Friday, November 27, 2009

A Thanksgiving we'll never forget...

Sorry for the lack of posts, but this is our first rodeo. New mommy and new daddy = not much time for anything else. And yesterday miss abby didn't feel too good. A little fever and diarhea, and didn't sleep well the past few nights, but I think we are past all that now. I'll get the hang of this before too long and will be able to multitask better.
 
I quit following the feeding schedule the orphanage gave us and prett much went to feeding on demand. She is such a tiny peanut, she needs all the extra calories we can stuff in her. She is not interested at all in solid food... that will take some time.  We are getting more and more smiles and giggles and this morning she discovered she could splash with her feet. So stinkin cute!
 
She's napping right now... and we have to pack soon for our trip to Guangzhou soon... we are so ready to leave Jiangxi... it is so freaking hot in our room... no air right now...and I've been sick all week from the pollution...we literally are dripping in sweat all the time even though it's about 50 outside... hoping the White Swan has better AC....
 
Last night we had thanksgiving dinner in the hotel restaurant... they tried, but it wasn't the same.  We have a great group of families... everyone is so much fun and we all get along pretty good.  This morning we woke up to Christmas decorations and Christmas music all over the hotel. It was almost like Santa had come!
 
We are ready to come home... still not looking forward to the plane ride from hell (14 hours on a plane with a baby) but we are so ready to be able to brush our teeth with tap water, breath clean air, and not have to dress the baby like a mummy. seriously, if skin is showing you will get chastised. I was reprimanded in the shopping area because apparently the fleece snowsuit I had abby in was not thick enough nor did I have her in enough layers. It apparently did not matter that she was dripping with sweat...
 
enough with the writing, I know you just want to see the pictures!
 

 


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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

More about Miss Abby

She sucks her thumb a lot. Actually, it's her first finger and her thumb. I am sure it helps with teething and she is doing it when she is overstimulated or needs to calm herself. It is so stinkin cute!
 
We had her first poopy diaper today. Hooray! It is a big deal around these parts as stressed out babies tend to be constipated. One way to know they are relaxing with you is when they finally have that first poopy diaper. And it was a doozy. Abby didn't sleep well last night and after seeing that diaper I am sure she was constipated. She was wiggling every which way, I'm sure she was not comfortable. Tonight should be much better.
 
It's not that cold here, but we have to dress her in so many layers that she is sweating. Today we took a walk down to the local market and a Chinese grandma, aka the clothing police, examined her big pink fluffy fleece snowsuit and looked at her layers and indicated it wasn't enough. For real! All this with sweat practically dripping off her little head. I didn't even have a jacket on, just a long sleeve t-shirt. Oh well, you can't please everyone. Mostly everyone just gives us the thumbs up and a lot of smiles. They follow us along chattering in chinese, probably wondering why we don't answer them. A few know english and that helps a lot.
 
I did see the biggest baby I've ever seen today. A boy, looking like he was less than a year old, had to be 25-30 lbs, and short. A true Buddha baby. LOL. Poor little Abby looked like a squirt compared to him.
 
So far we are having a wonderful time getting to know our daughter. She is giving us all kinds of smiles and laughs now, and we are trying to teach her about eating baby food... she's not quite sure what to do with her tongue, she spits out about as much as goes in. But we'll keep working on it, no doubt about it, she won't lack for food at our house, LOL.
 
CCAI had a pediatrician come today and look at all our babies. Another great thing about our agency... they truly are on top of everything. The doctor said her lungs and heart sound good and that her ears were wet but clear. Evidently the Chinese babies' eardrums go up instead of down and it's hard for them to get ear infections. Very good news. He did say she has pretty severe ecxema (sp?) and gave us cream to put on her cheeks. Should clear up. Told us to get outside a lot and give her more sunshine and when it clears up to keep moisture cream on it. Can do!
 
Ok ok, here are some more pictures... the first two are from this morning when she woke up... and the last one is of a little school group of children that we saw in the marketplace.  Will try to post more pics later today as we take them...


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Monday, November 23, 2009

Abby is here!

