The One Place I Call Home

Hi all--Katy here. It's nap time and we hear two sets of snoring even though there has been a storm going on for the last hour. (Mark: storm - more like monsoon. I looked out the window and all I saw was the white of blowing, howling wind, rain and lightning.) Lilla and Song Yi both sleep pretty soundly. Once they fall asleep that is...last night they were laughing and chatting in here until about 10pm. They seem to be interacting more and entertaining themselves together. Lilla is doing a very good job of standing her ground but being kind. Yesterday (Saturday) we walked around the hotel after breakfast and Song Yi kept trying to drag me somewhere so finally I just followed her and she led us all the way out to the pool. She started taking her clothes off to get in! I had to tell her that she could not swim until after she saw the doctor. I am not sure of the exact rules or how it would even be known that we let her swim, but we are not taking that risk! They said no swimming until after the appointment Saturday, so we obey. I think they have thoughts about shots and pools. It wouldn't surprise me--no putting your towel on the towel table, no shirts in the water, no sitting on the steps, no cameras, no outside food, no floats in the big pool...so many rules that are strictly enforced. ANYWAY, she was very sad about that and we got two different workers to explain to her in Chinese that we could swim later. She finally unhappily went back inside with us and we went to our appointment. On the way, a very kind shop owner said he would pray for Hope and her eyes.

After the appointment (TB test/x-ray good, we said already I think! Yea!) we went swimming of course. Song Yi was sooo happy. Then we ate lunch, napped and went back to the pool but it started raining really hard so we came back up and let her take a really long bath. Since Lilla is a big girl now, she said she prefers the shower. We let them do dry erase marker on the wipe off boards I brought, but after the no-mess of Color Wonder, it was too crazy trying to keep them sitting and writing only on the boards so we had to put that away. Our Beijing travel group is back together again (Mark: quick explanation: families travel to the province of their child's orphanage and then all American families have to exit China via Guangzhou. Since Song Yi's orphanage was here in Guangdong province, we have been here the whole time.) so most of us went to dinner. It rained again so we just went to Lucy's next door. Song Yi was pouty about something and took my menu and proceeded to point to every item and say she did not like it! In the end she was fine and we had a good dinner. Lilla didn't eat much of her food, and Song Yi picked each and every piece of onion and cabbage out of her noodles and then proceeded to eat all of Lilla's leftover fries - careful to dip each one in ketchup. What have we done?! She also asks for Coke now when we see it but we only let them have a sip or two. (Mark: I wanted to take a picture of Song Yi taking a huge swig of Coke from a bottle to send back to the orphanage, but that would probably be cruel... ;) )

Back at the room, we tried to get them settled down to watch a Kai Lan video, but Song Yi was playing and annoying Lilla so Mark took her to the other room to read a book. It was a book called Goodnight Gorilla that we love. She chattered and chattered. Mark said she was comparing how long the giraffe's neck was to the other animals. (Mark: She loves to look at books and she will actually sit and allow someone to read to her. She had a great time looking at each page. It's such a nice break from some other 5-year-old I know who has the book reading attention span of a crack-addicted flea.)

This morning we went to breakfast and Lilla wore her new fancy pink dress and black patent (pleather?) shoes. No dresses for Song Yi! Song Yi ate SO much of the salty veggie in her congee, along with bacon, banana, watermelon, a yogurt and OJ. We sat for an hour waiting for her to be done. Then we met up with our very sweet guide and group for shopping. Very expensive government jade store (some same items I got with Ann for 4-5 times the price) was first. Song Yi told our guide her name is Song Yi and she doesn't like Hope. We have been trying to call her Hope Song Yi but she corrects me and says BAO Song Yi (BAO is the last name of all the kids from her orphanage). Oh well. We will try again later.

Today, in English, she said "You like it?" "Thank you baba" "Lilla potty?" "Wo yao water" and last night she said "Goodnight" (M: over and over as we read Goodnight Gorilla). Oh and how could I forget?! Last night when I put her to bed and said "wo ai ni" which means I love you, she said Wo ai ni back! That was a first. She still wipes off my kisses whenever she can. Mark says she doesn't wipe off his. Oh and she said "wo bu yao, xie xie" today, No Thank You and that is the first time I have heard her say thank you in Chinese.

She is still testing a good bit. This morning going to breakfast she wanted a piggy back ride so I gave her one. Then she whacked me in the head and took out her barrette and threw it. I put her down and said no hitting and showed her where her barrette went to she could pick it up. She gave her pout and crossed her arms and stood there. So I said pick up your barrette and we can finish the piggy back to breakfast and she walked away. I showed her (I am becoming quite the mime!) what I was saying and I knew she understood. So I just looked away and waited and after a few minutes she came over slowly and I could tell she was looking for the barrette so I showed her and she picked it up and handed it to me. So I gushed all over with thank you and picked her up and we went to breakfast. We have a few of those moments every day.

Really she is doing very well, and I can tell she trusts us and feels comfortable so we are trying not to start any bad habits of complete disobedience, hitting, grabbing and are trying to curb the screaming. She screams when she thinks she will fall in the potty (okay, I can understand that one), screams when Lilla touches her stuff, so we tell her to say No or wo bu yao instead. (Mark: hmmmm... I don't know about "screaming". That's what she did on day 1 at the civil affairs office. I haven't heard that noise since, thank goodness. I would call it whining or squealing.)

Today at the store, she picked out all kinds of things for her two ge ge's (big brothers). She made sure there was 2 of everything! I got one pack of gum, a strange flavor we don't have, to show them and she kept telling me something about the gum. I thought she wanted her own pack so for $.30 we were like, fine and we got another pack and she said ge ge, ge ge and held up the 2 packs, one for each. So sweet! One family in our group has 2 adorable boys about Jake and Landon's ages and she is fascinated by these boys. I think she will LOVE having Jake and Landon who are already quite experienced at being big brothers to a little sister.

Lilla really misses Jake and Landon too. She tells us all the time. Oh another funny thing, we were looking at pictures of Jake and Landon and she pointed to where we keep the computer! She wanted to Skype them. It was too late though and I tried to tell her they would be asleep. When we Skyped the other day, Landon was still sleeping but Jake was up, and Song Yi kept poking Jake on the computer screen trying to get his attention so he would look at her stuff. She showed him her photo album, glasses, phone and other things. It was really cute. We haven't been able to talk to Jake and Landon much because the girls are always mysteriously hard to manage right as we turn our attention from them....