More & More Baby Steps

We continue to take more baby steps forward with Avery and things continue to get a little better each day. There has been a few rough nights with one particular one (last Wednesday) that was one of those most difficult one's I've experienced. Avery was up just about every hour. We both finished the night in tears (again) and just about two hours of sleep (yep...we are still both a little fragile). Since then things have gotten A LOT better. Her trust in us continues to grow and you can see her personality really emerging. She is babbling, spitting and making all sorts of noises. She loves to stare at my face and play with my mouth and nose. She also smiles and giggles pretty easily and is generally happy and content as long as we are holding her or right next to her when she is playing. When we are in the hotel room she still doesn't want me out of her sight and will cry if walk even a step away (which makes things difficult to do). Outside the room she is tolerating Doug more and is pretty content with him when we are out and about. However, in the room she will still refuse a bottle from him and doesn't want him to hold her if I am there. We still haven't been able to get her to eat any table food but we did get her to take a taste of ice cream we had at McDonald's today. (I still can't believe we offered it too her. I think Camden was closer to three before he was offered some). She wasn't sure she loved it but she kept sticking out her tongue and then opening her mouth for a little. Sadly, she refused to take a taste from Doug and even when I took a bit from my ice cream and handed it to Doug, she refused it but when he handed the spoon back to me and I would offer it she would take it. Too funny...she is a stubborn little one!

Our last couple of days in Chongqing were very low key. We did just a little shopping and sightseeing. But mostly spent time just continuing to get to know each other. One evening we ventured out to a pedestrian mall. There were sure some interesting sights to take in. Some of the street vendors were doing "Hot Pots" which is basically pick what you want and they cook it up for you. Some of the choices were duck and rabbit head as well as chicken feet. There were also many other things that we just couldn't tell what they were. Another interesting happening...Doug & Camden were walking back to the hotel (Avery & I had gone back to the hotel sooner) and a man came out of a building and he completely shoved Camden out of the way. He was in a hurry but the area was not congested so it was really strange that he would do that. We are finding it really interesting how some Chinese conduct themselves. It is so different than Americans. Yes, we have our own issues but you would never see anyone do this in the states.

Last night we flew from Chongqing to Guangzhou. Although the flight was under two hours, we had to leave our hotel at 3:30 PM and didn't get into our hotel room here until about 11:30 pm and didn't get a crib in our room till 12:30 am. Our group is huge and took forever to get everyone checked in and through security. Sadly, one Dad & baby had to take the next flight as there were too many babies on our flight. There was another travel group (from a different agency) on the plane which means there were close to 30 babies on the flight. Too funny! They all did great! Avery especially did very very well and chose to be more active than she's been so far which is good. She is starting to act more like a one year old.

Our day today started early as the babies had to have medical examinations to complete the adoptions and we had the last of our mountain of paperwork to take care of. The medical exams went well and again Avery did very well. She is a mere 14.8 lbs. so we have a lot to do to fatten her up. She has done so well with our crazy schedule and the few times she did get upset, she was easily consoled. We spent the balance of the day relaxing and facebooking and blogging of course. :)

Here are a few photos from our last few days.

Our family of four:

Doug & Avery snoozing:

Doug enjoying his noodle bowl and green tea:

Cuddling with Mom after our first time in the pool:

Camden enjoying his Strawberry Cheetos & Strawberry "fruit milk":

Waiting to get Avery's medical examinations done:

Avery enjoying her medical examination:

If you're interested...here are even more pics of our last few days:

http://picasaweb.google.com/starico32/ChongqingGuangzhou?feat=directlink