Aug 20th, 5:30pm China

Yesterday Afternoon:
Some cute little baby sounds came from the crib and without too much ado, Alia was made ready for the pool adventure. We dressed her in her yellow flowered bathing suit that we had bought over a year ago at Costco, put her sun hat on, and made the scene. On the way, we stopped and bought her some water wings. We rolled straight over to the children’s pool, where many babies, including her friend Eden were frolicking in the water with their new parents. Not knowing what to expect, I held Alia in my arms and eased us in, as Robert helped to balance us. She is a natural bathing beauty, and immediately began swirling her legs in pleasure, slapping the water with her hands, and getting us all wet. She loved floating on her back the best. Her friend Eden, had a pretty yellow baby holder for the water that her parents had just purchased. They tried to put Eden in it and she screamed bloody murder. They were very sweet, and offered Alia a chance to try it. She agreed, and we plopped her in no trouble. She leaned back and enjoyed the ride, as poor Eden’s parents looked on. Alia looked as if she should have a Shirley Temple frozen drink and a magazine as she floated about. Before we could try out the water wings, we had to leave the pool cause of a thunder storm, so that will remain for another day. We returned to the room, stripped her naked and wrapped her in a big bath towel. She and daddy played “you got my nose!” for a long time.
We had made arrangements to go out for dinner with Eden and her parents, so after this playtime, we all cleaned up and headed to the restaurant. Eden’s parents had suggested a Cantonese place they had enjoyed that was by the hotel. We headed for our table and had to pass a whole live display of what could be ordered off the menu, including worms and roaches. I almost opted for a coke again, but thankfully there was tofu and noodles on the menu. Alia proceeded to be about as cute as she possible could through dinner, and Eden tried to be cute too. Alia shared our tofu and noodles, plus had some soft boiled peanuts. She waved at all the waiters and was cracking mommy up big time. We said goodbye and headed to Rose’s for our beer and the light show. Daddy was a little down, cause although Alia played with him, and smiled at him all day long, she still gave argument about him holding her. At Rose’s, we faced the stroller so Alia could only see daddy, and they had a very good time. Daddy rocked her stroller back and forth and she conked out big time. Never woke up, even when we put her to bed. What a good girl! We stayed up another hour or so discussing the fact that she had not pooped yet.

Today:
Whew, this is gonna take a long time to write, cause a lot of crap happened today.
Breakfast as usual, except we were there earlier cause daddy was afraid the hash brown potatoes would be gone. Alia had much better manners today, and ate in a very lady-like way. We came back to the room right after breakfast, cause we wanted to do some research online, about babies and pooping. We figured Alia was so talented that she did not poop, but upon researching the subject, it appears that without exception, all babies poop! We decided that since she had not pooped since we got her, we maybe should take her to the children’s clinic at the hotel. We played with her in the room, while we debated the subject. It was some of the cutest play yet. Robert has been working very hard, trying to get her to say “Daddy” but so far, very few sounds have come out of her little cupid lips. We had talked so much about pooping that, the idea appealed to Daddy. I continued playing with our girl, AND she handed me a toy and said what appeared to be “DaaDeee”. I yelled to Robert and he went “noooooooo!” from behind locked doors. I guess it was Alia’s little joke. Daddy reappeared and I do think she said it again, and Robert collapsed in my lap in tears. I bopped him on the head, and sobered him up.
Down to the clinic we went, but it was closed for lunch, so we headed for the playroom.
Lots of kids again, and Alia joined right in, playing with all the thingees she did before.
There was a new little girl, named Sarah, who had only been with her parents for two days, and like Alia had been, Sarah was very sad. Our gentle and sensitive girl saw Sarah across the room, and crawled full speed ahead, to hand her a block. Sarah stared at her very seriously and then took it from her. It made Sarah’s mother very happy. Alia then proceeded to yank it back from her, but we won’t dwell on that! We were talking with the other parents, comparing notes. Most of the babies were walking, but Alia is still holding out. As we were discussing this, Alia crawled away, grabbed on to the side of a big playpen, stood herself up, and tried to climb up the side! She had a big grin on her face as we ran to catch her. From then on, we made some successful strides (no pun intended) to get her walking. She played side step, marching, egged us on to come catch her, and much more. She never let go of the side of the pen, but she was on her feet. She was consistently happy, and joyous, her beautiful smile making everyone happy.
The clinic was open now and so we went. We met Kitty, the nurse, and Dr. Woo. Kitty spoke some English, and Dr. Woo (a woman) spoke none. Kitty picked up a pen and paper and asked us what the problem was. We responded that our baby was not pooping. She asked “since when?” and we innocently said “since at least last Tuesday.” The pencil jumped out of her hand, and her eyes bugged out. “TUESDAY?” she said. And we felt like the biggest morons on earth. Kitty translated this info to Dr. Woo, who immediately cracked up. Now, in all fairness to Robert and I, we had heard and read that it could take several days for a Chinese baby from an orphanage to poop, cause they mainly ate rice, so we waited it out. Dr. Wu and Kitty went into action, preparing an enema, a diaper, and a potty seat. Within seconds the beautiful smile had been transformed into a horrible grimace as the enema was put in place and went to work. Mommy and Daddy were cooing and stroking her throughout it all, trying to be very brave. After a minute, that seemed like a year, Kitty lifted Alia off the table and held her over the potty seat, with her knees up to her ears and her little baby butt hanging over the seat. Alia’s screams grew louder, and her face more red, as we all waited. Finally two beautiful brown turds shot out of her tushie, followed by a couple softer ones. A fresh diaper was put on and an exhausted and relieved little girl fell asleep in my arms. We returned to the room, some special herbal tea for digestion in hand and Alia was so pooped out (no pun intended) she fell to sleep in an instant and woke up two hours later and farted.

Jill and Robert