Shopping in Guangzhou

Our second day in Guangzhou was spent shopping in a huge market. We went to the pearl, jade, and watch markets. The pearl market was amazing! They had bags of pearls around a shop in all different colors. You bought the pearls by the strand, and the ladies would take the pearls off and make any jewelry item you chose. We bought two strands of creamy white pearls and had Amelia a necklace and two bracelets made. One bracelet is for during her childhood, and the other can be worn when she gets older with her necklace. There were a few pearls left over, so we paid for earrings to be made to match. I bought a strand of gray pearls and had a necklace made for myself. The women worked so fast taking the pearls and tying them on the string. We videoed this to show people, but I'm not sure I can upload it to the blog. After the pearl market, we went to the jade market. I bought Amelia a jade cross and a circle pendant that represented a complete family. I wanted a few items to put up for her when she is older. David bought a watch at the watch market, but it broke when we got back to the hotel when he tried to set the time. We were told there was a one year warranty, so we will try to take it back on the 1st, which is our free day. The children started getting restless because it was WAY after nap time, so we came back to the hotel. I attempted to put Amelia down for a nap while David went to the Mexican restaurant for take out. Two hours later, Amelia finally went to sleep.

The hives have pretty much disappeared from her skin. She had one place on her tonight that was barely noticeable. Her skin is still a bit red from where the whelps were, so I gave her a little Benadryl tonight to try to clear it all up. We are very glad that it does not seem to be the carpet or the stroller that is causing it. A friend suggested that it could just be viral. Amelia asked for a bath tonight by going in the bathroom and pulling up on the tub. She really loves her baths! David actually fed my child a banana tonight and... She loved it! I don't know what I'm going to do! I had to stay far away because the smell was making me nauseous. David had to double bag the peel when he threw it away to make sure I wouldn't get sick. I have included pictures of this experience for Amelia. She ate the entire banana by herself. I can't wait to see what that diaper is going to look like - it may be daddy's turn to change her. :)

As I write this, Amelia is crawling around on the floor fighting sleep. We have a real problem with this. She does not want to go to sleep. I'm not sure if she is afraid she will miss something or if she is afraid that she will wake up and find that she is still with the strange people who feed her. I can't decide how her adjustment is going. At times, I think it is great and other times I think it is not going well at all. Today, she tried to go to all the women in the stores. A few got their hands on her, and Amelia was quite happy until she saw me. She would say, "Mama" and reach for me, but she still was happy to be held by others. She was in a very bad mood when she woke up from her nap this afternoon. She screamed and cried when she saw David, and I'm not convinced that she was very happy to see me. Once we started feeding her, she turned into her happy self. I know this is a hard transition for her, and if she learns to trust us through food, we will give it to her whenever she asks.

Tomorrow, we will go to the zoo. This will be our second zoo visit in China. This zoo has a white tiger and pandas. I hope Amelia enjoys this zoo better than the zoo in Chongqing.

David has not uploaded the photos from his camera of the markets. I will try to remember to include those tomorrow. There is one photo of the woman in the pearl market.