First Giggles

Day Six Video Clip


Hopefully you can get that little clip to play. I cannot, but I think that might be a China thing. She is so much happier now, today at least. Don't get your hopes up; she still will not let me hold her, pick her up or hold her hand. But she'll wander away from J now to investigate things in the room, play with all the shoes, and come get a snack from me. She did much less biting overall today although J says his shoulders feel bruised from carrying her on our tour this a.m.. It seemed like less biting and pinching out of anger today though. She was much more playful today and even ride in the stroller this evening when we went out to shop a bit, walk the beautiful, quiet streets, and grab some dinner. We had hoped if we waited til 6pm to stroll, it would be cooler. Nope. The rooms are so air-conditioned that we forget how hot and sticky it is outside. There was a wedding near the big curvy pool today so the kids all had to swim in the plain old rectangular pool. Always a good idea to have a back-up pool. #2 swam all the way across under water today!

And The Spark made a friend. We met up with ALL the other families from our agency who adopted babies in another province last week, and now we are all here together for the Consulate part of the process. One of the families brought their 5 y.o. daughter also adopted from China along and she and The Spark were immediately inseparable. Now if we could find an 8-9 y.o. boy, the kids won't ever want to leave.

Cupcake, a.k.a. Jiao-Jiao, Jo-Jo, Teacup, Crushcake is a good sleeper and a good napper. She's slept the last couple nights all the way through from 7 til after 6a.m.. Tonight, however, she is riled up and flopping around in her crib making the cutest noises. And she keeps pooping. Poor J. She'll freak out and wake the other 3 up if I even get her out of her crib, so daddy is on perma-diaper duty still. We did make a few baby steps of progress today though so maybe it won't take months or years for her to tolerate me like it has felt like til now. Just don;t anyone go calling our house next Monday when J goes to work and Jiao-Jiao and I have all day together, alone. Gulp.

Tomorrow, she has her visa photo taken and her medical for the US Consulate. The boys will stay here with Aunt Heather. Spark is going to join us for the outing so that she can remember where she went and what the process involved 3.5 years ago when it was her turn. The medical will be traumatic since Cupcake will have to be out of J's arms for some of it. Then after a paperwork session, we'll hit the pool again. And a group dinner at the Thai place in town which is so good. At least it was in '05. Oh, and another food note: the room service menu here is great, but the best part is one of the desserts. The translations have been cracking us up all along, but this one could be one of the best. Keep in mind that this a fancy hotel and everything is very well done, most of their translations are very accurate. One of the desserts is "Chocolate Puke." Yum?!

Have a nice Sunday. It was a nice day.

Ahhh...The White Swan

Photos from traveling today:








We are at the White Swan in Guangzhou now and it is so nice to be here. The rooms are tiny but it really is a 5 star hotel. The palm trees and the great pool make it feel like a nice vacation now. Cupcake did great on her first airplane ride and 2 hours feels SO short now! And the bellmen from the hotel came all the way to airport with the shuttle bus to get us and our bags in their little white gloves and funny hats. Once we got checked in, we hit the pool. There are two pools. One is more of a serious swimming pool with lanes and the other is tucked away through a winding path and it is huge with a waterfall and lounge chairs and a baby pool and fully clothed lifeguards. The kids loved it and it was 95 and sunny so it's a good thing there's a good pool. AND, this is the best part, I took Cupcake out of J's arms, out of the pool, wrapped her in a towel, and although she did scream initially, I bribed her with cheerios and she sat with me and snacked for a good 5-8 minutes without crying or biting me! See photos below... Our first happy time together!





We had dinner with our group at Lucy's which is the American restaurant about 1/2 block from the hotel. Finally grilled cheese for #2! We will all eat much more this week. At dinner Cupcake was back to her ol' self and shrieked and clawed at me when J tried to hand her off to me so he could console #1 who had just been smacked by his darling baby sister with a fork. So, she still doesn't like me yet but I know from the pool experience that if she;s hungry enough I can buy her tolerance of me with food. Oh and J put her in my arms today when she was fast asleep so she had no idea and I got to hold her and snuggle her finally. She freaked the second she woke up but we had a nice 1/2 hour or so while she slept.

