First Day in Guangzhou

Team Law/George in the Taiyuan airport. Maggie Xudi's first airplane ride coming up. Notice she has a team (tie die) shirt too!






The first airplane ride.











Maggie Xudi loves her money (1 Yuan). She holds it all of the time.


It's a Waterfall - she gets really excited!


Get Baba wet. Isn't her laugh fun?

Today was a travel day to Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong. Maggie Xudi was very sad when we got in the taxi to drive to the airport. We think she associates a taxi ride with taking her back to see the Orphanage people (like we did on her second day with us) and maybe thinks uh oh, my vacation with these nice people is over. She kept looking at Mama with big worried eyes and nervously played with her sippy cup. Once we got to the airport and we all stayed together, she was back to her jubilant self.

Maggie Xudi was a champ on her first airplane ride. The only part she didn't like was buckling her seat belt. She cried a tiny bit until Mama distracted her with a few of her blocks and her 1 Yuan bill--her favorite toys. For the landing, I just held her and everyone was fine with that. She missed her nap today and did rather well for a 2 year old without a nap. No real meltdowns or crying. We ate at a very nice Thai restaurant and we've noticed that she is changing almost by the hour. The first and second day with her, she wouldn't feed herself. This morning, she would use a small spoon for about 1/2 of her breakfast. Tonight at dinner, she refused to be fed anything. She had to do it all by herself. By the end of dinner, if Mama put noodles on her spoon or fork, she would dump them off (while giving Mama a dirty look) and then scoop it up herself. Dinner took a bit longer this way, and big brother was getting very impatient, but she fed herself the whole dinner--and she still eats a lot! Back at the hotel, she was asleep almost before her head hit her tiny pillow.

Some people have asked how we communicate with her and all we can say is somehow it works. Her Chinese is very difficult to understand, even by native speakers (probably, at least in part, due to her cleft), and we try but know very little. She, of course, spoke no English when we met her but she seems to be picking it up quickly. But, somehow we all communicate quite well. Can't explain it, but it's pretty cool.