Sunday, August 27, 2006: Family Photo Day

Today was relatively uneventful again. I really don't know where the time goes, to be honest. We slept in a bit and went down for breakfast at 8am. I was pleased to discover the corn flakes a few days ago, and this morning when I went searching for them, they weren't where they usually are. After a brief moment of panic, I discovered they had just been moved to a new area. Phew! I also ventured into some Chinese breakfast food-- including the "hoof of crab." That was really a crab claw breaded and probably deep fried. Whatever it was, it was yummy.

After breakfast, we all met up in the lobby for our group photos. Boy, was that an ordeal. First we did a photo of all the families. Then we did the moms and the babies, then the dads and the babies. Then just the babies. Here is how some of the photos turned out:

The whole group. We're near the left. Marcie isn't really paying attention. For another group photo, visit Ava Farmer is Coming . (I stole the second one above from Cassidy Tao's Trip Home-- thanks, Kyndra!)


Mothers and daughters. You will notice Marcie is still not paying attention.


Fathers and daughters. Gene stepped in as Emma's "dad" for photo purposes.


You'll have to just imagine this one without the other camera in the way . . .


And chaos ensued. . . not two minutes after this photo was snapped, Marcie reached out and grabbed Ava's face (Ava is to Marcie's left, facing the photo), so I stepped in to "break it up" and pulled Marcie from the photo shoot. . . she didn't seem to mind. And within a couple minutes, she was ready for her nap.


You can see how mellow Marcie is here, ready to go to sleep. Oriole is to our left (facing the photo), and Marie is to our right.

After Marcie's nap (which lasted all of 20 minutes), I shot a few more pictures of her, and then we played some more, and then she ate some more, and then she went down for another nap. During her second nap, Jason and I snuck out for another foot massage. I guess I lambasted the hotel pretty hard yesterday on my post. Perhaps I was a bit harsh. And everyone else had such a great experience, I thought I should give it one more shot. I'm pretty glad I did. Jason and I went together this time, and instead of having a male, I got a female. The photo to the right is what the room looks like when you enter. It looks like two beds.

Once again, they brought in dark water, which we figured out was tea. While our feet soaked, they massaged our arms. No weird pinching of the nerves this time, though. And they spent at least 20-30 minutes on each foot. Then they did our legs and our upper backs and necks. Getting a massage with Jason is pretty funny. Whenever something hurts, he just shouts, "Ah-YAH!" and essentially jumps up from the table. I supposed that is the international way to tell someone the pressure is too strong! He is still a wee bit sore from climbing the great wall, so the massage was nice. Anyway, if I'd had today's experience yesterday, I wouldn't have hesitated to return. All I can say is I wouldn't request employees 801 or 811. But the women who worked on us today were good-natured and very good at what they do. After the massage, we were able to tip them, and even snap a cute photo with them, which you can see here. (Doesn't Jason look happy and relaxed?)

After our massages and Marcie's nap, we wandered out again, this time in search of baby food prunes. Jason and I stopped and bought some regular ones at the grocery store under the hotel, but we figured we look for more elsewhere. (Marcie gobbled up two of the prunes, by the way.) We stopped at McDonald's for a cone, and then we stopped and watched some of the fountain show on our way back to the hotel. Here's a picture of me and Mom and Marcie in front of the fountain. Marcie's only partially visible because her face is in the baby carrier (thanks, by the way, to Grace and Keely for loaning me your baby carriers-- we've actually used them both!). They also run a fountain show at night, with all sorts of neon lights. Here is a picture of it from my mom's hotel room window (the fountain is the round part):

We had a meeting in Marie's room to go over tomorrow's schedule. We will be getting Marcie's passport at the airport when we leave. Marie gave us her immunization record and her finding ad today-- so we are one step closer to coming home. . .

For dinner, we ate at the Cantonese restaurant in the hotel again, with Joia and Brad (and Ava) and Gene, and with Larry and Kyndra (and Cassidy). Joia and Kyndra brought white wine, which we all shared. Our waiter from the previous two times we'd dined in the restaurant, Ivan, was also there-- he told us if we all came back in another year, his English would be much better. I have to admit, though, the service around here is really exceptional. And they are making great efforts with the language.

They served us chicken feet again. This time, Gene and Larry both tried them-- that's Gene to the left. Joia gave a nice toast: "To no teething, a good night sleep, and a nice poop." And we added "And we wish that for the girls, too."

After dinner, we headed back up to the room for bed time. And to start packing-- FINALLY! I've been telling Marcie all evening that tomorrow we are getting on a big airplane and heading closer to home. I imagine she will be a little anxious tomorrow. . . I noticed a bit of "Mommy shopping" going on today. A lot of people want to stop and touch and hold Marcie. After all, she is awfully cute. And Marcie seemed a little more interested today than she should. She definitely recognizes me and Jason and our voices, but it's really important that she attach to us, and not any random person who picks her up and speaks in gentle tones. . . so for those of you back home reading this, please don't be offended if we don't hand Marcie over to you to feed or to play with for a while. It's just really important that she come rely primarily on us-- and that she knows that, no matter what, we will always be here for her. . .

So I'm starting a new section of the blog. . . Introducing:

Poop Watch 2006
For those of you following our adventures in the land of constipation, we have now passed the 48-hour mark, and still no bowel movement. Yesterday evening we gave Marcie about 3 ounces of apple juice, a warm bath, and a tummy massage.

Today, we have given Marcie about 8 ounces of apple juice, two prunes (which I broke into little pieces and she ate), and half the plastic container of prunes our friend (and perhaps godsend) Jill gave us. We have done numerous tummy rubs and we have done the cycling-thing with the legs. We have opted not to do another glycerine suppository today because we read online that it can teach kids that pooping is painful, causing them to hold it in . . . I am contemplating calling our pediatrician on Monday in the U.S. By then it will have been 72 hours without a bowel movement (actually a bit more than that), but I am not sure what else to do. And I'm not sure he'll be able to help us from 5,000 miles away anyway. It's around 9:30pm right now, and I hear Marcie stirring in crib next to me. I am not sure if it's because she is just not tired, if it's because her cough keeps waking her up, or if it's because her stomach is bothering her. None of those are good things, though. The good news is that it that it appears Marcie will eat anything. The bad news is that it apparently stays in her system for a loooong time.

As yucky a topic as this is, please keep your fingers crossed that poor Marcie will poop soon . . . and preferrably not a river of it on the flight between Chongqing and Guangzhou tomorrow.

Ok. Here are some cute photos of Marcie to end this post: