Bless You Mattie!!!

We left Nanchang yesterday at 2:30pm, and said goodbye to Ci Ci, Evelyn, and Mandy, who were our guides there. We want to let everyone know how much we appreciated all the hard work they did for us. It is so evident that these young ladies love our babies, and have such a warm heart for all of us. We will all miss them soo much, and hope to see them again some day. We arrived in Guangzhou, China last night at around 8:00pm. New city, new hotel. The White Swan is quite nice, from what little we have seen. Packing and unpacking is such fun. We took some video this afternoon, that we just had to share. It is jumping ahead of the last ones by a couple of days, but we couldn't wait to show this. Mommy was soo blessed by Mattie, or should we say, "Bless You Mattie"...

Mattie Cutie Pie, Slurping Noodles Video's

We are leaving for Guongzhou today. Mattie's first airplane ride! The second one will probably cure her of ever wanting to fly again. That will be a 24 hour experience, today is only an hour and a half flight. The Cutie Pie video was taken on Tuesday. Mattie just gets better every day, smiling, laughing, and making those little cooing noises a happy baby makes! "Slurping Noodles" was also taken Tuesday evening at a group dinner. We are all amazed at these little babies slurping down noodles. When in Rome, do as the Roman's do, I suppose. We need to do our packing, so enjoy the video's!

We're Back On Track

I am sorry I was not able to post pictures last night. We had a rough evening. Miss Mattie fussed alot of yesterday and then screamed for 2 hrs before she finally went to sleep @ 10pm. About every hour afterward, until this morning, she would scream but when I looked at her she was still asleep. One bottom tooth came through yesterday - you can't see it but I can feel it. The other one is on it's way out too - so we thought this was the problem. To be honest though, all sorts of things were going through our minds. She was really upset and we were worried. This morning she woke up and smiled and seemed OK so we thought we were out of the woods. And then the screaming began again. It turned out that she had a "#2" issue. I will spare you the horrible details but just say I would have been screaming too. Our poor sweet girl.
So, it's 4pm in PR China and all is well again and has been for a number of hours. We have a very, very happy girl. Here some pics from yesterday...

I needed to make bottles to take with us yesterday and Alan needed to get ready. There's really no where to put her that I feel is safe to leave her side...not even the baby bed. Where do you put a baby while you pour hot water and mix formula - but keep her within reach? Here looked like a good place... There was no place to sit and she was very hungry. I'm really not sure how many flights of stairs I walked, feeding her like this. It's a good thing I went to the gym some before we left the US...

You would have thought I was trying to feed her a bug - this is her first Cheerio...

Her 2nd Cheerio...

Dinner

Right before my meltdown

I will try to post more photos tonight. We started off so far behind today b/c she was not feeling well this morning, we didn't get any photos yet today. We'll get some tonight though...

I Am Officially Yours

This video was taken on Monday. We had three different appointments that day, at 3 different government buildings. At the end, Mattie Gail was "officially" ours. The video takes place as we waited to get Mattie's "Red Book" notarized. The Red Book contains the official Chinese document saying that we are a family. Mattie was a trooper the whole day, as it was a grind for the whole group. At the first building, there was no air conditioning on. It was about 100 degrees, with 99% humidity! Then, toward the end of our wait, they turned on the air conditioning. The video was taken at the second location we stopped at, no air conditioning there, at all. Mattie is really resilient, and patient with all of this, as you can see...

Happier By The Day

We went out to dinner last night with our group. The food was good! We had to wake Mattie up from her nap to go to dinner. She was not so gracious being woke up a 2nd time in the same afternoon and was a bit grumpy at dinner. Once we got back to the room she was feeling much better though!

She's definately warming up to the camera...

We went to a park today and walked around for a couple of hours with our group and then everyone went to lunch. Mattie was happy - they served noodles as soon as we arrived!
She fell asleep on the bus on the way home...

When she woke up we played and I think she had fun...what do you think?

I know they're a bit fuzzy but she was moving fast while she laughed

I LOVE this little face and she makes it all the time. She is popping a tooth so I'm guessing a couple of teeth will keep her from making it much longer.

I really, really, really think my daddy is great!

Today is the most eye contact she's made during her bottle time. I'm really feeling good about the strides we're making each day.

I am usually a happy girl after my naps.

I am as certain as I can be that the nanny gave Mattie the photo book we sent in her care package. She loves to look at it. And as soon as we open it she looks at the photo of herself. Anytime the album is out, she reaches for it even if there are other toys out.

We got the cameras we sent in the care package back too, and they were full of photos! I am thrilled to have these extra pictures and they will be meaningful to Mattie one day.

You are my hero daddy

Sunday Night Live!

We are hoping you can play this...we can post and upload to our blog, but cannot get on our blog. We are just as confused about that as you are:o). We will upload photos too, later.

This is a small clip of our first night, with Mattie in our room. We called her Yan Yan (pronouced Yen Yen) since that's what she is used to. I also used Chinese/Mandarin words she may have heard: Baba means daddy. Dui (pronoucned Dway) means "Right!", and is used to praise accomplishment...in English the equivilent is "good job!" And Hao (pronounced how) means "Good!". I have no idea if it sounded like something she had heard before since I have a heavy american accent - but she turned her head back toward me and smiled some anyway.

We looked at video today for the first time. We pretty much took video from the time we got back in the room until she went to sleep:o). She was pretty serious except this little moment (why I picked this clip:o)).

If it comes through we'll start posting some video clips too.

Good Morning America!

Today we stayed at the hotel almost all day to wait on our medical exam. We are heading to dinner in about a 1/2 hour with our group - everyone wants their baby to slurp noodles:o).

Here's some photos from today...

Just finished my bath. I actually like baths...

Right after I got dressed I needed some more sleep...

This morning I ate rice congee, eggs and fruit on mommy's lap.

When we got back to the room I had a great time...

Oh man..........I mean Old Man! We see this expression a lot. It's hilarious!
I was woke up from my nap for my Dr.'s appointment today. I was gracious about it.
I didn't even cry when the Doctor stuck that stick in my throat. Not the first time, the second time or the third time!I fell back asleep a few hrs. later...
Our sweet, sweet girl...she smiles if I go over to hold her while Alan does something, and when Alan puts his arms out to take her from me, she smiles. Yes we are just about to melt everywhere. She is so wonderful and we are so blessed.