Monkey See Monkey Do

As each day dawns, Katerina becomes more and more a part of her forever family. She is bonding to all three of them. It's odd that I am so much a part of this and she doesn't even know I exist.

The flight to Guangzhou was fine, but on the descent, she started crying. We're guessing her ears were popping. It was a long walk from the terminal to the bus that would take them to the hotel but apparently, Katerina was having a grand time in her stroller. She was talking to everyone as she passed them by and people were talking back to her. We thought she was just talking Chinese goo goo gaga, but apparently, she is actually saying things as we've been told by the bilingual guide. One morning Emma was with her in the dining room of the hotel and Katerina was chatting away. Michael, the guide, told Emma that Katerina wanted to eat. Constantin said she must think the three of them are awfully stupid.

They arrived at the hotel late after a one-hour bus ride and went to sleep more easily than she has been. The next day they took her to a park which had a kids playground and she really enjoyed the slide. On the way back to the hotel she was singing in Chinese in the stroller and again, talking to people as she passed them. So far she has only picked up one English word/expression and that is bye-bye. She uses it whenever she or someone is leaving. She waves and says bye-bye. In fact, when she was talking to a guard in the airport, it was in Chinese, but when she was leaving she waved and said bye-bye. Isn't she brilliant??

She also loves to mimic. One evening Constantin had french fries and he gave her one after dipping it in ketchup. She spit it out. The next night he had french fries again, (what's up with that? Aren't we in China??) and a few times she picked one up, dipped it in ketchup and fed it to him. She also observed him wiping his fingers on a napkin after eating the french fries so she picked up a fry (no ketchup) and after eating rubbed her fingers on the napkin. I tell you, folks, this is a genius child!! 
Guangzhou is very westernized compared to Beijing and Nanning. Probably the Hong Kong influence. They are only 45 minutes away by Hydrofoil