Guangzhou

Guangzhou is such cool city. It is beautiful, and it has this park in it. I love this park so much. It's massive, immaculate, and the landscaping is just amazing.

 We have done some touring, and seen really impressive things.

 The babies make everything a step more difficult. They both love to run everywhere, so we each take a baby and we chase! It's so fun.

 My boys!

 Contained!!

 Love! Maybe slightly one sided.

 On monday, Tate turned 2! From the day that we were matched, I wanted to have him by his birthday. So, yay that we were together, but it was also the day of the most traumatic event of adoption, the medical exam. Tate was no fan of the medical exam. It is just a routine screening but whoa betty, he was unimpressed. Because he is two, he had to have a TB blood draw screening. Bummer. He cried soooooo hard!! It was very sad. He totally let me comfort him though which was awesome, and he came home and slept for nearly three hours!

 When he woke up, we opened presents, which he loved, the hotel sent this awesome mango cake up to our room for him. Darling. I don't have photos of it on this camera though.

 Then it was tubs all around, and bed. Tate had his best night sleep ever tonight!!! He climbed into bed around 8:30, was out by 9 and slept until 4! I was elated! It is seriously the longest stretch of sleep that I've had since we arrived in China. Most orphans sleep amazingly well. My kids do not.

This is what I get 99% of the time that I try and photograph these two monkeys together. Chaos! We love them to death.

A few people have asked about Tate, so I will answer those questions.  He calls me half of the time mama, and half of the time aiya (auntie or nanny). He calls Gary baba (daddy) all of the time. He speaks Chinese all of the time. He talks a ton and sings lots of songs. It's adorable. When he talks to me and I repeat back to him what he just said in Chinese, he totally cracks up.  He uses more and more english every day. He routinely says "all done", "more", "Emily! No! No! No!" and "uh-oh!" although that one is probably universal.  He is napping right now, a great sign in trust and bonding, he loves to hold hands. He loves doing things for Gary. When Gary comes in from running, Tate will grab his flip flops for him and get him a diet coke out of the fridge. It's darling. He smiles like it's his job, all the time. He thinks everything naughty is awesome and hilarious. He is the sweetest most wonderful guy that there is. We are in love with him!!