Sterotypes

We took Miss G to her new pediatrician today, just to make sure she had been given the right inoculations and all that jazz. The head of pediatrics at Taiwan Adventist Hospital, this doctor was the same one who reviewed her referral file to double check the medical information. He seems to be a nice guy. He remembered me, at least, which was good. Although it was probably unusual to see a foreigner with a stack of papers about a baby, but with no ACTUAL baby in hand. So perhaps I was memorable.

Today's visit went well. We mostly talked about shots. We also talked about things that were on our minds, like is her head abnormally flat (probably not) and is that strange wheezing sound she makes every so often normal (yes). We also received confirmation that she is a big girl. At nine months, she is 9.6 kilos, or about 21 pounds. Which puts her in the 75-90% range for her peers. The nurse saw her weight and wrote "a little fat" right next to it on the chart. Heh. Despite the nurse's proclamation, neither we nor the doctor are worried about her weight. Now that we are home, she is eating a balanced diet with lots of fruits and veggies (super baby food!). When she is full, she stops eating. I just hope that she doesn't lose her lovely chubby cheeks as she grows.

As we were packing up to leave, the doctor said, "She doesn't look like a girl." We had heard this before, so we immediately pointed out that she was indeed wearing pink. But interestingly, he then said, "No, that was not what I meant. Most boys are very active and verbal in my office, while girls don't move around much. Your baby is behaving like a boy."

To which I promptly and proudly responded, "That's my daughter!"

More

We think Miss G is using the baby sign for "more," as illustrated above. These two pictures were taken at breakfast this morning. She seems to only use this motion when she is eating, so perhaps she is catching on.

In other news, she has now learned how to actually get the Gerber star* into her mouth on her own. And that, my friends, is a BIG DEAL round these parts.

*Also known as overpriced baby crack.

Home at Last

Chris turned to me at lunch today and said, "Man, I am glad we aren't in a hotel anymore." Me too, baby. Me toooooooo.

We arrived home on Friday around noon Taiwan time. The house had a completely empty fridge and looked like a tornado hit it about 20 minutes after we walked in the door. But it was oh so lovely to be home.

Miss G was super grouchy on Saturday because of the jet lag. You can see the crabbiness in her eyes in the picture above. She is looking at the camera like, "I don't know why I am irritated, BUT I AM." Thank goodness, she slept for 14 hours last night and was back to her perky self today. Chris was cracking her up in the high chair at dinner. It is a long story that would probably bore you, but suffice it to say that her squeals and giggles had us in fits of laughter. Good times.

We have been using the stroller now that we are back home. Gioia is not quite sure if she likes it. We went on an exceptionally long walk today to IKEA and back, and halfway home she refused the sweet ride and demanded to be carried. We walked everywhere with her on our chests in China and Hawaii, so it makes sense. But man is she heavy without a carrier to distribute the weight. Lesson learned: bring the mei tei on long stroller trips.

And doesn't Gioia look stylin' in her stroller blanket? Aunt Mary Beth and Uncle Hugh have great taste.

Going Home

We are booked on a 7:15 am flight to Taipei tomorrow, all because of some recent good news.

1) We got Miss G's Certificate of Citizenship yesterday morning and marched it straight over to the passport office.

2) Today, we picked up her passport, which not only affirms her US citizenship but also makes her a lady going places.

3) We were told by the Taiwan Consulate (my bad, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office because we cannot call it a REAL consulate) that they would not issue her a tourist visa without an authenticated birth certificate. So we have to bring her in on a landing visa instead. This means we have to take her back out of the country again in 30 days. The tourist visa would have given us 60-90 days, with possibilities of extension for up to 6 months. But this also means that we don't have to wait around in Honolulu for a tourist visa. Hopefully in 30 days we will have all of her papers authenticated (please, oh please) so that this next trip out to HK can be a residence visa trip and not just another landing visa trip.*

So home we go, on an 11 hour direct flight, to our own little apartment with non-restaurant food and cloth diapers and my own bed and immeasurable other joys. We have been traveling now for 3.5 weeks doing Gioia's paperwork, and we are DONE.

Now off to get some sleep before our wake-up call at oh-God-thirty tomorrow morning. See y'all in Taiwan.

*The residence visa requires a lots of paperwork to be authenticated by the Taiwan Straits foundation, and it takes a looooong time. So no hopes of applying for a residence visa until all that jazz gets sorted.

