Busy Day!

What a great day! Amanda's loving to Skype with her brothers - although like any nearly-three-year-old, she gets easily distracted!

Our day was full and busy! After our morning Skype session and breakfast, we headed out to Baiyun Sun - or White Cloud Mountain for some hiking. It was beautiful to see a mountain right in the middle of the big city of Guangzhou. And it was a LOT more strenuous than we'd expected! It was about two hours to get to the top of the mountain - lots of stairs and uphill climbs, which at times got challenging for us with her on our back! But it was well worth it! Here's a picture of us at the top of one of the trails, "Changshou Road" which means "Longevity of Life" - we're hoping all the exercise helped that cause! ;) (And by the way, before anyone starts thinking Jason was a slacker for letting me tote our 30-pound daughter around all day, he actually carried her most of the way up - chivalry still lives!)

So many people go there to climb, exercise and get fresh air - and we were definitely the only non-local folk there, so we got lots of smiles and attention! As we were resting on some benches on the way up, some really nice people started talking to us about Amanda. Through our guide, Jack, they told us how smart and very special she is, and that it's definitely fate that she's with us. And because her ears are "big", that means she's lucky! ;) Jack told them that we're definitely the lucky ones to have her- and it's true! They were so sweet and even gave her an orange to eat. I think one of my favorite parts of the whole interaction was when one of the women bent down to talk to her, she got really quiet and shied away, looking to me for reassurance and how she should react. A great sign that she's really starting to bond with us!

We saw some really beautiful scenery on the way up - I took a million pictures, but will only post one to give you a taste. ;)

After lunch (noodles, spicy beef, broccoli and tea) at a restaurant near the top, we then headed back down. We let Amanda walk for a bit - actually, MADE her walk would be more accurate. She kept putting her arms up to be carried, going between me and Jason. When she finally figured out neither of us would carry her, she stopped walking and made a pouty face, waiting to see what we'd do. Once we got about 20 yards away she finally realized that we meant it and came running, all smiles again. She's really starting to test the limits and boundaries with us - just as you'd expect with any child her age! So we're actually pretty pleased with it. ;) All that walking must have really worn her out, because on our way down she totally passed out asleep on me.

To end our outing, we made a trip to the Pearl Market and had some beautiful fresh-water pearl jewelry made for her to have once she's older. We're hoping it will be something she'll come to treasure as part of her heritage.

Amanda has picked up so much in such a small amount of time. She's caught on very quickly to anything we've taught her - she's got the bathroom routine and washing hands DOWN! (Which in public, is a HUGE adventure - I'll post more on that cultural experience later.) She says "all done", "baby", "BahBah", "MaMa" and signs for please whenever she wants food off our plate. ;) She speaks LOTS of Chinese - today she said "Those are cats over there" while we were eating lunch. A pretty good sentence for her age! She tries repeating just about anything we say and knows to look to us whenever she needs help. We've been beyond pleased with how quickly she's picked everything up. It really feels like she's been with us for so much longer than just 4 days. Her laughter is absolutely contagious and we can't get over how many different facial expressions she makes. We love her so much already!