The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

First, the good ... Cadence slept through the night 7:45pm to 7:00am without stirring at all! (Wish I could say the same about today's nap! ... Winston is NOT cooperating here!). As for the bad, my BABY climbed the stairs yesterday while my back was turned for 5 seconds! We are definitely in BIG trouble here! As for the ugly, when I exchanged my unused $1000 US funds, I got back a whopping $1001.13 ... now that, my friends is truly ugly!
Here are a couple of pics of my monkey (formerly known as the angel! ...

I Know, I Know ...

Yes, it has been some time since I've been able to update ... and let me just say it is currently 4:10 ... and that's AM folks! Cadence stirred for a bit around 3:00 and I haven't been able to get myself back to sleep since so ... might as well make use of this time. We have all managed quite well with the time change ... still not quite on a proper schedule, but Cadence (and the rest of us) are typically sleeping until about 6ish. Poor little thing passed out around 6:15 in the high chair last night!

Overall, she is adjusting very well ... our second trip in the car seat was successful ... she has been on 2 excursions: the grocery store and Costco. She is crawling around like crazy and totally tries to run with the little push thing she has ... of course, every time I try to take some video of her walking, she sits down! She is eating well, napping and is busy, busy, busy!!! Me ... I'm in quite a state! I have not yet finished the unpacking and the house is a disaster ... AND ... today, I am on my own! I really just need a few hours to get my house in order so I can feel at peace ... that ain't gonna happen too soon I'm afraid!

I have a few pictures from the last bit of our trip to post and not a whole lot of new ones ... out of batteries again and didn't put that on the Costco list! Once I get some time to load up videos clips, I share a few of those. For now ... these will have to do:

Here are all four girls just before we departed the hotel ...

Cadence reading a magazine ...

Enjoying the inflight movie ...

Hangin' with cousin Olivia ...

Quick One ...

Just a quick post to say .... Yahoo!!!! .... we made it! The flight was bearable - Miss Cadence slept a whole ... oh, maybe 3 hours!
Let's hope that means she is down for the night! Had a little breakdown at the airport ... couldn't find my money belt ... But rest assured, it finally turned up in that special compartment in the backpack! Thank you Geoff and Lisa for your help ... you guys were saviours! THANK YOU, THANK YOU DONNA AND MARK!!! Not only did you take good care of our boy, you got us home and took care of the parking (that never materialized!). We WILL settle up with you!
The ride home was pretty traumatic ... Cadence cried ... a lot! She is currently afraid of Winston ... likes him from afar, but up close ... not so much! Anyway, heading to bed and planning to share some of the final China photos with you tomorrow!
Thanks EVERYONE for sharing in our journey ... it really has only just begun!

Final Post from China!!!!!!!

It is currently 9:30 in the evening and I am doing the typical things ... enjoying a glass of vino while checking emails and blogs.
Except: a) there is a baby, MY baby, sleeping in a crib right beside me, b) the wine is the leftover bottle from last night that I was able to take with me from the bar, c) I can't actually check blogs, I can only post, and d) I am in friggin CHINA baby!!! Tomorrow we fly home ... and we CANNOT wait!!! Unfortunately though, waiting is what we will have to do! This hotel insists we check out by one and seeing as out flight isn't until 5:20, makes for a long day hanging around an airport for hours on end with 4 babies ... yeah ... I can sense the envy out there! Anyway, I guess I should get my rest and so without further ado, here is a recap of the day:
The morning started as all others ... happy kid greeting us with a beautiful smile. Diaper and clothing change went really well too ... Dora was on ... yes, in Chinese! Here is a shot of the 'ham' ... she has been giving us this smile along with some interesting sound effects since about day 2 and she thinks she is pretty hilarious! Finally, I was able to capture it ...

The 'look' says it all about her thoughts on this outfit ... guess we'll be passing it on to our new cousing Alyssa, who was born yesterday!

Sean, Cadence and I took a rickshaw tour of parts of the HuTong (neighbourhood) and visited a local family in their home ... very interesting! I didn't end up with any pictures because our Cadence fell asleep part way through and there was NO way, I was waking her for anything.

Late in the day, we all, even Sean, went to the Silk Alley Market ... peking duck dinner was at 5:00, so he had to tag along for the hour of shopping preceeding dinner. It was not good ... he got down one row and was done! I managed to leave him hanging, literally by the elevators while I picked up a couple of things ... if I had been on top of my game, I think I could have done my Christmas shopping here!
Peking Duck Dinner was great! Here is a shot of all the new moms and daughters ...

And finally, here is a great shot of the girl who charmed her way out of bed at 8:00 ( we did get her down by 8:30!)

So, that's it ... for now! We will spend the morning packing stuff up, making sure we have plenty of supplies for the plane ride home, not to mention the car ride! It is sure to be a long, tiring flight ... but in the end, it will get us home and there is NO where I'd rather be right now!
Looking forward to seeing some of you at the airport ... the rest, we'll see you soon ... for sure! You need to meet this spicy sichuan peanut who is growing before our eyes already ... another tooth, since we've met her. Canada ... here we come!

Great Wall Photos

This one's for Nancy ... evidence ... well, close!

Here is Cadence all dressed and ready for the big climb ...

Here we are ... the sky was hazy, but you can see some of the expanse of the wall behind us.

Trying to make like I DID it ... but you all know the truth!

Here's what I did manage ... and even a little further up. Is that a smile? I can't remember!

Monday's Photos

Here's Cadence, all dressed up in her party clothes ...... for the medical appointment!

This is Cadence READING while waiting for the doctor.

And this photo was taken shortly before the temper tantrum ... our little sichuan peanut LOVES the computer!

Here we are at the lounge bar for 'Happy Hour' .... really!

And here is the princess after her first chocolate ... thank god it was a mixture of white and dark chocolate!

Photos from Sunday

Well, looks like photos are a go ...
Here is Cadence saying good bye to her homeland, Chongqing (sigh) ....

This is 'us' in front of Tianneman Square ... isn't Sean hot wearing a Snugli!?

This is a shot of some of the group doing diaper changes in the tunnel to the 'Square' and what was left of the crowd that had gathered to take photos of us!

And here we are in the Palace Garden ... it was breathtaking!