Middle of the Night Update

It looks like Doug figured out our internet problems from day 2 (wouldn't let us log in) so I'll try to catch up a little. As Doug mentioned, Ally and I crashed (well, Ally literally crashed, but I caught her before she hit the floor) about 6 or so. She awoke at 11:30 with her usual request, "scratch me Mommy". So I gave her some itchy medicine and slipped her a portion of a Melatonin pill (herbal sleep aid). I hated to drug a 3 year old, but I desperately want her to get enough sleep and help her adjust her little internal clock! So she is still asleep at almost 4 AM - about 9 hours if you take out our little scratching session - at least we avoided the middle of the night "Diego" marathon.

We are seeing a little jealousy on Ally's part, but for the most part I'm thrilled with how she is handling the adjustment. Of course, we are still on neutral ground, so to speak; I'm expecting more of a challenge when we get home to "her" toys, etc...

Alaina is doing equally well with all of us. We (parents adopting from China, and probably anywhere children are in orphanages) are often concerned with how a child will react to the daddy. In many cases, they have never had close contact with any men, since their caregivers are almost all women (tiny women at that). So, I am beyond thrilled that Alaina will walk with Doug, holding his hand, and play with him. He showed her pics on the blog and she loves to look at the little circles at the top and point to herself and each of her sisters. She wants to immediately see any pictures we take and LOVES to see them BIG on the computer!

I still can't get over how tiny she is - the clothes she had/has on are mostly size 3, but are too short. They are even too big in the waist. I'm just relieved that she is actually a little heavier than her referral; although, that was over a year ago, but she is gaining. It could be just in her height because she does seem tall. I still don't have a real guess on her "American" size, but I'm hoping the 4T leggings will maybe stay up on her and be long enough. I don't think there is any reason for me to even try the 4 slim or 5 slim jeans on her that I brought - I know those will be around her ankles in no time (despite the fact that she will have nothing to do with them)! I did bring a tape measure, but haven't gotten that far. I think the girls will try to get her to let them paint her nails and toenails today, if she will let us take her red socks off with the race cars on them!!!

Although she is doing so much better than we initially expected (she was heartbreakingly sad when we first met), I realize that she still HAS to be in shock or denial or still not really understanding that this is permanent. My fear is that she, in her little 5 year old mind, is thinking she is at camp or something and will get to go back home any day now.

Another thing that is so different than when we met Ally, is thinking about how advanced Alaina's language development is. I hate to think of not being able to further develop her written and verbal Chinese, much less loosing it all together. I don't know if a fun little class every Sunday will be even close to enough to help her maintian it. I do know that if she can "keep" her language, that skill alone could be a valuable carrer skill when she grows up. Think about how valuable a Chinese-American person would be to most ANY business in the very near future! I know that we cannot help her with that, and I'm not sure she realizes that we don't understand anything she says! She probably thinks we are all pretty dumb, but we are funny, so that helps!

We had a quiet afternoon and evening yesterday - bath, playing in the room, and early bedtime. When Doug and Sara were out at KFC, Lauren fell asleep on our bed and Ally and Alaina were sitting in the same chair (Alaina wrapped in her towel) when Ally's head bobbed. I knew immediately that she was done for the day. I hopped up and literally caught her as she fell out of the chair, sound asleep. Alaina kinda chuckled because we startled her. She got Ally's blanket and covered her up when I put her in the pack-n-play. At that point, Alaina and I were essentially alone. I felt so sad for her because I couldn't even talk to her or understand her. She will hold our hands and she even climbed up in my lap yesterday after we played the silly peek-a-boo game. I'm a little overwhelmed with how many obstacles she will have to over come in her upcoming life.

As we walk around town, I enjoy noticing the stares from the locals. Rarely are any of them at me (unless they look at either little girl first, then me), because all eyes are on Doug (being so tall) or Sara and Lauren (light hair). It is so funny as most of the reactions for Doug are from men or teenage boys that just look up at him as he walks by. S and L get looks from more boys than I remember from our last trip (ha ha), but we ALL get looks from the OLD people. Rarely do we see a smile from them. I can't tell if they resent "us" for taking their children or if they think we are crazy for having and wanting all these girls! Either way, I don't let it bother me; just observing!

We asked yesterday if her name had any meaning. As best I understood, it was likely given to her by the police officer that found her (she was about 2 months old when found at a fork in the road about 2 hours from Kunming). They (the nanny that was from her orphanage) said her name means "bright sunshine". So along with her little sister "lucky cloud" we have some nice weather in our future!
It's now about 4:20 and I may just be the only one awake. This night's sleep will hopefully be a turning point for Ally's little body (and mine too). I slept close to 7 hours and fell much better. I'm just so glad that Sara and Daddy handled Alaina's bed time last night (and that she let them)!