Our Last Full Day in Shanghai

We started our last full day in Shanghai on a high note! Daddy finally got his first kiss!

Peyton woke up at 5:00 after a rough night but she was all smiles and, once again, showed that sweet sweet smile and excitement as we made her a bottle and sat near the window to gaze out while she drank it. I hope she has a window in Guangzhou!

Since she's had such a bad rash, after I changed her, we decided not to put a diaper on so she could air out. We brought some panties in case she was potty-trained, so I just put a pair of those on her. Not long after she finished her bottle, she pointed like she does when she tells me she has a dirty diaper. I felt, and she wasn't wet, so she went back to playing in front of the mirrored closet doors. A few minutes later, she was making a face and pointing as pee streamed down her leg and into a puddle on the ground. She smiled and reached up for me to change her. She gets so excited to have her diaper changed! Normally I hold her tight and kiss her as I take her to the bed to change her, so I'm sure she wondered what I was doing as I held her away from me and put he'd on a towel on the bed to change her. Darren took the wet panties and rinsed them while I cleaned her and the floor up.

I figured I'd just put a diaper ion her at that point. Good thing too because about 25 minutes later, she was pointing again, and she'd gone potty again, and she was soaked through her clean clothes! Darren was back asleep by this time, by the way... Anyway, I figured she had to have peeing out of her little system by now, so I put panties back on. She was funny both times I put panties on her. She nodded her head no and picked up my finger and pointed to the diaper bag. Funny girl! She also gets a huge smile on her face when I've finished changing her and reaches up for me to pick her up, and I give her kisses. Sometimes she wants down to play, and other times, she tells me she wants to be held by scrunching her legs up as I lower her to the ground.

She went back to playing, and a few minutes later? Pee again! All down her leg. Enough of that! To the tub! D played with her while I ran bath water with oatmeal to help soothe her rash. She was not happy about her bath because it meant taking her cell phone and snack cup away. She cried. Through her whole bath and was stiff-legged, so I couldn't sit her down in the tub. She still had a bath. We just did it standing up. I don't think it was that she didn't want a bath; it was that she was mad we took her things away. We got her all bathed and wrapped up in a towel. She LOVES to put lotion on herself, so Darren hooked her up with lotion while I unwrapped her and let her bottom dry out by blowing on it. She smiled and wiggled her bottom. It must've tickled. Cute!

I put her in the cutest little plaid shorts that I found before we left home. I didn't take the tags off though because they were a 2T, but they fit! She even has room to grow in them, and they look so cute on her bum!

She combed her own hair, and I left her with Darren so I could take a shower. While I was in the shower, D came and told me Peyton wanted to go on a walk. This hotel has a system where you only get one room key, and there's a holder just inside the door where the card goes. When the card is in its holder, the A/C is on; otherwise, it's a sauna in here. So, D just wanted to let me know I'd need to listen for them to knock. Because Peyton and Darren have been on so many walks and they have to knock on the door to be let back in, Peyton has started knocking on the door. I was out of the shower, getting ready, when I heard her cute little knock. I let them back in, and Darren played with her while I finished getting ready.

Then, as we all had our shoes on, ready to head out the door, the moment Darren had been waiting for arrived! I was holding her, and Darren was standing next to me. She puckered up, leaned over to Darren, and gave him a kiss! Then, she did the same thing to me! Unsolocited kisses! It made our day, especially Darren's!

We met the Zinn's at breakfast and learned that their little one had a rough night of sleep too. Peyton ate two eggs, most of her congee (rice soupish), and the middle of a sweet steamed bun. It's so cute to observe her. She is amazed by everything she can see and constantly points to things, wanting me to look at what she is looking at with wonder in her eyes. She does it all through breakfast as I feed her. Soon, she was full andwas growing restless, so I excused myself to take her back to the room. She got excited when she saw outside and asked if we could go out, so we went for a walk down the block. She was so happy! When I was ready to turn her around to go back,I anticipated the wet noodle to wilt to the ground. She looked up at me and started to pull the wet noodle, but then she pulled it together and walked the other way. She was fine until we got to the door of the hotel. She nodded no with her head but I took her back to the room and we played until Darren got back. We chilled until it was time to go downstairs to meet the Zinn's and Savor for a day out. I was glad we were going to get to see more of Shanghai, but I was dreading being out in the heat. For those of you who don't know, I detest the heat and hate it even more when humidity is involved. I feel sticky, dirty, lethargic, and I hate what it does to my hair. Oh well...one day, right? I sucked it up, and we started off on what would be a very long, hot day.

Peyton was happy to be in the car, sitting on my lap, pointing at everything! It was kind of a long drive, and I am amazed by how large this city really is. I was about to become more amazed as we arrived at the Pearl Tower. I wish I had taken a picture of it with my cell phone to post, but we will include it in a video we put together when we get home. It was an amazing sight, and that's where we spent the majority of our day.

Peyton saw stairs when we got there. She LOVES walking the stairs! Going up, she is much better than going down, but loves it nonetheless. It was so stinking hot, and I was already miserable. Peyton was antsy and wasn't happy when we took her away from the stairs to have our picture taken with the Zinn's and Savor in front of the tower, but we now have a lovely souvenir photo with her squirming and my fuzzy hair.

