Baby's First Kiss

We've been told that babies start to offer up kisses at 9-10 months and Elizabeth is right on schedule.

Her first love: that's right, Big George. She grabbed him by the muzzle and planted one on him this morning. Mom and Dad are delighted she is showing her affection, even if they have been passed over for the dog.

Doctor's Report and Things That Scare Giant Babies

She's big and healthy. That's the short story. Here's a picture of her first time on a swing in the U.S.:


If one weighs a baby naked, as the fine folks at UW Pediatrics do, one gets a more accurate measure of girth. EXS is 24 pounds (97th percentile for 10 month-olds) and 30 inches (95th percentile). Her weight-for-length ratio is on track from when she was first measured at Ping Jiang at four months.

But even giant babies hate getting blood drawn. Especially when the technicians poke each arm and still can't find a vein. At least she has matching purple bandages for her 6-inch pythons. EXS calmed down pretty quickly and was a peach the rest of the evening. We even went to the swings. (See above)

Know what's scarier than needles? A pig puppet glove and a crocodile hand puppet choking on a rattle.

So two of my awesome co-workers from Seattle Children's Theatre (www.sct.org) bring food and gifts for the family. They sit down and we play with EXS for a while. Now these are trained drama instructors for children ages 3 1/2 through high school...

Using EXS's toys, they tell a story of the 5 Pigs (a cool glove with pig heads on the fingers) who go to market, go home... etc, etc... but they bump into a crocodile (2nd co-worker's naked hand with entertaining crocodile voice) who wants to eat the pigs. The pigs run away, find a rattle that EXS loves playing with, and feed it to the crocodile so the croc cannot eat the pigs. The pigs dance and celebrate. This is totally standard fare for 3 1/2 year olds in a drama class and they eat this stuff up with a spoon. Did I mention these are really good teachers?

The story was awesome, with funny voices and characters and lots of action. When the story was over, EXS paused and slowly turned to look at me.



The story totally freaked her out. Her face wasn't just "Daddy, this is scary." She looked at me to say "Why the hell did you let these people in the house? Animals eat each other? Do I have to eat an animal so it won't eat me? What the f*&%?!?!?"

After 2 minutes, everyone was calm and we fed EXS. All was well. And the care package my co-workers brought was excellent. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout... spinach lasagna, and cornbread among other goodies.. mmmm.

Thanks SCT!

Spelling Corrections

Paternal Grandmother is "nai nai" and paternal grandfather is "ye ye." Thanks to our Mandarin speaking relatives for the correct spellings from the post below. No one has any translation for "Nai nai's lifetime partner?"

C'mon, give it your best shot... Nai nai's lifetime partner...


Anyone?

Grandma Susan's Visit

Andy's mom Susan and stepdad Steve made the trek from the San Juan Islands on their way to Portland to play with EXS.

Grandma roots for UCLA, EXS for Florida. There was just a hint of tension.


As a sign of goodwill, ni ni Susan (paternal grandma in Mandarin) fed some peas and mixed fruit. All was well.

After dinner, ni ni and yia yia (paternal grandpa; "Grandma's Life Partner" in Mandarin anyone?... Anyone?) played on the carpet, EXS stared and tried to figure out how to best express her excitement over such an awesome Final Four Tournament coming up next weekend. Two ones and two twos? While having two Pac-10 teams would've been exciting, (nice game, Oregon. Tujuan Porter, where were you?) the four best teams in the tournament will play next weekend. Everyone agrees, and that makes for an awesome playdate.

Friday night at home

EXS can't sleep. Perhaps it's the many contradictions she is experiencing: that she hates bananas, but scarfs down Mom's banana bread? That she offers the dog crackers, but he'll only lick her hand (because she's clutching the cracker too tightly and he won't bite her.) Perhaps it's that for someone so small and sweet, she can smell so incredibly bad?

Oh no - it's just that she can't decide which team to root for in the NCAA playoffs.

George, Maggie, Uffe and Elizabeth

While we haven't yet captured it on film, the kitties and EXS are getting on well. She loves to pet them. Shockingly, Uffe, who is skittish, lets her do this. George the dog takes up guard whenever she cries, get a diaper change or regsiters aything other than perfect contentment, and Maggie the cat comes running. It's very amusing to see the animal brigade swing into action.

Photos, photos and more photos

Here we are with Mr. Chen, the Ping Jiang Child Welfare Center Director. This is about three hours after we met Elizabeth. He told us that we have our hands full with an active inquisitive baby who loves to be outside. If I knew Mandarin for "Have you met my wife?" I would have said it. After this photo, he kissed EXS on the head, said goodbye and walked out the door.

We never got the chance to say more than Thank You for the excellent care EXS received under his guidance.


