She's wonderful!

I am in love with my baby!  She is an absolute miniature charmer- flirty and playful, and what a mama's girl!  She follows me around everywhere.  She has the most wonderful laugh, and she sings to herself: "Doo, da, doo, da."  I gave her a little backpack with a brush and comb, plastic necklace and bracelets, fisher price animals- she likes to go through it, and if the boys come to close she makes a "pucker" sound, i.e. "Get away from my stuff" 

She's still very much a baby.  She takes a bottle of formula twice per day and she's not very good with a spoon or fork so she needs to be fed; on the other hand, she's potty trained.  Though I have her in a pull-up, she doesn't pee her pants, and I have to remember to put her on the toilet and make a swishing sound.  That is not my preference for taking care of babies- I'd rather change a diaper at my convenience than have to worry about getting a little one to the toilet.  We'll see how that unfolds.  She had her first bath today.  She didn't love it, but didn't freak out either.  Now she's all clean and fluffy.

This morning we went back to the civil affairs office to get the paperwork underway for the Chinese part of the adoption.  We were "interviewed" by a young woman who asked a few simple questions (and then we had to give her a gift), and then we had to go to a notary in another office across town (and give him a gift), then we had to go to the police station (I think?) and get her picture taken.  It was a lot of driving around.  Then we had to go shopping for the orphanage gift which was a bit of an ordeal but we finally got it.  I presented it to Mrs. Li, and she was very kind and gracious.  I took pictures and will be emailing them out to people.

The rest of this week will be spent dealing with paperwork, but we also have a lot of free time to explore Nanchang.  It's a very crowded city- I think our guide said 2 million.  It was absolutely packed with people shopping on a Monday at midmorning.  It's also very hot and humid.  I can't wait to go out and explore some of the shops, but I'm pretty wiped out, and since I have to carry the baby I can't go far.  We have found a decent restaurant where we will probably be eating lunch and dinner often.  Our breakfast is at the hotel so that's one meal we don't have to worry about.  J went out to a grocery store a little while ago to stock up on some ramen noddles, cereal and other snack/meal substitute stuff for the kids.

I wish I had the energy to post a travelogue about our time in Beijing.  I will if I get a chance; I kept notes, so hopefully I'll be able to pull it together.  J is keeping a blog, so check that out because he has a wonderful eye for detail.   Keep checking the photobucket link.  I upload each day's pictures in their own sub-album.  Thank you all for your wonderful email and comments (Marn has sent some of them to me).  It's good to hear from family and friends when you're so far from home.

I'm going to try to put the baby down for a nap, so I'll leave you with the most profound thing I an think of to say:   There are A LOT of Chinese people in the world.