How did I get so lucky?

I know I keep saying that but seriously...what did I do to deserve such a cute, funny, smart, generally good natured little girl. When your biological kids do something (good or bad) you can take credit, but that's just not the case here. I just got plain lucky! Keeghan is constantly amazing us with all she can do. It only takes her seeing us do something once and she picks it up. She can sort the shapes into the shape sorter we have. She loves to look at books and will take my finger to "point" at what she wants me to talk about when we read. She can climb on the futon in our family room and make it all the way up the stairs. She gets when I am gone and doesn't like it one bit. She will lie down if you tell her you are going to change her diaper (and tried to do that in the middle of a store in the mall the other day!). She'll crawl on the floor and play doggie...barking and all. She's really fun to watch but more fun, is seeing her with the resident entertainment committee...her brother and sisters. The kids all love to play with Keeghan and have been incredible helpers. Again...how did I get so lucky?

Some pictures:

Winter warm up

So I got my wish...it's warmed up quite a bit and the snow is fading away. I certainly didn't mean it all had to go as the kids haven't had a chance to sled yet, but this weather is WAY better than all that snow and ice! It was a pleasure to go run the past two mornings in only pants and a long sleeve shirt as opposed to needing gloves, jackets, etc. Keeghan has warmed up enough to Doug and her siblings to let me run though this morning I was greeted with Doug saying "Don't you dare go another hundred yards.". And on that note...I didn't get to workout while in China. I did lug Keeghan around but that doesn't count in my book. Something you have to do anyway (ie snow shoveling, power walking while shopping, carrying a kid) doesn't count as exercise. I was worried about my weight (as I always do). I typically weigh myself daily and did hop on the scale in the hotel a few times but knew I couldn't count on that as it wasn't the scale I normally weigh myself on. I wrote down my weight from the morning I left but haven't looked at it because I thought I'd remembered it. I've had a few people comment that I look like I'd lost weight but by my memory and what my scale said I was like no...about the same. Well, I finally looked at what I'd written down last night...yeah, I lost about 7lbs since I left. So much for my memory.

Onto Keeghan...we slept ok again last night. Getting a few solid hours has helped me a ton and getting to workout is always a good thing. I'm working on getting her to one nap a day (lunchtimeish) and then to bed at 8ish. We're getting there. Something that has surprised us about her...she likes the car and carseat. Both Doug and I totally assumed she would HATE being in a carseat having never been in one. She did fuss when we first put her in the night I got home, but calmed right down and seems to actually like being in the car. We put on music and she sings and dances (so cute!). She's also talking more...saying up, cracker, diaper, shoes...and I'm sure some other stuff we just don't understand. Keeghan understands us pretty well and can follow directions if she feels like it : ) Ok, my posting time is done as the princess is wanting some attention.

Christmas

We mostly slept again Christmas Eve and last night as well. Granted we are up a bit early (4am on Christmas and again today but we did get back to sleep until 6 today) but that's ok. It seems we're well on our way to being on US time. Keeghan is coming to like Doug and the kids more but still gets very overwhelmed when too much is going on.

We went to Auntie Val's for Christmas Eve and there were a few too many people around. I know everyone is excited for us and to meet and play with Keeghan...I am too but having 10 people watching your every move and trying to get you to smile or play is alot. Especially for a little girl who probably didn't ever see much other than the orphanage she lived in and maybe a play area outside that orphanage. Keeghan seems to look to me for comfort but she also is pretty flirty with others which worries me a bit. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I'd rather be safe when it comes to bonding.

Anyway...onto the fun stuff. Christmas was amazing. I really got the best present a Mom could ask for. Doug and I didn't really get very much "stuff" but the joy of having all our kids with us and watching them open their gifts was awesome. Keeghan got into present opening later in the day. She and I sat on the living room floor and opened her things. She loves some of her toys but others weren't so interesting. Here's a few pictures:

And to all a goodnight

I'm almost afraid to say it, but it seems we slept last night. Keeghan crashed on my lap (while we girls were piled in my bed watching the Grinch) about 9. I put her in the pack and play and told the girls I was going to fall asleep and they should head to bed when the show was over. Well the next time I heard from Keeghan was about 1. I patted her back and she went back to sleep until 3:30. Again, some back patting and more sleep...until almost 6! I'm not sure how we managed it or why, but it was awesome. I'm certainly not counting on it happening again but keep your fingers crossed.

