A Day of Much Needed Rest

Yesterday the only appointment we had was with a doctor who gave Natalie a checkup. He came to the hotel, so we ended up staying here all day yesterday. All three of us had a very relaxing day and some time to get used to being a family.

The doctor said that Natalie has an upper respiratory infection so we are treating her with two different types of medication. I think it's already starting to help. He also said that she is underweight, so we are focusing on feeding her calorie dense food and plenty of protein. We were told by the orphanage director that she still drinks formula and were given some of the exact same kind they use at the orphanage. However, Natalie has let us know that she wants nothing to do with the formula or with a bottle at all which is fine with us. At 21 months she can eat solid food just fine. She loves steamed eggs, noodles of all kinds, rice, bread, tofu, cereal and yogurt. Her very favorite thing in the world to eat is the organic yogurt drops that I brought with us from the states. We only have 1 bag left so we are saving them as a special reward for her after she takes her yucky medicine. It seems to be working because she cried pitifully last night when we gave her the meds, but today knowing she would get the yogurt drops immediately after she took the medicine like a champ.

That reminds me... I have to say a few words about what an amazing baby Natalie Wanhan is. She is so cooperative with everything that we do. When it's time to get dressed for the day she lifts her arms to get her pjs off. She pushes her feet into her shoes and her arms through her sleeves. She is the most patient child I have ever met. She waits for us to feed her each bite of food without getting upset or fussy. She loves to play with her stacking cups and will offer them to you freely to get you involved in play with her. She also loves to trade items back and forth with us. When she awakens in the middle of the night she may start to cry - probably in confusion wondering where she is - I reach over and rub her forehead or her tummy.  She is immediately reassured and falls right back to sleep. When it's nap time she wants to cuddle and will fall asleep lying on my chest after less than 5 minutes.  She loves to be held or to sit in our laps.  Also, I have to brag on her and tell you that she is potty trained.  We are keeping her in pull-ups for a few more days just to make sure, but so far she has not had a single accident - even at night.

Last night we had a hilarious and wonderful experience at a Japanese restaurant here at the hotel.  When we arrived we were swarmed by not one, not two, but Three servers!  They would not let us look at the menu for even a few minutes by ourselves and let us make a decision about what to order.  Instead they wanted to review many different options with us even though only one of them barely spoke English.  We tried to explain that we eat seafood but no other meat. Finally the chef came over to "help" us decide what to eat. He spoke the best English of the four. We were so overwhelmed with all four of them speaking at once in multiple languages that we just agreed to whatever they thought was best. It turned out to be fantastic. When we saw the large number of dishes that kept being put on our table we were nervous about seeing our bill, but in the end the meal was very inexpensive. Everyone was so nice to us and to Natalie. They were truly happy to see how much we all enjoyed our meal.  We are having a lot of encounters like this and are enjoying the people that we are meeting in China.    

By the way, our chopstick skills are getting quite good.

View from our hotel window