A recap of the last few days...

Hello! Sorry I haven't been posting but life gets a little busy with 3 little girls running around. By the time, we get everyone to bed, I'm exhausted and just go to bed myself. It is the morning time now and hopefully I will be a little bit more coherent for posting. We have spent the last few days just hanging around the hotel and Shamian Island. The weather has been absolutely beautiful so we've spent lots of time just outside walking around.

Kate is doing so great. What a difference a week makes! She is taking full bottles now, 4 times a day! And she has even began taking the bottles I brought from home which is great because ours have disposable liners whereas the bottle from the orphanage is just a regular bottle. It was a bit tricky only having one bottle that she would take. We were having to do a lot of cleaning of that bottle. She is smiling a lot now and even crawling a bit. Our paperwork said she could crawl and pull up on things to walk but we didn't see any of that until yesterday. In fact, last night while John was feeding the big girls, Kate was on the bed and before they knew it, John and Lauren both had to grab a leg to keep Kate from falling off the bed. She still is content to stay in one place most of the time but it's obvious she knows how to crawl. She just continues to come out of her shell a little at a time. She is such a sweet girl and is so content most of the time. She right now is sitting on the floor next to Lauren looking at toys. She'll look back over her shoulder at me and flash a big smile to me! It's very sweet. The only time she really cries is when she is getting her clothes changed. The girl likes being in her jammies!

Yesterday we had the required medical exam for her US visa and she did great. She weighed in at 21 lbs! I can't remember how long she was. It was funny though because when she went to the part where the doctor listens to her chest and looks her over, the doctor was laughing at her big chubby thighs! She is so healthy! She doesn't even have a cold or anything - truly remarkable. And hence, we have all stayed healthy which is such a huge praise!

Kate is not only the first baby of ours that hasn't been sick but also the first baby that really doesn't have a ton of tickle spots. Last night we found the spot to make her laugh, though, right near those chubby thighs! We can tickle her there and she just laughs and laughs.

Mom, Dad and I went on a river boat dinner cruise last night on the Pearl River. The views were just beautiful. Tons of neon lights everywhere. John stayed back at the hotel and watched the girls. The cruise was really nice but the food left a little to be desired. I'm pretty good about eating while we are in China and can almost always find a few things that I like. Well, last night, I found that I liked the cookies and the rice - that's about it! It was so funny watching Dad turn his nose up at most everything he tried. You'll see the picture in the photo album below of what he ended up eating!

Yesterday (Monday) we had the red couch photo of all the kids in our group. For those not in the adoption circle, almost every travel group that comes through the White Swan Hotel has the babies pictures taken on the red couch. I'm not sure why but it is pretty cute. You can see from the pictures that it is quite impossible to get all those children to smile at the same time...actually, almost impossible to get them all to not cry at the same time. But it was fun, none the less.

Well, I think that is enough for now. We are going for massages this afternoon. A one hour massage for $10! You can't beat that! Enjoy the pictures.

Sunday-Tuesday