Thursday, March 13

Thursday, March 13

It's been a busy few days since I was able to update last!  On Tuesday we went to a park and zoo in Lanzhou, and yesterday (Wednesday) we were on our own while our guide did more paperwork and running around to complete the babies' Chinese passports.  We got a stack of completed paperwork from her last night, including the official adoption certificate, another original document (don't remember what it is off the top of my head), and a packet of original, notarized documents (mostly in Chinese) with our thumbprints stamped in red over our signatures.  There are also two additional photocopies of that packet, our receipts for paying the notary, and a bunch of extra passport photos of Mei and extra family pictures.  We will need all (except the extra copies) of these documents when we get to Guangzhou in order to get Mei's US visa.

Today we did some more sightseeing in Lanzhou - a waterwheel park on the Yellow River and a flea market where we picked up a couple of souvenirs.  We all went to Pizza Hut for lunch, which isn't a whole lot like Pizza Hut in the US, although it was very good!  We bought another suitcase (carry on size) on the way back to our hotel, because we arrived here pretty much stuffed to the brim, and are acquiring a few more things as the days go by.

Mei is coming out of her shell even more, and is such a happy little person, most of the time!  She thinks Daddy is especially funny, and gives him extra smiles and giggles!  She likes Cheerios a lot, but doesn't usually want to feed them to herself.  She likes to hold them in her hand and pretend to eat them, but she always opens wide for us to put some in her mouth!  This afternoon she has eaten a few herself, and she even fed a few to me!  She is pretty serious when we are out and around other people, but when we're in our hotel room, she starts to get all smiley!  I love our little peanut!  This afternoon, she was just grinning and squealing, and we were flying her around like "Super Mei."  :)

Besides food, Mei loves cuddling, watching things fall down, hot bottles of formula, being tickled, playing with her bare feet (we don't think she saw much of her feet in the orphanage), rolling, being held, rattles and links, and trying to put things together/inside each other.  She can crawl forward and backward, cruise (walk along furniture while holding on to it), stand for a long time, and walk holding our hands.

Adam has been having "Daddy's workout time" with Mei, where he lays across the bed and she stands up holding on to it, so they can play together with things on the edge of the bed.  This happens for at least 30 minutes several times a day - we're trying to help her legs get stronger so she can walk!  It seems to be already a little easier for her to stand for a long time now than it was a few days ago.  :)

And speaking of progress, we're seeing some filling out of Mei's face - she has almost a little double chin!  And her cheeks are definitely rounder too.  Her thighs are chunking up a little as well!  We just love this little munchkin so much!

Tomorrow we're packing up and flying to Guangzhou, the last leg of our trip.  Our guide is picking up the babies' Chinese passports this evening, and will bring them to us at the hotel tomorrow morning before we check out.  I miss our boys like crazy, so if any of you see them, give them a big hug for me!  It's been really hard to be away from them for so long, but I got a bunch of update emails from my mom just now, and it sounds like they're doing really well.  (This is the first time I've checked email since Monday.)

I will update again when I get a chance.  I can't actually log in to blogger, so I can't see any comments until we get home, but Crystal has been emailing me some of them.  Please leave comments - we will read them all when we are home!