One year ago

A year ago today, the phone rang at 3:55pm. I saw "Chinese Children" in caller ID, and I knew right away that this was THE call.

I knew before I picked up, even though they'd just told us three days before that we'd have to wait for the next batch for our referral, probably until February or so. You see, the Friday before had been my 40th birthday, and CCAI had told us back in September that our baby would almost certainly be in the next batch. Well, the next batch came in October, and by November 29, the referral announcements were starting to peter out. I'd somehow gotten it into my head that we'd get our referral by my birthday, and when they hadn't called by early afternoon that Friday, I asked M to call the agency and ask them what was up. That was when they broke the news -- there was no baby for us in this batch, and we'd have to wait until next time.

I was disappointed, but also a little bit relieved. No more keeping my cellphone glued to my body whenever I left the house, no more jumping each time the phone rang, no more lying awake all night wondering if tomorrow would be the day. I could relax and start getting anxious again in February. I had a big birthday party on Saturday, and I must have said, "No, it probably won't be until February at the soonest" a thousand times that night as all our family and friends asked about our baby girl from China.

Then there was the phone call on Monday afternoon, December 3 (by the way, the call came at exactly the same time of day that B was born, to the minute! a coincidence that still gives me chills). I was surprisingly calm, at least until I hung up. I immediately called B up from the play room to tell him "You have a baby sister!" We called M at work and got his voicemail, then got voicemail on his cellphone too. I blew off patience entirely and called the receptionist, telling her "It's a family emergency!" He was on the phone in seconds, and the email from CCAI with pictures arrived while we were on the phone. We opened it together, and all three of us saw this face for the first time:

It was just a phone call, but it literally changed our lives. Everything has been different since. Having been through both pregnancy & childbirth and adoption, I have to say, that referral call & seeing the photos for the first time are more exciting than finding out you're pregnant. At least it was for me. Pregnancy is just the beginning of a long process, and your baby is still an unknown. Even when B was born, I was so out of it from general anesthesia that I couldn't fully appreciate the moment. But getting that call, seeing Z's face for the first time, was a moment that's unmatched in my life so far.

We try a babysitter

And not just any babysitter; this was my parents. The plan was this: we'd take the monkeys up to my parents' house, hang out for awhile, then M & I would go out to dinner while my parents fed the kids and put them to bed. Sounds like a solid plan, right? Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa!!! It turned ugly on us.

First off, Z was in no mood to go to bed at bedtime. I don't think it was the fact that we weren't there so much as it was that she was in a different room than home. She & B were supposed to share a room at my parents', but Miss Z was doing so much screaming that poor B couldn't sleep. Apparently it took three or four tries to get her to go sleep. When we got home after 9, B was up reading books with his grandma. 9:00 is way, way past his bedtime. We got him to bed right away, and then got ourselves to bed at a decent hour. We had to stay up a little later than we wanted because there was a backyard wedding two doors down with a really bad band that wouldn't stop butchering Pat Benetar covers. As M said, no one should sing Pat Benetar songs except Pat Benetar, and even she shouldn't be doing it after the 1980s.

It got bad, and I mean really bad, after that. Z cried twice, causing me to leap out of bed each time, run across the hall, and quiet her down before she woke up B. Then Kenai escaped from our room, and I was afraid he'd go to the bathroom somewhere in my parents' house in the middle of the night, so I got up and chased him down (not as easy as you might think -- imagine a slow-speed chase in pitch darkness, me on tippy toes & frantically whispering at the d@mn dog, trying to avoid waking everyone up). Next it was B's turn. He woke up at around 4:00 (just as I was going back to sleep after the slow-speed dog chase), screaming at the top of his lungs that there was something scary in their room. That woke Z up. B went right back to sleep, but Z kept fussing.

After two more runs across the hall, we threw in the towel. M crawled into the bed where B had been sleeping & stayed in that room with Z (she was in her pack-n-play), and I hauled B across the hall to sleep with me. For the rest of the night, M had to go "shhhh" every ten minutes, while I was repeatedly squeezed, snuggled, and kicked in the kidneys by pointy little four year-old feet. I had to sit up & move him back to his own side of the bed twice. I actually really like sleeping with B, but I'm never going to claim it's a good night's sleep. Z woke up for the day sometime between 5 & 6. When B woke up at 7, I went to relieve M of Miss Z, and the kids and I got up for the day.

Sounds like a bad comedy, right? Welcome to our lives. Today wasn't exactly a stellar day either, considering none of us had much sleep. There was a lot of crying, and it wasn't all the kids. Needless to say, I don't think we're babysitter-ready afterall. Sigh.