We're settling in at home. The kids love one another and have a good time playing together. Keeghan LOVES to climb in things (baskets, boxes, toys...whatever). The other night she was in a laundry basket and Carson was pushing her back and forth while Keeghan and Devon were "head butting" one another. It was damn cute. They love to imitate one another with funny faces and noises. I took Keeghan into the elementary school yesterday morning and she was a hit. She tromped around in her squeaky shoes giving up plenty of smiles. AND she got to meet Carson's classmates.

I think we're about ready for Christmas. I've baked and managed Christmas cards. Thanks to some serious help from Val, my wrapping is done! I sent brownies and banana bread into Kennedy's teachers and one of them thinks I'm nuts being home with a new child, having 4 kids and baking. I think I just love being a Mom!

Enough with the snow!

It snowed all weekend here! The kids were released from school two hours early on Friday and have a 90 minute delay this morning. Our driveway is already full of snow and if it snows more I'm not sure where we'll put it. I hate cold and the snow is pretty for about 10 minutes but then it's just annoying. Probably, at this point, more annoying given how tired I am. We're still having serious sleep issues and I'm dumb enough to be trying to get a million things done for Christmas while Keeghan naps. I did try, yesterday to lay down for a half hour but that didn't work out as Doug was out trying to pick up the Christmas picture I'd taken of the kids and there were issues.

Keeghan hasn't really been out in the snow except for being carried to and from the car. At this point it's deep enough that she'd just plain get lost if I put her down. I'm sure I'll do it at some point and I'll let you know what happens.

Now I just need to get the kids stuff wrapped for Christmas...

Are we ever going to sleep?

It seems we are still on China time. Of course we expected this, but I guess I figured I'd see SOME progress towards getting onto a US schedule by now. I'm doing what I can to get Keeghan adjusted without totally putting her off the edge. It's almost tougher now that we're home due to the lack of sleep. Given Keeghan isn't totally fond of spending too much time (ie more than 20 seconds) without me and neither of us are sleeping very well so I'm a bit cranky. In China Keeghan took one (if not two) decent naps a day and slept all night for me (with an exception here and there but even if she got up she'd go right back to sleep). So, I'd get some time to myself when she slept...but now we're trying not to sleep all day and we aren't so much sleeping at night so I'm tired and not being able to hand Keeghan off is tough. Of course I'm still loving almost every minute we have with this amazing little girl and watching the "big kids" with her. It's priceless and I know we'll sleep again sometime but that's where we are at right now.

I did get adventurous today and put the kids in what will be Christmas outfits to try and get a picture. We managed two shots before Keeghan lost it, but they actually aren't horrible : )

And a few other shots of Keeghan playing at home...

Keeghan's shirt says "Mom's favorite gift" : )

I'd almost forgotten the fun toddlers have emptying drawers and cabinets in the kitchen!

Day two

Have I said how much I love this little girl?? Granted at 5 AM after being up since 2 she's not quite as cute as at 11 AM, but still damn cute and a smile just melts me.

The kids are loving Keeghan to death and helping me TONS. They are great about grabbing whatever I need when my hands are full or getting a toy to entertain Keeghan when she's fussing. It's so fun to watch them do whatever they can to please their little sister. Doug and Keeghan are working on getting to know one another. She called him Ba Ba the other night (that's Chinese for Daddy...ok Father). He's still hesitant to just pick her up as she is not totally loving these extra people all over. Keeghan did let Doug feed her last night. Well more this morning at 5 AM. We'll take the little steps.

Being home is, all in all, a bit weird. I think more actually finally having Keeghan here is weird. As Doug said the first night we were home, "Look, there's a little Chinese baby in our bed.". That sums it up. After waiting so long (and I know...16 months isn't really that long in the land of China adoptions right now) I still am wondering if it's all a dream or if I'm really this lucky!

