Cute baby pictures

Eating breakfast used to be so much easier...

Quinn LOVES books. His favorite, which we read before bed every night, is "Kitty's Barn." A masterpiece, in Quinn's opinion.
I love this picture. Tom took it while they were palling around on the bed.
Today's best:

One bad mama

Tom makes an offering to the gods.

Today we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where the emperors would offer sacrifices. Tom, of course, got a photo at the very place where the emperor would prostrate himself before God. The Little Emperor, appropriately, chose the temple for his first diaper blowout. Not too messy, but it did make him quite cranky.

The temple is in a really cool, really huge park - about 600 acres right in the middle of the city. Our guide told us that Chinese people don't like to be alone, even with their families and extended families, so they look for places to gather. The park has a HUGE area with exercise equipment where people - most of them retired - stretch, twist, and do pullups and situps. In other large areas people do traditional Chinese dances and something that looks suspiciously like tai chi. In a very long corridor people gather to play cards, do needlework, crochet, sing and more.

I got bawled out by a very old woman playing cards who was upset that a bit of Quinn's skin was showing between his sock and his pants. I let her adjust his socks, which she did, then she grabbed my hand and put it against his hand to show he was cold. Then she started SCREAMING at me about how he needed more clothes. I finally just walked away, with her grabbing my shirt and trying to get me to stop so she could yell at me more. Our guide said her two-year-old daughter on a cool day like today wears long underwear, pants and sweat pants. (Mind you, the day we met Quinn he had a heat rash and was sweating profusely from all the layers of clothes he had on.) But she also said that houses in Beijing don't get the heat turned on until Nov. 15 - the government decides when everyone's heat will go on - so everyone has to bundle up.












This is a huge choir that was singing just outside the temple gates. They sounded amazing, and really added to the already wonderful atmosphere.

This afternoon we had a delicious meal at a Chinese fast food place our guide recommended as someplace workers in the neighborhood eat. We had huge bowls of delicious broth with tofu and vegetables, rice and drinks for $3. Interestingly, the bobo drinks (smoothies with big, black tapioca beads in the bottom) were served hot. Mine was blueberry and Tom's was orange. Our guide said Chinese people believe hot food aids digestion and they do not eat cold food during the winter. Very odd sensation, but we got used to it in the end. After that we walked through new and old neighborhoods of Beijing, with Quinn in his Baby Bjorn facing outwards. He loved looking around at everything and was beautifully behaved except for when we went into a bookstore. Guess he won't be much of a shopper...

Lunch out

Yesterday after Quinn's LONG nap we went for a late lunch out. We went for hot pot, which is where you simmer broth on the table and add meat, vegetables and noodles as you go. The waitress brought a high chair for Quinn and stood at our table talking with him. When it was time to eat, she just picked him up and took him away, saying, "Now you can eat." That's very common in China. People LOVE kids and they grab 'em whenever they can. Quinn loved the attention. I showed the waitress that he loves mirrors, so she carried him all over the place looking at them. She also helped him to walk, played with him and took him to meet all the other waitresses, cooks, etc. I was worried he might not want to come back to us when all the fun was over, but he was perfectly happy to. We gave the waitress a tip,which is not customary in China, and were happily lured to the adjacent art gallery, where we bought a bamboo and panda scroll for Quinn's room in Tucson.

Later, when the laundry service returned our clothes, the young delivery girl came into the room, saw Quinn sitting on the bed with his book and laid right down with him to play. Not something you'd ever see in American - without calling the police, that is - but perfectly normal here.

The little celebrity

Today we went to the Olympic Village to see the Bird's Nest (where the opening ceremonies and track events were held) and the Water Cube (where the swim meets were held). Both were way cool and very fun to see in person.









But the real fun had nothing to do with the Olympics. While we were on the field of the Bird's Nest, two ladies came up and wanted a picture with Quinn. We obliged, and that led to a literal swarm of people lining up for pictures. Some wanted just him, some wanted all of us, and one group wanted Tom out of the picture (too Asian-looking, I guess) and literally pushed him away. Quinn LOVED the attention and smiled and laughed throughout the encounter. When we were finally alone again, Tom started lifting him up towards the sky, and each time he did it Quinn would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Leah, the wonderful guide from our agency, had told us that mostly Chinese people visit the Olympic Village, and that a lot of them who come from small villages haven't seen Anglos before. Also, Chinese people love children and many are ashamed that China can't care for all its children but deeply grateful for foreigners willing to adopt them. They see adoption as a very positive thing and routinely come up and pat Chinese babies with foreign couples, smiling and saying, "Lucky baby." They also believe that children should be dressed extremely warmly, and are very comfortable coming up and scolding you if your child isn't dressed in at least three layers of clothing. In line for the Olympic Village this morning, at least three people pulled up Quinn's collar, yanked his hood over his head and pulled him pants down to cover his ankles.

Here, every baby is fair game and every adult is a parent. I suppose there's something to be said for that...



The Little Emperor LOVED the attention and even after the crowds dispersed was super-happy playing with Baba:

Pictures!!

Boy, am I handsome!

It's fun watching Quinn's personality and preferences appear. His negative preferences are easy - he literally pushes away a bottle when he's done with it or when we offer him something he doesn't want. His positive preferences are tricker, and much cuter. When he likes something, he closes his eyes and smiles broadly. If it's really awesome, he laughs to boot. It's impossibly cute. One things ALWAYS elicits this reaction: a glimpse of the Little Emperor himself in a mirror. Thankfully, there are LOTS of mirrors in Beijing - in our hotel lobby, in just about every elevator, in reflective windows. All of them make him, and us, tremendously happy.

Officially ours

Above and below are the mayhem of our adoption interviews:

The adoption interview at the bureau of families:
Quinn cried through the whole thing:

We spent today in mired in Beijing bureaucracy - three government appointments at three different offices, none of which took place on time and all of which took significantly longer than expected - one of them two hours longer than expected. Great fun for two babies and two little girls... The good news there was that it gave us the chance to eat in a basement cafeteria for workers. GOOD Chinese food, some of which I'd never had before.

In the end, of course, we made it through, and it was more than worth it because by the time the day was done the adoption was final. It's official - the kid is ours!