On a more positive note: both kids started swimming lessons yesterday & they both did really well. Apparently Z goes completely limp and totally relaxes when she floats:

On the way to swimming lessons we passed a yard sale. M and I both spotted what you see below at the same time. I ran over there with Z while B started his lesson and snagged this for $1. He's been wearing it almost constantly ever since, most of the time with a bike helmet too:

I've always loved it when I see other people's kids dressed in stuff like this while they're out grocery shopping with their moms. I think it's hilarious. B wore it to play on the playground, walk the dog, and grocery shop this weekend. It makes me smile.

I actually hit the yard sale jackpot this weekend. We scored a train table that wheels under B's bed for $5, a fancy-schmancy hose reel for the backyard for $2, a push broom for another $2 (I may be more excited than you think I should be about these last two, but they're things we've been needing and haven't wanted to spend the money on new), and best of all, a new (to us), very nice, much bigger patio table for $20. Score!

And just to show you both our kids look good in green:

Last but not least, Miss Z. Her receptive language has been getting better really rapidly lately. Yesterday she kept going over to the dog bed & plopping down in it. My mom started saying "Night-night," and every time she did, Z would run over to the dog bed & lie down. Mom got her a pillow, a blanket and her panda, and after that we couldn't keep her out of the filthy, furry dog bed. She'd go over there and say "ni-ni" until someone covered her up in her blanket, then she'd wiggle with joy, clutching her panda. Silly bao bao.

Three friends and a wedding

We had a low-key weekend. A friend of mine was in town visiting from New Mexico, so I took her on my current favorite hike on Saturday morning. We followed that up with lunch & a margarita. Yummy. She's buena gente and I wish she hadn't moved so far away!

On Sunday evening, we went to the wedding reception of another friend of mine. We skipped the wedding -- she's my friend, not my worst enemy! I would only attend a wedding with our two monkeys if I wanted to wreck the whole thing. We all cleaned up pretty well, if I don't say so myself. Most of the pictures taken of us were on someone else's camera and I haven't gotten them yet, so here's the only one from my camera that came out at all nice:

Our little Z is always pretty in pictures. She's photogenic, plus she's learned to ham it up for the camera already.

Since I don't have a picture of B from this weekend, here's one of him when he was about the same age Z is now:

I can't decide which is funnier -- the expression, or the hair. And to show you that he is every bit as adorable as Miss Z:

B made a new friend this weekend. We saw him out riding his bike in front of our house, and B rode out on his bike to say hi. He's almost a year older than B, but they seemed to get along pretty well. B wasn't half as excited as we were though. There aren't very many families with young kids in our neighborhood, so we were thrilled to meet a couple that seemed fun and had a kid that could play with ours. We had them all over on Monday and everyone had a great time. At least I hope they did -- B will be crushed if he doesn't get to play with his new buddy again soon.

So Z is on her fourth week in child care now, and it's going pretty well. Last week she started crying when I dropped her off in the morning. It's sad, but it actually makes me happy because it means she'd rather be with me than at school. That's a sign of attachment. She also started running to me when I arrived in the afternoons, a huge grin on her face and her arms held up to be lifted. Now THAT'S a good way to end a long work day! B is fairly indifferent when I pick him up from preschool these days, and sometimes even wants to stay longer to play more. I like it when he wants me to carry him down the hall to Z's room. The days that I'll be able and allowed to carry him are definitely numbered, and I try to enjoy it while I can because I know I'll miss it when I can't. That poor kid will be coming home to visit when he's 30, and I'll still be asking him if he wants to sit in my lap and cuddle!

A hodge-podge

First, here's Z in her other pair of new glasses:

She's already scratched the lens on one pair -- she took a header on the driveway this morning and landed smack on her face. There wasn't much crying, but she did scratch the glasses and got a big raspberry on her forehead. I guess it's a good thing we didn't spend a whole bunch of $$ on the glasses.

Today I went shopping with Flynn's mom here. If you live anywhere near Denver and haven't been there yet, you should really go. It's the best kids' consignment shop EVER. But I want you to know that I exercised some pretty remarkable restraint today. There were at least half a dozen things I desperately wanted to buy (oh, the dresses! the floral print pants with the sequins! the skirt with the hot pink tulle ruffle around the bottom!), but all I walked away with was something we actually needed -- a pair of shorty pajamas for Z. Hanna Anderssen PJs, in perfect, like-new condition, for $12! You can't beat that with a stick, as my Grammy used to say.

Bonding & attachment blah blah blah

This stuff all sounds like a breeze when you're taking those classes and reading the books, even a little hokey sometimes, but I have to tell you: the real thing is so much harder than I thought it would be. However, Z and I have reached a nice attachment milestone in the past week or so that's really sweet: she's been holding on to me when I hold her. She's always been happy to be carried, and in the last month has come to me with her arms out, wanting to be held. But she hasn't held me back until recently. This is a big step for her!

