Red Coach Picture

We took the red couch pictures last Tuesday. As you can tell, Annika was very excited and couldn't wait for her picture. She fell asleep about 5 minutes before I was going to change her into her dress and then I had to wake her up to put it on. Those dress aren't exactly something you can just slip them into while they sleep. Any thing that requires a side zipper to get it over there head is challenging but even more so when you are trying to get it on a sweaty, screaming, sleepy 8 month old.

Who ever started this tradition must have not been in a very large travel group. We had 14 babies 8 month and younger and than 4 older children (who didn't seem to be too excited about the prospects of sitting with all of the squirming, screaming younger girls. Can't say that I blame them). The picture was scheduled to happen right at nap time, which should have been a tip-off that we were headed straight for disaster. Several girls showed up already crying. By the picture you can see that those who weren't crying were not paying a bit of attention to the hoard of paparazzi who was desperately trying to get the perfect picture (Wish I could have taken a picture of all the photographers, they were pretty funny too). The guide tried to give us some direction at first and then ended up just sitting back and laughing as it became chaos.

After what seemed like 30 minutes of attempting the picture, everyone finally gave up and moved to take one giant group photo of everyone in our group. (David and I are the two giants in the middle of the photo. Maybe we would have been less noticeable if we would have sat on the front row or at least not have stood next to two of the shorter families.) We drew quite a crowd when we would go out together places. I can only imagine how strange it would have to be to walk out of a building into a group of 20 American families each with a Chinese child(some with two). One woman even snuck in behind out guides as they were taking this picture and took some with her own camera.

We Made It

We got home late last night. We had some weather issues in Minneapolis and that set us back a few hours. Annika was a trooper, she slept most of the way home and only got fussy while we were sitting in the plane in Minneapolis for two hours waiting to take off.

We weren't sure how Annika would react to everyone once we got home, but we shouldn't have worried. It was love at first site when she saw her brother. He got giggles and she couldn't stop kissing him. She would go for his cheek every time he got within kissing distance. She was still very happy to see him this morning. She also really likes her Grandma and Grandpa. She is still trying to figure out the dog but thinks she may like him and hasn't really seen much of the cat yet.

Since I didn't do as much posting as I had planned from China, I am planning on posting more pictures and things here over the next few days to catch everyone up.

All you really want

Wal-Mart

Lazy day

Today and yesterday were our "off" days. We didn't have any appointments and didn't need to rush anywhere. Yesterday some women came to the hotel selling silk clothes. We got Annika a pretty two piece set (they call them pajamas), David got a tie, and I got a custom silk blouse (since there is no way I will ever be able to find clothes to fit me here). We are going to get clothes for Alex once we get to Guangzhou, although I don't know exactly what to get for a seven year old boy. In the afternoon, we visited the Tang Pavilion which is about 10 minutes from our hotel (probably less than that). It was pretty amazing. I am sooo impressed with the old buildings here in China, they are magnificent (I LOVED the Forbidden City, which I still haven't blogged about yet). There were beautiful gardens surrounding the pavilion, one was a park full of bonsai trees. After the Pavilion we walked a few blocks to a pedestrian mall to look for baby stuff (I only brought three baby outfits with us, bought a few at Wal-Mart on Tuesday, and have been trying to find things as we go along). We found some pjs and one cute outfit and were able to find somethings to hopefully tame the mane on our sweet baby. When we got back, Annika fell asleep and David went to restaurant in the hotel to pick dinner up for us. I am not getting tired of Chinese food unless it is bad Chinese food. The stuff in the second floor of the Gloria Hotel in Nanchang is the good stuff, if you come here we highly recommend the pepper steak and the shrimp in brown sauce (YUMMY), Annika recommends the congee and the steamed eggs (YUMMY).

Today we went shopping for porcelain and then to a department store that would give Macy's a run for their money. We bought several porcelain items and now have to figure out how to get them on the our next destination. We may end up shipping them home depending on how much it costs.

Tomorrow we head to Guangzhou.

Annika is already making progress. She can sit up by herself for long periods of time now and has started to pick toys up by herself (it is still a happy accident when she actually gets ahold of them). We have decided that she really likes food and are not going to waste anymore formula trying to feed her all day. She got up this morning and ate a bottle and a good helping of vegetable cereal, then after a nap we went down for breakfast and she had congee and some banana bread. Then for lunch she had more vegetable cereal, steamed eggs, watermelon, and various pieces of white rice from David's plate. Last night she ate jarred food and loved it. We definitely have an eater on our hands (fits right in with the rest of the family, loves to sleep and eat!!!)

Day One Pictures

Here are some pictures from our day at the Great Wall and in Beijing. There is really no order to the pictures, just ones that I liked. The first ones are at the Olympic Park.


This is the Dragon apartment building I mentioned before. I think it is pretty cool.
Bird's Nest stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held.
Water cube, where swimming will be taking place
Torch Tower, self explanatory.

The next few are from the Great Wall.

This was a boat that was at the jade factory. It was incredible. There was carved chain on it where each link was individual.

We just thought this sign was funny. David saw it from the bus.

Our Beautiful Girl

Here are some pictures of Annika on day two of being with us (once we could actually get her to sit up away from us without screaming).Here she is before her bath with a slight case of bedhead. It was even worse this morning after having to rub elimite into it last night to treat the scabies.

This as at breakfast, enjoying a bowl of congee. Congee is basically really watery white rice. They serve it on the buffet and when we go out to dinner. Sometimes it has scallions floating in it and on the buffet there are all kinds of unrecognizable dried "goodies"to add in (no they aren't fruit, probably dried sea creatures like the ones at Wal-Mart yesterday).

Here she is enjoying fruit puffs at the notary office. This is shortly after she discovered the cute baby on the digital camera that she is soooo fond of.