First Smiles, First Bath

We just put Chun Le down for the night and she is lying nearby in her crib looking at me as her eyes keep getting heavier and heavier. Hopefully she will sleep as well tonight as last night--she slept from 7:45pm to 6:30am on her first night with us and no waking up during the night. I did not sleep much that first night--it felt like when our big kids were newborns and you hear every little breath, yawn, movement they make and wonder if they need your attention. :)Our first full day together began with a skype home to talk with and meet Rachel and Isaac and Grandpa and Grandma Fitzgerald. It was so good to see our big kids and watch them make silly faces for their new little sister on webcamera. Chun Le just sat watching them all on the computer monitor soaking it all in. I think she does recognize them from her photo album. We had to have a pretty rushed breakfast buffet so that we could meet our guide at 8:45am and go to the Civil Affairs Office to sign some paperwork that makes Chun Le's adoption "official". They do this after you have spent one day with the child to be sure that you really want them and we REALLY do of course! :) We are learning a lot about how to care for her and comfort her. Feeding a cleft kiddo really takes a lot of time we are finding out. It takes her quite a bit of time to finish a 100mL bottle of formula and then we try to be sure she is eating some solid foods of sorts. She did not have much other than congee and steamed eggs at the orphanage and they said to be sure she has soft foods so we are experimenting with different things with her. Chun Le is getting the hang of and enjoying doing some self feeding with finger foods like those baby puffs (softer, easily dissolved Cheerios) and she really enjoyed eating little bits of a banana tonight. Since it takes her so long to eat such a little bit we are feeding her quite often throughout the day and that seems to be working well for now. Chun Le will either shake her head "no" or just stop opening her mouth when she is done with eating. For the morning, she stayed in her more stoic, ultra observant mode, but very content and pleasant. After lunch and a 2 hour nap, she woke up to be a bit more confident and happy. We got to skype with the Welkners in Dubai so she got to meet those family memebers also...very neat! She is letting us put her down to walk on her own here and there. Prior to this, she wanted us to carry her and hold her constantly(which we thoroughly enjoy doing, but it was fun to see the growing comfort level she is having with us). We got a first real smile! It happened when I gave her a toothbrush. She started waving it in the air like a drumstick and smiling and even made a little audible giggle! Watch out Isaac--Chun Le may be after all your drumsticks when we get home. :) The same thing happened when I went to wash her hands in the sink for the first time. Lots of smiles and little giggles. Since she seemed to enjoy the water on her hands, we gave her a bath which she also very much enjoyed. We even captured one of her big smiles in the bath tub on camera! We spent some time this evening in the children's playroom at our hotel. We were the only ones there but she had a great time. She especially liked the blocks. The nannies had told us that she likes blocks..they are spot on! When she sees us bring shoes to her she holds out her feet one at a time to get them put on, she holds up her legs when we change her diaper, and helped zip up her PJs tonight...what a little helper she is. She even helped clean up the playroom when we started singing the clean up song. It is amazing how much she understands our communication with her even though she obviously does not know the language. A very smart little girl! Today has been a real joy seeing her take on more of what her true personality will be. Just like her nannies described her, she is lovely! We have the morning off tomorrow and only need to do some paperwork to apply for her Chinese visa in the afternoon. So it will be fun to have more bonding time with her then. Goodnight for now!