Second day with Indigo - over easy

An easy day in Chongqing – Indigo slept well last night and ate a good breakfast this morning – she enjoys congee and steamed egg. Many of the babies have colds some even needing antibiotics – Indigo is doing well but definitely has a cold but it doesn’t seem to bother her too much – except when we want to wipe her nose. After breakfast most of the families went to a local department store that is walking distance from the hotel. We got a few necessities; stroller, shoes, (did we mention yesterday that Indigo came with one shoe off and one shoe on) a warmer coat for Indigo and some more formula and bottled water. It was fun shopping and our guides were a tremendous help. After we finished shopping we went outside to wait for the rest of our group and we couldn’t stand still or rather we wanted to stand still but a crowd would gather around us anytime we even paused – so we kept moving until we saw the rest of our group then we all headed back for a quiet afternoon at the hotel. Indigo is enjoying lots of tummy time as we are hoping to help strengthen her legs which are not nearly as strong as her upper body. She eats (and eats, and eats, and eats, and eats) and sleeps almost like clockwork according to the schedule they gave us. so we are sticking to that the best we can. This evening we have a group dinner somewhere in walking distance to the hotel.

Quinn – Thanks for posting the beautiful artwork you did. We love it! It sounds like you are having tons of fun at the White Pony and with Gma and PaPa. We love you and can’t wait to bring your mei mei, Indigo, home to play with you.

Friday news

This is Quinn's art work of the day - Friday. The picture to the right was created after she opened her surprise this morning (glitter pens) If you look closely you will be able to see her handprints at the top left

The blue painting was done at White Pony, where she had another very good day. She was involved in a white sand box when we got there, so she had to finish with that before we could leave.

The two small pictures were done this evening and are for Mommy and Daddy - as was the blue painting at school.

We all think the new baby is cute. Quinn enjoyed the pictures and she seemed to enjoy talking with you on the phone today. She didn't get upset following the call either. She is doing great.
The ceiling board is in over the tub, and David is working on a vent for it. Tomorrow we will shop for Indigo's birthday gift and go out for ice cream. We are all having a good time.

Take care of each other. Love, Quinn, Mom & Dad

Blue Bird has Landed

Quinn!!! We love you! and have great news for you – it’s official YOU are a Big Sister.


Today, 1/13/06, we had a very early check out at 5:50 AM. All the families had breakfast together before going back to the airport for our 8:40 flight to Chongqing. Chongqing is very foggy and drizzly today with a temperature of about 40 F. After gathering all the luggage, it was off to the hotel via bus – let me tell you about our bus – it looked fine – but it quit twice in the middle of the highway on our way to the hotel – that didn’t do much to settle people’s nerves but after a lot of horns and a few tense hill climbs, we made it just fine. We had about an hour to settle into our rooms and then it was time for some paper work – very easy – then one more half hour break and it was off to the Civil Affairs Office to receive our babies. It was a very nice little ceremony with 6 families – we were fifth on the list so we were able to enjoy the four families before us and then they put Indigo Wren BaoYao into our arms. She was very quiet and curious at first but soon she realized her caregiver was not with her so every time she saw her she would begin to cry. a few hugs and more snacks would calm her down again but we did have to, unfortunately, keep her caregivers out of sight during the official picture and fingerprinting. She likes the toys we brought with us so far – mostly musical things- and boy does she like to eat she snacked almost immediately and continued to do so up until dinner and then ate a great meal. She has eight teeth – just like her big sister did. She is quite plump and healthy. She seems to be a thinker – likes to study us and new things – toys – paper – boxes. Right now she is sound asleep and we should be too as it is now after 10:00PM. We will post more tomorrow. Today has been a long and incredible day.

Hugs and kisses to Quinn. We’re waving back. Tomorrow we take Indigo shopping….SURPRISES!!

Thursday evening

We have had two very good days. Wednesday Quinn woke up bright and cheery and was eager to get ready to go to White Pony. She had a good day at school and opened her surprise - the"Insects" book when she got home. We read it last night and had a good time making the pages open up to see the baby insects. We had fewer tears at bedtime and she went right to sleep.