Sea Park Outing

We made it to the sea animals park today.


More pictures here. For the record, Chris took all of these because I was carrying (playing with) the baby.

Lazy Sunday

We were going to go to the sea animals park today, but we overslept and missed it (seems to be a theme around here). Instead, we walked on the beach and had drinky drinks at the Westin across the street.

Why is it that everyone here thinks Gioia is a boy? We had our first hint of confusion on Friday when we dressed her in a white shirt and overalls. We went to buy a swimsuit, and the salesman kept pulling out swim trunks. OK, our bad. Apparently we need to conform to well established gender norms regarding apparel colors. So today, she was all decked out in a pink shirt and a pink sun hat. Then some lady comes up and says, "Why his hat matches my skirt, and I am a woman!" Chris looked at her funny and said, "Umm, SHE is wearing pink because she is a girl." What is up with people? Essentially that woman was trying to tell us off for dressing our (boy) as a girl. Pretty ballsy assumption there, lady.

I think SHE looks beautiful.

Journey to the Harbor

We rode out to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and back today. We were not excited about trying to find a place to check the car seat at the park, and so decided to try the bus. We woke too late and took too long to get there.* As a result, we missed the boat trip out to the Arizona. But we saw the museum. And we saw the memorial to the people who died on the ships that day in the harbor.


One of those people was my grandfather's brother, Seaman First Class George Coke. He died on the USS Oklahoma three years before my father was born. We traveled today to honor my Great Uncle and his sacrifice for our country. Seeing his name amongst all the others was sobering and sad. It reminded me of all of the great tragedies in history which seem so senseless and evil. In a way, this is my family's personal tragedy, as a whole branch of our tree was wiped out with one attack.

Peace. We should all be fighting for Peace.


*For the record, it takes one hour and five minutes each way on the bus from Waikiki to the memorial. But it only cost US$8 for all of us, round trip. Chris hates the bus. Tomorrow it is taxis again. Or perhaps we should break down and rent a car? Blargh. No, too much responsibility.

Alive

The trip to Hawaii kicked all of our butts. We have taken nearly two days to recover. A mere five hours after we landed, we got Gioia's citizenship application into the Immigration office. I swear to goodness, it almost killed me. Chris did the prep work while I napped with the baby, then he took napping duties while I dragged my sorry tush across town. Of course I got the fee wrong, the money order amount wrong, and did not bring all sorts of necessary info (Crap! What is the hotel address!?). But in the end, the paper was filed.

Five hours after that process, we got a call saying her appointment was Tuesday morning at 8 am, right after President's Day. We did not think it was possible to be delayed by every holiday on both sides of the Pacific, but we were wrong. Oh, and be sure to bring evidence with you that you both have lived in the United States for five years. Like high school records, or something. WHAT!? Oh $#*!.

What to do? Oh, I know. Let's go stand in line at the Social Security Administration so they can give us a copy of our statements. That should only take 20 minutes, right? Nope. Three hours. That's why I pay the 7.65% of my salary every year. So they can under-staff the field offices.

Now the day is done, though, and Mexican food cheered everyone up this evening. As evidence, witness a much happier Miss G.

Lounging Around

We are hanging out in the United lounge until our flight to Honolulu. There are some amazing antique dolls on display here with intricate faces and kimono.


But Miss G was not really into the dollies. She was more into catching some Zs in the family room.


Everybody slept. It was good.

Thank goodness for the family room. Every time Gioia emitted a little whimper in the main room, some business person would look around in confusion. We are much happier tucked away in the corner with stuffed animals and colorful mats.

Halfway There

We wore our fancy dress today to celebrate the fact that Miss G now has a US Visa. Woo hoo! In just over 24 hours, she will be sitting pretty in Hawaii as a citizen. For those of you playing along at home, this means that we are halfway to our goal of getting back to Taipei. All we need now is a US passport and a Taiwan visa.

It has been a rough couple of days. We all have been pretty sick with colds, and Gioia has been a whiny cranky pants as a result. As soon as she feels better, she is back to her smiling, giggling self. But when she feels bad, she looks more like this.


In other news, we got upgrades for the Tokyo-Hawaii leg* of our journey tomorrow. And that means we get to sit in the United lounge in the Narita airport during the layover,** which is GREAT because that is the most boring airport in Asia. Seriously. The shopping sucks.

