Getting Adjusted

This has been quite a week. We cannot believe how far Ella has progressed in such a short time. This little girl who could barely hold her head up three weeks ago is now rolling across the floor, grabbing everything in sight, and almost sitting up by herself. The exersaucer has become a favorite activity.


She also began eating solid foods this week which was a big milestone to cross. Until this week she would only take formula with a little cereal mixed in her bottle. We kept offering her baby food, but she would press her lips together so tight and shake her head. One day she was at the table watching Claire eat her soup and she seemed interested so we gave her a spoon and dipped it in Claire's bowl. That was all it took. We began feeding her applesauce and pretending like it came from Claire's bowl. Once she discovered that she liked it, we haven't been able to fill her up. She even licks her bib clean afterwards!!


Ella loves her big sister and they have a great time playing together.

There's No Place Like Home!!

We are so glad to be home and recovering from our trip. The girls were troopers on the flight home. They both slept about 11 hours of the 13 hour flight. The other flights were a little difficult for Ella because she had an ear infection and the pressure in the smaller planes was painful but they were both only about two hours each. The trip was very exhausting and we are so glad to be back home in our own beds. There were a lot of things going on in Guanzhou so we were not able to post as much as we wanted to. Ella became very ill with a fever and it turned out that she had an ear infection and tonsilitis. She is doing much better now. We think she is cutting her first teeth but we have learned a few home remedies that seem to be really helping. Since we didn't get to post in Guanzhou, I posted a few pictures from our trip.
Here is one of the biggest reasons we are glad to be home. Living in a hotel for two weeks is not easy. Our bottles had to be made with bottled water and sterilized in an electric water boiler. Ella likes her bottles hot so everyday we would fill a thermos with boiling water and mix it with room temp bottled water to adjust the temperature for her bottle while we were on our outings

We could have laundry done fairly cheap but we washed our smaller items in the sink to save some money.

Here the sisters on Easter Sunday


Heres Ella at her medical exam required for all adoptees

There's nothing like a little Starbucks to make you feel at home. Here's Claire and Ella enjoying her first Frappacinno

Big Trouble in Little China

Sorry we havent posted lately, for some reason we cant pull up our blog site from our current hotel.
We are all tired and ready to come home. Claire said yesterday "I like my house alot more than this hotel".
Ella had an ear infection and was visibly sick about te second day with us; we had brought some infant antibiotics with us and after a couple of doses she is doing much much better.
Now we need to get some antibiotics for Ed, he's been sick for the last couple of days, but he will be fine he gets sick every time we come to China.
We leave for Guangzhou in the morning, which is much more westernized, and the last leg of our trip.

Whoever smelt it dealt it.

Sisters.

Really? You think this angle makes my head look big?

Pooped at Walmart...No, literally pooped at Chinese Walmart

Claire at the Tea House

Gotcha Day!!!

On April 2 we arrived in Chongqing around 3PM, our guide came to our room around 5PM to inform us that the children were in the hotel and we would be receiving them at 8:30PM. What a shock, it was very unexpected to be so sudden.
We picked Ella out of the group before we received her, when they called our name and the Hallmark moment was ready to begin. Stop! The Hallmark moment, Ella had a BM and they didn't want to give her to us with a dirty diaper, so in front of everyone Ella's diaper was changed and the Hallmark moment could resume.
So far the experience is complete opposite of Claire. Ella went to bed last night at 11PM and slept in her crib until 8AM. She loves her crib and is a good sleeper. Ella is tiny but a chunk, she loves her feet (so much she uses them to scratch her head), music and stuffed animals. From what we can tell Ella is the second youngest in the group and the smallest. She didn't smile or cry the first night, but today all that has changed. She let's us know when she is unhappy, she does cry, and has cackled out loud all night. Ella is already attached to her big sister, when Claire is in the room she can't keep her eyes off her. Claire has been great helping feed Ella and she loves taking pictures of her with her camera.

Claire at the Great Wall
While in Beijing we visited the Great Wall, it's an amazing site to see in person. On your way down from the Wall you walk down a path with vendors on both sides, the path is probably a 10th of a mile long. Every person you walk by is aggressively trying to sell you something. Now to us it was pretty annoying but to Claire, she thought it was great; at one point she said to us "all these people want to give me something". As we made our way down I would had the "no not interested" with the hand wave saying leave me alone. Claire's comment on the other hand was "no thank you, but I'll come back tomorrow and buy something".
And now the adventure continues!