well.

Today is a trip to the zoo and a porcelain market. We are looking forward to that. Take care everyone. We miss you!