3 Ss: Siblings, Sleeping and SPOILED!

I would like to start this post by talking about Zoe and Connor. The first thing I thought when I saw them waiting outside security last week was "Geez! How did they grow so much in two weeks?!?!?!" Over the last week and half, I've come to realize that it isn't so much that they had grown, but that spending two weeks with only a three year old made them seem that much older! It also made me realize how fast they really do change! Connor is getting so tall and thin! And Zoe is getting a major attitude! They are fighting constantly, which started before we left for China and is driving us CRAZY! But they both adore Ginny and are kind and sweet to her, so I guess we'll have to work on the fighting and attitude...

We already knew that Ginny was a roller while sleeping. Brian and I each got kicked and punched multiple times while sleeping with her between us in China. Yesterday Brian ran into our room asking "Is Ginny in here with you?" I said "no" and he went back and found her all balled up in the top corner of her bed. This morning, Brian did the same thing, except this time there was a hint of panick in his voice. Ginny was NOT in her bed. She was not on the floor. She was not with me or Connor or anywhere else! Her pillow and some of her toys were on the floor next to her bed. I came in and asked Brian if she had rolled under the bed. Sure enough, there she was! She had rolled off and under the bed in her sleep and never woke up! It's a REALLY low bed, too! She smacked her head coming out, but thought the whole thing was pretty amusing! I think we're putting Zoe's old bed rails on Ginny's bed so she doesn't scare us like that anymore!

Lastly, Ginny is starting to grow a little spoiled. She still cries when Brian leaves and/or the kids leave for school. Here are a few other things that she has cried about over the past week:
1. I gave Connor his dinner before I gave it to her.
2. I said no when she reached for a cookie at church on Sunday.
3. I said no to chocolate the other morning.
She apparantly doesn't like the word no, as she gives me a dirty look everytime I use it with her!!! Well, she'll get used to it!

Overall, her transition has gone very well! She is a very easy-going kid, only shy around strangers. She is running around Tae Kwon Do like she owns the place! She's happy and enjoys exploring all the toys in our house. Potty training isn't going so well, but we have five or six months before that becomes dire! She is trying to imitate words. She is doing well with her signs. I hope all the other families are having as good a time as we are with their new little ones!

More pics from this week

It's super easy posting pics from my phone, but I can only post 4 at a time and no videos! I have some videos posted on Facebook so check them out there!

Week one

Sorry for not posting this week! Jet lag has been hard to get through, plus getting back into a kind of groove without going to work has been interesting!

Ginny has been absolutely amazing this week. She warmed up to the kids on Sunday and actually cried when we came back in the house Monday morning without them after putting them on the bus! She's still not so sure about my mom, but she's starting to used to her. She's also doing great at Tae Kwon Do. We've taken her 3 times to watch and has been shy but fine. She even gave Master Chong a highs five!

She has more favorite toys now. She hoards them on the couch all day and takes turns playing with each. She especially likes cars. She may be my tomboy and I already told Brian I think she's going to be his sports fan!

I've been working with her on speaking and signing. The only word she can clearly say is 'mama'. Most of her speech is more like baby babbles. She can't repeat words clearly and most are completely intelligible. She is picking up the signs pretty well, though. We've got more, please, all done, mama, daddy, thank you and potty down pretty well. We're gonna start to work on stop, grandma, brother, sister, and sleep next!

She is a very affectionate child. Every time Brian or I walk in the room after being away from her for any length of time she gets this big smile, starts telling happily, and runs up to hug us! She is constantly asking me for hugs or kisses. She also enjoys sharing her snacks with me. We started a game a few days ago where I put food in her mouth and then she puts some in mine. I say please and thank you and she mimics me.

I downloaded a few apps for toddlers and she's doing pretty well on them. One involves stacking blocks and circles by size and the others are different matching games. She is good at the matching. This stacking is hit or miss. I'm not sure if she doesn't get it or is just being silly. She does not seem to know how to count, so we'll be working on that also.

I know there's more that I want to write about but I can't think of it right now. I'm going to try to keep posting at least once or twice a week as long as people want to keep reading about it. I'm sure it's going to be a very interesting journey for me over the next few weeks/months/years!

Home

Yesterday was a bit traumatic... Jet lag is a bitch! First of all, they kept delaying and almost completely cancelled our flight! Then I got a migraine as we were boarding the plane. Luckily it wasn't terrible, but Brian let me sit by myself anyways.

