Nathan had his first doctor’s appt near our home. He was so curious about the doctor talking to us. He even wanted to go with her! Actually, Nathan will go to just about anybody. When he begins to understand what we are telling him, we need to tell him that he just can’t hold out his arms to any strangers he meets.
The doctor’s office did have some toys for him to play with but he cried when we had to take the toys away so the doctor can examine him. We brought Nathan’s immunization booklet with us. Even though Nathan is complete with his vaccinations in China, he still needs more shots to follow US vaccine requirements. Today, he got 3 shots on both his left and right thighs. He needs 3 more shots next month. Our doctor told us that we can call UCSF to set up an appt with a doctor who can repair Nathan’s cleft palate. Hopefully, we will be able to have his palate fixed asap.
Nathan sitting in doctor’s office.
My parents came by our house today to finally meet their grandson. As I mentioned before, Nathan will go to just about anyone. So it wasn’t hard for my parents to pick up Nathan and carry him around.
We slept until almost 10:30am. We were all very tired. Even Nathan was still sound asleep. While I was still in bed, my brother called to ask how our trip was and how Nathan was doing. I asked him a bunch of questions about kids stuff since my brother has three kids. When I got up, I prepared Nathan’s food. Yesterday Nelson’s mom made porridge for Nathan. All I needed to do was cook the cut pieces of fish and mixed the rice porridge with the fish.
In the late afternoon, we went to Babies R Us and used the coupon to buy Nathan a baby tub and other small things. Then we went to Walmart to buy his milk. We didn’t stay too long at Walmart like we used to because Nathan was getting fussy. It was his dinner time. So we went home quickly to feed him. After Nelson and I had dinner, I baked chocolate chip cookies!
After coming home from China… well actually while we were in China, Nelson and I were already thinking about adopting a baby girl. Since we just adopted Nathan, there is a rule that we cannot begin another adoption process until after 6 months. We are thinking about adopting a girl up to 3 years of age.
Normally after we come back from a long trip, our cat Smeagol sticks to us like glue. He doesn’t leave my sight. When I sleep, he sleeps next to me. While I sit on the couch watching TV, he lays down on my lap. While typing this blog, he sits behind me. He pretty much missed our company.
Nathan really enjoys playing with his new toy given by my coworkers in QA dept.
We took a taxi to go to Hong Kong airport. Our flight was 12 hrs. We bought Nathan his own seat on the plane instead of a lap ticket since it was a long flight. But most of the time, he slept on my lap. He was fussy once in a while but we were surprised he slept most of the time on the plane.
Our seats were at the back of the plane. We purposely chose the back seats so that whenever he gets fussy while sitting, there was a place for us to carry him at the back of the plane to try to calm him down. When I carried him to the back of the plane near the rear exit doors, it was hard to put him to sleep at first because he would constantly look at people whenever they pass by. In order to make him sleep, I turned my body around so that he doesn’t get distracted with people passing by. I was glad that he eventually fell asleep quickly because my arms were getting tired of carrying him! When I slowly sat back on my seat, luckily he didn’t wake up.
He didn’t wake up until 2 hrs before we landed. After he woke up, we played around with him and gave him food.
We finally landed at SFO airport a little past 10am. We had to go through customs. There was this guy directing people which line to go to. There were three different lines: visitors, US Citizen and new immigrants. Since Nelson and I are US Citizens, we went to the US Citizen line first. Then this agent told us to go to the new immigrant line to show Nathan’s sealed documents.