Tomorrow we are touring a bit with our new guide, grace, who we'll meet in the a.m. and then while I do paperwork for the Consulate in the afternoon, the kids will probably be in the pool.

pics from last day in Nanjing

Last day in Nanjing

The camera cord is packed so no new pics from today. I'll post some when we get settled in Guangzhou tomorrow. Today was the day I'd been promising the kids all week we could just lounge around at the pool. All official business had been completed and no commitments 'til the celebratory dinner with the group tonight. It rained all day. Oh well.

We met up with our group and headed to the German restaurant right across from our hotel for lunch. It was WONDERFUL. Chinese waitresses in Dirndels (sp?) and very good food. When we saw the waitresses, Spark said to me, "Mommy I want to wear my dirndel now." Ooops! Didn't pack that! Anyone coming to the Nanjing Grand who might get a little tired of Chinese food, be sure to check out the German restaurant across the street and next to the stadium building. We all wished we had tried it earlier in the week. And I hated the German food in Milwaukee. We've also been told that the pasta at the Mexican place on the other side of the hotel is very good. Yup, Mexican pasta in China.

Crushcake was a bit more animated today and played a few little giggle-y games with us. AS LONG AS SHE WAS SAFELY IN J'S ARMS. She continues to scream, bite, and claw at me if I attempt to hold her. When J puts her down she follows him around crying and sticks herself to his leg crying til he picks her up. The temper in this one is rather astounding. She'll bite her own fingers/hand when she can't get to him fast enough. I wish I could make her realize and understand that she can trust all of us. We won't leave her tied to a potty chair and screaming for 1/2 hour. We will comfort her when she fusses in the night. We will make sure she has food whenever she is hungry. Anything to take away the fear she has inside her now.

Speaking of food when hungry, she is still packing it in. And we just found out that not only can you not bring any liquids on a Chinese flight, we cannot even pack dry formula powder in our carry-ons. I'm not sure I trust the dairy products on China Southern especially when it's in the 90's everyday, so Crushcake is gonna be cranky and hungry by the time we get to the White Swan Hotel!

Tonight's group dinner was hectic since all of our kids were hungry and tired be the time we met the bus. We would have called off plans of any sort had we been at home, but we had to eat and the group was waiting so we soldiered on. They pulled it together pretty well. And mommy & daddy had beer, so that was good. #1 has been doing so well with the Chinese food. He won't try anything bizarre, but he's great at eating familiar items prepared in a very unfamiliar way. Very proud of him. #2 and #3 on the other hand, had french fries and chocolate milkshakes for lunch and maybe 3 kernels of corn for dinner. Dinner was very tasty for the rest of us. There was an eggplant dish (Yep, eggplant which is not on the top of my list of veggies) that I could have eaten all day every day. And steamed veggie dumplings that were wonderful. It was in a flashy part of town that seemed upscale and it was hoppin' tonight. J looked so sweet walking down the sidewalk (really more of a walking mall like Burlington's Church St or Boulder's Pearl St) holding hands with The Spark on one side and Cupcake on the other. The girls wore their traditional Chinese silk dresses to dinner, so they looked extra cute. By that time I had drool all over my skirt from #2 falling asleep on my lap at dinner so I, on the other hand, was not looking sweet or cute.

Checking out in the a.m. and getting the group bus to the Nanjing airport. Looking forward to the White Swan and the ease of getting around on foot near the WS hotel. Plus a great pool and good restaurants that I am excited to revisit and share with J,C,W,L,C, and Heather.

Still more pics

A few moments from yesterday and today.





































Mmmmmmmmmm...dumpling soup!

