[KarenInCa]

More ZIPLOCKS! and clothes tips for baby:

We used the extra large ziplock baggies for DDs clothes and diapers.
We had considered buying diapers in China, but glad we didn't. I guess it's a personal preference. Buying them in China saves space, but bringing saves hastle. If you decide to bring them, put them in large ziplock baggies and suck the air out of the baggies, they go fairly flat. Consider 4-5 per day.

Also, we found it extremely helpful to pack DD's clothes that way too. For each day there, I packed one outfit and had that outfit in it's own sealed ziplock bag....undershirt, top, pants, socks, hair ties....all in matching coordinates if I wanted. That way, DH could grab a baggie and dress DD without a huge amount of guess work. You can buy cute clothes in GZ, so I would only pack 1 outfit per day, with a few extra shirts.
The large baggies then doubled as a wounderful stink pot when they were empty, for diapers, and dirty clothes.

Now a little about the CLOHTING POLICE!
There are many older ladies that will scold you (We called them clothing police) if you do not have your child dressed in layers. Three layers seems to be the norm. t-shirt, top, jacket (or thin button up over shirt during warmer months). Also, the legs should be covered completely by socks or tights under the pants, even when the child sits down. Some people think this is just rude to scold parents when they don't follow this ....but we followed it.
There were two reasons-
-First, our daughter was used to dressing this way, and changing that could upset her emotionally as well as upset her health.
-Second, we thought it was important to show respect to the people.
The older women (and some older men) that scolded adoptive parents seemed to feel they had an important job to do. They view 3 layers of clothes as an act of love by the parents. Keep in mind, in China, ALL heat is turned off by the government in the south by March and then it's all turned off in the north by April, so in their minds, without three layers, the child could become sick. That's also why you will see pictures from Gotcha Day with the child dressed like the pillsburry doughboy. Our daughter came to us with 5 layers of clothes and a thick outer jacket in mid March. We thought she was just really fat and couldn't walk yet. Nope....she was layered so much that she looked fat, and the clothing restricted her from walking very far :-)
We found though, that the t-shirts also absorbed the sweat away from our daughter, during the humidity. No matter which time of year, you WILL feel the humidity, at least while in GZ.

As for adults. Bring enough socks and underware to toss them as you use them. The clothes are easily washed by laundrymats that pick up clothes from hotels for you, and brought back the next day...but really, who wants someone to wash, dry, and press their underware and dirty socks?.....besides Mom. Buy a few bags of the bulk socks and bulk underware from Walmart or target, and you'll do just fine wearing them and tossing them without breaking the bank.

Keep the tips coming......Who's next?