Beijing Manicure

Nika Fei Fei has finally had a manicure! She accidentally scratched someone with her rough fingernails at the Silk Market tonight.

Let me take a moment’s pause from all the love and joy to kvetch – I’m exhausted. Getting to sleep is always iffy around the deep rumblings of Wolfgang’s nasal passages…then, Nika usually wakes up sometime between 3 and 5am, after which I generally do not go back to sleep.

We started early on Sunday and went to the jade factory, the Great Wall, then lunch, and a silk factory. I did not manage to enjoy the day as much as I would have liked – being tired and cranky while surrounded by insistent sales people in the jade factory store…or getting so much attention with our baby. It’s peak tourist season here in Beijing and there are throngs of people everywhere! After we came down from the Wall, we took Nika out of the sling and I turned around to see about 100 tourists pouring towards us! I ran with her over to the cool stone wall so we could avoid their attention. We chose the steeper route because the sun was quite hot and that side was still in the shade, but I could barely manage it, I’m that exhausted. It would have been nice to climb just a bit further to get one of those impressive views of the wall extending as far as the eye can see. So, we had two long days back to back with chaotic meals and short naps. Nika was so good – she was tired but remained in good spirits!

At the jade factory we had name stamps carved for all three of us. Nika’s has her full Chinese name, Jiang Xue Fei, plus her English name. Ours have our English names plus the phonetic version in Chinese characters.

Back at the hotel, we relocated into a non-smoking room, and somewhere in all the kafuffle I lost my night guard! It was very complicated to explain to the hotel staff how I had lost it and what it looks like.

We met King for dinner and learned about his experience here in Beijing so far – I think he has been here about 10 months. He is working as an art lead for a company that does translation work, and is in the process of moving into more areas of animation production. His girlfriend is studying in Hong Kong so they travel back and forth for visits. He ordered a special soymilk dish for us as a joke, and we were so polite we didn’t even flinch! It was fermented and served warm, and tasted like one of those things that’s supposed to be good for your digestion. Nika slept in our lap for the first half of dinner.

Today we had our immigration medical exams – an early start and a long morning, but luckily there was a play room for the kids. That was the first time they’ve had some serious floor time together. It was fun to watch them interact and observe their different stages of development. And! Nika learned how to eat Cheerios from Jada! This was our first developmental milestone! Today Nika also learned how to chew gently on my finger instead of clenching it in a vice grip.

In the afternoon we came back to the hotel and got a solid nap, ate a light snack and then went to the Silk Market. This is 6 floors of vendors. We got silk jackets for all three of us, 2 sets of chopsticks, the third teacup, and a rattle drum. Then we made our way to the restaurant at the top. The staff wore beautiful traditional costumes, and we managed to have a relaxed dinner, just the three of us. The market was even more oppressive than the jade factory, but after catching some Z’s today I was better prepared for it.

Here's a sampling of photos from the last few days - our last day in Chongqing till today.

A quick post from Beijing

It was a long day!  All the babies passed out right as the bus pulled up to the hotel.  Fei Fei did well on the plane - we were concerned about the air pressure and her ear infection, but she seemed more preoccupied with playing.  We made the mistake of letting them serve food for both of us at once, and even though I distracted her with a bottle, she wanted to interact with every item on our food trays!  Today her personality really started to come out.  She was very stimulated by all the movement - bus, airport, plane, etc., and made cute cooing noises and flirty eyes with everyone all day long.  As a group we are quite the baby caravan and get lots of attention everywhere we go.  We had our first two public diaper changes, and Fei Fei did not like being shut inside the airplane lavatory with me on this odorous occasion.

In the hotel lobby we ran into Amelia, Mitch and Zen on their way to dinner!  So great to see them - Zen is such a big boy!  Looking forward to catching up with them tomorrow.  We also saw a crowd of parents-to-be in the lobby - as they saw us walking towards them they all cried, "Ohhh!"  They have just arrived and are headed to Jianxi for their babies.  They wanted to know everything about how our experience has been so far...on Day 6!

Tomorrow morning we leave early for the Great Wall - it will be a five hour outing.  We've also been forewarned about our 7:40am departure on Monday for our immigration medical appointments.  Oy vey!