B has also been doing better. I alluded to his struggles a couple weeks ago, but never really went into it. It's sometimes hard for me to decide if writing about that kind of stuff is valuable enough to my handful of prospective adoptive parent readers to risk violating his privacy, and I've been on the fence about this particular case. I'll just keep it brief. He's had the usual difficulties of a new sibling -- acting out, abusing the younger kid on occasion, jealousy over sharing toys, etc. The hardest part has been bedtime though. He's been a champion sleeper ever since I read and implemented the "No Cry Sleep Solution" when he was about six months old. If you have a baby who doesn't sleep well, buy this book!! It saved our lives, I swear. Anyway, starting about a month ago, he began to seriously freak out at bedtime. Crying that he was afraid of his room, getting out of bed and coming into our room a bazillion times before going to sleep, even screaming hissy fits on a nightly basis for a couple of weeks. We did everything we could think of. We checked every nook & cranny of his room with him before putting him to bed to make sure it was safe. We left his door wide open. We spent extra time snuggling after books -- and I'm talking a LOT of extra time, not just a few minutes. We even let him stay up late and read books in bed a few times. All to no avail. Then all of a sudden, three nights ago, he was done with all that. Now he still gets some extra time at bedtime (nice for him and for us), but goes to sleep quietly without all the drama. Oh boy, I hope I didn't just jinx us by typing that. If we have a bad night, I may have to come back in the morning and delete what I just wrote.

Why no photos of the handsome B?

There haven't been a lot of photos of B in the past few posts because he's been a little camera-shy. I'll try to sneak some tomorrow. He's also been behind the camera again. Behold his latests masterpieces:

Z gets glasses; M gets silly

Here is the first of two pairs of glasses Miss Z got today:

It was really hard to find glasses that fit her & looked good. All the frames made for kids her age looked ridiculous on her. Her face shape is so round -- or maybe it's square? -- anyway, they sort of just sat there in the middle of her face. She looked like a little owl. Most of the frames for bigger kids were too big for her face (these are a tiny bit big, but won't be for very long at the rate she's growing). And anything light-colored really didn't look good on her. They just sort of disappeared into her face. These two pairs (I'm saving the second pair for tomorrow) were really the ONLY two I liked.

Now if we could just figure out a way to keep them on her. Even with the special ear pieces that loop almost all the way around her ear, she rips them off every time I look away, or even if I merely blink. I'm especially worried about keeping them on her at preschool, since that's the place she's really most likely to do something to hurt her eye. If anyone knows any magic tricks for keeping glasses on an 18 month-old, let me know! Duct tape? Staples, maybe?

While B & I were walking around the block last night (which took nearly an hour, partly because I was barefoot, and partly because we kept stopping to talk to neighbors), M and Z seized the digital and took a self-portrait:

I must say, I'm a tiny bit jealous that Z can wear bright orange and lime green so well. She really looks stunning in both. I, on the other hand, would look either orange or lime green in these two outfits.

PS - Thank you Nana!

A breakthrough

Yesterday, I had Z standing at the ottoman in the living room eating a little snack, while I tried to vacuum the dining room. Well, she lost her marbles when I turned on the vacuum. I'm not just talking crying, no, this was red-faced, ear-splitting, blood-curtling screaming. I've never heard her make a sound like that before. I ran to her, sat down next to her on the floor, and before I could even hold my arms out, she held out hers, toddled over to me, and grabbed hold of me, burying her head in my shoulder as she sobbed. Now this may sound terrible to you, but I was delighted. Fellow adoptive parents will recognize this for what it was: a major step in the attachment process for Miss Z.

She's been doing very well in this department so far, but hadn't yet taken this little step. She knows who we are, and prefers us over strangers (a good sign, since some adoptive children will turn on the charm for anyone who gives them positive attention). She fusses when we put her down or leave the room. She accepts unlimited affection from us -- holding, hugging, kissing. She accepts our comfort when she is upset, and it helps her feel better. However, she had not yet sought our comfort, and hadn't yet really held on when we held her. So this is huge. It means she's realized that we are a dependable source of love and comfort.

Maybe I should do some more vacuuming today to try to get her to do it again. Just kidding, of course.

I don't have any pictures to post at this very moment, but today is the official weekly B-Z-Mommy Super-Fun Day, and I promise to take many and post them by this evening. The only item on our agenda for certain is baking cookies. A neighbor brought us dinner last week, and I don't want to return her tupperware empty. Plus, we're headed to Grandma & Bumpa's on Sunday so Z can meet my brother, his wife, and their two teenage kids. These kids are absolutely amazing -- so well-adjusted and fun to be around. B adores them (and I think they adore him too), so I'm betting Z will too. Anyway, I've been instructed by my mom to bring cookies, so today we're baking a double batch of Grammy's famous chocolate chip cookies. Just in case you want to bake yourself a batch, here's the recipe:

Grammy's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2c flour

1t baking soda

1/2t salt

1/2t baking powder

1c white sugar

1c brown sugar

1c shortening

2 eggs

2c oats

1t vanilla

small package chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the sugars and the shortening until they are fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix together the flour, soda, salt, baking powder and oats, and add them to the sugar-egg mixture in batches. Last, add the chocolate chips. Drop in 1" balls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Visit from a friend

Z and I had company today. Drop by her blog to check out the great pictures.

