Out of Order---The Forbidden City (pre-Gotcha Day)

These pictures were actually taken when we were still a family of three....
Tianaman Square...

Entering the Forbidden City....

Inside the Forbidden City.... Still in the Forbidden City....

Ellie!

Waiting to leave the White Swan Hotel to travel to the Civil Affairs office to meet Ellie. Quincy brought her Cho Cho and Mei Mei's Cho Cho to the greeting.

Mei Mei is shell-shocked...Quincy is patting her face saying, "It's okay, Ellie".

Taking a walk before bath and bedtime. So far (three days in), Quincy is being a really, really, really good sister.

In bed about fours after Mei Mei became a part of our family :))))

We brought Ellie HanMei (who has gone by "Mei Mei" for the last three years and we're sticking with it) into the family on Monday. It has been a crazy three days so I am just now getting around to posting. Sorry!

Gotcha Day was very emotional. One of the people in our group spotted Mei Mei (AKA, Ellie Han Mei... see above) before we did and shouted to us, "There's Ellie!". She was right. Ellie was sitting in a room with other kids waiting to come out and meet us. When they brought her out (maybe two minutes after we spotted her), she was placed in our arms and immediately began to cry. Not hard, loud, wailing cries. Just soft sobs with tears. Crying is supposed to be a healthy sign of attachment (and separation from someone else)....we are very glad that she cried. Quincy immediately went to her and hugged her and gave her her very own "Cho Cho" doll. It appears Mei Mei has never played with dolls before as she tried to rip its hair out later that night. Good thing the hair was glued in with something strong.

It is now three days after Gotcha Day and it is a HUGE adjustment. Mei Mei is doing fine....Quincy is the one showing the "adjustment". Prior to coming to China, Quincy was 95% wonderful, 5% two-year-old with tantrums. Now it's more like 50-50. She gets along really well with Mei Mei, but her sleep and feeding schedule has been thrown off big-time (due to the crazy schedule our travel group is on). I am pretty sure the behavior change in Quincy is a combo of that and the new sister. It will be interesting to see how her behavior changes again when we get back home and back on schedule.

Another thing that is very different from the last time is this whole Swine Flu thing. A couple in our travel group were quarantined at 2:30 am the morning before we were to leave Beijing and travel to Guangzhou to get our babies. Apparently there were three Japanese men on their same flight into Beijing a few days prior that had Swine Flu. The officials in Beijing tracked down every single person on that flight (over 300) and they are all in quarantine now. We are pretty sure that as long as they don't come down with any sickness they will be allowed to fly out of Beijing after one week of quarantine. However, since everyone in our travel group was traveling with that couple in Beijing after their arrival (but before their quarantine), every person in our travel group has to have twice daily temperature checks by officials in protective gear. It's very odd.

Great Wall

We went back to the Great Wall....it hasn't change much in the last two years. We made it half way up again....then went back down for ice cream. Oh....and I got car sick on the way back to the hotel as our bus driver decided to take the scenic route (read that as winding route) back down the mountain. Ugh.

Ni Hao!

Local street food...the picture doesn't convey the worst part: The fact that the snack was still moving.....

Now that we're back in China, Quincy is getting exposed to culture that she has missed in the past year: Lesson 1---Chopsticks!

Introducing Ellie HanMei!

We get to leave on May 6th to bring Ellie HanMei home!!! Our Gotcha Day is Monday, May 11th! We will have our camera and laptop in China with us and we will load pictures daily (which is a huge change from the frequency that I currently upload pictures!).

Below is Ellie at age 2 years.
Below is Ellie at age 2.5 years.

And...below is Ellie at 3 years of age. Her third birthday was April 11th....and it was a HARD day knowing that we could not be with her. Quincy sang Happy Birthday to Ellie HanMei all week....it was simultaneously both cute and sad.....

Okay...the best for last. Last week we received updated information on Ellie so we would know her size and could bring along clothes that would fit. In addition to the update, they sent along new photos (see immediately above) AND two short 5 second long videos of her walking! For obvious reasons, this is a HUGE deal to us!

Easter

Tim and I are set to begin gardening in our new house (finally!). So, the best Easter present the Easter Bunny could have possibly given her was her very own gardening bag and tools.

Hunting for eggs at Grandpa's and Mimi's house.....

Pinkalicious

A few weeks ago we went on another book-buying extravaganza. One of the books we picked up is called Pinkalicious. It's about a girl who loves the color pink so much that all of her belongings are pink (kind of like Quincy). Oh...and her name is Pinkalicious. One day her mother made her a batch of pink cupcakes; she ate so many that she turned pink...hair and all. After seeing her doctor, she was informed that she had a very rare and acute case of Pinkititis.

Anyway, Pinkalicious is currently Quincy's "it" book....we read it every single night..sometimes 3 times a night. Well, to go along with the story, I ended up making a batch of pink cupcakes. Quincy began eating her cupcake...but then she stopped eating it and began to smear it all over herself instead. Why? She wanted to be pink, just like Pinkalicious.

Learning to swing...by herself.

Winter is finally over (yea!) so we have been going to the park everday afterschool.....Quincy doesn't want to sit in the little-kid swing anymore...my baby's growing up....heavy sigh.

Our first snow in the new house!

Making snowballs for Cosmo....

Random Pictures That I Think Are Just Cute.

Quincy and Han Mei's New Room

We decided that rather than Quincy and Han Mei having their own seperate rooms, they would share a room until they decided that they were ready for their own rooms. So, a few weeks ago we went out and purchased a new bedroom suite, including bunk-beds. Quincy LOVES her new "big-girl" bed! She keeps stating that when her big sister comes home, she (Quincy) will be moving to the top bunk. What she doesn't know is that there will be no top bunk at that time....we'll convert them into twin beds for obvious reasons until they get older. I'm sure she will like the two side-by-side beds just fine when she has a sister to share them with. Ahhh, can't wait.....just a couple of more months!

Quincy's Big Christmas Present....

Santa gave Quincy her very own Inflatable-Bouncy-Thing for Christmas. We originally planned to put it in the basement but discovered that it fits perfectly inside one of the spare rooms in the house (never could have done it at the old place....).