When we went to the new immigrant line, this agent at the new immigrant booth gave my husband a blank application. When the agent came out of the booth, I thought he wanted to look at Nathan since we showed him Nathan’s Chinese passport. Instead, the agent said ‘you guys gotta move out of the way’. I thought he was rude especially the way he said it. I told Nelson that he should have said ‘Excuse me’. How were we suppose to know what he wanted us to do? He thinks we read minds? There were about 5 people waiting at the new immigrant line. In my opinion, this rude egotistic prick (excuse my language) made everyone wait behind the new immigrant line for a long time on purpose. He kept helping people at the US Citizen line even though there were at least 5 – 7 other agents helping those people already. There were at least 200 people waiting both at the visitors and US citizen line. Until all 200 people have gone, this other agent asked the prick when he will help the people waiting at the new immigrant line. Finally this prick made his booth available for us. When another agent saw Nelson fill out the blank application, this agent told us that he didn’t have to fill it out. Then this prick told his friend ‘oh dude, he filled it out??’ The prick made us look stupid. I told this agent that the prick didn’t give us specific instructions on what to do. Since this prick gave us a blank application, of course the first thing we automatically thought was to fill it out while we waited behind the new immigrant line. Plus, I didn’t like how another agent was treating other people waiting in line. This agent’s job was to direct people at the correct line and he was very rude. With a harsh tone of voice, he said things like ‘hey, go to this line!…. you listening to me?’ Just because they wear that badge and a gun doesn’t give them the right to disrespect other people. Luckily we didn’t have to go back to that prick’s booth. Another agent kindly helped us.
Nelson’s brother picked us up at the airport and we had lunch at my in-law’s house. Nelson’s sister, her husband and my 1 year old niece were there too to meet Nathan.My father-in-law took lots of pictures of Nathan and Selena (my niece) playing together. Even after a long flight home, Nathan wasn’t too tired too play with Selena’s toys. Before we went went, Nelson’s mom gave Nathan a nice warm bath.
When we got home, we were surprised to see a ‘Welcome Home’ sign hanging inside our garage. Inside our house, we were surprised again to see lots of balloons and other decorations. There was a gift on the kitchen table. It was a gift from the Alvarez family. Neftali Alvarez is Nelson’s coworker at Pixar and he was the one who took care of our cat Smeagol. It was very nice of the Alvarez family to welcome us back home and we thank them for their support.Nathan inside his crib playing with Mickey MouseBefore going to bed, my mom called me and talked for a bit about Nathan. Afterwards, it was finally time for us to rest and sleep.
The park opened at 10am. We started our walk to the park at 9:45am. On a Saturday, HK Disney isn’t really crowded unlike Disneyland in USA and Orlando Disneyworld.
Main streetThe adults here really take their Disney characters seriously. The line to have your picture taken with a Disney character is always long. More adults are in line than parents with kids!Special Christmas decoration at HK DisneyNathan’s time at Disney
Kinds of food they have a HK DisneyFor lunch I had the Yangzhou fried rice so I can give some of my food to Nathan. Nelson had beef noodle soup and potstickersThe jungle cruise ride has three lines: English line, Cantonese line and Mandarin line.We went back to the hotel for his nap.
To have free internet access, I have to write this blog at the hotel lobby. While writing it, I didn’t realized there was Santa Claus sitting just a few steps from me.
Tomorrow we will finally fly home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can’t wait to get home.
We met with our guide at the Garden Hotel lobby around 12:20pm to pick up our son’s Chinese passport with visa attached to it. We also received our son’s documents from his physical medical exam sealed in a brown envelope. We are not allowed to open this brown envelope at all. Only people who can open it are people at the customs area at SFO airport. If we open it now, we will have to reseal it. Not sure why it is this way. Perhaps they don’t want the parents changing information on their child’s physical exam.
Our guide had a driver drop us off at the Guangzhou train station. Our train for Hong Kong left about 1:52pm and arrived at Huung Hom station in Kowloon at 4pm.
Train station in GuangzhouFrom Huung Hom station, we looked for a transportation to take us to Hong Kong Disney. It wasn’t a problem getting a hold for transportation. There were many taxis and there were some independent transport vehicles.
Hong Kong Disneyland has two hotels. One is Hollywood Hotel and the other one is Hong Kong Disneyland. We are staying at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel which is a similar Victorian style theme as the Grand Floridian in Orlando Disneyworld. The Grand Floridian in Orlando is much bigger than here in Hong Kong.
