Gained One Pound!

Before After




Before After I put some before and after pictures together. The pictures above were from the end of September. And she's actually another pound more than the "after pictures".

I don't weigh her every day - but its hard, so about every 2-3 days, and I'm happy to report a whole pound weight gain since her Drs appointment 2 1/2 weeks ago. She's a good eater. She'd have to be to fit in this family. She hasn't refused anything we've offered and enjoys most things with much excitement. I took some pictures of her in this outfit that she hasn't worn since we were in China. I had only brought 4-5 things for her to wear, one of which didn't work, and had been tired of seeing her in the same outfits, plus it has been much cooler here. You can really tell a difference in how she looks (and fits) in the same outfit.

Just wanted to throw this one in there. Bill's Dad took the picture. I love Bill's smile here.

Happy Girl

Izzy is a happy little girl. Its very easy to get her to smile or laugh. If you just look at her she laughs. I wonder sometimes if she's laughing at us. The only thing that mungs her up is when she's hungry and you're not getting food to her fast enough and when she needs a diaper change. I can't believe how wonderfully blessed we've been to get such a wonderful little girl.
Eddie has just completed his 2nd week of 2nd grade. He's doing well. He loves his little sister. Her crib is in his room, so they wake with the first sight of each other each morning. I'm picking Eddie up right after school these days (instead of him going to aftercare). It helps him get a jump on his homework and helps us save a little money. As soon as we pull into the parking lot, she gets all giddy, cuz she knows she's about to see big brother. She's smart and a fast learner - picks up on things very quickly.
Aunt Debbie gave her this walker. She mostly likes to play with it sitting or squatting, but took a few steps with it the other day. When we first got her just under 4 weeks ago - she could pull to standing - a little shaky, but could. Now, she does it with a snap and stands real strong, for a long time. I make sure she gets about equal amounts of time to crawl around the house, pulling up on furniture, cruising - as well as spending time in her pack n play or crib (when not sleeping) so she can build strength to walk, but also cope with having to go to daycare when I go back to work, in only 52 days I might add. I'm mourning already.
She does not make many demands. She'll sit at her seat at the dinner table long after eating is done. She's been awake in her crib for the past 30 mins or more, while I update this blog, just playing with her feet, hands, looking around, amusing herself with the sounds she makes. She's been "stretching her vocal chords" - with interesting "songs", sounds, sometimes shrieks (much to my dismay). She says "ma, ma, ma", "da da da", though I doubt she relates those sounds to Bill or I. She says, "na, na," and occasionally, a series of sounds that sound like it could be a sentence in a language from another planet "ak gho mi na na nei ma da". Translation anyone?
She practically flips herself out of her chair, pack n play, wherever she is when she sees Bill come through the door. She adores her father. If he doesn't go directly over to pick her up, and for more than a couple minutes, there's lots of shrilling, shrieking and even crying involved. Bill will have to learn to change out of his work clothes with a baby in arm. ;)
She's gotten more used to bath time. I'm not sure how they bathed her at the SWI, but I doubt it was in a tub like this. I saw pictures on their Yahoo site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeChangFamilies/ of the area they bathe the babies in, and saw these large tubs or basins, so maybe it was more of a sponge bath she got. She still doesn't like getting water on her face, or in her eyes, but is definitely getting used to the bath and shows signs of even enjoying it, patting the water, making splashy sounds.

Home at Last

We come home to find balloons, gifts, flowers, and food waiting for us. Boy were we glad to be home. It has been a long exhaustive journey. But we're home. The picture above is Izzy's first meal at our dining room table. Those are some tired faces.
Izzy is diggin' being in her Pack N Play. Its filled with stuffed animals, toys and all hers. She's so easy going.
This is the chair Mimi gave Izzy. She gave one like it to Eddie too. The chair has her name inscribed on the back. Today was the first day, we didn't go running all over. Dropped Eddie off to school, then back to just hang out for a bit. She's wearing one of the many outfits Aunt Wendy gave her. We went back to Dr Field today to have her look at the TB test she gave Izzy on Tuesday during her physical. Its clean - yay! She also got some of the results from Izzy's bloodwork back already. She's healthier than we thought and hardly anemic at all - not with a 12.0 hemoglobin. Yay again!

Going Home - Words Can't Describe....

Eddie and his newly adopted family the Falks. He thinks Colton is the coolest cat in town. Judy, Doug and K Kay. We're at the lobby of the Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong awaiting our guide.

Eddie and Izzy on the plane. She's diggin it. The flight attendant gave her her first set of wings for her first flight.

Day 11 - Almost forgot. The shopping.

