4th day with Isabella

I tickled Isabella this morning and she actually giggled just a little for me. She may like her daddy to hold her but I am the one getting the giggle and a few smiles. This is a big step for her I think. Yesterday I also strapped on the baby Bjorn and took Isabella for a walk around the hotel outside while her daddy ate. She loved it and babbled to me quite a bit. Of course once we got in the hotel again she cried and wanted her daddy back. She hates being inside the room and hotel still. She loves being outside and going out. I will post more after we are home from the zoo. Here is a view of Nanning from the 9th floor of our hotel. The buildings look old but its very clean here and pretty.

Playing Ball

I actually got Isabella to roll the ball around with me tonight! (the 3rd night) She still prefers her daddy to hold her if he is around but we rolled the ball around on the floor for a few minutes.

The 3rd night with Isabella

I have been really trying to get Isabella to warm up to me by being extra playful. I have tried lots of tricks and she always gives me this very serious stare like I am an alien. I swear I almost see a smile but she really tries to keep that look no matter what I do. I have tried juggling, throwing a beach ball, dancing, jumping, you name it. She gave me this stare and I was laughing so hard. She thought I was so weird I think and didn't even crack a smile. I think she should go into theatre. She is good at keeping a straight face. Here are the looks I was getting.

The Return to Nanning Walmart on 3rd Day

We headed back to walmart for a water bottle and diaper run. We went upstairs this time and it was more like the walmarts at home but with chinese clothes, electronics, baby stuff,etc. Chuck got in trouble for trying to take pictures in walmart. We didn't know this wasn't allowed. You can't take pictures in McDonalds either. But he actually got one picture because he was so sly.

Tomorrow we are headed to the zoo and some different stores to look for some special items that are only made in this providence. We would like a few things to save for Isabella for her to have later from her providence. More to come soon!!!!!

Bella with her daddy

Bella is all tuckered out here and of course on her favorite shoulder of her daddy!

Picture of Beth and her twins and Her mom,Linda.

Beth and her mom have their hands full here. Beth's husband Mok is in charge of the architecture for building the arena for the New Jersey Nets and has a deadline for it to be completed this week sometime so is not here. So Linda, her mom, is helping out and a sister is coming to meet them in Guangzhou.

More Temple Pictures

The people were lighting incense to bring and were praying.

Temple pictures from Qing Xiu Mountain

At the top of the mountain was a big temple. There was some construction going on.

More pictures from Qing Xiu Mountain

The second photo is of our group with Judy, our guide. The second to last photo is where I became famous! The last photo is a stand selling fish food.

3rd Day With Isabella

Today our guide Judy arranged for us to go to Qing Xiu Mountain. Our group all went together in our van. Our group member were us, Beth and her Mom,and their twins, Elizabeth and Maxine, and Scott and Nicole with their little McKenna (there picture is the 3rd one down).
I am now posting the exciting pictures of our excursion. If you have any questions maybe you can email our guide. She is a fountain of information. Chuck carried Isabella the whole time so I was free to just move my arms about and roam. Chuck's arms are probably getting pretty sore. Mine feel fine. We went to a dock to feed the fish and it was amazing how many fish that were fighting for the food. And the most exciting moment for me was when a chinese woman ran up to me and put her arm around me and had her friend take a picture and all of sudden there were tons of more Chinese taking my picture with them. I was laughing my head off. Watch out for me in some chinese blogs. I think I have some new friends. I certainly felt famous for a few minutes.

2nd Day with Isabella

This will just be a written post because we need to download more pictures. This computer is slow and its takes a long time to download. So last night Isabella screamed her head off for hours and finally we gave her some motrin and Chuck got her to sleep. She refused to go to me. He was able to put her in the crib and she slept 7:00 p.m.-3:00 a.m. She was so exhausted from crying that she was out! It was nice. Then we fed her some bottle and part of a banana and she went back to sleep. Oh and starting last night she would only go with Chuck. She is a daddy's girl. Just like Kristen. She gets mad most of the time if I try to hold her or Chuck needs to go to the bathroom. Its kind of funny. I am glad its not the other way around because that was how McKayla was for me. Sometimes if I take her outside she will be okay and let me carry her. She does not like being in the hotel room and wants to go go go. In fact her first word yesterday was "guy-guy"(sp?)-I spelled that like it sounds. It means shopping. So we took her to some hotel shops and she got very excited and said, "Guy-guy" over and over. We were told earlier that she likes to shop. And even though she is only 12 months she is very vocal and makes lots of noise. She does say Chinese words. I wonder if its easy for babies to say Chinese words. She also says something for eating and baby. And waves good-bye. She has 4 teeth, 2 up and 2 down and they are a pretty white. The pictures don't do her justice - she is so beautiful.
Today we went down to the hotel breakfast buffet. Its okay. They do make scrambled eggs and have some rolls. So thats what I eat. We fed Isabella some more congee and and some Chinese type roll. She also ate a few bites of noodles. She is a very good eater and so far eats whatever we give her. She is still on formula so we will try to wean her off when we get home. She loves the cheerios and the gerbers carrot wagon wheels. Chuck loves the food here and has tried all sorts of interesting foods. He really likes the beef noodle soup. And there is a Chinese restaurant next door to the hotel that we tried yesterday with the group. I will post a picture. The whole group is not in this photo. He got some spicy fish and rice. Oh and I tried some chicken congee and its yummy!
Isabella is taking a nap in her hotel crib right now and Chuck is asleep on the bed. We just got back from 2 interviews and lots of paper signing. The interviews were very interesting. Here is an example:
"Did your daughter stay over night with you last night?"
Yes(our answer)
"Do you like her?"
Yes
"Do you want to keep her?"
Yes
"Do you promise not to harm or hurt her and treat her like your other children?"
Yes
Than sign and fingerprint on a bunch of papers. Then wait for a long time in a hot room for everyone to get done. Then we went to another building and were notorized and got another of the same interview and more signing and waiting.
Isabella was crying in the morning after breakfast until we went to the van and took a ride to our appointments. She was happy to get out. We waited in a hot room but it has toys - a big ball and some rocking horse. There were also lots of other adopting couples that we met. So she gave us a shock and crawled around and played with the toys. She loved the ball. And can pull herself up to standing position with ease. It was nice to see this active side of her. She likes to watch the other kids was very content crawling back and forth between the toys. She was talking and making all these noises while she played. Then she finally got tired and fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. And she is now sleeping.
So we are on our own for the rest of the day and then meet again with our guide and group at dinner time. Yesterday we walked around the hotel. Its huge and has like 3 buildings. We are on the 9th floor of one of the buildings. On the first day we got here our guide brought us to the Nanning Walmart. It was so different than ours. Its on the second floor of a mall. There were so many people. The funniest thing I saw were these huge bins of raw chicken in piles of ice just sitting there. The chicken was not bagged or wrapped, just dumped in a pile of ice. I guess this way you can feel your raw chicken before you buy it? There were huge lines for the ducks that were roasting.(like the roasted chicken at Costco/sams club but ducks instead) The Walmart is mostly just food and nothing else. As we drive around to all these places we have gotten to see the crazy drivers and millions of people on bikes and mopeds. Its like a whole car lane of just bikes and mopeds and everyone everywhere is speeding around. I see a lot of mopeds with 2 parents and the mom in the back and she is just holding a small baby. No seat belt and the baby looks like she will fall off if the mom accidentally let go. And the mopeds are fast. Its crazy but interesting to see. I will try to get a picture. I will also attach the picture of us at dinner the night before with got Isabella. More to come later!

