Flu...

I had terrible stomach flu this week and quarantined myself in my bedroom/bathroom for 36 hrs in hopes that no one in my family catches it from me! Grayson had a small bout yesterday but it wasn't nearly as bad as mine so I'm thankful about that.

Jeff and I are still exhausted from our trip and taking care of a 13 month old baby and 7 yr old. Hopefully, we'll get back in our groove soon. Aleigha is back on her normal sleep schedule... she sleeps pretty much all night. I am soooooo thankful for that. Her pediatrician appt went well this week. She has to have blood drawn though for some routine tests and that didn't go well. I have to take her back tomorrow after she's more hydrated. It was traumatizing - as expected.

I haven't taken any pictures this week since we've been in "survival mode" this week with my flu and Jeff having to take care of Everything else! Hats off to all of the single moms out there because it is the hardest job in the world!!!!

Weekend

Grayson is reading his Spiderman magazine to Aleigha...

We had a big weekend with lots of visitors. Aleigha did really well and let everyone hold her. She is quite the ham now. However, she was very jealous of her cousin, Johnny. If anyone was holding him, she wanted to go to that person because she wanted the attention!

Grayson with Johnny and Aleigha... She still doesn't like to sit next to other babies!

Aunt Shana with Johnny and Aleigha....
Grandma Quinlan with Aleigha...

Shana took a lot more pictures during the weekend so I'll probably have more to post once she sends them to me.

We had Aleigha's pediatrician appt today and everything looks good. No problems. We have to get her blood drawn this week though to confirm that her previous vaccinations were actually done. That will not be fun but we don't want to re-vaccinate if we don't need to.

Here is a picture of Grayson's toothless grin. He lost 3 teeth during the two weeks we were gone!

We're HOME!

Finally.... we had a good trip home! I was just too tired to get on the computer yesterday. I slept most of the day! Our flights went very well. Aleigha slept most of the 13 hr flight! We were lucky enough to switch seats with someone so we could have a 3rd seat for Aleigha to lay down. That helped a ton!

We got home at 8:30 pm on Wed night. We had traveled over 32 hrs by then!! Grayson was just smiling when he saw Aleigha and just stared at her. He was really showing off for us and trying to make Aleigha smile. He finally figured out what made her laugh and was doing that all night and yesterday. He just had to put a stuffed animal on his head and let it fall off. It made her laugh every time. :) Then he wanted to teach her how to count to 15... that was cute!

Here is a picture of our travel group friends during our last meal in China. We had a great travel group and we're lucky to have made such good friends during this 2 week journey. We'll miss seeing Sherry, Dave and Eva every day! (and Emma and Lily) Their company made our trip so much more enjoyable.

Aleigha is doing very well adjusting to the time change. We were up from 2-4:30am last night and then she slept until 10:30am. Hopefully, it will only take a few more days before we're all adjusted!

We're going to have a lot of visitors this weekend and every day Aleigha is adjusting a little better to other people. Until now, she will only let me or Jeff hold her.... but she is very close to letting my mom hold her! She's pulling out all the stops to let her hold her. :)

Last day in China!

It's 10pm on Tuesday night and our bus leaves at 6am tomorrow morning. I won't be able to update anymore until we are back in the beautiful USA!!! We will be traveling for over 24 hrs by the time we get home. It won't be pretty.... and we haven't finished packing yet!
I'm not going to post pics today because we have so much to do before 6am tomorrow but I wanted to let everyone know that we had a great day... and are so excited to be going back home. :) I don't want to see another breakfast buffet for a long, long, long time!

Guangzhou -day 3

Most of us in the hotel lobby getting ready to leave on our excursion for the afternoon...


Jade Market - one of the hundreds of shops!
Aleigha must have looked exceptionally cute today because we had many Chinese people point at her and say how pretty she was! :)

500 Buddha's Temple:

An aisle in a grocery store....

Downtown Guangzhou where the Pearl and Jade markets were.... This is Dave, Eva and Sherry with Emma and Lily..,

This is Mary and her two boys- Cole and Chase...

This is at the Vegetable/fruit/Pet market... it was soooo sad to see all of these little animals in cages for sale. They really were being sold as pets and not food! That was our 1st question!

We ate an an Italian restaurant tonight and it was wonderful!

Only 1 full day left and we are on our way home!! Tomorrow we go to the embassy in the afternoon for an adoption ceremony. No cameras allowed in the building though. But I'm sure we'll take plenty before and after the ceremony!

pictures from my camera

Our cute new dress for the HEAT today. It so so hot and muggy!

Some kids playing outside in Guangzhou...

Emma- She is one month younger than Aleigha and was in the same orphanage...

Dinner last night at Lucy's Bar and Grill...

Breakfast buffet at our hotel in Guangzhou...

Ping Pong with Zhou.... (he beat everyone he played -easily!)

Going out yesterday on our museum trip and Pearl Market...

Aleigha is taking her nap and Jeff fell asleep with her. We're leaving at 2:30 today to go to the Jade Market and then out to eat Pizza as a group in mainland Guangzhou. I guess I'll go to Subway again for lunch. :)

2nd day in Guangzhou..

This morning we left at 9:30 am to visit an outdoor museum in Guangzhou. It had intricate wood carvings and paintings and embroidery. Then we went to a Pearl Market. It was bigger than anything I've ever seen. It was a 6 story "mall" full of pearls and beads! Our guide, Zhou, takes us to a particular shop that he always brings his groups to because it is high quality and good prices. A strand of fresh water pearls started at 10 RMBs! That's less than 2 US dollars!! They also had strands that were 3200 RMBs... but i couldn't tell the difference. We got home an hour ago and Aleigha is taking her nap and we just got done eating Subway again. Thank goodness for them! They are cheap and good. :)
I'm not posting any pictures today because I downloaded pictures from Jeff's camera yesterday and now the disk is "broken" so I'm no longer allowed to touch his camera! I downloaded all of the pics off of Jeff's disk so we didn't lose any pictures but he thinks they print better off of the disk.... whatever. I'll try to remember to take pics with my camera (that i think takes just as good of pictures) and post them later. It was really hot and muggy today and I think tomorrow is supposed to be 83.

Last night most of us ate at a restuarant with outdoor seating and it was perfect weather... then we walked by the river and it was actually a bit chilly. By then it was 8:00 pm. Aleigha slept very well again last night. I think we are back on track. She fell asleep in our bed and then we moved her to the crib. She slept until 6:30am.
Not sure what the plans are for tonight. Jeff is going to play ping pong with Zhou at 4:30. Zhou is VERY good at ping pong so it should be interesting. :)

Tomorrow morning we have free. Zhou is taking all of our paperwork to the Embassy to process the Visas. Then in the afternoon we are walking to a Jade Market which is very close to the Pearl Market we were at today. It is on the inland of Guangzhou but still walkable.

Only 2 more full days left before we get on the plane to go home!!!! Everyone is very excited about that. It feels like we've been here for so long and we're all homesick.
Sorry there are no pictures... I'll do better tomorrow with MY camera!!