It's Official

Today we completed the final paperwork making Alex a permanent part of our family! There was an enormous caravan of families walking through the streets of Zhengzhou going and returning from the Notary's office. We attracted a lot of attention, and groups of people actually stopped to watch us walk by. We dropped off some laundry at a local laundry place (somehow "Chinese laundry" just doesn't sound quite right - what else would it be?) and thought at first that our guides were engaged in a serious dispute with the proprietors, but later they said they were just clarifying payment arrangements. We're having some trouble accommodating our vegetarian tastes and Owen's finicky appetite, but we're gorging at the buffet breakfast and making up the rest with room service. Alex is fabulous and will eat just about anything so long as it's soft. He is becoming very attached to all of us. When he sees Ellen he breaks into a big smile and runs (well, perhaps "toddles" is more accurate) after her, calling "Ma ma!" And he knows Owen as "Ge ge" (big brother, pronounced Guh-guh) and is constantly amused by Owen's zany madcap antics. Dad he may be calling Da-da, although in Mandarin that means "Big big", so I'm not so sure. He laughs easily and often and is quite content to walk around outside with us. Thank goodness for that infant carrier. Owen is getting used to being a big brother with some mixed success - trouble with sharing, especially when Alex toddles into the middle of an episode of Owen and Dad playing Transformers. But he gets a big charge out of Alex saying Ge ge and has learned to play some of Alex's games, of which Alex's favorite seems to be "Let me give you this object, hey what do you think you're doing that's mine".