We had another yummy breakfast this morning. Shay eats just about everything. Her favorites seem to be toast with jelly, eggs, and sausage. That will make our mornings at home easy! :) She has been stopping when full (which is sometimes an issue with children in orphanages, and of course, may show up later) and has been pretty good at sitting still at the table for the most part. Her full sign is that she slides down the chair like she is melting! Too funny!
We met Laura at 9 this morning and left for the Panda Base which was about 1/2 hour away. Our hotel is in the city center, and just like Beijing, the roads are designed in circles or rings. The Panda Base was in the northern 3rd ring. People are limited to driving on certain days just like in Beijing to reduce the amount of traffic on the roads. Driving is just as crazy here, but I guess we are used to it from Emily's adoption, and it really isn't bothering us! Our driver, Mr. Li is very sweet, always smiling, and is a very good driver so we all feel very safe. It is amazing how close you can be to other vehicles though and not scrape paint!
The Panda Base was fun!
John is going to come home with bigger biceps! This girl LOVES her daddy and loves to have him carry her. She always chooses to sit next to me in the van....I get the easier end of the deal! :)
And stronger neck muscles too!
Sisters :)
I'm so glad they will have each other! I don't know what I would do without my big sis! :)
Look at John and Shay looking at each other!
We all enjoyed watching the panda's eating and the babies playing. We could have held a baby panda for $340 USD a piece.....uh, no thanks! The girls picked out matching panda necklaces and hair bands at the store and the boys found panda trading pins. We then left to go eat lunch.
Laura took us to a traditional Sichuan restaurant. Oh my goodness....it was delicious. It was seriously the best food we've had and makes our Chinese food at home taste like TV dinners! It was amazing. We sat at a round table and Laura chose several dishes for us to try. There was a large lazy susan on the table and we spun the table around to try the different foods.
This is our wonderful guide, Laura. We had to beg her to eat with us. She was going to eat with our driver after she ordered for us.
So, we then begged her to go get Mr. Li to eat with us too! They are both so sweet!
Then we walked across the street to the silk factory. Emily especially was really interested in learning that a worm created the fabrics and silks that we saw! The girls liked touching all of the silk fabrics that we were allowed to!
Finally, we drove to the Wide and Narrow Alley. It was an older area of straight streets with pagoda style shops and courtyards. The kids enjoyed watching and eating sugar art!
She already can write her name and Emily's without any copying and knows her ABC's and seems to recognize a good majority of them! She is learning a lot on her iPad apps, just like Emily did. She just sang the Wheels on the Bus and the ABC song! She is soaking up as much English words as she can and is great at pantomiming with us to get her point across. She has shared really well with Emily and seems to love having a little sister.
We are so grateful she is ours and are enjoying getting to know her more and more! John and I are also grateful for our boys! They are making this trip so much easier for many reasons!! They have been a HUGE help to us. Thank you, Kyle and Seth! We love you both!!!
Sounds like it's going well! Hubby's getting a workout, lol! She looks so sweet - and it's so nice all your kiddos got to meet her with you! Glad you're having fun!
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