Finally HOME!!

After 24 LONG hours of travel, Keeghan and I made it home last night. We were up bright an early (me at 4:50am and Keeghan at 5:45am) to get to the airport and onto our first flight. That one was 4 fun hours. Keeghan cried a bit and took a short nap but it went ok. From there we switch planes in Tokyo (after almost losing the favorite blanket at a security checkpoint) and settled in for 12 hours on a packed plane. Not alot of fun with a sometimes restless 16 month old. There were a bunch of families on this flight so pretty much all of our children took a turn crying. Overall...it went WAY better than I expected. We were in the very last row of the plane which meant we had a bit of space next to our seat to stand up and "play" or rock a cranky baby. Keeghan slept for about 3 hours on this flight and I dozed but trying to hold Keeghan up and not fall out of my seat meant it was not quality sleep! Landing in Detroit was the BEST!!! Getting through immigration and customs...not exactly the best. Because there were several adoptive families on the plane the line for immigration was a bit long and then we had to go claim our checked luggage and bring it through customs only to re-check it. A bit of a pain when it's just one grown up and a baby! But, we made it and then had some time to change diapers/clothes, have something to eat...oh and some much needed coffee for Mom. We were VERY happy to be back in the US at that point. From there we just had a quick flight to Manchester. Keeghan did not like getting on another plane one bit but after about 10 minutes of crying she sacked out and slept through the flight. Getting off that plane was amazing. I knew Doug and the kids were waiting for us and I couldn't wait to see them.

Carson spotted us first and was crying as I came through the security gate. They all gave me big hugs and were immediately about talking to their new little sister. Once Keeghan seemed ok with them I took her out of the sling (and here I need to say that sling was a Godsend on this trip) to let her get down and check everyone out. She gave Devon and Carson hugs but Kennedy wasn't into holding her hands out so Keeghan didn't go to her so quickly. At this point a guy who was getting his luggage and I had noticed taking a picture came over to say congratulations and tell me that he and his wife have three children and were contemplating adoption and that he'd sent her a photo of us and she was all teary eyed. I told him I highly recommended doing this!!

Keeghan did well in the car only getting fussy when we were almost home. Sleep, however, wasn't so good. She took a nap from 10-11:15ish and then was up until 2. At that point I hadn't really slept and was falling asleep standing up hold her! I finally got her out and just let her sleep on me in our bed. She woke up again at 4 and then at 5 and was up for the morning at 6. We hung out in bed until almost 7 when we had breakfast. Doug decided to work today given tomorrow's weather is supposed to be bad so I somehow or another got myself together (ok...really it was because Carson was a HUGE help) and brought Carson to school and got to the grocery store.

Keeghan is now out for a nap so I have to get a few things done and maybe sleep myself but I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's helped us get this far in this journey and let you all know we are home safe!

Just Pictures

I think I'm finished up packing for tonight and I'm off to bed so I can get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow but here's a few pictures from the Red Couch experience today...

The Hunan Girls were feeling a bit spicy...and not so happy!

All Done!

That's what we are. We just returned from the American Consulate where I took an oath that everything Doug and I said on our paperwork was true and we got handed a brown envelope with Keeghan's paperwork and her passport with an American Visa in it! : ) I'll post more about our day later as we are on our way out for an Italian dinner with all of our travel mates.

And a late night too.

Today was pretty much low key and free. We played in the playroom a bit after breakfast where Keeghan had fun playing ball with a 3 year old little boy who is here getting his 3 year old sister. After that we went out for a quick walk to kill some time before going for a nap. Since we were up so early I didn't want a 9am nap and a cranky baby the rest of the day. Going down for a nap wasn't so easy but then Keeghan slept for a good hour and a half while I waited for our guide to call and let me know our visa paperwork was all set. She finally called at about 12:20 just after Keeghan had got up from her nap. I guess everything went fine and we were free!

