01.07.2005 REFERRAL!!!
03.03.2005 Travel Plans!
03.11.2005 Arrived in Beijing
3.12.2005 More on Trip
3.12.2005 Touring Beijing
3.13.2005 Second Day Beijing
3.14.2005 We Have Maya!
3.15.2005 It's Official!
3.16.2005 Shop 'Til You Drop!
3,17.2005 AM Museum
3,17,2005 PM Mother's Love
3.18.2005 Nanning Zoo
3.19.2005 Green Mountain Park
3.20.2005 Paperwork, Park, & P
3.21.2005 Guangzhou
3.22.2005 Shop 'Til You Drop!
3.23.2005 Last Day in China!
3.23/24.2005 The Journey Home
3.24.05 DFW Homecoming
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We had a ball at the Nanning Zoo today. It was a lovely day, though a little chilly for Nanning. Zoe and Maya both enjoyed seeing the monkeys and baboons and gibbons. I'm sure they each learned new tricks today!
Most fun for Zoe, the two girls shared a stroller for a time. Zoe keeps begging to have Maya sit on her lap, but most of the time I have to say no -- she'll ask as the bus is moving through traffic, or as we're seated for dinner. But this time, Maya could definitely sit on Zoe's lap in the stroller!
As you can see, Maya is a bit of a load on Zoe's lap! When we were waiting at Mother's Love to see Maya's foster family, we were in a room with a scale so we took the opportunity to weigh the girls. Maya was 10 kilos and Zoe was 15 kilos! So there's about a ten-pound difference between them! The way Maya eats, it won't take long for her to catch up! Maya is wearing size 12-18 month clothing pretty comfortably, and the size 5 sandals I brought fit her perfectly. She is incredibly healthy, with perfect skin, not a trace of a cold, and eats and drinks well. Like most 18-month-olds, she veers between complete independence and mommy-do-it with breakneck speed. The babbling continues -- she's added a new word to her repertoire: "happy." When we were at the Zoo, Zoe asked Maya, "Maya, are you happy?" and Maya nodded yes (she loves to nod her head!). So Zoe asked her several times, and each time she nodded. Then she replied, "Hap-py!"
Maya continues to be a delight. She's very funny, and loves to mimic us all. And, as you can see from the photo below, she's mastered the art of upstaging -- look how she steals the scene from Zoe in this two-in-a-stroller picture!
After the Zoo, the younger Seymores (and not-so-young Mama!) napped while Mimi had an adventurous massage. As she describes it, a 98-pound woman sat on her (Mimi's!) butt and walked on her back with her knees! In fact, here's Mimi's addition: "Idle thoughts upon a massage table. Oh, no. She is kneeling on my butt?and walking on her knees on my back. Now she is on my kidneys. Do these girls learn anatomy? Help! I only have two kidneys. Oh, oh, she is on my ribs. I have good bones but at my age, she might crack a rib or two?puncture a lung even. Oh, she got off. That?s better. OH, I must have been bad. She is slapping the @#$% out of me. Now she is pinching and kneading my muscles. Maybe she is a bread maker who is moonlighting. At last she is mentioning me to turn over. I do but gingerly. She is shaking my legs and my muscles (or is that blubber) trembles like an almost-set bowl of Jello. She must have measured me when I came in and decided I am too short. She is pulling on my legs to try to stretch them I guess. If I spoke Chinese I would tell her it won?t do any good. I am not going to get any taller. Oh, no, she is definitely a baker. She is now trying to make a pretzel out of me. I groan. I think that is clear in any language. It ?s over . I now feel like Raggedy Ann, and walk drunkenly to take off the garb they gave me when I came in and change in my much loved Jeans and T-shirt?my uniform on this trip."
This evening, Maya had her first bath. I planned to bathe her in the sink, but the stopper wasn't working and the water kept draining out. That meant the big tub . . . . I thought it would be a disasater. Zoe certainly screamed loud and long during her first bath. And in China, babies aren't bathed in big bathtubs, but in small basins, or with spit baths with only parts of the body exposed at one time. Well, we ran a tub, plopped Zoe in it, and then tried Maya. She loved it! At least, she loved standing up in the water. She was a little more leery of sitting down in it, but ended up loving that too. She and Zoe happily played with the stacking cups:
Then came the dreaded shampoo -- sure enough, she cried like crazy on the rinse! Ah, well, it was still easier than I thought it was going to be!
Bit by bit, we're getting all the adoption formalities over with. We got the babies' Chinese passports this evening, so we now have all the paperwork we need to leave for Guangzhou -- and two days early! That's a testament to Veronica's efficiency. She's a terrific guide, and burns the midnight oil to make sure all the paperwork is correct. We didn't have to redo anything from Civil Affairs or the Notary's Office, or the police station which issues the passports. So, everything went incredibly smoothly. We'll still be in Nanning for two more days, though.
Tomorrow we go to Green Mountain Park, which we visited 3 years ago with Zoe's trip. (If anyone is interested in reading about Zoe's adoption trip, damonville.com hosted that one, too (Thanks, Damons!) Just go to "Past Trips" and look for "Journey to Zoe."
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