Doctor Visit and Pearl River Cruise

I spend a lot of time picking out a label for each day's post. I hope you all appreciate these creative titles.

This morning we went to the US consulate approved clinic where each kid in our group had a check up to make sure that they are healthy enough to enter the US.  But first we had to get a visa photo taken.  This is how it works. You walk into the building, set your kiddo on a chair, they take a picture - the only criteria is that they have to be awake. This is the photo that's used for the US Visa in their Chinese passport.  No big deal.  Except we realized last time, a few months down the road, that it's also the photo that USCIS will use on her citizenship certificate.  A lovely permanent certificate with a picture of a screaming baby.  Actually Valerie's doesn't look as bad as Susan's did, but she still cried.

At the doctor's appointment, upstairs in the same building, the doctors were kind and gentle, but Valerie was REALLY unhappy about it all.  Strangers poking and prodding at her. She was mad. She calmed down a bit right before the final station that she had to go to - the blood draw for her TB test (only kids over two years old need this so Susan wasn't required to).  The procedure is - hand your kid to the nurse, they go into another room, close the door, draw the blood, and bring her back out, and you hand your screaming child a lollipop.  It works.  That way new mom and dad don't have to look like the bad guy.

Lots of screaming fits this morning so lunch was at McDonalds (right beside the hotel) so we could make a quick escape if things went south.

We had hoped to go to the nice city park across from the hotel this afternoon but those plans got rained out.

This evening our guides picked up pizza for us and we took a cruise on the Pearl River.  Guangzhou, a city of 19 million people, is beautiful - at least the parts that we've seen of it.  Clean, lots of plants all along the side of the roadways, and very pretty all lit up at night.  The river cruise was lovely.  It was good to be on the water with a breeze.  After seeing all the lights of the city we enjoyed a couple of fun shows.

No screaming fits this evening and fun playtime before sleep. Woohoo!

After the TB test

Canton Tower - one of the world's tallest towers. The lights change every few seconds.

Part of the juggler's show was to go around and spin a basketball on a finger of each kid. Cute!