Fourth Day

Brennan, Kate and Dee at Baomo Gardens

Here are a few tidbits about Kate-  she LOVES licorice, apple juice, and yogurt, doesn’t like hamburgers, likes French fries and pretty much everything else we give her to try.  She enjoys food but has definitely not gone hungry because she doesn’t feel the need to eat all the time or everything in front of her.   We are enjoying the breakfast buffet each morning… it’s another great example of how having Brennan here is so helpful!  Truly what would I do with Kate when I was trying to get our food?


 It’s so nice to have Brennan be able to sit with her while I get the food! 

Kate has started to squeal/scream when she is excited!  It’s is super adorable but makes me a little worried about the plane ride home.  Hee hee!  She squeals over a lot- pictures when we look at them, food she enjoys, etc.  She saw pictures of the drivers that brought her to Guangzhou last Tuesday and really got excited!  I bet she’s missing all the familiar faces from her orphanage.  She is handling it so well though!  She loves her new hotel home- I bet she’ll miss our room.  I know she’ll miss putting our shoes away in our “shoe cupboard” we have in the room.   She’s started to reorganize things too- I have to be a little careful because I’ve found a few of our items in her drawer.  J  Brennan and I have started putting anything special on top of the TV where she can’t reach them (such as his Lego constructions, DVD movies, etc.)  I keep telling Brennan that this could be helpful- he may never have to pick up a toy again with Kate around to clean up.  J

I also forgot to mention that when we took a walk the other day, we saw people swimming in the Pearl River!  That surprised us because we’ve heard how polluted it is!  We do see people each day in boats cleaning the river out though, so maybe it’s not so bad anymore.  With that said though, we did see a dead floating creature in the canal the other day.  It was definitely a mammal and Brennan thought it looked like a small pig.  Ewww!

Okay… so onto yesterday.  Poe Poe picked us up in the room at 8:00 AM and we headed to the car for an hour long ride.  Kate slept the whole way and woke up just as we arrived.  The gardens were beautiful!  It had many ponds and streams that the kids could go into and try to catch the little (and a few big) goldfish.  Brennan was in paradise!  He was the champion of catching fish!  We brought about five back to the hotel and he snuck them down to the Koi Pond and let them go.  They were still there this morning when we went down for breakfast!  I hope they’ll survive!  Speaking of the Koi pond in our hotel- we all have our favorite fish in the pond.  Mine kind of looks like Nemo and Brennan named it Oscar.  Brennan’s favorite fish change each day and Kate pretty much likes all of them!

We spent quite a long time trying to catch fish at the Gardens.  Kate tried to catch sticks and other things I’d put in the water for her.  She was happy and content and would have spent all day there if she could- definitely a perfect sister for Brennan!  She did take a small fall today and bumped her head and cried real tears!  I hope that’s a good sign that she knows we’ll help her and comfort her! 

Baomo Gardens

We paid the driver and Poe Poe a little extra money to spend another hour at the gardens, which was well worth it!  We got some great pictures and all had fun!

We got back to the hotel around 1:00 PM and let the goldfish go in the Koi Pond.  Then we walked to a favorite place around here called Lucy’s.  Brennan was so happy to order fried chicken, onion rings, and French fries!  After lunch we walked to the hospital to have Kate’s TB test results.  She didn’t have a reaction but does have a bruise where they gave her the test.  After that we walked to Jordan’s store for a few things.  We’ve seen Jordan around the island several times and promised that we’d go into his store!  We bought a few things from him and then headed back to the hotel to go swimming! 

Kate LOVED the water.  She would squeal/scream whenever the water touched her chin!  It was soooo funny and she was quite entertaining for everyone at the pool!  She had so much fun!  After about two hours we decided to leave, which did NOT make Kate happy!  She stomped back to the water and would have walked right in had I not stopped her!  I sat her down and said “no”… then she proceeded to try it again!  I repeated the “no” and then she turned her head and put it on her hands in her pout mode.  It is so adorable and would be easy to give into… but I am sure if I did, we’d really be in trouble!  She is a smart little girl!  After her pouting for about three minutes she gave up, and we had no trouble leaving.  I am so happy she is feeling more comfortable around us to show her true personality. 

I was talking to someone at breakfast and they said watch out for day number seven.  Apparently their daughter truly showed her true colors on that day.  In the mother’s words “it was not a pretty sight!”  She laughed telling me the story, and I’m sure it is a story her daughter will hear for many years!   We’ll keep you posted on our day 7! 

We’ve met many people during our stay here, but every time we talk to someone we find out that they are leaving that day!  We wish we’d meet some people that were staying for awhile.  I know Brennan would LOVE to find someone to play with!  He’s missing his friends and even though Kate is cute, he’s not quite sure how to play with her. 

Brennan and Kate

Brennan survived the no fishing day but then kind of did get to go fishing at the gardens.  He was sad that we couldn’t go when we got back though.  Hopefully our next fishing expedition will be a little happier!   Also hoping he’ll catch something soon with his fishing rod!

We are doing great!  We are enjoying a quiet morning.  Brennan is watching movies on his DVD player and Kate is walking around organizing everything.  She is also pretend talking on the hotel phone, which is adorable.  I’m trying to teach her not to touch the buttons- truly hoping she hasn’t made any long distance calls! 

I also want to quickly say how sweet she is at night.  I’ve been taking turns sleeping with the children each night.  Last night was Kate’s turn.  When I lay down next to her, she puts her hand on my face and studies me.  Then she hugs me and throws her arm around me.  She is soooo snuggly and sweet!  She talks in her sleep a little in the sweetest voice!  She’s easy to put to bed- we put pajamas on, brush teeth, go to the bathroom, and she’ll snuggle right into bed and go to sleep!   We were all in bed by 7:40 PM last night!!!  I slept until 4:40 AM- the best night so far!!!!

We are doing great!  It’s a little rainy here this morning, but we’re hoping it will clear up a little and we can enjoy some time at the pool!  We’ll write again soon!