We survived our first week

Sometimes having two kids is easier than having one. When they play together so I can make dinner, for instance. Most of the time, it's not. Especially not when we're at the outlet mall and both kids are screaming. We are learning how to do this though, and having plenty of fun along the way. We bought a sit-n-stand stroller today (2 kids can ride in it), and I think that will help a lot. B gets tired and jealous when Z gets to ride and he has to walk, so it should at least prevent some future meltdowns in public places.

It helps that Z has slept through the night for the past THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! We decided to try having her sleep in her own room (instead of in our room), and it's been so so SO much better. The first two nights, one of us slept with her on an aerobed, but last night, she spent the entire night by herself, and we never heard a peep. She doesn't even cry when she wakes up alone in the morning; she just starts talking until we come get her. What a good baby girl! And it's making our lives so much easier.

Z had her appointment at the pediatrician on Tuesday. She got four vaccines, which didn't make for a happy baby for the next couple of days. She ran a little fever and was pretty fussy, but a little Tylenol helped a lot, and she's all better now. The pediatrician thinks that she is right on target developmentally, in terms of everything really -- language, motor skills, emotional and cognitive development. This is really wonderful news, and certainly not what you expect to hear when you adopt a child who is almost 17 months old. We feel very lucky, and know that Z was lucky to have received good care before she came home. She is a bit on the slender side in comparison to her height, but she doesn't look skinny at all. She's got an extra little chin and some chubby baby thighs. I suspect she could use a little bit of fattening up, but I think she's just got a long, lean body.

Yesterday I took the kids to get their pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids. It didn't go exactly the way I planned it. We got about two pictures taken before Z started fussing, and she really never stopped. Then B somehow fell over right on his nose, and cried for awhile. Poor little dude. He recovered enough for us to get these two gems:

They definitely capture B's personality, happy and silly. What a handsome Bee!

Here are two of them together, the only two out of about 20 when neither was crying and nobody had their eyes closed, or was tipped over, or had a hand in front of a face:

Family, keep an eye on the mailbox for your copies!

B continues to be a stellar big brother. He's gentle and affectionate, and tries to play with her and help her. She sometimes doesn't want him to hold her or be too close, but I think she'll get over that with a little time. She's still a bit of a mama & baba's girl right now. He's still so proud to be a big brother. He tells everyone he sees the things he's taught her to do: have her nails clipped, brush her teeth, and pick her nose.

I'm afraid I only took three pictures on the digital camera this week before the card was full, and none of them are worth sharing. I started downloading pictures tonight though, so now I don't have that excuse for not taking pictures. I'll also start downloading video tomorrow, and should soon have some video from China, including the moment Little Z was handed to us, and the hilarious belly laughs we got an hour later. Stay tuned...

Hasta luego China

Today is our last day in China; we leave for home early in the morning.

M managed to achieve two big goals in the last couple of days. First off, he managed to get to the elevator and push the button before the floor monitor got there. Each floor of the hotel is set up in sort of an oval. In the center are the freight elevators & storage; around the outside are the guest rooms. The guest elevators are in a hall that bisects the center of the oval. At one end of this short hall, there is a podium that is manned around the clock. These ladies will get us ice or boiled water, unlock our windows (reluctantly), fetch plug adaptors for us, that sort of thing. But their main job seems to be to run for the elevator as soon as you open your door so you don't have to push the button. They stand there with their hand on the door until everybody's on. They also greet each arriving elevator & hold the door. M has been trying to sneak around the back hallway, on the side of the oval away from the podium, in order to evade the hall monitors and push the button himself. He finally managed it the other day. I hope the hall monitor doesn't lose her job because of this incident.

Beach bunny

His second objective was to ride a bike in China. He's been calling out "Hey, can I ride your bike?" whenever people ride past. Nobody was responding. Could be that language gap, I suppose. Or maybe they just thought it was weird and a little creepy that this random stranger wanted to ride their bikes. Yesterday, the hawker for one of the shops on the island accompanied us down the street in order to steer us into her shop. As we chatted with her, M asked if she or anybody who worked in her shop had a bike he could ride. "I know it sounds crazy..." he said, and she replied "Yes." But she found him a bike, and he rode around in circles for five minutes. He was grinning from ear to ear by the time he was done.

M rides a bike

We have had a wonderful time in China. It's truly been the trip of a lifetime. We look forward to coming back someday when Z is old enough to remember, and seeing more of China. Right now, however, we're ready to go home. We miss our B! One more day...