Off we went to Lucy's (the American food place) for lunch where I had a cheeseburger and Keeghan had some sticky rice (it's boiled rice...but really sticky so you can eat it with chopsticks) and chicken congee. Oh, and she ate some of a spring roll that some friends shared. After lunch we went to shop for a bit with our travel buddies who live near us. That was fun. We got a few other things I wanted to buy at good prices (I would have left without this stuff if they hadn't come down to the prices I wanted) so that was good. After that we came back to the room because I knew Keeghan was going to need another nap.

Well, fast forward to 4:30 when she was still fighting sleep...I ended up rocking her to sleep and curling up in my bed with her. I had to wake her up about an hour later as I wanted to go to bed sometime tonight!! We ate in our room (a boiled egg and tangerine that we took from breakfast and some cheerios) and then went out for a walk.

I ended up out for an hour or so and then came back to get Keeghan ready for bed. She wasn't thinking bed was the best idea and I stood and rocked her for a good 30 minutes, but she kept kicking me and pulling at my face and pulled an earring out. Finally I was getting frustrated enough that I knew I needed to put her down (even if it was just for two minutes to take a breath) so I did...and off to sleep she went without a whimper! I just can't figure this girl out.

Some things I did learn about Keeghan today:
She understands no and will sometimes shake her head no when I say it...but she certainly doesn't listen to it!
She can crawl. I have tried a couple of times when we're playing to get her to crawl (sometimes kids walk without crawling which isn't the best for their development so I was curious about whether or not she could) but she'd never done it until today.
She understands sit. This, after almost killing herself 3 or 4 times by standing up and running around on the bed. Obviously I had caught her every time but she keeps freaking me out so we've been working on sit.
She will mimic me if I do something. Today I put my head on the pillow and said "night night" and she came and put her head down too. She'll also make noises with her mouth as I do them (ie clicking her tongue or blowing raspberries). And on that same note, she thinks it's fun when I mimic her.
She actively tries to engage me in games when we are playing together. She'll pull her shirt up to get me to kiss or tickle her belly or put her foot up for me to kiss and tickle.

Only one more day here. Tomorrow at 2 we are taking our group photo and red couch picture of the kids and then we're off to the consulate to take an oath and from there we pack up to leave at 6 Wednesday morning!!! Can't wait to get home and see everyone. I'll probably post at least one more time tomorrow to share our pictures.

5:30 AM

That's what time Keeghan thought was good to get up this morning. UGH. I was sound asleep and she woke up crying. I thought it was still the middle of the night and tried to lay her back down but she wasn't having ANY of that so I changed her and tried again. Nope. Finally I decided to figure out what time it was and saw it was 5:30...so I gave up. We played on my bed a bit before I got in the shower and got us ready for breakfast. I didn't want to eat so early that we would need lunch at 10 so I stretched things out until 7. We found some travel mates at breakfast and joined them. Keeghan ate a ton (which she hadn't been doing as much of...but I discovered she just cut a tooth so that may have been why) and then we went to the playroom for a bit. About 9:30 we came back to our room and I decided we'd walk to Starbucks so I could wait a bit before putting Keeghan down for a nap. We came back to discover that Doug and the kids are without power again...thanks again to Val and Craig for coming to the rescue and housing my kids and offering their help!! I know Doug could have been fine without them but I really don't know how we'll repay them! Well, I guess we'll eventually let them hold Keeghan : )

I'm currently stuck in my room until I hear from my guide that our US Consulate paperwork is all set. I just put Keeghan down and she's finally asleep. I'm hoping she'll take an hour or so nap and then we'll find some lunch...assuming we're released! Here's some of the promised pictures:

This is a building in the front courtyard area...nine floors (but only from the outside) as nine is lucky. There is an urn kind of thing in front of this building that you try and throw a coin into a little slot for good luck...after several attempts we all made it.
This is a picture of that ceremony I was talking about...you can sort of see the coolers with the animals lined up and the Monks in the background. We were asked not to take direct pictures of the Monks.
This is a female Buddha...she is the one to pray to/worship when you want to have a child...guess she and I are pretty close : )

Keeghan and I in the main hall with the three Buddhas behind us.

Getting blessed. Our guide was good enough to take pictures of this for us.