Ginny was great on the flight and through the terminal. My mom, Brian's parents, Zoe and Connor were waiting for us outside security. As soon as we got to them, Ginny clamped up tight. She started crying when I put her I the car seat, which I expected as she's never sat in one before.

We pretty much spent the whole day sleeping yesterday. Brian woke Ginny up after a while and let me sleep, but when I got up at 7pm, they were both asleep on the couch.

One thing is for sure- she does NOT like the animals! Anytime one of them gets too close she starts screaming like we haven't heard her scream yet! Hopefully, she'll figure out that they're good doggies and kitty and she'll get used to them.

I for her to sleep till about 4:30am and she's been pretty good. She ate breakfast, played with books and is watching Wonder Pets. She's been happy and inquisitive and even let me leave the room a couple times without crying. Hopefully she'll stay happy when everyone else wakes up and the day starts!

Chicago part two

Well, all flights into Buffalo were canceled last night, so we got stuck in Chicago. They gave us a half off voucher for a local hotel, so we're stranded at the Crown Plaza, unable to sleep because it's the middle of the afternoon in China!

Ginny is being super goofy and we're just trying to keep her quiet! She is rolling around and giggling like crazy. She even started hitting us and laughing! I think we have a normal 3 year old on our hands! Uh oh!!!

We'll probably get going early and have breakfast at the airport.Let's how the fog disperses by 10am when we're supposed to land.

Chicago

Ginny was an absolute doll on the long flight. She fell asleep after dinner and except for rolling off the seat once and kicking me a few times.

We almost freaked out before boarding... I went to change her diaper and they weren't in the diaper bag! I must have left them back in the bathroom in the domestic terminal! I raced around while plane was boarding and finally found a shop that had some. Whew!

Everything has gone fairly smoothly here in Chicago. Immigration and customs was a breeze. We even had to go through new citizen immigration and had no problems. Ginny has been goofy all the way through the airport! She only started crying when we sat her in a cart, but that lasted about 30 seconds. She's been playing on the poles while waiting in line, asking to be picked up, and I think she said mommy a little while ago!

Oh well, boarding is about to begin! I think I'll continue to blog over the next few weeks, so keep checking back to see how Ginny is doing?

Shanghai

We hopped our plane and after about a half hour delay, we were flying through thick fog and clouds on our way to Shanghai.

Over the past few days we have given Ginny a few nicknames, two of which she definitely reinforced on this first flight. Destructor 5000 is one nickname because she likes taking things apart and ripping them up. She kept taking the headphones apart and then handing them to me to fix so she could take the apart again.

The second nickname is Ginny McWiggles. She never stopped wiggling on the plane! She'd take out the magazine and look through it for a few minutes, then put it back and take out the information card to look at, then switch again. Then she found the buttons on the side on the armrest. Then she tried to get into my phone for about 20 minutes or so! She did figure out how to take pictures of herself without unlocking the phone!

We're at the Shanghai Pudong airport and she's sleeping. We can check in to our flight in about an hour, then we're going to grab something to eat before heading through security to our gate. Hopefully our long flight goes as smoothly as our first one!!

Last day!

I can't believe it's almost over! These past few weeks have been incredible and we have made some (hopefully) lifelong friends!

Ginny is absolutely blossoming! She has been so goofy today, both in and out of the room! She has barely stopped laughing the whole day! Hopefully she doesn't regress too much with the travel and meeting Connor and Zoe, etc!

I'm going to keep this short as we have a LONG day tomorrow! We have to wake up at 5am Guangzhou time (which is 5pm Thursday evening Buffalo time) and we don't get in to Buffalo until 11:30pm Friday night! We have a 7 hour layover in Shanghai!!! Everybody pray that all our flights are on time and everything goes smoothly!

Oath taking and Round three

The oath taking ceremony was very uneventful today. We had to get up wicked early so we could shower, eat breakfast and be in the lobby by 7:50. We took a bus to the consulate and the line to get through security was longer than the rest of the process. We had to go through one security that checked our passports, then another with metal detectors. We had to check our phones there and when we set the metal detectors off they said "go through, it's just your shoes".

There were about thirty families with us. When we were all there, a woman came to the window and told us what was going to happen. We all had to stand, raise our right hands and swear that all the information we have provided is "the truth to the best of our knowledge". Then they called each family up separately. We were the first in our group to be called and as soon as we got up there she started crying. They checked our passports and then let me take Ginny away while Brian stayed and they checked the paperwork. That was it! Tomorrow we get Ginny's visa so we can bring her home with us!!!

