Wednesday,
November 21, 2012
Can I just say that not only did we get the cutest baby in all
of China, but she is the most easy going loving little girl.
With the exception of leaving her foster mom, she hasn't cried
one single time. Last night we put her in the crib, even after
she slept for 3 hours on the way home from Datong, and she just
laid there and put herself to sleep. Can you say dream baby??
Let's just keep our fingers crossed it's not a fluke. She goes
easily to us all, but really loves her daddy.
I was so tired last night when I wrote the post that I forgot to
mention a few things. Not only is our hotel amazing, it is
filled with awesome American people with little Chinese babies.
There is an instant camaraderie and a bond with strangers that
we have experienced here as well as through our entire journey.
People we don't even know are signing our guestbook, and
although we have never met, we are now part of their family.
It's so incredible!
When we went to the civil affairs office and saw all of the
families, Taytum put on quite a show. Shy was really happy she
didn't crack under pressure with the big crowd. She showed off
all of her mad skills...blowing kisses, high fiving, waving,
thumbs up, and, for the encore, all of the new sign language
that the girls taught her. As John and I sat with the baby and
signed and stamped all of our papers, the kids counted all of
our money. It was really quite humorous. The money here is like
monopoly money and to see them sitting in a circle putting it in
stacks is a sight I will never forget. The workers must have
thought we were nuts!
The other thing that I didn't want to forget were the reactions
of people towards us in her provence. Needless to say we
attracted quite a bit of attention. Shy holding the baby with
her long blonde hair flying everywhere, Ally riding on John's
back and all of us trying to follow our new guide made for a
motley crew! As we sat in the police station I could tell people
were talking about us. I asked our guide what they were saying
and she told us that they thought Taytum was a lucky baby and
that it was very kind of us to want her. What a relief. The
looks make us uncomfortable at times and I was happy to hear
that we weren't disrespecting them in any way.
On with our Chinese lesson for today. I find the way they do
things differently here is so interesting! The milk that they
sell here is in a container like a juice box, complete with
straw. I'm not sure what kind of milk it is, or if it's even
really milk at all. I mean, it's white like milk, but it sits on
the shelf warm, so I can't imagine it comes from a cow. The
packaging is all in Chinese so I can't even tell what it says.
The other thing that amazes me is the street food vendors. There
are carts on every corner selling, well, I'm not sure what
they're selling but people are buying it. The most fascinating
thing are the guys who ride their bikes around with what look
like big Styrofoam blocks on the back with with sticks speared
with balls. At first I thought they were meat, but then I saw
them today at a corner vendor. I think they may be dates. There
are a lot of nuts and seeds sold here. I'm going to get
adventurous and try some and I'll let you know. Stay tuned.....
We had a relaxing morning today. Ally must have a touch of the
flu because she has a low fever and is achey all over. While she
stayed and relaxed, Shy, Taytum and I ventured out to WalMart.
Maybe I'm just becoming accustomed to the Chinese ways, but the
WalMart was actually quite similar to ours at home. Ok, maybe
there are a few exceptions. The deli counter consists of whole
fish setting on ice, none of the eggs are cold, there are tanks
stacked on top of one another with all kinds of fish, crabs and
other sea creatures, and they're not ones to take home and put
in your tank in your living room. The one thing that did make me
jump a bit was the tank of live frogs and eels. Other than the
fact that there were some really unusual flavors of chips (like
hot fish soup flavored pringles), delicacies that I've never
heard of (but I'm sure the people must think they're good), and
that everything was in Chinese, it was a great experience. Using
the money is a little intimidating, but I'm getting better. They
do have coins here, but the “change” is mostly in mini-sized
bills. That kinda threw me for a loop today when I paid because
I needed .10 and all I had were bills. Finally I just laid out
my money for the cashier and she took what she needed. Worked
for me.
Our outing today was a trip to a park. Again, just like all of
the other parks, it was beautiful. So many people out and about
dancing and exercising. The weather has been really mild, around
50 and sunny, although the sun is really hard to see through all
the smog.
John and the other kids went to the park while I stayed in with
Ally. She's feeling a bit better. We ordered in room service and
just relaxed in the room tonight. Taytum is getting more and
more personality every day. She had been pointing and grunting
to get what she wants, so we have teaching her sign language.
She picks up on it right away and smiles so big when she gets it
right. We think she is starting to learn her name. The
caretakers at the orphanage called her LaLa, but she didn't seem
to respond to that any better than when we called her Taytum, so
we have just been using her name. Connor still pretty much just
calls her Mei Mei, which is great, I just didn't want to confuse
her with too many names at once. She loves her bottle, her sippy
cup and all of her lovey's. I'm sure she wishes she had one more
arm to hold all of her things.
Hopefully by tomorrow Ally will be able to shake this bug and
we'll spend one more day touring Taiyuan before we are off to
Guangzhou. |
Off to Wal-Mart!
First Wal-Mart Trip
At the Park
Double Fisting
Stories before bed!
Trying to hold it all |
