Guangzhou

Ava had her first flight ever this morning, and our fifth on this trip. She definitely has had some mood swings lately, but they tend to happen most often when there is a lot of activity and noise around her, basically in crowded areas. Since she seems so naturally curious, I think she just becomes overwhelmed. Fortunately, we've learned that it is usually nothing a good bottle of milk can't handle as a nice distraction. Sort of like how we are with cheese n' crackers. Man, could we go for some serious cheez n' cracks Wisconsin style.

Anyways, back to Ava. The flight was fairly short between Chongqing and Guangzhou -- only about two hours -- but Ava ran the gamut of emotions. She was happy looking out the window for a while, but then went totally bonkers (one person in the group has dubbed it "the Ava siren"). It's sort a very loud sustained yelp, like a siren. Do you remember that scene in Dumb & Dumber when Jim Carey asks, "do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" Yep. Kind of like that. Of course, if you really think about, adults are just about in the same frame of mind on crowded, noisy airplanes, only that screaming you're hearing is inside your head. After a bottle and some serious mojo by an old Chinese woman next to us, Ava took a little nap on the plane. The bus ride to our new hotel, The White Swan, seemed to take forever. Needless to say, we are little worried about the VERY long flights home. We also can't wait to get her onto a normal schedule.

Guangzhou is humid and tropical, and was formerly known as "Canton." It's smoggy here, too.

Here at the hotel and the surrounding areas there are lots of people walking around with their recently adopted Chinese babies. There are several other groups and couples besides our own.

After Ava took a much needed two-hour nap this afternoon and a bath (which she still likes, thank goodness), we strolled down to the medical clinic as a group for Ava's exam, a U.S. requirement. Basically they are making sure the babies aren't carrying something nasty, like SARS. Ava checked out great and weighed in at 16.4 pounds.

After the clinic, the three of us visited a gift shop with lots of great "squeaky shoes" for Ava and other fun Chinese trinkets. We also hung out in our room, and took a stroll down to the waterfall in the hotel and to see the goldfish. Ava also played in the room this afternoon and was very happy. She had lots of smiles for us, and even played independently off and on with her "toys." Her new favorites today are the tiny flashlight I brought, the little box of shampoo, the phonebook, and her shoes. Forget about anything that's in primary colors -- you know, her actual toys.

Right now it's 6:30 p.m. and Ava is winding down. Anne and I just put on her pajamas, which has been a struggle. She absolutely does not like her clothes to be changed. Ironically, she does just fine (most of the time) with the diaper changes, but she just loses it anytime we need to change her outfit. Thankfully, she quickly snaps out of it.

That's all for now. Anne wants to wash some bottles. Scott will watch Ava. Then it's bottle time again and time to think about how to find some supper for ourselves. Whew.