All Things New

There's not so much to do while Makena naps, so I've got time to kill. We're all excited that we get to go home tomorrow. Two parents in the group are especially anxious to get home, as they've been hit by the bane of all travelers -- stomach problems.

In the past 11 days, we've had the amazing experience of receiving our children and watching them adjust to their new lives, new parents, new people, new situations, new experiences, new surroundings, new stimuli, even new clothes, new toys, and new foods. While Makena took to us instantly and seems to relish all of the newness of her new life, the other children have taken a little more time. Being 2 year olds, all of the change was so much more traumatic and so much more difficult. Two of the three didn't smile for the whole week, and they looked absolutely shell-shocked and so very sad. They've already come a long way and this week, it's been really neat to see them smiling and interacting with each other and with other people.

It feels like we've been here in Guangzhou forever, but at the same time, it feels like it's gone by fast. It's been so fun trying to figure out Makena's personality and her habits, although most of her personality seems pretty obvious. But many of her habits, I think, were hard to read at first but now seem easier to understand. For example, she reaches and grabs. Hard. Whatever she wants, she reaches out for and grabs with all her strength to pull toward her. If she wants your attention, she'll grab you anywhere she can and pull you over to her. If she truly was confined to a crib 22-23 hours a day as I've been told is common in some SWIs, then it could very well be something she learned to do if she wanted anything. And now that she is learning to walk, when she tries to pull herself up to a standing position, or if she is about to fall while walking, she reaches out and grabs anything and anyone to steady herself or to save herself. Anyone is fair game, even a 2 year old child who weighs less than her.

On top of all that, she's incredibly exuberant and excited about pretty much everything. So if she's walking toward someone, she's very excited the whole time, and just when she's about 3 feet away from her destination, she gets so excited that she's almost there that she practically starts running. And loses her balance. Then lunges for the final stretch with arms outstretched and a "Waaaahhhhh! Hahahahaah!" laughing like crazy and hoping she'll land in someone's arms or somewhere softer than the ground. It's fine when it's me or Conrad. Not so fine when it's someone small. We'll see if these things don't happen as often as her walking improves!

We're working hard to teach her how to be gentle, and we can already see a lot of improvement just in the last 11 days. Kalia's been a saint about it. A couple of times, Makena has pulled her hair so hard or fallen on her so hard that Kalia's in tears. But rather than let Makena see her cry (lest she feel bad for hurting Jiejie) Kalia will bury her face in me and cry quietly until she feels better. She forgives so quickly and within minutes, is ready to play with Makena again with all the same patience and gentleness as before she got hurt. What a lesson in forgiveness. Still, we are hoping that Makena will get the idea of being gentle before she thinks her first name is "Gentle." And we hope Kalia will learn to be a little more assertive. It's all good. We're enjoying the fact that they truly complement each other in terms of personality, and I think they each can learn something from the other about balance and moderation.

A little description of the pictures:
Photo 1: Makena is a happy girl and very much a ham. She definitely mugs for the camera and this is a perfect shot of her mischievous smile/laugh that pretty much makes anyone laugh when they see it. When she wakes up in the morning, she makes this face. When she wakes up from a nap, she makes this face. When she sees me, Conrad, Kalia, or Laolao, she makes this face. When she's proud of herself, she makes this face. Actually, whenever she sees Conrad holding up the camera to take a picture, she makes this face.

Photo 2: She's tough and she loves roughhousing and horseplay. She's got a great big belly laugh and when she laughs hard, she sounds EXACTLY like her cousin Kamden which is sort of uncanny.

Photo 3: A shot of Makena about to leap off the bed toward me. We've been trying to teach her how to get off the bed or couch backwards, on her belly, legs first. Last night, as she crawled full speed toward the edge of the bed, we waited to see if she'd slow down to turn around. Nope. So Conrad let her crawl off and he caught her mid-air upside down, to see if she'd realize what she'd done. She just laughed and laughed and thought it was so much fun. I guess that backfired.

Photo 4: Out for a walk, Daddy with Makena in the carrier, and Kalia with her baby in the carrier. Kalia ditched her carrier pretty shortly after because she didn't like all the smiles she got from strangers. She's like me--she hates attention from anyone, even if it's positive.