And a few other random pictures for your viewing pleasure:

The view from our hotel room...really pretty and at night it's amazing with all the lights. A bit Las Vegas like.
See my red squeaky shoes??? They really squeak when I walk.

This is my happy face.

Hmmm, what's this???

This is my unhappy face.

I'm not too sure what this is but it sure is fun to play with!

A Blessing

So we went to a Buddhist Temple today. It was crazy crowded due to some kind of festival. When we got there the Monks were doing a ceremony in the center courtyard and our guide explained they were blessing live animals that people had brought and that after the blessing the people who brought the animals would take them back to their habitats to release them. Then we got to see the different Buddhas and the outside of the Monks dormitory. From there we went to the main hall where there are three Buddhas...one for the past, one for the present, and one for the future. They all look the same but are holding their hands differently. We were all blessed by the Monk as well. I'm very glad we were able to do that.

After that we tried to go for lunch at a Cantonese restaurant across from our hotel but Keeghan was having NONE of that. She hadn't had a nap and was crazy hungry so once I got a bit of food in her I came back to put her down for a nap. Unfortunately...it wasn't a very long nap as we were meeting to do our American Consulate paperwork...read that as 500 forms in triplicate! Two hours and a screaming baby later...we were done. Done paperwork and done paying the last of the money to bring Keeghan home! Now tomorrow our guide brings the paperwork to the Consulate and we wait in our hotel room in case something is wrong, but come noon tomorrow we should be all set.

Other than waiting around...tomorrow is a free day. Tuesday we do our famous red couch photo (pretty much every American adoptive parent who comes through China has a photo of their child on the red couches at this hotel). I bought Keeghan a traditional red dress today for that. After that we head to the Consulate for some swearing in thing...I guess saying that we'll really care for our daughters and not leave them to end up in the care of the US government. No pictures allowed of that AT ALL. We can't even bring our cameras with us.

So after all the screaming during paperwork I brought Keeghan back to our room to change her and feed her a bit. Then we ventured out to shop. We did some serious damage on the stuff I want to bring home. Got dresses galore for the girls, squeaky shoes (they squeak when the kid walks...a bit like the Chinese version of our light up sneakers) for Keeghan, some stuff for our house, chops (stamps) that have the kids names in Chinese characters and English...oh and some coffee from Starbucks!! : ) We also hit 7-11 (yes seriously) to grab some diet coke...YUM...and some snacks. Kennedy wanted oreos and I got a few other treats for the kids. Keeghan actually sat in the stroller for a bit tonight when we went out. I think because there weren't any crowds. We had a really nice time being out and about without anyone else to worry about.

I'll post some of the pictures from our outings today tomorrow morning...but goodnight for now.

In the home stretch!

It's Sunday morning here which means only three more days and we're on our way home. Yesterday was a bit long as Keeghan was tired from being up so late Friday night. We had medical exams so the girls can get American Visas...needless to say none of them liked that a bit. Keeghan is pretty strong and didn't want anyone touching her. Guess maybe it was good for bonding because she was clinging to me : ) After that we walked back to our hotel and I had a chance to drop off some laundry which is a good thing because I'm currently wearing sweats and the same t-shirt I wore yesterday. The weather here is alot warmer than I anticipated so long sleeves won't cut it. Let me insert here I know everyone at home is dealing with a nightmare of an ice storm that has killed power and knocked over trees everywhere. Doug and the kids had power back when I chatted with them yesterday but I hope everyone else is doing ok too! We also got a stroller to use while were here.

Fast forward a few hours after Keeghan had a nap and we were off to the Pearl Market. Keeghan did not love the stroller and I ended up carrying her most of the time. Oh well...again, good for bonding. I got some great gifts at the market and actually watched the girls string the pearls. Seriously...there were pearls EVERYWHERE. Tons of them and crazy cheap. I think we all did some shopping there.

Then it was off to what our guide referred to as a pedestrian street. It pretty much was a HUGE mall. Maybe think Quincy Market but make it 10 times bigger. And it was really crowded. I was a bit scared at first. We went into a department store were I found some other cool stuff to bring home including a wicked cute pair of shoes for Keeghan. Here are a few pictures from that...

