Day two in Taiwan with more pics!

I think as quickly as baby learns, we’re learning too. What works, what doesn’t, what REALLY doesn’t – what she likes, what makes her laugh, what games to play. She is a talker. She drops her pacifier and launches into long, complex baby discourse – usually concluding with an emphatic DADADADADA. It makes us giggle hysterically every time she does it. She’s smiling more and more as we create little routines with her- like when I lay her down and dangle my hair over her so she can pull on it, and when Nikolai talks to her in deepest baritone. But she’s also pretty fussy- arching her back, rubbing her head, and mock-crying often. Its pretty distressing, not to know what’s wrong. And we find ourselves wondering what to DO with her- there are only so many little games our tired brains can come up with… But our biggest concern is that she hasn’t gone #2 since we got her- a day and a half ago. Our agency rep told us this is extremely common for babies when they’ve just been picked up, but we're a bit worried about it and don’t quite know what to do. I’ve given her a few licks of the prune baby food I brought, to no avail. But she loves her bottle and otherwise seems fine physically.

Anyway – yesterday we hung out here in the hotel room, mostly, and I was glad we did. We did go for a short stroller walk around the hotel, and she conked right out (yay! A stroller-friendly baby!), and later went out to find some grub- ended up with a good meal from a little local shop. But the roads around here are so loud, crowded, and polluted, she seemed to go into a bit of shock – although she was quiet the whole time, she was really fussy for a long time after we got home. Oh, and in the morning we Baby-Bjorned our way to a nearby shopping complex for some diapers and baked goods. (For some inexplicable reason the foster mom’s set of instructions for Helena ordered us to buy her extra large diapers. We did, and they fell right off her- they are for babies that weight 10 pounds more than her…)

We’ve decided to divide and conquer. Last night Nikolai was on baby duty, so I could get some sleep. Ah, blissful sleep… I slept from 9 to 5, and awoke feeling refreshed. Helena had just woken, so I relieved Nikolai, gave her a bottle, and she’s now lying asleep again in her crib. Life is good!!

Our hotel

learning to eat one-handed.