It's just a dog's life for my 2 pooches right now and for little Alana who is finally starting to show a little emotion. As for the dogs, well, life's a bitch, and so is Lola! I had to;) They've been displaced as babies of the house and although they are taking it well, they still try to squeeze in between Alana and I or Carol. They are learning but it's pitiful. Alana, on the other hand is starting to voice her displeasure with certain things. To me, that's good because her emotions are starting to come to the surface. We did a couple of test visits but she still has that dear-caught-in-the-headlights look with restrained reactions. At least, less than when it's just the 3 of us at home. It's coming tho! Take a look...

Visiting Grandma and Great-Grandma...


With Uncle Georgie...


With Grandma and Grandpa Brebion...



And kissing dada's nose (she gives the best sloppy kisses!)...

since writing takes more time and energy than i have right now, i'll upload pics. enjoy!

Look who's learning about doggies! Alana has been having fun watching the dogs romp around and they have been a little weary of her but have been slowly making advances to sniff. Today Alana got a nice wet sloppy doggie kiss from Lola and we were able to catch Lola acting as a back rest! No really, it wasn't staged at all! To tell the truth all is not well in paradise. We have been battling this cold as well as sleep deprivation since we got back. Kiddo has been less than interested in taking naps and visiting the doctor for her first shots didn't help matters. Dr. Mommy, in her infinite wisdom, decided to schedule Alana's first vaccines. One shot in each leg. Would you believe she didn't even flinch? At least, for the first one. Then, only after the needle was pulled out on the second one did she let out a SOLID wail. That lasted a good 3 seconds and it was back to being a happy little kiddo! What a trooper. Daddy, on the other hand, was getting wobbly knees and was about to pass out. Wuss. So after that excitement, we went home and nursed the slight fever Alana had from the shots. "Hey, I've got an idea, (inhale bat) let's fly back from China and start making appointments to really screw the sleep schedule up! pfffffffffffffffffffffffff." Oi.

Mummy and baby doing much better. Actually, this pic was taken in China but hey, it's cute. NB: We've turned off all the phones so, leave a message or email us and we'll call back! Thanks!

Ah jet lag. People probably pay money to feel this way. I have been paying money not to. I made a pharmacy run yesterday to get a hat-trick of drugs to knock out whatever is knocking us out. Dristan, Tylenol Cold Night (sedatives are good), and Buckleys. "It tastes bad, but it works." No, it assaults it does not "taste". We have been carrying around Alana's first gift with us since we got her and it just got multiplied by 11 hours once we got home. So as you can imagine, we all feel like fertilizer. I guess our antibodies are ineffective with what is mutating over the Pacific. Our poor little peanut doesn't know what hit her as she has been getting hit by all sorts of things. Jet lag, cold, diaper rash, new mom and dad, plane rides, bus rides, her first car ride, new doggies, new surroundings. She didn't do too well her first night as she was still on Beijing time and we knew we had to do something. We had to bring out, the Bad Parents! The only way to break the sleep cycle is to replace it with another, soooooooo, we KEPT HER UP!!! AAAAAHHH! Sadistic as we are, we did not let her nap at all yesterday and forced her to stay awake. We had planned to keep her going till 8 pm but by 6 her body would go completely limp and her eyes would snap the Flintsontian toothpicks. She was too funny! I would give her a tummy raspberry, she would giggle once and snore. I would bounce her on my knee and she would giggle once, and snore. Poor peanut was completely wiped out. As I write this, Alana is working on her 14th hour of sleep with one 3 am call for the Daddy Rocker. Things are well on their way to being normal, I just wish I was. Jim=Hurting. BTW; she likes doggies and they like her! Hooray!

Homecoming with a teary eyed Mommy;
Wow! Windows in english! What a novelty! I see that there are a bunch of comments for me to read and pics to put up so, I got some work to do. We arrived home after a very warm welcome from Roger, Monique, Jo and War around midnight. Mom, Dad and baby were zonked. Alana had some trouble getting down and was just amazed at all the new stuff to take in. I just had to rock her back to sleep as she is jet lagged too. Poor peanut. Thanks for all the warm wishes while we were gone everyone. It was nice to hear from home. We had a teary goodbye with the other families at the airport and it was nice to see all the families reunite. I am going to miss that bunch. Currently 6;30am now and I'm not sure if I should have coffee or a stiff drink, I need them both!Better stick with the coffee as I know there are 2 very anxious four legged friends waiting to be picked up this morning! -Sigh- home.