We went back to Shamian island to finish up our shopping and Ginny figured out that she can swing her body from side to side in the backpack to see around me. She'd whip over to one side then back over to another! She also started kicking things while we were walking through stores!!! I kept grabbing her feet and pulling them forward around me saying "my feet"!

We brought board books, crayons, coloring books and sticker books to keep her busy. I think I've already mentioned what she does with the board books in a past blog. She's just as funny with crayons and sticker books! She mainly just organizes and reorganized the crayons in the box. She has also figured out how to take the crayons apart and tries to put them back together (they're the "twistable" kind)! You can see a pick of that below. She can spend hours doing that! It's so cute!

She is definitely a silly girl and is going to fit in perfectly with Connor and Zoe! One more day here and then a wicked long day flying home!

Shamian Island round 2 and River Cruise

We went back to Shamian Island today and did a lot of shopping. We bought nothing for Zoe and Connor! (I know they are going to read this so I have to say that!) We're working on getting "Gotcha Day" gifts. One of the other mothers said that they were looking for small gifts to give their daughter every year on her "Gotcha Day". So we were looking around for small-ish things to give her every year.

We went on a river cruise tonight, which was really nice, but through the middle of the city. First of all, we got Papa John's pizza to take with us. Funny being in Southern China and eating Papa John's delivery... Don't think I've every even had it at home! The bridges on the river were beautiful and the boat was gorgeous. There was this huge screen that lit up like fireworks on the side of the river. It had to be about as long as a football field and a third as wide! No where else but in China...

Ginny did well today. She cried twice randomly. We think the first was from hunger and maybe the second was thirst? We are starting to doubt her ability to talk. She hasn't said a word and her crying, laughing and even the murmuring we were hearing aren't very vocal. They are more nasal and guttural. I keep moving her mouth to say "mama" and she thinks it's really funny, but doesn't say anything. Hopefully she'll come around, but it's definitely something we'll be working on and talking to the doctor about when we get home!

We have our Oath Taking Ceremony tomorrow. Only 2 more days in Guangzhou and then a long long long way back home on Friday! Can't wait!!!

Safari!

What a great day! We got the TB tests checked first, which went fine except she started balling again. (I can't wait to take her to the doctor at home...) then we headed off to the Zoo/Safari.

What a place! It was like a Chinese Disney's Animal Kingdom! One thing that was commented on over and over was how close the animals were. Many of the animals were only a few feet away! Another thing was how many of each animal there was. There must have been at least 30 giraffe, a dozen lions, half a dozen hippos, the same for tigers, both Bengal and white. And most of the animals seemed very healthy!

One of the funniest points was when a group of teenage girls spotted Ben, the 7 year old son of another family. His blond hair and blue eyes caught their attention and they wanted pictures with him... All ten of them! Poor thing!

Ginny was great through the whole thing. I kept her in the back pack for most of it, but she always seemed interested and kept craning around me to see things. She fell asleep during the safari part of it, but by that time, it was way past her nap and to be expected.

We went to a "western" restaurant for dinner and Ginny definitely likes steak. She also liked the cheese cake and chocolate desserts we got from a bakery in the hotel. It's so hard to put into words exactly how she is opening up little by little, day by day. It's amazing to watch and fills my heart with joy every time she smiles!

Not much

Not too much to report on today. Ginny keeps opening up little by little. She's smiling more, like when we pick her up and sometimes just when we look at her. She hasn't shown any jealousy, yet. We went back to the park today with two other families and one had a three year old girl who was very out-going. She kept asking to be picked up be whoever was closest to her. Ginny seemed amused by her.

I have to say that it's really nice having other people going through this at the same time we are. We've really bonded with two of the families and will hopefully continue to make connections. We get to go on some kind of a safari tomorrow. It should be fun!

There's just some silly pics at the bottom for your enjoyment. I'll post a video on Facebook so check it out!

Parks and restaurants

Well, we found something that Ginny likes (now that she's comfortable with us). There's a huge park across the street from our hotel. It's pretty amazing actually. There's a bonsai garden and a ballroom dancing hall, a workout station, a small theme park with kids rides and a playground... At least that's all we saw, but we only got about a quarter of the way around the lake!

We spent most of the time at the playground. Ginny seemed right at home! She was climbing all over, going down slides, LOVED the swings and had a general good time! Later after her nap, I tried to teach her some sign language. We worked on 'more', 'please', 'thank you' and 'I love you'. I also got Ginny to kiss me!!! We've been working on that one ever since!