This morning Quinn was just waking up when you called. She was a lot quieter through breakfast. She asked to open her surprise this morning and that sounded like a good idea to us. Today's surprise was the little pink 'creature' in the red bag. She planned to take it to school, but forgot it. (So far the surprises have been just right for the day.) I talked with Lisa this morning and told her that Quinn wanted to go to her house this afternoon. She said she would be picking Quinn up a little later because she had to pick up Cory from a special Student Council activity and take her to CTA. That sounded fine.


David started on the bathtub ceiling today. He got the materials and cut the board and together we maneuvered it into place. He started caulking around it and discovered he needed more caulk. Knowing the crowd at Home Depot we decided to run by there and then start for Lisa's. David got out of the store quickly and we arrived at Hubbell's just ahead of Lisa and Quinn. So we all had a very nice visit. We will do better next week.

After supper we looked at the blog, and Quinn was very excited about seeing you picture.. She kept waving and saying "Hi". Keep remembering that the joy of being three is a short attention span. When she is engaged at school or play she isn't thinking aboaut missing you.

Now we need to put this together and get ready for bed.

Just Flew into China and, boy, are our arms (and everything else) tired

It is about 5:30 PM (17:30) on Thursday here in Guangzhou. Saying good-bye to Quinn yesterday (or Tuesday actually) was both difficult for us and joyful as we would miss her a great deal but we were also traveling to get her mei mei, Indigo. Quinn actually handled it incredibly well - We believe that her empathy helped her understand that this was just as hard for Mama and Baba too and she managed to be quite brave. The entire trip started out with a rather happy coincidence as we arrived at the airport at exactly the same time as another couple from our travel group, Mark and Lisa, were also being dropped off at SFO. Getting to LAX was fairly uneventful - the hardest part being the wait for our departure time. Getting through the ticketing and security was quite easy at 3 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. Upon arrival as LAX we found our way to the China Southern desk and checked-in. On our previous trip we had been able to get and aisle and window seat and as we had hoped no one took the center seat. No such luck this time, as it was a very crowded flight. The clerk that had helped Mark and Lisa however, didn't offer up a similar opinion on the flights capacity (that clerk had been very wrong). She said it was not full and gave them the aisle/window combo. Later, yet prior to getting on the flight, Mark discovered that these seats could not recline and had the seats switched once again. For a few minutes we thought we were living a Seinfeld episode as we tried to figure out whether our own seats would recline or not. The flight was long and very full but it got us here no problem. We landed at 6:20am and by 9:15 we were in our rooms, with luggage and showers – Yeah! Then it was brunch dim sum and some window shopping before returning to the China Hotel to prepare for our early flight tomorrow morning to Chongqing. We will go to the Civil Affairs Office to receive Indigo at 2:30pm.

Now it’s time to think about a little dinner and a possible foot massage before bed. We are very excited and very tired but looking forward to tomorrow.

Note to Quinn; our cell phone was delayed in getting to the hotel but we have it now and will call soon and you can call us.

Tuesday evening with Quinn

Quinn enjoyed waving goodby. She was very quiet as we drove away from the airport, but soon was noticing things along the road. We were not slowed very much, but were glad for the treats as we traveled. When we got home, she was very happy to get here and ready to play. She walked right by the table and then was surprised when Papa said, "look at this!" She loved reading your note and thought the basket of surprises was great! The Cootie game was fun to open. We sat down to play after supper and managed to get all the pieces identified, but didn't get far with the game. We'll keep trying. The first surprise chosen was the silly putty. She thinks that is pretty neat - especially after it warmed up in her hands.

We had a good evening playing, but when we got to the going to the bathroom routine, she really missed her parents. It took some tears and persuading to get the teeth brushed and finally when Grandma brushed her teeth too, she was able to smile and work on hers. After some tears she went to sleep rather quickly. We think it was a good first night - probably better that we expected.

jmm & dem