Yet another day in Guangzhou

I've been getting a little slack with the blog posts because there is really not much to tell. We're getting a little bored, and very ready to go home. Being in Guangzhou is not as much fun as being in Nanchang. There are only so many times you can walk around an island that's five blocks long and three blocks wide, and only so much shopping even I can do.

Yesterday we crossed the bridge and went off the island. We walked through a market that sold all sorts of stuff we couldn't identify. There were lots of spices -- it smelled like curry -- and some mushrooms, and dried things that I imagine you're supposed to eat, although I don't think I would. I'd probably end up eating something you're supposed to wash your hair with, or vice versa. Then we walked through some back streets in the neighborhood behind the market. The main streets were very busy and crowded, and filthy dirty. We turned off a street into a little alleyway, and that was spotlessly clean. This alley was only a few feet wide, and it was lined mostly with people's homes, rather than shops. There were brooms leaning up against the wall at regular intervals, and we saw several people out sweeping. Guess that explains why it was so tidy. We saw a cat on a leash inside the front door of one home. I don't think Lulu or Kitten would care for that. There were little side alleys off the main alley, but they all looked like they dead-ended at someone's front door, so we didn't walk down any of these. This alley eventually ended at a T. The top of the T was something between a wider alley and a very narrow street. This one had shops. We stopped in a pet shop. There were about half a dozen pens with pure-bred puppies in them, cages of cats out front, and a big pile of beds for the animals. This pet shop was cleaner than any I've ever seen in the U.S.

Back street in GZ

Shamian Island

After lunch, we hopped in a cab and paid a visit to the pearl market. We first walked through a giant shopping mall, 5-6 stories tall. We saw a few stores with rather amusing names, as you'll see in the photos. We crossed a plaza with a fountain in the middle, then entered another mall that was identical to the first. This one was all jewelry through. A 5-story mall selling nothing but jewelry! We bought Miss Z a string of beautiful pearls for when she's older. I chose the pearls I liked, and a girl strung them & knotted them right there.

Bad Marketing

Check out the name of this store

Outside these two malls is an outdoor pedestrian mall. We walked down this a couple blocks to a department store, where we bought a few more diapers and some toys that we're keeping hidden until we get on the plane. There were several times when we were in the department store that we saw big groups of people gathered around a table, picking through the merchandise. There'd be a dozen displays in the general area, and everyone would be crowded around one in particular. Once it was sweaters, another time it was a big table piled high with packages of maxi pads. We guessed that it must have been the Chinese equivalent of a blue-light special. If only it had been a table piled high with padded silk jackets for little girls (or their mommies), I'd have gotten in on the action! But I really don't need any second-quality polyester sweaters or giant packages of Chinese maxi pads.

This morning our guide submitted Z's visa application at the U.S. consulate. We got a call about an hour ago that everything was accepted. I was a little surprised, as I realized after I'd turned in all the paperwork that I put down the wrong city for M's birthplace; guess they don't look all that closely. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll go to the consulate where we'll take Z's oath of citizenship for her and receive her visa to enter the U.S. As soon as she's admitted to the U.S. in San Francisco, she'll be a U.S. citizen.

Big girl

Z is snoozing right now. As soon as she wakes up, we're going to go out & buy another suitcase for all the stuff we've bought in China. You can get a suitcase for less than $15 here, and we need one. We could barely get everything in when we left Nanchang, and we've acquired plenty more since we've been here.

Cleanliness is next to holiness

One more post tomorrow, then the next one will be from home!

Monday in GZ: Guess who can walk?!

Yup, M. Oh yeah, and Little Z. This afternoon, while I spent an hour and a half in our guide's room doing Z's visa paperwork, M & Z went downstairs to the playroom to practice her moves. They've been having secret practice sessions whenever I'm not around. Secret training! When I came back to the room, he told me she could do it, and sure enough, she took about half a dozen steps all on her own, going from M to me. I've seen her do it two more times since then. She's had the mistaken impression that she could walk for as long as we've known her, and it's been hard both to rein her in so she doesn't hurt herself and to see her get mad when she tries & doesn't quite pull it off. Things are going to be interesting around here for the rest of our stay. I'm seeing a few head bonks in the next couple of days. It's inevitable. But I predict we'll be chasing that little monkey around shortly after we get home. Cats, you might as well go under the bed right now and stay there for the next year or so, because this little girl is going to be all over you. Kenai, I doubt you have to worry about that. I have a feeling your 95 pounds of labrador puppy love is going to scare the diaper right off this poor child.

A little practice goes a long way.

Another baby in our group had a big milestone today too. This little boy was pretty seriously malnourished and had yet to eat any solid foods, much to his parents' distress. Today he ate six Cheerios! His mom called to let his dad know while we were in the guide's room doing our paperwork. We all cheered when we heard. The improvement we've seen in this little boy over the past week has been remarkable. It's been remarkable in all the babies, actually. They are all just blossoming right before our eyes. What strong little kids we have. They are survivors, all of them.

