Wuhan

I have to start out by saying that I am trying really hard to love this city that Addie is from....maybe its the endless rain, maybe its the lack of a guide, maybe its the busy beyond imagination streets, but I am finding it really hard! There really isn't much to see in Wuhan city itself, people travel here to take the Yangtze River cruise, Yellow Crane Tower and the Hubei Museum. We asked our guide yesterday if she would take us to both the Yellow Crane Tower and Museum and she said no only one! Really? She has showed us one place to eat....its about  20 minute walk (in pouring rain) and it was more expensive than our hotel, which is expensive by Chinese standards. Once we arrived at this restuarant there was no English or pictures in the menu, and the waitress spoke very little English. I think someone should make a comedic movie of North American adoptive families in China trying to order food or take a taxi etc. Really its quite funny! We ended up with a lovely meal and enough to feed an army! We just had to laugh with the family who is traveling to Hubei with us:)
We decided since we survived that adventure last night, we would take a taxi to the museum on our own and tour it today, as today was another free day. The hotel staff is so abesolutely wonderful! They have bent over backwards to help us, I wish one of these staff members was our guide! It was a very quick taxi ride to the museum, we toured around only the first floor before the kids got restless & tired. We made a quick stop on the way out at the gift store and we bought a special set of bells for our house, its really quite beautiful and will sit on the ledge in our dinning room at home. These bells have significance in Hubei as they were found in the Emporeror Yi's tomb and are the largest musical bell's ever recovered, they also date back to something like 476 B.C. Howard and wanted to find something special to bring back from Addison's province, so we are both very happy with our find! And our first purchase(besides food) in China! We will also have to go and make a quick trip to Carrefour a HUGE supermarket down the road as we are running low on diapers! I am bummed we haven't been able to take many pictures of the area in Wuhan. It is so humid that as soon as you take out the camera the lense fogs up! I will attach one of the only pictures taken outside so you can see how foggy it is! Quite hillarious,really. We are seeing signs of flooding, the Yangtze has is running very high we saw treetops on the edge when we came in, these trees would usually line the banks not be submerged in water! Also many of the sidewalks on the way to the Civil Affairs Office were flooded. We saw one poor lady get soaked head to toe when a bus went by through a huge puddle. I wish I could write more about Wuhan, espically for those of you who are following and will be coming soon, but we really haven't seen much. Maybe I will have a better perspective tomorrow after our one and only tour! Do I sound sarcastic when I right that!?! Maybe we were just spoiled with the worlds best guides in Beijing and were expecting the same here. Ok enough complaining!
On to our sweet little Addison. She had a rough night last night. Was up 4 times in the night and just wanted to be snuggled. This morning she was out of sorts as well, I think she keeps hoping we will bring her back! I must say I am starting to notice the difference between her grieving and her I am throwing a tantrum cries;) She seems to have  two very different personalities one is very outgoing, busy, bossy, cheeky and fun. The other is very timid and clingy....which is probably because she is scared out of her tree! Both Howard and I are interested to see how her true personality blossoms as the days and months go by. She is still my cling on, it seems to be getting worse. I am the comforter and she wants me to do everything for her. We make sure Howard is the one to give her food even though she would really rather I did it, also he is the fun play guy ( whats new right?) And she really does love to play with him! She laughs her little head off:) but will not let him carry her or snuggle or even hold her hand now. She is so proud of the clothes I put on her each morning and loves her PJ's (juts like mom!) She is eating alot but not as much as I was expecting. She loves fruit and noodles! And really likes meat. I love that she has her special soothing blanket, its a huge help. We do not leave the room without it! She seems to feel really safe in the carrier, and really with how crazy the traffic is here I wouldn't want her walking! Once we are in Beijing we will let her out to walk a bit more. One thing we find hard/feel guilty about is, she is speaking very well! And of course we understand very little. She keeps chattering at us and expects us to answer! She is said "thank you" and "pretty" today in English so we will keep talking in English to her about everything and anything. Howard hopes to find someone at home that can help her with her Mandarin as we would really hate for her to lose her language!We are both head over heels in love with her and are looking forward to our return to Beijing and adventually home! Oh and thanks for all the lovely comments and emails! I am receiving them to my email and will be able to publish them when I get home:) Also I just posted a quick video of Addison and Howard playing on our shutterfly site hopefully it worked! www.khmervyn.shutterfly.com

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