Dream Baby

Our first day with Ian was an absolute dream! We had prepared ourselves for anything from nightmare tantrums to a happy giggly baby. He is definitely the latter. He has only fussed a couple of times, only when he is really tired. He cried for about 5 minutes when we put him down in his crib last night, but quickly knocked off and slept all night. We could hear him moving around and tooting in his sleep, but not so much as a peep for 10 full hours.

Yesterday afternoon, we had our guide take us to the store for some formula and diapers and found quickly that his bulky 25 pound body is much too heavy to carry for more than a few minutes at a time. Since he is not walking, we had to come up with a plan. We didn't want to buy a stroller since we can borrow one in Guangzhou, so we had to find a way to make the hip carrier I had packed work.

I would like to say this now: Everyone online who said kid's clothes are cheap in China have never been to Hangzhou. We dropped 1000 Yuan (over $150) for two outfits and a pair of shoes. I wasn't thrilled since the clothes here are not the style I would buy for him at home. Everything has cartoon characters on it and is typically pastels for boys or girls. The shopping process is also really archaic. You don't scan the racks at leisure with the occasional "May I help you?" At least here, you must ask a clerk to assist you, decide on a style from the options they show you and tell them what size (which in our case we just held clothes up to him). Once done in that part of the store, they fill out a 3 part slip for each item and hold your things while you go pay at the cashier. You then get one copy back and must return with the copies and the receipt to the clerk who hands over the items you purchased. We had to do this for each department. It is by far the most backward way to shop that I have ever seen…and not much fun while carrying a 25 pound baby around. We have been very lucky that he is not squirmy. He likes to be carried and calmly looks around.

After this mall nightmare, we headed back to the hotel. We've realized that having him kind of handcuffs us to our room a little and we ironically have more downtime than before. We've been lucky that when we're in our room, he is perfectly content to play on the bed with the stacking cups and cars. Last night, I put on some Chinese Children's Choir music and he was having a ball dancing and laughing. It was so cute. He also enjoys walking along the bed back and forth, which I am happy to have him do as much as he wants to get some strength in his legs. I get the impression that in the orphanage, when he wasn't eating or sleeping, he was in the arms of a caretaker. I was pretty surprised to see that at 19 months, he is not walking yet.

I am trying not to make milestone judgments just yet since this time here is better served to just get to know each other. However, he is very obviously many months behind. He has no language skills to speak of yet, but he did say mama today!

We are counting our blessings that he easily comes to either of us, which proved this morning to make our lives easier when getting ready. We could seamlessly switch off in the bathroom and he didn't fuss at all. We were prepared for him to come to, or have reservations about, one of us but that hasn't happened yet. He does seem to want me more when he's tired, but I think that is evolutionary. Everything and everyone wants its mother when it needs comfort.

Shawn and I are developing our roles, albeit in a 150 square foot environment. He goes behind us and picks up, and is the clown (as was expected). He is always happy to make a funny face or sound, which Ian really likes. I am the changer, snot wiper, and cuddler, although Shawn has been doing a lot of loving too, which Polli taught him to do very well. We are both sharing the role of feeding, dressing, etc.

We realized quickly that we think they were feeding him too much in the orphanage. They had down 3 bottles of formula and 3 meals of rice, congee, meat, and vegetables. He didn't finish his bottle last night, but seems to do well with a big congee breakfast, bottle before nap and some rice, rice & meat/veggies at dinner, and bottle before bed. We'll see how this works out while here.

Although we really love this West Lake area, we are already ready to get him home and into a routine there. It is hard to figure out how to parent for the first time with so much to get taken care of plus only one small room to establish a routine.

Today, Ian was up at 6:30am and needed a good changing, but did not leak at all which I was happy for. Word up to Pampers Cruisers! We headed to breakfast and he did awesome in his highchair. There was a couple near us from Montreal who have had their son for 2 days and to look at his demeanor, you would think he had been with them his whole life. Ian played the whole time with 2 stacking cups and the spoon from the table. We were able to eat and drink our coffee with no interruptions. Could this kid be for real?

After breakfast, we figured out how to get the hip carrier working and (whew!) he is feather light in it and I can let go of him and he stays right on my hip with his weight dispersed across my back and shoulders. Thank goodness. He loves to sit in it and stare at my face. He can also look around, and fell asleep in it with no problem while we were out today.

We went back to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the China portion of his adoption. In the eyes of China, he is now our son. Next week in Guangzhou, we will essentially do the same thing to make everything official with the U.S.

It's a beautiful day in Hangzhou today so we are going to head out on our own this afternoon and explore some of the city. We are in search of teapots and have yet to find anything really extraordinary that is worth braving the plane ride home.

Tomorrow, we see more of the lake and do a little more souvenir shopping around town.

Note to Lana & family: We've been paying close attention to Ian's reactions to sound and so far, he appears to react to even quiet sound from his Microtia side. Either he is compensating well or he has some hearing despite the lack of ear canal. I'm excited to see how his hearing tests go once he's home.

Below are a few pictures from last night and this morning. I won't be doing anything with Photobucket until we get to Guangzhou when I can hopefully get a better internet connection.