Life on the farm and toddlers

My two-year-old joined me in the business center earlier.  It was a real trip.  After deleting my almost completed blog entry TWICE, wrapping herself in the curtains, running out the door, pushing the buttons on the copy machine, playing peek-a-boo, and shutting off the computer I finally took her upstairs. Unfortunately she does NOT like to be alone with dad.  She's doing pretty well I think overall.  We did have toddler meltdown in pizza hut today.  I took her outside to scream her head off and provided a show for EVERY passerby.  There were many since we were downtown.  There were a couple other tantrums today too, but they were not as public.   The real fun today was visiting a farming village about an hour(?) from Nanning. It was very special to see the contrast between city life and country life.  I think we would feel it was fairly primitive.  There were pigs, ducks, chickens, and cows.  (Our guide was nervous when Kenton petted a cow.  City boy!  : )   You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy!  : D   I'm sure you can guess whose idea that was.  )  There were women washing their clothes in the hot springs, children playing(school is on break for New Years), mopeds, old women,  people sitting around fires for warmth ( I was totally comfortable in a sweater) trash, and barns next to houses in the village.  It was fascinating.  One woman was kind enough to show us her house.  One thing we found interesting was that they had a TV, but not running water.  They had a well outside their home.  If I caught it right from David, well water is safe to drink, city water is not.  Hmmmmm.  There were people working in their patchwork quilts of vegetable fields.  We saw some terracing from a distance, oxen in the fields, the local school, and Kenton is still disappointed that he didn't get to drive a Chinese tractor (we saw several) or interview a Chinese farmer.  I wish I could better describe the village.  Everthing seemed to be built of brick or cement block with narrow alleys running in between.  The houses were two story (mostly) with one story sheds for the animals next to them.  They were surrounded by storybook mountains shrouded in mist and also lots of trash, occassionally gagging smells that were not from livestock.  One pond had six or so dead piglets floating in it.  One woman was sewing on a treadle sewing machine out in the courtyard surrounded by lots of staring children.  They all liked the candy we took along to share.  I   I know that my writing is not the best.  I really want to record what we've seen, but now that Yingying has joined us : )  I don't have time to write out my thoughts coherently.  Sorry!  I'm really hoping that our friends in Guangzhou can help us send a few pictures.  I can't wait for you all to see Yingying.    One funny thing on the home front.  Mom made tater tot hotdish one night.  She said that the kids ate it and drank lots of milk.  She later overheard Jamison say, "This sure is yucky, but mom told us to eat it even if we didn't like it and so we are."    I guess they're doing pretty good.