Today was a relaxing day

We just got back from a tasty dinner with our group and I have the baby with me in her carrier on my lap as I am writing this. She is so cute - I could just eat her up. She is staring at the 2 ladies behind me who work in the business center and playing with her cheerios cup. She loves that thing! She is the happiest baby - loves to smile and laugh at her mommy and nini. I took a few pics today but my camera isn't with me so I'll add them tomorrow :-)

This morning we took our trip to Walmart and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't as crowded as walmart at home, although it was very hot. It was 3 floors and there is an escalator you take your shopping cart down - like IKEA! My mom took a picture of me in the walmart - I'll post tomorrow. Amaya was napping for most of the shopping field trip. I must say it's a surreal experience being in a walmart in china! We saw other groups of americans with chinese babies - it's such an amazing thing! I got smiles and nods from older chinese women in the walmart and the other Amy got a thumbs up. They are big on keeping the babies layered here so we must be sure to keep them super bundled up!

The rest of the day we had tummy time, napped - both baby and momma and went to dinner. Last night she had her first doctor checkup. It was so hard seeing her cry when he put the tongue depressor in her mouth - she hated it and I wasn't holding her - I had to turn away cuz I was tearing up. The best part was though when it was over she was crying and crying and when I picked her up she stopped immediately. She knows I'm her mommy! :-)

and I felt like a great mommy, I'm learning and feeling more competent each day until I made my first big booboo! I think she forgave me today though. Big Lesson Number 1: NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY! She fell asleep at 9:30pm and slept soundly until 3:30 am. I moved the crib next to me so when I rolled over I could check on her. While at 3:30 she had one foot out of the crib rail and one hand out the other side, and her face was smushed to the side in the mattress. Of course, my biggest worry is that she is going to stop breathing in the middle of the night so I just gently adjusted her and then of course she woke up crying. She only cries for a few minutes and then stops when she wakes up but she couldn't fall back asleep and was getting so frustrated! I walked her - that has been working to get her to sleep so far but not last night. We were up until 5:45!! Finally I put her in my bed next to me and she was so sweet, she does this cute thing when she is trying to sleep - she must have soothed herself like this in the orphanage - she uses her fingers and scratches the bedding and pulls on things. So in my bed she was grabbing my tshirt and scratching my arm , my tummy, my hair and then fell asleep. She is my little baobao! Then I didn't want to move her so I let her sleep there but was worried about rolling over on her so I didn't sleep so good after that. We both napped good today to make up for mommy's mistake! :-)

Right now we are going to go upstairs and try a sponge bath this time. I am going to try getting in the tub with her next time - thanks to Andrea and Holly for their helpful hints!

I'm so glad the comments are going to my email now - it's great to hear from everyone! We miss you and love you and will post pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to a famous pavilion 5 minutes from our hotel and seeing a show - I'm excited about it!