Happy New Year

Today is Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Rat. When we were in China, we saw many preparations for New Year celebrations, most featuring cartoon rats that looked more like Mickey Mouse (big ears, like the ones we saw being installed at Confucius' Temple in Nanjing) than your typical rat.

Nick Jr. debuted a new show today, Ni Hao Kai-lan!, a Dora-like animated show created by a Chinese-American young woman. It's aimed at a preschool audience and features a combination of life lessons (today's theme was what to do when you get angry), Chinese culture and basic Mandarin vocabulary. The New York Times ran a story on the creator, Karen Chau, last year. Ms. Chau says she was influenced by Hello Kitty, and you can tell it in her animation. The first episode is very promising.

We DVR'd it, and Lillian watched it with some interest this afternoon. Nick Jr. is running new episodes several days in a row to kick it off.

Christmas in February

The Stearns family Christmas get-together, postponed by weather in December, was this weekend. Lillian got to meet a whole slew of relatives, including four second cousins under the age of 3 (Koy, Kenzie, Kennedy, and Ian). First cousin Lauren was there too, so that meant the farmhouse in Jewell County hosted six kids all within about 2 1/2 years of each other in age. Add in all the bigger relatives, and it was one full house.

Lillian was shy at first, as she can be, but figured out quickly how fun the day was going to be and decided to join in the games. We were there for about 5 hours, and she and the other kids went pretty much non-stop the entire time. She did a great job on the car ride there and back, which amounted to another 8 hours roundtrip. She slept for about an hour and a half on the first leg, then about another 90 minutes on the way back. The rest of the time she kept herself entertained, particularly by bopping along (and sometimes singing along) with music. She loves a strong beat.

Our little trooper

Lillian has had three visits to the doctor's office since she's been home, all for simple tests and assessments. Unfortunately, at least from her point of view, two of those visits have included a total of four vials of blood drawn, six shots, and one TB skin test. (Our doctor ran bloodwork on her to confirm which immunizations she had received, and as a result Dr. Tran wanted to start from scratch on some of the series.) Yesterday her TB skin test was read as negative, which is good news.

 

Lillian doesn't mind going to the doctor's office, but once she's back in an exam room she starts to get nervous, especially if anyone tries to roll up her sleeves or tug on her pant leg. She definitely knows what's going on when there's a needle to be seen.

 

After the visit to the doctor's office, Lillian went to meet some of Kari's coworkers at The University of Kansas Hospital. She had a great time running around the maze of office dividers in Kari's office, and she enjoyed meeting everyone.

 

Lillian had a good nap on the drive home. She's become a fairly good napper, especially when we can get her to sleep on her folded-out Dora couch. She only slept in the car yesterday (the carseat puts her to sleep within minutes if she's even a little tired), but as the photo illustrates, she can knock out a few Z's indoors in the mid-afternoon too.

Cousins playdate

Lillian went to visit her cousin Lauren today in Lee's Summit, Mo. Lauren is sharing a big box of the clothes she's outgrown with Lillian. Lillian also came away with a bunch of shoes just her size.

 

Lauren also shared her toys while Lillian visited. It's been a great day!

New couch

Lillian got a new couch today -- more specifically, a Dora flip-open slumber sofa. She loves sitting in it, unfolding and folding it, and even lying down on it to pretend-nap. We may have found the one thing that she will willingly sleep on other than a shoulder. She will also enjoy watching Sesame Street on it. It's the only TV program she watches with any interest, other than shows with live singers.

 

Lillian also enjoys wearing her sunglasses in the car. Following the advice of our doctor, we flipped the carseat around to rear-facing, at least for a few more months, until she grows a little more. We thought she'd hate it, especially as much as she initially resisted the carseat, but rear-facing seems OK with her. She tends to nod off fairly quickly in a carseat anyway.

Arrival and At-Home Photos

Some photos of our arrival at Kansas City International Airport and at home. Lillian enjoyed being an acrobat standing on Grandpa!

We're home!

We've been home for a day and a half now. Brent, Kari, and Lillian are all battling various issues related to the travel -- Brent is congested, Kari has had an upset stomach, and all of us are still a little messed up by jet lag. Lillian is napping right now -- right on schedule -- so maybe tonight will be smoother for her. Last night was a rough one for her; rougher even than the first night home. Thankfully, Grandpa and Grandma are here to help welcome us home and get us settled.

 

Now for mini-miracle news: Thanks in no small part to the prayers of many of you, Lillian was a trooper on the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. She was not overly comfortable, but we were seated three rows from the very back, so there was space to walk around and exercise, particularly in the back galley hall, where ladies were gathering to play cards to kill the time. I would never recommend a 14-hour flight for a 2-year-old, but when it's necessary, divine intervention is surely appreciated. Lillian did not enjoy it, but of all the kids on the plane, she was one of the best-behaved.

