Sophie has met her match!

Call me crazy, but I thought Lily was supposed to be the quiet one. She's not. She does not stop talking from sunup to sundown. The only problem is that it's in Chinese. We have no idea what this kid is saying and she has no idea that we have no idea what she's saying. But she talks on ...and on. She can really let us have it, too. Pete took a Coke away from her today and she really gave him the business...IN CHINESE! I thought it was kinda funny, but it is only a preview of what is to come. She will let loose an oriental tirade, but then follow it with a smile and a giggle and that makes everything alright. For now.

Let me also clarify WHY Pete took the Coke away from her. I'm guessing she has never had unlimited access to beverages, so she wants something to drink all the time! She has probably peed 100 times in 3 days because we let her drink so much. Well, it didn't take long for the caffeine and sugar to kick in and the mouth started running faster. We knew it had to stop before her head flew off, so Pete made her surrender the Coke. (Thank you, Pete!) She is also an eating machine...everytime we go down to the lobby, she heads straight for the restaurant cuz she's hungry! She ordered the kids burger last night at dinner and a burger as big as her head came out. She wolfed half of it down and told the server that she wanted a box so she could take the rest to the room and eat it later. Some day she'll realize that we'll give her three squares a day and sometimes the occasional Coke.

Tonight we went to an authentic dumpling restaurant...Shaanxi province is famous for their dumplings. We went with the Bargers and their little guy, Joseph, and we were the only westerners in the joint. And it was a pretty big joint. There were no chairs to speak of...only sections of giant logs to pull up to the tables. The adults ordered chinese beer (to kill any germs) and many plates of different dumplings. We enjoyed our dinner and the floor show...oh yeah, we were the floor show. At least you'd think so the way every person in that placed gawked and stared at us. I think I must be a freak or something the way these people stare. Lily attracted the attention of an older Chinese (duh!) couple. She knew they were watching her and proceeded to entertain them with her: 1. Appetite and 2. Charm. She really worked the crowd with the spectacular use of her fork, chopsticks and even the serving spoons to get the food from her plate into her mouth. Half way into the meal, the server brought out these small yellow packets of napkins. Lily watched to see if everyone used their napkins, then collected the unused napkins in their fancy yellow packets and stuffed them into her coat sleeve. (She also collects the small round paper coasters from the hotel restaurant.) The server brought our bill for the entire table: $20 for four beers, 5 plates of dumplings, 1 plate of some gross beef dish and 1 order of eggplant! We paid and left real fast!

Tonight is the last night of the Chinese New Year holiday. This is a BIG deal for the locals. The fireworks and firecrackers started early this afternoon and continue even now, well past midnight. And we're not talking Kingsport fireworks, we're talking Disney fireworks. This must be what war sounds like because fireworks are going off in every direction, as far as the eye can see. And we're on the 11th floor so my eye can see a long way! There is a row of restaurants and pubs across the street and the employees are setting off fireworks, too. Sophie looked down and saw a little fire they had set to burn the firework garbage and she yelled,"Mom, look how dangerous that is...one of them is going to set his head on fire! At least he won't have to go back to work."