Today, we finally feel comfortable enough to venture out, and not get killed, lose one of the kids, so we're going to get a cab and venture out towards Beijing Lu (Walking Street) where there are lots of shops to take a look around, maybe do a little shopping, and try to find a replacement a/c adaptor for Eddie's Nintendo, which I killed by plugging into the 220 outlet without an adaptor. This is after already having charged it once in Hong Kong with the adaptor. Did I mention extreme fatigue?
This place is wild. Picture any street mall in anywhere in America and multiply it by 100 times. It almost dwarfs New York City. Streets and streets of stores, 100 or more, looking up one side, then the other, mostly organized by types of products, like a whole street of just women's apparel, another of all shoes. We never found the electronics street, though cousin William said he's going to Hong Kong for business tomorrow and will pick one up for us. It has been incredibly helpful having him here. While many in the hotel know English to some extent, the cultural gap is the most notable. Even if I were to find someone in the hotel who understood what we were looking for - they wouldn't know the types of shops we'd like to shop at. For example, this Walking Street place, is too big, with way too many streets and shops. We are not adapt to walking more than a couple blocks in 99 degree heat and humidity. We were all very grouchy today. Well, not Isabella. She was a trooper, sleeping most of the time in the stroller, while the 3 of us walked around grumping and grouching at each other. I was sure Eddie's charger cord thingy was there, but having the stamina to find it was the challenge. Only a few of the stores had English writing on the sign out front, so you had to walk, look inside the store for clues of what it sold. When I say walk - I mean like down a block that would have 80-100 stores, two and three stories high. You may know, we're not exactly rugged. So after walking around for almost 2 hours, we took a cab back to the hotel, defeated. We pass the girl at the concierge desk who suggested we go there, giving us a card with the name of the place on it to give to the driver - she asked us if we got it. We said no. I got an empathetic look that crossed between disappointment and dismay. Boy, do I feel like a "dumb American".
Look at my girl standing. She has come so far in just 4 days. She pulled to standing all by herself and even takes a hand or two off the crib to show us how strong she is. Her skin and muscle tone has improved by more than 100 percent. She is happy, smiles and giggles. She's probably laughing at us.
This place is wild. Picture any street mall in anywhere in America and multiply it by 100 times. It almost dwarfs New York City. Streets and streets of stores, 100 or more, looking up one side, then the other, mostly organized by types of products, like a whole street of just women's apparel, another of all shoes. We never found the electronics street, though cousin William said he's going to Hong Kong for business tomorrow and will pick one up for us. It has been incredibly helpful having him here. While many in the hotel know English to some extent, the cultural gap is the most notable. Even if I were to find someone in the hotel who understood what we were looking for - they wouldn't know the types of shops we'd like to shop at. For example, this Walking Street place, is too big, with way too many streets and shops. We are not adapt to walking more than a couple blocks in 99 degree heat and humidity. We were all very grouchy today. Well, not Isabella. She was a trooper, sleeping most of the time in the stroller, while the 3 of us walked around grumping and grouching at each other. I was sure Eddie's charger cord thingy was there, but having the stamina to find it was the challenge. Only a few of the stores had English writing on the sign out front, so you had to walk, look inside the store for clues of what it sold. When I say walk - I mean like down a block that would have 80-100 stores, two and three stories high. You may know, we're not exactly rugged. So after walking around for almost 2 hours, we took a cab back to the hotel, defeated. We pass the girl at the concierge desk who suggested we go there, giving us a card with the name of the place on it to give to the driver - she asked us if we got it. We said no. I got an empathetic look that crossed between disappointment and dismay. Boy, do I feel like a "dumb American".
Look at my girl standing. She has come so far in just 4 days. She pulled to standing all by herself and even takes a hand or two off the crib to show us how strong she is. Her skin and muscle tone has improved by more than 100 percent. She is happy, smiles and giggles. She's probably laughing at us. 
This is Eddie amusing the fish. He loves the idea that when he flaps around, waving his arms and legs, they come to him, heads out of the water, mouths wide open. Bill and I explained they think you're going to feed them. He thinks they're enjoying his show.
She has 6 teeth that are in or mostly in with looks like at least 10 more coming in soon. She sucks her thumb to soothe her achy gums or when she's upset. She's very good at self soothing. It'll be hard not to spoil that by wanting to hold her all the time.
Now, we're moved to a room. Moms on one side, Dad's with cameras on the other side. Why do we do that? Idling chit chatting with the other anxious moms. We're realizing that unlike the last time we were at this moment, while still in a room with lots of people, we're fully dressed - and if we wanted to, we could have a drink like in the next few minutes.
