Merry Christmas

It's Christmas morning here and don't let anyone tell you that the Chinese do not celebrate this holiday. Only, it's more akin to Mardi Gras than Christmas! The streets last night were packed with people partying and shopping and making a lot of noise. We met some really nice families from Indiana at breakfast a few days ago and last night we had a Christmas celebration in one of the rooms with all the kids and then we all went out for Italian food (and you all know how I feel about bad Italian food...just imagine what that means in China). Nora had been with us for all of three hours (during which time, she played on the bed with those stacking cups, Emma, that Parker loves so much!) and we dressed her up in her best Christmas attire, popped her into the Ergo and went to a party. She did amazingly well, and everyone was very impressed. The other babies were all under 12 months of age and adorable-one little girl was in the 90th percencile for weight and the 50the percentile for height. She was a chunk. Nora stayed close to me, although she loved watching the other babies. The guide for the other group was there and spoke to Nora in Chinese, which Nora just loved. She smiled and smiled. I have learned how to say "good girl" in Chinese, which also makes her face light up. I almost always use her Chinese name, because she responds to it instantly (oh, and she hears perfectly, as far as I can tell).

John, BTW, is positively smitten! I can't tell you how much he adores her, it's amazing. He had a much, much bigger reaction to first holding her than I did. And he can make her giggle! This will come as a shock to no one, I'm sure. I think it won't be hard for me to talk him into another one :-)

We have been getting a lot of stares from the locals, but no more than we got before getting Nora. Literally we have seen only 8 other Americans since we got to Chongqing, all of them here to adopt. We have been thanked by several people for "helping" her, although the younger people are less taken aback by her cleft lip than the older men. Speaking of her cleft, remember when the international adoption specialist said "you won't know about her palate until you hang her upside down by her ankles?" It turns out she really loves to hang upside down. In fact, she hung upside down within five minutes of being placed in my arms. Most of her palate is completely intact, amazingly. The only part of her palate that is cleft is her gum line, about 3/4 of the way up. She does not have a cleft all the way through the floor of her nose, so there is no communication at any point between her oral cavity and her nasal cavity. This is good news on several fronts, but mostly it means she will only need one surgery (or maybe two) when we get home, and then nothing for several years. We have some serious orthodontia in our future though! :-)

She is still asleep right now, going on 9 hours straight. She went down instantly last night, with one finger in her mouth and her blanket in her other fist. But we had a fair bit of crying when she woke herself up coughing (she has an upper respiratory infection that we are treating with Zithro) and didn't know where she was. It was traumatic for her and she didn't really want me to hold her and she didn't really want me to put her down--this is very typical--and so we did our favorite thing which is to look at ourselves in the mirror (Amy, you were so right about the mirror!!! She loves it!).

She is just starting to wake up right now, so I'd better get the bottle and cheerios ready. When John moves the next set of photos to the computer, I'll be sure to post!