Tuesday, December 1, 2009
SISTER DAY!!

Another wonderful day for us in China…

We had a bit of a rough night last night. Brandy was up several times during the night with the girls. At about 2:00 this morning Sophie fell out of the bed for the second time in two nights. She has a very distinct little cry that puts me on high alert. I jumped out of bed as fast as I ever have in my life and picked her up to tuck her back in. She is an EXTREMELY sweet little girl. Really, and I’m not biased at all!!! Right.

We did manage to all fall back to sleep and wake up at a more reasonable hour. After breakfast we headed down to the lobby to meet the tour bus headed for the Zoo. Sophie has been slowly discovering that she has a lot of cool stuff in her little ladybug backpack. Yesterday, with a little help from Fessick, she discovered her sunglasses. Today, she hardly took them off. I could imagine her singing the song, “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night”. Sometimes I am WAY 80’s.

After seeing the pandas and elephants and other cool animals, we headed to a local restaurant famous for it’s Peking Duck. The lunch was very good. The biggest surprise for us was that Michelle, our guide on the last trip, dropped in to say hello and to eat lunch with us. Amalie was thrilled to see her again. Michelle is good friends with Grace and after lunch the two headed to the hospital. Grace has had Lasic surgery on her eyes and Michelle is thinking about getting it. Grace went with her for moral support. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the acrobat show. We thought we would be going tonight but it turns out Grace couldn’t get the seats she wanted for us until tomorrow night.

Since we had some free time in the room the girls did some writing. I was trying to read my Andre Agassi book and was having a very loving little girl shine her flashlight in my eyes. After several warnings accompanied by the ASL sign for no (which this smart girl has learned already along with about 30 others), she bought herself her first timeout. I think she was so stunned she didn’t know what to do except be a perfect little angel in the timeout chair. After six minutes of silence, the timeout ended and she got the requisite hugs from mom and dad. She really does want to be a good girl. During the hug phase she started to cry. Some more hugs and then we decided to break out the pink balloons for a little balloon tennis. No more tears!

We bashed the balloons around for about 30 minutes and then I decided that we should take the disposable cameras to get them developed. The girls wanted to go with me. I carried the two of them down to the lobby. People give us huge smiles. I think they are surprised Fessick can carry one little girl in each arm. It really is about all I can handle. It’s not so much the 50 lbs in each arm as it is all the squirming. It’s worth it to see the smiles on their little faces.

We saw Michelle and Grace in the lobby. I phoned up to the room so that Brandy could bring down the present that we had for Michelle. They wound up talking in the lobby the whole time the girls and I were gone with the cameras. We got a nice compliment from Michelle. She said she hopes her family will have a child as well behaved as ours. (She wants her husband to meet us and see our family style)

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with the girls in the room. We had fun. Sophie bought herself two more timeouts though. Each time she reacted well. It is nice that she is bonded strongly enough in such a short time that we can begin to correct a few little behavior problems (basically we mean it when we say no). She is a charmer!! The orphanage director told us that she was very popular with all of the other children. She has wonderful facial expressions. She even wiggles her eyebrows up and down when she’s about to do something extra cute. It makes me grin from ear to ear.

We’ve tried a different sleeping arrangement for the night. Since we don’t want Sophie to take anymore tumbles out of the bed, we’ve pushed one of the beds up against the wall and put Sophie on the inside so she can’t fall out. Amalie, not happy with the new arrangement, has just purchased her first timeout of the trip. It’s hard not always getting what you want.

All in all I’d say things have gone WAY better than I expected. It’s nice to be in familiar territory while we try to meet these new parenting challenges. So far I feel that we’ve been more than up to the task. Fessick is going STRONG!!!

We have been happy to see Amalie, the big sister, doing a wonderful job today. She has been patient and helpful to her new little sister. She has stepped back from what she wanted several times to allow Sophie to have things her way…unlock the door, hold mom & Amalie’s hands, etc. We are very proud of her as she is learning what it means to be a big sister.

It was part of our nightly routine that we sang to Amalie and now we sing to Amalie AND Sophie. Sophie obviously doesn’t know any of the words or pitches, but that doesn’t stop her from singing too. Since many of you know I have a critical musical ear and that I don’t like to sing with people who sing off pitch you might think that this drives me crazy (like the birthday songs at Ranch Chico). Actually…………………… the sound of Sophie’s little raspy voice singing terribly off key and desperately trying to keep up is the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

More Love, More Hope,
Fessick, Brandy, Amalie & Sophie