Tag: Adoption Trip 2011

The fourth, and last, of the missing blog updates from when our computer was blocked in Beijing
August 18th

The title says it all. Originally we had thought to tire the kids out by visiting the zoo tomorrow. Nope, we will be sleeping in and then taking a taxi to Tiannamen Square before walking back here. Today was fun but high UV and HOT. Katrine told us in no uncertain terms that she wants to go home. China is awesome but she wants to go home. The heat sent Elspeth into a fit this morning and she has begun trying to exert her independence around feeding herself. Tantrums are just easier when you are not dealing with them on buses, tourist attractions and hotel lobbies. I think that if Katrine had been an easy baby dealing with Elspeth’s rants would be emotionally exhausting. Now you just wait them out and remind her not to head butt or scratch. When we visited the orphanage they bragged about how independent she was. Great in a regular two year old but we have to regress her so that she learns that she can depend on us for the necessities as a baby does from birth. Unfortunately tonight’s tantrum resulted in her refusing to eat much for dinner because she was not allowed to just feed herself. The plus side is that she is now comfortable enough with us that she can just let it go. Down side, a 13 hour flight tomorrow.

Now onto the good part of the day. This morning we visited the Temple of Heaven. Once again the grounds were beautiful. Spent a lot of time wanting to just let Elspeth lose on the lush green lawns but they are lush and green for a reason…no one is allow on them. We got to watch a variety of groups of senior citizens engaged in morning exercises (once you reach 60 you get free entrance to the grounds and there really are no other gathering places). We saw grandparents teaching their grandsons how to play mahjong, various taichi and dancing groups. One guy just made me laugh, he was standing off to the side of a dance group very elegantly doing the movements with a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Doesn’t the smoke negate the benefits of the exercise?

The Temple itself was gorgeous. Just like in the photos we’d seen. At the same time much more extensive. You see, the emperors never did anything small. Summer Palace – grand. Forbidden City – grand. Temple of Heaven – surprise…grand. Also laid out in a symbolic manner. First the Temple of Earth, followed by the area for ancestor worship, then where the emperor got changed into the clothes of a regular guy because one does not approach heaven with lofty duds on and then the actual Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was certainly the prettiest portion but the circular lay-out of the Temple of Earth was more visually pleasing to me.

After a much needed rest we went to visit the cathedral on Wangfujing. It was rebuild in 1980 and is quite pretty. It is one of the few state sanctioned Catholic churches in Beijing. Then it was back to the hotel to rest, swim and pack (oh ya, and to have the “you can’t make me eat” tantrum).

This is the third missing post from when our computer was blocked in Beijing
August 17th

Well this morning dawned with our big miss feeling much better. Plus they were serving chicken congee so little miss and myself got to eat some really delicious congee this morning. Yesterday they switched to preserved pork and egg congee. Little miss spit out every piece of egg and pork. In other words, she ate watery rice. Very nutritious for someone who is under weight.

After breakfast we walked as a group over to the Forbidden City. On the way, we passed the building where they actually matched us with our babies. That was pretty cool. I mean, it is really just a plain building to look at from the outside but the inside happenings are what is special.

The Forbidden City was a lot warmer this go round but also a lot more crowded. Elspeth seemed to be fascinated with the buildings. She spent much of the visit pointing here and there making a vocalization which we have come to interprete as “What’s that?”. Katrine was also fascinated. You can tell because she spent the visit taking photos, reading signs and actually looking at things. I know, she wasn’t constantly in motion?? Yep, she looked and learned. I think that Glenn and I enjoyed seeing the Imperial Gardens the most. They were barren in February but now were a wash with green. I think that the most dynamic aspects of the garden were still the rock formations arranged at various spots around the garden.

We headed out after nap time for some shopping therapy. Didn’t buy much though. We did find a few more really cute statues on the side streets. My favourite was of a group of kids playing around with grown-up shoes. If you look closely, you can see that one little fellow is wearing split pants.

