Wednesday, November 3, 2010
SMILES, HUGS, KISSES,
AND WO AI NI!!

We all slept great last night! When I woke up this morning, I went into the living room to check to see if Annalyn was still asleep. Her eyes were closed...I think she was still asleep. When I touched her and asked her if she was okay, she opened her eyes and saw me and gave me that light up smile of hers! It melted my heart! I love that pretty smile first thing in the morning! All morning while we were getting ready, we received lots of kisses (for the first time) and hugs and Wo Ai Ni's (I love you in Chinese). It was wonderful!

This morning we ventured out to the bookstore about 2 blocks away from our hotel. The electronic translator paid for itself today as we had to use it to ask one of the locals to take us to the bookstore. We told her that we were taking her to the bookstore for her to pick out some books and DVD's to take to America. She is not a greedy child. She picked out a just a few things and an electronic learning set (which she LOVES!) I think it brings a lot of comfort to her. We are so glad, because that is what we wanted her to get...something that might comfort her in the midst of America. It's kind of loud so we hope to buy some headphones for her to use on the plane. Hopefully it will be very comforting to her. Today, the city was especially smoggy. I think because it was mostly cloudy. You really could not see many buildings just a short distance away. We all plan to wring out our lungs when we get back home. LOL.

We had leftovers in our room for lunch and then headed to the Yellow Crane Tower for a tour. We were all very excited about this tour. It is very special to me that such a tourist attraction is located in Annalyn's hometown. During our tour, our guide said that Annalyn was so funny and smart. She said that she was talking to us in 2 tones like English. She was saying Chinese words with only 2 tones instead of the 4 for the Chinese language. She was also teasing Mike with 2 tones in Chinese! She is so funny! She read a sign for our guide and she said that she was reading above 3rd grade level!! Today, she has picked up more English...fish, counting to 10, I love you, and let's go! She is so smart! Also, she and Gwendolyn call each other Mei Mei (sister in Chinese). It is pronounced "May May." Well, tonight she was calling for Gwendolyn in the next room and it came out with our southern accent "Maaay Maaay!" Mike and I just doubled over with laughter! Boy, that was fast...picking up our accent already!! It was so funny!! You will see in some of the pictures that she got tired of having her picture made. She is not smiling in some of them. LOL. During the tour, Kathy was able to get an elevator ride up to the top of the Yellow Crane Tower for Annalyn. He was a lifesaver, b/c there are so many steps. So Gwendolyn and I rode in the elevator with her and Kathy and Mike climbed the stairs. On our way down, we took the stairs b/c Annalyn seems to be better at going down the stairs. Well, we were on our last set of stairs and she tripped on an uneven piece in the floor on the very last step. It was awful. She started crying. I know it had to hurt. She told Kathy that her rear-end hurt. It broke my heart to see her crying b/c she is always laughing and smiling. After a few minutes, she said that she was fine. So we moved on. She is not able to lift her feet off the ground very much, even just walking on a flat surface. Just about any kind of uneven surface could make her trip. She did well this morning on the rough street as I tried to point out the worst spots to her and she was more aware of it. It seemed to help her to have me point them out and she seemed to be appreciative.

Also, I painted the girls fingernails today. It was so funny, because she seemed to enjoy it and she went to dry her fingernails with the hair dryer. She came out of the bathroom and started using the fingernail polish remover to take it off. I tried to ask her if she didn't like the color. I couldn't understand what she was trying to tell me. So this afternoon during the tour, I asked our guide Kathy to ask her what happened. She said that she did not have the patience to wait for the nail polish to dry...LOL! Annalyn said that about herself. LOL! You have to understand that people here in the big city are always in a rush. I think that's why her favorite English phrase is "Let's go!" LOL!

Tonight, she wanted to sleep on the couch again. I thought it would be fine, since she is used to sleeping by herself. When I put her to bed, she said "Night, night. I love you." What a blessing!