By the time we were done there Keeghan was starving and not very happy. I stuffed some french fries and cheerios in her mouth and we made it back to the hotel. Our whole group decided to go to Lucy's (a famous place here known for their "American Food") for dinner. I ordered Keeghan grilled cheese...didn't so much like that. She did, however, really like the fun lights on the ground that changed color. Dinner time is really not our best time of day. Keeghan is usually done by then and wants to go to bed so getting her to eat is difficult. I ended up wearing most of her food (one of her favorite things to do is chew food and spit it out) which is a problem when you have no clothes left (but I'll get my laundry back this morning I hope)! From dinner we came back, took a bath (again not something we enjoy so much) and got ready for bed. I did get a few smiles then...



But this is the face I was getting at breakfast...

And a few other random cute pictures but then I'm off to breakfast because little girls are awake...

Guangzhou

We made it to Guangzhou last night (in the southern part of China...Guangdong province). This is where the American Consulate is to finish up paperwork to bring our daughters home. Keeghan did pretty well on the flight here. It was only an hour long thank goodness and she didn't cry but she wasn't so thrilled about being in such close quarters. It was also a late flight so it was past her bedtime. She crashed on the bus ride to the hotel and stayed out when I got to our room and put her down but was up at 7 this morning and is out cold already. The girls have appointments for the visa physicals this morning but I'm not sure what else in on our agenda today. I will say it's nice to have a change of scenery and to be back with the other families in our travel group!

I tried to nap.

Everyone knows this rule...as a new parent, you sleep when the baby sleeps. I tried but it didn't work. My head is everywhere so I gave up.

I do need to take a minute to thank a few people here. Val and Craig (and their kids) are currently serving as a surrogate family to my kids while I'm away and for that I am VERY grateful. I'm sure Doug could have done it alone, but it's wonderful to have friends as good as Val and Craig are to help out. So, thank you a million times over. I'll never be able to repay you!

That said...I need to say that I am also very thankful that Doug is home. At this point, I know the kids are missing me (and boy am I missing them) and I would be a train wreck if Doug were here with me. I'm sad that Doug is missing this experience, of course, but so glad he is home to care for the big kids.

I miss you all and can't wait to get home!!!

Friday Morning

We slept pretty well again last night though getting Keeghan had a tough time getting to sleep. We were up by 6:30 this morning and headed to breakfast around 7:30. Keeghan continues to be a good eater...she had a boiled egg (and then some of a second), two wedges of watermelon, about 1/2 a banana, some fried rice, some congee, some cheerios, milk and juice. And now she's sitting on my lap chowing on more cheerios!As you can see chopsticks are good for banging...and dropping for Mom to pick up. We also know how to play peek a boo, blow raspberries and make "Indian noises" with our mouth and hand. On the downside...biting and pinching are in our repertoire too.

But with a face that cute it's really hard to get mad!

It is also very difficult to entertain a toddler in a hotel room. There is a playroom right near our room but Keeghan FLIPS OUT whenever we go in there (unless I stand and hold her). She loves to watch the other kids but won't get down and play. I have a limited number of toys and they are starting to get old. I have to get everything into my bags to get to Guangzhou so buying more toys isn't a choice right now. OK... Miss Keeghan is all done letting me blog. Not sure when I'll get back to let you know how our day and trip to Guangzhou went since we get in so late tonight and I have no clue what we'll have for internet service there. Keep your fingers crossed!

Is it the 17th yet?

Today was a long day. We went to visit Keeghan's orphanage. She did better than I expected but I was completely overwhelmed. I'm choosing not to share the whole story of our visit. There are a couple of reasons for that...one is how emotional the day was for me and another is that I'm not sure how public I want that story for Keeghan's sake. I may feel differently in a day or two or more once I've had some time to digest but not right now. I will say it is very clear to me that her nannies love her and we're lucky to have a daughter who got as much love and attention as Keeghan did. I was able to take some pictures which will be nice to have for Keeghan when she's ready. I was also given a precious piece of her history. An organization called Half the Sky (http://www.halfthesky.org/) works in Keeghan's orphanage. They sponsor a few different programs that you can read about on their website. Anyway, Keeghan benefited from this and as a result we have some photos and information from the time Keeghan entered the orphanage up until I got her. We're very lucky.

