March 24
Hello, it's Ken. Sorry for the late posting. It was a busy day, as you can imagine. At night, we closed the curtains, turned out all the lights and put Lexi down for the night. The usual game plan is to wait a few minutes to make sure she is asleep and then lights can go on and we can go about our business. Once she is out, she is out. Anyway, we laid down while we were waiting .... and well, you can guess the rest. I'm not sure what time it was when I opened my eyes, but it was way past time to turn on the computer.
We spend quite a bit of time around the hotel rooms just getting to know each other. This day, we took a bus ride up to Eling Park, which is the highest point in Chongqing. Nice place, but very steep. Within the park, we visited the Three Gorges Dam Museum. Since this massive engineering project is going on right in this area, most of us already knew the story, had done some background research and seen the special on the Discovery Channel. Still very interesting to get the local perspective. We also visited a tea house within the park. That was very enjoyable, also. But I do wonder if Zhou didn't set it up partially to make sure we are all aware that life is different now (for us first time parents.) Sitting still doesn't work very well and parents were trading off walking kids around outside, or feeding kids, or keeping kids from eating on their own all during the brief lecture.
As a personal note, we spent the first part of the first night with Lexi lightly sleeping, continually checking to make sure she was OK. I'm sure you parents know what I'm talking about. In the morning though, I just laid there in bed, in the dark, totally absorbed just listening to my daughter breathe. Something so simple just reaching something way down inside and it is incredible. You fathers (and mothers) I am sure know what I am talking about. Those who aren't (and I still remember since I was one of those just a day or two ago) can accept and maybe appreciate what I am talking about, but can not really understand of what I speak. That's just the way it is. I'm very happy to now be able to say, I am one of those who now understands.