A clinic, tea sampling and then some acrobats!!

This morning was the visit to the clinic. Halle needed to be declared healthy and we needed to prove that we were bonding and well, becoming a cohesive family unit. First they stripped her naked (which she usually enjoys) to get weighed. The official medically proven weight for Halle is 8kg even. She is the third heaviest in the group but she is younger than the other kids so I think that still makes her the biggest by comparison. Trust me, she felt like a full sized Buddha going up the Great Wall yesterday!! Anyways, the whole naked thing was going fine until the nurse tries to take back the stethoscope. Halle is a little possessive about things she feels are hers. She passed the medical with flying colors so she will be getting on the plane on Thursday with us and we won't be visiting her in quarantine or anything of the like.

This afternoon most of the group went to a Chinese teahouse where we got to sample the top five teas in China. (There was a competition.) The teas were quite good. I think my favourite was the Black tea with lychee(sp?) fruit. Halle had her picture taken with the girls that works at the teahouse in all their Chinese dresses. After the teahouse we went back to the hotel to relax. There is no slowing down because you have a baby now. We are on a schedule that would be challenging without the babes along. All I can say is that we are very happy that Halle sleeps through the night now, loves food and is generally a real pleasure to be with. She is also obsessed with baby contraban(including plastics bags, kleenex packages and wrappers of various sorts).

Tonight we went to see the National Chinese Acrobats. WOW! Cirque should do some recruiting here! The kids were between seven and fourteen I would guess and they were amazing. I can't imagaine how hard they work to be able to do the things they pulled off tonight. we thought that Halle would fall asleep because she had just eaten her body weight in food for dinner (slight exaggeration maybe but the girl does love her food). Nope! As soon as the music started she sat straight up on my lap and started bobbing her head. Then as the song got to the chorus part she started bouncing up and down and squealing. She was sooo excited!! I don't know if it was the music or the acrobats but she totally loved it. Miss Halle was not impressed when the pace slowed and blew raspberries at the acrobats to show her distain. She was wired for sound!! I'm hoping this means she will pursue music instead of hockey. That would make me very happy!:P Everyone else is crashed out so I think it is time I sign-off too. Tomorrow we are going shopping and so I want to be well rested and alert in order to bargain to the best of my abilities.