Time out for peach nectar mixed with warm water :) I've been dressing Willow in pants ... so thought I'd try out a corduroy dress. As a proper tomboy, she sported some fuzzy shoes and leggings.
Today was "Red Couch" day for Willow. It is a long-standing tradition for parents to take a photo of their adopted child on a red couch at the White Swan Hotel (two blocks from where we are staying at the Victory Hotel -- west annex). Although we chose not to stay at the White Swan Hotel, we still wanted to take a photo of the wee one on one of the couches. The last time Chris was through Guangzhou, he did stay at the White Swan and took a photo of an empty couch knowing that "one day" we would return and have a child to pose on that couch before we left China. The "empty couch" photo is very symbolic to us because now it is filled with (mommy quote) "the cutest little thing in the whole wide world." Daddy agrees.
To prepare Willow for her debut photo on the red couch, we, of course, had to have a special outfit made for her. Oh, what a dilemna. What color to choose? What fabric to choose? Should it be a dress? or pants? So many decisions in life! To reiterate last night's blog, we selected a solid gold color because we wanted Willow to wear the old style (late Qing Dynasty) hat that we bought for her several days ago. This hat has many colors in it and the gold would complement the hat very nicely. Grace, from the shop where we bought the fabric, has an auntie who is a seamstress. The auntie turns these outfits around in just one day. The fabric has Chinese characters on it from a very famous Tang Dynasty poem called "In The Quiet Night" by poet Li Bai. The characters basically mean "love your family, love your home." This is the first poem virtually all Chinese children learn (before school). The poem reads as follows (although there are several different translations):
To prepare Willow for her debut photo on the red couch, we, of course, had to have a special outfit made for her. Oh, what a dilemna. What color to choose? What fabric to choose? Should it be a dress? or pants? So many decisions in life! To reiterate last night's blog, we selected a solid gold color because we wanted Willow to wear the old style (late Qing Dynasty) hat that we bought for her several days ago. This hat has many colors in it and the gold would complement the hat very nicely. Grace, from the shop where we bought the fabric, has an auntie who is a seamstress. The auntie turns these outfits around in just one day. The fabric has Chinese characters on it from a very famous Tang Dynasty poem called "In The Quiet Night" by poet Li Bai. The characters basically mean "love your family, love your home." This is the first poem virtually all Chinese children learn (before school). The poem reads as follows (although there are several different translations):
In the Quiet Night
So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting my head to look,
I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
Auntie Sara knows Mommy so well; they are "sames". Thus ... after one more romp (for mommy and the other WACAP family) through the wholesale children's market (where a whole lot of "yuan" exchanged hands, i.e., left daddy's and went to someone else's (of course, with the favorable exchange rate and the profoundly inexpensive price of wholesale clothes, that's really only a few dollars), we returned to the Victory and dressed-up the precious one for her photo. We strolled over to the White Swan and selected a couple of different red couches (there are many) to take a few photos on (some of the results are posted below). Our skwirmy one did not want to keep her hat on for long. Perhaps when she is older, she will appreciate it's great historical significance? (fingers crossed).
After the photo shoot, we dropped by Grace's shop to show her Willow dressed-up in the outfit her auntie made, and, of course, we had to shop some more (Grandma Nardia, you will be very happy with the small gift that Willow got for you). Then, back to the room to let Willow run around unencumbered by most of her clothing (she just loves her new necklace and black and white striped leggings). Tonight, it's pizza time again...that 4-cheese pie was just too good to only eat once! Off to friends in Room 8405 to have a pizza party....Until tomorrow (which will be our last night in Guangzhou), goodnight
Teddy Girl borrowed a dragon shirt from Willow ... the sun was high and The Pearl River (outside the window) was sparkling. Contrary to The Little One, Teddy was happy to pose.
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