"Slurping" Noodles

We had to leave at 8am sharp this morning. So at 6am I had to wake Mattie up...I wasn't sure how that would go. When she opened her eyes she stretched like I've never seen a baby stretch before...Alan and I were laughing and once she woke up she looked at me and smiled. Ahhh...steal my heart.

Here's our first photos from this morning...

She's a little unsure of the camera. She was happy hanging with daddy this morning...

We met the head nanny and Guixi SWI's Director today...

I know it looks like she's snarling at him - she was actually just yawning when Alan snapped the photo...every time I see this, I laugh!
Mattie had the hiccups for awhile last night and we thought it was from crying...We found out from the nanny and director that Mattie was the only child who cried when she left Guixi...and that she cried until they arrived at our hotel...we could hear a baby crying outside the room and it was her! I am surprised she didn't continue to cry - there must have been some divine intervention:o)! We also found out which children in our group were in the same room with her at Guixi IE Cribmates. And the name of her nanny. This information is not always available to families and our group is grateful the info was given to us.

OK - more photos less typing.

Sorry it's blury but that's what happens when you play getcha getcha goo on baby's tummy! And if you are wondering...is she laughing out loud? Oh yes...the deep belly gasping for air kind of laughing. We got to hear that @ 3 times today. We got big smiles for no good reason too. We have to sneak the photos in b/c the camera is not her favorite thing. She gets very serious when she sees it.

The title of this post is slurping noodles. I would like to sign off with photos from our dinner tonight. Our friend Lee Ann said "Mesa slurped noodles when they were in Nanchang" - as did many of the babies in their group. So the question is - does Mattie "slurp" noodles?
First - we ordered noodles. Since I'm an expert in Mandarin I specifically ordered Mian; bow bow (noodles; baby). Here's what we got...

OK - that bowl held about 2lbs of very, very thin noodles. I am not kidding. I guess they could tell she's a good eater. So, we tried to feed her noodles and she sort of chewed them. There were people standing in the window while we were eating (I'll talk about that in another post) and the lady was telling me to give her longer noodles. Hmmmm....is that safe? As soon as Mattie saw the long noodles she tipped her head back and....well...see for yourself...

No Way! She puckered her lips and sucked them in! We couldn't believe it! I know everyone in America is thinking she's going to choke and believe me - I was wide eyed during all of this. I don't know we will encourage noodle slurping from here fwd., but it sure was something to see!
Night Night everyone...