Day 7-Hefei

A day of progress, and a day of setbacks-well, not really setbacks, but just more grieving.  And attachment issues with me.  But, that is the story of adoption.

So far, the sleeping has gone pretty well.  She slept from about 7:30 (the time she passed out on my shoulder last night), to almost 8 this morning-right before we Skyped back home.  She sleeps well, but snores up a storm.  She also moves around a lot-tosses and turns, up and down the bed.  She did not fall out of bed, because I rigged the stroller to be in between the wall and the crib, and the crib is next to the bed, acting as a gate-so she was safe and could not fall out.  She woke up with a smile again.  She is a little cuddly at night-right now, I am taking any kind of contact from her that I can get.  She is still not quite so sure of me-much more attached to Jenna.  But I am the person who is dressing her, telling her "no" and setting boundaries, forcing the bath issue and "encouraging" her to brush her teeth...so of course I am the "unfavored" one right now.  Which is fine.  At some point she will learn to like me... hopefully... :)

So here is our day in a nutshell: 

This is from last night-but for some reason I could not load it on the blog.  How sweet is she??!?

We met our driver outside the hotel at 10 to go to the Hefei Zoo.  Found this one funny-a building on the way to the zoo.

Our first critter at the zoo.  Big enough to cage.  Chinese beetle??                                                                         

First stop-the monkeys.  Meghan-she LOVED them.  We spent so much time at the monkey pits that we had to rush out of the zoo at the end.  I would like to point out that this zoo is a little different from the ones back at the US.  People were throwing everything into the pits-bottles, wrappers, food, etc...the animals were really only a couple feet away, with not really a whole heck of a lot between them and us. 

Jenna is the Pied Piper out here-picking up kids everywhere she goes... this little boy is not with us, but followed Jenna around the hippo pit. 

This was a bit unnerving-we could get REALLY close to the hippos-much closer than I really liked...it is really a wire fence between you and them-and that chicken wire is pretty open, and that gate a little rusty.

Running from pit to pit.  She really loved it-kept pointing and talking about the animals.  She really has boundless energy.  I know I have said this before, but she really moves well-very much the athlete.

Protect CircumStance Begin with Me.  So-I am thinking it means "make the world a better place and put your trash here," instead of "throw your trash in the animal pits."

This little girl was walking around with her grandpa-she was so cute.  Kept looking and looking at us...could be how cute our girls were, but I am guessing it is because we are a bit of an anomaly here in Hefei.  Not many westerners, so we white folk stick out a bit.  Especially with a couple very cute Chinese girls.

This crazy bridge was the only thing that separated us from the predators.  Lions, tigers, bears (oh my), etc...-only about 10 feet at most below us.  And the signs on the side of this bridge read: 

"Take care of your children pay attention to the gaps between railings." 

 The actual animal exhibits (for the more tame animals) consisted of about 8' high fencing (simple twisted chicken wire) surrounding 3 sides of the exhibit, with the fourth side being a split rail metal fence behind a row of hedges.  Seriously.  Check out the giraffe exhibit below:

This one was a little more secured than the others, but you get the idea.  Apparently their "codes" are of a different standard than we are used to...lol.

Very cute school group we kept running into during our adventure.  Check out the boy with the cap in the middle, top row.

One more from that railing: "No climbing over the railing."  If you can't see it, just above the 4th character from the left is a tiger down below.  I think I will stay on the bridge, thank you very much.

During our walk over the bridge, Zoey kept quietly repeating something over and over.  I, of course, had no idea what she needed.  I checked out the "Simple Chinese for Adoptive Families" and thought it might be something to do with the bathroom, so I asked her if she had to go to the bathroom in Mandarin.  She emphatically shook her head YES.  I searched the map on our ticket-but those of you who know me might know that I am directionally-challenged, so as I am trying to figure out where we were on this circle in the zoo, Tim and Lisa point out the building pretty much in front of me, which said "restroom."  Apparently, the excitement and change in her diet (which was likely pretty consistent every day - same foods, same times) is taking a bit of a toll on her poor digestive system, but the child took it in stride and we made it to the bathroom just in time.  Probably was the sweet and sour sauce with the fries from last night... or the 3 yogurts she had for breakfast... or... anyway-THIS is what we found.  Had it not been an emergency, I would have passed on this one. 

