Momma, Mommy, Mom

I've made the transition with Olivia through the list above.  Actually she hears Abigail and copies her.  Who knew those names could be so annoying???

 

The struggle around home right now is that we just don't have two of EVERYTHING.  I was warned about this {Brenda} but am seeing it first hand.

It ranges from things like a bicycle helmet, kids sunglasses to one child having LOOOOONNNNG hair that can be put into a bun and one having very short hair that really can't {well, it did}.  We have this antique rocking chair that was my aunts when she was a little girl...well, let me just say, its VERY popular suddenly and I wish we had another :).

Day two of school went well again; wish I had pictures but the 45 MPH+ winds prevented that.  Thought Olivia was going to fly away, what with the backpack and all...it was comical seeing her excitement to ride the bus for the first time coupled with the fierce wind pulling her tiny body away...

The girls are getting along well, for the most part.  No real fighting, just some whining.  I'll take this gift, and thank the Lord for all of it.  Sometimes its hard to remember what a blessing this really is, but we are getting there...life is good.

 

Easter Weekend

Things around here have been pretty "normal".  Olivia is catching on and we are to her as well.  She's an hornery little thing, that one! 

We had a good weekend, finished up our bathroom tile project, had a date night with the hubby which was VERY nice and spent Easter Sunday praising the One who gave His all for US.  We went to church where both girls participated in singing a group song with the other kids;

then spontaneously hit the buffet at Quaker Steak & Lube while my ham sat in the fridge.  Who knew they had a buffet?  While it was tasty, it was a tad on the expensive side so we won't be doing that again...

So Much Fun

A lot has gone on the past week as we all get used to our new family structure, but today was the best.  Abigail had school, Bern went turkey hunting and I was home with Olivia for the first time, really just the two of us.  We got Ab on the bus, had breakfast and then went to run errands.  We went up to school and after much discussion, she is going to start Kindergarten on Monday with Abigail.  There are only 18 school days left and the principal and guidance counselor think its the best thing.  Then I will send her 1/2 days this summer to school, working on the language and reading skills.  She impressed the doctor yesterday by writing her numbers all out to 100!!  I don't think Ab can do that.  So, we'll do all this and then decide what grade she will go into next school year.  Great plan!  BUT the best thing was, we had a really good time together and I got some hugs and snuggles and just had fun. 

After dinner tonight, we put them to work doing dishes, no sense waiting, right?  Just kidding child services, they wanted to do it...

A New Normal

We made it home last Wednesday night unscathed.  After 26 grueling hours traveling from Guangzhou to Shanghai to Chicago to Home...just grueling.  All in all Zijing did well.  She didn't like having to put her seat belt on at the end of the big leg and started her whimpering, but she came out of it fairly quickly.  Both girls slept a good bit thankfully {must be nice}and were pretty pleasant in the long run.  

We were greeted at the airport by a small group of friends and family, so good to see familiar faces; especially Jack....thank you all so much!  We got home and Bern cooked burgers at 1:30AM; they were SO good.

So now we have a new normal; two girls to get to bed, get teeth brushed, fed, etc.  Abigail lapsed right back to her underwear wearing, sheet hugging, couch laying self and Zijing is so far going with the flow.  She was dressing up Barbies, doing their hair (even with a hand challenge) and seems happy...just like normal.  Life is good.

UPDATE: Reality Check

I am having some struggles with my sweet girl. She definitely prefers Baba which is still okay, but she has taken to actually shunning me at times, dirty looks and all.  Abigail goes back to school tomorrow and it will be mostly she and I as Bern will be hunting, so....we'll see!  Lots of alone time with drs. appointments and such coming up before we immerse her in school {a whole 'nother concern of mine}.  So thats the story from Home.  Lots of pics to upload, but jet lag and a chest cold have prevented ANY sort of physical exertion here.  This too shall pass!

We've Hit The Great Wall

To quote my husband...its time to get home to our own beds, a GIANT burger (Jack, have some burger thawed cuz dad's firing up the grill no matter what time we get home) and all the comforts of home.  There is a bit of intestional "stuff" running through everyone as well (no pun intended), so looks like we will pass on the suckling pig for dinner :(   Olivia has adjusted pretty well, she finally had a bit of grieving instead of her nervous laughter and she is catching on to our English.  The hardest thing for me is when she talks in my ear in bed and expects me to answer...I feel like I am robbing her of something so special.  We are going to look for some mandarin speaking folks to help us as well as an ESL tutor for her.  She was in first grade here as best we know and she speaks Mandarin AND Cantonese, which is amazing...smart little cookie.  With her size, we could put her into first and try it or even K but I'm just not sure...we'll let the school system do their thing. 

The guys are going "across the road" later, into "NO RESERVATIONS" territory, where is Anthony Bourdain?  Not that they will eat anything...just sayin'

SISTERS!

 two things she loves...FOOD and Hair clips...oh, three...BABA too!

and speaking of FOOD, check out the white tiger swimming...he may have been hungry as well?!

Yesterday...

We went back to the medical place to have Olivia's TB test checked and she got the all clear.  That was a concern because if it was positive and then her XRay showed positive, we'd have been stuck waiting for a 30 day quarantine...well, thankfully that wasn't the case at all!  Then Connie, our guide, took us to the Pearl market and then the Jade market.  When we came over in 07, I had purchased some beautiful pearl strands for each of my kids, either for them or for their wives on their wedding day.  I needed to pick up another strand and accomplished that.  I could have had a strand of Mikimoto pearls for 1/3 of the price, but we didn't go THAT nice.  Bern helped me pick out a little pearl ring for myself and then we looked a jade.  Jade has three classes, A, B and C.  We can't tell the difference between them, but to the Chinese, Jade is like our diamonds.  I didn't find anything I needed as we shot that wad back in 07 too!  Then we all went to the Guangzhou Restaurant, where we had a traditional Cantonese lunch.  It was very good but not adventurous enough for Bern...By the time we did all that, dinner was an afterthought and the girls had cupOnoodles in the room!  We had Tsing Tao!  Yummo!

Busy Day!

We started out early today and headed to the US Consulate after our umpteenth trip to the breakfast buffet here at the Victory.  Bought done with THAT!  The process has changed a bit since 07 but the end result is the same and it went surprisingly fast.  There was one little glitch, here comes the cringe factor...when going through security where you put all your stuff on the conveyor belt, our little ZiJing went and put her hand on the belt and it sucked her middle finger of her left hand, the one she does everything with, into the belt.  The guard saw it and stopped the belt, but they had to reverse it to get her finger out.  Can you say OUCH!?  I know it throbbed and it continued to swelll...poor dear, she sobbed and sobbed until she threw up on baba's shoulder...nice.   She finally calmed down once we got outside and saw our guide.  A bandaid later and it was off to the Safari Park.  Now mind you, her finger is not broken but she may never let me look at it...

The park was huge and very nice but after feeding the giraffes, seeing the beautiful white tigers in captiviy :( and walking for what seemed like HOURS (2 1/2), we left early, found our driver and headed back.  Can I just say that ZiJing talked to our driver the.whole.way.home.  She must have been hard up to hear some Mandarin, it was sooo funny.  Bern tipped him extra for amusing her...btw, his name was "Jack"...figures!

Tonight we are joining some other folks for a traditional hot pot dinner with our guide, we are looking forward to some yummy stuff!