Out and About with Miss Jaina

We are finally home! We arrived Saturday morning at 2am and I worried Ed might fall asleep at the wheel after 24 hours of traveling, but we made it safe and sound.

As we checked out on the morning of the 25th, the clerk at the front desk of our hotel inquired as to the whereabouts of a plastic tissue box and an old, rusty bottle opener we had borrowed from housekeeping one night. It never ceases to amaze me what the Chinese find important. (I guess I might accidentally walk away with them and if I do, I know a charge might appear on my credit card for said articles.) I told them that the bottle opener was left in the room and the box of tissues was in the wall holder where it belonged. Funny, they have a wall holder and don't use it. I kept finding it out on the counter and I kept placing it in the wall, and they still couldn't find it. I hear things were the same at the White Swan hotel. If you accidentally take a towel from the pool area, you get charged for it. They keep track of everything.

On our last day I took more photographs of Shamian Island to remember the sights. I wonder if I will ever go back? I would like to but I know Ed is not much of a traveler. The girls refuse to make such a long trip again and who can blame them? The recovery time is about three days and we are almost there. But one day Jaina will want to visit her country of birth and I have to take her there. Maybe they will feel differently in a few years.

As we landed on U.S. soil, Jaina immediately became an American citizen. The girls clapped and she clapped along with them. Her papers were given to immigration and her Certificate of Naturalization will arrive in the mail in a few months. Little Jaina has got it made!

Our first excursion out with baby included a trip to the farmer's market. It was time to replenish our empty refrigerator. The girls bickered over who would push Jaina's stroller, so excited were they to show her off. I settled it by pushing it myself. Jaina promptly fell asleep as she seems to do whenever she is strapped into any kind of moving apparatus. The day was beautiful--the kind that is common this time of the year in this region. No more sweltering, humid weather. We were home and enjoying the dry, sunny day. We ran into friends, chatted and introduced her, as we did yesterday at mass as well.

Jaina is getting used to a daily routine now but our first day at home caused her some agitation. She went back to her sad cry from when she first came to us and I can only believe it was due to the big changes of being in new surroundings once again. She got quickly used to us and the hotel, but we couldn't stay there forever. Once again there was a new home and a new country and I am sure she was feeling the changes. Luckily, it didn't last very long and once again she is the happy baby that has blossomed in our care.

The first night we arrived Ed took Jaina around the house and gave her the tour. Then he showed her her crib and seeing the excitement on his face as he did so tickled me. Jaina has grown very attached to Ed and that is good to see because we had heard that Chinese babies are often wary of male caregivers because they are not accustomed to having them around. Not so with Jaina. She latched on to him quickly and I can say that she has become a Daddy's girl. All of my girls are, but none more than she. If he walks away from her she cries unconsolably, even though she has three other people who are at her beck and call. Her tears are the size of marbles. Okay, I am jealous. All of this, however, is testament that she is bonding to us and we to her. She has ensnared us very quickly with her charm. She is funny and playful and her big sisters love her to pieces. I am thankful that she is with us and feel that our family is complete.