TG 1314 Babies

For the most part, today was all waiting around & filling out paperwork. There is absolutely NOTHING exciting to tell you about other than the walking thing. We had visa photos taken for the babies, then took them for their medical exam. It was quite perfunctory, yet we still managed to spend two hours in the clinic. There are "Keep Quiet" signs all over the place, but the noise in there was deafening. We were glad to be done with it.

Medical Clinic

As I mentioned earlier, we did the paperwork for Z's visa to enter the U.S. today. Stupid government bureaucracy. I had to fill out about half a dozen forms. Each one of them asked for the exact same information. Stupid stupid. There is NO reason why we should not be able to sit down in front of a computer, type in the answers to about a dozen questions, then print out all those forms and just sign them. What a waste of time.

The last item on today's agenda was the red couch photo. Z was lovely in her fuschia silk dress and matching squeaky shoes. Unfortunately, the tights I brought for her are so big that they hang on her like sweat pants and look just plain silly, so she went with just the diaper under the dress. You know, when you set a baby who's wearing a diaper & a dress down on a couch, you see a lot of diaper. Oh well.

Cheese!

Squeaky shoes to match my dress.


Three-quarters of the family.

I had a little mini-adventure today. While M & Z napped, I made a trip to the pharmacy. I ran out of my cold medicine today, and I most definitely still need it if I want to breathe. After a lot of pointing, miming, and fake coughing, I was handed a bottle of Robitussin. All the packaging is in Chinese, so there was more pointing and miming to determine the correct dosage and how often I should take it. I hope we were on the same page with that. The last thing I need is to OD on cough syrup in China. I made a quick stop at Starbucks on the way back to the hotel. Two cups of regular coffee at Starbucks cost more than my medicine!

Tomorrow is a free day for us. There is an optional trip to the pearl market in the afternoon; I think I'll exercise my option to go. My girly girl needs some pearls for when she graduates from high school.

Pearl River at night.

TG 1314 families and babies.

Thanks for dropping by, and I'll talk to you all tomorrow!

Sunday in Guangzhou

The one second she's had a paci in her mouth...

We got in late yesterday afternoon. The flight wasn't super-fun. They apparently don't pressurize planes the same way in China as they do at home. I noticed this on the flight from Hong Kong to Nanchang too. My ears were completely stopped up on both flights, and it actually hurt a little on the descent. It didn't seem to bother Miss Z though. Being cooped up in a little airplane seat was another story I'm afraid. Ours was that baby who cried almost the whole flight. The flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco on Friday is going to be a lot of fun I think. If you know anyone who's going to be on that flight, you might want to give them a heads up now so they can change their reservations while there's still time. Unless they like screaming babies. Then they should definitely fly with us.

Who me?

It's so weird to be here after a week in Nanchang. We don't really even feel like we're in China. Shamian Island is very small, and very European in its architecture. Many people here seem to speak English. Also, they don't drive on the sidewalks. M & I have both said how glad we are that we got to spend time in Nanchang. We wouldn't trade a minute of it. That said, it is nice to be able to walk without fearing for your life, and it is much much cleaner here. And there's a Starbucks. Enough said.

Cutie Patootie

I'm not a big fan of the White Swan. I know, it's part of the tradition, red couches, breakfast buffet, gazillions of adoptive families, Going Home Barbie, yadda yadda yadda. But this really isn't that great a hotel. Frankly, it's rather seedy. I'm wishing I'd had the energy to change us to the Victory back before we left, but at that point in the game, one more thing on my to-do list would have put me over the edge. When "learn Chinese" is on your list of things to do in the immediate future, you know things are getting bad. We're not miserable here or anything even close to that, but this place is kind of a dump compared to our hotel in Nanchang. The rooms are tiny, and the beds are just as hard as you've heard they are -- too hard for me, and I really like a firm mattress. I woke up this morning with my hip bones aching. The pillows are pretty much rock solid too. It's like sleeping in a Flintstones bed. The worst part is that our room REEKS of cigarette smoke. I think it's coming from the ventilation system. We asked them to unlock our window so we could open it. They did, but with great reluctance and a lecture on how dangerous it was. I'm not sure if they meant it was dangerous because we might fall out, or dangerous because a baby shouldn't sleep in a room with the temperature below 80 degrees. But I'm keeping that window open as long as we're here.

Squatty potties aren't all bad...

We did a sightseeing tour with the group this morning. We went first to a Buddhist temple. It was a beautiful, peaceful place, just like you'd think a Buddhist temple should be. We had a blessing for Z by a Buddhist monk. We knelt down in front of an altar and closed our eyes. We were instructed to make a wish for our children, while the monk chanted. I wished a long, happy and healthy life for both of my children. As the monk chanted, I tried to visualize both kids going through all the stages of life. I saw them at their first day of kindergarten, playing middle school sports, going to prom, graduating from high school, getting married, bringing their own kids home for Thanksgiving dinners. By the end of the ceremony, I was bawling like a baby. Why do I do this to myself??