Here are a billion more pictures of Miss G in her pretty dress, which are really only for the grandparents. Everyone else will probably be bored to tears.

See y'all on the other side.

* Why not upgrades for the whole trip, you ask? Well, even though this website says that Star Alliance miles can be used for upgrades between ANA and United, it is a BIG FAT LIE. Grumble grumble.

** Why is it when you stop in one airport and catch a plane for another destination it is called a 'layover,' but when you disembark for the night and continue the next day it is called a 'stopover'? Seems to me in the first instance you are just stopping for a while and in the second you are 'lying' down. So why aren't the names reversed? When I rule the world, that will change. Heh.

Six Tree Temple

We are all sick today in the hotel room. Baby G gave us her cold, and she now is suffering from what seems to be a teething fever. Poor little girl. Therefore, I am just popping in to share some snippets from our touristy day yesterday.

So there was this guy a long time ago who came across a temple in southern China. He said - dudes, this temple has six banyan trees in the courtyard. And he picked up a tablet and wrote down two characters" "six" and "banyan tree." Ever after, the temple was known as the six tree temple, or Liu Rong temple. Seriously, I did not make this up.

Chris climbed the pagoda, but acrophobic me stayed below. While we waited, Gioia attracted some attention. Here is my sneaky snapshot of the ladies crowded around.



Silly temple movie is below, and more pictures are here.

Saturday in Guangzhou

We had a lovely outing on Saturday in Guangzhou. As usual, Miss G slept through most of it on her daddy's chest. After lunch at IKEA, we headed to the other side of town for a puppet show. I was expecting New Year's lions and cute little cuddly puppets - like singing frogs or something - but instead it was a Chinese folklore puppet show. Quite disturbing actually.

The essence of the story was this. There was a bad monkey warrior and a good monkey warrior. The bad monkey kept impersonating the good one, who was only trying to protect his good master on a pilgrimage to a holy mountain. The bad monkey stole the master's purse of gold, so the master's other companion (a pig with big porcine boobies) went to find the monkey. He found two, though, and couldn't tell them apart. So they went to seek enlightenment. First, to Kuan Yin, the female bodhisattva. She was no help. Then they descended into hell, where some officials looked in important books, but still could not tell the two apart. Finally, they all ascended to the BIG buddha, who discerned the true monkey from the false one through a series of profound questions. Then buddha told the good monkey not to hit the bad one (which was odd, because they had been stick fighting throughout the whole show), and then banished the bad one for 500 years.

The show had decapitation, hanging, hell, demonic smoke and lights, swordplay and other dark things. All for kids. It was a very interesting cultural experience.

After the puppet show, we took a stroll through Shamian Island, which is full of green trees and old European buildings. It is also where all of the adoption tourists normally stay (at the White Swan hotel), so no one was surprised to see a baby strapped to our chest. They did still ask us: "Is that a Chinese baby?" Perhaps they do not often see non-Chinese babies, so they do not know how to recognize babies of different ethnicities.

All in all, a very good day. More pictures here.

Zoo Horror

In an attempt to alleviate the great boredom which comes from days upon days in a hotel room, we decided to go to the Guangzhou zoo yesterday. We bundled up, figured out how to get there using the subway and walking, and set off.

We made it to the zoo in high spirits, but the atmosphere quickly turned sour. Do you see the elephant in the picture below? Are you wondering why his trunk is reaching over the wall? Yeah, we were curious too...


He was reaching over the wall because the crowd of people were chucking items into the enclosure. Yes, they were all throwing food and other stuff at the elephant, who was busy picking up and eating whatever was tossed. Around the corner, a large bull elephant was standing near the fence. Every few minutes, he would get pelted in the head with an orange or something similarly round and hard. PELTED IN THE HEAD.

The animal areas were littered with trash, and most of it was plastic items that could cause sickness or death for the inhabitants. We saw a miniature deer chewing on a candy wrapper. And here you can see people ripping up shrubbery and tossing long leaves to the camels.



Besides that, we saw a very sickly kangaroo and a monkey with a tumor on his bottom that was larger than his head. We also saw a lost four year old girl wandering around the park screaming for her mommy. And no one cared. Not a single person looked down at her to see what was wrong. We stood by looking helpless until finally a park lady came and took her by the hand.

