Day Three ....

She copies everything we do ...Wish she would copy us sleeping!!!!!!!!

Every day an adventure- last night I gave Nelly a bottle at about 8 30 - 9 as per her routine! well it was as if the bottle had been filled with blue smarties! She bounced off the walls for a few hours before crashing on the bed with us and falling into a deep sleep at midnight! I then moved her to her cot...this sleeping thing is baffling and the whole bonding / attachment thing becomes really difficult...if I leave her in a cot to bawl for more than ten minutes I feel that all the hard work done during the day in terms of her knowing who we are will be undone...but if I pick her up every time she screams she has one over us and that proverbial rod will be sticking out of both our backs within a few weeks!

So for the moment ( I am writing this at 11 45 in the evening - she is in her cot and has been sleeping for an hour but it was a struggle getting her to it. Tonight we put her in the cot and left her- usual bawling...took her out after ten/twelve minutes ( felt like an eternity ) realised I had forgotten the bottle so gave her that and bang went those bxxxxy blue smarties again! We were both lying in bed and she was taking my glasses on and off - jumping on Rob, rolling around and eating the remote control - she then did an enormous plop, so nappy change and then I decided I had to be the hard one - held her for about five minutes and put her in the cot to cry.. then she lay down and I moved the cot closer to my bed and stoked her arm through the bars and it did the trick - I think she then felt safe and knew we were both still there...But Hey it will all change again tomorrow so I will stop on the boring sleep stories for a while!



Over excited Nelly when she should be sleeping!

Today we had a later breakfast after trying to give her a bath - which she did not like at all - I had to jump in with her!.. We then went out for a walk to drop off some laundry at one of the many places on Shamian Island that caters for the soiled clothes of overseas adopters! we then ventured over the bridge off the ' security' of the Island and into the real Guangzhou. That meant markets with live scorpions, turtles, gerbils, rabbits and yes cats and dogs....it was interesting to see and then made it to a larger street with lots of shops selling fake anything and a MacDonalds as well as a Pizza Hut. On the way back we even saw the development for some luxury apartments that would not look out of place in Chelsea opposite these tiny workshops where people eek out a living selling what look like old car parts..strange that this place is changing so fast...






This afternoon was the trip to the police station - she had her pictures taken with her eyes closed! We then took the other family using our guide with us to the Carrrefour as their sister has bronchitis and had to go home with their Mum and Dad and we thought they may be bored. Tomorrow we are taking them to the market with the scorpions ! It was quite amazing wandering around Carrefour - so many brands, so much choice, our guide was telling me that when she was growing up there was nothing like this and it really has only escalated to this extent in the last eight years..quite an amazing thought.

Tomorrow we have a free day and then our other friends form our group will be arriving from Nanchang with their little ones.

Now the long old wait for her passport and visas next Thursday and we fly back to HK... in the meantime more time getting to know the funniest cutest bundle of fun that you could ever have hoped to adopt.!

PS I take some of it back about the Americans we met a family today who are staying here with their little girl and boy, they are lovely and from LA !!



Nelly's first outing to a Thai Restaurant where she sampled Satay....



An amazing laser show that happens every evening on the river to classical music