Free Day

Ava has been just wonderful. She seems to be taking to us quite well so far, although it's difficult to say for sure. Adopted children "act out" in many different ways, some being excessively friendly, while some being excessively withdrawn. Ava seems somewhere in the middle, but a little more on the friendly side. Thankfully, she doesn't appear to favor one of us over the other, which can be hard on some couples. In other words, she doesn't fuss when being handed over to one another. She watches each of us if one moves into the bathroom or to another part of the room. She doesn't really fuss about it, but is definitely always looking around to see what we are up to.

Last night was our first night with her. At night, Ava didn't want us to sit down with her for some reason, so Anne and I shared the marathon walking-around-the-room routine until she conked out. This took a good hour or so. She went to bed around 8:45 in her crib and slept straight through until 4. Not bad at all. A couple of times she fussed for about 5 or 10 seconds, but Anne talked to her and Ava went right back to sleep. At 4 we fed her a bottle and then she went back to sleep until about 6:45. We are so pleased with how she is coping with being away from the orphanage and all that activity. We are also thrilled that we were able to get some serious sleep together as a family.

Ava is just a little explorer. She is curious about everything, and especially enjoys looking out onto the big cityscape outside our window. It sort of mesmerizes her, and we think she likes watching the yellow taxis appear and disappear between the buildings below. It's also more space than she's probably ever seen.

She also has a little head cold/allergy going on, as when she sneezes, it is an explosion of mucuus! (We have her on some cold medicine we had with us, and it appears to be helping already.) I think we've just resolved to be full of snot 24 hours a day. Interestingly, none of this seems to matter when she is finally here in our arms.

We think Ava is also the resident "class clown" of the babies in the group. Yesterday afternoon at the official fingerprint and adoption finalization appointment -- which was tricky to have the same day we got her -- she let out a siren-like noise. Really loud! Everyone was laughing and smiling at her. We haven't heard the noise since. She is also quick to laugh and smile, traits that will fit so well in our family.

Ava is really strong and can pull herself up independently and stand. She shuffles along the edges of the table, chairs, and of course, us. She also holds and picks up toys very well, and her favorite is a bottle of gum, which we purchased because it looks like a prescription medicine bottle, and it's safety sealed like one, too. Too funny. She loves to shake it. With bottles of gum, who needs toys?

As I write, Anne is holding her on the couch, where Ava just finished a bottle of milk/rice mix from a bottle, a staple here with Chinese babies. Ava is sound asleep. We are gradually transitioning her to American formula, adding just a scoop or two to her regular routine. We also introduced her to applesauce, which she seemed a little tentative about. Prunes are in order for later today, as she has not had a bowel movement yet. Yes, we're already members of the secret parent society that talks about poop.

Talk to you all again soon. Today is a free day, and we're just enjoying the privilege of bonding with our daughter. We love and miss you all, and are looking forward to coming home.

(Oh, and here's a quick link to a blog by Lisa, Ed and Josh in our group. It has a few pictures of us and other families in our group, and a few things we did one night while in Beijing.)