Red Couch Photos

We took some "Red Couch" photos today, here a few.........

Nothing new

Yuk, Malia, Megan and I all have head colds now. So far Gary isn't sick. We have been pretty much hanging out here in our room, thank god we got the junior suite!
Only
**Only 3 more days until we come home !! Here are some more pictures.






We found these chicken feet for sale at the 7-11 store. They package and sell them just like beef jerky.



Here we came across the police practicing take down maneuvers. They were really throwing each other around !!

Fun with ballons

Today we had fun with balloons ! We blew up a bunch of balloons and let Malia go nuts with them. She loved crawling around batting them with her hand. She is getting better and better by the day as far as giving smiles and being happy.
I'm pretty sure that Gary and I now have what Malia has. We both have sore throats and a cough. Yuk.



Malia's Chinese zodiac sign is the "Rooster" and she looks like one when she gets up in the morning !!




We made the balloons stick to her head, she didn't care for this too much.



Here she is sitting on Ba Ba's lap eating her favorite snack and watching a movie. These Gerber puffs are her absolute favorite food. If she starts to cry all you have to do is show her the container and she stops right away. (Note to self: take a container for the plane ride home!)



I bought a set of Tellatubbie movies in Mandarin for her to watch, she saw the package and got very excited so I popped one in the portable DVD player for her to watch. She really likes them.

Malia is sick :(

I forgot to mention that Malia was coughing a little the past few days and has had a low grade temperature for 2 days. So we took her to the clinic here at the white swan yesterday. Turns out she has Bronchitis, and her ear canals are a little infected. She also has a bit of a sore throat and still has 3 ulcers on her tongue. So now she is on antibiotics, Benadryl (sp?),a cough medicine, vitamin C, Tylenol, and ear drops. Every time I give this stuff to her I tell myself that this is waaaaayyyyy too much medicine for a little body. It seems like I'm giving 5 cc's of this and that, it takes a while to give it all. You can tell she is not feeling well at all, she has been pretty whinny and clingy the past two days. Poor baby, the doctor said she would be better in 2 days, but today she seems worse then yesterday.
I really hope she feels better soon !!!

More paperwork and Grandma said I could

Sigh, did I mention that its VERY hot and humid here? No? Let me tell ya, its REALLY hot and humid here !!

Today we just finished up pretty much that last of the paperwork, we now just have to wait on Malia's passport and Visa. Since Malia AKA YaYen, is from the Guangdong Providence we have to stay an extra 2 days more then the other families. She knows her Chinese nickname which is Yan Yan pronounced Ya Yen. We call her YaYan Malia so she gets to know her American name. I have a feeling we will still call her YaYen in America too. There are now 2 other families here that are using the same agency that we are so we are going out to eat tonight at the "Cow and Bridge" as a group. I hear its really good.
The first few pictures are for you Nana !!! There is also one of Malia and Ba Ba at the white swan play room, we are trying to get her to spend a little more time with daddy because right now she prefers mommy and Megan. The other picture is of her in a ladybug outfit that I bought her here in Guangdong.

She DOES know how to smile !!!!

We got a few good smiles out of her today !! We even got a belly laugh out of her too. She talked some baby talk also.








This is how she cruised around in her stroller all day, she was really content. She LOVES to shop. She pointed to everything she wanted.

The White Swan and Shopping with Ann

Here are some pictures of Malia and me in front of the fountain at the White Swan (where we are staying), I think this hotel is pretty awesome, its huge and really, really nice !
Another family and I hired a personal shopper to take us shopping and help negotiate prices for us. We did pretty good ! I got Malia 7 silk dresses that range from her size now to when she is about 16 and I only paid $2.00 a piece for them.
The other pictures are from when we went shopping at the wholesale markets, its a 6 story mall.

Some of the more interesting things we saw

Here are some pictures of the more interesting and different things we expeirenced while in Beijing and Guangzhou.
1.Meat (?) on a stick. You can get anything and I mean a n y t h i n g on a stick. We are talking mice,starfish,snakes,scorpions,squid and how knows what else.

2. Did you know that you could fit a family of 4 on a motorcycle?

Orphanage Visit

Today we had the option of going to the orphanage, we did go but we opted to not take Malia inside. She is having such a hard transition, and after 4 days is just now starting to come out of her zombie like state and I didn't want to take any chances on her "back sliding" so Gary sat in the van with her while Megan and I went in. Its actually one of the nicer orphanages in China and for that I'm grateful, I know they take care of the babies as best they can. While there our guide told Ms. Tang (the director) that Malia was starting to get a chest cold so she gave us a bottle of "winter melon soup" for her. Ms. Tang said that it will make her better. It looked like beef broth with something, (maybe spices?) and it was very hot ! Of course since it was in a bottle, Malia wanted nothing to do with it. The whole visit was pretty interesting. Here are a few pictures of the Orphanage, one is of Malia's favorite nanny, Megan and myself. Oh, and some others from the day before.

Medical Exam and Pearl Market

Today we had Malia's physical exam, they say she is OK and has no left brain damage. Um, OK. They determined this by squeezing a squeaky toy on both sides of her head, she look quickly at it when they squeaked it on each side of her head. I think that just tells me she isn't deaf. Anyway she took everything pretty well except when they looked in her mouth. She does not like that at all because she has two ulcers on her tongue and they do look nasty. The doctor said he couldn't see them. I'm pretty sure she is teething also. When we got her Ms Tang said that she prefers the bottle, but I could not get her to take one to save my life. I mixed some of her formula, rice cereal and 1/2 jar of baby food fruit and she wolfed that down in seconds flat. So she is now on all solid food and no bottle, except juice and water and that's really hard to get in her. We are working on a sippy cup now. She is really starting to come out of her shell again today. She is moving her arms and legs more and will now crawl back and forth to us and she will actually look at us in the eye now. I'm attaching pictures of the exam and some of the woman who made Malia's pearl necklace,bracelet and earrings that I will give to her on her wedding day.

Here are somemore pics

All I have to say is 3 words !! Gary is SMITTEN !!! This man is in love with Malia, he wants to hold her all the time. He took her swimming. While at the pool he talked with someone (sorry I don't know her name) but she has been here for 6 months now working with LWB. He asked her all kinds of questions and I think she really eased his mind with the fact that Malia isn't showing any emotions yet. I keep telling him to give her time. Here are some more pics.

Adoption complete on China's side

Yesterday we completed China's part of the adoption, we promised to take care of her and never hurt or abandon her. We waited a long time to get into the notary's office to do it because the couple in front of us were thinking of backing out of theirs and wanted more time to think about theirs. I felt bad for that little boy. Anyway, we get her passport photo taken today. We also went to the Guangzhou mall today. All I can say is wow, very confusing. If you want to buy something you have to give it to a clerk, she will write up a ticket for you to take to a cashier. After you go to the cashier and pay you have to go back to the sales clerk and pick up your item. This wouldn't really be a problem except when you purchase things from different clerks (who are about 15 feet apart from each other) you have to walk around and figure out who you bought from to make sure you get everything. We haven't ventured around the island too much yet, its been way too hot !!!

Still no smiles yet:(