Erin Adventures!

Erin Adventures!

She has been a busy girl since becoming a little Coghill. With all her adventures out, we are so very proud of her -- she takes all the long bus rides in stride, goes with the flow, never fusses, and seems to be happy all of the time. She amazes us.

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some of the other families and saw pandas, tigers, bears, monkeys and believe it or not...a whole area devoted to r-a-t-s! Big, hairy, ugly, gross, giant RATS!! Not sure of their significance in the zoo...all of the families were completely grossed out. The babies didn't seem to care much. We passed on taking pictures of the rats, but we have included a few others.

Lots of Chinese people come up to Erin and smile and nod and say things to us that we don't understand, but it all seems to point to Erin and we think they think she is cute. She does have a sweet personality and a very sweet disposition.

We are starting to learn when she is hungry and tired and so on. She slept from 9pm last night until 7:30am this morning. She seems to be getting over her cold -- we took her to the hotel doc on Monday and he gave us some medicine to help her along. He also removed some clumps of wax from both her ears -- uh, something we have learned she does NOT like. But, the very second it's over, she's like, "ok, cool. that's done. let's play!"

She gets some rice cereal for dinner each day -- and she has gotten better with being fed by a spoon. She had some congee with formula at breakfast -- and she is used to having it only from a bottle...so it may take a little longer to get her used to that by spoon. We are going to spend a little time teaching her to hold her bottle and the "hand to mouth" routine that she currently has no concept of.

She laughs with us now, smiles, gets so very, very excited about things, remains curious and still licks everything in sight. We have a few down days -- no appointments or meetings or anything official -- so we hope to go to the park, take lots of walks and spend some time in the playroom (the hotel has a big, fully stocked playroom for the babies!).

We'll do our best to keep you posted. Know that her pictures do not even come close to showing how precious and adorable and tiny and cute and sweet and soft she is!

love,
Sheila and Steve

Another couple days

Hello, I'm Erin...
















On Sunday we went to a Buddhist temple in downtown Guangzhou. Erin was excited to see the big brass Buddhas and even sang along as the monks chanted. Sheila and Steve took turns climbing the pagoda - where we and took some pictures and video of the grounds and the city.

On Monday we had to go to the police station - again in downtown Guangzhou so Erin could have her passport photo taken. She squirmed a lot - but gave a big smile.

Monday night we went out for Thai food - and when we got back to the room - Erin was all full of giggles and big toothless smiles. I think she's getting used to us - and realizing we're not going away.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we're planning to go to the zoo. Friends have warned us that it's not a very exciting place to visit - and a little depressing - but it's the daily outings that make the time go by faster.

FIRSTS!!

Friday the 26th was a day of "firsts" for the newly expanded Coghill family.

It was our first full day together as a family. It went very well.

It was Erin's first adventure with a stroller. She does not like to be bound up -- so she was squirmy at first. Once we started moving, she was way into the stroller thing. And there was so much to see!

Erin got her very first pair of shoes. Little, soft, white leather shoes with a pink butterfly attached. She keeps looking down at them, leaning over to them, and trying to bring them back up to her. She thinks they are new toys. But they do look smashing on her!

Erin ate some rice cearal from a spoon. Not much...as she has no concept of the spoon yet...but she is a "go for it" girl, and we managed to get a few bites in over the top of the tongue for about 4-5 small spoonfuls. Good girl.

Erin's first song was, "Pretty Balerina" by The Left Banke (the same group that did "Walk Away Renee" in the 60's). We thought that was appropriate -- and given the rest of the iPod has Zombies, Ramones, Death Cab for Cutie, Beatles, Monkees, Luna, and so on on it, we thought this was a lovely choice for our new baby girl! Her eyes lit up and her head spun around when she first heard the music!

Her first "dance" was to Louden Wainwright III's "Swimming Song." While sitting on her Daddy's lap and listening, she started to rock during that one! Good girl!

