Trip to China
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008 It’s four in the morning on Lexi’s birthday. Last night she cried herself to sleep in my arms and then woke up to do that again an hour later. Once she fell asleep the second time, I climbed into bed with Zoe. Lexi seems to be a light sleeper and she woke up when I was getting settled to go to sleep myself. She thankfully slept through the night. Today is a free day so we are all going to take it easy. Our group is meeting to go shopping at around 10am. If we feel up for that, I’d like to take the trip. Last night the group met for dinner but we opted to eat in our room as Lexi was so upset and Zoe was feeling quite overwhelmed. I am hoping Lexi will nap today. Both times that she fell asleep yesterday, she woke up minutes later. The poor thing was exhausted by bedtime. For that matter we all were. Well, today was a much easier day for all of us. Zoe slept in until 5am. When she woke up, she and I had some special time to talk just the two of us. Now that she has a mei mei, I see how precious these moment are going to be. We talked about China and all she has seen so far. We talked about her sister and how she will not always be this sad. Zoe told me she misses her Yangdong parents, but not as much as Lexi misses her foster parents. We also got in some good snuggle time. She and I both needed to time together so I am really glad she woke up early. At about 5:30, Lexi woke up in a much better place. She babbled as I held both girls in my arms. After Rob woke up, we all headed down to breakfast in our flannel pajamas. It was still early so none of our travel mates were there yet. Zoe picked at her breakfast while Lexi inhaled anything I put in front of her. She ate French toast, watermelon, eggs, noodles, and congee. After breakfast we brought the girls (I just love saying that) up to our room for baths. Zoe went in first, after her hair was washed, I stripped Lexi down and put her in the water too. She was none too happy about this and she screamed up a storm. If anyone in the hotel was asleep when we started her bath, they certainly were awake by the time she was done. Zoe gave her sister a birthday present after we sang Happy Birthday” to her. It was a picture she colored about a month ago and a puppet. We did decide to go with our group to the walking street filled with shops. Our group got many stares as we walked. Rob pushed Zoe in a stroller and Lexi fell asleep in the carrier for her morning nap. More times than I could count, we were surrounded by smiling Chinese folks. They would talk to us, point to Zoe, and pull the blanket back from sleeping Lexi to see her face. Several women pointed to Lexi’s hair and then to mine smiling. I would reply with a nod, “Yes, we have the same hair.” Other times when they stopped us, I would smile, point to Zoe and say, “Jie Jie,” then to our sleeping girl and say, “Mei Mei.” They would grin from ear to ear and then I would tell them where each girl was from. JingDeZhen is the porcelean capitol of China so they would proudly nod their heads when Lexi’s city of birth was mentioned. Each time we were stopped by a crowd, after a minute or so it would become obvious that Zoe was getting overwhelmed so we would say goodbye in Chinese (I don’t know how to spell it) and then go on our way. Rob puffed up his chest at one point and told our travel group, “I know I have Brad Pitt’s great looks. Now I know how he feels being surrounded by the paparazzi all the time.” Everyone laughed. My sunglasses broke so our guide Mary took us into a nice store so we could get a new pair. They are very nice quality and we got them for a good price. Oh, and the clothing police never bothered me about Lexi since she was in layers and tights and covered with a blanket. But Zoe’s pant leg was pulled up and some skin was showing … oh the horror … so a very nice man stopped Rob, pointed to Zoe and then pulled on his own pant leg. We got the hint and fixed the problem. We were all a little overwhelmed so we decided to head back to the hotel early and just eat lunch in the restaurant where we could eat in peace. After that we came upstairs and spent some quality time together. Today Lexi began to say, “mamamamamamama,” while looking at me. She also said “babababa” several times. After playtime and a bottle, Rob and Zoe decided to head down to the playroom so I could try and get Lexi down for her afternoon nap. She did get very sad and cried very hard for a half hour as she tried to fall asleep. Again I just rubbed her tummy to try and comfort her. After she finally drifted off, I was able to lay down. Lexi slept until I woke her up. During our one-on-one time, I actually got her to smile twice! Meanwhile Zoe was thrilled to play for so long with her friends in the playroom. Tomorrow, Rob is going to purchase swimsuits (I didn’t pack any) so he and Zoe can swim during naptime. Mary took us to a very nice Chinese restaurant where she ordered for our group in the evening. The food was delicious! Zoe ate some noodles, a dumpling, and then the cheese crackers she begged for. Lexi ate a whole steamed egg, rice, noodles, vegetables, and soup broth. After dinner we returned to the playroom to play for a bit. Lexi mostly just sat by my side. Although she can stand up, she does not know how to crawl yet and gets very angry if I lay her on her stomach. We’ll have to work on that one. I also shared some of the meds I brought. One baby needed a suppository as she had not pooped yet and another has a chest cold so I passed on one of our sample bottles of Triaminic.

Zoe LOVES to hold and carry her sister. Getting to know Mommy's face. Opening her birthday present. Our family at lunch. Checking out the view from our hotel. All tuckered out.

After playtime, we headed upstairs for bedtime. Again, Lexi cried her unconsolable cry. Today the sad tears only seemed to happen when I put her down to sleep. She probably cried and repeatedly called out, “MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaa,” for an hour before finally going to sleep for the night. Thankfully Zoe was able to drift off amid the tears. Today was a much better day. I look forward to seeing what tomorrow has in store for our family …

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