Tomorrow we head to Guangzhou for the last leg of our journey. I'm really ready to get home, but I'm sure re-uniting with the other two families in our travel group will be a nice distraction for a few days. This is a first child for one of the families and I wonder how their week has been getting to know their daughter and learning the fun of parenthood. I really can't wait to hear how they're doing! Our flight out of Changsha isn't until 9 tomorrow night though and we aren't really sure what we are going to do all day. We're trying to fix it so we don't have to check out of the hotel until much later in the day but we aren't sure that will work...oh and we don't have a driver until we're ready to go to the airport so the whole thing stinks a bit.

On another fun note...I'm about out of sort of clean clothes. Keeghan has managed to spill something on everything since I've become a bit of a sucker about letting her sit on my lap to eat. I need to pick her up when she reaches for me and she's learned to do that ALL the time. This afternoon I was trying to get her to walk from the elevator to our room (maybe 50 feet) because my arm was killing from carrying her and our stuff and she kept walking in front of me putting her arms up. I gave in.

And let me talk about China and driving for a minute. You pretty much take your life in your hands anytime you go out here. There are cars, scooters, bikes and pedestrians EVERYWHERE and no one seems to have the right of way. People just go to get across the street and keep walking until they are all but under a car! There's been a few times I was totally sure we were going to end up in an accident. Scary to begin with but twice as scary with a baby on your lap! It seems carseats don't exist here.

Finally, thanks to everyone for their comments, emails, and general encouragement. Being here alone is a lot of work so hearing from everyone really helps!! Ok, I'm beat so I'm off to bed.

It's 6am

I'm up and showered...Keeghan's still sleeping. We slept ok last night. She woke up a couple of times after I put her down and before I went to bed but then mostly slept through the rest of the night. I forgot to post about how cute Keeghan was last night at dinner. We ate with the other family that is here with us and the girls sat next to one another (their daughter is 2 1/2) and Keeghan was sharing her food with the other little girl...so stinking cute! She feeds me all the time now as if it's a game but that she was willing to share with another person was fun. That's it for now. Wish me luck in our visit to the orphanage today and that it doesn't cause too much trama.

Mom and Keeghan...Day 3

Today was a better day. Keeghan slept late and I found her like this...

when she woke up. Not sure what it was about but she did it again this afternoon while we were playing so I rolled her over and that was great fun. Breakfast was good and then we had a bit of time before we headed out for the day. I was a bit afraid it was going to turn into another marathon wailing session. We went to a musem first which houses relics from a tomb that was discovered in the 70's. Specifically there is a mummy that is over 2000 years old and was VERY well preserved...

It was cool to see all the tombs and the things that were found inside them. Amazing that so much of it was still intact. Keeghan was a bit fussy early on but crashed by the time we'd hit the mummy (and thank goodness I have a sling with me!) and slept through some of the embroidery factory as well. The embroidery was AMAZING. Hunan and a few other provinces in China are known for their embroidery. Here's a picture of something that was hanging there

I don't know how well you can see the texture but can you believe someone stitched that??? There were some pieces that were one picture on one side of the fabric and a totally different picture on the other side and the woman who do that work with two hands at once...embroidering both pictures as they go. Wow!

From there we headed back to our hotel and Jackie, our guide, asked if we wanted to go to McDonalds for lunch. We said sure! We're all a little homesick for some American food. It was quite a walk to McDonald's but I really enjoyed seeing some of the city. The food was a bit different than ours but pretty good. Here's a picture of Keeghan eating her first fries and chicken nuggets.

We had a nice trip through the grocery store where Keeghan tried to grab EVERYTHING we got close too and then walked back to our hotel. I thought Keeghan was going to fall asleep again but she didn't. So up to our room we came where we played until dinner. I had her laughing and smiling. She decided she was going to get into EVERYTHING she could...she bit me, threw a cup in the toilet, grabbed things off the desk, was opening and closing drawers and cabinets...holy cow are we in for it! We really got ourselves a spicy Hunan girl!! Here's the pictures you really want to see...cute laughing baby pictures.

