Chloe took her fist airplane ride today and she did remarkably well. She is such a happy baby. We’ve discovered that if there is motion, any kind of motion, she will say “ohhhhhhhhhh” so that the vibration of the movement makes a funny sound coming out of her mouth. She does this on bus ride, stroller rides, a bounce on daddy’s knee and even airplanes.
We are now in Guangzhou on Shamian Island. The island is like its own little world. There is very little car traffic and there are many more shops and restaurants to visit here as opposed to Nanning. The only thing we don’t care for is the bartering. I so dislike to barter. We were joking today that we feel like we are in Puerto Vallarta because if you pass by a shop they are trying to entice you to come into their store. Once inside nothing has a price on it. They tell you a price, you offer them 60% of what they said, they say no and ask for something higher then 60%, you counter offer, they say no, you start to walk out, they change their mind. See I’ve been here less then a day and I already have this down to a science… but I still dislike doing it.
My two favorite things about Shamian Island are the hotel and the Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks!!! (Hey, you try having instant Nestle’s coffee every morning for eight days straight and I bet you too would be craving a good cup of coffee.) It looks exactly like the Starbucks at home. The hotel is also very nice. Now this truly is a five-star hotel. We have a suite here and we are glad we do. One room has become Chloe’s play room. We’ve discovered that she doesn’t crawl… she scoots along on her bottom to get were she wants to go.
Chloe now smiles at everyone that is willing to pay attention to her. She crinkles up her nose when giving someone her special BIG smile. I even got to hold her today several times and for a while there was very little fussing. This evening I held her and fed her a bottle. She’d drink for about 30 seconds, then stop and cry but she would start drinking again. We made it through the entire bottle together. Ya!!!
Today we had Chloe’s picture taken for her visa and we also did the “medical exam” (I use the term very loosely) for the visa. The exam is done at a clinic for children being adopted. We spent more time shuffling from room to room then we did for the exams. The important part is that she passed. She is 18.74 pounds, and 30.32 inches long. After this we only have one more piece of the adoption to complete and that involves the U.S. Consulate. I sure hope everything goes smoothly there. The only part I worry about is a silly address mistake made by the State Department of Immigrations. I have no idea how or why they did it, but somewhere along the line they have us living in a different city but all of my supporting documents have the correct city. Every items they sent us arrived at our address because the street and zip code were correct so I never noticed the city blunder until just last month. With my luck it will be earth shattering (a.k.a. adoption stopping).
We are now in Guangzhou on Shamian Island. The island is like its own little world. There is very little car traffic and there are many more shops and restaurants to visit here as opposed to Nanning. The only thing we don’t care for is the bartering. I so dislike to barter. We were joking today that we feel like we are in Puerto Vallarta because if you pass by a shop they are trying to entice you to come into their store. Once inside nothing has a price on it. They tell you a price, you offer them 60% of what they said, they say no and ask for something higher then 60%, you counter offer, they say no, you start to walk out, they change their mind. See I’ve been here less then a day and I already have this down to a science… but I still dislike doing it.
My two favorite things about Shamian Island are the hotel and the Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks!!! (Hey, you try having instant Nestle’s coffee every morning for eight days straight and I bet you too would be craving a good cup of coffee.) It looks exactly like the Starbucks at home. The hotel is also very nice. Now this truly is a five-star hotel. We have a suite here and we are glad we do. One room has become Chloe’s play room. We’ve discovered that she doesn’t crawl… she scoots along on her bottom to get were she wants to go.
Chloe now smiles at everyone that is willing to pay attention to her. She crinkles up her nose when giving someone her special BIG smile. I even got to hold her today several times and for a while there was very little fussing. This evening I held her and fed her a bottle. She’d drink for about 30 seconds, then stop and cry but she would start drinking again. We made it through the entire bottle together. Ya!!!
Today we had Chloe’s picture taken for her visa and we also did the “medical exam” (I use the term very loosely) for the visa. The exam is done at a clinic for children being adopted. We spent more time shuffling from room to room then we did for the exams. The important part is that she passed. She is 18.74 pounds, and 30.32 inches long. After this we only have one more piece of the adoption to complete and that involves the U.S. Consulate. I sure hope everything goes smoothly there. The only part I worry about is a silly address mistake made by the State Department of Immigrations. I have no idea how or why they did it, but somewhere along the line they have us living in a different city but all of my supporting documents have the correct city. Every items they sent us arrived at our address because the street and zip code were correct so I never noticed the city blunder until just last month. With my luck it will be earth shattering (a.k.a. adoption stopping).
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