Blessing by a Buddhist Monk.

Six Banyans Temple - above and below:

Next stop was the Chen family academy. It was built....ummmm, I forget when, but a long time ago. All the people in China named Chen contributed money to build it. Anyone named Chen could come study here for the national exams. Now it's an art gallery, and there are some really lovely things there. Most impressive to me was the grain of rice with hundreds of Chinese characters painted on it. Seriously. You have to look at it through a magnifying glass. The building itself is beautiful too. Lots of intricate carvings in the stone, rooms built around courtyards surrounded by covered walkways. I think I could live there quite comfortably.

Last stop was a provincial artisan center, for more shopping (of course). We bought a few nice things, including a pretty little jade bracelet for Z. One other purchase from today that was notable -- a painted silk scroll in a gallery named for the artist, who shares our son's name. We're going to stop by again tomorrow to show him a picture of our B.

Daddy's little girl.

Tonight we had dinner at the Cow & Bridge, a Thai restaurant on the island. It was deeeeeeeelicious! I had vegetables in green curry. Yummmm. And a glass of wine, the first to pass my lips since the flight to Hong Kong. Also yummm. We sat with Donna & Randy from Florida. It has been so fun to finally meet them in person. We had the same LID date, and Donna and I have "known" each other (online) since way back when we first started the dossier process, almost exactly two years ago. She is just as nice in person as she is online, and they are both a lot of fun to hang out with.

Tomorrow we're off our mini-vacation and back in the full swing of the adoption process. We have to get Z's photo taken for her visa to enter the US, and she has to have a physical to make sure she's healthy before she can go home. Then there's a big round of paperwork, followed by the official Red Couch Photo. For those of you not schooled in the China adoption process, here's a quick explanation: the famous White Swan hotel has some equally famous red couches in their lobby. It is tradition to place all the children in the travel group on a couch, dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, and try to take a picture before one of the babies tips over. Generally at least one child is red-faced and screaming in these pictures. If you go into our agency's offices, they have the red couch photo of the first group of babies ever adopted from China to the U.S. They also have a follow-up photo of those same children on a White Swan red couch, ten or so years later. It's a rather sweet tradition I think. We have bought Z a lovely fuschia dress and matching shoes for her big moment.

I can almost walk.

A proud moment for Daddy.

Can someone please email this to Mountain Flyer Magazine?

Until tomorrow...

Shopping Day!

We did our part to help out the local economy on Friday. In fact, we basically just shopped all day. First stop was a porcelain store. They took Visa, which was lucky for me, but not so lucky for our credit card balance. But whenever M & I travel and decide not to do or buy something b/c of the cost, we always regret it when we get home. Really, what's $200 in the grand scheme of things? And Jiangxi Province is famous for its porcelain, so if we're going to spend money on something, this seems like a meaningful something to spend it on. We bought a beautiful tea set that is hand-painted. It came with a certificate of authenticity that this particular famous artist painted it. It has his photo, signature and chop on it. We also bought a very unique teacup & saucer that just looked like something that should be in our home, if you know what I mean. And some little dolls that represent some of the ethnic minorities of China for Z when she's older. And an absolutely stunning vase that has a purple & blue glaze. Apparently this is also a very good quality piece. Chairman Mao & Deng Shao Ping both gave pieces from this particular artist to other heads of state when they visited China. We got a few other things that I'm not going to list here b/c they're gifts and I don't want to spoil the surprise. When I went to pay, one of our guides helped me bargain a little. When I looked at the list of original prices and then the discounted prices, it was evident that what they were doing was basically charging me full price for the good stuff and giving me the little stuff for free. I said this to the guide, and she apparently misunderstood, because when she said something to the clerk in Chinese, she went over and grabbed us a set of porcelain chopsticks & some jewelry boxes. I think they thought I was asking for something little for free! I felt so rude. But I'm not going to turn down a gift. And speaking of rude, both our guide and the clerk were stunned to see me sign my name with my left hand. They were even more blown away when I told them that M & B are both lefties too. Apparently this is unheard of in China.

I know there's been a request for pictures of the porcelain, but it's all packed up b/c we're leaving for the airport in less than an hour, and I really don't want to unpack it. I'll post pictures eventually, but it may be after we return home.

The downside of buying $200 worth of porcelain: we now have two more bags to carry on, not to mention the squirmy girl.

Next stop was a bookstore. We picked up some baby books that have pictures of numbers, animals, household items, etc., along with labels in Chinese, English and PinYin. This will be good for Z when she takes Chinese classes, and will help me too I'm sure. We also got a little something for B at this store, but I'm not going to tell what it is!



