Loving Lily

It's Day 5 with Lily and she is making great strides!  She is showing more of her personality and making progress in several areas!  We can sit down with her in our lap now without her crying.  She no longer cries when we change her diaper or give her a bath.  She is playful and very smart!  On one hand, she will try to feed herself soup and noodles with her spoon, but on another hand, she will pick up a bottle, grunt at me and hand it over for me to feed her;)  Its very cute!   We've  read up on "attaching" so that she feels security and love.  We are slathering her with love which is VERY easy.   

When I refer to Lily in "Baby boot camp" ... it is us lovingly helping her with inconsolable episodes.  For example, Lily will lay on the bed and just have a fit because we are not standing and holding her.  We had to show her that we loved her but holding her 24/7 isn't physically possible.   Her world has been yanked from her.  She has no clue how good it's going to get for her but it will take time for her to realize that we aren't going anywhere.  It could take a year or more.  Her Nanny, her routine, her orphanage playmates...everything is gone.  We realize she is mourning and even a bit angry but based on her actions...she has fallen in love with us too.  Yesterday we made huge progress.  When she would rear back on the bed and cry out screaming, I gently talked to her and told her it is OK, Mama and BaBa are here.  I would repeat this... sitting on the bed and reaching my arms out asking her to come to me.  Then she would quiet down, raise up and hug me.  After a couple minutes of hugging...Lily would rear back and plop into the pillows and start bellowing again with her cries and screams.  I, then would repeat what I said with my arms out reaching and she would raise up and hug me again.  This went on several times.  We wanted to show her that we are not leaving.  

This is Lily after raising up to hug me.

And this is Lily falling asleep after we did it sooooooo many times :))  This won't be the last time I see her holding her head like that (like ..."my momma is makin' me crazy"!)

Lily LOVES meal time and likes to feed herself.  We actually went to an Italian restaurant (yes, Italian! in China :) last night and she likes Minestrone Soup (but not the tomato which Dale says means she's a Kalman)...AND she likes Spaghetti Bolognese ! ( Which again, Dale says means she's a TRUE Kalman)

Lunch time yesterday - notice how she crosses her legs.  She does this a lot!  so cute!

Lily snuggles with Daddy this morning

 The next pics of our time at the park today.  Beautiful day here about 70 degrees.  Lily loves to be out and about :)

We have packed up b/c we have an early start to our morning.  We are flying out to our final China destination of Guangzhou.   We will go to the the US Consulate to finalize our adoption.  

Love to you all!  And BIG BIG BIG hugs and Kisses to our boys!!!  We got to Skype with them again.  They are going to be AWESOME big brothers!!  xoxoxo