Happy Birthday Alaina Xuhui!!

Yesterday we celebrated Alaina's 6th birthday with Lucy's family. Ellen, Lucy's sister from Ky came into town so we had a little impromptu party at our house. Amy, Ted, Susan and Madison came over as well. Lucy, Ally, and Alaina had all fallen asleep when Ellen arrived. Alaina wakes up very happy in the morning, but the few times she has taken a nap, she has been S L O W to wake up. We finally got her out of bed and showed her presents to her. She did not want to have anything to do with them. After about 20 minutes, she finally came around and loved her new bike, accessories and other presents. Her birthday is actually Tuesday the 20th.

We had vegtable soup and grilled cheese for dinner and then we all had cupcakes and ice cream. Alaina had a cupcake with a number six on it. I am not certain she understood what all was going on, but I hope she does not think this is a weekly occurance.

Lauren is still recovering from being sick. She missed 3 days of school this week and started getting a fever Thursday. We took her to the doctor on Friday afternoon and they said it was just a virus and she should start to feel better by Monday. She came home from the doctor and slept from 2:30-9:00 PM and 11:00 PM-7:00 AM. She seems to be doing a little better but her lips are now swollen and she has some cold sores. We feel so bad for her, but thankful she got sick at home and not in China.

We are all pretty much back on schedule. Ally was a little difficult to get to bed last night but did sleep in her room all night. Alaina has slept all night in her room and falls asleep with a little whining each night. (she and Ally were up at 3 AM the first day)

Ally and Alaina are getting along very well. We did have a couple of incidents over toys this week. We received a package from Ohio, and Ally and Alaina both got a book. Alaina's book was a book on America. She really liked it until Ally opened her book. Ally's book had princesses on it along with a little cd player. Alaina yelled "Boo yah!!!" (which means something like NO WAY!!) After I removed the protective strap on the cd player, I gave it to the girls to play. Alaina was kind of dominating the book viewing so I told her it was Ally's book and that she needed to let her play with her book. She stormed back to her room and barricaded herself in her closet. I being the caring dad that I am, said fine, and left her in the closet. About 15 minutes later, Ally was finished with the book and I took it back to Alaina and let her play with it and she was fine. There was also a similar incident with some Polly Pockets.

We are staying home from church today. I am beyond sore from my indoor soccer game on Friday night, THANKS BILL. Bill signed me up to play while we were in China. When I got home he told me we had our first game Friday night. He kept telling me the league was a bunch of old fat guys and that I would be fine. I figured it was a church league in a gym. We pulled into the parking lot of this big soccer complex and I immediately knew we were in over our heads. After getting inside my worst fears were confirmed. The field was huge and everyone spoke with a foreign accent. (everyone except for our team) After that things got worse as we waited for our "team mates". I kept asking Bill where is everyone? We had 7 guys to start the game and we play with 6. (2- 25 minute halfs) Luckily, we had another guy show up part way through the first half. Needless to say after I can walk without pain, I will be working out.

Alaina is 100% girly. When we arrived in Kunming, Susan our guide mentioned she had been to the orphanage and met our "son". We were a little taken back. She said "he was very smart and loved guns and playing "army". Well, we guessed that due to the short hair and her dress in the orphanage that Susan must have made a mistake. We did however worry about her possibly being a tom boy and fitting in with 3 other girly girls. Well no fears there. Alaina is about as girly as they come. She loves the Disney Princesses and dress-up clothes. Yesterday she sprayed her hair with some vanilla body spray about 20 times. She will dress up in her leotard and tu-tu and dance with her Chinese fan to her Chinese cd. It is so cute. She is so dainty and almost prances around the house. I can't even picture her playing army.

Alaina will start school (a little bit) on Tuesday. On Friday, Lucy took her over and she got to meet her teacher and classmates. They stayed for about 2 hours and Alaina did pretty well. Lucy said she was pretty clingy for a while, but eventually went and did some of the activities around the room.