Day - 9 or 10?? Not sure - Still getting to know Syd and Old town Chongqing

Joe here - Anne Marie is sick with a sinus infection at the moment and is downstairs filling out paperwork for the US Consulate. Sydney just went down for her nap after about an hour of fighting. She is a real sweetheart but man, if she doesn't want to do something, she lets you know about it.

Yesterday we went to a small town about 45 minutes outside of Chongqing City. According to our guide Michael, this is "real China". We really didn't know what to expect excpt that this would probably be a close as we could get to seeing how Syd may have been brought up here.

The babies were all bundled as the bus pulled out and we stepped off. We walked up a small street (not big enough for cars) that was lined head to toe with small shops and eateries. We were quite the spectacle and immediately drew a large crowd. The average Chongqinger doesn't get a chance to see 30 some odd Americans toting around a dozen Chinese babies. Now don't get me wrong, this is just something that people aren't used to seeing and they're just a little bit curious. Once we hand out the cards that explain that we're adopting the girls and will give them good, loving homes in America, the smiles come out and everyone gives you a "thumbs up". Very cool, it's just starting to get a little old now.
There were a ton of cool little shops on this street. Just about anything that you could imagine from little dresses to swords and knives to all kinds of food to the several undescribale things that we saw could be purchased here. We also ran into more english speaking folks here than anywhere else so far. Anne Marie hooked up with a local girl who was an english major. She was really happy to have the opportunity to practice her studies and we were more than willing to let her bargain for us! She and her boyfriend were very nice and thanked us for coming to visit China and Chongqing and wished us the best of luck with Sydney. They also gave us a present of what I guess is the Chinese equivilant of funnel cake. Very good stuff.

Again, the highlite of the trip has to be the people. We ran into folks ranging from very well dressed business people to homeless folks looking for money and eevryone was very nice and offered smiles and best wishes. There were a couple of occasions where Sydney had at least a dozen or so people crowded around her stroller. This is a little nerve racking but fun.


Here are a couple of pictures from Sydney's vantage point (Note the one on the left were the woman is taking our picture, again, we were the attraction):



And some river front shots:



And now back to the star of our show - Ms. Sydney M. Rogers

Syd is doing great. Her smile just melts your heart immediately. She learned how to clap her hands and wave to people yesterday and is now trying to learn how to do "Touchdown!" for dad. This one still needs a little work. She is talking a lot more and oh yeah, she stood up all by herself yesterday. This was both amazing to watch and a bit scary as both Am and I immediately started worrying about things that we may have forgotten to baby proof thinking that we'd have a little bit more time. Oh well, we're not going to stop her.
She's playing with her toys a lot more and for the most part (this morning excluded) is pretty good at going down for bed after a few minutes of playtime in her crib. She loves to look at herself in the mirror (can you blame her?, she's beautiful) and roll around on the floor.
She finally started liking Cherios and is working on being able to eat them all by herself. She all but inhales her bottles provided they are a little bit warmer than room temp. She loves to sing and bable when it's nap or bed time and will just hang out an talk for about 30 minutes before going to sleep. We've been watching ESPN alot (which is one of 5 english channels) so she's already been introduced to golf and basketball as well as some obscure things such as log rolling and tractor pulls. Hey, it's in english.
Can't wait to get home in 7 1/2 days. Not looking foward to traversing 14 timezones again but it'll be good to get home and start (I said start) getting back to normal.

Kyle and Spencer - Sydney sends a big, drool filled kiss to you guys. She can't wait to meet you guys.

That's about all for now.
Talk to you later,

Love Joe, AM and Sydney

PS - This is great - We ordered hamburgers from room service last night. I made the mistake a asking if it came with tomatoes. I never did get an answer. I also asked that they put cheese on the burgers. They said no problem. This is what got sent up:
Yes folks, that is an egg. After the fact, we remembered that someone else was talking about this earlier in the week. The poor cooks at the hotel must think that most Americans want their burgers this way as I'm sure that many people order their burgers with cheese. Our bad for not taking the time to learn Mandarin before heading over. It's on the list for when we get back.