I want to tell you about some of the things I've noticed about restaurants here in China. Going out to eat is a very interesting experience. First there is always someone at the door to greet you, and then another person who points you to yet another person who seats you. There are about a million servers, some in suits, others in uniforms. I'm not quite sure what the difference is in their actual jobs but they seem to do pretty much the same thing... Stand around a lot!

The menus you get are more like books! And they only give you one or two depending on the size of the party. Luckily there are pictures, because the names aren't always in English and there's almost never a description. Unlike in the US, nothing comes with rice and some restaurant don't even offer white rice! Lastly and most confounding is the way dishes are brought out... In no particular order. The meat dish may come first, followed by the spring rolls ten minutes later, with the fried rice showing up at the end! Very strange!!!

Doctor visits

So Ginny does not like the doctor's offices. Pretty much as soon as we stepped in she started wailing. We'd calm her down only to have to go into a new room and have her start crying all over again.

First, she had to get her pic taken for her visa. The photographer and his assistant we ridiculous!!! First of all, when you're taking pictures of infants and toddlers, you take the pics FAST! No, these people had to fuss with the kids to "make them look nice". They both tried to push Ginny's hair behind her ears and couldn't seem to get over the fact that she didn't have any! They got one pic before she started crying and then continued to take pictures!!! Our liaison was FURIOUS and is actually planning on taking the group tomorrow to different place tomorrow just for the pictures!

The rest of the visit was a typical physical, although Ginny was apparently the first "older" child and they had to put the scale together right there! Ginny also had to get a TB test, which went just as everything else... with tears. We got through fine though, and have to go back on Monday to check the TB test.

We have introduced Ginny to the magnadoodle, coloring and stickers. She's got the idea of the magnadoodle (although she does other interesting things with it... See pics) and is a typical three year old with stickers (pulls/rips them off the page and sticks them wherever). I think she enjoys pulling the crayons out of the box and putting them back in more than actually coloring. She does like looking through the pages and putting one scribble on each page.

Ginny definitely has anxiety. She has started crying randomly a few times today. When we're in a new situation or around unfamiliar people she sometimes starts crying. We ran into another father with his new daughter this evening (all the families we met in Beijing are getting here today) and Ginny started crying while we were talking. She also doesn't seem to like the dark very much. I have a feeling it will be awhile before we get all the anxiety out.

Lazy day

Well, I got food poisoning last night so I spent the whole day in the hotel room. Brian went out twice to get food and we ordered in dinner.

We did learn a lot about Ginny today, as she has been opening up to us. First, she likes McDonald's chicken nuggets. It's the first food that has brought a smile to her face! She is also incredibly ticklish, a fact she hid for the past three days!

She started murmuring to herself today while she was playing with the books. It's this kind of low grumble and completely indiscernible but adorable nonetheless.

That's all for today, but we have her medical checkup tomorrow so we'll see how that goes!

More pics from today

Apparently my blogger app can only handle a few pics at a time, so here are more from today!

The pictures below:
The three girls - Anna is in the middle and Joanne on the right.
There's one of the view from Shamian park and one of a funny sign for bathrooms in the park.
There's also one of Ginny playing with books. She'll stop and open one and look through it, but mostly she piles them up, "sorts" them, moves them around, etc. I would give anything to know what is going on in that brain of hers!!!

Enjoy!

Shamian Island and smiles!

We got smiles and a bit of giggling today!!!! You can see pictures below!

Shamian Island is a beautiful place. It kinda seemed a tropical- thick foliage, muggy, only difference is that it was fairly chilly! We got a lot of souvenirs there, walked around, ate lunch while listening to 80s music. Before any of that, we dropped our laundry off. Most of the souvenir shops (named things like Sherry's Place, Michael's Place, Susan's Place, see the pattern?) will do your laundry and even deliver it to your hotel! They will also let you borrow a stroller, free of charge for the entire length of your stay! It's amazing!

We ate in Shamian Park, which had two restaurants, bathrooms, a playground and a wine store! After lunch, we went over to the playground. We got little half-smiles on the slide. Then I started throwing her in the air and that's when the big smiles and giggles came! (We took a video, but this app won't let me post videos!)

When we left the park and went to Jordan's who made little poster with Ginny in English and Chinese and what the characters mean. 'Gin' means grace and 'ny' means tender. He didn't charge us for it, except to talk our ears off! He was really nice, but definitely liked to talk!

She fell asleep on the ride home (pic below), slept all the way up to the room and woke up as soon as I put her down! We've been chilling since, trying to figure out what else will make her smile, what she likes, etc.

She is definitely opening up to us and our next goal is words! We'll take any word in any language!