Lamb or Lion

Hello everyone again...

Just typed a message only to have it erase on me.....trying in vain to add pictures. Anyway, lessons learned to pass on to adopting parents....buy things when you see them. I listened to the advice to wait until Guangzhou to buy things. I saw a few things in Beijing I wished I would have bought...just not seeing the same here. But I have only been here a day in Guangzhou...we will see. Xi'an was great, however we were in a business area where there was only restaurants and hotels. Not much for shopping. Not unless you wanted to go down to Wal-mart. It was hard to venture out with the toddlers. Our 4 families had all 2 year olds and one 4 year old. A hard age to be out doing a lot. Not to mention we were normally given a lot of attention by the local people. Very friendly - however overwhelming for all our girls. At the airport I made the mistake of showing my badge that explains I am an American adopting a Chinese girl and we are so happy and going to love her so much....Very sweet little explanation made by our guide. Well, this girl reads it and soon enough about 10 other employees have joined her side. Aurora does not like people talking to her...so she really starts crying. So getting on the plane 5 minutes later, she is still upset. She eventually calmed down. Plane flight was okay, hard but okay. Not looking forward to the long flight home....just knowing we will get home will be my goal. Kind of felt weird thinking on the way to Guangzhou - I was a bit more relieved to be moving on...getting closer to home. Where as Aurora is further from her home than she has ever been.
Guangzhou is much warmer and humid. However today and supposedly tomorrow we have had Seattle rain. Nice. The island we are on is very European in design. The park area is nice to walk through. Today I saw about 8 wedding couples out there doing something...pictures - I don't know. I saw people exercising and kids playing. Also, people here are very used to seeing Western people with Chinese babies. We don't get the attention as much - although she still had a few strangers take her picture. Aurora has this not so lovely defense mechanism she has discovered for dealing with a stranger...she will either take a very hard swing at you or shout "raaaa!" Well, at least she speaks up for herself. I have been trying to get her to wave at people...getting better. Sometimes she may even give someone a smile.
Thus my title lamb or lion. She can be sweet and give kisses. Then at the drop of a hat she can pinch, hit, or spit. She can easily out eat her brothers put together...found she does have a stopping point which includes her spitting out food. Lovely. She loves her noodles. However now we are in the rice part of China. She does not care for rice. Still does not like chocolate. She loves to smear it or chew and spit it. But she does not eat it. People keep giving it to her thinking they are being helpful. She hugs her panda bear and then throws him off the bed. She will continue this if I let her. She can say a lot of words already. Mama, Dada, Donah for Jonah, A-war-a for Aurora, and of course no. She learned that by day 2. We are working on Aidan. She says a lot in Chinese. Wish I knew what. I just try my best to repeat them back. Until she gets too loud and then she gets shushed...which she mimics back. She is quite the tape recorder.

Anyway, since they are charging me by the minute...I need to run. I will try to update later.

Much love
Sarah and Aurora and Grandma