A Boat Ride Down the Pearl River

Today we did the usual not-much-of-anything. We swam in the pool and met several nice families. One family's friend is traveling with them who is from Nashua, NH.

Daniel is becoming very comfortable around the pool now. So comfortable that he decided to jump in without anyone near him for catching purposes. MaryCatherine can now swim independantly with a a plastic tube around her. This is big progress for her and she is quite proud.

In the evening we took a boat ride down the Pearl River which was a lot of fun. Many of the buildings are lit up with decorative lights which are quite pretty to see.

MaryCatherine continues to make friends with many of the shopkeepers. They tend to be young ladies either in their late teens or early twenties. So we have spent a fair amount of time (since we have it to kill) visiting our new friends.

Daniel tends to follow MaryCatherine around and mimick whatever she does. I can see this developing into a 'big sister knows best' kind of thing. She will easily take on the teacher role for him showing him all her mastered skills (bike riding, trampoline tricks, etc) This is certainly a love/hate relationship for both of them. Although at times they seem like best buddies, she has recently declared, "I don't want Daniel in my family." And if we could understand him, he probably is saying the same thing.

Daniel is typical boy and is high energy. I have a feeling he will be attaching himself to Evan at home since he seems to like other boys to play with. He also needs to be watched every second. I mean this literally. In the blink of an eye he could be playing in traffic or jumping out of a window. However, he has an excellent attention span for some things. He loves puzzles, even if he can't do them without assistance. He will sit quietly for sometimes 30 minutes trying to put them together. (This is good for long plane rides!) I bought him a top that lights up as it spins. We sat for about 15 minutes with this and it was me who got tired of it before he did. He loves music and singing. My brain is already in gear planning for back-to-school. While Emma is doing her school work I will need to incorporate many of these activities into my psuedo preschool.

We have only 3 full days left in China. It is hard to believe that this trip will soon be behind us. I was able to change our flights and now will be departing Friday morning and spending a 12 hour layover in San Francisco. Hopefully Bill's family, who lives about 1 hour from here, can come to the airport and be the first ones to meet their new cousin/grandson/nephew!

-Liz