Our first day together was just incredible, I kept waiting for reality to sink in for her but she did so well and was able to sleep well our first night together. On day two we had a very slow start but finally made it down to the always interesting breakfast buffet. Little miss Lila can eat, she has a great appetite and ate a large variety of foods. She really likes tea soaked eggs, greens, and dumplings. She loves yogurt and juice also, I finally told her we had enough breakfast and then the ever helpful wait staff would bring her more food. :) At last we went to watch the fish in the lobby, I am sure one of us is going to end up in the pond by the end of the week with our exuberant girls.
Next it was time to go to the local Walmart for supplies, here Walmart is several stories high and there is a combination of stairs, escalators and these escalator type things that you can take your cart on also. Well we survived the trip there and were even managing the store OK with two girls and wheelchair when reality hit for our sweet girl. She was already overwhelmed by all of the people and the traffic and people talking about her and our family in the store. It must be very difficult for her processing everything going on. We had made it to the shoe department in hopes of finding some shoes that fit OK, some for with her braces and some for without. She was drawn to the adult shoes like I have seen the nannies and visitors wear at Shepherds Field, we weren't sure at first if she just wanted that kind or wanted to buy big ones for someone else. Well that was enough, the flood gates opened and she was in tears, luckily she let me pick her up and we just sat down right there in the middle of the shoe department in Walmart and let her have a good cry, I assured her I would cry too if I were her and it was definitely OK to be sad. I told her that Mommy and Daddy and the whole family loved her very much and at last she was able to find some "house shoes"in her own size. We were able to buy some towels to use to prop her up a little better in the adaptive stroller we brought and she seemed happy about that.
Then we were looking for some more coloring books when she saw "Ultraman" videos, unfortunately they are VCD and not DVD so we tried to explain and at first she was OK with that and she chose a couple of different videos and then soon she wanted everything. Mommy of course had to say no, and I started offering her choices, it went OK until we once again came to the "Ultraman" videos. Meltdown number two, I can't imagine what it's like for her and we want to say "yes" as often as possible but of course there are times we just have to say "no". (we did end up buying one "Ultraman" video) A short while later we had another meltdown when she saw school supplies like she had at SF, we purchased a couple and then had to leave the store when Anna had finally had enough and started crying because her sister was sad. It was a very long taxi drive back, once back in our room we all spent some time cuddling and everyone felt much better after that.
She has quite the personality and loves to tease, especially Daddy, she loves to call him Ye- Ye which means grandpa. She thinks he is very old because he as a goatee and only old men have facial hair in China. She just points at him and says Ye-Ye and then she justs busts up to the point of rolling on the floor. She most definitely prefers Mommy and says "No Daddy, Mommy", we are working on that, she loves to wrestle and tease with Chris but mostly she wants me. However right now they are across the hall watching you guessed it "Ultraman" (kind of like old Godzilla movies) together in the hotel playroom. Daddy is also good for hand washing and tooth brushing.:)
We finished the night off all snuggling in bed watching a short video, Lila is only thirty-five pounds but because she can't really hold on she feels much heavier. I'm sure everything will become much easier as we go along.
Blessings, Kim
I will try to download more pictures tonight.
