Wednesday,
November 5, 2008
We were supposed to go shopping today with our guide on
Ancient Culture Street, the local market area. However,
plans got changed when Holt began throwing up after dinner
and continued long into the night. So we mostly stayed in
the room all day so that he could catch up on his rest and
he finally was able to eat about 7 tonight after avoiding
food all day. He seems to be feeling better now so
hopefully we will be able to go tomorrow. We did get brave
and catch a cab to the local Wal-Mart, where we picked up
a few necessities and some McDonald’s to take back to the
room. I must say, those golden arches never looked so
good! I have never cared for fast food, particularly from
there, but I was more than happy to eat that hamburger
tonight since it was such a nice change from room service.
It seems that much of what we order gets lost in the
translation-last night for example, I asked for some
ketchup and somehow ended up with two pieces of toast!
Maili continues to adjust well- she seems to understand
the majority of what we say to her and is picking up new
words pretty quickly. She has an impish sense of humor and
laughs at everything, particularly when she can trick you
into doing something. Her favorite trick is to distract
you by pretending to open her arms for a big hug and then
grab whatever she is not supposed to have when you lift
your arms to hug her back. She gets a big kick out of that
one.
I was putting Holt to bed and gave him hugs and kisses and
told him “Wo ai Ni” which means I love you. She is rarely
affectionate unless it is on her own terms but we want her
to see us being loving and affectionate with Holt so I try
to use phrases she can understand. She jumped up out of
her bed and ran across the room with her arms outstretched
and said “Wo ai ni, mama” and melted my heart. She can be
so sweet and adorable when she wants to be. She is still
testing limits by throwing things across the room and
flipping the tv on and off when we tell her not to. We
have begun putting toys in time out when she throws them
and she has cut down on that a lot today. She will pout
when she doesn’t get her way and then peek at us out of
the corner of her eye to gauge our reaction.
Not many pictures to post today but I’ll dig up a few from
yesterday. You will notice she is wearing her jacket in
most of them; she insists on keeping it buttoned up over
her clothes whether we are inside or out, I think she is
just more comfortable with more layers. She still insists
on carrying most of her new toys with her when we leave
the room, she is not quite comfortable letting them out of
her sight. She did make it out the door to breakfast
without all of them in tow this morning, so we are making
progress. She is slowly beginning to realize that when we
leave the room we will come back and her belongings will
still be there when we return. In the beginning she
insisted on taking EVERYTHING with her each time we left,
I think she thought we were taking her back to the
orphanage. Now she is down to taking a few prized
belongings and she will allow us to help her carry them
instead of hanging on to them for dear life. One step at a
time, I guess.
|
Learning photography basics from Meme
Feeding pa crackers
Happy girl playing with BaBa
Poor Holt wasn't feeling well today
Meme and Mei Mei reading together |
