We've taken Ying Ying biking a couple of times now. She rides in a trailer attached to her dad's bike. The first time we went out, we used a helmet that had been passed down to us. It didn't work very well because it has a pointy, aerodynamic back which caused it to come down over her eyes anytime she rested her head on the seatback. This is her new helmet - smooth all the way around. It worked great!

Here are some before and after shots of Ying Ying's haircut. She was pretty anxious while it was happening (wouldn't wear the smock, wouldn't sit on the chair alone), but enjoyed goofing off with Baba in the salon when it was over while Mama had her hair cut. Craig had his cut while Ying Ying's was being cut so it was a family outing.

One of the areas in which we've seen Ying Ying develop is her enjoyment of the park. Until just a couple of weeks ago, she would stand frozen in place at any park or play area. We don't know if she was afraid or if she just didn't know what to do, but after several visits to the park a block from our house (both alone and with the twins next door) she has finally warmed up to the place. We've also seen her doing a lot more running and jumping when we're out walking around. Yea!

Contrary to what one might think when noticing the frequency of my posts, we are all alive and well - it's just a lot more intense parenting a 3 year old in reality than it is in theory. I am exhausted much of the time. Tonight is no different than any other night in that regard, so in order to post an update on the 2 month anniversary of adoption day but still get to bed in the not too distant future, I'm posting part of an update I gave last Sunday at church to let you see how things are going.

Here it is:

The first two months have been challenging, but, considering all of the “worst case scenario” material that I read before we left for China, things have been going quite well. Ying Ying is growing in her comfort level in our home and with us, some of her extended family and their pets. She is growing in her comfort level with large groups of people such as in the church. And she is showing fairly obvious signs of separation anxiety, crying and screaming when I leave the house, which is a good news/bad news thing – it’s bad news because it is really hard on Craig to listen to it for almost the whole time I’m gone, but it’s good news because it means Ying Ying is making the first steps in attaching to her mom. We’ve received the results of her medical tests and most things seem to be in or near normal ranges. And we learned at last week’s doctor visit that she has gained two pounds in the last month, which is a lot when you start the month at 21 pounds.

I have found a great deal of joy in being a mom. It has been a joy to watch Ying Ying learn. She watches everything that goes on around her and imitates what she sees. Some of the things she learns we have tried with intention to teach her, other thing she has learned on her own. Several weeks ago, she learned how to eat orange slices and how to have a tea party with a doll. Last week, she learned to wave hello to the animals she saw at the zoo and spoke her first verifiable English word, which, since she is three years old, was “No!” And this week, when she rediscovered a pair of sunglasses she had received as a gift that got set aside in the shuffle for a couple of days, she put them on, found them to be dirty, took them off, and held them up to her mouth to blow on them to clean them. She is a mimic.

While I find great joy at watching Ying Ying learn, I take even more pleasure in feeling that she is beginning to connect with me and Craig, with her mom and her dad. The happy sound of her voice and her bright smile when Craig walks in the door at the end of the day is wonderful music to our ears, and there is really nothing that makes me happier right now than when she runs gleefully across a room to me with her arms outstretched wanting to be picked up and hugged.

There is much that I am pleased about in our developing relationship with Ying Ying, but the last eight weeks have certainly had their challenges. Sleep has been difficult, and I expect it will continue to be so for quite a while. She makes crying sounds in her sleep and tosses about in her bed several times each night. I think she must be having nightmares which isn’t surprising given how much she has gone through and how much she has lost in her short life. She also has a great deal of difficulty falling asleep, perhaps because she is afraid of her dreams, perhaps because she is afraid we will abandon her as she sleeps. And in the last few days she has taken up whining – at least it seems like whining from the tone, we don’t share a language yet. Whining is said to be a good sign for attachment in post-institutionalized children, and for that I’m thankful, but it is still one of the most annoying sounds I can imagine.

I think the hardest part for me has been that I never really get any time alone anymore. When I take a shower, she peeks around the curtain every couple of minutes to make sure I’m still there. When I go downstairs to throw a damp shirt in the dryer, she comes halfway down the stairs to watch what I’m doing. I think she’s adorable and she’s a lot of fun, but it is pretty intense having someone who follows me around every moment that she can and who whines and cries when she can’t.

That's it for last week's update at church. We've made a few strides this week. We've changed our sleep situation, and I, for one, am sleeping better at night. This means I am less cranky and irritable during the day which has to help with bonding. We also went back to giving Ying Ying afternoon naps after a 10 day experiment with no naps which was a failure (perhaps accounting in part for the above mentioned whining.) We had our first family outing to the hair salon. Ying Ying's haircut is adorable (in my completely unbiased opinion), and I'll try to post pictures soon.

Thank you for your patience with my lack of posts and for your love and support as we continue to navigate our new life together.