We're Home!

It feels so good to be home! We made it home at 1:00am last night and it felt so good to sleep in our own bed. I slept until 12pm! It's close to 12:00am now and I'm wide awake since my body thinks it's noon. Still on China time and I hope my body can transition back quickly since I can't wait to start a routine with Yue Lu. Yue Lu is actually sleeping in her own bed right now. Last night she slept with us, and she slept with us, or just me (one of the hotels had 2 beds) the whole time we were in China.

We call Yue Lu 'Lulu' most of the time since that is what she went by in China. Her friend from the orphanage and some adults pronounced her name Lu Luah which sounded pretty when they said it.

First day home and we took Lulu to the park, then grocery shopping which she enjoyed since she loooves food, then played the rest of the day at the house. She had a really good day today....no tantrums and we had a lot of fun! No overstimulation like we had in China. She really likes the house, her bedroom, and the yard..something you don't see in China since everyone lives in apartments.

Yue Lu is not a picky eater, but she is used to eating food from China. She wouldn't eat cereal, oatmeal, or a poptart this morning, so I cooked white rice, added tuna fish and soy sauce. She was happy with that for breakfast. I have a recipe for congee which is considered a comfort food in China. It's rice mixed with broth, and people in China add vegetables, meats, nuts, etc. I tried it and didn't like it. Another staple food is dumplings, which I have the recipe for as well. I will try incorporating new foods to her diet, but also keeping foods that are familiar to her. As a vegetarian (or pescatarian), I really didn't want to cook meat, but I did make chicken for dinner. Yue Lu looked like she gained weight the 2 weeks we were in China since we had huge buffet breakfasts and dinners everyday and she wanted a little bit of everything. At one breakfast, she actually had 3 yogurts a long with many other food items. I would rather her eat well though then to be a picky eater.

Looking forward to starting a routine at home. I need to work on teaching Yue Lu English, and social etiquette. She has cracked us up many times with her behavior. On the plane yesterday, she slapped one of the flight attendant's bottoms, she walked by a passenger and clicked a button on his computer that changed his screen, she took her fork at a restaruant and scraped the floor with it, then put the fork in her mouth (not funny), and would leave the table at restaurants to order rice from the first waitress she could find (after eating her meal). Oh...and she loves to lift up her dress. Try teaching social graces to someone who doesn't understand what you're saying to them. We do a lot of  pointing and gesturing, but she rarely does, so she gets frustrated trying to talk to us when we don't understand her, which is most of the time. Her only gesture is when she has to go to the bathroom, even now when I know the words for it in Chinese. She is a smart girl, and I know she will pick up English quickly. She now knows how to say apple, banana, monkey, red, blue, yellow, green, 1-5, thank you, please, let's go. She understands a lot more but those are some of the first words she can say.

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