Journey to Joy: Day #6

     Fun Fact: On Wednesday night, when we checked in, they ran out of king size rooms. So the manager here gave us a beautiful view of the city with two doubles. I told Eric I thought he used to work at The Garden because I remembered him from our last trip. Kinda far-fetched since this was at midnight and my brain probably wasn't fully functioning. But, when I asked our guide on Thursday about it...she said he DID work at The Garden in 2017! My brain STILL works! Haha! We're keeping our beautiful view and the double beds are just fine for us.
     On Thursday morning, we woke up and found our new normal in Guangzhou...at the hotel breakfast! The food was amazing! Even maybe slightly better than in Zhengzhou...which was also very, very good! They asked if Aliza wanted "something" in Chinese. I thought they meant high chair, so I said yes! But instead, they brought her a Peppa pig plate and spoon so she could feed herself! Equally as awesome as a high chair (which they brought out a minute or two later)! When in doubt, say yes... because they do take such great care of us here. The orphanage said she didn't feed herself unless it was a handheld snack. Perhaps this was for ease, we don't exactly know. But our girl did GREAT using her own spoon! She doesn't seem to have a dominant hand yet, but is very good left-handed. It was so fun to see her conquer this milestone! New foods were watermelon, yogurt, and pancakes! She also ate her other faves like eggs and bananas.

     At 9:00, we headed down to the lobby to leave for Aliza's medical appointment. But not before grabbing Starbucks...which is IN OUR HOTEL. We are staying somewhere new this time and we both give it HIGH marks. We like it so much better than our Guangzhou hotel in 2017. Our driver made his way, like a pure genius, to the medical building. He was literally stared down by a police officer who randomly closed off a road we needed to go down. Aliza did great at her medical. She had NO heart murmur (huge praise!) and the doctor commented on how high-functioning she was...which is a common thing we've heard from people who knew our girl. She is SMART! Aliza cried zero tears for her lonely blood draw. Wow, the bravest.

     We decided to eat lunch in the hotel room so we could try and squeeze a nap in for Aliza before heading to an aquarium and dinner later. This was not before play time and laundry though. Aliza picks up on everything. She was right in the action, helping and squeezing out water from our clothing. Be still my heart!

     We don't have a schedule this trip like we did last time. It's whatever we want to do. I like that option a lot because we can save some money and not be forced to go on boats or to zoos again if we've been there and done that. The only thing we really want to repeat is Shamian Island. The rest of our time is open for planning.

     Today, we tried the aquarium next door and Pizza Hut on the 4th floor of a huge mall. The pizza wasn't like the pizza we had last time in Guangzhou (at an Italian place down from our hotel). Boo. But Aliza LOVED feeding herself. She had two full pieces! The aquarium had some neat features, but I couldn't get past all the floor dryers and towels smashed up around the bases of all the tanks. That made me nervous. They had some really BIG tanks!

    I hope everyone has a great Friday! We're ready to tackle ours here in China!