Isabella playing in the Hotel

Our first pictures of Isabella on Gotcha Day!!!

The top picture is us in the hot Gotcha meeting room with Isabella's caretakers and the orphanage assistant director. We don't get to meet her foster mom. We are also not allowed to go to her orphanage. No outside people are allowed to go there right now. We are also not allowed to ask any questions about her orphanage. We can only ask questions about Isabella.
The next pictures are of Chuck and Isabella watching a short clip of Kai lan.
I will add more soon!

Isabella's GOTCHA DAY -July 21,2008

After a long long time on the airplanes (19 hours total)and waiting in long lines at the Chinese airports. . . .we arrived in China. . . we have Isabella now! We were brought to another large hotel that is about 10 minutes from our hotel. And brought up to a small meeting room. This room had no air conditioning. I had my makeup and hair done nice but after 5 minutes in this room we were all drenched in sweat. Its so humid here that my hair just gets frizzy and curly and shorter. But enough about me(more later):)So focus on the pictures of Isabella not me here.

We were first led to a cute tiny baby with a longer face. (I thought, wow she totally doesn't look like her pictures? But we will take her - didn't want to be picky and complain) So I picked her up and Chuck started filming with the movie camera. Then a minute later we were told we had the wrong baby. I was glad because she totally didn't look like Isabella. Then we were pointed to the crying one that the orphange caretaker was holding. Of course the only baby crying in the room would be Isabella. I should have walked straight over there when we got there. So We had to practically pry her away from her caretaker and she screamed the whole time we were there in the room. We then gave our red gift bags we brought to all the orphanage helpers and took pictures. Then we went back to the hotel. She finally calmed down on the drive and loved the big water fountain in the hotel foyer. She even pointed at it a few times. Then we changed and fed her some cheerios(she loves these) and then a bottle and she played. We tried to sit her on the potty to go poo poo but no poo poo(they called it this- more about that later). We were told to try. Did not work, she screamed. So put her in a clean diaper and tried to get her to sleep. I had to pat her bum and wrap her in a blanket to get her to take a nap. She is still sleeping now. She had done a lot of crying so we know she was very attached to her foster mom. All the babies were brought to the Nanning Orphanage from Guiping (3-4 hour drive) a day ago and they slept last night at that orphanage. So she has had a few crazy days to make her very emotional. The other 3 babies in our group were calm as can be and sucking their thumbs. I must say we were quite jealous. Down the hall were other older kids that were screaming their heads off. Isabella and I walked to that room and checked everyone out because we felt more at home with them. Quite a few other couples were also adopting.
So Isabella is very very pretty and small but has chubby legs. So I think she has been well fed. We were told that her foster mom really spoiled her. We are glad she was well taken care of and made an attachment. Now we just need her to attach to us! Chuck has actually been speaking a little Chinese to her. Mostly when others are not around though. But I will take what I can get.
This whole experience has been so surreal(sp?). Its amazing that we get to take such a cute baby home. I am so excited for our other kids to meet her. We were told that she likes older children and to watch them dance. So as soon as we get home I will throw on some music and we will all dance for Isabella.
Its so sad to see her cry. I am so glad I brought the cheerios. Who would have known that cheerios would save the day. She was able to calm down and play a little on the bed and even made quite a few noises. Still no smile. We have another meeting today at 4:30p.m. We have more papers to sign. Tomorrow we have an interview and tell them we would like to keep her. So really she is only on loan tonight. We were told she is not ours until we sign tomorrow. I will write more later. She is so cute when she sleeps!)

Bella