Day 6

Just pics today. I added pics of 2 other kids in our group, John Asher is the baby and Liam is the toddler. He walks around saying " hello" and 'E I E I O"! Flying to Guangzhou tonight, White Swan, here we come!

Zhengzhou Day 5

Yesterday was a much needed rest day for most of our group. One family had to travel to their orphanage to complete paperwork and they got a flat tire on the way back. Which normally wouldn't be such a big deal but after the driver changed the tire, he decided to call the insurance people to come look at it and had to take the good tire back off and put the flat one back on. Go figure! The family said that they could have walked back to the hotel, but I guess they weren't allowed to. Long day for them but they said their new son, Liam, was a trooper and handled it all very well. He's almost 2 1/2 and such a cutie! I'll try to get pics of the rest of the babies today to post.

We haven't seen the sun since we've been in China but it warmed up slightly yesterday. We went to a huge park and walked around. We're all going stir crazy sitting in the hotel. Anyway, the park must be beautiful in the spring and summer. There were tons of trees, little paths everywhere, and it went along a canal where people were cane fishing. Although I wouldn't want to eat anything out of that water, it was a little green soup looking! We found a play ground for the older kids to play at. It was 10 yuan per kid but the guy bartered down to 30 yuan for the 4 kids. But they had fun, definitely got rid of some energy.

Our hotel is nice, small rooms and hard beds of course. Our room is really crowded with the crib and roll away for Syd but we spend most of our time hanging out on the bed since Alex isn't very mobile yet. We were all sitting in the hallway yesterday so we could chat, and we got kicked out again. Since adoptions are fairly new in this province, I guess they're not used to us Americans doing what we want! So we just all moved to one of our rooms and hung out for a while. James and Syd have been working on homework once a day, usually while Alex naps and I just try to get some sleep too.

Alex is starting to get a cold and had a rough night. He's a finger sucker, so as soon as his fingers went in his mouth he couldn't breathe and would start crying. Poor Syd was getting rather disgusted with "all that loud crying!" But he is such a happy little guy! He loves to be super baby and his little legs just kick a million miles a minute! We're all taking turns feeding him his bottle and Syd really enjoys doing that. He is an eater, that's for sure. He likes noodles, watermelon, fried rice, eggs, goldfish and whatever else kind of snacks he tries! And of course, cheerios are a huge hit too!

We didn't take too many pics today. We're going to a museum this morning and shopping this afternoon so I'll get some more to post later.

We miss everyone and wish we could be home sooner than 10 days, but hopefully the weather will be nicer in Guangzhou so we can get out more.

Syd's Blog

I love my baby brother Alex. I have lost two teeth in China. The tooth fairy brought me ten yuan, that is Chinese money, two times. It is boring when Alex is sleeping because I don't have very much fun. But I still have friends that I can play with until we can't play in the hall because we sometimes get to noisy and that is not very fun after we get told to not play in the hall. We got Alex first when it was gotcha day and Alex loved our glass and I got to sit with Alex. I miss my friends but I will see you soon at home where you live. It is so cool to have a baby brother. From Syd I can't wait until we get to see you. ;-)

Zhengzhou Day 3

This morning was our meeting at the registration office so we are now officially Alex's parents. We have nothing official to do for the next 2 days so we'll get some shopping and relaxing done. We're going to the Henan Province museum on Thursday. Yisha, our guide, says it's the 3rd largest museum in China! Can't wait to see it.

A bit more about Alex. He is sleeping, again. He slept pretty well last night and during our running around this morning, he fell asleep for about 3 hours! He's serious about his sleep :-) I was starting to worry because he would not wake up, but once he did, he seemed ok. The kids all have a cough, so maybe he's fighting off a cold.

We weighed him on the scale in our room and he's 19 pounds! He is chubby every where! Even his legs are fat, which surprised me since he doesn't use them except for his excited kicking. We took him up to the playroom in the hotel and he scooched around a little bit, we kept putting the ball a little ways away from him to force him to move. I got little bitty socks thinking he would have tiny feet, nope, gotta find some bigger ones. He seems to be comfortable with us but kind of indifferent. He's not as chatty and giggly as he was yesterday so he may be sleeping so much to deal with all of this change. He loves carrying his little photo album we sent to him around, chewing on it too. I think he's got some teeth coming in, right now he's only got 4. 2 on top and 2 on the bottom and he likes to nibble on our fingers. He sucks the first 2 fingers on his left hand, Syd was bummed it wasn't the same as her.