Well, we've come to the end of our journey, faithful readers, and the 3 of us are really anxious to be getting home. Don't despair though as I will be updating all the entries I made with the corresponding pictures. Hey, I might even be adding a few more entries as Alana picks up the pace of my life! Less than 20 hours to go and I can't wait till Lola and Buddy give me some really sloppy, wet, doggie kisses! Ah, home. --- Today, we slept. We had the chance to go see the Summer Palace and Beijing zoo but we decided to rest up for the trip home. We have 11 hours to Vancouver, 2 hour stopover, and 4.5 hours to Montreal. It all starts at somewhere around 6 pm Beijing time. I confirmed our places on the plane and managed to fanagle the front row seats where there are baby bassinets on the wall. We will be rotating the use of these bassinets with the other kids, there are 8 in our group and I think 3 or 4 baby beds. I must say that our group got along fabulously. We had 8 couples, actually 6 couples, one pair of sisters and a mom and daughter pair. Very easy going bunch. The rant from yesterday's blog was mainly about the other group from Quebec that traveled with us from the same agency. We were 26 all in all. Also, our guides, Monica in Nanchang and especially Mrs. Chuang from Beijing were just awesome. If anyone would like to visit China, a guide like Mrs. Chuang is a must. She is a pro. Military style! When she says we are leaving at 9;15 we are LEAVING at 9;15 and all are on board heads counted and babies must be dressed! She speaks Chinese and French and knows how to maneuver through Chinese bureaucracy. She also has a great handle on Chinese history so we got a running commentary through the streets of Nanchang and Beijing. Just awesome. There is a predetermined amount of tipping for guides, drivers and bag boys and Mrs. Chuang already got a raise. We decided to up her portion of the tip pool. She earned it. She was a factory worker who got randomly picked out of the factory by the Red Party to be sent to school and learn French. That's how they did it back then. No bourgeois aptitude tests here. "You, you and you! Learn for your country!" That was somewhere back in the 70s and now she works for Enfants du Monde and other such adoption agencies from other French speaking countries. She is a real trooper. She also swims 400 laps a day! I'm so grateful to her. I'm off to get a decent night's sleep. Farewell blog readers and remember; "If there is an emergency, eat first, deal with it after." BTW, what they said about Peking Duck is true.

18 hrs on a plane does strange things to people;
That's it. I've had it. Not with china. Not with Beijing. Certainly not with alana or carol. I've had it with whining, entitled, racist, people from north America! Ugh. Now before you hit me with "you made racist comments about the sales people..." That was in jest and it was only towards the clerks. There are 2 kinds of people I hate, people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the DUTCH! No really, you come to china, there are one and a half BILLION people, and you expect them to speak French?????? You expect them to cater to your every whim???? BITE ME! Oh yes, people that know me were probably expecting this to happen, now I'm having a rant! If anyone is just a little SENSITIVE about what I'm about to say, turn off your computers and go water your grass or something. I am really getting sick of a certain kind of American and quebecer that just goes around shooting their mouths off without THINKING. I have one thing to say to all these people, MAKE SURE YOUR BRAIN IS ENGAGED BEFORE PUTTING YOUR MOUTH IN GEAR. YOU ARE ACTING LIKE A-HOLES! Comments I have heard on this trip, "these people are dirty..." "cant the signs be in French..." "cant we eat anything that doesn't taste Chinese..." "don't these people have rules..." And the kicker "why cant we eat at McDonald's?" that last one I wanted to slap but my daughter was watching. Yes, I miss home too. But I have not met ONE insensitive or unfriendly person that comes from here. Maybe its the fact that I have a baby with me. The Chinese LOVE babies. If we stop for any amount of time, we are immediately surrounded by giggling and cooing Chinese people. They are SO friendly! If they know any amount of English, they will share it with you and if you respond with a NI HAO or XIE XIE they are absolutely charmed. Today we visited the Forbidden City and Tienamen(sp?) Square. This was one of the bronze lions protecting the entrance to the emperor's throne.

People wanted to take their pictures with us standing next to them! Real rock star stuff! So funny! I'm really glad Carol brought those Canadian Post Cards. We would just give them away to the kids who would stop to look at Alana. The forbidden city was just ... I don't know what to say. Awe inspiring, magnificent, humbling, impressive etc. There is a reason why it is called a "city". It covers 40000 hectares and is completely surrounded by a moat. The main gates are about 50 meters thick! The roof tops, and there are many, are all covered with fire glazed tile.

I think our guide said something like 9 thousand 9 hundred and ninety nine rooms! If you are going to sequester yourself from the rest of humanity, you need that many rooms to do it. And you need your 72 concubines too! There are alleys and streets and parks and all paved with hand laid stone and marble. What a heritage Alana has!

Tienamen is just adjacent to the Forbidden City but there was not much to see there. It is just an open square with streets and buildings around it. Even though it was the site of the tradgedy of the 80's, it is still used as a location for peaceful demonstrations. This is the New China after all and alot has changed. We took it easy this afternoon as my girls were a little tired. We got back to our room and Alana wouldn't go down so Carol picked her up and she immediately started snorring on top of Mom. Sweetness.

And tonight, I am about to find out if this city lives up to it's old name sake. PEIKING DUCK! Later Peeps!