We finally had a fairly slow day for once. We decided to skip the trip to the museum this morning - partly because we are tired and partly because Abby is so fussy. We think it's a combination of teething pain and the disruption to her schedule. We're still having trouble getting her to go to sleep - she went the entire day without any naps (according to the orphanage she took two 2-hour naps a day) until she fell asleep about 15 minutes before we had to leave to go to a local department store to shop and buy some more formula. Despite being woken up after only 15 minutes, she seemed to enjoy the trip to the department store.

The department store is interesting, but very different from western stores. There is an employee about every four feet and as you walk by, they start showing you stuff. When we walked through the toy section, they must have turned on every loud, obnoxious electronic toy they had. We did eventually find the book section and bought Abby a couple of books that had Chinese, English and Pinyin in them. We also bought some more baby formula for her and some cookies and sprite for us.

When we got back to the hotel we had a little "baby party" in our room. We left our door open and four of the babies came over to play for a while (they brought at least one of their parents as well). Of all the babies, Abby seems the most "talkative", but also the least developed physically. She still has trouble sitting up on her own, and can't crawl or walk with help yet. The other babies are quieter, but can sit up and the oldest (almost a year) is walking with help. Each baby or family has some problem at the moment - either constipation or cold. We seem to be the healthiest overall with the only major problem being getting Abby to sleep. She seems to be improving at this "sitting" thing and is now starting to pull herself to a sitting position when we offer her our hands.

I briefly mentioned pollution before, but you have to see it (and breathe it) to believe it. It is really, really horrible. It's like the brown cloud in Denver or the smog in LA, but ten times worse and all the way to the ground. You can even see the air in our hotel lobby. We haven't taken a deep breath since Hong Kong (which was also polluted, but not this bad). We have a single mom in our group who had a friend travel with her to help out. The friend had to leave Changsha the first night we arrive and fly home to the states because the pollution was so bad she couldn't breathe (asthma). We later found out she spent the first night back in the hospital in LA before flying home to Colorado. The pollution is a combination of many things, but the main contributor is coal. Almost everyone uses coal to heat their homes and there are not many environmental controls in place for industry. And of course you have to boil the water before you can drink it, make Abby's bottle, or clean Abby's bottle. This is getting old really fast.

On Saturday we visited a Buddhist Temple and an embroidery factory/museum (Hunan is known for their embroidery), then went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The Temple was interesting, but the embroidery factory was amazing. 

We saw many examples of embroidery that were very difficult to tell apart from photographs, and we also saw two-sided embroidery that was amazing. 

We then went to the Chinese restaurant and experienced the "waitress effect" that we had heard about. After bringing us our food, the waitresses picked up all of the babies and carried them around while we ate. Even though we were expecting it, it will still a little disconcerting. Abby didn't seem to mind - she seems to go to just about anybody.

We had our first out-of-diaper accident in a public place while at the embroidery museum. We needed to change her and it was kind of chilly out. While the first diaper was off and second was not on yet, she decided to go again - a nice little fountain. Luckily most of her clothing and ours was spared.

Abby is still doing well except for crying (screaming) when she goes to sleep or wakes up. She is babbling a lot (dada - which we'd like to think refers to Karl, but since she was doing it when we got her, probably not) and loves to play - particularly while standing up - with help of course. Our arms are very, very tired. She has also had a little bit of diarrhea, we hope it gets better soon.

On Sunday we visited the Yuelu Academy - part of Hunan University. It was very pretty but the best part was we could breathe. It was located near the "mountains", had lots of trees, and had relatively fresh air. We walked around the campus and got to hear a short concert on traditional instruments. 

After we returned to the hotel we had a "play group" by the elevators on our floor as Daphne gave us instructions and handed out lots of paperwork and receipts.

On Monday we hung out at the hotel until about 4:00 when we left for the airport for our 6:20 flight to Guangzhou. We were the center of attention at the Changsha airport (this time in the regular terminal, not the military checkpoint), especially when Karl was making Abby's bottle. The flight (Abby's first) was short - about an hour - and was fine until the last 10 minutes or so. When we first got on the flight someone was in one of our seats, so we had to ask them to move. When they did, Karl said thank you in Chinese (shi shi). Later the man started talking to Jill (in English) about Abby and the adoption process. After a while he asked how many times we had been to China and Jill replied once. He then said, "But your husband speaks perfect Mandarin." We then - laughingly - told him that it was one of about 5 words we knew.

Abby was doing great until about 10 minutes before we landed, when her diarrhea returned. Because we were landing and because of the close quarters, we could not change her on the plane. We were also hustled through the airport and had to stay with our group, so we couldn't change her there. We were finally able to change her on the bus to our hotel, but she was very, very upset by then. It had soaked through the diaper, through the snugli and onto Jill's clothes. Once she was changed she was fairly happy again, although Jill and Karl were pretty upset (and we had some very messy and smelly clothes and snugli).

We are staying in the White Swan in Guangzhou, known as the baby hotel because it's right next to the U.S. Consulate. It is very nice - which is good because we were pretty stressed and worn out. Abby still seems very happy despite the diarrhea, except when she has to go to sleep. We're hoping that when we get home and have a routine, she will get better with that. We are both still healthy, which is surprising. Almost every adult who travels to China to adopt gets sick before they leave. We're hoping we continue to be the exception.