Day 6 - Beijing

Today was very busy but great.  We did all the paperwork required for Jaida's citizenship this morning.  What a relief to have that all done and know I didn't forget something in Canada (that was my fear).  After lunch we meet in the lobby and had the group picture.  We are a very big group, not sure I will know everyone's names before the end of the week but everyone seems really nice.  It is so exciting to see everyone with their new children and know we all have different stories but all ended here in China with our dreams coming true.  I saw Roberta, didn't get to talk to her but it is like she is a super star as many of us recognize her from reading her and her husband's blog.

Then off to the Beijing Zoo.  It was nice to see the panda bears and I thought of my son Tristan as Panda Bears are his favourite animals.  I would have loved to have him there with us.

Rest of the zoo was nice too.   It wasn't too busy and the brisk air was refreshing after our warm flight the night before (wearing extra clothes so our suitcases wouldn't be overweight).  We dressed Jaida warm since she is used to warm weather and only had one person tell us we should have mittens on her because her hands are cold (China women are known for telling us adopted parents to cover our new children up as they are cold, even if they are sweating)

The zoo probably would have been more fun with our other children or if Jaida was a little older (or stayed awake for some of it :)  It was still nice to walk around and see everything we can in Beijing this week.

The guides (Vivian and Faye) took some of the families out for dinner.  I love the meals here.  Several different dishes are ordered and we all share it.  Chopsticks are used but luckily the restaurants usually have 4-6 forks on hand for us to fight over.  I am can get by with chopsticks but skip the rice.  This meal was very good although I do miss the spicyness of Nanchang.  It was fun to talk to other families, at our table we had a family from Dartmouth, another one from London and the couple from Edmonton who we were with in Nanchang.  Lots of laughs and the babies were all well behaved.  We weren't too sure about Jaida because she wasn't very happy before we left but I certainly didn't want to miss a meal :)  She was really good, sometimes they do better being out than in the room with just boring Mom.  The most unique dish was the dessert which was sweet potatoes with a glaze of liquid sugar.  It is so sweet it comes with bowl of water to dip the potatoes in to get rid of some of the sugar.  It is an instant sugar high which of course I love.

I put Jaida in her crib and lie on my bed next to her.  Then if she is upset I just rub her stomach or back and it usually settles her.  I can be there for sometime before she actually falls asleep but it seems to work pretty well.  So tonight as I am lying next to her she is feeling my face so I figure this may be good bonding time :)  Then she starts touching my nose, poking, rubbing, scratching....then I realize she is probably trying to figure out what this big thing in the middle of her Mom's face is :)