Once we were inside, we took an elevator to the top, where we could get a 360° view of the city. It was AMAZING! You saw nothing but building after building, and Savor told us we were lucky to have a day with blue skies. We spent a while up there, and Peyton loved it! She loves looking out of a window, and this was one gigantic window!

I had to change her diaper on my lap again, and then we headed down to another level of the tower. While we were waiting for an elevator, which took FOREVER amongst SO many people, Peyton was getting bored; therefore, wanting to run around, but we couldn't let her down. She was squirming in Darren's arms, and I remembered I put suckers in the backpack. Mom to the rescue! Darren never answered, "YES!" so quickly in his life when I asked if he thought I should give her one. That did the trick!

We finally got an elevator and ventured down some stairs to get to the next level. This level has a glass observation deck all the way around, including a glass walking surface! Talk about a freaky feeling! It was really cool though, and it was funny to feel afraid to walk onto that surface just because it is see-through. Peyton was in my arms at first, and when I initially tried to step onto it, she told me no, so I stepped back so she wouldn't be scared. Then I put her down to walk on the concrete portion. As we walked around it, she saw below, smiled, and pointed at what she could see below. Suddenly, she was dragging me onto the glass, smiling because there was so much to see. She had a blast! I was a little afraid to be on it, but my child with no fear insisted I be out there with her,and I loved seeing the look of happiness on her face. She's just taking it ALL in! Such a big world to explore!

Finally, we went to another level to visit a museum. I was amazed by how much there was to do in the tower! Shortly after we started the tour of the museum, Peyton told Darren she had a dirty diaper, so he brought her to me. There was no bathroom in sight, so I found a dark corridor, squatted down, threw Peyton on my lap, and changed her diaper. I am thankful for a good baby or this whole diaper changing in public places would suck a whole lot more! The museum was really neat, filled with many things about Chinese history and the growth of Shanghai. More interesting than the museum stuff was the fact that everyone was fascinated with Peyton. They would flock around her, smiling and wanting to take a picture with her. One family was particularly interested with her. After they left, Darren asked Savor what they were saying, and she told us they were saying how beautiful she was and that she was a lucky girl.

For being there for several hours already, Peyton was doing really well. Darren and I took turns holding her, and she walked quite a bit as well, but we had to hold her because she wanted to run off in the opposite direction and then wilted when she didn't get her way. After she had all she could take, she nodded off in Darren's arms. The Zinn's offered their stroller, but she wouldn't lay down in it, so Darren carried her through the rest of the museum. We stopped in one of the shops at the bottom, before exiting the tower, to purchase a Haibao stuffed doll and a Haibao doll set for Peyton to have. Haibao is the logo dude for the HUGE expo going on here in Shanghai.

Then on to our van to have some lunch. We ate at a fast foodish Chinese place called Kungfu! It had a picture of Bruce Lee as their logo. The food was really good. Peyton chose a seat near a window, and there were 2 little kitties lying on the ground taking a nap. They were so cute, and Peyton smiled at them. It made me miss my kitties more. The food was good, but Peyton only ate some soup. The rice had a little kick to it, so she wouldn't eat it.

Finally, we headed to out last stop of the day. I forget what the area was called, but it was a HUGE walk- way around the river with magnificent views of modern Shanghai architecture and the old British buildings. Peyton loved looking at the sky, water, and buildings. She was being silly and would take my hand and we would spin around backwards in a circle, making ourselves dizzy! She laughed and smiled!

By now we were all exhausted and got into the van to go back to the hotel. On our way back, Savor had our driver stop at a pearl store. They demonstrated how pearls are found and how to tell if pearls are real or not, but I missed it all because Peyton was just done. She wasn't being bad...she was just tired and needed to be held and have a snack. Once we were inside the store to shop for pearls, 4 or 5 of the girls working there swarmed around her. They thought she was beautiful and strong. One of them gave her a neck massage, which made her giggle because it tickled. So precious! I love her laugh!

Exhausted, we all piled into the van and drove back to the hotel. So interesting to drive through the streets of Shanghai, and the traffic and the way they drive is like nothing you've ever seen. It's amazing there aren't more accidents! Also interesting were all of the shoppes. They are so tiny, but they have a shoppe for everything! We even saw a hardware store. Nothing like Home Depot!

I was never so glad to be back at our hotel. I was hot, sweaty, tired, and I'm quite sure I looked like hell. My hair was a hot mess, and what was left of my make-up was smeared. My clothes were sticking to me, and Peyton was hot and tired. Darren looked like he could collapse at any moment. It was quite the sight, I'm sure!

When we got to our room, Peyton knocked on the door. We played in our room for the rest of the night. We let her stay up a little longer than usual since she didn't get much play time in. She gets so busy when she gets into playing. She was playing with an empty Pringles can Darren brought back after his walk with Raymond to pick up our disposable cameras we sent in our care packages to our girls from being developed.

She is good at creative play and makes up a new game with us every day. Last night, it was having me wear the neck pillow, and then she would wear it. Then I found her tickle spots and tickled her to hear her laugh. In between it all, she gazed out and pointed at things she could see out the window.

Finally, it was time for bed. She only cried and fought sleep for about 5 minutes, but she cried hard before zonking, and then she slept until almost 7 after falling asleep around 9. Still a bed hog though! Oh...and she has the CUTEST little snore!

Today, we check out of our hotel in Shanghai and take Peyton on her first airplane ride on Dragon Air to Guangzhou! Our trip is almost half over, and we cannot wait to get back home.