Medical exam and the zoo

Monday in Guangzhou and we had to take Jake to get his medical exam. First, we went a couple of doors down to get his picture take for his visa. Then, it was off to the medical exam. They checked his heart, his height and weight and hearing. He passed!

It was so crowded in there. Lots of American families with their new Chinese children. It was the old hurry up and wait.

After that, Kelly took us to the zoo. We checked out the animals. Not surprisingly, it seems Jake's favorites were the fish.

Here are the pics.

The medical exam room. All the children have to go through here.



Yeah, like that is going to happen!



Jake giving a thumbs up. He's ready for his exam. You can see a little of the crowd behind him.



This kind doctor checked Jake over. Jake was OK until we had to lay him down and take his pants off so the doctor could check things out, then we had some tears and crying.



Next, we were off so Jake could get weighed and measured. That meant laying down, which he didn't like. He forgot to read the sign about being quiet.



Checking out the fish at the zoo. He sure likes fish.



That's a strange looking fish. Just look at the wonder in Jake's eyes.



They had a slide near the fish, so Jake had to check it out. He likes slides, too. When he came to us in Xian he had a black eye the orphanage director said happened when he had an accident on the slide. I could believe it. As all kids do, Jake had to try to climb up the slide a couple of times and toppled over.

In Guangzhou

We bid farewell to Xian Saturday and said hello to Guangzhou, our final stop in China. It was cool in Xian when we left, and very hot and humid in Guangzhou when we got here. That's not surprising, since Xian is farther north and farther inland. Guangzhou is south and close to the sea.

Jake handled the airplane ride really well. I think he treated it as just an extra-long van ride. The flying didn't bother him a bit. The boredom and the not being able to get out of the seat and run around did. But, that bothers us, too. LOL. It was about 2 1/2 hours, so we will have to see how he handles 11 hours back to the U.S. on Thursday.

The White Swan, our hotel here, is pretty neat. Great Wall puts most of its people up in the White Swan. We've seen quite a few couples here with their children. The people we were with in Beijing got to Guangzhou a couple of hours before us after flying in from Inner Mongolia. Their daughter is such a cutie.

Kelly plans to take us shopping Sunday. She lives in Guangzhou so she should really be helpful now, even more so than she normally is.

Anyway, the White Swan has this cool waterfall and fish pond in it. We think that is Jake's new favorite spot. He sat there and just watched the fish swimming around. He probably would still be there if we didn't bring him up for bedtime. He also liked the play room they have, although he clammed up and got much less animated when a couple from California came in with their 2 daughters. He does that, and we wonder why. Surely there were girls at the orphanage, and surely he had to play with them, or do girls in China have cooties like the girls in the USA at that age!?!?!? LOL

Here are pics.

Looking at the fish.



He likes the fish.



He's either trying to get a closer look or trying to figure out how to jump in.



Oooooooohhhh, the waterfall.



Riding a zebra, or some other such animal.



Chasing Momma.

Farewell to Xian

Friday was our last day in Xian. We leave Saturday morning China time (which would be Friday night back home) for Guangzhou, our final stop in China. We honestly are going to miss Xian. This city always will hold a special place in our hearts since it was the place where we got our son.

But, it's also a city that has a lot of attractions, there's just so much to do. I'm sure if we stayed here longer we would find more fascinating things, but we also are ready to move on to the next stop and eventually get back home. We miss home, and we miss everyone.

Since it was our last day, we did quite a bit.

Here is the Bell Tower Hotel, our home away from home for the past week.



Here Jake and Baba let the city know we are here by ringing the big bell at the Bell Tower. They used to ring it to let people know the time.



And, we can fit all three of us in our self-portrait. :)



After the Bell Tower, we stopped for ice cream at Hagen Daz. Yummy!



After Jake's nap, Kelly, our guide, took us to a nice park in Xian. It was peaceful. We just walked around. We tried to get Jake to try out one of the kiddie rides but he wanted nothing to do with it. We will try again when we get home.



After the park, Kelly went to get Jake's passport. That was the last bit of stuff we needed to get done here before we leave.
Then, we went to the Drum Tower, which apparently serves the same purpose as the Bell Tower, only this time with a big drum.

