Day 3 - A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts for Lian. We started off as everyday at the breakfast buffet and then met Jane and our driver at 9:20 to go shopping. She took us to a 60 story building that has the first 6 floors as a giant Department Store and the rest as apartments. This was Lian's first trip to shop for herself and to a large store.   First Stop, Shoes! What girl doesn't like nice shoes? She only had the pair they brought her to us in. They are worn and ugly little white shoes that I just wanted to throw away. We ended up keeping them for history along with the 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and 2 jackets that she had on when we got her. She also had 2 pairs of socks that are to big and no underwear. We brought her back to the room, stripped and bathed her and put new undies on her as soon as we got her. She thought that undies where the best thing she had ever seen and they fit. The shirts we got her fit as well but the pants were all too big because she is so tiny. She had to go around pulling them up all the time.   Anyway, back to the shoes. We tried several pair but she is picky about what she likes. Finally, the lady brought out a pair of tennis shoes, Pink on Pink, and she went crazy. She loves them! I think this is the first new pair of shoes she has ever had. We tried them on and they fit perfectly. We had to pay for them before shopping for anything else because she refused to take them off!   Next Stop, Clothes. We tried several sets and found out that she needs pants 1 size smaller than the tops to fit. By the time it was over, $323 later, She had 6 new shirts, 5 new pants, a jacket and a skirt. She also made them leave a set of those on so we had to pay for them before moving on.   Stop 3 was electronics. Olivia's DSI battery was dead and the charger stopped working. I think the converter ate it just like the little fan and clock. We found a station that sold all Nintendo gear and we found the DSI section. It was hard to explain to both Jane and the workers that we wanted to buy just the charger. They kept saying that the plug and voltage was different and I kept saying the output plug is the same and so is the output voltage. I told them that I would use it while we were in China and then give it to someone when we left and buy a new one in the US when we got home. I finally convinced them to take the one out for the display and let me plug it in while Olivia was busy showing Jane how the display worked. I think they were convinced that it would blow up and were amazed when the charge light came on to indicate it was charging. the lady went and called the factory to ask permission to sell us just the charger. She came back in a few minutes and explained that the only place to buy the charger alone was Shanghai. She could get it shipped but we would probably be gone by then. She was nice and offered to leave Olivia's charging while we shopped around so we headed for the grocery section.   Stop 4, Dairy Queen! That's right, Dairy Queen. As soon as we rounded the corner Olivia almost fell out. She said I never thought I would be so happy to see Dairy Queen. So after new shoes, new clothes and a first trip on an escalator, Lian had her first taste of Dairy Queen. I think the pictures speak for themselves, both girls left smiling.   After Dairy Queen, we headed back to collect the DSI and then called for the driver to carry us back to the hotel. By now it was after 1 and everybody was ready for lunch. Once again, Joy and I opted for Chinese dishes and the girls both had french fries. It was very cold today, unseasonable so according to Jane. It was sleeting pretty bad when we got back so we headed to the room for the afternoon and watched movies. As usual a tickle fight ensued and Olivia ended up winning today. I had the girls pose by the window to show off one of Lian's new outfits. I told them to put their arms around each other and Lian commenced to pinching her sister. She is the little stinker and thought it was funny. We may have bitten off more than we can chew with these 2.   Tomorrow we are touring the old section of town which is over 600 years old, including the City Wall and Temple. On Friday we get her Passport and Chinese paperwork and head off to Guangzhou to finish the adoption. For those of you who heard about the Earthquake today, we are all fine. The quake was over 1000 miles away from us and we checked, they don't have them here.   Enjoy the pictures of today's first!