There's no crying in China

So last night was a teensy bit challenging. Maggie and I went walking around the hotel for a bit. There was a string quartet playing in the lobby so we listened to them for a while. When we came back, Maggie was having none of the hanging around the room and my whole body was aching from carrying her. David said he would take her for a while and he left. I got in bed and fell asleep. I think it was 6:30. When they came back, David had brought dinner from the Japanese restaurant here in the hotel and Maggie had apparently charmed everyone she came in contact with. There are lipstick stains on her hankie where David had to wipe her face off after she got kisses from the waitresses at the restaurant. David ate dinner, which wasn't so great. It was different little skewers of meat. The chicken tasted good but there were some other types of meat like liver. BLEAH. I had about 5 pieces of chicken and 5 Chips Ahoy for dinner. Plus some Gatorade because that's so nutritious. Maggie was still fussing so we thought maybe a bath would calm her down. It did not. That lavender bath stuff LIES. But it smells good. I got her dressed in her pj's and now let me tell you why Gymboree pajamas, while cute, suck. First of all, they do not have snaps on the legs. How stupid. Second of all the snaps on the body are way too far apart and they gap. Third of all, the armholes are apparently for babies with toothpick arms. I had to cram Maggie's big old hands through those teensy holes. But her feet fit in them so that is one good aspect. Also, they have Louie on them which is definitely in their favor. Then she still had some crud going on in the chest so we gave her some more Dimetapp. Ahh, bliss. Then David and I both took Tylenol PM and tried to watch an episode of Buffy before we both keeled over from exhaustion. There was a big thunderstorm here last night. I enjoy tropical thunderstorms. They are loud and flashy but do not last very long.

This morning David and I both woke up at 6. We felt GOOD because all three of us had slept through the night. I felt so proud of myself when I looked at the clock and realized that I had not woken up once! We showered and waited for Sleeping Beauty to arise. She finally woke up around 7, I guess. I fed her and got her dressed for the day. She did not wear the red outfit afterall because the top was HUGE and I noticed that you could see her baby boobies at breakfast. Not appropriate. Plus it has spaghetti straps which means that she might freeze to death in the subtropical heat here, according to our guide. Chinese people like their babies bundled up, which means that Maggie wears a sweater all the time and we carry a blanket wrapped around her even if we are positively perishing from the heat. I stuck a hat on her this morning to see what she thought. Not a fan, unsurprisingly. It did look cute though. We headed on down to breakfast and Maggie feasted on some yogurt and bananas. I tried to give her some congee, which is this kind of gross looking rice soup. Babies apparently love it but not Miss Hardhead. Brooke cautioned me to be sure to get the plain kind because she accidentally gave Emma oyster congee yesterday which she did not like. That KILLS me. I'm probably going to get in trouble for sharing all of Brooke and Jeff's secrets on here and they will make me change all of Emma's poopy diapers.


WHAT! The Crocodile Hunter was killed???? Maggie and I were both stunned.


Look, more redneck baby wearing only a diaper in the baby carrier.

After breakfast, we went down to the lobby to wait until it was time for us to leave. Maggie really turned it on down there. She was looking around and smacking her butterfly teether on the arm of the chair. A man asked if she was a boy or girl and said that she was cute. Then we went and talked to another family whose daughter is from Maggie's orphanage. Her name is Kylie but I don't know if I'm spelling it right. She is really cute and wears this little hat with the brim flipped up all the time. She and Maggie kind of checked each other out and I was able to put Maggie down and she stood on the floor without crying! Then we got on the bus to go back to the civil affairs office one more time! This time we got our adoption decree or "the red book." Not to be confused with Mao's Little Red Book. It has our family picture it in. Maggie looks so cute! Actually, you can see it right now!


