Walmart, whining (mine) and wet (day 11)

Today, there was nothing scheduled for us so we were on our own, which was nice except we needed diapers, wipes, formula, etc.  Big fun.  So, we went to Walmart.  Walmart in China is a little confusing but thankfully, we were able to find Huggies diapers and Liana's brand of formula.  The orphanage gave us a huge can which will last until we get home but we want some for home to wean her off of until we can switch her completely to formula that we can buy at home and then to plain old milk.  She probably could switch to whatever we want to switch her too anyways because the girl will take anything we give her, at least with food.  She eats everything!  There has not been one thing that she has turned down from us and we have fed her a lot of stuff, most of which she's probably never had before.  Some things that I'm not even sure what they are.  The nannies told us several times to only feed her soft foods and a teeny bit at a time because of her esophageal hiatus hernia because they said she will throw up.  It was pretty clear right away that she was a very inexperienced eater because she was not very good at chewing.  She must have mostly been given bottles and babyish food.  Being a mom the third time around, I'm not as careful as I was with Ella about what goes in.  I know this sounds irresponsible considering her hernia, however, I have talked to two different doctors about it and neither of them seem very concerned about it.  I guess China is much more prone to surgery for children who have really bad reflux, where in the U.S. doctors might just put them on medicine.  So who knows if she really needed the surgery she had.  We were told that she relapsed and needs another surgery but the doctors I talked to don't really think so.  We started off very slowly but from what I've seen so far, she is doing great!  We have fed her so many different foods...chicken, sausage, hamburger, french toast and of course noodles, noodles and more noodles...nothing hard because she doesn't chew as well as your typical two year old but she has not thrown up or even spit up once.  Not even a little bit!  She's getting better at chewing and is just an awesome eater! 

After naps, we walked to this nearby park.  It surrounds a lake and is beautiful.  There's a part that has carnival rides but it was closed, which ticked Ella off so we headed back to the hotel and went swimming, finally.  We've been wanting to swim this whole time but couldn't because of Ethan's stitches.  It was dark by the time we got to the pool so we went swimming in the dark.  Liana was hesitant at first because the water was cold but after splashing her feet for a while, we went in and she loved it!  We have another water baby on our hands!  Ethan just jumped right in, no hesitation.  He is amazing in the water.  Completely fearless!  Ella had a blast too and was swimming circles around the rest of us. 

I am a bit of a disaster physically right now.  I have had a cough for about 4 weeks.  A really nasty cough that sends me into coughing fits where I just cannot stop coughing.  I went to the doctor a few days before we left for China and got some antibiotics.  I thought that would be the that and I didn't even pack daytime cold medicine for us grown-ups.  Stupid me!  Whatever you don't pack is what you're going to need.  The antibiotics didn't even touch my cough, in fact, it got much, much worse.  In the last couple of days, it is finally starting to get better.  The part that sucks now is on my left side, I started having these terrible muscle pains around my ribs a few days ago and it is killing me.  It hurts when I cough, move my left arm, breathe deeply, sniff...anything.  Erik Google-diagnosed me as coughing so hard and so much that my muscles began to tear away from my ribs.  Sounds about right because I knew the coughing is what caused it.  I would cough so hard that I couldn't stop and I was always so sore afterwards around my ribs.  I guess coughing for four weeks straight is bound to have some consequences.  I managed to find some Robitussin at Walmart today.  Of course, it's in Chinese so I don't know exactly how much to take but filling the cup to the top line is always a safe bet, right? 

The other thing that I didn't pack that I regret is hydrocortisone cream.  I meant to buy some but I just forgot.  Liana has these terrible itchy spots all over her body which we think are from scabies.  Luckily, her pediatrician gave me a prescription for scabies cream and I do think it's helping but it takes a while before the itchy spots stop itching.  The scabies cream is just to kill the scabies, not help with the itching.  Thanks to other adoptive mamas, however, I now have oatmeal bath for her to bathe in and some hydrocortisone cream.  Thank you, other mamas!  The thing that ticked me off is, of course, Liana had these spots the day we got her but the next day at the notary's office, just when we were leaving, the notary noticed them and she and the orphanage director told me that we should take her to the hospital.  No one was concerned when we brought it up and asked questions but at the notary, they are all of a sudden concerned.  If the orphanage had taken care of it before we got her, we wouldn't be dealing with it now.  And no way are we taking her to a hospital here for it.  No way.  They tried to claim that they were mosquito bites when I asked questions.  These are not mosquito bites.  If they are, she is very allergic to mosquitoes.  This is why you come prepared when you adopt a child from China.  You never know what they might have when you get them.  And that's why I packed  pretty much everything we could have possibly needed, even antibiotics for Liana, if needed.  But of course none of the things that I packed are the things that I need and I forgot the things that I do need, well except for scabies cream.  I did have that!

Where's Liana?

 There she is!

Think it'll fit?

Our little strawberry

 Are you crazy, Mama?!

Oh, this isn't so bad.

 Scary pic of Ella and Ethan

Swimming with Baba

 Silly Daddy and his girls