June 16/17 -- Almost a Full Week with Maizie

We haven’t been doing much of anything. Just kind of wandering around Shamian Island and the surrounding area and hanging out with Maizie in the hotel room. Maizie has been teething and was really clinging to Carrie yesterday, although she did allow me to play with her as long as Carrie was around and didn’t cry when I take for a walk around Shamian Island by myself, but didn’t really like it. Yesterday, Fri, June 16, I did get to give her a bottle in the White Swan lobby. Carrie is doing a great job of mothering Maizie and Maizie seems to be bonding to her.

On Friday June 16, we took Maizie over to the White Swan hotel to play in the White Swan’s play room with the Perry’s daughter Kendall. Maizie really enjoys playing with other children and had a good time in the play room. On our way over to the White Swan, we ran into some of Maizie’s Chinese fans. It’s amazing the number of Chinese people who come up to us on the street to tell us how beautiful Maizie is.

After a nap, we took Maizie off Shamian Island and over to the Qingping market and surrounding shopping area. The Qingping market is a traditional Chinese market and features all kind of interesting herbs, vegetables, live stock and pets. The surrounding shopping area is a large pedestrian mall that is really a vivid example of the rising Chinese consumerism that is often in the news. There are at least two McDonalds and two KFC’s in this pedestrian shopping mall. On a muggy Friday afternoon, the area was absolutely packed. We didn’t get any digital pictures as we intentionally left the digital camera in the hotel room.

Maizie only got up once last night at about 2:00 am and went back to sleep when Carrie gave her a bottle, but ended up sleeping the rest of the night on Carrie’s chest.

Maizie woke up in a better mood this morning and let me give her her first bottle of the day and was very playful. She must be feeling better.

This morning, Maizie had her U.S. passport photo taken and her medical exam. She is 70 cm long (27.6 inches) and weighs 8.5 kilograms (18.6 pounds). On the Chinese growth charts, her height is at about the 33% and weight at about the 50% for a 10 month old baby girl. After the medical exam, we came back to the room to complete the paperwork for Maizie’s US visa. Luckily (for me), Maizie took a nap in her crib and Carrie got stuck filling out the lengthy I-604 immigration form.

We basically have nothing to do between now and 3:00 pm on Tuesday, when we leave for Maizie’s swearing in ceremony and the airport. We will invest the next couple of days in bonding with and getting to know Maizie better and will do some more shopping, which Carrie hates because of the haggling.