Fun in Guangzhou

We're having a very nice time getting to know Hannah and watching Oliver go crazy for his new sister. There isn't a ton to do in Guangzhou--despite it being a city of 18 million people. It's a big commercial and industrial center that, as Lonely Planet points out, "holds little interest to the tourist. We're mostly entertaining ourselves by eating lots of good Cantonese food, exploring some local parks, and spending a lot of time at the hotel pool. Hannah is a hoot. She seems to be more and more herself every day. Today it's the fifth day since we got here, and she is laughing and smiling and playing and fooling around. She's all smiles whenever we come into the room or pick her up. She is quick to laugh at her brother or one of us. She loves playing games where she pulls a toy from your hands and squeals and babbles and laughs. She is a very sweet and silly little girl. She is eating like a little bear. She goes to town at the hotel's great breakfast buffet, having papaya, bananna, rice, congee, scrambled eggs, noodles, and ham. The other day she ate a whole steamed roll, and she's not shy about telling you when she wants more of something. Oliver is being a great big brother. He always wants to be by her or sit with her. We never have to push her stoller. He's sharing his toys and likes to make her laugh. Tomorrow we're doing a sight-seeing tour in the city, and then over the next few days we'll go to some markets to do some shopping. And we'll keep swimming and exploring. This is a nice hotel but it gets old being stuck here so much. It's kind of a drag that we have to be here for another five days, even though we're mostly done. Connection is spotty so I'm going to publish this post and then publish the pictures in another post.

Life in Guangzhou

turning point

Today was such a good day. Hannah really seems to have come around. She has been laughing and either babbling or speaking in Chinese a lot. I think the turning point came this morning at breakfast when we fed her some real food. She loved bananas, noodles, and french fries. Oliver said I think she finally likes us. Oliver is so into Hannah. It's been such a surprise. I knew he would be helpful, but I never thought about how much he would enjoy her. He always wants to be with her. Yesterday when she took a nap he wanted to lay in his bed so she wouldn't be scared in the bedroom. We told him he had to be quiet. I figured it would last 2 minutes, but he stayed in there for a hour completely awake. He always wants to sit next to her, stand next to her, check on her, and just be with her. At lunch yesterday he kept correcting the way I was playing with her. He didn't think she liked the way I was holding the toy. He has been a only child for his whole life so I thought he was going to have issues about sharing his time with us. He always wants her around. So far (fingers crossed) she's a good sleeper and the last one up. Every morning Oliver thinks she has had enough sleep and we should just get her up. When we say no he'll say than can I at least go look at her. It's very sweet. I'm going to post a bunch of pictures. Some of the quality isn't so good because they are from Anthony's iphone. Hannah really likes to hold onto things. At first it was a rattle and now it is a billy club. The club is from Oliver's police officer set. She looks so funny walking through the hotel with this billy club or sitting in her stoller with it. They made us take it away for her passport picture.

We are finally back online. Thanks Jan!

We have had a really hard time with the internet here in mainland China. The only way we could do anything was through Anthony's phone. The VPNs we downloaded at home didn't work. But now we are back. Things are good. We got Hannah yesterday at 2:30 at the Civil affairs bureau. She pretty much screamed the whole time we were there. Oliver was great with her. He was hugging her and touching her. He kept saying I'm your big brother and I love you. Don't worry Mom and Dad are nice. Finally, he said I don't think she likes it here can we just go back to the hotel and that's what we did. She was a lot better in the hotel. We changed her and gave her a bottle. She chugged her bottle. They said she likes to eat and it seems like it. I weighed her and she's 20 pounds. She fits well into 12 months and 12-18 month clothes. After she ate she spent a lot of time walking around the room. I'm so glad we got a suite. The extra space is awesome plus she and Oliver are still asleep. She had a rattle when we got her yesterday and she hasn't put it down. Around 12:00 am I heard the rattle and looked in the crib. She was up playing. I rubbed her back and she closed her eyes, but as soon as I laid back down I heard her playing again. They said she is a good sleeper. Fingers crossed. What's the chances of having two good sleepers? Oliver got her to smile for the first time. She has this sly smile. Not like Oliver's big belly laugh that he has had since day one. She smiled for all of us, but got really upset when Anthony pretended to eat her toes. She freaked out after that. She likes looking at herself in the full length mirror. She was dancing. Oliver says she walks like a penguin and she kind of does. All and all things are great. Thank you everyone for the kind words on email and facebook.

Hong Kong

We got here late last night. As soon we walked off the airplane there were people in face masks waiting with digital thermometers. Of course, they took Oliver's temperature. He was so sweaty because he insisted on wearing his sweatshirt and having two blankets on the plane that barely had air conditioning. It was so strange. They didn't even ask. They just walked up to him and swiped his forehead. Oliver said hey why did they do that. I wonder why they picked him. Our sweaty little guy. Hong Kong is really neat looking, especially at night. We are completely messed up with the time difference. We were up early and now fighting to stay awake. It's really hot and humid. Oliver said the air felt weird and we should go back into the hotel. We did some sight seeing. Swam at the pool. Ate delicious food and Anthony is having a suit made. They have this rubber duck art thing going on. It's kind of like the cow parade in NYC. Tomorrow we take the train to Guangzhou. I'm not sure why the pictures are loading in the middle of sentences, but I'm too tired to try to figure it out and honestly even if I wasn't tired I couldn't figure it out anyway.

In the air

Our flight has been great. This is the most relaxed I've been in weeks. The flight attendants are nice and helpful. I've eaten a lot of yummy Japanese food. There has been an endless supply of mini champagne bottles, cold Japanese tea, and ice cream. Oliver has been great. He's been asleep for over two hours. It should be interesting when we land in a hour and half. For a long time he was sleeping on the floor because we are in the first row and have extra space, but they noticed him down there when they turned on the lights and made us move him.

Here we go

We leave for China in two days. It is completely unbelievable that after waiting 7 years to adopt we will finally be in China by the end of the week. It's seems crazy to say, but this last part has gone fast. Social media and facebook are unreliable and mostly unusable in China so this seems like the best way to let everyone know how we are doing. It's also a good record for us because our trip to Vietnam was such a blur. Oliver likes looking at the blog from his adoption too. Oliver must have heard me talking to someone about it being hard to get online in China because yesterday he asked Anthony why they block google in China. Anthony tried to explain it and than Oliver said well can't we just dig a big hole under google. The name of the blog comes from Oliver's nickname for Hannah. He came up with that name the day we told him that he was going to have a sister. He was so cute that day. As soon as we told him the news he covered his face with his hands and was silent for a couple of minutes. Finally he said he was too hungry to talk about this now so could he have a cookie. After a couple of cookies we showed him her picture and he said she was so cute. After that we started to talk about what we should name her. Immediately he said pinkbird. It comes from Angry bird star wars. We told him that couldn't be her name, but it could be her nickname and since than that is pretty much what he calls her besides our baby and my baby. Just yesterday he asked me what pinkbird's last name was going to be and when I said Licata he said good. This way she really will be our baby.