Hello, Guangzhou!

Our crawling girl being supervised by big sister.

Dancing at Revolutionary Square on our last night in Nanchang.

Baba and his girls on our last evening in Maryn's province.

Revolutionary Square. It is flanked by Walmart, two KFCs, Siemens, and other retailers. A different kind of revolution than was envisioned by Mao!

We've begun our last full week in China and all is well. Carlyn has had a little headcold and various members of our group have had stomach bugs, two even requiring brief hospitalizations. The babies and children, though, have been really strong and resilient and Andy and I have been lucky healthwise, knock on wood.

A quick story then I'll upload photos and head for the pool where Andy has the girls: as we went through security in order to leave Nanchang the other day, Andy had Maryn in the baby carrier. Security in China is only slightly less frazzling than in the U.S. - you don't have to remove your shoes but, in Nanchang, you have to be wanded, which was a new and surprising travel experience for Carlyn. Anyway, part way through the process, Andy was asked for his boarding pass, which he'd been holding just a moment before. He frantically looked around on the floor until he heard the security guard chuckling and looked down at the baby. Maryn had seized the boarding pass and was busily gnawing on it. It was already slick with baby spit by the time Andy pried it from her quick little hands.

We're having a good time but, at the two week mark (yesterday), we began to fantasize about home: Carlyn was thinking of her cats and I look forward to being able to toss a load of laundry in the washer, drink water out of the tap, and eat a big salad. No matter where we travel, though, home always sounds appealing after the two week mark.