Guangzhou Zoo

Today, we went to the Guangzhou Zoo for our outing. This zoo has less pandas than the Chongqing Zoo, but it has a white tiger. It was a beautiful, sunny day with highs in the low 50s. Amelia enjoyed being outside and strolling in her stroller. She watched the animals and really liked the tiger and monkeys because they moved back and forth in front of her. We made it through almost the entire zoo before needing to give her the snack cup. After visiting the zoo, we had lunch in a Chinese restaurant. The noodles were great. Amelia enjoyed the rice, and David had spare ribs. Everything was great and cheap. We spent about $16 on lunch for 3 entrees and David's beer. We stopped at Starbucks on the way back from lunch for a dessert drink.

Amelia fell asleep in my arms on the way back to the hotel. I put her down easily for a nap. She woke up about 45 minutes later screaming. She did this last night, too. We have decided that she is having night terrors. She is unable to be consoled, and she just cries and screams. She does not want to be held and does not want to be in the bed. She throws herself backwards and arches her back. Her eyes are open, but she doesn't seem to be aware of us. This lasts about 5 minutes, and she is back to sleep. She slept for almost 3 hours this afternoon. She has started to bear crawl some, so we are happy to see some progress being made. She also loves playing with the beach ball with David that we brought with us.

Tonight, we walked around the hotel and went to the gardens at sunset. They are really beautiful and the waterfall is spectacular. Amelia was mesmerized by the waterfall. We had leftovers from lunch in our room for dinner. Amelia again asked for a bath and was quite happy. Right now, she is playing with David while she avoids sleeping. She had a small rash on the back of both of her calves tonight. It is different from the hives, so I'm not sure what is the reason for them. I put some baby aquaphor on her legs. They don't seem to bother her. I hope everyone has a great New Years. Tonight, we will be asleep when midnight comes and will not ring in the new year. Tomorrow is our free day without a guide. We plan to go to the electronics market with the Greer family in the morning. The boys would like to see it. :).

I added more pictures to yesterday's post about the market if you would like to see them.

Shopping in Guangzhou

Our second day in Guangzhou was spent shopping in a huge market. We went to the pearl, jade, and watch markets. The pearl market was amazing! They had bags of pearls around a shop in all different colors. You bought the pearls by the strand, and the ladies would take the pearls off and make any jewelry item you chose. We bought two strands of creamy white pearls and had Amelia a necklace and two bracelets made. One bracelet is for during her childhood, and the other can be worn when she gets older with her necklace. There were a few pearls left over, so we paid for earrings to be made to match. I bought a strand of gray pearls and had a necklace made for myself. The women worked so fast taking the pearls and tying them on the string. We videoed this to show people, but I'm not sure I can upload it to the blog. After the pearl market, we went to the jade market. I bought Amelia a jade cross and a circle pendant that represented a complete family. I wanted a few items to put up for her when she is older. David bought a watch at the watch market, but it broke when we got back to the hotel when he tried to set the time. We were told there was a one year warranty, so we will try to take it back on the 1st, which is our free day. The children started getting restless because it was WAY after nap time, so we came back to the hotel. I attempted to put Amelia down for a nap while David went to the Mexican restaurant for take out. Two hours later, Amelia finally went to sleep.

The hives have pretty much disappeared from her skin. She had one place on her tonight that was barely noticeable. Her skin is still a bit red from where the whelps were, so I gave her a little Benadryl tonight to try to clear it all up. We are very glad that it does not seem to be the carpet or the stroller that is causing it. A friend suggested that it could just be viral. Amelia asked for a bath tonight by going in the bathroom and pulling up on the tub. She really loves her baths! David actually fed my child a banana tonight and... She loved it! I don't know what I'm going to do! I had to stay far away because the smell was making me nauseous. David had to double bag the peel when he threw it away to make sure I wouldn't get sick. I have included pictures of this experience for Amelia. She ate the entire banana by herself. I can't wait to see what that diaper is going to look like - it may be daddy's turn to change her. :)

As I write this, Amelia is crawling around on the floor fighting sleep. We have a real problem with this. She does not want to go to sleep. I'm not sure if she is afraid she will miss something or if she is afraid that she will wake up and find that she is still with the strange people who feed her. I can't decide how her adjustment is going. At times, I think it is great and other times I think it is not going well at all. Today, she tried to go to all the women in the stores. A few got their hands on her, and Amelia was quite happy until she saw me. She would say, "Mama" and reach for me, but she still was happy to be held by others. She was in a very bad mood when she woke up from her nap this afternoon. She screamed and cried when she saw David, and I'm not convinced that she was very happy to see me. Once we started feeding her, she turned into her happy self. I know this is a hard transition for her, and if she learns to trust us through food, we will give it to her whenever she asks.

Tomorrow, we will go to the zoo. This will be our second zoo visit in China. This zoo has a white tiger and pandas. I hope Amelia enjoys this zoo better than the zoo in Chongqing.

David has not uploaded the photos from his camera of the markets. I will try to remember to include those tomorrow. There is one photo of the woman in the pearl market.