Mommy gets a turn

Continuing with yesterday…after naptime was over we finally ventured out of our hotel room. We met Anna in the lobby and she walked us over to a few good local noodle joints to give us some options outside the hotel. Then we made our way slowly back and found a market packed with stalls. We bought some pink Hello Kitty hair clips (a few people have referred to Nika as a boy…) and then spent some time picking out a beautiful Golden Piggy bracelet for Fei (I didn’t find out what stone it is but I assume it is amber), and for me a red quartz pendant on a beautiful knotted cord. For this entire one-hour outing I carried her in the sling facing inwards. The afternoon was pretty warm and muggy and we were both soaked! Then we wandered through an electronics store looking for IPhone prices before meeting everyone in the restaurant to celebrate Alison’s birthday.

All the babies were pretty playful at dinner – I think everyone had had a relaxing day. I held Fei Fei for most of dinner and she was pretty active. Gravity games and high fives are her big thing. Uncle Marty will be glad to know that she later took up chopstick percussion activities. The hotel presented Alison with a beautiful cake!

This morning we heard back from Dr. K and got instructions: antibiotics for the ear infection (tastes good, goes down great), Tylenol for the ear pain (also nummy), and saline drops in her nostrils for the congestion (not as fun). I am eager to get some results with this regime before our first airplane ride to Beijing on Saturday.

Last night I spent what seemed like hours managing all our belongings and planning for today. I made up three bottles and packed the diaper bag, checked the forecast and laid out her outfit. This morning we packed up three bags of laundry, including the results of her first Really Big Poop!

We took a bus tour of Chongqing with Michael, our guide and learned a few tidbits. We drove through areas of very old housing that will be torn down soon for modern high rise development and saw people moving out, with their possessions covering the sidewalks. These buildings are on steep hillsides and looked quite treacherous and run down. The tenants are receiving settlement money to move out. Because it is so mountainous there are very few bicycles here. People mostly drive, take taxis, motorcycles, or “Bus Number 11,” which is walking on two legs.

Then we visited the residence of General Stilwell, who is commemorated here for his involvement with supporting China against the Japanese invasions during WWII. Across the street was the Flying Tiger museum where we were presented with a slide show and lecture about the military activities during the war. Wolfgang took in more of this than I was able to as Fei Fei and I were exploring face-out sling carrying, which leaves both our hands and feet free for clapping and kicking!

After the slide show an art professor from the local art school, one of three famous schools in China, demonstrated a peony painting. We learned about the symbolism of the imagery and then purchased a peony painting with Xue Fei’s name and birthday. However, we could not resist the pandas climbing an apple tree or the crane paintings! In the next room we admired a beautiful wall scroll of yellow birds on a tree branch. We tried to be frugal and promised to come back on our next visit to Chongqing and buy a painting then, but this was unacceptable. Once I told them I was an art professor, they were bound and determined that we would buy that painting, and offered us half off. We tossed in 2 banyen leaf skeleton paintings for an additional 200 RMB, one of Old Chongqing, and another Chrysanthemum, the flower of fall.

Then we visited a park and climbed the steep walkway to the tallest point in Chongqing, although the mist prevented us from seeing much. Then we had a wonderful tea demonstration and sampled jasmine, ginseng and lychee/oolong teas, with pickled olives and cocoa biscuits. Fei Fei nibbled on the biscuits and licked tea off my fingertips! She also got lots of attention from all the ladies in the tea shop. There we continued indulging ourselves and bought tea + two beautiful tea cups. It now occurs to me we should have bought three!

Even after her bottle she was quite playful after we came back to the room, but W and N are now happily assuming the naptime position. Boy I wish I could get me some naptime too…

Yesterday's pics

This is one of the preferred poses for sleeping. I see a potential yogini!

We are on the bus en route to the civil affairs office for the adoption process. Fei is playing handsies with Anna.

This is Anna, our wonderful facilitator! I took this pic of her our first day in Chongqing.

On the left is the orphanage director, and her assistant is on the right.

Ni hao Fei Fei!

Tannis and Kate on the left, Alison and Sophie, with Brad wearing the polka dot bag. The room behind the red beaded curtains is where we sat for the passport photos. There is another room off to the left for the adoption ceremony where we sat on red leather sofas as we each took turns. There were several other families there as well - a lot of activity, signing papers, counting money and keeping the babies occupied.