This evening our group gathered in the lobby before heading out for tea tasting and the Olympic Village. I was surprised by how interested in the tea tasting Katrine was. She and the other older sister in our group did a great job of watching what the girls were doing as they made each type of tea. Plus, both girls tasted each tea sample. They were however, even more excited to walk around the gift shop after the tasting critiquing which tea sets were the prettiest. As with last time, we ended up buying tea, a new tea set (it has dragons that change colour when hot liquids are poured in) and a peeing boy. We got two boxes of our favourite pu-er type of tea, a nice jasmine tea with a beautiful fragrance, a litchi tea that I can’t wait to try and make into iced tea and then a fruit tea which actually has bits of dried fruit floating in it. I can see that one getting good use for Katrine’s tea parties. Now for the peeing boy. He is really just a little boy made out of clay with a strategically placed hole. When cold water is poured over him – nothing. BUT, if the water is hot enough to make good tea watch out because the boy has a good trajectory. Katrine can attest to that because when the girls demonstrated the boy she got hit in the face.

After we left the tea shop we drove to the Olympic Village. We had driven by it a few times this week during the day and the stadiums are impressive to look at then. Quite grand, doing justice to the fact that they were host to the best athletes in the world for that year. At night though, they are lit up and truly come into their own. The bird’s nest is lit with red and yellow. The lights highlight the crisscross of beams supporting the structure. The water cube however steals the show. During the day the walls look like they are made of silvery pebbles. At night, you can see each blue bubble. The lights really highlight the texture of the walls. Gorgeous. I was also really excited to be able to buy a mug with all of the Fuwas on it. I think that they are among the cutest mascots ever. I use to have a sweatshirt with them all on it, which I adored and in true Heather fashion managed to destroy in a kitchen accident.
We are having a nice time here and finding time each day to work on building our family. We are figuring out how to give Katrine one on one time through both little and larger things. She is getting more use to the fact that she now shares us with another kidlet. Elspeth is accepting me and trusting me more although Glenn is still her centre of security. She is also learning that we do not give in to temper tantrums. Figure that there will be even more of them to come. We are by no means at the end of our learning curve but at least we are moving along as opposed to standing still.

The second missing blog post from when our computer was blocked in Beijing
August 16th

You don’t usually hear those two in the same sentence but that sums up the day. Katrine woke up this morning saying that her tummy hurt and she didn’t want to eat breakfast. We didn’t push the issue but she wanted to see the Summer Palace as long as she could sit with Baba on the bus. No problem, Elspeth is liking me more so she rode with me. Poor Glenn. About half way there, puke. Get that cleaned up and off the bus. She is saying that she is feeling better and there are really no taxis there. Okay, in we go. Lily takes the other families to look at the residence, marble boat and then to take a dragon boat ride across Kunming Lake. We walk the gardens beside the lake slowly.

Katrine is not her usual bubbly, energetic self but she is enjoying the scenery – giant water lilies or lotus flowers (one or the other not sure which), minnow darting her and there in the water, pagodas, boats, bridges and buildings on the far shores. She says she is getting hungry so we find some shade. While Glenn gets the girls popsicles we find our third Chinese mushroom which is a big deal to Katrine, my little mushroom girl. Peach popsicle stays down!!! No more complaining of our tummy.

I actually enjoyed just walking beside the lake. It feels peaceful. The shiny lake with a backdrop of rolling green hills. An impressive palatial residence set in one hillside overlooking the lake; what views they must have. A variety of bridges over masses of flowers leading to small islands with quaint pavilions. Chirping birds and whirring insects as nature’s music. I am sure that the palace, furniture and marble boat (which is actually wood painted to look like marble) are beautiful, but so are the grounds.

Thought that perhaps we should head back to the hotel. While asking about the taxis, they were amazingly overpriced, and Katrine said that she was feeling better. Back onto the bus we go and she falls asleep in the cool of the AC. Lily has arranged for our group to have Peking Duck at lunch when the kids will eat the most. She has also got Katrine her own can of Sprite to help her feel better. Takes a few small sips of Sprite while sitting in mom’s lap – PUKE! All over mom and the restaurant chair. Now it helps to have a sick child in a restaurant over here because they will go out of their way to get you a taxi and haggle over the price just to get rid of you before there is more puke.

