Chinese Food

These pictures are especially for Colin and Alex. The well-traveled say there is nothing the Cantonese won't eat. After staying here for more than a week now, I think I must agree. When we last spoke to Alex he was very interested in all of the unusual food that we saw being served at various restaurants on Shamian Island. Above are photos of live sea food that is sold in a fancy Cantonese restaurant across the street from our hotel. In addition to more run of the mill items, you will find water beetles, sand worms, geoducks and silk worms for your dining pleasure.

We think Debbie's prayers must have worked because we FINALLY had a sunny day! Temperature got up to the low seventies. It was breezy with no humidity. We spent some nice time outside today.

Also today Emily had her mandatory US medical exam. She didn't love the exam, but she checked out just fine. She is a bit smaller than the other babies her age who came from the same orphanage. At 18 months she weighs just about 20 pounds and is about 26 inches long. Those of you who knew us when Alex was born will remember that he was over 25 inches long when he was born! It is going to take some getting used to for us to have a petite child in the McKay household.

Emily continues to make terrific progress. What a difference a week makes. We took her to the famous playroom in the White Swan Hotel that is sponsored by Mattel today. She was happy and curious, but she was definitely clear that Steve and I are her parents. She would walk away for a few seconds and then come racing back to check in with us. She remains wary of strangers and lights up when we pick her up. She tries to feed both of us whatever she is eating, she loves to pat my face when I am feeding or olding her and Steve is definitely her favorite playmate. To us these seem like good signs that she is starting to bond with us. I know we will have a long journey ahead on that front but right now it feels like we are headed in the right direction.

Tomorrow is a free day for us, but we will gather with all of the other families in our adoption group to take the famous red couch picture in the afternoon. This is a group photo taken on a particular red couch in the hotel with all of the children dressed in traditional Chinese garb. Should be interesting!