I guess we all know what that means. LOL. This time Mama helped Jake bang the drum to let Xian know we were here.



This means Jake wants something from Baba.



And, this is what he wants. Looks like fun.

Terra Cotta Warriors and night time fun

We were busy, busy, busy Thursday.

First, we went to the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. China's first emperor, Emperor Qin, decided he needed an army with him in the afterlife, so he had a huge army made out of clay. This army was buried for 2,000 years before farmers digging a well found the first remnants. So far, they have uncovered and pieced back together some 6,000 terra cotta soldiers and horses. It's quite impressive. Our driver, Mr. Bai, was kind enough to bring along a stroller, which Jake used and enjoyed. He was a little emperor himself as we carried him up and down stairs strapped in the stroller.

Later Thursday, we went to the water fountain light and music show in Xian. It was featured on the Travel Channel during China Week when Samantha Brown did the show on Xian. It didn't start until about 8:40 p.m., which is 40 minutes past Jake's bedtime, so it was his first late night. We're glad we kept him up because he had a good time. He liked the bright lights and he has a thing for water fountains, too. He fell asleep during the taxi ride back to the hotel (which was an adventure all itself. LOL)

It was a long day for Jake, but he was a little trooper. There weren't many fits and they were short-lived.

Enough words. Here are the pictures.

This is an overall view of the biggest pit at the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. This building is huge.



Here's another view of some of the Terra Cotta Warriors.



It wouldn't be right to not show some horses.



It's silly and touristy, but they put Violet's face on one of the Terra Cotta kneeling archers.



And Kevin had to become a Terra Cotta general.



On the way back from the Terra Cotta Warriors, the tickle monster attacked Jake.



Pure cuteness.



Jake with Kelly, our guide. She is a truly wonderful person. She is so helpful and so knowledgeable about everything. We are so lucky to have her as our guide in Xian, and she will travel with us to Guangzhou.



Jake with Mr. Bai, a wonderful driver and a very thoughtful man. He's always there to get the door and either handle bags or Jake while we get in or out of the van. The stroller he brought along Thursday was wonderful and very much appreciated.



The moon over the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, near where the water fountain show was.



A view of the fountain show. There were so many people there, and they apparently do this every night.



More fountain show.



More fountain show.



One more from the fountain show.



And finally ...
Jake watching the fountain show. Watching him was probably more fun than watching the show.

Tender moments

Today, Jake had his first ice cream cone at a McDonald's across the street from our hotel (you take an underground walkway to get there, which we love because we don't have to navigate the traffic). The look on his face when he took the first bit was priceless, and Momma and Baba did not take the camera. Sorry. You'll just have to let us paint the image for you. Our boy loves to eat, so when he saw drinks and the cone in our hands and that we were headed for the table he was excited! He sat down on Momma's lap and the first bite commenced. Now you have to realize, in China nothing is served cold. If you're lucky, it will be cool, and, of course, you cannot ask for ice. McDonald's drinks are the coldest we have found. So Jake sticks his mouth on the ice cream (not very wide, mind you) and he pulls away and looks at Momma, and the face starts to scrunch up like we've played the biggest joke on him and it's not funny and the tears are coming and the wails will begin and ... wait ... the face turns thoughtful, and he licks his lips and you can see the wheels turning and this stuff isn't too bad, as the sugar hits the taste buds. So he takes another small bite, and soon he has the cone himself and is going to town, and, with a little help from Momma and Baba he eats it all – he did a good job biting the cone, as well.
A few other moments we've been wanting to post:
On Monday, Violet went down the street a way to get us KFC for supper. It was our first, full day and Momma already broke her cardinal rule of never leaving without telling Wen Feng goodbye. When he realized Mom was not in the room, he got a little upset, but not too bad. When Violet came back, Jake looked back at her over his shoulder and said Momma as plain as day. That one made Violet grin ear to ear.
The next day, our little Jakester was one grumpy boy, but when Kevin had to tell him "no" to getting in and out of our refrigerator in our room, he got upset and pouted, but Kevin just pretended to ignore him. After a while, he went to Kevin and wrapped his arms around his legs asking to be picked up.
And, finally, today, Kevin and Violet received the honor of having Jake hand us Cheerios and puffed cereal from his snack cup, a sharing feat that had not occurred as of yet. In fact, when we had asked before he sometimes would ignore us and sometimes get upset.

