The Birthday Girl

Elan turned one today and celebrated with her yeh yeh, mama, ah sok, goo jeh, baba and mommy (that is: grandpa, grandma, uncle William, auntie Deborah, dad and mom). She enjoyed eating her cards, smashing her red envelopes into her cake and playing with te grapes on the cake. She's never had sweets before so the cake itself was a mere sideline...here are the pictures from the last couple days.

It's me (E) again!

Well, it's official. The honeymoon period is over. After an amazingly easy first 24 hours together, E hit us with several bouts of diaper exploding poo and a few rounds of spitting up yesterday. And last night a new tooth started coming through. Our hotel room was a shrine to the laundry gods - every spare inch of hanging space was covered in drying baby clothes.

Today started off well. E woke up and when she saw our faces broke out into her big beautiful smile. Then the fussing began again. We think the trauma of what's happened is really hitting her now. She's doing a terrific job adjusting but the curiosity with everything she displayed two days ago is giving way to nervousness at anything new.

She is still the queen of stacking cups and has great fun with the yellow ball gramma bought for her. Unfortunately Sophie the teething giraffe has been classified as ass by E who wants nothing to do with her. She's a champ with her bottle, eats up all her congee, has taken quite a liking to Cheerios but says no to any form of fruit and veggies.

Alive and Kicking!

It was raining here yesterday - a Vancouver kind of mist that seems impervious to umbrellas - so we spent the hours leading up to meeting E in our room watching CNN and the traffic below our window.

When we arrived at the government office the babies were caught in traffic somewhere in the city. They arrived not long after and then we had the odd experience of being in the same room with them but not being able to touch or hold them until our paperwork had been verified. So we spent several minutes snapping pictures and talking to her while she sat in her nanny's arms.

When they finally put her in my arms it was overwhelming. I can't describe the emotion. I just let go and cried. And there were E and baba as cool as can be!

She's been an amazing trooper, handling what can only be a confusing and scary experience for her with spirit! Last night she wouldn't eat but spent lots of time playing with her stacking cups. This morning she downed a bowl of congee and then demonstrated her crawling skills while we filled out the forms and answered questions that officially made her ours! She finally took a bottle around noon. She's gota bit of a cold- we thought she was active already - but after some meds today she really got going, smiling and laughing and playing with a ball and her stacking cups. She has a great attention span and boundless energy!

More soon!

It's the Final Countdown!

This is it! We're into our last few hours pre E! We meet Elan this afternoon at 4pm.

The room at the hotel when we arrived yesterday afternoon was already set up with a crib! We unpacked, bought supplies (diapers, crackers & cheese, noodles, cookies and beer) and generally settled in for the next ten days.

We likely won't be back to the hotel until 6pm tonight and there is the matter of getting Elan settled. We will do our best to update with pics tomorrow but may have to wait until the following day. We're also encountering some difficulties accessing our blog site...

We missed you all!

xoxox

Cats in the Craddle

After days of complete disinterest in the nursery Murchie decided to give the crib and the change pad a try. We have no idea how he got into the crib and thankfully he has not repeated this feat of high jumping since. The change pad on the other hand seems to have become a favorite snoozing spot.

Two Weeks until E Day!

It's almost unimaginable that in two weeks we will be holding Miss E in our arms! After nearly two years we can hardly wait!

Our Travel Itinerary

October 26 - Arrive in Hong Kong for some Huen family time
October 30 - Take the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou
October 31 - E Day! Happy Halloween
November 1 - Adoption paper work day
November 2 to 9 - Free time in Guangzhou
November 4 - Elan's first birthday!
November 10 - Fly from Guangzhou to Beijing
November 11 - Tour of the Great Wall
November 12 - Tour of the Summer Palace
November 13 - Elan's medical exam
November 14 - Tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
November 15 - Elan's visa for Canada comes through
November 16 - Free day
November 17 - We're home. Hooray!

Miss E is Eleven Months old Today!

In honour of this milestone Mommy has sterilized bottle nipples, soothers and teething rings and washed sippy cups, bottles, plastic bowls and forks and spoons!

Mommy and Baba can't believe that this time next month we will be celebrating our darling Miss E's first birthday as a family! Hooray!