Consulate Day!

We slept pretty well again last night.  Got to breakfast and then came back up to brush teeth, change a poopy diaper (he's pretty regular with that!) and get ready to go to the Consulate.  No cameras, cell phones, strollers, toys with batteries, etc. are allowed so we just left all that stuff at the hotel.  We took a bottle of water for Le An and cereal and diaper stuff ... and our passports.

The Consulate is in downtown Guangzhou and it took 20-25 minutes to get there.  It was on the same floor as last time but in a different, smaller room than before.  We waited for our names to be called and went up to the window one family at a time.  They took the paperwork they needed and gave us back a couple of things.  We waited for all families to get done and then we got back on the bus.  Tony and Le An fell asleep on the ride back.

While we waited for the other families, we asked our guide about what the grandma at the White Swan might have been saying yesterday.  He thought she was just wishing him good luck throughout his life.

We let Le An sleep for an hour or so.  Then we decided to check out the park across the street.  The best way to get there is to go into the subway station and back out on that side of the street.  The Chinese people LOVE their parks!  They have very nice parks.  We walked UP and then decided to walk back down the way we came.  A few weeks ago the New Year decorations would have been up and it would have looked really cool!  Now, all the decorations and red lanterns are piled up on the side of the paths needing to be picked up and trashed it looks like.  I would have liked to grab a lantern but they were pretty big and there were security guards all over the park.

We discovered today that Le An has another (3rd) molar coming in. Maybe that's why he cries for "no reason".  I didn't bring any baby Tylenol so we'll have to deal with it until we get home.

At 3 pm I went to the exit meeting and Catherine told us details about how we will leave Guangzhou and Hong Kong.  I knew I didn't want to take the train!  It seems like such a hassle!  Plus there are 8 families (one has 11 people in their group!) so we will be having to move together.  One good thing is we can all help each other out.

We hung out for a while in the room and then Tony went down to 7-11 and McDonald's.  He got more chicken nuggets, fries and hot fudge sundaes (I'm gonna miss hot fudge sundaes!).  Le An had had a bottle earlier and ate some fries and a couple tastes of ice cream.  Then to get more nutrients in him and maybe a different taste, I got out a jar of baby food vegetables that we had gotten at Walmart in Zhengzhou.  He tasted it and did not spit it out.  He ate the whole jar in no time!  We'll have to try that again when we get home, especially if he doesn't eat other things yet.  We'll try peas and carrots on the plane 'cause I brought a couple of Gerber Graduates meals that he should be able to eat.

Since we've expressed interest in going to the Six Banyan Buddhist Temple tomorrow to have him blessed like we did Meighan, I started packing tonight.  I have most of the day tomorrow to get it all packed.  Tony gave Le An a bath while I worked at getting things organized to pack.

Well, this will probably be the last post from China unless I get a chance to post from Hong Kong tomorrow night.  I'll write the post and publish it when we get home.  We are very ready to come home!  This has been an awesome trip but we're glad it's almost over.  We're ready to get into our new routine!

We arrive in Omaha Thursday night the 23rd on United from Chicago at 7 pm.  Anyone is welcome to come to the airport!  We can't wait to see familiar faces!  Last time there were like 40 people there to meet us!  We couldn't believe it!

We can't wait to see everyone!