I had been warned before coming here that the Chinese love kids and because of that, they tend to lavish attention on children (especially western children) to the point of becoming slightly annoying. It's true. We are constantly stopped on the street by people who want to look at our kids. They often touch them too (which drives me crazy since I am a border line germ freak). At lunch yesterday, Audrey was fussy so one of the hostesses took her out of her stroller and just walked around the restaurant with her so we could finish eating. Normally I would have been freaked out about this but I knew from other westerners that this is common behavior and they are just trying to be nice. We even had someone ask if they could take pictures with Grace. She of course takes this in stride and often points out to us that people are staring her (unfortunately, she likes the attention). But I had to draw the line the other day when we were strolling through a garden and one of the gardeners was smiling at Grace and trying to talk to her. He then proceeded to pull out a pack of cigarettes and hand one to her. Cultural difference.
A lot of you have emailed me with requests for more pics so I am adding a bunch below. Most are from our outing to a very nice garden near here (think Central Park in NYC).
Open area in Zhong Shan park. Guy doing some kind of yo-yo thing at the park.
Grace with a dragon. Crowds ogling Audrey.
Grace and her classmates on field trip. Audrey playing peek-a-boo with the curtain.
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