Glenn and Elspeth stayed behind and enjoyed a variety of delicious dishes while Katrine and I journeyed through Beijing to our hotel without further puke. A bath and some medicine later, they joined us. I think that we all had the nap to end all naps – four hours in the middle of the afternoon (unheard of isn’t it?). Katrine woke up feeling great back to her old self. She ate some dinner and is keeping her fingers crossed that she will feel even better tomorrow morning because we are heading to the Forbidden City in the morning and then the Olympic stadiums in the evening and she REALLY wants to be there.

This in the first of the blog entries we could not post while our computer was blocked in Beijing
August 15th, 2011

This morning we got up early and headed out to have Elspeth’s immigration medical done. Our guide took us to the exact same clinic where Katrine’s was done 6 years ago. It went well over all. We discovered that little Elspeth has actually grown since June and has reached the height of 80 cm which puts her in about the 10th percentile for her height. She also has an upper respiratory infection which explains her cough but is viral so nothing to do but wait it out. The biggest surprise (not) was that she is horribly underweight. She is not even on the growth charts which begin at the 3rd percentile. We figure that she is actually around the 1st percentile for weight and we might even be being a bit generous there. Can you guess the medical advice? Feed her more protein. So, being dutiful parents, we went for dumplings last night and fed her two whole dumplings and the meat filling from another 6.

With the medical done, the last part of our adoption journey is done aside from waiting for her immigration papers to be picked up so that we can come home and then have them processed at Pearson. Now we fill the time with sightseeing.

Katrine had a very long morning of waiting so Glenn and I had planned something special for her. Our idea was that while Elspeth had her afternoon nap, Katrine and I would get a cab and go ice skating. She loves to skate and how cool to be able to say that she had skated in China. Went to the front desk and asked them to write out the name of the ice rink we’d found online in characters for the cabbie. Well, they did write something and the cabby took us somewhere but the ice rink no where to be seen. Maybe we just weren’t looking in the right place, let’s have lunch and then we will keep looking. I mean, how hard can it be to find an ice rink if we are at the right place (the ad online said that it was big).

Katrine chooses a Chinese fastfood restaurant and we ordered fried rice that turns out to be bacon pizza flavour. Yes, you read that right. It was rice, bacon, pizza sauce and cheese all mixed together. It actually was quite tasty. Now, we are back on the search….nothing….go to information and draw a picture of skating….get weird look…keep going…show new person picture while pantomiming skating…they ask a friend who shakes her head…keep going…repeat pattern about four more times. We give up because we’ve found Starbucks, Gap, the movie theatre (would’ve taken her but the Smurf movie was in English so what was the point) and sit down on some steps that look like piano keys to enjoy a popsicle. It was the most expensive way to get a lunch and popsicle. When we got back to the hotel Glenn made it up to her by taking her and Elspeth swimming. I was the official photographer so I got to stay dry.

After our dumpling dinner we tried to walk to Tiannamen Square but we got distracted before we arrived by a very loud insect that we are calling “Bird Cricket” on account of the fact that we debated whether it was a bird or cricket. In the process of investigating the sound we discovered a lovely little parklet beside a small river. At one end of the river there was an ancient lock originating from the Ming or Ching dynasties. It consisted of a heavy wooden beam with a iron dragon’s head on either side. Not sure how it worked but it was nice to look at.

