What's MY Name?

Ally is a little confused about Alaina's name. We have been referring to her as Alaina for about 8 monts, but now we are calling her both Alaina and XuHui (Sue-Huee). Ally tries to say Alaina, and it comes out "ah-nee-nee". A few days ago after we called XuHui by her Chinese name, Ally said, "What's my name, Mommy?" So I said, "Rui Yun". She just smiled and said OK.

Last night at dinner, we went to a local place by ourselves. The hotel had written down the name of the restaurant in Chinese characters so we could hopefully "match it up" and gave us some general walking directions. Well, as we were leaving the park, Doug realized that he had left the written name of the restaurant at the hotel. All he remembered that it was 4 characters! So we laughed and set out to find a restaurant with 4 characters in the name. Not as easy as it sounds! Well we found once and that is where we ate - who knows if it was the right one!

Luckily, the menu had pictures and we figured we could order that way - since we have now learned a little counting in Chinese. They had "pizza" so we figured "how could we go wrong", right? We ordered something that looked like pasta with sauce, 3 small pizzas (1 with fruit and 2 with chicken and peppers), Cokes and Sprites, a warm orange milk drink and a warm chocolate milk drink. We ate enough to fill up and Alaina took what we guess to be her first drink of a carbonated beverage! They brought the girls bendy, curly straws and she sipped a Sprite. I think the bubbles caught her by surprise because she made a face kinda like when you bite a lemon! Her lips pursed, her eyes closed and then opened really wide, then she giggled. She must have thought it was OK, because she went back for more!

We walked back through the park once again before dinner and let the little girls ride a few rides again. As long as Alaina gets a clean bill of heart from her cardiologist, I see lots of fun rides in her future. She was a little hesitant about getting on that elephant, but smiled and agreed after a little coaxing from her big sisters and seeing that Ally was willing to give it a try! Once on board, she loved it!

I'm sure we have adequately overwhelmed her!



What's wrong with this picture (other than the attractive, over-flowing trash can in the background)? The pic was taken last night about 9 PM and you will notice which 2 daughters are NOT awake and playing?