Elizabeth actually took this picture. Did I mention she has her own blog? At least two of us are thrilled as we're about to go into our 4th hour of being a three-headed Jensenfest.

Our first night in the Dolton Hotel in Changsha with EXS. We got her down and out in just under an hour. It's Tsing Tao and room service Moo Shoo Pork Time. Your standard hotel room hallway into the room makes an awesome dance club if the music is hummed very softly.

This is at an Embroidery Museum. Those aren't paintings on the wall, it's needlepoint. Really really good needlepoint.

We call this picture ba ba, bao bao... Mao!

That's Mandarin for Daddy, baby... Mao!

Did I mention the Baby Mandarin classes we took a few months ago? It made all the difference in the transition. You really should check out the link on the right. It's pretty cool.



Ma ma and bao bao at Martyr's Park in Changsha. A huge park (96 hectares) in the middle of a city with 5.5 million people. The monument in the middle has plaques and bios of 88 Martyrs who gave their lives in the Communist Revolution.

Our fabulous WACAP Adoption Liason, Wendy was not with us to translate the different monuments. It would have been interesting to learn some history that is not exactly on Jeopardy in the US. "I'll take 'Proletariat Potpourri' for $400, Alex." Folks in the park were really nice and were impressed that we knew "bao bao."
Taking a taxi back to the Dolton Hotel, we spoke with some really nice students from the University who had lots of questions about EXS. She informed them "wo wo wo" and "da."

Back home. The lady wearing the Hanover Town League hat is now sitting on my lap and needs must be met. By needs, I mean single grain rice, mixed veggies and applesauce. A game of Where's Daddy? may be played. More pictures later in the week.

We're home we're safe...

We're sleeping.


Over the last two days, we traveled on two planes in 16 hours over 8 time zones and three countries. You want a crib? How about daddy's arm on an arm rest? How about peeing, puking and pooing all over Mama on NW Fight #8 lavatory? Sorry about the blanket, Northwest Airlines.

Or how about a pleasant diaper changing experience? How about smacking the back of your head on the floor of the men's restroom of the Tokyo-Narita International Airport with no shirt on? Then immediately sit up (awesome abs, baby!) bury your head in Daddy's left thigh and scream it out.

Those are just two highlights in an otherwise uneventful journey.

OK, three. After clearing Chinese security before boarding the plane for Tokyo-Narita, the stone-faced female officer gave us the okay for our bags and then played with and gushed over EXS while the line backed up behind us. EXS simply basked in the glory, never giving away that she was actually 12kg of pure China White. College fund, baby!

I'm kidding, Homeland Security.

More pictures from China (Thanks, Canon!) to be posted soon.

YUM

We are home on March 15 and can't wait to see you all in Seattle. EXS says MMMMMM!

The Banyan tree temple and another cute picture

EXS loves walks outside and yesterday we went to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. The temple was built in 1098 and has a pagoda with nine stories. Each level has a wraparound balcony overlooking Guangzhou. It is amazing to be surrounded with so much history and culture and then see neon signs and big TV station satellites just outside the temple walls.

As you go up each stairway, the ceilings get lower and the stairs get steeper. The lesson being "The higher you go, the more humble you must be."

That's what I got from it anyway with a freakin' 26 pound baby strapped to my chest.

Posting in Mandarin

The action buttons are in Mandarin so I posted before I put these pictures up. I'll put the following photos up and try to add some highlights:

This is just outside our hotel, The White Swan. Shaimin Island in Guangzhou looks like New Orleans. Very humid here so we're glad we're here in March. Our fabulous liason, Wendy says that it gets to 115 degrees in the summer with 100% humidity. The statue behind Nancy and EXS resembles a photo of Nancy and her two brothers, Paul and Peter from when they were kids.

Guangzhou noodles... mmmm

Some new pictures and bullet point events since we left Changsha on Sunday, flew for an hour, (very uneventful; some might even describe the experience as pleasant) and landed in Guangzhou. It is Tuesday, March 13, 11am here.

EXS likes everything but bananas. Inbetween mouthfuls of rice and noodles, she really likes apple juice, her AD milk formula (same as she had at the Ping Jiang Child Welfare Center; it works) and a few ounces of water to wash it down. She smacks her lips and says "aaah."

She passed her immigration physical with flying colors:

Blood pressure: Normal

Body tempature: Normal

Length: 76.5 cm (almost 30")

Weight: 11.7 kg (26 pounds)

She's many cms and kgs bigger than the same girls that came from Ping Jiang. Some of them are almost a whole year older. That's one big buddha baby. The families in our group have dinner together, and will often ask if EXS needs leftovers.

She's a funny baby; but how big is she?