 

She did much better than Kari, who through either a bug, stress, turbulance, or a combination of two or more of those factors, lost her lunch (and breakfast and dinner) twice, including once as the plane taxied to the gate in Chicago (embarrassing -- but at least I made it to the lavaratory both times!).

 

Lillian was very cranky in O'Hare, but calmed by the sight of some other Asian faces on the flight, she slept soundly on the final short jump to Kansas City. Thank God -- very literally!

 

We were welcomed at the airport by Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Adam and Aunt Victoria, and Aunt Megan, Uncle Rich, and cousin Lauren. We were home! (Pictures later....)

Leaving on an Airplane (or three)

We are finishing up packing tonight and will be leaving the hotel very early in the morning (6 a.m. here) to catch our flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. That flight is a short jaunt, and will prepare us for the 14-hour long haul from Hong Kong to Chicago. We've been told that it might take a couple hours to clear immigration and customs in O'Hare, so it looks like we'll be on the original flight scheduled from Chicago to KC. We'll be home soon!

 

Because of our early departure tomorrow, this should be our last blog posting until after we return home. Thanks to everyone who has been following our journey, praying for us, thinking of us, and leaving encouraging comments.

 

 

Buddhist Temple and the Red Couch

We've had a very active day today. This morning we went to the Six Bayan Buddhist Temple, and this afternoon all the kids in our group posed for a group photo on the White Swan Hotel's famous red couch. Afterwards, we had a family group photo, then had high tea (actually a sumptuous buffet) in the hotel.

Lillian slept on the bus ride to the temple, and for about the first 20 minutes after we arrived, for a nice half-hour power nap. We watched some of the other families participate in a blessing ceremony, and when she woke up she enjoyed walking around the grounds, particularly balancing along the carved stone path edge. She also enjoyed watching workers pick fallen leaves individually out of the flower beds (with tweezers!).

After a tasty lunch of noodles and an even shorter power nap, Lillian dressed up in a traditional outfit and went downstairs for the Red Couch photo. Lillian was not too excited about it. She loves watching the other kids, but seems to get intimidated being close to many of them, so she freaked out on the couch. Kari held her in place for a while, ducking behind the couch to avoid being in everyone else's photos, while Lillian yelled her protest. Lillian will have loads of fun when she is a teenager looking at those photos.

She recovered immediately, as usual, and was great in the bigger family group photo, and especially better when we changed back into her play clothes for tea. Afterwards, the three of us took another long walk around the island and stopped in a couple shops for mementos. We were on a mission to find crayons (we didn't bring any because we thought we'd find some here), but had no luck.

Tomorrow our only scheduled activity is the oath-taking ceremony at the US Consulate in the afternoon. It's the only place we can't take cameras.

Jade and Pearl Markets

Yesterday afternoon we went with our group on a short bus ride to the Jade and Pearl markets on the mainland in Guangzhou. The jade market was two floors of individual booths in a department store-like building. The pearl market, which was a wholesale market, was five floors in a big shopping mall, but all the stores sold pearls or stones (lapis, jade, etc.). We bought a couple small things in the jade market from a booth run by two women, pictured in the photo. You are supposed to bargain in the jade market, but we probably didn't do very well negotiating. The trick is to offer 50% of the asking price, then settle on something in the middle, around 65 to 75%. Of course, we ended up knocking only 20% off, but it was worth it to get it done fast.

 

Lillian likes a certain kind of milk drink for kids that we bought at Wal-Mart in Nanjing. It's a bit more watery than regular milk, and has a fruity flavor. She was drinking them two-fisted yesterday after we got back from the jade and pearl markets (a tiring 3-hour excursion, including the short travel time). She loves this drink and hates when they are empty, so it's a mixed bag -- total joy while drinking, total frustration when she can't suck any more out.

 

She had fun on the trip, especially watching bigger kids play in the pearl market. She approaches bigger kids to play, but when they get closer to her, she gets a little intimidated and runs back to safety.

 

She had a short nap around mid-day, before the excursion, and then fell asleep very early -- 7 p.m.-- and slept until about 3:30 a.m. in the crib. She spent the next 20 minutes or so giggling and trying to wrestle around with Mommy on the bed before falling back asleep until 6 a.m. We've had breakfast and will leave in about an hour for a trip to a famous Buddhist temple. Later this afternoon, our group will take photos on the famous Red Couch. It'll be a big day!