Fuzhou Days 3 and 4

Yesterday we went to "Panda World." There were 5 giant pandas and several red pandas.  I think I read somewhere that there are 7 pandas total in U.S. zoos, so to see 5 at one time is amazing!  There was a show with red pandas where they did various tricks, like swinging on a swing, climbing a ladder, and jumping through a hoop.  The kids enjoyed it.  There was also a panda museum at Panda World which displayed panda skeletons and panda internal organs.  If that wasn't creepy enough, there were jars of panda fetuses alongside jars of human fetuses in different stages of development.  The boys had been snapping photos left and right, but even they refrained from taking pictures of the babies.  Henry pointed out that they were all girl babies.

Today we went to an old marketplace with residences that dates back to the Ming dynasty.  It has been restored as sort of an outdoor mall.  We looked at several intricate stone, ivory, and wood carvings.  We also toured the Ye residence museum.  The boys were bored for most of this.  :)  One of the things we bought was a comb that was carved out of a bull horn.  This city is famous for these combs, but William wasn't very impressed.  We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant, which was very good.

It has rained for the past couple of days, so we've spent the afternoons in the hotel room.  The kids have been doing some of their school work.  We're trying to get as much done during the downtime. 
Cora Li is doing very well.  Her cold is getting better.  She gets more comfortable with us every day, showing us more of her personality.  Her favorite thing is to take things out of various places and put them back.  Lots of cleaning out backpacks.  :)  She loves getting William's pencils.  Yesterday morning, when I was getting dressed, she was crawling toward the bathroom looking for me, saying "Mama." So sweet.  While yesterday she pretty much wouldn't let me put her down, today she would as long as I was near her.  She fell asleep easier tonight also.  We're making progress.  She's learning she can trust us.  Really, the biggest "issue"right now is mealtime.  She gets very upset if I don't feed her exactly what she wants, in the correct amount, and at exactly the right time.  She is perfectly capable of feeding herself, which she does, on occasion, when she forgets she has to do this power-trip thing.  It's frustrating, but I understand that her food intake is the only thing she has any control over.  I'm thinking this will get better over the days and weeks to come.