All in all, our experience has been phenomenal. We are so blessed with our little boy.

Here are the token pictures (even if they don't include ice cream):

Momma holding a screaming Jake. His fits Tuesday went on for quite awhile, but Momma wasn't going to let it get her down. She eventually won, just barely. Man this kid is strong:


This is sometime later (after a nap, I'm sure) when our little man was in a better mood. He and Baba playing around the crib:


Soooo, this is western food. Yeah, I think I might like it:


He strikes this pose quite a bit. We love it!


Here is Jake stylin' in his OU jacket in front of the hotel after the ice cream run. You can see remnants of the ice cream on his jacket (and, yes, the pants are too big – almost everything we have is – but we hope to work on that in Guangzhou where there are some more western stores):


And, finally, this is my view right now:

It's raining here

Tuesday has been a cloudy, rainy day in Xian.

We went to the Shaanxi History Museum. It was pretty interesting. We have to keep in mind Chinese culture goes back thousands of years, so we got just a taste of it. Jake did pretty well through most of it, but it wasn't exactly the thing for a 2-year-old.

Then, we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. However, it was raining pretty hard then and Jake was pretty cranky (it was close to nap time) so we cut the visit short.

We found out Monday they will not let us go to the orphanage. The officials at civil affairs said the only orphanage in Shaanxi Province they will allow foreigners to visit is the one in Xian. That was a disappointment, but what can you do?

Well, enough about that. Here are some more pics.


This is one at civil affairs Monday. Obviously, you see Jacob, Violet and me. On the left is the orphanage director, Zhang Yonghui. Next to him is the nanny who came with them when they brought Jacob to us. They wanted to get a picture of all of us, so we had Kelly, our guide, take one, too.


He sometime has to have things just so. Here, he has a couple of bottles, his Cheerios holder and his horse flashlight just how he wants them. It took a couple of tries before he had them organized to his satisfaction.

Now here are just some random pictures from Monday.

A smile to melt your heart

Wow, the difference really is like night and day.

Last night, we had a cranky, scared and confused "I don't want to be with you people" little boy, and today we had our first smiles and even a few laughs.

Once he finally went to sleep last night he slept until about 5 a.m., which is early for him (the orphanage says he sleeps to 6:30 a.m.). Of course, it didn't much matter Violet and I both were up. So we changed his diaper and played with him some.

Violet bought him this cute little flashlight. It's a horse and when you push the horse's tail his mouth opens and the light comes on. He also whinnies. Jacob loves it. He got such a kick out of playing with it. That's when we got our first smile.

At breakfast, this kid ate like a pig. He ate some of his Cheerios, some sausage, some eggs, some noodles, some congee, some bacon, some fried potatoes — you get the idea. Silly us forgot the orphanage had said he can feed himself with a spoon, so we were busy shoveling the food in. Then, he reached out and grabbed the spoon and started feeding himself his congee. It was so good just to sit there and watch him eat.

After breakfast, we had to go to Shaanxi Province civil affairs to do the paperwork we need to take care of here and pay all of our fees. We also had to get photos taken too, our first family portrait and Jacob's passport photo. He handled all of that like a champ. He just sat and ate Cheerios at first. This kid likes to know where all his Cheerios are at all times! If he drops one, he has to find it before he can continue on. It's so cute.

Violet pretty much got stuck with all the official duties with the various officials while I babysat. We got our first laughs from Jacob while Violet was answering questions from some official. Jake kept flipping his snack holder and laughed a few times. I may have egged him on a little. LOL

He got a little cranky near the end because he needed a diaper change and he was getting tired.

Thank goodness the orphanage brought him to us with a pretty decent pair of shoes (and they are NOT pink!!!! LOL) because all the shoes we brought with us are WAYYYYY to big. The foot sizes they gave us obviously were not accurate. So, after we make one more official stop at the passport office this afternoon, we are going shopping.

OK, enough words. Now take a look at this photo. Isn't that the most beautiful smile ever!



We call this one "You people are amateurs. This is how I eat."