I am going to share some sad news now. Two pieces really. As you may have guessed by our lack of updates, our computer was deemed “not compatible with the internet in Beijing” today by the hotel. They wanted to reformat the whole of Glenn’s computer which was not happening so we are posting these updates once we’ve got home. The second piece is of a personal nature. By the time you read this we will be home and telling Katrine so it is now safe to tell you all. My grandmother in Scotland passed away the previous Wednesday. Her funeral was last Thursday. I am heart broken that we will not be able to attend her funeral but it can’t be helped. Babies always arrive on their own schedule and adoption is no different. Grandma would’ve understood but it is hard not to be there to say goodbye. If you are wondering why my parents are not here to welcome us home it is because they really needed to be there. They won’t be meeting Elspeth until the beginning of September when they come home. That is how life unfolds and it can’t be helped so just send some extra hugs our way.

tl;dr: Great bonding with Mom and Elspeth, and the Great Wall is busy on weekends in the summer (suprise)

Some of the photos are from our last day in Nanchang. In the morning we visited Bayi Park which was named after the August 1st (Ba is 8th month & Yi is 1st) rebellion which is an important day in chinese communist history that you can google if you are really interested. After the park we went to the Youmin temple. Also really cool. There are photos of both as well as some photos from our first day in Beijing that we posted about yesterday.

Today we visited the Great Wall. I was really excited because I am breathing well enough that I was actually able to climb with Glenn and Katrine, while carrying Elspeth, up to the third checkpoint in about 20 minutes without dying!!!! Much better than last time around. Katrine was enthralled by the views and was really proud of having gotten up as far as we did. Elspeth also liked the views and tried the same manoeuvre as at the Teng Wang Pavilion where she leaned right over and tried to lean right over the edge and see what was down below. Good thing mommy is strong.

If you’ve noticed more mention of mom in connection with Elspeth in this post than you would be correct. Today was a banner day for bonding all around. She fed each of us gluteny cheerios in turn (she better realize how much I must love her to have willingly eaten gluten for her). Blew kisses at us. She also let me carry her more frequently and actually seemed to enjoy it!!! I think that my favourite bonding moment was when she was playing open and close with the empty ashtray on the bus. Every so often she would get her fingers caught or pinched and after the first time one of us kissed it better she would rub it and then present it to us for a kiss. Pretty quick.

Tomorrow morning is our immigration medical and then if all goes well, Katrine and I are heading to do so ice skating while the other two bond over naps. Don’t know if there will be much, if any update tomorrow. However, the next day we are supposed to head to the Forbidden City so check back on Tuesday for sure.

We arrived in Beijing late last night and were met (after some waiting) by our guide Lily. The interesting thing is that this Lily is the same guide as we had for our adoption trip for Katrine. It was really nice when she met us at the airport and remembered Katrine. It made Katrine feel so special. To top it off, Lily let our tired big girl wave her tour guide flag as we walked to the waiting bus. That was the cherry on top.

Today started off with us getting photos taken for immigration. Then after a brief trip to the local supermarket for water and supplies (we discovered that little Elspeth likes banana applesauce….anyone knowing where we can find that please let us know so gotta have that), I got down to filling in immigration paperwork while Glenn fed the kids lunch of instant noodles, crackers and things readily available in squishy packs. Squishy packs seem to be a big thing here. You get juice in them, jelly, yogurt, banana applesauce, weird pickled vegetable things. You twist off the lid and suck it back. Both kids seem to like them and its getting food into them so who can complain.

After nap, we headed back out to Wangfujiang for some more shopping. We were looking for shorts for Elspeth (size 12 – 18 months are too wide and fall down; learned that on the visit to the orphanage by making a great impression on the foster parents…can’t even dress the kid in proper fitting clothes), chinese barbies, chinese baby doll, souvenirs. Had a nice list going. Got the shorts after much pantomiming with the sales staff. I mean, the kid is right infront of you should I really need to tell you that the first pair of HUGE shorts are too big. Really? They were about the equivalent of our size 3s. Anyways, got it straightened out. Downstairs we go to toys (its a big kids shop with multiple levels). We are in China so they should have dollss that look asian right? Not a single asian doll of any type (Elspeth is fascinated by Katrine’s asian Cabbage Patch doll.) Sigh. On to the Barbie section which is large. White and blond, white and blond, oh look chinese!!!!! Crap, they now carry a new brand of chinese fashion doll not the one we bought. Okay, keep moving. Silk kites. Okay, getting somewhere. Chose a nice pink butterfly for Elspeth’s wall. It’s on display so they have it right? Nope. Do we want the giant angry looking dragon or the bright orange insect. Time to keep moving. We had luck with the souvenirs and ended up getting most of the stuff on our list. Plus, we discovered a nice dumpling show and ended up bringing pork and vegetable dumplings back to the room.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We are heading to the Great Wall. Katrine was dancing around smiling when she heard. Just keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain. We will still be going but it would be more fun if it did not rain. Kids are in bed asleep and we are heading there shortly so you will need to wait until tomorrow for photos.

