Dec. 14th - Daughter Day 2 (Laurie)

Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004 - Day 2 with Kaeli

It turned out that Kaeli had more than a little trouble sleeping her first night. She wailed hysterically every time Cheryl tried to put her to bed, so much so that we were worried she’d hurt herself and/or wake up the baby in the room next door. Then they’d be wailing in stereo – yikes! Cheryl walked her around and around the hotel lobby in the stroller for most of the night – it was the only thing that would remotely console her. There were a few brief stops in bed, but the sleep didn’t last long. Both mom and baby were exhausted all day today!

Luckily, after breakfast sleep finally came for a few hours for both of them. I went for a walk around Green Lake during nap time and had a great adventure. The park was surprisingly busy for a weekday. People of all ages were walking, sitting by the lake, exercising, playing games, etc. Many senior citizens sat at tables playing cards or games with tiles, some sang in groups, others danced in well practiced routines. It’s a very lively place where people meet and spend time together – a true community center.

This afternoon we all went to the Kunming Zoo. Even though she was exhausted, Kaeil watched everything intently and even smiled and giggled many times. All three of the girls were very interested in the peacocks, monkeys, and pigeons... And the other people at the zoo were interested in us. Some gave us very odd looks. You could see them trying to figure out why a bunch of big noses (as the locals refer to westerners) were walking around with three Chinese babies. Luckily, Susan, our incredibly prepared advisor, gave us a wallet sized card that explains in English and Chinese that we are adopting these girls, we love them and that we love China. This explanation magically turns frowns into smiles and generates thank you’s and thumbs up gestures. Other people automatically gave us smiles and cooed over the beautiful babies. Some families even brought their children over to see ours and play a bit.

Since Kaeli was so tired, we decided to have dinner in our room tonight, instead of heading out with the group. She ate and we all played for a few hours until about 7:00 when the sleepy crying began. We had hoped to keep her up a bit later to get on a better schedule, but the time for bed had definitely arrived. Cheryl and Kaeli read for a few minutes, and then it was into the crib for Kaeli. To encourage her to sleep, we turned out the lights in the room, hid in the bathroom, and hunkered down to wait for her to fall asleep. Wow was it hard to wait out the crying! I sat on the floor and ate my left over Kung Pao Chicken from the night before, and Cheryl sat on the edge of the tub pretending to eat fruit salad. After almost half an hour, the crying spurts got shorter and the sound of sleeping breaths got longer. Finally at 7:45 she was asleep and we snuck out of the bathroom and back out into the room. Phew - hopefully we’ll all sleep tonight! Time for me to leave my seat on the floor in the hall outside our room and get some sleep, too.