Sorry I still have not posted about yesterday's Wuxi visit. Not quite enough energy in me to do it justice. It is a very nice facility. Huge actually. We got to see the building where Cupcake and one of her fellow Wuxi toddlers in our group slept, played, potty-ed, etc. We saw all the kids their age in their little racecar toddler beds all lined up at naptime. 18 of 'em in the room. All quiet. Almost all sleeping. Someone had already been moved into Cupcake's old bed. We saw the sleeping room of the younger babies and then another room with the youngest, littlest ones. We could not take pictures of these two rooms. We didn't get to see any older kids except for the two 11 or 12-ish y.o. girls who came out shouting "Jiao Jiao!" and waving goodbye when they saw she was leaving with us. The staff was very friendly and fed us a very nice lunch. That's the short version of our day in Wuxi yesterday.

We all had dinner in one of the other family's suite tonight since we had our guide call in a Pizza Hut delivery order for us. The Chinese has food has been pretty good for the most part, but today we were all looking for something more like home. Tomorrow night we are all going out for dinner with our two guides and three other families w/ another agency that the guides have also been working with this week. It'll be our last night in Nanjing. Saturday a.m. we fly to Guangzhou for the US Consulate part of the process.

Cupcake, aka Crushcake, certainly knows how to attach/bond since she has been literally stuck to J like a barnacle all week. We are glad she wants to be with him so much and won't have it any other way b/c it shows that she wants & needs that security which some orphanage kids could care less about and have a hard time ever bonding to anyone. She still will barely ever even look at me. If she figures out it is me patting her back rather than J, she freaks. Once in awhile now she'll give me a smile if she is touching J, and I am not touching her. And she is a biter. Big time. Because she's so petite we think she had to be really scrappy to hold her own with the other toddlers in the orphanage and now she thinks it's the way to relate- especially to other kids. She has bitten all of us except The Spark, but she's hit her at least so she doesn't feel too left out.

She is definitely a good eater though. I think she's been rather underfed and her little arms & legs are so skinny. You can really tell when she's in her clingy footed jammies. Her legs look so tiny. So we are trying to feed her lots, and she's loving that. She can pack it in. She's still getting 3 bottles a day too which we will keep her on b/c hopefully, eventually I can give her a bottle which would be a great bonding time. Eventually I'll get to hold her and she'll settle into my arms, right?!

The Spark started out the week asking why people kept talking to her in Chinese. We explained that they did so b/c she looks like she would speak Chinese since she looks Chinese. She said she's a New Hampshire girl now though. We explained that they do not all know that about her. So now she keeps asking when she can learn Chinese. Finally! She has had no interest at home. She asked J yesterday, "When can I make Chinese words come out of my Chinese face?"

And my favorite quote from #2 this week was during a Cupcake crying jag, "It's a good thing you guys know how to do this because you've done it three times!"

Oooooooooo! It's after 9pm! This is the latest I've been up all week. Gotta go get some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's.

more pics from day 3 & 4

Family of 6!












Spark in one of the orphanage playrooms.


Cupcake with one of her two main nannies.












On the way to the Nanjing Museum



Getting feisty at the museum.



We'd love to! This is a fun one, but yesterday's best random translation was a highway sign that said "Important Water. Drive Prudently." There was no water around.



Baba with the brood.

Wuxi Day

Sorry no post yesterday. It was a long day w/ a three hour bus ride each way and emotional to see where Cupcake had lived and meet all the people who took care of her. Here are some more pics from the last couple days. Will post more later. She still will not let me even look at her, so J's arms are starting to get tired.

Day 2 and it's official!

