May 12 - This kid can eat!!
Each day we learn a little more about Charlotte’s real personality. Although this shouldn’t be a surprise I guess considering what she has been through, it turns out that many of the things that we thought were ‘just Charlotte’ were really just trauma reactions. For example:
- She was obviously on a bit of a hunger strike the last couple days, and now it is over! She does like to drink more than 100ml of her bottle at a time – she can down the whole thing in one sitting. She will also eat more than Cheerios. Today she ate an entire jar of baby food carrots and another jar of peas. (should make for some interesting diapers tomorrow). She also downed a whole bowl of oatmeal at breakfast, and a bowl of egg custard at dinner. We have NEVER seen her eat so much, so willingly (Ha – look at me talking like we’ve known her for more than 5 days or something! : )
- She is not at all quiet and reserved. She laughs, smiles and giggles all the time. She is also a major wiggler, and VERY busy in general. It will be an interesting plane ride tomorrow.
- Given the chance to make her own schedule (as opposed to conforming with the bus tour), she likes to have a 2 hour nap in the morning (9:30 to 11:30) and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon (3:00 to 4:00). See photo for a visual on her preferred napping style.
- She LOVES the bathtub. We got in there and splashed and played for about 30 mins. tonight. Thank you Nana for the stacking cups! They are a major hit both in and out of the bathtub.
Unfortunately, it does seem like a midnight feeding is part of her style. Ah well, can’t have everything I guess. Our days are wonderful and our nights are interrupted. I guess that just makes her a normal baby.
Today started off @ 5:00 am (let’s hope this changes over time too!). The great part was that she and Steve got a chance to take an early morning stroll by the river together. They watched a lot of folks doing early morning Tai Chi, exercising etc. Really neat.
After breakfast she had a GIANT nap, which we think is likely her preference. We’ll see in the coming days I guess.
Our afternoon was great. My mandarin teacher at home asked one of her friends here in Guangzhou to show us around a bit, so we met for lunch. Meeting Athena was actually one of the high points of our stay here. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to get out of the hotel and go to a local restaurant with someone who knows where to go and what to order. She took us to a great spot on the other side of the river. I can’t remember the name, but it was huge – 4 floors. Athena told us it used to be a storehouse for one of the major tea companies. I really wish we had a video camera because it was quite the place. There were several hostesses on each floor with headsets, all chatting with eachother to sort out the tables. After much deliberation about where we would sit (there weren’t a lot of babies in the place), we found a nice spot in a quieter corner.
The menu was pretty exotic for a couple of westerners (lots of dishes that seemed to come with their heads intact), but we were able to find some great stuff that would be OK for our sensitive pallets. Just the right balance of interesting, but not “Fear Factor”. We had: a pork appetizer with fruit; cow’s tail and an orange vegetable of some sort; a soup with dumplings and pink flowers; and a dish with noodles, bean sprouts and egg. With the exception of the last one, I’m willing to bet that you would not find these dishes in Canada, even at “real” restaurants in Chinatown. The food was absolutely delicious and we were completely stuffed by the end. 
Unfortunately, Charlotte conked out during the latter half of the meal + we had to get back to the hotel for more paperwork, so we didn’t get to linger and chat as long as we would have liked. Next trip to China I guess!!
Tomorrow morning we’re off to Beijing. We leave the hotel here at 10:30 or so. I wish we had more time to poke around here, but I will also be happy to get back to Beijing and a few steps closer to bringing Charlotte home…..
- She was obviously on a bit of a hunger strike the last couple days, and now it is over! She does like to drink more than 100ml of her bottle at a time – she can down the whole thing in one sitting. She will also eat more than Cheerios. Today she ate an entire jar of baby food carrots and another jar of peas. (should make for some interesting diapers tomorrow). She also downed a whole bowl of oatmeal at breakfast, and a bowl of egg custard at dinner. We have NEVER seen her eat so much, so willingly (Ha – look at me talking like we’ve known her for more than 5 days or something! : )
- She is not at all quiet and reserved. She laughs, smiles and giggles all the time. She is also a major wiggler, and VERY busy in general. It will be an interesting plane ride tomorrow.
- Given the chance to make her own schedule (as opposed to conforming with the bus tour), she likes to have a 2 hour nap in the morning (9:30 to 11:30) and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon (3:00 to 4:00). See photo for a visual on her preferred napping style.- She LOVES the bathtub. We got in there and splashed and played for about 30 mins. tonight. Thank you Nana for the stacking cups! They are a major hit both in and out of the bathtub.
Unfortunately, it does seem like a midnight feeding is part of her style. Ah well, can’t have everything I guess. Our days are wonderful and our nights are interrupted. I guess that just makes her a normal baby.
Today started off @ 5:00 am (let’s hope this changes over time too!). The great part was that she and Steve got a chance to take an early morning stroll by the river together. They watched a lot of folks doing early morning Tai Chi, exercising etc. Really neat.
After breakfast she had a GIANT nap, which we think is likely her preference. We’ll see in the coming days I guess.Our afternoon was great. My mandarin teacher at home asked one of her friends here in Guangzhou to show us around a bit, so we met for lunch. Meeting Athena was actually one of the high points of our stay here. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to get out of the hotel and go to a local restaurant with someone who knows where to go and what to order. She took us to a great spot on the other side of the river. I can’t remember the name, but it was huge – 4 floors. Athena told us it used to be a storehouse for one of the major tea companies. I really wish we had a video camera because it was quite the place. There were several hostesses on each floor with headsets, all chatting with eachother to sort out the tables. After much deliberation about where we would sit (there weren’t a lot of babies in the place), we found a nice spot in a quieter corner.
The menu was pretty exotic for a couple of westerners (lots of dishes that seemed to come with their heads intact), but we were able to find some great stuff that would be OK for our sensitive pallets. Just the right balance of interesting, but not “Fear Factor”. We had: a pork appetizer with fruit; cow’s tail and an orange vegetable of some sort; a soup with dumplings and pink flowers; and a dish with noodles, bean sprouts and egg. With the exception of the last one, I’m willing to bet that you would not find these dishes in Canada, even at “real” restaurants in Chinatown. The food was absolutely delicious and we were completely stuffed by the end. 
Unfortunately, Charlotte conked out during the latter half of the meal + we had to get back to the hotel for more paperwork, so we didn’t get to linger and chat as long as we would have liked. Next trip to China I guess!! 
Tomorrow morning we’re off to Beijing. We leave the hotel here at 10:30 or so. I wish we had more time to poke around here, but I will also be happy to get back to Beijing and a few steps closer to bringing Charlotte home…..
posted by Stephen Daze | 9:57 AM
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