This is the hotel lobby Our room#1645. So weird that the rooms we had in Wuhan City (#1620), Guangzhou (#1632) and Hong Kong (#1645) have all been on 16th floor! Very weird.Our room has the water view. Since our room is at the corner, we also have a partial view of the pool area as well as the city of Kowloon and Hong Kong.We went to Disneyland past 7pm. We went to Guest Relations to get our free admission tickets to the park. The employee asked my husband for his employee photo ID but my husband told her that Pixar employees only has the Silver Pass which should allow them free pass to the park. My husband just showed her his driver’s license as well as his Pixar business card. The girl got so excited for some reason just to meet a Pixar employee. She was very very apologetic for having my husband wait for 10 – 15 minutes. We told her will be back the next day as well. She said that she will let her coworkers know what they need to do so that we don’t have to wait too long just to get our free tickets. Oh her name is Ka Ka. I told my husband that ‘ka ka’ also means poop. I couldn’t let her see me laughing. So I walked away from the booth and took Nathan for a short stroll until he got the tickets.
At Disneyland, my husband and I took turns to ride Space Mountain. It was only a 5 min wait for a single rider. Then we took Nathan on the Buzz Lightyear ride. At 9pm, we saw the fireworks. Around that time, Nathan would be in bed. Since Disneyland had so much for him to see, he didn’t sleep until we walked back to our hotel. The walk back to the hotel is about 10 – 15 min walk. There is a shuttle bus but we didn’t like the smell inside the bus. :-0
The zoo was about 15 minutes drive from our hotel. Last time I was at the zoo in USA was at least over 15 years ago. Before getting to the zoo’s entrance, they have these Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 characters made with colorful flowers. The Asia Games event occurred this past November. I am sure the hotels in Guangzhou were very expensive during that time. The Asia Games is kinda like the Olympics. So it is a very big event in China.Nathan looking at flamingosSome type of birds hoping to get food Two elephants and a cat! See bottom left of picture. There were lots of cats at the zoo. I guess they keep the rodents out.Monkeys!This panda was scratching its butt against the wooden column.Lazy kangaroosBunch of giraffes busy eatingBig rhinosZebra in middle was rubbing its back on the dirtOne of the baby deers was getting its ear cleaned
Nathan was asleep most of the time while we were at the zoo. This is a video of him dozing off.
Our tour is usually from 9am – 12pm and latest 1pm. The tours are setup this way so that small kids can take their naps by noon. Today is our last full day in Guangzhou. Tomorrow we will take the train to Hong Kong to head to Hong Kong Disney.
This morning, our guide told us to stay in our hotel room until she gives us a call and wait for instructions before heading to the American Embassy. Before we expected a phone call from her, we had time to have our complimentary breakfast at the Cascade Cafe. Nathan really loves this plain bun. He can actually eat 3 whole buns which is a little bigger than his fist. He prefers to hold the bun and feed it to himself without my help or Nelson’s help. I also fed him congee and some noodles. The morning is the only time when we feed him non-baby Gerber food.
After having breakfast, we waited for our guide’s call in our hotel room. While waiting for her call, Nelson did a video call with his family back home. Afterwards, I called my mom who was on her way home from work.
Nathan playing on pillow with Sprite empty bottle in his hand
Nathan flapping his arms in the air
Our guide called about 9:45am telling us that all of our documents were ready at the American Embassy and to meet her at the hotel lobby at 2:10pm.
While Nelson was talking to our guide on the phone, Nathan was listening to the conversation. He is a very curious little boy.
Since we had time between 10am to 2pm, we took Nathan out for a stroll. We went through this small market place that sold fruits, vegetables, shoes and clothing.There was a small park near the market with lots of families enjoying their morning.I guess it is typical for Asian families in China to hang their clothes outside their apartment.
Nathan posed next to a small elephant statue.
