Guangzhou Tuesday February 9th

Starting to lose track of days here.   I did not post yesterday as I could not get my pictures uploaded but today I have been able to get them up.   We had a great day on Tuesday.   Children woke up happy, dressed beautifully and caused no commotions at breakfast - always terrific.   When we came down to the lobby this morning, it had been transformed overnight - decorations for new year in full swing.   You can see the beautiful flowers, red lanterns, the pink blossoming plum flowers with red envelopes hanging from it and the bushes with small oranges/clementines everywhere.   We just think it is so beautiful.   Also, the mural of the horses which I could not fit in a single shot is behind the concierge desk in the first part of the lobby - Tricie, Robyne - could you not just die to have this in your homes.   On the opposite end is the other beautiful mural.   There is so much for the eye to take in here.  So, after breakfast some families went to visit the orphanages of their children from Guangdong province (Guangzhou is in this province) and the rest of us went to the Guangzhou zoo.   We had a wonderful time there - first all going on the little tram around the zoo and then being let out - but only were given just over an hour once we were let out.  Parts of the zoo were very nice and some parts were very difficult for me.   The animals all appeared to be in good health, well fed etc. but some enclosures were just so tiny and when we went past the big cats in the tram we knew we could not even go back there to see them when we could walk.   They were in cages that were so small and so much like old-fashioned zoos it was just very difficult.   There were several lions, a leopard that I just caught out of the corner of my eye running frantic circles and next to the leopard was a cheetah which should never be kept anywhere near leopards or lions - it was just rough.   However, when we walked around we had great fun watching two big brown bears who were having a lot of fun splashing and chasing each other in the water.   Also, there was an Asiatic mamma bear with three cubs who were a lot of fun.    Also, the gibbons were doing their whooping and hollering and that is a good sign.  It was good to be outdoors and Isaac walked just about everywhere, although he took a few tumbles, none that induced tears.   From there we went to a version of a mall/department store called Jesco.  We had an hour, twenty minutes and our efforts to find things were futile except for a couple of new year directions and Granddad and I finally found three short sleeve t-shirts - one for Granddad and two for David who has been so hot here.   Thanks so much for all the well wishes for David - he seems to be doing much better and has bounced back pretty tremendously although not quite back to normal yet.   We were back at the hotel just after 2ish and hoped the kids would rest - NOPE!  Isaac had caught a few zzs walking around the mall and that was the end of that.   David took them to the outdoor "playground" on the 4th floor and I went with Granddad to walk to the supermarket which is quite a hike.  If only I could photograph or video that experience, it is indescribable.  I fear though that if we were to record we might suddenly be surrounded by police and carted off to Chinese jail.   We found a couple of t-shirts for Grandma Lee in pink, turquoise and burnt orange as she has also been too hot and only had one short sleeve with her - although it's just in the 70s the humidity is high here - oh well, back to cold and snow in Beijing on Friday but nothing like home!  We trekked back with our goods and were hungry as Granddad and I had skipped lunch trying to find things at Jesco.   Also, the kids were so tired from the active day and not sleeping and I knew we were on a short rope with them.   We went to one place but did not see anything very exciting on the menu and the prices were very high so we went to another place where we were seated at probably the nicest table, round, surrounded by gauzy curtains, beautifully set table and a huge glass lazy Susan in the middle which Indigo could not keep her hands off - not difficult to understand really, for a 3 1/2 year old but we were trying to get her to stop playing with it.   The waiter brought the children melamine bowls that have this sheep/ram character that is on everything for Chinese children - from some tv or movie, I know Shelli and Laura Beth know all about it - sheep and the bad wolf of something but I don't know the sheep's name.  Anyway, besides the point.   It was pretty impossible to get Indigo to stop fiddling with things and spinning the table etc.   It was hard because she had really been a super angel all day, is very caring of her brother etc.  However, when she is overly tired, like most children at her young age, she just loses her self control and her ability to self-regulate and listen well and it's difficult.   It's not always easy for everyone to remember that she is just 3 1/2, is in completely unfamiliar surroundings, is experiencing a major life change, is exhausted by the evening and that dining out is just not ideal in these circumstances.  Ultimately, although not while spinning the lazy Susan, she was putting chicken on my plate that she did not want, she knocked her glass of apple juice over which made a big mess.  The staff was very sweet about it and it's not as if none of us adults have never knocked a glass of wine, drink etc.  She ate just a little bit of some delicious Shanghai noodles and this really amazing special Shanghai soup and she fell asleep on her chair with her head on my lap.  Her dad carried her back to the hotel the whole way and she stayed asleep and slept this morning until past 7:30.   In the meantime, Isaac, who had been on the verge of sleeping when arriving at the restaurant, pounded down a fair bit of food and walked the whole way back to the hotel.   We had planned baths because the kids were awfully dirty and had sweated so much but we were not going to wake Indigo for that so Isaac went to bed too and was gone in an instant.   I have to say that Isaac is all boy!   He gets filthy beyond comprehension even though every meal is eaten with the super bib!  At the zoo he was wearing this white sea turtle t-shirt and he took some tumbles and at one point also crawled up a set of stairs and then lay on the ground on the top crawling a long.   He found all the puddles to step in and did have an orange, sans super bib and that ended up all down the right side of the t-shirt - I could not resist a photo at the end of the day to show the carnage.   Ellen - I think he has done even worse damage to the "baby brother white t-shirt" - I can't wait to see the laundry results from the laundry we sent off today.    Okay - so may post for the 10th (today) later as well, but in the meantime, here are a lot of photos for the 9th.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623396552730/