This is a squatty potty with a bit of a twist-NO DOORS, a river running through the bottom to "flush" the waste away, and no real potty-just the canal through the bathroom.  See the toilet paper dispensers---just a teaser, as there was no toilet paper.  Which was fine-I travel with tissues now.  Poor Zoey-she was a trouper and we made it just in time.  Gave her half a pepto tablet and we were on our way to the next exhibit.  But not until I went back in to take some pics of this.  I win the "most unusual squatty potty" award.

This is the canal down the middle of the squatty potty-the opening on the left is about 4 inches high to the other potty.  Which you can see in this pic I took from above, because there is NO DOOR and the walls are only about 3 feet high.  I had to wait a couple minutes to get these pics because there were women in there, and there was no way I could discretely take a photo with people actually using these.  Lol. 

Checking out the panda.

Hefei city skyline in the distance.  Just like Ohio-except without the corn fields.

She is so stinkin' cute.  Here she is with the bubble blower that we bought for about $3 at the zoo.  You would have thought I bought her an iPod.  She LOVES it. 

Picking up the cute boys at the zoo...

The girls had a bubble war-very cute.

This was my response to Jenna's pointing out that the only reason Zoey was cuddling with me was because she was asleep.  I told you-I'll take whatever I can at this point.  :)

After the Zoo and her little nap, we played in the hotel playground which is in back of the restaurant.  We tried the pool again-I did take her shoes and socks off, which she was not happy about, but she dealt with it well.  She did not enter the pool, but sat on the chair and watched Jenna, giving me the evil eye every once in a while.  After the pool, Lisa and I took Chloe and Zoey upstairs to their room-they have a bathtub.  I removed Zoey's shirt-she put up a bit of a fight, but I unhesitatingly removed the shirt and she took off her own pants-I think she knew she wasn't going to get away without finally having a bath.  We put both girls into the bath.  An hour and a half later, we had to drain the tub because the water was freezing.  When Jenna left and went to our room about a half hour into the marathon bath-Zoey got really quiet.  Again-she has "the Look" mastered.  She'd look up to see if I was there, then give me the evil eye, and go on playing.  After her bath she just sat on my lap in her towel-she completely shut down.  Chloe was trying to feed her pringles.  Zoey barely opened her mouth.  She didn't say a word, didn't really look at anyone.  Poor kid.  She came out of it-after I dressed her in this outfit. 

That face is a face that was pissed that her shirt did not have sleeves, and mad as a hornet that her skirt did not cover her knees-she kept trying to pull it down so that her skirt would cover her legs.  So-I did what any good mom would do---took some pictures of how cute she looked, THEN put her in her pjs. 

The blue nail polish came with her to Gotcha Day.  So cute. 

Dinner time-a Noodle Face-Off:  east vs. west.

She snapped out of her misery when we got back and she saw Jenna.  We all hung out, ate, and just chilled.  Jenna fell asleep before Zoey, and Zoey let me hang out with her and  played games on the iPad.  She is pretty good at Cut the Rope.  She was so sweet.  Very determined to get past every level.  Didn't fade away this time-she was just happy.

When it was time for bed, I looked up "time for bed" in the book and told her in my best Mandarin; she sighed.  I walked her into the bathroom, let her do what she needed to do, then got the toothbrush out.  She had watched Chloe brush her teeth while they were in the bathtub, which I think might have helped.  She did great.  Loved spitting into the sink.  I walked her to our bed, tucked her in with her stuffed animal, and now she is snoring up a storm.  Better get the ear plugs ready for tonight...

She really is a doll.  She is talking up a storm-loves to say "Hello" and "I love you" and when she is in the mood she'll mimic what you say - all with the cutest darn Chinese accent I've ever heard.  We'll get past the grieving.  And the attachment issues.  When she's ready.  Baby steps... we have time-she's ours forever.  :)

[For those of you who have been trying to post comments-I switched the settings, so it should work.  Take it up with Bryan if not.  Haha]