Busy Day

Well, it was another busy day around here. The second half went much better than the first half, and the kids are currently in bed, trying to sleep but sort of goofing around instead.

I thought we might need this vending
machine after the medical appointment!

We had to wake both Jonas and Johanna up this morning to get dressed and eat breakfast before heading out early to her medical appointment. Every adopted child has to go to this clinic to get checked out. We were really nervous about how taking her coat off would go, but she listened to the doctor and did it without a problem. The other part we were scared about, the blood draw for the tuberculosis test, also occurred without any tears. 

Zack is outnumbered in his wrestling matches now!

But she wasn’t a happy camper. There weren’t any smiles, and she even tested some boundaries by hitting each of us on separate occasions to see our reactions. We tried to sternly tell her that was not allowed, but that just made her pout. We were at the medical appointment for about an hour, and thank goodness we went early, because it got pretty crowded with all of the other adoptive families arriving just after us. We’re also thankful that Morgan came along and watched Jonas downstairs in a cafe, because he would have been a handful to try to watch upstairs amidst the chaos. 

Attempting the "required" picture with our pouty pants.

After the medical appointment, we went to Shamian Island. It’s a quaint little area with lots of statues and shopping and restaurants. There’s one particular statue with a line of children that all adoptive parents seem to get a picture of their kids with, but Johanna was crabby, so our picture is not that great! We were able to get some of our souvenir shopping done, but the kids were pretty tired and cranky until we found a store where we could look around while they played with some of the toys. 

We had lunch at Lucy’s, a restaurant with American food (and American prices-ugh!). Johanna was pouting after she got told “no hitting” again, and then she actually fell asleep at the lunch table! She continued with her nap on the way back to the hotel, and she woke up in a much better mood. We had lots of smiles and giggles from her after that.

She wanted all of these in at once!

We spent the afternoon and evening playing with some toys in the hotel room, watching Jonas and Zack try out the swimming pool, playing on the playground, eating dinner, putting seven bows in her hair at once, and just having a good time together. The coat is still on at all times, and we’re kind of “famous” for it at the China Hotel. There are lots of other adoptive families here, and they recognize us by Johanna’s coat. Yep, that’s us, the ones with the girl who’s had the coat on for a week straight now! 

Ten things we have learned about Johanna…

1. She is a great eater. So far we have figured out she loves noodles, sausage, fish, and fruit the most.
2. She is a great sleeper. She takes a long nap, goes to bed without a problem when we put her down, and she sleeps through the night. She even tattles on Jonas when he gets out of bed! She does move around a lot in her sleep though, falling out of bed and kicking and turning a lot.
3. As we suspected from pictures we had received, she has molluscum on her face. It’s a common viral disease that causes bumps on the skin. Jonas had this around his chin area when he first came home to us, but it cleared up after a couple of treatments. We already have her scheduled to visit the dermatologist when we get home. 
4. She now calls us Mama, Dada, and Jonas is something that sounds like “Joe-nah-sia.” It’s pretty cute. She says Chinese words sometimes and repeats our English words sometimes as well.
5. She doesn’t have a good idea about the laws of physics. She will jump off of high things without giving it a thought. The other day, Zack was playing around with the kids and made his body into a “bridge” between the two hotel beds. Jonas started climbing across it. Johanna took a flying leap off the bed (totally missing the bridge) and gave herself a bloody nose!
6. Her favorite color seems to be red, and she likes super girly/lacy/frilly things.
7. She loves songs and dancing and picks up on movements very quickly. I taught her “Little Bunny Foo Foo,” and that’s a favorite now.
8. She’s obviously had exposure to toys and playgrounds and such, because she knows what to do with them and on them. This makes us happy, because Jonas had obviously not had this experience. She was even doing somersaults with Jonas today in the hotel room…glad I signed her up for gymnastics!
9. She loves to take care of people, especially her brother. From getting his glasses for him to buttoning his shirt to washing his hair to tattling on him when he’s misbehaving, she definitely likes the caretaker role! 
10. She’s warming up to our affection slowly but surely. She loves running up to Zack to hold his hand or be held, and tonight she actually sought out goodnight hugs and kisses from me after she saw how I did them with Jonas instead of merely tolerating them being done to her. Baby steps!

Tomorrow we have a free day (hooray!), so we’re going to check out Baiyun Mountain. I don’t know a lot about it, but it looks like a decent enough way to spend the morning! I’m sure I’ll report back tomorrow. Over and out for tonight…