What Day Is It? ~ Day 7 With Lily

Lily LOVES the tub.It's not all smiles and giggles all the time with this girl...
Making a pearl necklace for Lily at the Pearl Market.
Our Hotel Lobby

Today was a wonderful day and at the same time it was tiring, irritating, hot, and stressful. As beautiful as it is here, there's no place like home. Lily has been sleeping great. She usually sleeps until anywhere from 5am-7:30am and likes to take a little nap shortly after in bed with either Dave or myself. We went down to the breakfast buffet near the waterfall, I tell ya this hotel is just beautiful, but Lily was not into the beauty this morning. She had a very difficult morning. Normally she has a good appetite and opens up her mouth like a baby bird for us to drop food in, but this morning she shook her sweet little head "NO" to everything but a little watermelon. Watermelon, by the way, is her favorite food. Followed by screaming and crying. She knows what she wants and doesn't want and is already testing the water and we are starting to set some limits. Daddy took her out of the dining area and over to the bridge to see the fish and socialize. She brightened right up and was happy again, not too many limits yet as it's hard to do when not in the privacy of our own home and other people would like to appreciate the beauty =D. I have to say that her Baba (Daddy in Chinese) is doing pretty good at resisting the urge to spoil her silly... most of the time anyway.

We visited the pearl market today, got a little lesson on how to recognize quality pearls and did a little shopping. We picked up a string of pearls to keep for Lily until she is older. Had lunch at KFC. Lily had a bite of "creamed potatoes" as some friends from Mississippi call'em, and her first french fry, all the while fussing. Although she pooed last night, we had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to come... and we were right.

So the afternoon came and we took a short walk over to the clinic to have Lily's physical done and picture for her visa taken. On the way she fell asleep. This actually worked to our benefit because she slept through her exam, although we had to wake her for her photo. She did great and this all took just 20 minutes. So Lily only had a short nap. While we were out, the boys went with some friends to the pool. This is no ordinary pool, it's a tropical paradise with a waterfall and is overlooking the Pearl River. This gave us the chance to do some shopping on the island to pick up some souvenirs and gifts.

We were supposed to go out for a group dinner to a Cantonese restaurant, but opted to stay in. It's no fun to be out in public with a constipated baby. The tension of being constantly on the go and living in such close quarters for a week and a half now is weighing on all of us today. Add the stress of a tired, screaming baby and it just magnifies the tension. It was nice to be able to stay in tonight. We ordered a Papa John's pizza and picked up some chicken congee (rice porridge) to go for Lily... and she ate the WHOLE bowl. I think that Lily is definitely bonding with us and is feeling the need to just be "home." She went from her foster family, to our hotel in Nanning for a week to another hotel now for half a week... and we have still another transition to make when we leave for home. She is so sweet and fun to watch as she explores our hotel room. We took care of some potty business, had a bath which she loves and now everyone is passed out.

Tomorrow we will take a picture of all the babies in our group lined up on "The Red Couch" here in the hotel. It's become a tradition here at the White Swan, which is also known as the "baby hotel," for adoptive families to do. We also plan on going with our group for a dinner cruise on the Pearl River.

That's all for now. We'll check back in tomorrow. Visit my Facebook page for more pictures.

~Sue