Martyr Park....and Good-bye Changsha

Yesterday we visited Martyr Park. It was a nice park...very clean & VERY busy. There were people EVERYWHERE! But we had a great time.

There was a beautiful lake where hundreds of people had rented paddleboats. Racing around the paddleboats were nice size speed boats. Scary!, but it didn't seem to bother those in the paddleboats at all!

There was a long, beautiful pier that took you out into the lake. So pretty!

There were also people in the balls that float on the water. I don't have any idea what they're called, but you actually get inside them & roll them around on the water. It looked like a lot of fun. I tried to talk Dan into giving it a try, but he wouldn't do it. There was a pretty long line anyway.

We were there about 3 hours. We had taken a cab, but when we went to get a cab to go back to the hotel there were never any there. We're just not aggressive enough I guess, because the few that showed up were snatched out from under us. We had the bright idea to walk across the street & try to catch one from there. No luck! So we just kept walking, thinking eventually we'd catch one. No such luck. We were starting to get a little nervous, as we really hadn't been paying attention when we took the cab to the park and had no idea where we were. Finally we reached a busier intersection and I told Dan we HAD to get a cab...we couldn't keep walking all over town when we didn't know where we were. Dan looked around and said "Look...there's the military academy" (which we had walked to the other day). We were both so happy to have figured out where we were and knew we weren't too far from the hotel (a couple blocks) so we just said forget the cab...we're walking! We definitely got our exercise that day! (Needless to say, there was more ice cream to be had that night!)

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Today is our last day in Changsha. We're ready to move on, but it will be strange leaving the city where our daughter was handed to us. We're hoping the plane ride goes smoothly and that moving Kalia around doesn't mess with her too much.

We're checking out at 4 p.m., heading to the Civil Affairs building to get the passport, then it's off to the airport.

Next post....from Guangzhou!

P.S. I haven't really posted a lot about Kalia in particular, because everything is going GREAT! She has a bit of a temper, but doesn't show it too often (usually only when we're not feeding her fast enough). She goes down for naps fairly easy, and sleeps 1 - 1 1/2 hours each day. She goes down at night fairly easily too, and sleeps for about 3-4 hours before waking up & wanting to finish the night out laying beside me. According to the scale in the bathroom, it looks like she weighs between 21 & 22 pounds, which is up from the 19.5 - 20 lbs. she weighed when we first got her. 12 months fit her best in pants, but they're too short. She needs 18 months for the length, but they fall off her. We're using safety pins to keep them on :) Some of her 12 month tops are getting a little small...they'll work while we're here, but will need to be retired soon. Dresses work best, no matter what size :) All-in-all things are going great! She smiles all the time, and is getting more & more selective as to who she'll go to. At first, she'd go to just about anyone (even if she did look for me, she'd still go), but now will turn into me when someone she doesn't know holds out their hands for her. Very good sign!