Happy Chinese New Year!

Year of the Tiger, of course

The full moon tonight marks the Lantern Festival and end to the 15-day Chinese New Year holiday season. This year, Wynn celebrated with a couple different activities.

A week ago Monday, we got together with the other family who traveled with us in Guangxi province, another family from our trip who went through Anhui province, and a third family who adopted through Sichuan last year. The kids colored dragons, listened to stories, and we all had a fine feast.

The Guangxi Girls - Wynn and Jenna - masters of The Force! Jenna is about a half-year older than Wynn. They both enjoy being in charge - they know the family routines; the rules of the games; what the pets should be doing; where we should sit. No need for whining or temper, as Guangxi Girls know how to get their point across matter-of-factly, using just enough charm or cool logic to convince you.

Last weekend, I took Wynn to Como Zoo. She specifically wanted to see the tiger (that's him in the first photo) and we wished him a Happy New Year. We also checked out the tropical plants in the Conservatory, noting which kinds grew in China; looked at the golden carp and talked about why they're considered lucky; and shared some stories about when we came to adopt her.

Quite a few other Asian families were at the zoo, too, doing the same things we were. I worry sometimes that we're not giving her enough exposure to her birth culture, but over the past two weeks of watching what other families are doing and seeing how Wynn interacts with other kids - Asian and everyone else - it feels like we're doing a good job.

February Visits

Earlier this month, in what we hope will become a Chinese New Year tradition, we got together with two of the other Minneapolis-St. Paul area families who traveled with us in China. How wonderful to see how the other kids are adapting and thriving!

We posed them on the couch in the same manner as the famous "red couch" at the White Swan Hotel back in Guangzhou. Wynn is the smallest and youngest, at 2 years. Her fellow Guangxi Girl, Jenna, is two and a half, lively and bright. ( She's sort of a sneak preview of how big Wynn will be this summer!) And Josh, from Anhui province, is 3 years old; quite a gentleman and already speaking fluent English.



We are also talking about a summer get-together for our one-year Gotcha Day celebration!

Another special visit took place last weekend - a "make-up" for Wynn's recent birthday (the colds and flu going around hit our household hard in January.) My folks came up from the southern metro with a gift that Wynn will get a great deal of use from once the snow melts!



We've already taken her on a couple rides around the block, and she loves her trike (even if she can't quite reach the pedals.)

Photo Special Edition!

Smog in Beijing


Beijing Traffic

Us at the Airport in Beijing


The Bus We Rode to the Tarmac


The Highway into Nanning


View of Nanning from our Hotel Window


When They Handed Wynn to Ann


The Part They Warned Us About


First Time Wynn Sat on Mom's Lap with No Tears


The Whole Family by a Rice Paddy Outside Nanning


The Scenery in Guangxi is Amazing!


The View from The White Swan in Guangzhou


Wynn Flapping her Arms for More Tomatoes


Favorite Jelly Flavor: Strawberry


Reading with Baba


She LOVES the Remote

Out and About

Last night after dinner we went for a walk in nearby Renmin Park with the other CHSFS family. The park's only a couple blocks from our hotel, and it's absolutely lovely: lots of shade trees, a lake, all kinds of exotic plants and flowers. We both said that it was like walking in the Como Park Conservatory - without the glass dome. The people of Nanning go to this park to relax and escape the traffic and crowds. There were young couples sitting together in the pavillion, families out for a stroll, and some older folks practicing their tai chi. We tried putting Wynn in the baby carrier for the first time - success! She rode along cooperatively, and Scott's arms got a much needed break.

We got back from our walk at about 7:15 last night, and Wynn promptly passed out on the bed. She slept straight through until 5 AM. Scott changed her diaper around 10 o'clock, and she slept right through it. Ahh.

Since she has no interest in the crib and is a heavy duty "roller" in the bed, we finally came up with a system where we can ALL relax and sleep through the night. It involves all three of us sleeping in a twin bed together, but it works! Scott sleeps in the normal position, my pillow and head go down by his feet, and Wynn is tucked safely in the "nest" between us. (We're REALLY hoping the hotel in Guangzhou has bigger beds.)

Hannah took us on a tour of the countryside today. It was like nothing we've ever seen. Lush green farmlands are punctuated with massive slices of mountain that suddenly shoot up from the ground. (We keep saying, "I feel like I'm on location for a James Bond movie," to each other.) When we got to Guangzhou we should be able to download pictures again, so check back to see them.

Hannah took us to a small farming village. She knew the villagers there and took us on a walking tour so we could take pictures of the people, their homes, their farms, and the scenery that surrounds them. Everyone there was friendly and smiling at us, cooing at the little girls being carried around by their big American fathers. It was definitely exotic, but strangely familiar since, even though we're city folks, we've spent enough time near farmlands at home to be able to tell the difference between the pig barn and the cow barn based on smell alone. The temperature today was ninety-eight degrees with a dewpoint around eighty, and we Westerners were certainly feeling it. Hannah looked at our beet red faces and innocently asked, "Oh, is it too hot?" (We have discovered that, even though she comes from the tropics, Wynn is a Minnesotan at heart. She's happiest when we're riding in the van with the air conditioning cranked, and she kicks all the covers off of her at night. This girl likes to be COOL - just like Mama.)