They have been sleeping like this for the past three hours. This morning we had a bottle at 6:00, slept till 8:30, ran down for the breakfast buffet by 9:45 just as everyone else was finishing. After some congee, eggs and cheerios, we broke out the teething biscuits and then the real mess started! We also introduced the Key Toy this morning - a big hit for thumb dexterity and gravity experiments. Thank you Scott for picking out the perfect toy! Then we checked out the fitness center - I wanted to see if we could find a nice open floor for her to crawl around on. We sat in a small mirrored aerobic room but she still stayed pretty close to Wolfgang and did not go for any locomotion. However, we tried a new game: flying over Daddy's head. Then she got tired so we came back to the room, learned more about dealing with the collapsed nipple problem, and once they were asleep I cleaned up the place and took a shower.

Alison - sorry I forgot to wish you a happy birthday this morning! Hope you're having a great day!

Everyone else had planned to go out and shop today. We have not left the hotel. I'm going to eat a steamed bun and an apple for lunch, and then hopefully wake them up. We have to start the antibiotics, and be a little more assertive with the ear drops. I am sneaking them in while she's asleep with her head turned, but as soon as I do she flops her head over and I'm worried they are draining out.

By the way, there have been plenty of moments with me holding and playing with her so far, but the photographer hasn't been ready with the camera!

Day two...adoption day!

Today we completed our payment to the orphanage and went through the legal process of the adoption.  We took a family passport photo for Fei Fei, which was a bit trying since the photographer wanted the baby posed just so in between us, but Fei was too busy burying her face in Wolfgang's shoulder.  Then came the formal ceremony.  We all took the option to purchase a comemorative photo ablum of the day complete with pictures of Chongqing and posed pictures of us becoming a family.  Whew!

We managed four bottles today - a huge leap forwards from yesterday's one!  Congee, lots of cheerios, carrots, broccoli.  At dinner Fei finally got fiesty and played for an extended period with cheerios, placemat, spoon and plastic bowl.  It was nice to share notes with everyone else today on how their Day 1 went, stages of development, eating, pooping, (or lack thereof, although Katie won the First Poop title after our false alarm).

Fei slept her first night with just one interruption, AND SLEPT THE REST OF IT IN BED WITH WOLFGANG!  He was so concerned with keeping her in the bed that he didn't sleep well from that point on.  This meant I finally got my Z's as the snoring at this point was fairly minimal.  Fei managed to get extended naps between each bottle today.  We are starting ear drops for an infection in her right ear, and have an email in to our pediatrician about the chest congestion.  We're prepared with antibiotics if she gives us the go ahead.

So that's it for now...I'm too trashed to upload photos tonight.  Tomorrow we're all planning to take it easy!

We are parents!

Chongqing, October 13, 2008

She’s sleeping!

First of all, her name. Last night we had narrowed it down to four, and by the time we woke up this morning it was down to one: Nika. Nika is her first name, and Xue Fei is her middle name!

We woke up at 4:30am and could not go back to sleep. At 9:00 we were on the bus, and we arrived at Dianjiang right at 11:00. After the drive we thought it might be nice to visit the facilities before receiving our babies. The ladies went to the 2nd floor and as we were taking turns…Brent came upstairs and said, “Hey, they’re giving us the babies.”

I thought he was joking! We went downstairs and he showed us into a room, and there was Wolfgang sitting there with Nika sleeping soundly in his lap!

As the room filled with commotion around us, they sat there peacefully together, and eventually she woke up. She had the toy we had sent in July, played with it a little, and also checked out Wolfgang’s fuzzy face. We had a few smiles then!

Anna translated our questions, and we showed her the infant pictures I had found online – yes, one of them certainly is baby Xue Fei! We also received her finding ad, which the orphanage is required to place in the newspaper – the photo would have been taken at one or two weeks old.

We gave out the gifts and donations to the orphanage staff. Unfortunately we were not able to meet the nannies. I so wanted to meet the Pink Nanny who is holding her in the March photos.

We also received the camera I had sent, but I suspect no one used it to take photos as the dial says 0 on the roll. We’ll find out when we get it developed at home.

We had a short tour of the orphanage – just up a few floors where we viewed about 8 sleeping infants. All but one had cleft palettes, and they were all so petite. Babies with cleft palettes are designated as special needs, and we were told the special needs babies are in high demand now.

Up one more floor where we looked at a room full of inflated mini swimming pools. We were told the babies really enjoy the exercise.

Then we filed out into the courtyard and there were many onlookers. I think the Dianjiang SWI is more than an orphanage. It is also a residence for adults who need some form of care, and some senior citizens.

Next it was the finding place photos. Nika was found at the gate to the orphanage.

