The Great Wall!

Well, we got up at 5am again today... it seems to be a pattern with little miss. One thing that the time change will take care of once we get back home... She slept ok..still a few night freak outs but she is able to calm herself now. i woke her up fully at 1am to feed her...she sucked back a whole bottle then and again at 5 am. She is eating more now...4 bottles per day and about 6 oz. per bottle. I am making them full strength now and she is able to keep them down so that is a good sign. We went to the international clinic today to have a Canadian doctor look over the girls. It was a really cool place. Doctors from all over the world so that visitors or foreigners living in Beijing could see a doctor that speaks their own language and get medications they are familiar with. Our doctor was a woman originally from Montreal who has been living in Beijing for 13 years. She gave Hildy a once over and had her do little tests to see about her strength and development. She wrote up her report which we then delivered to the Canadian Embassy. It was weird, I was looking forward to going in to the Embassy but no such luck. Our driver phoned ahead and someone came out to meet us... I guess a little easier for them in terms of security for someone to come out rather than 4 adults and 2 babies come in. Anyway, we gave them all our paperwork that we have been compiling since we got here plus passports and pictures etc etc etc. We have to go back on Thursday to pick up some other official document that we need for the girls when we land in Canada on Friday. So, we came back to the hotel and had a ridiculously good lunch at the hotel...buffet... lots of delicious Chinese food...everyone else had Western food but i have been really enjoying the Chinese food. The pastry chef here at the hotel is Parisian so I will have the French pastries with breakfast and lunch but I still have my noodles, rice and dim sum too. Off combinations but so good. Needless to say even with all the walking we have been doing, we are all a little chubbier thanks to the Novotel Peace Beijing...

After lunch, Tom, Heather and Norah decided to stay at the hotel. Norah has bronchitis (and is now on antibiotics) and Tom and Heather are both a little under the weather so dad, Hildy and I ventured out alone. We took a cab across town (I use the term town loosely...the is a bloody huge city) and found a little shop I read about and really wanted to visit while we are here...it is called the Shard Box. They make little jewelery boxes with shardof pottery that were recovered from the smashed pots and plates during the cultural revolution. They are beautiful little boxes and the little fellow that runs the shop(since 1984) was so happy to have visitors from Canada..he and dad talked for quite a while while Hildy and i picked a few things out. Then, we hopped in another cab and went two districts over to the Lama temple. That was very cool...burned some insence and wandered through the place...it is a huge temple with monks here and there...They have a 13 m tall buddha statue carved from a single sandlewood tree...huge and quite magnificent. We stayed until we got kicked out at closing, then wandered around the surrounding area a bit before coming back to the hotel. We wanted to go into a hutong but chickened out... it looks a little intimidating...if we have time maybe we will go to a more popular one that sees more tourists... Anyway, we were both still full from lunch so I came back to my room to play with Hildy and he stayed for a bit then went to his room to "read the paper" which I know is secretly code for falling into bed. We are going to Tiannamen tomorrow and the Forbidden city. Thursday morning we will probably go to the summer palace, although Heather wants to go to a silk factory. Then we go to the embassy and a final dinner. Friday we get up, pack and head to the airport for the 12 hour flight.... still trying not to think too much about that... hopefully Hildy's runny nose etc. is done by then... Ok, will send some pictures, then I will go "read the paper".

Lots of love, Tammi and little not so grumpy but still unsure Hildy