Day (oh, I've lost count)

Climbing the walls - literarlly and figuratively - is the theme for today.

After a couple of great nights, where Kiyomi went down like a dream, tonight we learned that there's more than "umbas" to this little monkey. She was in full scale, man the torpedoes, all lungs on deck wail this evening. We think she may have been overtired as she really didn't get a proper nap today (more on that later). Worst of all, just when she had finally nodded off in her crib, we learned of a traitor in our midst. Seems "sheepy" (previously referred in this blog) has a little short circut. As some of you may know, "sheepy" baas when you squeeze his little belly. Well, I was ready to ring his little neck when he went off without prompting just as Kiyomi was finally snuffling to sleep. Sheepy, at the moment, has been banished to the little hotel fridge - we're hoping he'll either freeze or the batteries will conk out as the blasted thing keeps baaing every few minutes.

However, other than the occassional little meltdown (which we're starting to figure out are mostly a result of our errors), she's doing great. We're learning what she likes to eat (steamed egg - popular with all the girls - and noodles) and starting to come up with solutions to the liquid intake (other than watermelon). We've also started to see her less serious side, and killed ourselves laughing with her when she's in full funny-face mode. We've alos made the pleasant discovery that if she's gotten the requisite naps during the day, she will happily chortle herself to sleep in her crib for the night, giggling to herself and playing with her toes. Hope we can figure out how to maximize that, especially after having to have cold pizza on the floor tonight because we were too fearful of making any sounds that would stir her or get sheepy going!

Her referral also said she was a very active little girl, and today she proved it by climbing the Great Wall of China. Yup, the little nipper went all the way to the top with no complaints. It took a few pieces of cookie on the way down, but generally she was content the whole hour and a half up and down. She also drew a number of comments and cooes from other passers-by, including a couple at the top who asked to have their picture taken with Kiyomi. Here are a few pictures of the adventure:

On the way up

At the top

Coming down

As you can tell from the pictures, it was a fairly overcast and foggy day, so we didn't get much by way of views up there. However, the Wall itself in an engineering marvel. The stairs go on forever, and it was a particularly haunting effect when they dissapeared in the the fog. There were thousands of people climbing today, despite the damp and light occassional rain. Young and old alike scaled the stairs - some to the first few towers, others all the way to the top. It was particularly impressive to see an elderly Chinese woman make her way up. She was moving slow, and resting every few steps, but you could tell she was determined to make it. I think Kiyomi, and a little girl from our group, Jenna, were the youngest to make it to the top that I saw.

Yesterday, a few of us took a freelance wander over to an ancient observatory that's just a hop, skip and jump away from our hotel. It was an interesting place, and provided a calm oasis from the constant traffic noise of Beijing. The instruments, for the most part, seemed to have been crafted in the 1600s, and were beautifully intricate metal casts. Unfortinately, the guide there didn't speak English (and I couldn't wrestle the phrase book away from Kiyomi in time), so I couldn't find out is the instruments still worked. The girls were a little less impressed with the instuments, but Kiyomi seems to love getting out and about, so it was definitely worth the trip.

Well, blogger seems to be causing me some problems tonight, so I best post this before I loose it (I've already had to rewrite about half of it when the program crashed). Tomorrow, it's off to the Western clinic for medicals. Hard to believe that we only have 4 more days left before we leave for home. Good night all.