After that, the bus dropped us off at a pedestrian mall. It felt a little bit like a Chinese version of Melrose Avenue in L.A. to me. Loud music coming out of every store, and everything is super-stylish. You want to buy it all until you look a little closer and realize that the quality is cheap even though the prices aren't. All we bought was an adorable little stuffed doll for Z (called a Pucca Happy Love doll) and some hair pretties. I really wanted some of the ponytail holders that have big fluffy pompoms on them. I just love it when I see little girls with two ponytails with those on them. Z will have to grow some more hair before they'll do us any good though. We walked the length of this mall and back. We ran into several people who spoke English and stopped to chat, and also saw several groups of westerners with Chinese babies.

Our last stop (and I'm a little embarrassed to admit this) was McDonald's. M has been craving a hamburger, and I wasn't going to say no to some fries and a Coke. It was just like home. The girl at the counter even spoke English. The two main differences I noticed on the menu were that they had banana pies instead of apple pies, and that you could get a cup of corn instead of fries for a side.

Z: An American Girl:

We walked back to the hotel from there, about a 40 minute walk along some pretty busy streets. We attracted a lot of attention. Lots of grandmas & grandpas stopped us so they could fire questions at us (smile and nod, smile and nod, shrug, smile and nod again) and pat Z's cheeks. These exchanges always ended with lots of smiles and a thumbs-up.

Last night we had a group dinner at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel (they advertise that they have a western restaurant and a Chinese restaurant -- I hate to tell them this, but they really have two Chinese restaurants...). Our guide put us at two tables, one spicy and one not. We sat at the spicy table. It was spicy, but not THAT spicy. No spicier than a good chile relleno. Our guide told us it was "medium spicy," but she waited until after we ate & went somewhere else because she said our dinner wasn't spicy enough for her. Maybe she was just being polite and it wasn't really medium spicy but more like make-the-gringos-think-its-spicy spicy.

A few notes on adorable Z's progress:

- She's a pro at sitting up by herself now.

- She rolls over like she's been doing it all her life.

- She slept through the night last night!! This is a first.

- She likes to have a hand towel over her face when she falls asleep. She'll grab anything she can get her hands on & pull it over her face. It makes me nervous to see her sleeping with a towel over her face, so I always take it away after she's fallen asleep.

- She doesn't use a pacifier (actually, she likes to put the wrong side of it in her mouth -- we've tried to get a picture of this b/c it's very funny, but she always spits it out as soon as we point the camera at her), but she does this funny thing where she pulls her sleeve up over the palm of her hand, then puts the inside of her wrist right up to her mouth & makes sucking sounds. She doesn't actually put it IN her mouth, just right up to it. Then she purses those little lips and makes the cutest little sound. When she does this, it's a sign that she needs a nap.

OK, we have a plane to catch, so that's all for today!


More pictures - Mom and Z on the bus:


Z on the Bus with the Pink Panther:

New Construction:

Last Full Day in Nanchang

I can't believe today is our last full day in Nanchang. Time has really flown by. I don't have as much to say today (keep those sighs of relief to yourselves!), so it'll be mostly pictures. B, the pink panther pictures are for you!

Today is a big shopping day. We're going first to the porcelain street, where I'm told they take credit cards. If only we weren't limited by that two suitcases thing, I'd buy a bunch of stuff, because it's beautiful. Next stop is a book store where we can buy children's books with the words in both English and Chinese. Then they're going to drop us off at a flea market where we can shop until we're about to drop, and walk 40 minutes back to the hotel. At the pace this group moves, I bet M & I can make it in 20 minutes on our own.

Yesterday was a sightseeing day. We went to the Teng Wang Pavilion, which was just beautiful. We ate lunch in the most smoke-filled restaurant I've ever seen. It was worse than a bar at closing time. The food was good though. After lunch, Miss Z took a nap while M & I had massages. It was, shall we say, vigorous? Seriously, there were a few times when both of us thought we were going to cry. It was like she was going to get those knots out if it took a hammer & chisel to do it. As bad as that sounds, it was overall a good massage. I feel great today.

We took a quick walk around the neighborhood last night, and just as we were getting back to the hotel, the fireworks started. They went on for two hours at least. Looking out our hotel room window, we could see dozens of fireworks displays going on at the same time, all over the city. It made the 4th of July look LAME. Yesterday was the last day of the Chinese New Year, and fireworks were part of the celebration. It was pretty cool to see.

Little Z thought 5am was a good time to wake up today. We thought otherwise. I took her out of her crib and put her in bed between us. We both turned our backs and pretended to sleep while she jabbered away and played with her feet. I distinctly heard her whisper "Mama, baba" (Mommy, Daddy) three separate times. Awwww. I couldn't keep my back turned to that. That was rewarded with a kiss. Fortunately, she went back to sleep and didn't get up until after 7. I wish I could say the same for me. I've been up since 5. Oh well. I see an afternoon nap in my future.