In Guangzhou

It was Ms Wong's first flight. She was a bit grizzly in the morning as she is teething, but was fine after some gel and Calpol. She only cried at the airport when she was on the shuttle bus and initially on the plane as it was extremely hot, and it was also her nap time and she was tired. But as soon as the air conditioning worked on the plane she stopped crying. I gave her lots of sips of water during take off to equalize her ears and it didn't bother her at all, and then fell asleep for the rest of the flight even for descent and landing! What a star. This is Ms Wong in the departure lounge, she is stuffing herself with a banana!.



We are now safely in Guangzhou. The Holiday Inn, Shifu is is fabulous. We splurged on a suite which is really one large room with a bit of partition but the bathroom is gorgeous. We also have use of the executive suite and it was a lot cheaper than some of the more popular Guangzhou hotels. Gail your description was spot on!



Although our hotel in Nanning was new and luxurious it was a bit far out and it was difficult to walk anywhere apart from Walmart! But we needed some quiet time for the first few days so it suited us. But now its so nice to just be able to come out of the hotel and walk around. Isabella loves it and is growing with confidence each day. She now likes to walk by herself as much as possible! Which is great for Ma Ma's tired arms! We gave up on the baby sling days ago as she would not go in it so its intermittent stroller, Ma Ma and walking! I can even go into another room now without her crying. If she cant seem me she either toddles up to where she thinks I am to look for me or just shouts 'Ma Ma'!, and is quiet content when I respond.

There is a rooftop swimming pool here with a little toddler section. The pool in Nanning was cold, so we decided not to take her. So tomorrow we will take her into the pool for the first time. She loves her baths so much and is such a water baby, I think the only problem we will have is getting her out!

She is one of these babies that gets so much attention! We went into a music store to get her a Chinese music CD as I had left the ones we had at home. All the girls in the shop came over and were cooing at her making her smile and laugh. But as soon as anyone touches her or tries to pick her up she buries herself in my shoulder and wraps her arms and legs around me in a vice grip!



But she is getting closer to Ba Ba each day. She even let him bath her for about 5 minutes before calling for me! But you have to be so observant! And I am glad I had the hindsight to put locks on the cupboards, put child gates in place and make home as baby proof as possible before I left.

Isabella now cleans her teeth! She lets Ma Ma brush them then I let her chew and play with the toothbrush for a while. But I turned my back tonight and found her cleaning the toilet with it! Oh well, more shopping tomorrow! But the toilet sparkles!

Tomorrow is our free day and then the Consulate on Monday, my MIL is also coming over from Hong Kong for the rest of our Guanzghou trip before we all head back to Hong Kong and then home.