Today is another beautiful day. We just finished breakfast and Alicia is taking a nap. The plan for today is to take a walk to the zoo and large park that is shown on the map. We decided to go with another two couples in our group. We are finding that there is safety in numbers. Besides a couple of other Americans staying in the hotel and a couple of other groups of Americans at the Adoption center, we are the only white people that we have seen. It is definitely apparent that they don’t really see too many Americans here. We are also approached on the street quite often, especially by the elderly. Yesterday Paul and I finished our shopping at Walmart a little bit before the rest of the group and so we decided to sit outside for a bit. Almost immediately we were approach by an elderly man……he was obviously confused about why two white people had a Chinese baby with them.
Alicia is doing really good. Last night was a little stressful. We are trying to transition her from Chinese formula to American and we think that it gave her quite the belly ache. She spent about an hour crying last night and really struggled getting to sleep. We are hoping for some sort of pooping action today. Talked to a couple of the other parents this morning and apparently it has been an issue with their children as well. Alicia is such a good baby….she hardly says a peep. The only time she cries is when you take the bottle away from her. She is really tiny and isn’t really eating much. We did try some porridge this morning at breakfast and she really seemed to like it. I bought some baby rice cereal at the local market the other day and tried to give her some…..she didn’t really go for it. I tried it and I guess I don’t blame her…….it was horrible! It says on her paperwork from the orphanage that she was eating cereal and congee (rice mixture) mixed with her bottles. I’m not sure she really gets the concept of the spoon thing yet. It also said that she is sitting on her own, which she is not doing. She has no teeth yet either. I’m sure that she was premature and that will definitely slow her developmental progress somewhat, but I’m sure that once we get her home she is going to catch right up to all the other kids her age.
We did end up walking to the park today. It was a long walk, but well worth it. The park was beautiful. We ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere, but it was a good thing that we had the map. At least we could point to the park on the map and a nice young man helped us out. Not sure what we have planned for dinner, but we may walk outside again and find something to eat. We are getting a little more adventurous and daring about walking in the traffic. We have found that once you are committed to crossing the street, you just do it and don’t second guess yourself. The cars, motorbikes and bicycles will just weave around you or honk their horn continuously until you move.
Basically a pretty boring day.....no paperwork, no tours, nothing! Just trying to occupy our time and get out of this hotel!
Marcus - we love you!! See you in 8 days!!
Have a great day.
Paula
