Grace has been kissed non-stop. By the end of today she was starting to pucker up when our lips come at her. She is cautious with her smiles, but does indulge us and gives a lopsided half smile. It’s pretty cute. But then everything she does is “pretty stinkin’ cute”. Grace is teething; has four teeth, an even match, two on top, two on bottom. Her hair still stands straight up even though it has been cut once since her referral pictures ( a very uneven cut ).She makes those sweet little baby noises that are obviously universal in all languages! Today she wore her white dress with red cherries and a bonnet. How lucky for Sarah and me (CandieGram) that she let us dress her up. She makes quite a statement for cute! She is very tiny. Her size 2 pampers are loose on her. OK, so here comes the really big news. We went to “The Wal-Mart” today for smaller diapers. In and out in under 10 minutes!
I am worried about one thing though. I think Sarah and Don are going to wear her out with the hugs and kisses. I have not seen either one of them look at anything other than this precious gift they have each received. As far as bonding goes, her favorite place is up on Sarah’s shoulder with her head snuggled in her Mommies neck. It is an instant “pacifier”. Kevin and I know the ground rules. Bonding and attachment with her Mom and Dad comes first, but Kev and I sneak in hugs and kisses and she responds with her crooked little smile. All is going well and I think she feels safe and loved already.
Candie
Today our guide, Katherine and our driver Bob (his real name is Zheng, but we call him Bob) took us to the Xichan Temple. Katherine showed us all the Buddhist gods that people would pray to. It was really hot but it was interesting .For instance there were a bunch of teenagers outside the temple where you prayed giving the impression they were bad boys but every single one of them went into the temple to pray.
After we were done with the temple we went to a teahouse and drank popular Chinese tea. The lady who was making the tea told how to drink the tea and how many sips to take. The reason she told us how many sips to take was because if you drank the tea in one gulp then you are like a cow drinking water. If you drink it in two sips you are like a donkey drinking and if you take three sips then you are perfect.
When we got back to the hotel after Grace had a very short nap we went to the pool. Grace loves to go swimming. She’ll start to laugh when I play airplane with her and she never wants to get out of the water. I like Grace a lot and I’m glad that we got her.
Kevin
I look at my daughter Grace and I just can’t imagine a more perfect child for Don and I. Grace is really starting to bond with us; she looks at us with those big brown eyes of hers and gives us one of her crooked smiles. When I hold her she will lay her head on my left shoulder and her tiny little fingers start to knead my arm as she nods off to sleep. Tonight we are going to attempt the crib, she fell asleep in my arms and I eased her into the crib, so far she is still asleep and has not realized that she is not in bed with mommy. Don and I can’t wait to bring her home to meet everyone and start our routine.
Mommy
