Since I basically told you about our Monday morning activities in my last blog entry I'm going to take the time to share what we're learning about Violet.
First off, she is still very tiny. I "kind of" weighed her yesterday on the bathroom scales. I just had her stand on them and it registered 20 lbs. So she hasn't gained much since our referral info that we received.
I chose one of her smallest outfits yesterday (that we brought with us) and it was still a little big in the waist. We haven't measured her height as the ruler on our desk is only 15 cm. It could be done, but we'd need a string and I haven't looked for one yet.
I don't expect it to take too long for her to gain weight, though. She loves to eat. One of her favorite drinks is like a yogo drink. The orphanage had some for her in the bag that they gave us. We picked up more yesterday at Walmart.
She doesn't use a bottle, but drinks from a cup. She doesn't seem to like the sippy cups that we brought so we bought her a cup at walmart that has a straw. She'll walk around the room holding the straw with her teeth so that she has her hands free to hold other things.
She really likes to "hold" things. Yesterday she was either holding her Kai-lan doll, the bank ticket, or both.
She doesn't care for potatoes or french fries. But she loves crackers, rice, etc. I've got to try to get an apple from the breakfast buffet this morning for her. I was too rushed yesterday to get one.
Violet seems very content to be held and doesn't struggle to get down or off your knee. I held her in my arms all of Monday morning and she was completely fine with that. (As you can imagine, so was I!)
She can walk. The hotel bathroom has a slight step up into it and she has no trouble managing that on her own.
She has 16 teeth!
Her feet are probably about a size 5. She doesn't like having her shoes taken off. Sunday night when we took them off she cried. Monday morning when we did her footprint at the foreign adoption office she cried when Roger and Tori took off her shoe and sock (I was signing paperwork).
One of the pairs of shoes that I brought for her was way too small, so I gave them along with the orphanage clothes as a gift yesterday.
During both of her baths she has held something in her hands, first the Kai-lan doll. Last night was a fist full of raisins. She doesn't care to eat them, but she seemed to have fun playing with them and teasing Tori with them. (She'd hold them out to Tori as if she was going to give them to her and then when Tori would put her hand out she'd yank her hand back and laugh.)
We're starting to see her comedic personality shining through with actions like that.
She has a way of putting her chin down to her chest and looking at you out of the corners (or top) of her eyes. It is so funny.
She is very cooperative at getting dressed. And she is a dream to change her diaper. She lays there just as content as can be. According to the orphanage questionaire that Isabel had done for us, she usually has one "dirty" diaper a day. Yesterday it was around 8:30 in the morning - just as we were leaving the hotel for our business. So it was a quick jaunt to the ladies restroom in the lobby to change her before our excursion. She was a very good girl.
I was concerned about how she would react when she saw the workers from the orphanage yesterday at the government office. Especially since she had cried so hard the night before when they said goodbye to her and left the room. But she didn't pay attention to them. We figure she was giving them the silent treatment. Isabel told us afterwards that they had commented about how smart she is. It was like she was ignoring them and punishing them for leaving her. And I could completely agree with their opinion.
She kind of gave me that look last night when Roger sat her on the bed next to me when I woke up to eat supper. (I was dead to the world last night - 5 days of only about 2 hours sleep each night finally caught up to me. I slept for about 2 hours in the afternoon with the rest of the family. Then slept from about 6 pm til 2:30 this morning with only snatches of being awake in between. Feeling rested!) Violet looked at me from the corner of her eye and I said, "Oh, how quickly your loyalty changes!" My sleepiness was probably a good way for her to bond with Roger, though.
When I woke up for supper Roger was holding Violet feeding her rice. I said, "Look, Tori. Violet is letting dad hold her!" Tori was quick to tell me that if I'd been awake I'd have seen her going to dad a lot. But maybe if I had been awake she wouldn't have gone to dad...not sure. We'll see when she wakes up today if she will come to me again.
She has slept through the night both nights now. Well, it is still very early morning here (3:45 am) Tori and Roger just woke up. Tori is writing in her journal right now and having a snack.
Violet is not very vocal. Yesterday she did say "Hi" several times at Wal-mart with Tori's prompting. Then Tori asked her, "Can you say 'Bye' and Roger said, 'Let's not teach her Bye quite yet.'" We all agreed that for now "Hi" is the word we want her saying. She did rattle off several words to Tori yesterday evening and Tori said it sounded like she was trying to tell her something. So maybe when she gets more comfortable with us she will start trying to communicate with us more. But according to the orphanage she doesn't say a whole lot of words anyway. Last evening Violet and Tori were throwing a kleenex back and forth (who needs expensive toys? bank tickets and kleenexes are great entertainers) and Tori said, "Oh!" when it landed. So then Violet started saying, "Oh!" too. Of course, I missed it because - you guessed it - I was sleeping!
Today we have a leisurely day planned. Isabel is meeting us here at the lobby to go take us to the park for a walk. And that is about all that we have planned for the day. So it is just some time to get to know each other and bond. ah...that sounds nice.
We just tried Violet very briefly in her stroller yesterday in the hotel room and she did not seem to enjoy it. I was going to try to distract her, but Tori was saying, "Take her out! Take her out!" Tori doesn't like to see her little sister cry or fuss. We'll try again this morning, as I think it would be convenient to have her in the stroller at the park.
We did pick up a snuggly-type of baby carrier yesterday at Wal-mart. She would go in it for me, but at that point she didn't want Roger to hold her yet, so she did not enjoy it when he tried to carry her in it.
We spent some baby shower money on things for Violet at Wal-mart. We got the snuggly, a blanket (I thought the hotel would have one for the crib, but they didn't), a Chinese children's dvd, a Chinese/English picture book, sippy cup with a straw, brush and comb set.
Prices are very reasonable here. For example, I bought a bag of cotton balls for me - $2 RMB which is equivalent to 29 cents US. Even beats Dollarama! I can't remember the prices on everything, and since the receipt is in Chinese we can't use it to check. We might ask Isabel to help us, just so we can keep track.
Still haven't found any postcards to mail. There were ones at the hotel in Beijing but they were over a $ Canadian each. I figured that I could find them cheaper elsewhere and haven't seem them yet. I haven't checked out this hotel gift shop yet, though.
Thanks for the messages that people have been sending us on facebook. That's the only way we can keep in touch right now - can't access the blog comments or facebook notes on our walls, etc. until we get back to Canada.
Our appointments yesterday morning went so smooth. Part of that could have to do with the fact that we are only two families, but I was impressed! Isabel even did the paperwork for the passports for us. Since they were already signed, she just had to drop them off. I think most of our "work" for the week is done now. And we can just enjoy ourselves. We do have to pick up the passports on Friday - (my birthday!) but that is it. Well, I need to check our itinerary again to make sure.
Violet's cold seems to be not bad at all. We didn't give her the cold medicine because when Roger removed the safety seal he was able to read that it should not be given to children under 4 years old. That couldn't be seen with the safety seal on. She hardly coughed at all last night. She does have a bit of a runny nose, but not bad. She is a very good girl to get her nose wiped, too. Thanks for your prayers.
Thanks for taking the time to keep in touch. We can't wait to introduce you to Violet in person.
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