Friday - Free Day but not for Dad

Today was our free day. Lynn fell asleep around 9PM last night (typical) and Alison and I watched movies (well, I played on the computer). I let her watch Little Mermaid twice and we turned out the lights at midnight. My friends and family are laughing at this time because that is so like me to stay up late and want to sleep in and now I have a partner in crime.

We met Carl at breakfast this morning. He is here alone and is adopting a 2 year old cleft pallete son from Zhu Hai. They are from St. Louis and I encouraged him to join our group. His wife is at home with the other children. Alison didn't seem too interested in him so I am not sure if she knows him or not. Well, not anymore interested than she is in people watching everyone.

We kept the TV off today until after dinner (now). The movie of choice is Little Mermaid. Alison picked out all of these Barbie videos and she has only watched one and seemed to lose interest in it before it finished but that was her third movie yesterday (or whenever it was) so who knows. My girls can't believe I would let a child of mine watch 3 movies in a row with their father here. Well, when you hardly ever smile and you can't speak, it seems like a reasonable thing to do for your new daughter. Can't you all hear it? "You never let us do that when we were her age." But, I would let the grandkids so that should all be fair to everyone.

Alison has played with all sorts of things today. The yo-yo she got yesterday most of all. Now as a mom, I should say she excels at yo-yo but she really doesn't but she has the stamina of an athelete and she will get it no matter what... eventually. She is starting to write her alphabet but doesn't want me to hover. She was writing in some of the workbooks that I brought but doesn't want me to help her or comment on what she is doing. We have a deck of cards that is capital letters and small case letters with the same picture A- Apple a - apple. She put all of the capitals together in order (the sequence is on the back of each card... you know... a, b, c, etc). Then she started on lower case and when she didn't know what the letter looked like she found the capital and matched the lower case based on the picture. Hey she may not do yo-yo but that was pretty intuitive!

I fried the Leapster! Well only the charger. I thought I was so smart to bring two battery packs, one Leapster and the power cord. Well, the power cord is fried and won't charge and wouldn't you know she loves that thing. She has drained two batteries. I will have to put it up now as it is frustrating that it comes on/off but that is it.

We took a taxi to Li Wan Square for shopping today. The driver let us out and we weren't sure where we were. It didn't look like where David took us exactly. We were on the pearl side and not the everything else side. Once we found the McDonalds, we knew where we were and that is where we had lunch. Lynn ordered while we found seats. Somehow we ended up with four meals instead of three. The cost for 4 meals was around $12.

Alison loves french fries and lots and lots of ketchup. We shopped around and walked a lot but didn't buy much. Alsion found another yo-yo and wanted it (maybe she thinks it is a mechanical thing and not talent that is holding her back) so of course we bought it. I also wanted shoes for her. They are very reasonable here but a bit hard to find much selection. In the bottom floor of Li Wan (on the McDonalds side) I found a shoe store with Barbie everything. I bought a pair of pink Minnie Mouse boots, two pair of black Barbie shoes (one bigger than the other) and a flashy pair of white and sparkly silver tennis shoes. She has a pair of black & pink tennis shoes that she came with but they won't "go" with everything casual like the white ones. I probably should have got one pair of plain black shoes because I bet her shoes can't be flashy for school. Sanity comes back after the rush of a sale.

That was it. No other purchases. I couldn't find any "wristlets". I love to buy knock-off purses but can't find many of them here. There are a lot of womens / teen clothes in this mall. I will have to ask for an outlet mall for non-clothes items.

We walked back. It is basically a straight shot back but about a 20 minute walk. We didn't have rain today but still cold in the 40's. We were all cold when we got back. We hung out here and then walked to the Cows Bridge for dinner. Just got back to our room. Alison had to look over the menu several times. Lynn and I think she was looking for more french fries but she settled for fried noodles and some of the sweet / sour chicken from our dish.

As I type at the computer, the mirror is in front of me. Alison won't lounge on our bed but she will lie on the very end with a pillow and watch TV. I can see her as she watches the movie. We don't get smiles but she is giggling as she watches the movie. She doesn't know I am watching her. I can't wait until we can share in those sweet, funny moments. She isn't uttering a word with us. We have not heard one syllable out of her mouth today. That is a bit sad.

Tomorrow we have the medical appointment and Elsie will help us with our paperwork. We should be free by lunch time. I hope Alison will answer the questions they ask at the clinic tomorrow. . . . Brenda