I have to say I'm amazed at how easy its been getting around. We've been all over shopping. The cabs are abundant and cheap. We ride clear across town, like a 25 min ride and at most its 27 yuan or US$3.56. Can't beat it. Yesterday, Cousin William came by to take me shopping for jewelry. I wanted to get Bella a gold bracelet and some jade. He took me to Beijing Lu (the giant walking mall that intimidated the crap outta us a few days before) to this giant department store called Grand Buy. Its 5 stories with all the stores we know and love, a Clinique and Estee counter, Samsonite, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Neutrogena, an entire floor of womens apparel, another of just shoes, another of sports clothing like Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, Levis etc. The top floor has a giant supermarket. Anyway, Cousin William hired a car and driver, picked me up at the airport and took me first to a mall that only had jade vendors. Floors and floors of them. I had thought to buy a jade bracelet for myself, but between my giant wrists and arthritis, I couldn't get any of them to fit. That and the jade market seems to be very complicated. Jade bracelets sold from US$50 to US$3,000 - all look very similar to me. They explain the 3 grades: A, B and C. Well I gotta tell you the truth, it all looks a lot alike to me, but with my luck I'd end up spending $100 on a jade bracelet that's really just colored glass - so I pass and get Bella a jade charm to wear around her neck. The Chinese believe jade worn on the chest will help calm a child's heart and ease her fears. With a quick call on the cell phone, by the time we got down to the ground level, the driver was out there waiting for us. Off to another store for gold. I felt like royalty and Cousin William and I sure had a lot of fun laughing and touring around Guangzhou like a couple celebrities. At the Grand Buy Mall, we go to Chow Tai Fook to buy Bella's bracelet. Its a bit more expensive, but you can trust the big names like this one and Chow Sang Sang, both are Hong Kong jewelers. Also, no bargaining. There seems to be a lot of unscrupulous merchants in China - between them and the fakes, buyer beware. After shopping, we head back to the hotel to get Bill and the kids (hee, hee, "the kids" still getting used to saying that) for Dinner. He takes us to the best fish head restaurant in Guangzhou. This restaurant is built inside a city park, with running streams and waterfalls all around the glass restaurant. We ate fish, yes, fish heads, shrimp, scallops, oysters, chicken, chinese vegetable, fresh lotus soup - the best I've ever had. Stuffed we head back to the hotel, where William presents us with more gifts. A Hermes Birkin bag, 2 Hermes ties, a Louis Vuitton wallet, a Versace belt.

Today, Carmen in our group, said she wanted to buy a gold bracelet for her daughter Jaiden, so in a cab we go, back to the giant mall. Afterwards, we went to McD's for lunch. Felt like a regular girls day shopping trip. I'm impressing the folks in our group with my strong command of Cantonese and the ease in which I hop in and out of cabs - jetting here and there, when truthfully, they all could do the same. In fact, I've never felt less Chinese - there are many more foreigners (meaning not Cantonese people) here in Guangzhou than ever. Between many people, including cab drivers not speaking Cantonese, and my slaughtering every word I utter - I never leave the hotel without asking Concierge to write down exactly where I want to go on the back of a card that says "Take me back to the White Swan Hotel" in Chinese just in case I can't get through the next cab driver.

Its been a lot of fun pretending to be on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Its back to being plain ole me, in plain ole Wilmington Delaware sooner than we realize and much poorer than we care to realize. Good thing I paid all the bills before we left. This place can be dangerous to ones financial health.

Day 11 - Leaving Guangzhou Tomorrow

This chop is a gift from Helen and Der. It has our family name and the official adoption date of Isabella on it. Der called a meeting in his room at 11 am. He tells us Helen took our visa applications to the consulate this morning and all is in order. We are good to go. Tomorrow we will go to the US Consulate to get visas for our daughters to go to the US. Our daughters all have Chinese passports, but will have visas for entry into the US in them when we go to the Consulate tomorrow. There will be a swearing in ceremony there. We cannot bring anything in. No cameras, no bags, nothing. Its a post 911 security thing.
We all gather in the atrium for a group photo. The dads took pictures of the mommies and the babies. The dads join us and the photographer takes a group picture of all of us for a souvenier.
The red couch photo is a tradition here at the White Swan (also known as the White Stork). We gather our babies in their chinese outfits and head to the famous red couch. The dads were snapping away trying to get one good photo of all of them looking in the same direction. They were surprisingly well behaved, just sitting there looking at each other, looking at us. It was very cute.
And then there were 5. One had to bail.
And then there were 4.

Tomorrow, we leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong. I may not update from Hong Kong, so see you back State side. What a wild and crazy ride this has been.

