Our second day together.

Some random thoughts of Ava first before I forget them...

She likes to follow me around and copy me. I take my shoes off, she has to take hers off.

She sleeps very soundly. She does move around a lot though, which I know because I am NOT sleeping.

She is ok with the elevator now and likes to look at herself in the mirror in the ceiling.

She doesn't mind getting her hair done. Her barrette fell out and she was insistent that I knew and put it back in.

She likes to be clean. If she gets something on her fingers while eating she will not continue until she can wipe them off.

She is very quiet and observant, wary of any new experience. She does not smile at just anyone. An introvert just like her referral said. I'm actually quite surprised at how accurate her referral was.

She does not speak in sentences. She only knows a few words and tries to repeat words we say but it doesn't sound anything like what we said. She cannot say g or b sounds at all. Which is strange because I thought she would be able to make sounds that wouldn't require the roof of her mouth. Sometimes if you let her be she forgets we are here and she sings.

Her 18 month clothes I brought fit perfectly and she is only 24 lbs like they said. She is tiny but proportionate with a little chunk belly. She can seem heavy after carrying her awhile. 

She seems healthy. I haven't seen any sign that her needs affect her daily life. She eats very well, anything we give her in fact. 

She is going to the potty- pee at least. Nothing else, and I'm worried we might have some issues with #2 - this is the 3rd day... (this resolved itself while writing this post).

As of last night she started acting scared of Aaron and crying when he gets near her. Strange considering the first day she was fine with him. She definitely wants to be with me and gets upset if he tries to make her stay with him. I don't know quite how to handle that. 

She tried to climb into the bath last night. Guess the first time wasn't so bad! We asked the orphanage director if she had baths and she said most of the time they are washed with washcloths but when they do bathe it is in big pots.

She will sit and play with her toys or look at her book for as long as you let her. She is very calm and content.

She does not actively seek me out for hugs or to pick her up. We aren't there yet. Yet, she can be very charming with a nice big smile, especially if there is food involved ;-)

She came to us with very thick clothes, 2 layers, including split pants.

She also had her blanket I sent, her doll, her photo album and the disposable camera I sent to the orphanage back in May!! I was so happy about this. Not sure if she had seen the blanket before but she seemed to recognize the doll and the photo album.

We are currently calling her Ava Dongyue but will switch to just Ava when we feel she recognizes it.

Day 2:

We had to meet Helen in the lobby at 8:30 so she could take us to the Civil Affairs Office. I tried my best to do Ava's hair but realized that it is harder than it looks and perhaps I should have practiced. The mother of boys, I really am out of the loop. So I did the best I could, dressed her and off to breakfast we went.

We went to the Civil Affairs Office and finalized some paperwork. We are now waiting for her passport so we can fly to Guangzhou on Friday.

Our picture with the director of her orphanage.

Funny thing happened with the director- she was not happy that I only had one pair of jeans on Ava. I had heard about this happening and debated about putting a pair of leggings on underneath. But seriously people, it was 55 degrees out and we were in buildings or the van for all but 3 minutes of our outing. She kept pulling her jeans up to show Ava's leg and putting two fingers up. She told our guide she was worried Ava was going to get sick. Apparently I failed my first mommy test. Ah well, she let me take her home anyways!

When we got back we took a trip to the grocery store. It's hard to believe it can be so different than home. I was craving plain Lays potato chips. Not easy to find, but they did have fried prawn lays, blueberry lays or cucumber lays and about 30 other choices of flavored potato chips I've never seen. They had individually wrapped hotdogs inside the packages. And they don't have free bags to put your stuff in. You must buy them and even then she wouldn't let us have more than one. But this was a really heavy duty bag, we held what would require three bags at home. We got bananas, oranges, pumpkin seeds (very salty), water, orange juice, some cookies (we think), and dried cherries. Oh, and the wrigley's gum comes in a plastic bottle and looks like big chiclets.

When we got back to the hotel we snacked. Then she practically climbed her way into the tub for a bath, which she loves and we settled in for a nap. She sleeps for about an hour and a half every day. When we got up we played with her toys and read the book I made her. She is very interested in the cake pictures and actually pointed and squealed at her brothers!

Then we rolled the ball back and forth and because it lights up I put it down my shirt so the colors would shine through, so of course she had to do it too!

She's pretty proud of herself that she can put the ball in her shirt like Mama!

After this she had a bit of a meltdown. Not sure if she gets tired or she remembers the orphanage but she just breaks down into tears. I just hug her and keep telling her in chinese I love her and I am her mama. She settles down after a couple of minutes. But it is hard to watch. 

We skyped the boys today and they looked happy to see her. They kept talking about how beautiful she is. Aidan says "he already loves her and she's not even home yet!"  They are such good boys and I'm so grateful that they are being so brave at home helping Grammy and Meme.

Today we are going swimming in the pool and were supposed to be taking a walk to the park but looks pretty overcast today so it might be raining. We don't have anything adoption-wise scheduled so we're just going to relax and continue to get to know Ava.