Day 3 with Madelyn

We had a great day with Madelyn today. We arranged to do a little sightseeing with our tour guide. We visited the Wild Goose Pagoda, which is the Chinese Leaning Tower of Pisa - it does lean. We were also able to walk along the city wall of Xi'an. The city wall is approximately 60 feet tall and surrounds the city. This was the original city wall that protected the city almost 600 years ago. The city was preparing for their annual celebration and had the begun decorating up on top of the City Wall. It was beautiful! You will notice in the pictures that the city background is kind of dull and dingy. This is not the result of a bad picture - this is because of the smog, dust and lack of sunshine in the city. For the 3 days we have been here in Xi'an we have not seen the direct sunlight - just the sun behind the smog. Madelyn has really taken to both of us. She has settled in and her personality is starting to shine through. Today is the first day we have heard her speak alot. It is apparent that she was talking in sentences in Chinese. I wish I understood what she is saying. However, she understands exactly what we are saying and follows our exact instructions and directions. We can't get over how well she understands and how on target her motor skills are. She is a healthy baby girl. We did have some issues today. When we left the hotel today she only wanted me to hold her. She didn't even want to walk around. We went with the another family that is here with us and has a 3 year old daughter that is very active. Madelyn watched her intently and once got down and hung out with her but it was very short lived. She cried when Keith had to carry her and immediately shut off the water works when he handed her back to me. We were puzzled a bit by this but think we may have figured out why she was doing that. When we returned from sightseeing today both her and Keith played in the room and we all had such a good time. She laughed, talked, acted silly and played. It was so special. We decided that we would walk across the street for supper tonight and prepared everyone to leave the room. Madelyn was fine until we walked out of our hotel room door and immediately wanted me to hold her. I couldn't let her down. We walked across the street for dinner and the restaurant was experiencing a power outage so we decided to return to the hotel for supper. When we walked into the hotel lobby and I removed her coat and hat (a sign that we were staying "home" ) she was fine - she walked on her own, held my hand and made a bee line for the restaurant. She was fine after supper coming to the room. We think that maybe she thinks we are going somewhere where we are going to leave her and go away. That's the only thing that I can think that it is. Who knows what goes on in her little mind. All in all she is a great baby, well mannered, listens well and is bonding to us very well. Although I am so ready to go home, I am glad that we have this time where we have no other distractions. My undivided attention goes to her and she is eating it up. I know it would not be like that if we were home. Her and Keith are both in the bed right now snoring. lol Enjoy the pictures. I post some more tomorrow.