Double Happiness

We're home!

We're home but we're just wiped out! Our 12 hour flight was more like 14.5 hours due to mechanical problems that required us to sit on the runway for several hours with no air conditioning waiting for something to get fixed and signed off by the mechanics. Other than that, the flight was uneventful. Gwen did really well which is to say that she slept but that meant she wasn't interested in sleeping once we got to California. UGH! The result is that she didn't go to sleep until 5 AM Pacific time and then she only slept for about 5 hours! And I had to hold her just about every minute that she was awake since she was just a little bit freaked out at all of the new people (grandparents and big brother, Michael) and things (kitties). She was happy as can be to just be held and rocked so that's what we did for what seemed like an entire day! She's finally taking her first two hour nap since leaving China and that's why I have time to post.

We have pictures of her in her nursery and will post them to the blog as soon as our schedule straightens out and we can get some time. Stay tuned for updates! They'll be coming soon!

Gwen on the Pearl River

Here's a picture of Gwen on the deck in the dark. We left the hotel at around 5:30 for the cruise, headed to the river, went up and down and ate dinner, and docked around 8:00, getting back to the hotel around 8:30, which is her bedtime. She was full of energy and feeling good, so she had a great time running around.

She's fascinated by other children, particularly older girls. She loves to chase them around, squealing. In the background here, you can see another adoptive family -- in this case, they spoke Spanish, so we couldn't say much to them, but the little girl in pink in the background was incredibly sweet and became Gwen's best friend for a while.

Eventually, Gwen caught her friend, and the two danced around on the deck.

After her fling, Gwen met Michelle, and fell in love again. Michelle took great care of her, and Gwen dragged her all around the deck.

Pearl river cruise

	We took a dinner cruise on the Pearl river, which divides Guangzhou into north and south. The north side is the posh section, where the government offices are; the south side is industrial.
	Much of the river is lined with large office buildings which are brightly lit with many colors at night, and the view is beautiful. There used to be a number of ferrys which would take people over the river, but the government has limited boat traffic on the river to cruises, so the water is pretty quiet.
	Many of the bridges are impressively architected, and also lit garishly for the night. I won't say much about the food. It gives one a sense of global community to know that river cruiseship managers the world over have read the same rulebook requiring food to be nasty, clammy, overcooked, and generally inedible in a sense that transcends culture and ethnicity, to focus clients' attention on the scenery outside.
	Gwen had a great time running around on the deck.

Happy Accident

Andrew was playing around with the camera settings and accidentally came up with a combination that produced this picture. I think it's rather interesting! Too bad we have no idea how we did it!

Movie Star!

We bought about 25 children's DVD's today. Gwen doesn't know what a movie is yet but she seemed quite happy to "swim" in all of these titles!