Sara and Lauren decided to paint Ally and Alaina's finger nails and toe nails with pink polish today. Ally added stars to her manicure and Alaina pranced around with her hands in the air.
We did (with Susan's help) get Alaina into some of the clothes that we brought. She still has on her purple leggings, white tank top, pink top and race car socks, but she did let Susan put the red leggings on and striped fleece sweatshirt on, then Alaina topped it off with her purple fur vest. She was almost in tears this morning when we tried, so we let her wear her purple pants again. Thankfully Susan was successful!
We went back to the Green Lake Park today and let the girls ride more rides. They just smile and giggle the whole time and give us all "high 5's" each time they pass by! We are so glad to be close to the park. Sara and Lauren rode this crazy ride that spun them every possible way (like a sphere). I couldn't believe that they didn't get sick. We joked that it must be a rough ride, since they were so strapped in -- any of you who have been here know that personal safety isn't always at the top of the list in China!!!
Susan also took us to see Alaina's "finding spot". It was at the corner of a moderately busy intersection with a flower shop on the corner. We took a family picture there. Susan realized that is was much closer than she initially thought.
We are pretty sure that Alaina has "scolded" Ally on a few occasions! She looks at her and shakes her finger at her and by her tone, it sounds like she is fussing at her. Alaina does not like for Ally to get her shoes on her - that makes her mad! Some things don't matter what language they are said in!
When Alaina looks at the pictures on the blog, she will say "Tick-a-shah" and point at each person! I guess it means "this is her". It's so funny and now Lauren goes around saying it all the time!
We are supposed to have a fire evacuation of the hotel this afternoon. Who knows what that will really be - we may make a WalMart run (I'll take the camera). We did get a letter from the hotel written in Chinese and English just to let us know it was a drill. Sara said we should go thru the hotel yelling "Fuego" (Spanish for fire) and pretend we didn't understand the letter! We are easily humored!
Susan took us to lunch at a noodle restaurant outside of the park. We got 5 huge bowls of noodles (3 with meat) that cost 25 yuan total -- that is under $4.00. He even splurged and got some juice and Sprite for 10 additional yuan. We couldn't even eat it all! 3 bowls would have been plenty! McD's is about 1/2 the price of US. So eating is pretty cheap -- and it was pretty good! Alaina decided to help Ally eat her noodles, since Ally's chopstick skills weren't so great! Ally calls her "A-Nee-Nee"! The only English word that Alaina has really said (other than some numbers) is baby as she looked at a picture of Ally with a baby doll.
5 comments:
FEUGO! FEUGO! I like the idea! Y'all would so do that! That is Sara thinking! Gosh I love her! :) Hope y'all have fun screaming FEUGO durning the drill. :) My word that i have to type in in drall, that is close enough to drill...right? :)
I love the look on Lauren's face in that noodle photo. It sounds like Alaina is going to catch on to English pretty quickly, being so bright. Funny how they hold on to their clothes, but I guess it's all she has right now. I'll be praying for bonding for everyone. :) Ellen
Here is a thought for you to help keep up her Chinese...Buy LOTS of DVDs movies and also some regular CDs for Alaina to watch and even listen to at night going to sleep. I would get some kid shows on DVD but also some regular movies so that she can hear grown ups talking in Chinese alot too. Sounds like she is very bright so whatever you can do to maintain her Chinese will be SO helpful to her.
PS: Looks like you are going to get the blog of year award :)
I keep thinking about how much Alaina doesn't want to change clothes. I remember reading somewhere that the smells and feel of the clothes our children are wearing when we meet them is sort-of like a security blanket and that we should try to ignore the urge to get them into "clean" clothes. The article even recommended against washing the clothes for awhile, even once the kids are wearing the clothes of our choosing, and leaving articles of clothing on their bed so they can have the smell of "home" nearby to soothe them as they sleep during the first few months. Obviously I have no firsthand experience, but I thought it made some sense. I've also wondered if that purple vest may have been a special gift from Alaina's foster family...maybe that was why she was so concerned to lose a button off it at the park?
Like the sign in the noodle house. LOL
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