Loving Lia

Loving Lia is hard. Brian and I have many conversations as we try and figure out who she was, who she is now and who she will be. On one end of the spectrum we have a silly girl who slaps her hand on the table and gives us this face.....

She does it to make us laugh and we love it. We call it her General Go Go face. And on the other side we have a little girl who has a meltdown if you can't get her something quick enough or you just pick her up and put her in her chair for dinner. Brian and I will never know who taught her to make the silly faces or even how she went to sleep when she lived in the orphanage. If she was the little girl who only smiled slightly in her referral photos or did she laugh hysterically there as she does here. And how on earth are we supposed to get a high fiber diet into a picky eater who was said to eat "everything"????

We are all having our moments of frustration, all of us. It has been a hard 6 weeks since we have been home. At the end of the day there always seems to be more I wish I could have done in the day. Today was a bad day, good thing we get to start fresh again tomorrow and for 6 weeks she has woken up with a smile on her face (good way to start the day!!). Its hard not really knowing who your 4 year old is. But we know we love her.

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They gave me to crazy people who have tigers living in their house!!

When we first came home I wrote that Lia was yelling at the cats and was very afraid of them. So, I thought an update on this situation might shed some light. She was really terrified at first, I would love to know what she was yelling at the cats. Brian figured out about 2 days after we came home she was calling our orange cat laohu, tiger in Mandarin. Poor Lia thought she was going to be living in a house with tigers!!

Slowly she has gotten used to the cats and we have been explaining they are mao (cats) and not laohu. She will occasionally pet them and has once kissed Pickle Juice on the nose. Yesterday, she picked up a cup with Tigger on it and called Tigger Pickle Juice, silly girl.

An interview with Ami

Thanks to all of you who have asked how Ami is with all the changes going on. So, I will turn to the expert herself.....

Q: Ami, do you like being a big sister?
A: I do like being a big sister but its a lot of work

Q: What do you like most about your little sister?
A: I love when she shares and is nice to us

Q: What would you like to change about your little sister:
A: Well, I dont really like her crying because its really loud and it hurts my head. When my little sister cries a lot it makes me cry too

Q: What did you like best about our trip to China?
A: The bacon (which she ate almost every day for the 3 weeks of our trip)

Q: Is that more or less then meeting your sister?
A: Less (good answer, phew!!)

Q: What was your favourite thing to eat in China (after the bacon)?
A: Dumplings but I like the ones my Dad makes the best

Q: What was your favourite souvenir from China??
A: My crystal balls (the ones that did not forsee our taxi breaking down, can we exchange them??)

Q: Anything else you would like to add about our trip to China
A: I am pretty sure that my Mom and Dad loved it too. Thank you, and I am pretty sure my sister says thank-you too!!

Ami is doing extremely well for all the change. She finished SK last week and will change from Montessori to public school. She is our easy-going kid. So long as we over describe our timelines if we go out and stop to answer her questions, she is a great traveller. Brian and I are trying to send time alone with her each day. Last Saturday we went strawberry picking for our time together!!