Busy doing nothing on our free day in Nanchang. First I’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to my mom, aka Grandma Attwood, kisses and hugs from all.

We started on a quest to get stamps and postcards. Then we got a cute pair of squeaky flip-flops for Elspeth and a new “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” sun umbrella for Katrine. Then we hopped in a taxi for a quick ride to the Nanchang People’s Park (pretty much every big city in China has a People’s Park). We walked around, had some snacks, fed the bubbling fish (again, but in Jiangxi not Guangxi this time) and found a place (thanks to an American family) where we could buy some popsicles and headed back for a quick lunch and a nap.

During Elspeth’s nap, Katrine got some much needed time to herself with Mom and went for a swim at the pool. Then Katrine, Elspeth, and I went on another quest for the “correct” ice lolly (the morning one being not quite right) and just as we opened the wrappers, rain… and I do mean rain. We ducked under a store front and waited the worst of it out and then hurried back to the hotel. Later we went for dinner with our friends at the restaurant we called “Golden Dragon” that is just down the street from the hotel we are at. The food was great, the service excellent, the orders come quick and the bill was very low compared to the hotel buffet.

Finally we regrouped back at the hotel and took a taxi to Bayi Square to take in the musical fountains which were quite impressive. Both Katrine and Elspeth were fascinated and the show lasted about 30 minutes, definitely worth the cab far. “Fast and Furious Taxi Driver (TM)” got us back to the hotel in record time for bedtime. Tomorrow we are going to try to go to Bayi Park and a Taoist temple in the morning, and then we fly to Beijing in the early evening so there will probably not be an update till the 13th. Enjoy the pictures.

tl;dr: A quieter day of sight seeing and shopping, we give Mama a bit of love early on then have a few issues and want Baba even more.

We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow as we are heading to Shangrao to visit Elspeth’s orphanage by van (4 hour drive each way) so I don’t know how long this update will be. As well I will probably not post too much information on our visit tomorrow as it is pretty personal and the person it most involves is only 21 months old and can’t yet tell us what she is willing to share with friends and family.

Now today started with a visit to the Pavillion of Prince Teng which is right beside our hotel (I mean you could probably punt a football from our hotel to the grounds) but for some reason this required a 20 minute drive through rush hour traffic. The humidity was crazy even at 10am but we forged on. This morning both girls were vying for my attention, so I got to climb the 89 stairs with a girl in one arm and one holding my hand. Luckily it was Elspeth the lightweight in my arm or I would not have made it up. We then rode in an elevator (7th century China was really advanced) to the top to catch the show. Katrine was fascinated, but it didn’t really hold Elspeth’s interest for too long, so you have to ask Heather and Katrine if it was any good. After the show we headed down a level for some retail therapy and Katrine got to spend most of her pocket money for the day. Down another level and Elspeth was getting a bit too adventurous for my liking so I picked her up (all 16 squirming pounds) and refused to put her down. Well that meant it was time to see if Mama was any better. And for a while, including a snackage and drink break, all was well and then it was time for Baba again.

