We have pooped!

For a while there, we thought that Xiu Dan would never poop. Three days in, and she was still feces-free. We surmised that all of the solid food we had given her was going directly into thigh production, but apparently she does have a fully functional colon.

We did a little research about Chinese potty training, and we discovered that we can 'facilitate elimination' by setting her on the potty, lifting her knees and making "ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca" noises. Amazing, these Chinese babies. No wonder she was grumpy all day. We didn't know how to poop her. After about 10 seconds of "ca-ca-ca," she started to grunt, screw up her face, and well, you get the rest. Woohoo. We don't have to go the suppository route. Ew.

Anyway, Xiu Dan is now asleep, and the boys are getting ready for bed. We had a pretty good dinner tonight. Eating out in Nanchang has been more challenging than anywhere else we've been in China. Neither the menus nor the waiters speak English. Some have pictures, but at one restaurant, we actually had to do animal sounds to indicate what kind of meat we wanted. We now bring along a handy Chinese phrase book, which actually works better than just looking at the menu pictures. Tonight, for instance, we just looked and pointed, and were a little surprised to find that what looked like sliced beef, was actually sliced intestines of some sort. Tasty, but kind of gross. Also, the little pictures didn't show the chopped up frogs ended up in our fried noodles. No problem. We're all exceeding our recommended caloric intake anyway.

Pray that Xiu Dan attaches fully to Kori; it's flattering for me, but a bit of a drag. I'm tired of holding her all of the time, and Kori isn't getting all of the love she'd like to receive from the girl. Oh, well. We have lots of time to work on that.

At some point, I'll try to write down some of my thoughts about China as a nation/society. A lot of great things, a lot of not-so-great. That having been said, we're in love with the country and its people despite its shortcomings. To slightly modify the old saying about churches, "If you find a perfect country, don't go there -- you'll screw it all up."