More shopping, QingPing Market, and Swimming!

Sorry for the delay in posting! The Wifi in our hotel crashed yesterday! But we're all good now! 

First, Addy loves my socks. She puts them on constantly. And when I have them on she comes over and rubs her fingers over my socks. Must be pretty comforting and yes, I sleep in socks. 

 

We had a big day yesterday! We started at breakfast where my girls inhale their noodles. This is pretty much all they eat at breakfast. 

 

We started the day going to the Leather Market. It's where all the knock off shopping is. I wasn't a huge fan as it was pretty uncomfortable. But John scored some sunglasses and so did the girls. Enjoy this pic of Addy. The sunglasses have now disappeared and we have no clue where they went. 

 

After we left there we went to QingPing Market. Always an interesting smelling time. Ava had a minor meltdown because she didn't understand why she couldn't get one of the puppies…

 

 

We walked through the pet part and the herbal part. And of course saw some very interesting things…

By the end of the street we were covered in sweat and roasting. So we headed back to the hotel to swim. Addy did a lot better than we anticipated. It will take time but I know she will love the water, just like Ava. The pool here is pretty cool. It's on the roof of our hotel so the view is amazing!!!

 

Today we are off to the zoo!!! 

Love, 

The Ho's

Medical and Little Shopping

This morning started a little rough. And it was the realization that Addy is a creature of habit. I forgot to take down her little fork and spoon and then we gave her some rice instead of noodles. This resulted in a meltdown that involved John taking her out of the restaurant. They went back to the room and got her fork, I got some her some noodles and all was right in the world again. 

Our guide met us at 9:30 to head to the medical exam. For those China adoption families, Medical has moved and is a much bigger space. It was half as chaotic as we remembered. Addy did really well until the TB test. They took her from us into a room, closed the door, and I'm pretty sure everyone in the building heard her screaming. Poor little Addycakes. However, she weighs 24 lbs. I knew she was tiny but whoa! Her 2T's literally are falling off her. I feel bad because she walks and her little bum is hanging out. Haha!

 

 

 

Nana and Ava stayed back at the room so we headed back to get them and went to The Pearl Market. The girls were so cute in the car ride. Love my little girls! 

 

 

 

 

We did a little shopping and then had them drop us at Lucy's for lunch. We had a little toast since Addy's medical went so well.

We did a little shopping on the way back to the hotel and then came back for naps. Addy took a 3 hour nap, Ava wasn't tired. But somehow fell asleep for an hour. I see a long night in our future. Ha! Nana and I walked down to drop off laundry and get Subway for dinner. We need to fatten this girl up. I think we are on the way!

Tomorrow we are off for more shopping and I think we are going to the zoo on Monday. The storms have stirred back up so we are in for the night. 

Talk tomorrow! 

Love, 

The Ho's

Travel to Guangzhou

We made it to Guangzhou! It's hot and stormy!!! We just got back from dinner at Lucy's and as soon as I sat down to type this, the clouds opened and the torrential downpour started. 

What we thought would be a quick and easy flight today turned into a long day of travel. Our guide picked us up at 10am for our 12:15 flight. We had a little issue as check out for the hotel because they were trying to tell us we took a Samsung charger. We are all Apple family. He helped us with that out and luckily, he walked in with us to check in for the flight. Because they had us (ALL 5!) sitting in separate seats all over the plane. Not only our 5 year old, but our 3 year old that we have had for 5 days??? Are you kidding me? It literally took an hour for them to work it out. Our guide was wonderful! I'm not sure what his exact words were, but I could sense the tone. Haha! We ended up with 2 seats, 2 seats, and 1 seat. John with Addy, I with Ava, and Nana by herself. We got to our gate to find out the flight was delayed an hour. No problem, we had starving kids so we were able to get them a little snack. Once we were all seated and backed away from the gate, they came over and announced that we were not taking off for another 45 minutes. Of course, Ava had a zillion questions for me. I went to check on John and Addy and she was passed out. Lucky Daddy. She slept the entire flight! And since we have horrible storms (loud thunder!!!) the flight was bumpy, especially the landing. The normal 30 minute car ride took about an hour and 10 minutes. Because the flight delay put us right in rush hour traffic on a Friday. Haha! I feel like I'm whiny with this post so I'll share some super cute pics of my girls. 

 

 

 

 

Addy is doing better every day. She is still super attached to John and is coming around to me more and more. But still melted down when I took her to the bathroom at the airport. Her and Ava are still working out their dynamics. We'll get there. Addy is a hitter, so we are trying to work through that. 

Tomorrow morning is medical exam. Pray for us! Ha!! 

Love, 

The Ho's

 

Last Day in Nanning!

Today is our last day in Nanning. We fly out around 12:15 tomorrow to head to Guangzhou. We asked our guide to take a break today. Therefore, we've been lazy, napping, swimming, packing, and just playing. Ava is bored out of her mind. She is used to go, go, go and cannot stand down time. I feel like we are in a cave. We opened the blinds in out room and the temperature in the room rose 4 degrees. So, we closed them again and we are back to lights. Ava took control of the camera today for a bit and these are the shots I found. Not too bad! Ha!

