Smitten

There's really no other way to describe the last twenty-four hours with this girl of ours. We are both smitten. She's by turns, impish, cuddly, obstinate, opinionated, sweet, and funny. And so, so smart. Seriously, just this morning I tried out the hand signs for "more" to help her over the language barrier hump. Two tries and she got it! It doesn't hurt that it was for some yummy strawberry yogurt, but sheesh, she surprised us with that one for sure.

Let me back up a bit... After I posted yesterday, she took a three hour nap on my chest. She had been grieving pretty hard before hand, trying to get to the door after Mr. Dion and Miss Grace left us for the afternoon and trying to arch out of my arms. But I hunkered down and just held her and sang "Jesus Loves Me" over and over while rocking her in my arms. She was refusing her bottle, snacks, and everything so I just held on and pushed through. She wore herself out in my arms and though I was starving, there was no way I was putting her down till she was asking for it. She woke quite freaked out and upset but eventually quieted again with some snacks and stacking cups. Oh, and that amazing musical toy again! That is the best $7.99 I ever spent at Toys R Us, for certain!

We spent the remainder of the day playing on the bed and sneaking smiles out of her. Mr. Dion picked us up for a short walk to dinner. She really enjoyed her meal - lots of green beans, fried rice, and even some eggplant. Seems she shares my distaste for the flavor and texture of peas... cracked me up with her expressions over that one!

After dinner we enjoyed a face-time chat with the kids at home. And we were flabbergasted to see her return LadyBug's blowing kisses - we didn't know she knew how to do that! And I love that she saved that little trick for her big sister - LadyBug has been such a huge encouragement and support in this long journey to our girl, always hoping and always excited about every "next step" in the process.

Bedtime came way too late for us all - our body clocks are still adjusting and we lost track of the hour and missed some of her "I'm ready for bed" signals. I think we both forgot how quickly a toddler turns on a dime from happy to tired!  But she eventually settled and though she refused the bottle again, she did allow herself to fall asleep in my arms. She is taking bottles during the day, on  her own terms and NOT in our arms but that's a re-training we can tackle later.

Here's some pics of the afternoon.

This is that magical musical toy.

It rescued the moment when we had to take her coat

off to ease her into the process of changing her diaper.

Probably one of the first real smiles of the afternoon, after a long nap.

She was tickled by the stacking cups falling over, again and again.

She really liked the instant noodles that The Boss had fixed

for my lunch. They were cold and bland but she had fun slurping.

And Daddy had fun egging her on to slurp more!

This is a cute hat that was sent to us by my

"Secret Pal" from my online adoptive mommas group.

The color is so pretty on her!

So there's our Gotcha Day part two. Because it was such an early morning meeting, we both have commented more than once that we feel as if she's been with us for several days now. She's really opening up and connecting well. Eye contact has definitely improved and she's yelling "Momma" a lot. I answer her ever time, though I'm under no illusions that she knows she means me yet. She'll figure it out soon enough, what with all the other little and not-so-little gang members calling my name all the time! :)

Monday's activities are a local mall for some supplies and lunch out with Mr. Dion. We are not doing a ton of touring and sightseeing on this trip, for many reasons, not the least of which is that we got her on the front end of the trip and there's no way we'd subject ourselves to 8-9 hour days out and about with a brand new baby when we can be hanging out playing and learning all about her instead! All that to say, there's not a ton of really cool historical pics or descriptions of all the sights like we did in Beijing last time. We're too busy looking at the little one who keeps toddling from one of us to the other, yelling, "Ba!"