Just some notes...

No pictures for this post, since we haven't left the hotel yet today. We had a late breakfast, then Dana and Frances went out to drop off some laundry, and to buy some bottled water. Dana and I have discovered that we are not drinking enough water. Bottled water was provided free of charge in Beijing and Zhengzhou, and we drank a lot of it. Here in Guangzhou, there is a separate tap in the bathroom for drinking water (the tub and regular sink faucet are not safe to drink. When you take a bath, it smells like lake/river water. Not bad, just a little earthy.). We are not drinking as much water as we ought to be. I am getting little breakouts on my face, Dana is feeling the effects of too much sodium, Fran is having some intestinal consequences of not enough water. We have been drinking soda at restaurants, but are trying hard to remember to drink water. I kept Abby in the room this morning, even though I would love to walk around the neighborhood some more. She has that cough, which one family calls the "air conditioning" cough. Many babies develop a cough after spending several days in the room's air conditioning. These children have never been in AC, so aren't used to it at all. But it is humid here, and I don't think I want to turn off the AC as one family has done. Fran and Dana went to the hotel's fitness center for a while. Poor Dana would love to work out, but Frances wants to try all the equipment! I gave Abigail a bottle and put her down for a nap at about 10:30. I am supposed to be in the hotel room from 10 to 11:30 this morning, because our agency rep is taking all of our paperwork to the consulate, and the families need to be available in case there is a paperwork problem. So it is now 11:20, and Abby is still sleeping hard. Frances is out in the hallway playing ball with Will and Caleb.

I think that we may have solved Abigail's REAL special need - the baldness. It appears that she has a self-soothing behavior of sweeping her hand across her forehead and the top of her head when she is going to sleep. She did it the first few times that she slept in our care. But we have given her a little "lovey" - a small square chenille blanket that is satin on one side, fluffy on the other, with a litte teddy bear head. She now rubs the fluffy side against her face as she drops off to sleep. Hopefully, the hair will begin to grow in soon! And I can tell when she is tired, because the thumb goes in her mouth, and often, she also puts an index finger in her nose! We are trying to discourage that particular behavior...

My little dumpling is starting to wake up, and we are going to have to get ready to go out walking with the other families in a few minutes. We'll be home in a few days!