 

 

 

The girls took in the view of Nanning

 

 

And Nana had the brilliant idea to make the Easy Mac I brought in the hot pot in our room. We all enjoyed a little taste of home for lunch.  

 

 

We are waiting for Hannah to stop over. She is bringing us some paperwork and McDonald's. We are anxiously waiting her arrival! 

Talk to you in Guangzhou! 

The Ho's!

Guangxi Science and Technology Center

Have I mentioned how hot it is in China? Our sweet guide keeps offering for us to do things in air conditioning but there air conditioning is nothing like ours. Our room will not go any lower the 23 degrees Celcius. John looked up the conversion last night and it's 75 degrees! Now for some people (Kelly), this isn't horrible. But for my literally hot husband, he's dying. He asked to take a chill day to stay by the pool. Which should go over well considering Addy hates the water. More on that later. 

Yesterday morning, after she slept 10 1/2 hours, we headed to breakfast. Looks like the sleep agreed with her. She was in a great mood!

 

 

After breakfast, we headed to the Science and Technology Center. It's a scaled down version of Imagination Station. The girls loved it! There was a talking robot and we watched a short movie that was displayed across the ceiling. Addy didn't go for that because the narrator had a loud voice. So John took her out.

 

 

 

 

We went out to lunch to a traditional Chinese restaurant. Meaning, no forks. And guess who can eat with chopsticks like a boss??? Ava Kate! Hannah showed her the proper way and she went to town and cleaned her plate. I was totally impressed. I can't lie.

 

 

We came back to the room for a nap and John and Ava were going to go swimming. Well, that was about the time that a thunderstorm rolled in. So, we all took naps. We got up and played for a bit and ordered in dinner. You have to love hotel living when you are allowing your 3 year old to eat spaghetti in bed.

 

 

We decided to take the girls down to swim -

 

 

Yea, that didn't last long. Addy had a COW! So John and Ava stayed down there and I brought her back up to the room. She was actually really good allowing me to do that. Never cried once. Yea! Progress!!! She had a fun session of building blocked with Nana. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou. One week down, one week to go! 

Love, 

The Ho's!

Addy Grace

We have all been up for hours, dressed, ready for breakfast. But this little munchkin is sacked. We are going on 10 hours now. Is it possible I got a sleeper? 

 

So, I thought I would give you a little update of what we have learned so far. 

She is TINY!!! The 2T's I brought her are huge on her. She absolutely adores her Daddy. She goes to him for everything. She let's me do a little for her but not much. Ava was the same way though. Once we got to Guangzhou it really started to change. So fingers crossed. I bought these little silver sandals for her and guessed the size. And I was spot on and she loves them! She wants them on all the time. Even after bath time. She has a bit of a cold, heat rash, and bug bites all over her legs. Poor little bubba. But we got the goods we need to get her back in shape. Her palate is not repaired. But we've yet to see food come out her nose. She loves to eat. Shocker, right? Girl can put down some noodles like nothing I've seen. She refuses to try a french fry. Refuses. She just hands it back to us. Haha! She had a little sprite last night that was left over from Ava. And was so completely amused by the bubbles! She was giggling so hard! She is not a fan of bath time. Which really disappointed Ava. She couldn't wait to take a bath together and Addy screamed the entire time. Therefore, she got a super quick bath! 

It's all good on this end. Two more days in Nanning and then we are off to Guangzhou! 

Talk soon!

 

Holy Moly, it's HOT!!! Hot like we've never experienced. John is melting. We've had to change the plans for tomorrow because we need to stay in air conditioning. And Hannah, our guide (who we love!), said this isn't even hot season. What???

First of all shout out to Hannah! This girl is amazing! She is so friendly, so accommodating, and just an awesome person. She just stopped to visit and was here for almost an hour! Just asking things about us and family. So sweet! 

 

 

Addy has really come out of her shell! She has a personality! She knows what she wants. And it isn't it a bath! She was ticked. But she was so itchy last night, we wanted to get her clean and lotioned.

 

 

This morning Ava gave her a pop tart. She never tried it. She just licked it. Haha!

 

 

We headed down to breakfast and she did so good! She was imitating everything Ava did. And was even feeding John. Adorable!

 

 After breakfast we headed back to the registration office to finalize Addy's adoption. I was worried about her going back and seeing orphanage staff. But she did awesome! And played and played with Ava.

 

 

 

 

We came back for a nap since Addy is still a napper and I needed Ava to get a nap. If that kid wakes me up at 3am one more morning, I'm going to die from sleep deprivation. She has been falling asleep at around 7 and getting up at 3. Hopefully with a nap, she'll stay up longer. 

This afternoon, Hannah came back to bring us some medicine for Addy. She has a cough, her little legs are covered in bites, and she has heat rash. So she now has 3 different things to be applied. Poor little girl. 

And soon after Hannah arrived, there was another knock at the door. And it was the hotel staff with a birthday cake for me!!!

 

 

 Don't mind my appearance. We just woke up. 

Things are well for The Ho's! 

Talk soon!!!