Day 10

Its hard to believe its already closer to the end of this adventure than the beginning. Today, we don't have much going on (again). None of us are too sure why we had to be here this long. Eddie is so very attentive to Isabella - always trying to amuse, placate and appease her. Its great watching the 2 of them.
I know some critic is going to say this would be a great pic if not for being off centered. Trying to get the both of them looking my way, I snapped the picture when I got the right expression, not paying attention to the frame. Oh well. If I were a photographer I wouldn't be a foodie now would I?
I absolutely love this spot. Its off one side of the dining room where we eat breakfast each morning. Its called the "Coffee Shop", but serves 3 meals a day and is not like the coffee shops I'm used to in the States. Isn't this a great shot of Eddie?
This is in the lobby of the 1st floor of the hotel, just outside the bank of elevators to get to our room on the 12th floor. I took the picture, so if Bill ever asks ya'll about gift ideas for me, I'd love a screen like this one. Of course, I'd need a bigger house to put it in.

After breakfast, we decide to go for a walk - and a little further than the 3-4 blocks we've been circling. The weather today is the best since we arrived to GZ. Its cooler and comfortable, probably 78-80, not humid, not rainy, a little overcast, but overall the best weather we've had since arriving here in GZ. Not far from the hotel, in the park along the river, we see people dancing. There's music for the waltz, fox trot, and other classical dancing. I wonder if this is like what they're doing in Central Park. We walk by other people playing mah jong, others doing Tai Chi. In general, people seem very relaxed here. Lots of people hanging out. Grandparents with their grandkids.

We walk by this crowd of people singing - didn't understand what they were singing or what this group was about, but it was cool.

I was quite amused by the style of the buildings in this area. A lot of British influence.
We've seen a lot of bikes and people with carts moving very large payloads like this guy.

Day 9 - ahh, Papa Johns

We got the number for Papa Johns and ordered a large pizza, 1/2 pineapple and ham (Eddie's favorite) and the other 1/2 "The Works", 4 Tsingtao Beers and 1 Sprite - 180 RMB or Yuan or US$24.83 one of our more expensive meals, but still a great deal. It wasn't exactly the same, but close and familiar. You'll see below, we did some damage. Notice the URL on the side of the box. We get a kick out of the simplest things.
Still feeling like crap this morning when I awoke, Bill said for Eddie and I to stay behind, and he took Izzy with the group to her medical examination. It was done at the hospital only a couple blocks from here. He said she was a trooper and the best baby there, letting the Dr do the physical. She got a clean bill of health and is weighing in at 7.99 kg or about 17.6 lbs. I'm beginning to think the report we got with our referral was a bunch of crap, since that said she weighed 7.6 kg and it was supposedly done in March.
She is a whole new kid. In just 8 days, her skin color, tone, everything is all different. She's got a little belly on her. I don't want to be the only chick in this family with a belly ;) Only hers is cuter. She takes 3-4 9 oz bottles of formula a day, 3 meals of congee, and some fruit (baby food fruit in a jar). Considering last Monday was the first time she'd had any food off a spoon - I think she's come a long way. We try giving her fresh fruit at breakfast - there's never any less than 9 varieties of fresh fruit available, but its still too hard and she's not used to chewing. We'll stock up on some jarred fruits before our long plane ride home. The shops in the area surrounding the hotel have lots of baby supplies, so it'll be easier to get it here before leaving for HK on Friday. She tries just about everything we give her. Rice noodle, rice, egg, but is quick to return to you anything that she feels is too hard. She's strong and has a veracious appetite. Don't fool around when feeding her or she'll let you know you're not fast enough by pulling your arm. Several times, she's almost yanked the bowl right out of my hand. Eddie is a big help - picking up the toys she chucks off the table, giving her her bottle, playing, amusing her. She's gotten used to the bath now, but still doesn't like water running down her face. There's a detachable shower head in the bathtub that I pull down and let her feel the water running from it. She liked that and isn't so intimidated by the tub anymore. She still is very good with sitting by herself in her crib and doesn't require a lot of attention. Of course, with 3 of us here, held up in a hotel room, and all this still being a novelty, its hard not to pick her up. Plus she's such an easy baby, so easy to make her laugh and smile. How to resist? I hope we don't spoil her - its nice that she placates herself, but isn't so removed like some babies - not wanting to be held. We are so very lucky to have such a great baby.

Day 8 - Bill at the Temple

Bill went with the group on a tour of a temple. I think he said it was over 300 years old.

All this was made by hand.

This is Rob from our group. He's telling the statues a secret. Bill had a lot of fun with them.In the afternoon, Eddie and I were feeling a bit better, so down to the pool we headed. The batteries died so I only got this one picture of Izzy in her new floaty toy and the bathing suit aunt Wendy gave her. She loves floating around in the pool. Eddie was being silly with Colton, Carmen and Frank's 14 year old son who is also missing the 1st week of school to be with his family. We all went to Dinner last night at a restaurant where the dining room is made out of a train. It was a very nice restaurant. All the staff were dressed in formal attire. The food was good, probably some of the best we've had since arriving to Guangzhou. Bill had Spaghetti Bolognese, Eddie and I shared a roasted chicken.