Our second day together

A few more pictures from yesterday and then more about our second day together.

The streets of Hefei are interesting to say the least and they have road construction just like home!



It is again 5 am China time and I am up. We go to bed so early that my internal clock has me up early which is good since I get time to update everyone at home without little Miss Annie asking to bang on the computer keyboard.

We had a very good day yesterday. In the morning, we had to go to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the adoption and to the bank to change our adoption donation into RMB. Ying and Meimei spent most of the day with Grumps and Grandma Judie which was perfect. Meimei is having a little visit from the green eyed monster and Grandma Judie is giving her undivided attention which is what she is craving. Ying is tickled pink by little Miss Annie. And Annie seems to like Ying quite a bit. Meimei and Annie are still sort of circling each other like two dogs who are not sure yet who is the Alpha Dog. It will be a close tie between the two. I'll explain more in a bit about this.

We made it back to the hotel right about lunch time and took Annie to lunch. We have found a very good 24 hr noodle shop in the hotel that is about 4.00 a person versus the 12.00 a person for lunch at the fancy buffet restaurant in the hotel. Annie promptly sat herself down and said "yao" when the lady with the dim sum cart came by. Yao means want and it is Annie's favorite word besides Mama. This girl can eat! Annie ate 5 veggie dumplings and 1 steam bun and probably would have eaten more if we had let her. We went back to the room for nap time (Ying and Meimei wanted to nap with Grandma Judie. We laughed because Grandma Judie has not had the pleasure of nap time with the girls like Mimi. Needless to say, there was no nap!) Patrick and I decided we were still a little hungry so we pulled out some peanuts. Well... Annie eats peanuts. Anything that Mama is eating or for that matter anything that anyone else is eating, Annie has to sample. She stretches out her little hand and says "yao". We looked at each other and said do you think she can eat these? So we broke a peanut into a small piece (no easy feat) and then all we heard was crunch, crunch, crunch. So... she eats peanuts. We also decided to start Annie on the antibiotic because she has fairly nasty upper respiratory infection with a cough that is kind of rattly. I held her and Patrick gave her the medicine. She shot him looks that could melt steel. For those of you that know Meimei, think of her looks. Annie is right up there with Meimei.
We had our first major meltdown after naptime. And, it was because I had to go to the bathroom. Annie did not want to stay with Patrick. In fact, she sobbed "Mama" over and over again while he tried to hold her. After that, she would only give him the cold shoulder. We remarked last night that it is like I have a little duckling. She is always 2 steps right behind me. And it is a funny little duck who who is still a little wobbly like a two year old.

The orphanage visit was postponed until Thursday. Thank goodness, I think we need a few more days for her to be comfortable with us. We also needed to go by her some clothing since she is having to wear her sisters' clothes. (Two of the PJs I brought fit her and a little warm up suit does except that the jacket is a little short and that is it. ) So we went to a local pedestrian shopping area. Yep, we were rock stars again. Ying did great in the crowds and Meimei just shot looks at people. Annie would turn her head into my shoulder. Annie rode in the stroller for the first time. The only way she would ride in it was on Ying's lap and with me walking beside her. And she would only ride for about 5 minutes and then want me to carry her for another 5 min or so and then she would get back in. We found her some clothes to wear and we learned more about her. She is a shoe and hair thingy fiend! We went into a little shop that was like a beauty supply store. She headed straight for the hair things and would grab ones that she liked. We have a little bag of things that she picked out for herself. She also likes shoes. And she has definite opinions on ones that she wants. We went to the department store and she was only drawn to shoes and toys. She had little interest in clothes. After dinner we came back to the room and she played with the girls and Patrick for the first time. Bubbles were a huge hit and the girls all played a game to see who could smack the most bubbles that Patrick was blowing. She finally gave Patrick a kiss last night during the game.

We learned a little bit more about Annie's personality. She has a deep belly laugh that comes out when I tickle her or raise her over my head (no easy feat since she weighs in at 35 lbs). She is very affectionate and will give you kisses without asking for one (this is still only to me). She is very observant and will assess the situation before jumping in. She watched the bubble play time and then jumped in after a minute or two. And she is very opinionated and will let you know her displeasure immediately. She has some of Meimei's iron will and we are waiting to see if she has Meimei's easy going personality.