Apparently I am in trouble today because I didn't post last night! I was just so tired once we got Maggie to sleep that Merritt and I both just crashed at 8:00 pm.

It is hard to believe the progress Maggie has made in such a short time. Yesterday was such an improvement from the day before. We had smiles first thing in the morning and she didn't fuss at all...well almost not at all. Merritt was even able to hold her and play with her more. She started to open up a little more and her personality is starting to show through. She is a little tease and likes to be silly. Besides lots of smiles and laughs we have also seen her surprised and pretend scared face. Today she has left my side a little more and will sit and play with Merritt while I go in the other room. She also got down and has been crawling or walking along the furniture and playing for a long time with out me.

Another big improvement is that she will no longer go to the waitresses anymore. One really big frustration I have had is that every time we go to the restaurant here in the hotel, the waitresses (like 4 or 5 at a time) all gather around our table and watch us eat. And I mean right next to our table. They get right in Maggie's face and talk to her and then start putting their hands out to pick her up. A couple of days ago she would immediately go to them and cry if I didn't let her. We were warned about this type of attachment issue.  She probably thought that the waitresses were "nannies".  Yesterday, when they tried to do that she leaned away from them into me and scowled at them. Yea!

Hi... this is Merritt hijacking the blog.  Maggie decided that I wasn't fun to play with anymore.

Yesterday, we also had a great time experiencing the culture of Hunan Province.  First, we visited the Hunan Provincial Museum.  I really enjoyed the museum (Maggie had a minor / major meltdown in the middle of our tour, so Mandee was in too much distress to enjoy it).  There were a lot of really neat exhibits.  The most famous was the Chinese Lady Dai mummy.  Here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawangdui .  Our guide told us that her body was so well preserved that the researchers were able to perform an autopsy on her body and found food still in her stomach.  Her limbs were all still movable and her hair was intact.  Gross... but quite interesting.  Next, we visited the Hunan Provincial Embroidery Academy.  Sounds extremely interesting, huh?  It was amazing!!!  The pictures were made entirely from silk threads (some of the threads are 1/4 the size of a human hair).  There were full portraits of kings, presidents, landscapes and animals (especially tigers).  The detail was crazy.  There were pieces in the collection that were valued at over $1,000,000.  The artistry was incredible.  They told us that some of the pieces took 2 years to complete.  The most costly piece was a portrait of the King of Belgium (whoever that is).  It was so detailed that you could see the tiny red veins in his eyes, the individual wrinkles on his forehead and the hair in his ears (I might have made the last one up).  Creepy, but cool.  We bought a framed piece to hang in our home.  It wasn't quite a million dollars, but we thought it was nice.  Finally, we went out to experience Hunan cuisine at a local restaurant.  Hunan food is crazy spicy!!!  They ordered an extra mild meal for us and it still almost brought us to tears.  Well, it almost brought Mandee to tears.  I am too manly for that.  Even though it was hot, it was very tasty (and didn't cause any pesky afterburn).  I think it has been our most enjoyable meal of the trip.

Today, we have had the most exciting day of the trip so far.  We have barely left our room!!!  We have just been hanging out here and playing with Maggie.  Our biggest achievement today is that Maggie learned to give us kisses (well, let's be honest here... Mandee is getting kisses and I'm getting the bird).  Maggie is also starting to recognize her American name.  She will turn her head and look at us when we call her.  Not too bad.  With all that being said, we are getting very stir crazy.  We haven't left the hotel for more than a day.  Needless to say, we will be very ready to leave for Guanzhou tomorrow!!!