December 1st - Last Day in Nanchang

Today is our final day in Nanchang and is a bit less busy than the prior three days. Haley sleeps right through from 9:00pm to 6:10am and so do Barb and Andy. What a great kid. We then change and feed Haley and have a leisurely breakfast at 8:30am. Haley has three servings of steamed egg and a full bottle of formula – this kid can eat!!!

At 10:00am Haley is feeling a bit cranky and tired so she is “unloaded” to the grandparents where she sleeps for two hours. Andy and Barb go with the group to visit a local temple. The temple has apparently been around in one form or another since 563a.d. but this current version is the 26th reproduction of the original (the Chinese usually burn them down when at war).

We get back to the hotel at 12:30pm and go out for another great Chinese lunch. Pork, chicken, beef, vegetables, and some hot dish that Joyce can’t even eat a speck of. Haley takes another full bottle and several more servings of steamed egg. With lunch completed we head back for the hotel to quickly change and go out to a local street mall for some shopping. Only one problem, on the way down from the room, our hotel elevator gets stuck between floors. Ten people and one very well dressed baby make for one hot elevator. Twenty minutes later the local mechanics get us free and we are on our way (Gary insists that the hotel buy us a drink on the house which they graciously do.)

Shopping was relatively uneventful – a small purchase for Haley. We are all waiting for Beijing where we hear that the shopping is better and cheaper. We get back to the hotel about 5:00pm and are supposed to join the group for dinner at 5:30pm but we don’t, partly because we are not tired and partly because Haley is cranky.

90% of the time Haley is absolutely wonderful and smiles and laughs. However, 10% of the time she seems fussy and agitated and we can’t figure out why. About 6:00pm tonight we checked her diaper (we’re nervous parents you see) and while there were no signs of any problems, she began to do her thing (No. 2) while she was completely naked. It got us to thinking – did the orphanage use a diaper? If not this may explain some stuff about Haley and her seemingly lack of knowledge of the whole diaper theory. We will investigate more tomorrow.

After that it was bath time and play time and then more food (of course). Then Haley went to sleep at about 8:15pm. Tomorrow we fly to Beijing so I hope that the internet is as easy to use there – we will chat with you tomorrow.

Explanations for pictures:

#1 – Haley (were you expecting someone else?)

#2 – Haley playing with Mom

#3 – Haley with Grandpa

#4 – Temple in Nanchang