I don’t know the name of the street, but this street appears new with lots of new businesses especially restaurants. I peeped inside this fancy Italian restaurant and it appeared like the two Italian owners were training their new Asian employees. On this same street, I spotted this cute patisserie. I went inside and bought these mini cakes which came in 6 cakes per bag. They were very good with my Starbucks drink.
During our stroll with Nathan, he fell asleep. He was able to sleep with the noise on the street.
Once we came back to the hotel room, he woke up and I fed him Gerber food for his lunch. For our own lunch, Nelson boiled water for our instant noodles.
After Nathan ate, we washed him and got him ready. I had to fold the bottom of his jeans like 3 times!
Since cameras and cellphones are not allowed at the American Embassy, we couldn’t take pictures of the ‘taking the oath’ ceremony. When we arrived at the embassy, we showed our passports to security and our bags got scanned. Then we went inside this big room which was already filled with lots and lots of families who adopted children in China. At 3:30pm, this non-Asian lady who spoke very good English told everyone to stand up and lift their right hand. She then asked us to repeat after her… ‘I solemnly swear… that the documents are accurate and truthful to the best of our knowledge…’ and so on. After the oath, we waited until someone called the family’s name. When the name is called, the family goes to one of the available windows and sign one of the documents to make the adoption official here in China. After signing the document, the family receives a photocopy of the child’s Chinese passport.
There were about 33 families at the embassy. I thought we would wait for a very long time to have our name called. But we were surprised that we were the third family whose name was called. After we signed the document and received a copy of Nathan’s Chinese passport, we met with our guide outside since we were not allowed to just sit around and wait for our group to finish their paperwork in the waiting room.
After our appointment at the American Embassy, we got dropped off back to our hotel. Our guide told us that the last document we will need is our son’s actual Chinese passport with his Chinese Visa attached. His visa will be available tomorrow morning. Once we arrive and land in US soil, our son will automatically become a US Citizen. Within 45 days, he should receive his Certificate of US Citizenship. We can then apply for his US passport. Since he is still too young, most likely he won’t be needing a US passport anytime soon unless we decide to go on a Disney cruise. We could have gone on a Disney cruise years ago but we decided to save that special trip once we have a child.
Nelson and I had wonton noodle soup, congee and rice noodle with meat for dinner for just $3 US! I have never eaten this much Asian noodles in my life. I hardly eat Asian noodles back home. I prefer Italian pasta. In China, a noodle shop is only minutes away. There are noodle shops everywhere just like how there are Starbucks at every corner in the city of San Francisco.
When we get back home, I will cook chicken adobo (Filipino dish marinated with vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, etc), pritong manok (Filipino style fried chicken), Spam!!!, buy lots of Mexican steak tacos with chips and guacamole, bake chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes! I miss food from home. I am sure my sister-in-law Jenn, nieces and my mom are craving for my red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that I bake at home.
One family in our group has been eating pizza for the past several days and the mom is pretty much tired of having the same food over and over again. Since her 16 yr old son is allergic to peanut oil, she is afraid to have him eat Chinese food. Plus her husband prefers Western food.
While Nathan sleeps, I write on my blog, get my Starbucks coffee or pretty much watch TV. I miss all my favorite TV shows and Netflix movies! The movies shown in our hotel room are repeated. Also, there are only two channels that I constantly switch back and forth. Channel 1 is HBO while channel 13 is Star Movies. I have no idea how many times I have seen Twilight, Love Happens and Revolutionary Road in this hotel room. At least I am more interested in watching Twilight again rather than watching that ridiculous one-legged sport that I posted about in my previous blog.
I miss my cat Smeagol! He is pretty much our baby too! Neftali, did our cat hiss at you again? 🙂
We had a tour of the Six Banyan Temple. It was built between the years of 420 – 479 and to enshrine the sacred Buddhist remains of Sakyamuni. The temple was renamed several times. Original name was Changshou Temple (Longevity Temple). Then it was renamed to Jinghui Temple (Pure Wisdom Temple). A great poet named Su Dongpo visited the temple and found six banyan trees. The trees made him cheerful and put him in a good mood. Because the trees made the soul happy, the temple was then renamed to the Six Banyan Temple.
