1 Month Ago Today

One month ago today, I got up, showered, blew dry my hair (probably for the last time), got my two kids dressed and went down to the largest breakfast buffet I'd ever seen. I wish I took a picture of the buffet at the China Hotel. It was krazy. That's right, crazy with a K. Of course all the fresh fruit was off limits. I didn't eat anything that couldn't be pealed or wasn't cooked. SweetPea and Buddy went nuts. We had to give them their own table so they could pile up all their dishes. 

One by one, our fellow travel-mates filed into the buffet and looked at the spread of food with a mixture of bewilderment and nausea. One month ago today we were preparing to drive over to the Civil Affairs office in Guangzhou at 2:00 pm to get our babies. There were lots of people in the dining room with babies in highchairs who were getting ready for their consulate appointment. They knew the congregation of American parents without little babies were off to get their children that day because babies and parents are united once a week in Guangzhou, on Mondays. They came over with knowing smiles and gave us a wink and a nod wishing us luck for our happy day. The following week, we would be those parents with babies in highchairs wishing the bewildered parents well on their HUGE HUGE day.

We had meetings. We tried to eat lunch. At 2:00 pm we boarded our bus and the 20 minute drive to the office was friggin strange. It was so weird taking a bus to meet my child. It was so weird to just calmly walk into a waiting room and be handed forms to fill out all the while being told to make sure everything was right and not to make any mistakes! Were they under the disillusionment that I was operating on more than half a brain cell?

And then it all happened so fast.....

1month later I get a daily thrill to see her thriving and growing. She is learning new things every day and it is wild to see a baby blossom so fast. We are starting to love all kinds of food - even with weird textures and flavors. Just a few days ago I would have said she was going to have to go to college surviving on Cheerios. But now we are eating yogurts, pastas, avocado, banana, oranges in addition to a huge selection of baby foods. She's pulling up on stuff all the time and standing for nearly 5 minutes. She's able to do the pincer finger some of the time which is also a huge improvement. Last week at this time she was still hoovering cheerios off her tray. She figured out if she just put her face to the food she could avoid those stinkin hands that don't work so well. She is 80th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Hum. I'd like those stats thankyouverymuch!

And best of all, she is starting to call me mama! She's been a babbler since day one but now she is really directing her words. Na means bottle which we figured out after SJ's cantonese friend told him that Na means milk and babies will say it for their bottle. But two days ago she really started saying Mama a lot and yesterday and today she's been saying it when I pick her up or if she is trying to get my attention. She also says Da when either fun daddy or the dog is around. So much fun!!!