We got back to the Hotel before noon, so we decided to do a bit of functional shopping to replace the SD card reader that decided not to work once we got to China. In the meantime Heather had a lie down having eaten something that didn’t agree with her the day before. Walking up to the local pedestrian shopping district we walked right past the stores at the beginning of the street we were supposed to go to, ate lunch at KFC (when in China eat American fast food) and finally found a Sony store to full fill our technological needs. We headed back to the Hotel with Katrine downing her second ice lolly of the morning (at only 16cents Canadian I don’t mind indulging her). By the time we got back to the Hotel, Elspeth was 1 hour past her naptime so we put her down an sleep was gained within minutes. At this point Heather wanted to continue her convalescence and Katrine was desperate for some Baba time so we decided to go for a swim. The only real problem being that Elspeth woke up, found that Baba was not around and had a mini breakdown. For the rest of the day she wanted me real close by. This does not bode well for tomorrow, but given the rate of change in China if we don’t go now we may never get another chance.

tl;dr: We’re a family of four for good like it or lump it. Elspeth (Xiang Xiang as we’re calling her a lot for now) is a Daddy’s Girl but is starting to open up.

Well the day started with a bit more crying. Hearing Elspeth playing with a ball in her crib I made the mistake of turning on the light. Realizing that the previous day was not a bad dream the tears started right away. We got her up and calmed her down a bit then tried a bottle. No go. I’m not totally sure if it was the wrong temperature or the wrong time. Since breakfast is not served till 7am, we fed her bits of a very salty rice cracker, and the leftover melon from the night before. After that she sat and started to play with Katrine and thus the journey out of her defensive shell began. As we were leaving for breakfast, Heather grabbed the, now slightly cooler, bottle. Well Elspeth’s eyes lit up. Heather, being a smart and experienced mom, shoved the bottle in the little mouth and in a flash it was drained. Breakfast was a bit of a bust because of a full tummy so we plan on giving her the bottle about 1/2 hour before breakfast tomorrow (and make it a bit cooler to start with).

A quick trip back to our room to prepare for the long day of paperwork and Elspeth latched on to me and wouldn’t let go. Well, nothing to worry about at least she chose one of us. Off we went on a 40 minute drive to sit in a un-airconditioned office, with people smoking naturally, to get various bits of paper work, photos done, and fees paid. Unfortunately, Elspeth’s choice in parent threw off the plans and Heather had to do much of the running around from place to place at the office. We did get to meet the director of Elspeth’s orphanage who was quite surprised that we had a friend in common. That, plus the gifts we brought for the other kids at the orphanage, broke the ice and we were invited to travel to Shangrao for a visit. We also found out from the director that Elspeth was close to her foster father and her choice of parent became clear. By 11:30am we were done and officially a family for good. And of course the kids were done as well. Elspeth was asleep before we made the hotel.

Nap time was followed with chips, apple, and other snacks for a light lunch that Heather picked up at the local super market while Elspeth napped. Then we were back in the bus to go the the police headquarters where they process the paperwork for the passports. While waiting on some benches we got to see a real breakthrough. Elspeth started by playing “tug” with me and some link rings. This was followed by the few baby/toddler action rhymes that I remember and genuine smiles and laughs were to be had along with a bunch of funny faces. She also showed that her little legs are working just fine as she climbed all over me and then grabbed Katrine’s hand and went for a walk around the waiting area. Finally we got through and the 5 minutes of paperwork and 2 minutes to take a photo were done and we left for the hotel 2 hours later.

Katrine decided that she wanted to go for a swim so we all went down with a swim diaper on hand just in case. At first Elspeth was quite nervous and just watched with, her now customary, death grip on Daddy’s shirt. Soon though she was feeling comfortable enough to walk around the pool, but once the other little boy came down and went in the pool she was sold and the swim diaper was on. We had a grand old time splashing. playing, and cooling off and she would have stayed for quite a bit longer, but dinner was calling. We went out to a local restaurant, recommended by our guide Tina, and had a wonderful dinner with great service and quite a few more smiles from Elspeth. Back for bed but baths and toothbrushing are low on our list of likes but I’ve now got two sleeping girls and a third who is ready for bed so I’ll sigh off for the night. Tomorrow we go sight seeing, Wednesday we visit the orphanage in Shangrao, and Thursday is our free day. Stay tuned for more updates!