And she is fabulous!!! She cried for maybe 30 seconds when we got her but then settled down. She was a bit shell shocked last night, but she is rapidly showing us her little personality! She loves her bath, she loves to kick her feet, and she loves being in the Ergo carrier.  She doesn't show a preference for either one of us, and is quite content to be held by either...
 
She is tiny tiny tiny. She is swimming in her 3-6 month pants. The tops almost fit, but the pants are huge on her! And the shoes I have for her are all way too big. Not sure I can find any that will fit here. But I'll sure try!
 
Today we went to the government office and made her adoption official. Everything went very smoothly... I give all the credit for that to CCAI. These folks are definitely on top of everything! Then we came back for lunch and met with the director from the orphanage. I can tell he is very proud of his babies... as soon as we walked up, the girl with him starting saying "jiang yan, jiang yan" so she must have been pretty special to the people at the orphanage. The director had books made up for the babies, that has their pictures in it, the staff, the orphanage, and a little about it all. At least that's what I think it says... it's all in Chinese.
 
Hopefully tomorrow we'll get more giggles out of girl. We are seeing them, but she is stingy with them... you have to really be funny to get a giggle...
 
Now here are some pictures!


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Touring Hong Kong and McDonald's

Today we toured Hong Kong, going to Victoria Point and the Aberdeen Harbor and a marketplace of some sort. I was struck by how clean everything is. There are people everywhere constantly cleaning. And the entrepreneurs are everywhere... they sell sell sell and set up their shops pretty much any place you could put a table.  We didn't buy any thing today, but it was fun to look at everything.
 
Lunch was dim sum at a restaurant near the hotel. Our guide had prenegotiated drink prices for us, so Derek and I were able to get cans of coke zero for $2 USD per can. Normally they sell for $4 or $5 each! After lunch we went to the History Museum and are now on information overload. But I did see some nice pieces of blue and white pottery that dated back to 1375. Apparently, the blue and white china never goes out of style! LOL. I really hope to be able to find a cup and saucer or finger bowl when we are in Guangzhou.
 
Tonight we went to the harbor for the spectacular laser show. That turned out to be a dud. One color laser and it didn't last very long. Makes me wonder if they were having technical difficulties. But we did get to spend time with 2 of the couples here on the trip and that was fun! We have a very good group of people!
 
After the light show Derek and I went to the McDonald's. Our last night as just a couple and that's where we ended up. Kind of fitting since we had pizza hut on our wedding night. But it was after 9 PM and we wanted something fast and easy.
 
Hong Kong has been very impressive. Most every sign is in Canton and also English, and there are a lot of foreigners (non Chinese) that live here.  Our guide says her son refers to himself as Hong Kongese. I imagine things will be very different when we get to mainland China. 
 
That's about it for today. We are pretty tired and want to get a good night's rest tonight. We get Abby tomorrow. I can't believe that the day is here. WOW.
 
Here are some pictures from today!
 


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We're Here!!


Wow, all I can say is that was the LONGEST plane ride of my life. I thought we would never get off that plane! And Derek and I sat inbetween two Chinese people who must have been camels in a previous life because they hardle drank anything and consequently never got up to go to the bathroom. LOL.
 
I also got a cold 2 days prior to leaving. Nothing like flying at 40,000 feet with a stuffed up head. But I'll live. It's for a good reason! We didn't manage to sleep much on the plane, so when we landed in Hong Kong, we came to the hotel and went right to bed around 9:30 and slept through until 5:30 this morning. And now we are both wide awake, waiting for them to start serving breakfast at 6:30.
 
I'll leave you with pictures I took on the way, today we are sight seeing around Hong Kong so maybe I'll have more to blog about!
<a href="http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/?action=view&current=HongKong002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/HongKong002.jpg" border="0" alt="China Trip"></a>

<a href="http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/?action=view&current=HongKong003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/HongKong003.jpg" border="0" alt="China Trip"></a>

<a href="http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/?action=view&current=HongKong004.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/SuzanneS_01/HongKong004.jpg" border="0" alt="China Trip"></a>
 


Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.