The adoption was finalized today. The assistant director of Chloe's orphanage was there again and man was she happy to see him. Her face lit up like we have not seen it do for anyone or anything else. The orphanage staff did not need to come back today and it's about a 3 hour drive, but they make the trek anyway. And we are seeing them again tomorrow when we go to Wuxi. They must really want to make sure these 2 babies are in good hands. (The two other little ones in our travel group, Emma and Eli, are from a different city than Chloe & a cutie pie named Jackson.) The orphanage staff gave us a gift today too. It's a traditional decorative piece with two babies on it. It was very nice and I don't think many orphanages give gifts to the families.

Poor Chloe is so sad. And I think not feeling great. She still does not feel fever-y, but she's sure cranky. She has had some happy moments all in J's arms of course. I did manage to coax her over with a banana at lunchtime today but once her belly was less empty she wouldn't let me near her again. At dinner tonight she even threw the piece of watermelon I was offering her into my face. Yep, she hates me. She did warm up to Caleb a little bit at dinner tonight, and he is very pleased about that. He was being so sweet with her, holding her on the bed, and then later helping feed her dinner.

She is going to need some big time PT. J's sis Heather the massage therapist said one side of Chloe's neck is all knots. You can definitely feel the difference between the left and right sides. We are crossing our fingers that she won't need surgery on that muscle, but she has not outgrown the torticollis like we had hoped.

We walked around today after Cupcake's nap. It is pretty darn hot though. We didn't stay out too long b/c everyone was getting grouchy with the heat and the fact that we were all up at 3:30a.m. again this morning. Except Cupcake who snoozed through the night til just after 6am like her schedule said. So after the walk we hit the hotel pool and the girls who work there were all amazed by how well the kids all swim. They all gasped when #2 & #3 jumped right in all by themselves before J and I even had our shirts off. Cupcake went in a little bit too in J's arms but not her head in case she does have a ear infection and sore throat.

We hope to see some more action from her in the next few days b/c she is just so sad and confused right now. Once in a while she forgets to be upset and lets a little smile through (as long as I am not looking at her or standing too close), but most of today she was just plain mopey. And she is pretty far behind thanks to orphanage life. There are 5 babies between our group and the other group that our guide is helping who all have Dec. '06 or early Jan '07 b-days, and they all seem to be very similar developmentally. Cupcake might be the most bummed out though. The assistant director whose arms she practically leaped into today said it is because she is so clever and has such a great memory that she cannot forget the life she's used to and move on yet.

Tomorrow will be interesting. All the kids decided they want to come and see the orphanage so it's going to be a long day in the bus with a real Chinese lunch at the orphanage. It is always a stressful day when new adoptive parents return to a child's orphanage or foster home to visit just after Gotcha Day, but in our case I don't feel like Chloe has really made any progress in the adjustment department, so tomorrow won;t set us back at all. We are hoping that it gives her some closure and comfort to see us with her favorite caregivers and that they will tell her it is okay for her to be happy with us. Oh, that reminds me, I tried to give her a bottle for naptime today, and she bit me on the shoulder. J took over once again and she settles right in.

Hoping for a happier, livelier Cupcake girl tomorrow.

Cupcake is in the house!

She's here! She is beautiful and teeny. She was MAD that the orphanage workers who brought her to Nanjing weren't responding much to her cries for help-save-me-from-these-strange-big-people! She stomped her little feet and shook her head NO! and waved her arms at us to go away. She did not want us to hold her at all. Then she slowly calmed down for a few Gerber puffs and would start up again every time she remembered what was happening. She was so tired from screaming that after about 1/2 hour she settled into Jason's arms with a bottle. She dozed off and each time she'd stir, she'd whimper or scream again.

When we got back to the hotel, she settled into J's arms on the bed and stared at everything around the room. She LOVED the stacking cups and stopped crying to play with them. She loved flipping through the board books we brought. Once she stopped the angry scream fest and starting playing a bit, she even smiled at her brothers and sister!

After we got her schedule translated, we realized she was missing naptime, so J laid her in her crib and read a story, and she rolled over and went to sleep. WHAT?!?! Yep. Napped for two hours. She sucks her fingers when sleeping.