We are zoo people, so this was quite disheartening. Chris did research at a zoo in college, studying lemurs. So we always visit zoos when we travel, and this was by far the worst one. At the zoo in Bangalore, for example, everyone was incredibly respectful of the animals. And it was clean and orderly. The animals' habitats were not as fancy as some western zoos, but they were doing the best with what they had. In Guangzhou, though, it was a different thing entirely.

As Chris said when we were leaving, how could you stand to be a zookeeper and watch people treat your animals that poorly?

More pictures are here.

Happy New Year!

The Chinese New Year (aka Spring Festival) is fully upon us. Yesterday baby got her first hong bao. Not quite understanding what to do, she tried to eat it. Following another tradition, Gioia put on a brand new outfit. New clothes for the new year.



Thanks everyone for the formula advice! We will be eating solid food before the bottle from now on (except for the first one). From what I read, it seems she will be getting enough formula even if we cut back on one or two bottles a day. Phew.

A Serious Question

When we picked up Gioia from the orphanage, we were handed a new packet of Nestle Nestogen 2 and a new bag of rice cereal. The feeding instructions were as follows: six 200 ml bottles a day (about 36 oz), each made with six scoops of formula and three scoops of rice cereal. Baby likes it hot and thick. Yes, she does.

Now here is our problem. The books say that she should be getting 24-32 oz of formula a day and simultaneously learning how to eat solids. So now she is drinking too much formula (I think - this is the essence of the question) and needs to spend more time with big girl mushy food. If we cut her down from 6 bottles a day to 5 (by eliminating the night bottle), then she is getting 800 ml a day, or 32 oz. She seems to eat really well at breakfast - rice cereal, baby food, small sweet potato puffs, so I think she could succeed with the less formula more food route.

I really don't want to blindly cut back too much on the formula though. Here is the essence of the problem: we have no idea how many scoops should normally go into a 200 ml bottle. That is because the bag instructions are in Chinese. When I google "Nestle Nestogen instructions," all I get are angry websites talking about a boycott. Because breast is best. OK, fine, I get that, but I am not able to breastfeed her. She has way too many teeth and a habit of testing them out on everything she sticks in her mouth. So no.

Now that we have established that I am not going to breast feed, can somebody please help me find some Nestogen instructions in English? Pretty please?

Chinese New Year Eve

It is the eve of Chinese New Year, and we are snug in our hotel room listening to the fireworks explode outside. We had a big outing today to try to find baby laundry detergent.* Along the way to the store, we walked through a very large festival and witnessed much revelry.

There were plenty of people buying plants. These mandarin orange plants are definitely a favorite. Apparently the little oranges symbolize gold coins, which is an auspicious sign for wealth in the new year. And they taste AWESOME too.



Another big favorite: pinwheels. Young and old alike, almost everyone had a pinwheel to carry around the fair. There were some inventive ones too, including some shaped like bees and fish.



Did you know that "mouse" and "rat" are the same word in Mandarin: "lao shu." So everywhere we look, we see Mickey and Minnie Mouse images this year. Most are illegal copies, like the balloon I am holding above (taken in Chongqing a few days ago). Chris tried to take a picture of the lady selling those balloons, and she immediately hollered "No No NO!" while pulling the bunch down to hide her face.

Happy year of the rat (mouse?), everyone! More pictures of today's festival are here.



*Before we came to China, I washed all her baby clothes in Dreft. But since we are here for so long, we have had to do some laundry. We used a guy on a street corner in Chongqing for two loads, and I am pretty sure he did not use hypo-allergenic laundry powder. Sure enough, Baby G was itching her head like mad yesterday - rubbing it back and forth on our chests for relief. We think that her lion hat (which was washed) made her head sweaty and caused a reaction. So we bought baby detergent ourselves to see if the hotel can wash her clothes with our soap. Hopefully.

In Guangzhou

We made it to Guanzhou and to our medical exam. Now all we have to do is wait for our US Consulate appointment on Tuesday. YAY.

Change of Plans

We got Gioia's Chinese passport today, which was earlier than anticipated. This means we can fly to Guangzhou tomorrow morning and try to make our medical appointment tomorrow afternoon. If the plane is delayed due to weather and we miss that appointment, it will set us back at least two business days next week. BUT - chances are good if the weather holds through the morning.