She had her first ever, real bath. We plopped her into the tub and she did a little "shimmy and shake" at first. Looked around and gave a little whine when we poured water over the top of her head. But then all was right with the world. The "texture" of the water was of real curiosity to her. She was all sweet and clean in no time!

Erin ventured out and sat in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time. She behaved very well, playing with the lid of the water bottle (it's bright green and looks like a little cup). Her other favorite toy is her tube of diaper rash ointment.

Ta-DA! Erin had her first Cheerio as well. We gave her one. She really doesn't know how to eat or chew, but she seemed interested. She sucked on it and rolled it around a lot -- we helped her keep it in her mouth. Overall, we feel the Cheerio was a success.

Since she was asleep when we got her and brought her home, she seems mostly to just "tolerate" us right now. Like we're the people, but different people, who take care of her. She is slowly learning to look at us, reach for us, and play with us. She does extrordinarily well on her own (not surprising), so we are trying to balance a mix of alone play (which she is used to) and "us" play (so she will get to know us).

She is a great grunter, raspberries a lot with her mouth, squeals when she is excited, and she licks everything. Can anyone tell us if we should be concerned about that?? She scratches everthing she can get her hands on -- like she's exploring the textures of things brand new to her. She kicks her little legs a lot which is fun to watch.

Her nickname at the orphanage is "gua-gua" so we call her that every once in awhile to get her attention. She is adventurous, curious, very sweet, well-tempered, and a sound sleeper through the night. We are working on having her crawl around and stand while we hold her so we can work some of the meat of those chunky thighs of hers!!

More to come...all is well in Cogruehill land.
xo
Sheila and Steve

Here she is!!!

Finally!!!

About 4:30pm (Guangzhou time) on Thursday, January 25th, the director of Erin's orphanage brought her out and handed her to Sheila.

It's hard to see from the picture above - but she was sound asleep when she was brought out. She opened her eyes for just a few seconds as Sheila held her - but dozed off again. In fact, she slept for about the first half hour we had her.










The director answered some questions we had about Erin. Then we drove back to the hotel.

It's now about 9:45pm and mother and daughter are sound asleep.

It's been a long journey - but we finally have her in our arms!!

Almost there!

Just wanted to let everyone we made it to Hong Kong. Got in around 7:45pm Tuesday night. It was a LONG 15 hours on that plane - but we went over the Arctic Circle and got to see what it looks like at the North Pole! Flying into Hong Kong was really neat. I've never seen so many skyscrapers in my life. In the U.S. the skyscrapers usually seem to be situated in city's "downtown" area - but here - they are spread out all over the place. Here's a little history about Hong Kong that I found online - in case you want to know more:

Occupied by the UK in 1841, Hong Kong was formally ceded by China the following year; various adjacent lands were added later in the 19th century. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and the UK on 19 December 1984, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 1 July 1997. In this agreement, China has promised that, under its "one country, two systems" formula, China's socialist economic system will not be imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years. On July 1, 1997, China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, ending more than 150 years of British colonial rule.

Wish we had time to see more of the city - but we're off to Guangzhou shortly. We'll write again when we find internet access in Guangzhou.

Keep an eye on the blog - where we'll post updates - and pictures!

Steve and Sheila

THIS IS IT!

We just found out this morning that we will have Erin Cassidy in our arms on the 25th of January!! Sorry we haven't sent updates lately -- but there was really no news. Yes. We have been waiting since 30 November to find out our travel dates!

We leave for Hong Kong on Monday 22 January. We arrive Saturday evening the 23rd. We will spend the night in Hong Kong and fly to Guangzhou the next day -- the 24th. We have an appointment to pick her up on Thursday the 25th.

We will have her with us from then on. For two weeks we'll remian in Guangzhou -- where we will have appointments and meetings and interviews so that when we return home, she will be adopted, a U.S. citizen, and officially a Coghill!

We fly home 8 February -- her birthday! She'll be 10 months old that day. We have plenty to keep us busy for the next week, and we'll do our best to keep you updated.

Yes, we are on cloud 9 and I can't imagine coming down anytime soon.

Love to all of you,
Steve and Sheila