Monday?

From last night:

fuck. I just typed a long post and lost it. The pisser of it was Steve told me to write it in Word and I didn't.

Round Two.

I think it’s Monday. The days are blending together in a blur. We’ve waited nearly three years for this trip and it’s slipping away through my fingers. I miss the Munsters, and realize the best part of the trip is coming home with us, but I’m trying desparately to relish in the few days we have left.

This morning we went to a doc appt with AnnaWen at an international clinic. It is a (expensive) technicality of her immigration process. The doc was impressed with her physical health, saying she was right on target. She is in the 40th percentile for height and weight on the Western charts, which she said was about 45th to 50th on the Asian charts. Kinda surprising to me as everyone thinks she’s tall for an Asian child. She is 89cm tall and weighs 26.5lbs (Little Miss weighs about 30lbs). She didn’t evaluate her language, though as I’m typing this I wonder why not as the doctor could speak Mandarin, I think. She asked questions about her social, communication and play development milestones and reported those to be spot on as well. She got a “well baby” stamp on her record. Unfortunately the doc appt took 3 hours, for three families to complete the ten minute interview. Most of it was spent waiting in a small, hot, crowded waiting room. Frustrating to spend that time wasting away at any appointment, let alone while in CHINA!

After the appt, Julie and I made a mad dash to a local grocery store to get some lunch stuffs and food for the hotel room for the rest of the week.

In the afternoon we boarded the bus as a group and headed to the Summer Palace. Darlene even hitched a ride. If I understand correctly, it was once the “vacation home” of the Empirers, back in the day. Now it is a park with walking trails through pagodas, pavilions, courtyards and hallways, around the lake and under trees. It was gorgeous. The architechture was incredible, I took so many pictures of angles and painting and details. The lake was still and full of boats, including a few shaped like dragons (we rode on one). Wen did very well. We forgot her carrier, so she walked a great deal of it and rode our shoulders for the rest of it. For the most part she was happy to be there.

After returning to the hotel, we asked Darlene to take us to a Chinese restaurant that isn’t four tourists. She took us to one she likes, and as is customary in China, she ordered for all of us after talking about what kinds of food we like. It was delicious! I loved every bite (and I had a lot of them to love). The restaurant is in a park that is lit with spotlights and lanterns. In the courtyard of the park, adults gathered to dance to traditional music. It was very nice, especially on a warm, clear evening. Wen fell asleep on the way TO the restaurant and was out cold the whole time. The waiters brought over a second chair to put face to face so she had a bit of a bed to lie in - more comfy than the picture below. She's asleep fully clothed and filthy but we'll deal with that in the morning.


She seems to be attaching well. She is still pretty easy going, which worries me some, but probably more b/c I worry than because there is anything to really worry about. She has shown preference for Steve and I, in that she hasn’t once gone up to other parents in the group to be picked up or to ask for help. She will ask Julie to pick her up, but it seems that is less often than with us. She calls us Mama and Baba consistently, and seeks us out when she can’t see us, or asks where we’ve gone.
Tomorrow Julie and Steve are going to the final game of the wheel chair basketball game. I’m trying not to pout as I really really wanted to go to a Paralympic event but there were no tickets for the times I thought were available. Tomorrow is scheduled as a shopping day and I still have a few things on my list to find, and I want to spend time with the group as well, so I decided I should go to the markets instead of the game. So, I’m trying not to pout, but I may wallow my disappointment in spending money. Your choice, Steve. Tomorrow night we are going to an acrobat show, and I'm very excited about that! I hope I can take pictures...

N