Life in the Fast Lane

Today was another pretty great day for Tallulah. 

I woke up sick (think I caught Gianna's cold), so I stayed in bed this morning for a few hours.  But Nathan said she did well at breakfast and had a great time playing with the girls.  I could hear them all laughing like crazy out in the hallway.  The first couple of times she tried to laugh yesterday, it was almost a grunting sound.  It was like she didn't know what to do with that feeling and hadn't done a whole lot of laughing before.  Mei did the same thing.  And if anyone remembers when we adopted Camille, she also did the same thing.  I don't think there's a whole lot to laugh at in an orphanage and so these kids just don't really know what to do at first when they feel that sensation to laugh.  But, as we all know, Camille now has the most robust laugh in the Northern Hemisphere, and Tallulah is well on her way to perfecting hers as well.

In the afternoon, I was feeling a little better, so we all went for a walk to Lanzhou University.  It was very...brown.  This place is just so dry and arid.  I'm sure spring and summer look a little different but for now, it's kind of dismal.  But it was nice to go for a walk on the grounds since there were no cars and the kids could just run around.  Tallulah LOVED it.  She was smiling, laughing and kicking her legs the whole time.  I thought she might burst out of that Bjorn.  She loves to point to things and for me to tell her the name.  Today, she loved the trees.  We pointed to lots of trees and touched them.

 

 

After our walk, we just decided to make life easy and order room service.  The items on the menu were hilarious, but this one was the best.  Grandmother Drunk Fish?  Maybe tomorrow.

 



 

A few more details about her:  She is TEENY TINY.  They say the camera adds 10 pounds, and that is certainly the case for her. Seeing her pictures before we got her, she looked great, so I couldn't fathom that she was only 16 pounds.  But she really is just a miniature little thing.  The size 12 month clothes seem to fit best.  And none of the shoes I brought fit.  The smallest size 3 falls off, so my aunt and uncle had to go buy her some that fit.  She totally loves them by the way.  She's an accessory girl.

Evie used to be our tiny girl, but she looks so big now.

She's adjusting really well for the most part.  She slept through the night last night up until about 5am, then I just held her so she could doze for another hour.  She seems to really hate our hotel room though.  She has a great time when we go out or play in another room or the forbidden hallway, but coming back into our room makes her brow furrow and her eyes well up every time.  I remember this with Evie.  I think that all the trauma happened in the hotel room, so it's just a bad association.  Things got better with Evie and the hotel room when we went to Guangzhou, and I'm sure it will be the same with Tallulah.

The biggest issue we have right now is her eating.  The funny part is that I was most worried about bottle feeding, but she's got that down no problem.  Her reports from the orphanage indicated that she ate all kinds of solid foods and she seems to want to eat them, but when we try to give them to her, she chokes a lot, scaring the heck out of her and us!  (However, strangely, she can manage Cheerios and Gerber Puffs with no problems.)  She seems to dislike purees, period.  When I try to feed them to her, she looks at me like, "Are you kidding?  I am NOT a baby!"  I think we've devised a decent method of giving her teeny bites followed by a sip of liquid to help get it down, but that takes so long, I seriously doubt she would ever get enough calories even if we fed her all day long.  If any of you reading have cleft-affected kids, I'm all eyes for advice.  It's really kind of stressing me out.  I've checked out the inside of her mouth and the roof is...well....missing.  Clefts come in various sizes and hers seems really huge to me.  I have NO idea how these kids have survived this long in the conditions they have.  It's really a miracle.

I know you are concerned about my child's bowel health, so let me share with you that the other issue we are having is massive diaper blow outs.  I'm really hoping we aren't dealing with a parasite here.  But everyday at around 2pm, she has a huge movement.  I've ended up throwing away the outfits every time because it's that bad.  I think we're going to have to go to the store and buy her some cheap 2pm pants because I don't want to keep tossing all her cute stuff.

Camille and Evie are doing better with her now that she's coming out of her shell more and being playful.  The both love to try to make her laugh.  She has definitely become a Daddy's girl...she loves being held and snuggled by Nathan.  Last night, he left to take some clothes to the laundry place and she freaked out!  Gianna and Evie are both definitely Mommy's girls, and Camille is both, so it was time to try to even the score.

 

 

I hope reading about our wild adventures today didn't leave you too exhausted.  Good night from Lanzhou.