We have had such a hard time with blogger over here and getting our pictures to post so that is why it has taken so long to post pictures. I think we got it now! We have been pretty busy and pooped out so now I would like to take the time to "talk".
To back up to yesterday: Our day started with racing hearts and so much anticipation that I literally felt like we would bust! Neither of us slept much all Sat. night so we just gave up and got up around 5:30 a.m.. Yes, that's right Brandon, you heard Mom right, 5:30 a.m.!!!!! We made our way to the breakfast buffet at our very nice hotel in Jinan called the Silver Plaza Quan Cheng Hotel. We met our guide Mary and Russ and Angie there. Russ and Angie are another Lifelink family who's son Jeremy is at the same orphanage as Sydney. We ate what we could but this buffet at this hotel was much more "bizarre" for our taste (compared to the westernized White Swan). We were told to be at the hotel lobby at 10 a.m.. Our guide Mary met us there and so did the Kinzingers. We just stood around anxiously pacing the large lobby and then through the revolving doors of the hotel I saw a car pull up and a woman got out with a very little child in her arms. Then another woman got out holding another very tiny little one in her arms. I just yelled out, "That's them!" It just came out and Mary, our guide, who is the sweetest and has a lot of spunk, practically took off running outside the doors. In they came and Sydney was wearing a plaid dress with black leggings and little red shoes. She was tiny tiny. Paul went to hold her and she came right to him. Then I held her. We went into a conference room with the Director of the orphanage, 2 caretakers and our guide, Mary. Sydney was as calm as can be. She went very easily to Paul or to me. She smiled, she laughed, and she never cried! It was almost too good to be true! Little Jeremy was doing great too, calm and no crying.
Sydney Rose is just a tiny, little doll. She looked exactly how I pictured her, only smaller. She is very easygoing, smiles easily, and she loves to be held and cuddled. She is very curious about her surroundings and so far her favorite activity seems to be taking cheerios/fruit puffs out of a container one at a time and putting each one back in the container, over and over and over again. She definitely loves to empty out things and put them back in, like our luggage! Lol!
She still really likes the bottle and I had a Nuby sippy-type bottle with me and that is her favorite. I brought formula along with me and I am glad that I did. She likes the formula, juice, rice cereal, ramen noodles, congee (a Chinese rice soup with vegtables), instant oatmeal, cheerios, fruit and veggie puffs, goldfish, hamburger, french fries with ketchup, ice cream, and on and on and on and on! LOL! So far there isn't much she won't eat or can't eat with her open palate. She is doing great! She took 2 great afternoon naps for us so far and goes to bed for the night very easily. NO fuss, no muss. Is this too good to be true?
She lets us change her clothes and diapers without a fight and she LOVES the bath. We moved to a larger suite in our hotel tonight as we had no room for her to get around, or for us to either, and this room does not have a tub bath. We tried to have her stand in the shower stall with mommy and then daddy tried too later but she wanted nothing to do with that shower! She is so tiny that we could give her a little bath in the bathroom sink without too much trouble. She loves water and we are relieved about that! Peshtigo river, here we come.
She is extremely ticklish and laughs a lot. She is just the cutest little girl and we couldn't be happier. She took to us very well right away. She has great eye contact with us and looks for approval with her eyes when she does something good. These are good signs of attachment so that makes us very happy.
She does not like to share her toys, or anything else for that matter, with her friend Jeremy. Now that I think of it, she doesn't like to share period. She is pretty funny, when you try to take something from her, she hides it behind her back. She's got spunk, but she is also a very content little girl. She did cry for the first time when we took her outside to get our family photo picture taken around the corner of the hotel at this photo shop and it was a very windy day. As soon as the wind hit her face, even though a very warm wind, she started crying hard. She hid her face in my chest as I walked.
When she does cry, which has only been a few times so far, she gets the funniest look on her face. She looks like she is just smiling really big, with her crinkled up flat nose, but it takes her like 10 seconds to make a sound and then it comes out strong. A few times now I have asked Paul, is she about to cry or is she laughing??? How funny. The best example I can give is when we left tonight to get dinner at the buffet at the hotel. She was carrying around this little bag of sweet, Chinese crackers that our guide told us to get her because the kids in China love them. Anyway, Daddy (a.k.a. BABA) took the bag of crackers out of her hands gently and started walking towards the door so we could leave and she just stood in the middle of the room and I swear she looked like she was about to crack up laughing! Well, like 7 seconds later, she let out a huge, sad cry. Oh my gosh. That was her first big cry that we witnessed from her. I am sure there will be many, many more to come but it was just so darn cute.
We have mostly just spent our time bonding with her, and doing adoption paperwork and going to government offices. Tomorrow we are going to do some sight-seeing.
I definitely can't wait to come home and eat some real food. The Chinese people are wonderful and so polite. They also stare at us all the time with Sydney. We expected that so that hasn't been too hard to deal with. Wal-mart was crazy and wouldn't mind if we never went back there again. We are just really looking forward to seeing some sights, walking around (no more van driving for awhile would be GREAT! and only those who have been to China could understand this one!!! lol) and spending some time outdoors. It has been beautiful here in Jinan.
We are going to Sydney's and Jeremy's orphanage on Wednesday to bring some gifts, take some pictures, etc.
Well, I am headed off to join my daughter and tired hubby in the bedroom. They are both asleep and I finally felt good enough to post tonight. Jetlag kicked my butt! By the way, Sydney has been sleeping in her little crib in our room so far and hasn't needed to sleep with us in the bed. Of course that may change when we get home but we are glad that she seems to be OK with sleeping in the crib.
We miss you all so much. We also want to thank all of you for all your kind words and for your shared joy with us. We do love being here but I already am feeling a little homesick and we both look forward to getting home. Brandon, I miss you so much. I know you are having fun with the Konrads and with Gramps! Take good care of Bella. We love you like crazy and we can't wait for you to meet your little sister. She is going to crack you up!
