Thursday-Friday,
June 30-July 1, 2011
FREE DAY IN SUZHOU
June 30 -
Today we didn’t have any scheduled activities, since it was the
day Jamie had arranged to be picked up at the hotel and taken to
tour the plant he was supposed to inspect for his job. He left
at 8 and was scheduled to be dropped off back at the hotel at 5,
leaving the kids and I with the whole day to amuse ourselves.
Once again, an online friend put us in touch with some wonderful
local expats, who picked us up at our hotel and showed us some
great local shopping spots, where we purchased gifts and
souvenirs as well as a beautiful pearl necklace made with pearl
from Callie’s home province of Suzhou. We will save it to give
her on her wedding day and I know she will treasure it. The
wonderful employees at the pearl factory were also gracious
enough to re-string the strand of pearls Callie has been wearing
since we got her. I had been afraid to take it off, as it was
tied with a red thread and had no clasp. I was afraid that the
minute I attempted to untie it all of the pearls would fall off
and we wouldn’t be able to get it back on. They were able to cut
it off carefully and re-strin g the pearls, adding a few more to
grow on and a clasp so that she can take it on and off. She
seems very attached to her jewelry and hasn’t taken any of It
off until today.
After shopping for souvenirs and pearls everyone was ready for a
late lunch so our new friends took us to a local Tex-Mex
restaurant, where the food was absolutely delicious and the
portion sizes enormous. It was the best taste of home we’ve had
since we’ve been in China, and we throroughly enjoyed it. Best
of all, they had REAL diet coke, the first we’ve found since
we’ve been in China. I had two with dinner and one to go, I have
been having serious Diet Coke withdrawals since we’ve been here.
After lunch we returned to the hotel, where we picked up Jamie
and headed for the train station. As I type this we are on a
high speed train back to Nanjing, where we will return to our
previous hotel and spend the night . Tomorrow our guide will
pick up Callie’s paperwork and passport and then we will head to
the airport, bound for Guangzhou. I will probably wait and post
then, since we didn’t take any pictures today and I know that’s
all most of you are interested in :)
HEADED TO GUANGZHOU
July 1 -
Today we slept in and then spent the morning repacking
everything to make sure none of our bags were over the weight
limits for our flight to Guangzhou. We managed to get all of our
checked baggage under the limit but our backpacks weighed about
40 lbs apiece. I hung one of them on the back of Callie’s
stroller and it actually started tipping her over! We made it on
the flight without incident and Callie took it all in stride.
She and Maili spent the entire flight trading Gameboy games and
giggling together, they play very well together and entertain
each other. We had been concerned that with Callie’s heart
condition she might require oxygen to fly but she seemed to do
fine and I couldn’t tell that it affected her at all. She
giggled during takeoff and landing, and her laugh was so
infectious that the people around us kept smiling and pointing
at her. She has a raspy little voice with the funniest deep
laugh, and you can’t help but laugh with her.
Callie continues to be easygoing and extremely flexible, Maili
not so much. As predicted, she has exhibited some regression and
challenging behaviors, and we are trying to be patient but it
can get very tiring at times, particularly when she resorts to
whining and temper tantrums. Holt has run out of patience with
her altogether at this point, and doesn’t hesitate to complain
to anyone who will listen. Of the three, Callie has been by far
the best behaved in the past couple of days. The other two could
use a good nap! A lot of the behaviors we saw from Maili on our
adoption trip for her have resurfaced, and she has really been
testing our patience deliberately over the past few days. She
doesn’t seem openly jealous or resentful of Callie, but it is
obvious that she’s having difficulty processing the changes that
have taken place over the past few days. I think a lot of it
stems from just being back in China and not feeling like she
fits in here anymore, she really does seem sad that she doesn’t
understand Chinese or recognize the food anymore. She has been
awesome about sharing everything with Callie and being sweet to
her, and she doesn’t even mind sharing Mom’s lap with her, so I
do think that being back in China and the hectic schedule
probably have contributed as much if not more to her
difficulties. At any rate, please everyone keep her In your
prayers as she adjusts to the changes. Holt has taken it all in
stride this time, and he’s been an awesome helper. A little too
awesome at times, and we’ve had to remind him that he’s not the
parent. Callie absolutely adores him, but he sometimes oversteps
the bounds wanting to do everything for her that we as parents
need to do right now. We’ve tried to explain to him that we need
to take care of all of her basic needs so that she will
recognize that we are her parents, and he gets that but
sometimes he’s disappointed when he can’t be the one to feed her
or carry her around, especially since she loves for him to do
those things.
She’s so tiny and cute that it’s hard to remember she’s the same
age as Maili, and she continues to amaze us with her ability to
figure things out and learn information. She watched the Signing
Time video two times and she knows all of the signs on there and
uses them appropriately, along with the English words for them.
Yesterday she made her first sentence completely in English ,
telling Maili “Jie Jie, NO SHOES” when she tried to enter the
play area at the restaurant with her shoes still on . She tries
to boss Maili and Holt around but they just look at her and
laugh, since they don’t take her seriously. Then instead of
getting upset, she ends up laughing too. We’ve had to adjust to
a new noise level with the three of them, but it’s been in a
good way, since more often than not they are all giggling
together at something Callie has said or done. She can imitate
Holt perfectly and parrots back to him everything he says,
causing all of them to go into fits of giggles. He tries to say
big long sentences really fast to trip her up, but she repeats
them perfectly every time, which cracks us all up. She will
definitely pick up English quickly, and her pronunciation is
excellent. It’s so hard to believe she’s been with us only 5
days, it seems like much longer. In those 5 days she has learned
to count to 5 in English but still needs a little help with
6-10. She says shoes, thank you, apple, cookie, banana, uh-oh,
and yummy yummy yummy.
I gave each of the kids a Lego kit and sent them to work on them
while we packed up this morning, thinking it would keep them
busy for awhile. Amazingly enough, Callie was the first one to
complete hers, and I watched her follow the diagram step by step
to do it. She was very proud of herself for figuring hers out
before Holt and JieJie, as she calls Maili. She folds clothes
rather meticulously too, and she cracked us up this morning when
Maili tried to copy her technique. She put her hands on her
hips, shook her head, and declared, “ Bu Dui, Jie Jie, Bu Dui.”
(Not correct, big sister, not correct) Then she made the most
hilarious face while she refolded Maili’s pajamas the way she
thought they should be folded. We call it her fake mad face,
because she tries to look disapproving but she always ends up
cracking herself up when she does it. She likes to do it when
I’m trying to take her picture. Which I haven’t done much in the
past couple of days because we’ve either been shopping or
traveling most of the time. But here are a few.. |
Her fake mad face
Watching Baba do a coin trick
Where did it go
Jamie pulling a coin out of her ear
Do it again, Baba
You're cracking me up
Sleepy girls
Arriving in Guangzhou |
