Our Two Girls

In between my daily posts I thought I'd post more about Emalyn and Adair. Hank and I cannot believe we have two daughters now (with a third on her way)! Our eldest has blossomed into quite the little lady and we are so proud of her! We are learning more and more everyday about our youngest. What an honor it is to be the parents of these two darlings!

Emalyn:

She is 20 months old, but seems (developmentally and size wise) about 12 months.

She is walking, but she's very wobbly and not yet confident which leads us to believe she spent a lot of her time in the walker she was always in in her pictures.

She has an infectious laugh.
She babbles a lot, but we don't think she's saying real Chinese words. When our friends spoke to her in Mandarin today, she barely looked up. It's likely her nanny and caretakers spoke a different dialect.

She's beginning to acknowledge us when we call her Emalyn and she has started to respond to some commands and questions, like "bring it to Mommy" and "where's Mommy?".

Today we were working on clapping, waving and pointing. We've yet to see her do any of the three.

She reaches for us to get her out of her bed and to go back and forth between us.

She loves to manipulate toys and things such as nesting cups and dolls into their correct order.
She is very strong. We joke that she might be our softball player. She's has a great left arm and has shown us many times as she has hurled things across the room when we play. She also hurts when she hits and pinches. She never seems to do these things out of anger, but rather to get her way. It's to be expected with all I'm sure she had to put up with at her orphanage, life with lots of other children and without a never ending supply of food and toys.

She's a great eater, but wants nothing to do with anything specifically for babies...baby food, rice cereal, puffs, etc. Instead she prefers steamed eggs, fried rice, small pieces of vegetables (she loves cauliflower) and meat. So far she hadn't cared much for anything we typically eat at home, like spaghetti, chicken nuggets, or fruit.

She seems to be grieving more these last few days. She's very content and happy during the day, but becomes restless at nap time and bedtime. She cries in her sleep some and it makes me wonder if she's dreaming about her former home and missing someone. I really hate to see her sad, but it's healthy for her to grieve and I hope she left something worth grieving. I also hope there's someone back there grieving her absence.

She has alot of scars that make us curious about her former home. Especially one that is all the way around her right leg and just below the knee.

She's got lots of bites all over. We've treated her for scabies, but are not convinced that's what caused them.

She falls asleep in my arms and to my singing (poor child), but rests better in her crib. She's a roly poly in her sleep, so the boundaries of the crib are good for her...I don't see a big girl bed in our near future.

She grinds her teeth in her sleep just like her big sister.


Adair:

The Lord has truly answered our prayers! Adair has been so happy to become a big sister that she hasn't skipped a best. If anything she has matured over the course of the last few days. I know it won't always be this easy, but we had prayed that Adair wouldn't feel neglected or loved and less and I really believe she understands that there is enough to go around.

She has been curious about the Chinese language since we got here. She's always asking how to say different things. So far she's learned (I'm sure these are not correct pinyin spellings)-nihao (hi), xei xei (thank you), bu (no), bu da (no hit), and bu rung (no throw).

She has eaten better than I could have imagined. At times being more adventurous than me!
She has slept well, albeit upside down sometimes.

She wakes up happy in the mornings (those of you who know her well know this is big in and of itself) and immediately asks to see her sister.

She's a great helper and loves bringing diapers or whatever we need and helping "watch" Emalyn.

She hates the attention she gets from the Chinese people who are constantly staring at her and saying how beautiful she is, especially the ones who touch her hair.

The other day I got a funny email from a friend saying that her son, one of Adair's closest buddies, heard a loud boom that sounded like fireworks and said he thought Adair was seeing fireworks in China. Funny enough, one of the hits of Nanchang for Adair has been the fact that they shoot fireworks constantly! We've seen them day and night since we arrived. They shoot them for any occasion or no occasion at all. Although, one nigt leaving dinner they started and were extremely loud! Neither daughter was excited about the noise...they're much more enjoyable from the window.


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