We piled into the van and drove out the tiny narrow alley, onto the street and just around the corner, where we filed out and went into a restaurant. We had a private room, and Anna started ordering food.

Around this time, Nika/Fei Fei started to clue in on the fact that she was now with us. Wolfgang sat with her in the corner and while she cried, we heard the occaisional “Maaa.” It became clear that I was not the correct one! Later on Anna told us that a week ago all the babies were returned to the orphanage from their foster families. Fortunately Wolfgang has the magic touch and was able to comfort her. I managed to get some noodles and egg into her with my deft chopstick technique. The bottle, however, was a no-go.

From here onwards, until about an hour ago, Wolfgang has been the main object of her attention!

Back on the bus, all the babies passed out within about five minutes. Fei Fei was sprawled out on her back across our laps.

Once we got into the hotel room the truth really set in. Wolfgang held her, cooed and jostled her for about two hours, while any direct eye contact with me brought on renewed tears! She cried for Ma a lot.

We thought some TV time might help, and the first of many future viewings of Deutcher Welle (German news TV) with Daddy was enjoyed. This gave me a chance to go out and get some hydrogen peroxide for Wolfgang’s blocked ears, which has made him a bit uncomfortable the last few days. Anna was on the elevator so she accompanied me to the pharmacy and translated for me thanks to her cell phone dictionary!

She was looking for a favorite spicy noodle spot she had visited three years ago, so I walked with her and got noodles too. We took them back to the hotel. When I came in, Wolfgang and Fei Fei were playing really sweetly on the bed. But when I started eating the noodles (they were spicy!) she sat up and we knew she was hungry. She let me feed her again (leftovers from lunch) while we were waiting for the congee to arrive from room service. I got about two tablespoonfuls of congee down thanks to my deft spoon technique (and thanks to Char who loaned us the spoon) (I forgot to pack the spoons).

Finally, we got the bottle situation resolved, and she drank the whole thing at once. I was getting a bit worried that she’d gone the whole day without one. So, I'm the food lady, but Daddy is her play thing! They played handsies and feetsies and she was a much happier baby after that bottle. Then we gave her a quick sponge bath, fresh diaper and baby lotion massage. She also has some eczema that is clearing up, and I got some eczema cream on her.

Now the change of clothes – the 12 month old jammies I got her were too small for her chubby legs! So thanks to Granny Gail and Poppy for sending us the perfect fleece jammies. Once we got her into them, she was out like a light.

She’s sleeping in her crib tucked in with Wolfgang’s Euro 2008 T-shirt. She has some mild chest congestion, which we’ll ask the doctor about tomorrow morning.

I’m sure Wolfgang would want to add some comments but he’s passed out too!

Our first day here

Shanghai, October 11, 2008
Our flights from Vancouver to Tokyo and Shanghai went pretty smoothly, except for the fact that Wolfgang can’t find one of his cell phones. We’re reporting it to both airlines and will hope for a speedy recovery.

We’re on the 20th floor of the Panorama hotel. Here was our view this morning!

That is the Yangtze river. The boat traffic is phenomenal. It is the most active river traffic I have ever seen.

We met up with the Group 15 gang in the lobby and coordinated for dinner tonight. We were the last ones to arrive. Tannis, Lawrence, Char and Brent have been here a few days sightseeing already – everyone looked so fresh and ready to go! Wolfgang and I met with Albert Lee, his wife Jacqueline and their 14 month old son Hugo for brunch.

It was a great way to start the trip. Albert works with the Canadian Consulate and was one of the people involved in organizing the Canadian Animation conference in Taipei I went to in March, 2007. He transferred to Shanghai three months after Hugo was born. So, we got to see a real little one in action, as well as his parents in action, which was a pretty good “hazing!” In fact, all that Albert and Jacqueline wanted to talk about was baby stuff, and since Wolfgang has been so involved with work up until the trip, it was a great way for things to start sinking in. Hugo was, of course, a real charmer! He’s only been walking for three weeks, and last week started “free styling,” so Albert and Jacqueline took turns with him as he roamed around the restaurant.

Then, there was the all important Bottle Feeding, which has been the biggest mystery for me so far – how do I prepare a bottle on-the-fly? Now I know! Then it was into the snuggly and naptime. Wolfgang and Albert got to talk business as well.

Then we said our goodbyes and took a casual stroll up the Bund. The afternoon had turned into a sunny and breezy day, and after some trial and error, we found our way to the hotel.