More Hangzhou

Hello-

Last night went fairly well. We went for a walk down by the lake and ended up eating at Pizza Hut (again!) and Donny and Alycia tried the Dairy Queen. They said it didn’t taste exactly like the ice cream back home but they ate all of it. Sydney had a couple of bites of the melted ice cream left in Alycia’s Blizzard cup and she seemed to like it. We don’t want to try too many new foods all at once. Sydney cried for the first time when we put her to bed last night. Not too long but long enough to let us know that she wasn’t happy about it. We all slept better than we have since we arrived and I don’t think Sydney was grinding her teeth at all last night!


Earlier in the day we went back to get the adoption decree signed by the local Hangzhou official. The picture above was taken after she had signed the decree. This is just one step of the process; we still have to meet in Guangzhou to have another official sign more paperwork.

This morning we decided not to go on the boat trip, so we met with the group and received our documents to take to Guangzhou. Then we went to the breakfast buffet in the hotel. Sydney ate a lot for breakfast and lunch today….I’m not sure where she puts all of that food but the girl loves to eat! She also seems to like to feed herself sometimes. Today she ate her rice and dumplings by herself. She kept looking up at me like she wasn’t sure if she should do it by herself or not. She is also playing a lot more now by herself and with us. After breakfast we walked over by the lake again and she was hopping and running while she played with her big sister. She is learning more words everyday. She has “bye bye”, “yep”, “bird” and her own version of Alycia figured out. She is parroting a lot more words but mainly uses gestures for things that she wants.

After lunch we let Sydney play in the room for a while and then laid her down for a nap. She had been quietly going to sleep when we laid her down for previous naps…..this afternoon she cried for about 30 minutes! She can be VERY stubborn!! Hopefully some of the transitions to naps and baths and things will improve as the communication improves. We’ve used some pictures with her but she hasn’t grasped the concept of using them to communicate yet. Her feelings get hurt easily and it doesn’t take much to make her sad if you try to tell her “no”.

After the little howler wakes up from her nap we’re going to find Haagen Dazs and have some ice cream. I think we’ll also find the little children’s clothing store and buy her a couple of outfits….hopefully two that will fit her this time! Tomorrow morning we are FINALLY off to Guangzhou. We’re just praying that Sydney tolerates the flight and that her ear is better. Otherwise, it will be a long morning and an even longer flight home.

We hope you are all doing well and we’ll post again once we get settled in our new home away from home.