Free Day at Shamian Island

February 24~Shamian Island

Today was a much needed free day. No appointments, so we all slept in a little and got around slowly this morning. After breakfast we took a taxi to Shamian Island for sightseeing and some shopping. The island was headquarters for the French Army at some point so all the architecture is European. They even have a Christian and Catholic Church on the island that we were able to see. The Christian Church had bible verses posted outside that were written in post Mandarin/Cantonese and English. Very cool! We got lots of shopping done and also walked around pretty much saw the whole island. The island is beautiful and apparently brings in lots of photo shoots. I bet we saw at least 25 brides and grooms as well as a few models. We later learned that there weren't actually 25 weddings going on, but the custom in China is that couples take an entire weekend about a month before their wedding to take wedding pictures. We also saw filming of something. The scene we saw had 3 teenagers in jogging suits and a guy on a bike came up and visited with them. It was quite interesting. May not be the best movie though ;)

Ava had a McDonalds hamburger for supper and then went to bed early. Bedtime went much smoother tonight. We made sure only one of us was soothing her at a time as it seemed like the other one was a distraction. However, while I was trying to get her to sleep Matt has to stay in the room because we have also noticed that if one of us is out doing something it seems like Ava is looking for us. The other thing that we did differently was not turn off all the lights. It became pretty obvious to us last night that she is scared of the dark and gets extra worked up when we turn off the lights. Getting her to sleep only took about 15 minutes tonight and probably would have been faster if her crib wasn't so deep. She can be fast asleep but when we go to put her in her crib she wakes up every time by the time she is actually laying on the mattress. If she was really sound asleep we can just rub her belly and reassure her we're close and she's back to sleep immediately. But if she's not sound asleep, we have to start all over again. We're learning to give her a few more minutes after we're sure she's asleep just to make sure :) We both feel so much better about bedtime tonight. We can do this!!

We were amazed at what the Chinese people can carry on a bike!

In Guangzhou this is a common site at restaurants.  They keep the entrees as fresh as possible until you order your supper :)

3 generations

After Ava was asleep we went and got Lau Lau to order room service. We relaxed for the evening with an HBO movie, room service, and some wine...perfect ending to a great day.