We had an early dinner tonight and spent the rest of the evening exploring the hotel. We walk up and down the halls swinging the children. Each child gets three swings. We count: yi, er, san. Yong thought we should add si (four) to his turn. He figured out that meant an extra swing for him. At the café on the second floor there are steps and a ramp next to each other. Of course they run up the stairs and run down the ramp over and over, or at least as many times as Mom and Dad will let them. Jen and Yong are very polite. Everyone we pass in the hallways gets at least two Ni Hao’s (Hello's).

We are learning more and more about Yong every day. Today, we learned that he LOVES apple juice, and that he likes his congee plain. He is also very strong-willed. He can be distracted at least for a little while with food...(Didn’t we specifically request a child that was docile this time?)

The sun came out today!! We spent the better part of the day walking along West Lake and discovering all kinds of parks along the way.

There was fog over the lake which added a distinct Asian feel to the walk. Many of the buildings along the lake date from the Qing dynasty. There are several types of boats that you can rent or pay to ride on the lake. We decided to decline since we saw no life jackets and with Yong being so unpredictable we wanted to come back to the United States as a family of four. It was a fun, relaxing day for the most part.

An old Chinese boat driver yelled at Jen for being too close to the water. It mostly scared her and embarrassed her. She cried in my shoulder for a while and then decided it was still too much fun to walk along the waterfront to be upset for long.

For dinner tonight we went back to the lake area and had dinner in a restaurant there. Their specialty is beggar chicken. It is chicken wrapped in bamboo leaves then coated in mud and newspaper and baked in the oven for 4-5 hours. The bamboo gives it a very unique, delicious flavor. Yong will let me feed him with a spoon or with my fingers. If I try to feed the same food to him with chopsticks he will refuse to eat it.

As we were walking by the lake I asked Eva for some suggestions on how I could fix Jen’s hair. It is difficult to get it to stay in any style. Hair clips and elastics just slip out. Eva’s comment was “Strong-willed hair on a strong-willed girl.” Eva has only known Jen for 4 days and already knows her personality.