So we do not have to hang out here any longer waiting for the paperwork, and we can skip Chengdu. I do want to come back someday to see the pandas, but if we do not have to wait around here now then GREAT. Because this is what we see outside of our window everyday in Chongqing.


The city is cold, grey and wet. Not a nice combination. We have been venturing outside as much as possible so we do not go crazy in the hotel room, but the weather forces us back in really quickly.

Off to Guangzhou! Hopefully I have good news about making the medical exam to report tomorrow evening.

And Then She Peed on Me

Good news! We figured out the key to successful bath experience. Add a daddy, bath cups and warmer water, and you get a very interested baby. The only key is to not sit with a naked Gioia on your lap for too long before putting her in the water. Else you get peed on.


After the bath, she read a little fantasy novel. She prefers Terry Brooks, but what can you do? And then some mommy snuggle time before bed.

The Ones Left Behind

When we leave China in two weeks, we will leave with one baby girl. But we will be leaving so many behind. I was surprised that I did not cry at the social welfare institute when we picked up Gioia. As she was brought in the room, I just felt overwhelmingly peaceful and thankful. But when we took a little tour, I walked through two rooms filled with cribs. And those cribs held babies all bundled in blankets as protection against the cold. Then, I cried. For all the babies who have not yet found their families. For the babies who never will.

I am not sure if you have been following the news of China, but the southern half of this country has been hit by some record winter storms. In certain areas, power is down, water is not running, and food and coal prices have doubled or tripled, as no new supplies can get through on trains. This is very bad for China, but it is incredibly bad for China's orphaned children.

This afternoon, I read an email from Jenny Bowen, who runs a charity to benefit orphans in China. Her email (which you can read here) contains reports from orphanages across China in the aftermath of these storms. Many institutes are fine, but others are struggling with no water and no heat. Some places are asking for funds to help buy food, as prices have increased so dramatically in the past week. Some say "help other places first," and then go on to say, "but if you have 200 warm blankets for children, please send those."

I don't usually post about charities or causes to support, as we feel that giving is very personal. But today, as I watch my new daughter nap in her warm hotel room, I thought it was appropriate to remember those thousands (millions?) left behind.

It is Official

Now Gioia has officially been adopted into our family. Yesterday, we drove to the Chongqing city center for marriages and adoptions. We took a family picture, signed a paper saying that we would never abandon her, and then put our thumb prints all over the adoption decree. Even little baby G's finger prints were placed near her pictures, perhaps to signify her participation in the process.

The officials were ever so sweet. Everyone wanted to say hello and make sure she was warmly dressed. Gioia seems to elicit great interest wherever she goes. On Wednesday, we went to the grocery store for some vittles. As we walked in, the greeter lady started her typical welcome: Huan Ying Guang Lin. But she only made it halfway through the "Guang" before she stopped and stared at us, open mouthed. There are not many lao wai (foreigners) here in Chongqing. And certainly not many with a baby strapped to their chest.

Once they discover she is Chinese, they are quite taken aback. Most stare and smile. Some come lay their cheeks close to hers. Only a few have made rude comments about foreigners buying babies. Chris says that they are not being rude; they just don't know how to say adoption. But I am not quite so sure about that. It is a good thing my Chinese is not good enough to respond.

We had a little trauma at bathtime yesterday. Other than that, things have been pretty smooth. She is smiling and giggling now, and we are much better at distracting her during diaper changes. She is displaying some institutional behaviors that are interesting. She is an expert self soother, for example. When we toured the orphanage, we saw that every baby was snuggly bundled in a tight pile of blankets in the crib. There seemed to be no (or not much) heat in the nursery, so all babies were tightly wrapped up. As a result (we think), she learned to suck on the softest thing close to her mouth when she was upset. Which probably was the lip of the blanket. Whenever she is fussed, she immediately turns to something soft and sucks (her coat, her hat, a washcloth).


She also rocks herself back and forth sometimes, which to us non-experts (i.e., googlers) seems to be pretty common for institutionalized children. She also sucks down her bottle at the speed of light. And if you let your finger linger in her mouth while giving her some bites of food, she will chomp down hard with her four little teeth. Very hard.

All in all, she has a very sweet disposition. So far, no one can make her laugh like her daddy can. She LOVES his silliness. She also loves to be in the carrier. We can take her anywhere - dinner, Walmart, walking around - and she doesn't make a peep. She just watches the world with her big serious eyes.