After that, we went to the police office to apply for the babies' passports. When we got there was when I realized that there is NO WAY you could do this without having an agency to guide you through it. I guess unless you speak and read Chinese fluently. Both Mandarin and Cantonese because they speak Cantonese here and US citizens have to go through Guangzhou because the US consulate is here. We waited there and were called up to speak to a police officer. We gave her our passports and our red book and she looked over our paperwork. She said that Maggie was cute! She took a picture of her, I guess to prove that she was with us. I bet that picture looked hilarious because Maggie was totally sticking her tongue out. She hung with David the whole time we were at the police office. She really likes to sit by the window on the bus and look out. She's getting more and more active and curious. I guess she doesn't like the hotel room because it's boring and there's nothing to look out. She does like to look out the window at the traffic though. Then we got on the bus to come back to the hotel. Amy told us that even though we have sweaters or long sleeves on our babies at breakfast and stuff, they either need to be wearing long pants or have a blanket with us because it's too cold for the babies. See why the spaghetti straps were a no go? I'm so glad that we brought exactly ONE pair of long pants and ONE sweater.


Oh, the AGONY!!!!! My life is just an endless series of terrible events!!!!

When we got back to the room, I subjected Maggie to the torture of a diaper change and all 3 of us went down to Food Street for a Chinese lunch. Well, Maggie had already had a bottle on the bus so she was pretty much set. They brought her a highchair which she promptly crawled out of and back into David's lap. Yikes. There was no seat belt in it so maybe that's why. She sits in the highchair in the mornings just fine. The women at the restaurant thought she was VERY cute. The menu was all in Chinese but they took pity on us and brought us an English menu. We were the only white people in the restaurant. We had tea (yummy) and I had shrimp dumplings in soup with noodles. VERY tasty and David had shrimp and rice and noodles in a curry sauce. Ick but he liked it. My lunch was $2.50! While we waited for our food, I gave Maggie some prunes because she is having a little trouble "making laws," as David and I would say. (you know, on the throne, making laws, whatever) She ate those right up! She had prunes EVERYWHERE including on her nose and in her eyebrow. The ladies brought a hot washcloth to clean her off with. Then my food came and I ate while David held Maggie. She was very busy, banging her spoon and trying to rip everything off the table. Then I finished and David's food came and I held her while he ate. She is very interested in different textures. The sides of the table were carved and she spent a lot of time sticking her finger in the holes. She also rubbed the cushion of the chair we were sitting in this morning in the lobby. She finally had had about enough so David told me to go on and he would meet us upstairs. We came up here and I put her on the floor. She, of course, cried but I sat down about 5 feet from her to see if she would crawl to me. WOW, she was pitiful. She kept saying, "Maaaaa" and crying the big tears but when I held one of her hands, she deigned to crawl to me. Then I picked her up and loved on her. She fell asleep about 1 second later. (Mom, remember when you would count my ribs and talk about anything to make me go to sleep? I did the exact same thing today) And it worked! I tried to put her in the crib and she got FURIOUS with me. She opened her big old mouth up but no sound came out and her hands started shaking. I picked her back up and put her to sleep again. I put her back in the crib, rubbed her belly for a minute and she dropped right off. Woo hoo!! Yay for me.
We can talk and do whatever in the room and she sleeps right through it. That's kind of nice. Brooke came by a little later to see if I wanted anything from Starbucks. I went down there with her and we also walked by the playroom and she showed me where you can get a massage. I am totally going to get one because I think she paid $20 for a 90 minute massage. My back is killing me. Oh, we weighed Maggie this morning and she weighs about 16 1/2 pounds. Tonight we are going to order from Danny's Bagels with Brooke and Jeff and see if Maggie and Emma will play. Tomorrow we aren't doing anything paperwork-y but we are going to the Guangzhou Zoo! We have GOT to find a stroller before then because I don't think I can stomach carrying Maggie in a baby carrier with a blanket in 100 degree heat. My hair is enjoying the humidity. Frizz city. Now David and Maggie are both sleeping so I guess I will either go read or go to the massage parlor--HA! I told David that if I wasn't here when he woke up that I had gone to get a massage.
He said, 'What about the baby?"
I told him that he would be here.
"But I'll be asleep!"
I asked him what he thought happened in the night when we were all sleeping.
"Oh."