Wednesday

After breakfast yesterday, we ventured out to the Yuyuan Gardens. The grounds were full of really spectacular rock formations that made lots of amazing "secret passageways" for Madi to explore. She went crazy running around taking each of us with her one by one. She was able to get some much-needed exercise. The weather has finally cleared up and it was a beautiful day. Today is expected to be more of the same.

We attempted to put Charlie in the stroller yesterday, and it didn't work out very well. We starting to suspect that maybe a lot of his crying has to do with bonding and attachment, because once Jimmy picked him up from the stroller he stopped crying. Realizing this has been helpful for us when putting him down. At nap time, he cried for only about five minutes before he fell asleep. Last night, he cried again for only about five minutes. We believe (hope) his crying will wane once he understands that we are his forever family. Note to parents adopting babies from Shanghai--don't take a stroller here. The narrow passageways and rocky terrain make it really difficult to navigate, so we folded up the stroller and carried Charlie.

Last night, we took a taxi across town to a restaurant that is famous for serving Peking Duck. We had this in Beijing last year and consider it one of our "must haves" while back in China. It was every bit as good as we remembered--that crispy skin is so terribly unhealthy but so amazingly tasty! After dinner when we were 'settling up' and packing our things, Jimmy walked Charlie around the restaurant lobby. Madi came running in shouting, "Mommy, Charlie is standing!" Apparently, he stood on his own for about 15-20 seconds!

When we got back to the hotel, Jimmy and Madi took a stroll down Nanjing Road to look at the lights. Charlie and I stayed behind for some Mommy and son bonding time. I gave him a bath, baby body massage and we just played on the bed for about half an hour together.

Charlie slept in until 6:00 this morning, which is an hour past his usual wake up time in the orphanage. We figure all that exercise yesterday wore him out. We are heading out shortly to the Bund. We try to post again later. If not, we'll catch up tomorrow!