Wednesday Morning

We slept again last night...thank goodness. I did wake up four or five times but Keeghan mostly slept through. She's still a bit fussy this morning but I think she's not feeling well. I did give her some tylenol so hopefully that will help. Breakfast was ok. I did make the mistake of sticking my finger in Keeghan's mouth to fish something that looked funny out and she bit me. I stayed calm and retrieved my finger...but OWIE! She's currently sitting behind me on the bed throwing all her toys off so I can retrieve them for her! We're getting ready to head out for the 2000 year old mummy and a embroidery factory. Hopefully we'll be in an ok mood for that.

Tuesday

Today started off pretty well. Keeghan slept pretty late, ate a good breakfast and was even playing with me a bit. I got what I think was a kiss too. We played together a bunch this morning as we didn't have to be anywhere until 2:30pm. She imitated what I did...banging blocks together, stacking the cups I brought and even feeding me a bit. She figured out how to open and close the drawers in the room and was all about the laptop. She can wave hi and bye and clap, stack up blocks and kick (seriously she was kicking them) them down, and she followed me to the bathroom at one point (a first as until then if I put her somewhere she stayed right where I put her). I finally got her to drink some juice out of a bottle (I've tried everything to get her to drink...sippy cup, bottles, regular cups and wasn't having much success). She crashed for an early nap while sitting on my lap and woke up not crying even. We ate lunch in our room and then she got a bit fussy but we were headed out to a huge local park so I figured maybe she'd crash in the sling or at least be interested in the sights so off we went...

Well, the park didn't last too long as Keeghan started wailing and wasn't going to stop. She cried most of the way back to the hotel so I figured she'd take a nap when we got back to our room. Well, I figured wrong. She did calm down enough to play with me some more and eat some snacks but then she got all worked up again. Enough so that she puked all over us. At that point I figured I had nothing to lose and that I'd give her a bath. Her nanny had said she loves baths so I thought maybe she'd enjoy it. Wrong again. But now, at least, she's clean again. After the bath I put her in jammies and we headed downstairs to meet our travel mates for dinner. She calmed down again for that and was even grinning at the other Mom during dinner (which is quite a feat because she does NOT like strangers...Heaven help anyone that tries to touch this child when we get home). Once she'd had enough though there was no hanging around. She started crying again and even reaching for me to take her out of the highchair. At that point I knew she was exhausted and brought her up to our room. It took a good ten minutes of crying to get her to sleep and then she woke up about 15 minutes later, but now seems to be settled for the night. Keep you fingers crossed for me!

On another note...we got back almost everything we'd sent in our care package to Keeghan. Unfortunatly, the cameras we sent were still in their plastic wrappers unused. But, I'm pretty sure she was shown our photo album as that is one of her favorite things to look at and it seems she's saying Jie Jie (big sister) while looking through it. I know that is one of her words (thanks to the Nannies who gave me great information about her schedule and likes and dislikes). There was more babbling today too overall though I wish I could understand her better. Our guide can't even totatlly translate as YiYang (the city she is from) has it's own dialect. So, we're still working on getting to know one another and it seems to be going slowly but ok. Apparently there are not many children in the Orphanage Keeghan came from as that building is going to be closing soon and moving to another location. That meant that Keeghan got alot of attention from her Nannies and was very attached so she's really feeling that loss I think.

FYI, I don't think I'm getting all e-mails that are getting sent so if I'm not responding to you forgive me. I'm off to try and get some sleep...it's been a long day.

Some photos

Santa and Kung Foo Panda...together again!

Just like camping...too bad I'm not a camping kinda girl.

Tiananmen Square...you can see a memorial to fallen soldiers and Chairman Mao's Tomb in the background.

The Forbidden City...the Emperor's Palace when the capitol of China was moves from Nanchung to Beijing which had been known as Peiking.

Watercube

Birdsnest

The Great Wall