At the entrance to the temple, visitors are greeted by the laughing Buddha.
The main highlight of the temple is the Lotus Pagoda built in year 537. Our guide told us that years ago, it was open to the public but not anymore because, like the Tower of Pisa in Italy, the Six Banyan Temple is leaning a little on its side.
The Hall of Mahavira contains three bronze statues weighing 10 tons each and at about 19 feet high. The left statue is named Amitabha, middle statue is Sakyamuni and right statue is Apothecary. The statues stand for present, past and future.
Another bronze statue of Sakyamuni standing a little over 5 feet.Lots of well-maintained plants
Locals come to the temple to worship. First, they burn joss sticks.
Then the people engage in worship with the joss sticks in their handsAfterwards, joss sticks are placed inside this fancy tray stand.Some people go inside the Hall of Mahavira to pray
People offer food at the temple as well after worship
The engraved wall displays names of people who donated money to help keep the temple maintained.
There are a few buildings in the temple that displays pictures of deceased family members. If locals would like to continue to keep their loved ones pictures inside this building, they pay a yearly fee of 8000 Yuan or $1200 US. Some of the locals place fruits on the table near the picture of their deceased family member as an offering.
After we toured temple, our guide took us to an expensive souvenir shop. This shop is different from ordinary souvenir shops. Most items in this shop are hand-made or hand-painted.
These artisans are painting Chinese vases. It can take about 2 full days to finish.This guy uses his hands to paint sceneriesWe bought one of his hand-paintings with Nathan’s name on it. According to Chinese definition, Nathan means sincere and special.Then he placed the painting onto a thin, white cardboardNathan’s curious expressionFamilies in our group says that Nathan is a deep thinker. This is his thinking expression“Haven’t you taken enough pictures of me yet, mom?”“Ok, I will smile a bit for you.”
Nathan prefers the Gerber pureed bananas or apples mixed with Gerber rice cereal. He would spit out the pureed peas with rice cereal from time to time. I just don’t want him to eat only bananas or apples though. In order for him to eat his peas, I feed him real banana fruit and sandwich the peas between small cuts of bananas. But he really loves bananas the most. He can eat 2 whole bananas. After our complimentary breakfast, I make sure I grab a bunch of bananas.
I finally got a chance to take pictures of the garden view near the Cascade Cafe where we have our complimentary breakfast.
Outdoor eating area of the cafe
Waterfall with red bridge
Lots of fish in the pondWoman and bird statueWedding pavilion with pond
Our guide took the group to a market shopping district this morning at Pedestrian Street. But before we visited the Pedestrian Street, our guide took the group to some place where they do laundry at a cheap price. While some people in our group dropped their laundry off, Nelson and I decided to walk through this small shopping area. One store sold kids shoes. We bought Nathan these cute squeeky shoes with a football print on the front.
Also in this small shopping area, we saw this cute little kitty. The cat has a very fuzzy tail.
Afterwards, we headed to the Pedestrian Street. This shopping area is pretty big. One block has at least over 100 stores. If you walk into some stores, you will see other numerous independent shops inside selling clothing, jewelry, wallets and purses. You can bargain with the shop owners too. If you attempt to leave their shop, they will do the bargaining for you because they really want you to buy their stuff. I was looking at some cuffs. This lady told me it costs 25 Yuan. When I started to walk away, she said 20 Yuan. When I was almost out the door, she said 15 Yuan or $2.25 US. But I didn’t buy it.