Guangzhou and Medical Exam

Well...we made it to Guangzhou late last night after an hour delay in the airport because we had no plane and another 30 minute delay on the tarmac because of an emergency landing. Amelia was restless in the airport, but the snacks we brought really helped with that. We gave her a bottle when we were settled on the plane thinking we would be taking off quickly. Unfortunately, the bottle was almost empty when we began to take off. The noise of the engines scared Amelia making her scream and cry. Since it was close to bedtime, I knew that she was probably tired, so I gave her a blanket, put her on my shoulder, and patted her until she fell asleep. She slept for about an hour on the plane and woke up in a good mood. We fed her rice and snacks until we landed. She was a trooper. By the time we got our luggage and met one of our guides, it was WAY past bedtime. We got settled into the hotel, and Amelia refused to sleep. Se did everything to keep herself awake. I knew that she was overstimulated from the flight, airport, and new environment, but I really wanted her to fall asleep. Finally at about 11:30, she went to sleep. I would love to have let her sleep until she woke up, but we had to meet our guide at 9:30 in the lobby and we needed breakfast before that. I was putting clothes on her at 8:30 this morning when she woke up. She was not happy about it. We went to breakfast and met two other Lifeline families. We will be a group this week and tour together.

Amelia had her medical exam appointment this morning. We were anxious about how this would go because we have heard about long lines. The lines were very short, and we were able to go through the stations pretty quickly (around an hour). First, Amelia had her visa photo taken. Then, she was seen by a doctor who checked her body. He discovered two areas on the top of her back that looked like fresh bug bites. We did not notice them this morning when dressing her, so we were a little puzzled. Everything else with him checked out fine. He wanted to know more about her developmental delays and commented that they seemed mild. Next, we went to the ENT. Everything checked out. We were then sent to the nurses station for weighing and measuring. Amelia currently weighs 20 pounds and is 27.5 inches long. That was it. She did not need a TB test because of her age and there were no shots. :) Once everyone was finished, we headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, the moms met for a paperwork meeting. I left David and a screaming baby to attend the meeting. David was able to get Amelia to sleep after about 15-20 minutes. After the paperwork was complete, it was time for us all to go to lunch. Once again, we had to wake Amelia up to go. We went to a wonderful authentic Chinese restaurant. We had a nice mix of items and ate family style with a huge lazy Susan. There was plenty for everyone. After lunch, we went to a local supermarket for supplies and came back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, we changed Amelia's diaper and noticed that the "bug bites" were spreading. They were now on her wrists. We let her crawl around the room and have a snack. She had a dirty diaper that required a bath. While undressing her, we noticed that the places were now all over her arms and legs. None have shown up on her stomach and the ones on her back had faded almost away. We realize that she probably had hives. I put her in the bathtub and gave her some Benadryl. It was a good time to see what kind of reaction she would have from the medicine. It made her sleepy within 45 minutes. She refused a bottle and after a lot of crying and fighting sleep, fell asleep in my arms. The hives have faded a good bit and the areas are now slightly red. David and I have been over and over what could have caused it. We wonder if it was the carpet in the room that her legs and arms would have touched while she crawled around or if it could have been the stroller the hotel let us use. We will watch her tonight and if all is clear, we will let her crawl around the floor and see if it happens again. If they do not clear, we will take her to the international clinic in the hotel to see what they think. We have a busy shopping day tomorrow, and it would be great if Amelia was healthy. If you have any thoughts about this, please email me.

Here are a few pictures to share.

Chongqing Guild Hall and Orphanage Visit

Today was a busy day for the Howard family. We started out by visiting the harbor where the Two Rivers meet. It was a much nicer day than yesterday with a bit of sun, so it was nice to visit the rivers and take some pictures. After visiting the harbor, we went to the Chongqing Guild Hall. It is a 300 year old building dedicated to the first emperor of China. We had a private tour explaining how the building was used. It was very interesting. We enjoyed seeing the architectural details of ancient times and the skill that was put into the hand carvings. We bought a painting completed on a banyan tree leaf for Amelia when she gets older. It is an amazing piece of artwork with a scene of ancient Chongqing in black and white. The banyan tree is the tree of Chongqing, so it is something specific for Amelia's birth city. We also purchased a beautiful jade bracelet that was a bit costly. I am planning to wear it until Amelia is older. No other purchases for souvenirs her, which is disappointing. Sorry everyone, but I won't be brining back nothing from Chongqing. Maybe I will have better luck in Guangzhou.

After touring the guild hall, we went to the orphanage for a visit. The nannies were very excited to see Amelia, and she seemed happy to see them and the children she has shared her life with. We were able to see two children who are about to join families we know. It was nice to be able to take pictures of these children to send to their new families. I know I would have been excited to get pictures of Amelia from someone who visited the orphanage before me. While touring the orphanage, we were able to see where Amelia slept. She went straight to her bed and wanted to be put in it. Amelia became very fussy and restless while we were there. I wasn't sure what her reaction would be, but we felt it was important for us to let her say goodbye and for us to actually take her away from the orphanage. I really think it was an emotional time for her. She was upset in the van ride back to the hotel and cried several times. I have been trying to ration the Puffs but her behavior called for a special treat to calm her down. Once we were back at the hotel, she became a lot happier. We had a fun evening playing together in the room.

Tomorrow, we will spend the morning in the hotel waiting on Amelia's passport to be issued. In the afternoon, we will fly to Guangzhou and begin the next leg of it journey. I don't know if I will post tomorrow night because of traveling.