She is accustomed to peeing and pooping on a squatty potty (typical Asian hole in the ground style toilet) so her diapers have been dry all day but when we hold her on the toilet, nothing happens. Might be awhile til she's comfortable enough to do that for us.

She loved the banana we fed her. She seems totally perfect so far. Her neck is definitely stronger on one side than the other which should be an easy fix with some physical therapy. We had the note from her birthparents translated by our guide which led us to believe that she was born without any special needs and probably developed torticollis from being in one position so much at the orphanage. As for that note...

It is truly amazing that we have this information!! It was written by her birthfather who was distraught at having to give her up and hoped a "warm hearted" family would adopt her b/c they were young and unmarried and could not tell their families about the baby. She was born October 29 in the LUNAR YEAR 2006 which I guess translates to December 19th, 2006. He also wrote that she had a cough so he hoped that whoever found her would give her medicine.

She does walk. She loves her new pink Crocs and cried when we tried to take them off. She sucks on her fingers. The doctor is coming to the hotel at 5:30 to check on all of the babies. She sure seems healthy to us. Tiny and covered with bug bites, but she has a great set of lungs and the cutest little walk.

Tomorrow we go back to the civil affairs office to make it official. Wednesday we go to the orphanage which will be very hard, but hopefully give us and Jiao Jiao some closure.

UPDATE: She ate some ham, some french fries, and a strange squash dish from last night's dining experience for dinner tonight. Dr. Gong came by and said some physical therapy for her neck and she'll be all set. He also said she has a common cold w/ a bit of redness in her ear and throat so that might not be helping with her mood. Dr. Gong gave us his cellphone # in case she gets fever-y, and then he'll give us some antibiotics. She's mostly content and quiet as long as she's in J's arms. If she catches me looking at her, she screams.

Today's the day!

In just over 1 hour we go down to the lobby to meet our guide Anna and get on the bus with three other families from our agency's semi-sister agency to go the Civil Affairs office and GET CHLOE!

The kids slept great last night (phew) although the adults...not so much. We attempted to take the kids out to the fancy chinese restaurant on the 23rd floor last night but that did not work so well. All three had been sound asleep from 3:30 til we woke them at 5:20 to get some dinner with the rest of the families. Waking from that deep of a sleep proved to be a complete disaster. It is rare that all 3 are crying at the same time and last night was one of those times. We lasted until they brought out a plate of what we thought were little frogs but actually turned out to be duck tongues. That's when I succumbed to the kids' pleas to go back to the room. We had PB&J sandwiches (J found all the fixin's at Walmart) , watched a movie, and went to sleep.

What we missed at dinner, Jason and Heather got to tell us all the details. they were very adventurous. jellyfish, squid, the duck tongues and much more. Tonight we will try the western restaurant on the 24th floor. And I will take my card that says in chinese "I eat dairy, eggs, and vegetables. Please do not feed me meat or seafood."

We'll try to post later with photos of our new daughter!!!!!!!

Ni Hao from Nanjing!

Thank God for Leapsters!












Ready for bed at the Nanjing Grand.

Delta flight 19

14.5 hours

#1 did not sleep a wink.

We are here! We are here! We are here!

The flight went SO smoothly and we are so proud of the kids who had fun the whole time. There was no whining and not a single tear was shed. Well, until the 2 hour bus trip from the airport to the hotel turned out to be closer to a six hour trip and the kids had officially reached their travel saturation point by then. After a minor meltdown from #1 and a pit stop, they all held it together all the way through check-in and dinner 'til bedtime around 10:30. They even all liked their shrimp wonton soup at dinner. I, on the other hand, requested a noodle dish with NO meat in it and it arrived loaded with shrimp, so my dinner was a Luna bar.

The hotel is beautiful with 5 restaurants, a 4th floor roof top garden with ponds full of gold fish which the kids have already discovered love to come over and nibble on fingers. Maybe we'll try the "western" restaurant tonight even though it looks a bit fancy.