Shop selling Chinese sausage and other meatsI am unsure what animal is displayed at the front, middle of the food display but it appears to be some kind of frog or big tadpole Numerous line of shops
This area only sells beads… lots and lots of different kinds of beads
The shopping district has statues everywhere
There is a mall too at the Pedestrian Street.Our group gathered together at the center part of the market shopping district for our return to the hotel
After feeding Nathan in our hotel room, Nelson stayed with him while I took a short stroll outside. It was Nelson’s turn to look after our son.Picture of our hotel taken from across the streetThis mall is called Guangzhou Friendship Store which has all high end stores such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, etc. Only thing I bought at this mall is Godiva chocolates. I was craving for chocolates really badly.Before going back to the hotel, I went to Starbucks which is across the street from our hotel. The marble bread at Starbucks cost 12 Yuan or $1.80 US. My venti caramel machiatto cost 31 Yuan or $4.66 US.
After I came back to the hotel room, Nathan was still taking his nap. But after 15 mins later, he woke up. We have these snacks in the room that are still wrapped in plastic. I use them to entertain him with my juggling act. After he saw me, he started to juggle too.
First he picks them upLifts his arms upThen juggles it… well actually he just tosses them into the air. After his snacks are still twirling in the air, he even takes time to smile for the camera!
This is Nathan’s pooping position. Look at his facial expression. I think he was pooping pretty hard here because he was biting down on his bibIf you want to know more about Nathan, visit his own blog. I added a page in my blog titled ‘Nathan’s blog: From His Own Point of View’.
Tomorrow, it will be 1 week since we met Nathan. How much more do we know about him?
1. He hates plane rides since there isn’t much room for him to move around.
2. He is independent in some ways. We play with him but he can play by himself for hours or until he falls asleep. He doesn’t need actual toys. He just plays with magazines, an empty bottle and Nelson’s T-shirts. Also, he likes to feed himself from time to time.
3. When he squats, becomes silent for a minute or has that strange expression on his face, we know he is pooping.
4. He is friendly to everyone and allows anybody (adult or children) to play or talk to him.
5. So far, he has been good when we go out on our tour with our guide. He only gets uneasy when we are in public eating places because he wants everything and anything. He even wants other people’s food. To prevent him from throwing a tantrum in public eating places, we have to keep feeding him just about anything that is on our plate. Once he doesn’t want anymore food, that is our cue to leave otherwise he will start yelling. When we get back home, Nelson and I will not be eating out for a long time.
6. Now that he is used to having us feed him, he will eat. Most of the time he wants to eat what we eat such as chicken, noodle, congee and some steam buns. Before we give him our food, we normally hide it first otherwise he will refuse his own baby food and fruits like bananas and apples. Pretty much, he is the boss. We feed him first then Nelson and I eat.
7. He drinks his milk on the side of his mouth. Because of his cleft palate, he can’t bite the nipple bottle in the middle of his mouth.
8. He has good memory. Our room at the Garden Hotel didn’t provide a baby tub. One of us has to hold him while the other gives him a bath. The bathtub has an extendable shower head that I use to rinse his body. He cries when I use the shower head though because he gets scared when I wash his hair with it. So after he poops and we remove his diaper and clothes, he already starts crying because he knows we will take him to the bathtub. The desk in our room is made of glass and low enough for Nathan to bump his head on it if he doesn’t look where he is walking. So far, if he gets too close to the desk, he actually looks up before walking towards to one of us sitting at the desk so that he won’t bump his head.
9. He allows us to cut his fingernails and toenails and use a nose aspirator to clean his stuffy nose.
Mommy, wanna come into my house?Mommy, can you find me?Who’s that handsome boy in the mirror?Look mommy, I finished my milk!
After Nelson did some running with our son, our son decided to do a marathon by himself.
Today, our guide took us to the Yuntai Garden which is the largest landscaping garden in China. It consists of numerous themed gardens.
Entrance to the garden. The fee is about $1.50 US.Inside the garden
Huge kitty statue
Nathan was intrigued by the bubbles.The greenhouse
Totem pole theme garden
Nathan and some bunny statues
He was getting tired at this point.
Roman theme lake/garden
Music theme garden
Another view of the gardenCrazy monkeyI have no idea what’s this supposed to beValentines theme garden