Friday night here in Changsha. We've been hanging out for three days with Elizabeth, who still answers to Xia Shuang, and we are incredibly lucky. She is such a funny, easy, happy baby. We are all adjusting to each other well; she goes easily from me to Andy and back again. Her transition from the orphanage to us seems to be going incredibly smoothly. Andy got her down to sleep tonight with no tears at all: a minor miracle.

She has a husky laugh, and she smiles at us when she wakes from her naps and in the morning. She loves to sing, and she loves being sung to. She called Andy "Baba" at dinner tonight(Mandarin for Dada), and she knows that I am Mama (how do we know? The many, many rounds of the timeless game "Where's Mama?" ) She loves to go for walks in the baby Bjorn, preferable facing outward like a space alien, and sings her "wo-wo-wo" song. We know she is doing well when she says "da" and she says "da" a lot. She makes everyone on the street smile in spite of themselves. She cracked up an elevator full of stuffy businessmen yesterday by informing them "lolololo" and rolling her tongue around.

We know the big question back in the states is "just how big is she?" She's huge. She weighs 22 lbs, and she's over 24 inches long, but she's not fat. She's just a big, big baby. She's wearing 12-18 month clothes now; we expect by the time we get home she'll move into 18-24 month sizes, as we're updating her diet and she is growing fast.

To give you an idea of her personality: when we go downstairs for breakfast in the hotel dining room, she sits in a highchair, slaps her little arms on the table and looks at us expectantly, as if she's saying "bring it!" Waitresses, grannies, teenaged boys all come up to her, pinch her cheeks and ask us questions. Unfortunately,because we can only talk in Mandarin about noses, states of hunger or thirst, bellies and whatever comes out the bottom of her, we sadly can't answer. These topics have helped us immensely with Elizabeth and that's what's most important of course!

P.S. More photos will come once we get back to the states on the 15th - we can't download from the camera.

We got her!

We're in Changsha with Miss EXS. While she is crying heartily at this moment (she is fighting going to sleep) she is a happy and funny baby. She was very calm during the pandemonium at the Civic Affairs Office here; we played, she laughed, and she is in LOVE with Andy and Nancy. Andy has been carrying her around in the Baby Bjorn most of the day, which she likes very much. Now she realizes that she is stuck with us. It is a bit much for her.

As her photos showed, she is in fact a big baby - she barely fits into the 12 month clothes we brought, and will most likely move into the 18 months items pretty fast. She really likes to dance; we've been singing to her and she shimmies and kicks. As we get to know each other better, we'll post more details. Meanwhile know that she is super healthy and we feel lucky to have met up with her.

Mr Chen the orphanage director tells us that she already can feed herself, is very active (he emphasized this and was amused when he was told we ran the HK10k last weekend) that she knows a couple of words (mama and dada; she has already put together that Andy is Dada) and thankfully our baby Mandarin has stuck and we are able to communicate the basics with her. To give you an idea of her development, when Mr Chen told us about bathing procedure, he said "just wash them in the sink. Except for Xia Shuang. Just use the grown up tub for her - she's too big for the sink."

Andy says to mention "with all the daddy-love that I was the one who was able to put her down for her afternoon nap after 45 minutes of crying with just Daddy. Also Nancy was the one who held her for dinner while she ate 2 whole bowls of pork and rice with potatoes, and he says I am a very good Mom." We were able to stay calm at the hand-off and that has really helped with her transition we think.

We'll post photos tomorrow; our room doesn't let us send and we are in for the night; she is now dropping off, and there is no way we are jeopardizing that hard-earned sleep! Andy is planning to enjoy his Bud (the local premium beer) and I am just going to sit down.

More later - with love from all three of us - Andy, Nancy and Baobao Elizabeth

P.S. When we were waiting around the Civic Affairs Office, 2 of the local workers walked by Andy and EXS; both stopped and exclaimed "Baby Buddha!"

Hong Kong Marathon? No Problem!

Andy discovered that the Hong Kong Marathon was running this weekend, so we figured, why not run it? The 10K portion that is! We got up early and ended up running through Kowloon and Hong Kong proper, including a 1.5 mile stretch through the tunnel which connects the island to the mainland. We were rewarded with some nice new polypro tops, a bag of food swag and of course, the requisite post-race photo.

We think we ran about 1:05 but you can see the actual time on www.hkmarathon.com. You can also see the 10K, half-marathon and full marathon routes.

Now we're off to find a big carbolicious dinner; our last in Hong Kong before flying to Changsha Monday morning. Thanks Hong Kong, you've been great!

We're in Hong Kong!

We made it after a 14 hour flight, which was blissfully uneventful. The Salisbury YMCA is dynamite, and we have been wandering the streets in typical Andy and Nancy fashion. We also took a mystery ferry across the harbor and found free Internet at the Pacific Coffee Company.

We'll do some hiking tomorrow, will take the tram up Victoria Peak, and check out the night markets. So 3 more days as tourists!