We're meeting our guide, Anna, at 10 this a.m. and then the assistant guide, Grace, is coming at 1pm to take some of us to Walmart for supplies. Jason and Heather are going on that adventure and the kids and I will hopefully take a snooze. #3 and #1 were up for the day at 3:30 and #2 made it til 5a.m.. The breakfast buffet at 6:30 was great! Definitely the best meal of the day just like it was in Changsha 3.5 years ago.

Tomorrow a.m. we all load up with the others in our group to go to the Civil Affairs office and GET CHLOE!!!!! Her clothes are all unpacked. Her little crib is all set up and cozy. We know that b/c big brother #1 slept in it last night after Aunt Heather snored her way to a private room. It is tiny little infant crib on rockers and Caleb was all curled up and happy as a clam in it. At least til 3:30 this morning.

We continue to be utterly amazed by how great our kids are doing with all the travel and jetlag and new foods, etc. They are much better at int'l travel so far than I am. They sleep when tired and eat when hungry and find coolness in the littlest things like the flocks of birds circling in the sky outside the windows at breakfast.

Tomorrow we will have FOUR wonderful, resilient, little people!

First leg done

We made it as far at Atlanta! Smooth flying. The new Leapsters and Ninentendo DS are a HUGE hit, surprise, surprise. Sparky actually just colored in her new princess coloring book the entire flight. We walked right to the hotel shuttle (with ALL of our bags since the Delta agent I spoke with on the phone a few days ago was WRONG and we could not check everything through to Shanghai) and as we were checking in, my mom's friend Elaine who lives in Atlanta was just a few steps behind us for a visit.

The kids all swam, distributed the contents of their neatly packed carry-ons all over the room, and had some hotel dinner. Elaine graciously drove me to find something more exciting for dinner, and I came back with Taco Bell. :)

And Megan got into our house to tend to the dogs after her boss (thank you SO much, Wendy!) and her boss's boss as the fireman who responded to the call to break into the house after the town policeman authorized the break-in by the fire dep't. Our friend Wendy swept in to give them the correct code to the automatic garage door keypad seconds before the fireman (her boss) broke the lock with an ax. PHEW! Can you tell we never actually lock-up?!


So one last swim for the boys to tire them out for bedtime and hopefully we'll all get some sleep tonight.

Next stop...Shanghai!

Sewing for the girls

After getting very inspired to sew thanks to the Grosgrain website that my travel mates forwarded to me, I've made a skirt for #3 and a coordinating dress for #4 whom we have nicknamed Cupcake. So Cupcake and Sparky will wear their "sisters" outfits together in China. Cupcake's dress is already packed so you'll have to wait to see pics of her wearing it, but here is a photo of Sparky in her matching skirt.




We are almost packed. I'm hoping to do carry-ons later today. I was going to make a very simple, really cute dress for Cupcake today, but my sewing machine decided to protest the nearly constant use it was getting. It's broken. Who knows when I'll have time to take it in to the fix-it-guy who's over an hour away.

Counting down...

We are almost organized. If I can fit everything I want to take into our bags and make sure none of them weigh over 40 lbs for the in-country China flights, we'll be good to go.

Here's the link to our hotel for the first week. The kids are very excited about the round swimming pool. I'm looking forward to the "old aquaintance sentiment" at the Good Man Bar. Gotta love their english translations!

www.njgrandhotel.com/english/jdjj/jdjj.asp

Itinerary!

Aug 21: Fly to Atlanta
Aug 22: Atlanta to Shanghai
Aug 23: Arrive Shanghai, drive to Nanjing
Aug 25: GOTCHA DAY!
Aug 30: Fly to Guangzhou
Sept 2: Consulate Appointment
Sept 4: Fly home w/ overnight in Atlanta
Sept 5: Arrive home with Chloe!

And here are some pics of 1-3 at the beach...







Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!