Speaking of Syd, she lost her 2nd tooth in China this morning at 4:30am! So now she has a huge gap in her mouth. Right now, she is in the rec room playing ping pong with James and a couple of other dads from the group. It's nap time for the kids so it's quiet on our floor for a change. No pics today because nothing really happened, so I'll post some tomorrow.

Take care and we can't wait to get home in 11 days!

Gotcha Day!!!

 What a whirl wind this morning was! After a 15 minute bus ride we got to the registration office at 10:00. We walked in and guess whose baby was there waiting? The two babies from Luohe LOCC had already arrived! They were playing in a little play area that was set up, so we were scrambling for our cameras and and trying to figure out what was going on! I just grabbed the 2 cameras and handed them to whoever was closest and there Alex was! The first thing he did was to grab all of our glasses :-) He is the sweetest little guy with the most mellow personality! He wasn't as bundled up as some of the babies were, he only had on 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and a really thick coat. He took to Syd pretty quickly and so far he likes his parents :-) He's super chubby but doesn't seem to have a lot of muscle tone because he's very floppy. He can sit up on his own and roll over to one side. We were told that he is very good at scooching across the floor with his arms but he doesn't use his legs a lot, except to kick when he's excited!

We met an American family that has been volunteering at Alex's orphanage for about 6 weeks and it was amazing to talk to them. They have 2 girls adopted from China, 8 and 5. The oldest one walked up to Syd right after we got Alex and said "Hi, are you Sydni?" The family has been with Alex every day showing him our pictures and playing with him and helping him to start using his legs more. They told us that Alex has a very mellow, laid back personality ( we figured that out pretty quickly ) and that he's such a great baby to be around. They showed us where his tickle spots are and does he have a fantastic smile! They also told us that when they left the orphanage this morning the nannies were all crying because they cared for Alex so much. What a blessing to be able to get so much more information than we expected!

Syd is loving her baby brother! She carries him around, feeds him cheerios, and helps with his bottle. She even changed his diaper once! He loves playing with her and she makes him laugh by looking in the mirror!

As I'm typing, James and I keep looking at both of our kids sleeping. One little girl that's passed out to the world and sleeping through tons of fireworks (end of spring festival) and one that tosses and turns and cries when his little fingers slide out of his mouth. Wow! I'm a mommy to 2 beautiful, wonderful kids.

Zhengzhou Day 1

We finally made it to Zhengzhou after sitting on the runway in Beijing for almost an hour! The weather is yucky, rainy, foggy and really cold. But our group is on the same floor so the 4 kids are out in the hallway running off all their energy. Wonder how many people will request new rooms on our floor :-) Not long, they just got busted by our guide, Yisha.

So we're just taking it easy tonight before the big day. We're getting all of our fees, gift bags and gift envelopes ready for tomorrow. We take the bus to the registration building at 9:40 and get Alex around 10:00. OMG!!!! I'm starting to freak a little bit, well maybe a lot! It started when we opened the door to our room and there's a crib. Then I promptly had to start moving furniture to make room for a roll away bed too, Syd is not fun to sleep with!

I've added some more pics from our 2 days in Beijing. I hope there are no duplicates, but since I can't get to our blog, I really don't know what I've already posted. We're off to dinner at Mama Mia's, wonder what Italian tastes like here.

Beijing Day 2

We woke up to a little bit of snow today and it was cold! We went to a jade factory and saw how they carve jade. We got a neat piece called a Happiness Ball. It's one solid piece of jade carved into 4 separate balls inside of each other. There were so many beautiful things that were all hand carved by artisans whose families have been doing the same thing for generations.

Then we went to the Great Wall. The pollution was terrible so the views weren't quite what we'd hoped for but it was an awesome site! Syd and I made it up to the first guard tower and James made it up to the third guard tower. Talk about shaky legs! The stairs are very uneven, some were 2 inches high and some were over 12 inches high. It was amazing!

Then we went to the Birds Nest and Water Cube from the 2008 Olympics, it is a huge complex! We also got to go to an acrobat show and you can certainly tell that these people have been training since they were small children.

We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and Syd lost her tooth while we were there, wonder what the tooth fairy will bring her? She has been a trooper, loving all the tours we've done and exhausted by the end of the day! Her and James woke up around 4-4:30 this morning and since I was still asleep, James set her up in the tub with blankets and pillows to play with her new Nintendo DS (thanks Oma, Opa, MaaMaa and PapPap).

We've got to finish up with packing, we leave for Zhengzhou in the morning and we get Alex on Monday!!! Now that the touring is all done (for now) the real reason for us being here is starting to sink in. We'll soon be a family of 4!!

PS: Hope the first grade assembly was fun! Syd missed singing with you.