Wynn has decided that riding in her stroller is okay by her - another break for Daddy's arms. :-)

We can't get her to drink the formula the orphanage sent with her, but she'll definitely have a bite of whatever we're having. She ate an ENORMOUS bowl of congee at noon today. We were both amazed that such a tiny person could pack away so much food. She's also figured out that I'm the one who's packing snacks, so we're doing a lot of our initial bonding by her asking me for food and me giving it to her. She still wants to sit on Scott's lap when she's eating, but she figured out that I'm the one holding the spoon.

Tomorrow we're going with Hannah to buy some souvenirs of Guangxi in the morning; then we'll just relax for the afternoon. We're getting tired of hotel food - there's no grocery store or Western food near our hotel - so we're looking forward to moving on to life on Shamian Island in Guangzhou starting Saturday. Word on the street is they have a place where you can get real burgers and fries. :-)

One week from today we'll be home.
With a fridge full of food.
And a queen-sized bed.
And tap water we can drink.
And our friends and family around us.

Ann

Wal-Mart, Chinese Style

Our trek for the day was to the Wal-Mart and a department store in downtown Nanning. We were happy to have Hannah with as our guide to explain the shopping procedure to us: you pick what you like, give it to the clerk, the clerk writes up a ticket for the item, you take all your tickets to the cashier and pay, then you go back to the department where you found each item and give them the slip to say you've paid. Only then are you given the merchandise. Pretty cumbersome system, but that's how they do it.

We picked up a pair of squeaky shoes for her at the department store, along with a couple little outfits and some LEGO's.

The Wal-Mart has several floors, escalators, and even its own parking ramp underneath it. This is where we bought a stroller - which she, so far, refuses to ride in - and stocked up on some diapers, bottled water, etc. Sometimes kids regress a bit after the trauma of being placed with their family, and Wynn has lost a bit of her toilet training. She's peed on the floor of our hotel room twice and pooped once. At least it was solid. And not on the marble floor in the lobby.

Wynn is still clinging to Scott; I am generally tolerated, but not who she wants to be with. Hannah explained that it is normal for the child to bond with one parent first; bonding with two at once would be too much for her. It's hard on me to not have my affection for her returned, and Scott's getting worn down by being constantly needed. He finally managed to get a bit of a nap this afternoon, "With twenty pounds of toddler on me," he says. She will take food from me and will let me join in playing with her toys. She also spent about an hour in the tub with me yesterday afternoon. She was pitching a fit, and I needed a bath anyway. I got in, and then Scott brought her in to "visit". I lured her in with some tub toys we'd brought. She and I got to spend some time together, and we got her cleaned up too.

We've noticed that she is very clever at figuring out how things go together. As we were stuggling to figure out how to connect the handles to her sippy cup, she reached out and took it, showing us how to put it together with this look on her face that said, "It goes like THIS." Her favorite games involve putting things together and taking them apart again. When she doesn't want a toy or is done playing with it, she puts the pieces back in the box and puts it aside.

We're still getting some crying out of her - not the blind rage that we had at first - but still quite a bit. It's a comfort to us to be on the ninth floor of the hotel; they put ALL the new adoptive families here together. Their reasoning is that it's the non-smoking floor, but it has the unintentional bonus of letting us hear everybody else's precious new child screaming their heads off, and we get to see the other drool-encrusted, exhausted-looking parents walking the halls in a daze. We're missing our families and friends at home SO much, but there is a sort of Band of Brothers thing going on here.

I have noticed that sometimes her crying is intentional. Last night she had a couple picture books she was flipping through rather nicely; then, she quietly closed both of them back to the front covers and set them beside her gently. She even nudged them away from her like, "I don't want those getting in my way." Sure enough, she started bellowing. Didn't want to get any tears on those books, I guess.

Hannah has arranged for a van to take us on a tour to see some of the countryside of Guangxi tomorrow. She figured out that we Americans wither in the heat and humidity pretty quickly, so she's promised that we can mostly just ride in the air conditioned van, getting out at a few sites to take pictures of the mountains and scenery. Sounds perfect to us.

We bought our airline tickets for our trip to Guangzhou. We fly out of Nanning on Saturday afternoon at 12:45. It's only an hour from here, so our first attempt at flying with a toddler will be brief. Our SECOND flight with her will be a little over 7,ooo miles, though. At least we'll be home at the end of it. :-)

Wynn just polished off her second bowl of congee for the day. They really should just keep a tureen of the stuff by the elevator bay on the ninth floor; ALL the babies are fanatical about it. Hopefully, a full belly and another day of getting used to us will translate to a more peaceful evening and a good night's sleep.

Ann