She's now a daddy's girl

Well today was just a fabulous day for Annabel. She had a little trouble falling asleep last night because we were in a new room. But once she did she did pretty well except for some stirring. I broke down though at one point and put her into bed with me during the middle of the night. I was nervous she would wake up while I was still in a deep sleep and tumble out of her crib. It is not very tall and she towers over the top when she stands up. I discovered that she does not like to be touched when she is asleep. She likes to sprawl out on her tummy and take up the whole bed. Just like me. haha She fits in our family already. She woke up very happy and has been that way all day. The weather was great today and the air clearer thanks to the typhoon yesterday so our guide took us out to see some sights. Our first stop was of course Walmart to satisfy our need for the familiar. We did a lot of shopping. My order came to $100 us dollars. I can't believe all that I got for $100. The cost of items are just soooo much less here then the US. I got an adorable stroller that I am praying makes it home in one piece. If not at least it will save our back here. She loves the chest pouch but I think it is going to be way too hot in our last province for us to wear it. After Walmart we had some good old American food...Pizza Hut!!! It was the best pizza ever because I have had rice for 6 days straight. We love Chinese food but were ready for a change. I forgot to mention that today was daddy day. He decided he wanted me to let him do it all (or at least most of it)to really work on his bonding with Annabel. It worked. She isn't fussing for me to hold her 24/7 nearly as much as she has in the past 2 days. They had a great day together as you can see from the pictures. The best part of the day for Mark, outside of Annabel becoming his cuddle bug was stopping and touring the Zhonghua Gate. Which use to be the largest gate protecting the city during the first Ming Dynasty making this the original Forbidden City. It was very cool. They happened to have had a show today for us to watch as well. But honestly we Americans might as well have been the show. I have never had so many people stare at me in my life. Have you ever had one of those dreams where you feel like you are walking around the city naked and everyone is staring at you? Well I would imagine that this would feel about the same. Everyone just stares and talks. Once the stares start to get to be too many you pull out your lamenated "Why I am in China with a Chinese baby card" and then their stares turn to smiles and they start talking to you. I kept saying "Larry (that's our guide) what are they asking me?" It's amazing because within 5 seconds of reading that card you have 10-20 people surrounding you. The card simply explained that we are adopting a child from an orphanage. Of course the most curious thing isn't that we are adopting but it is that we already have children at home. Why would we want another one. They were all curious about her cleft lip as well. It just blows me away because they can be very open and candid here. Over all I have found that once they understand why we are here they are very nice and friendly. I loved having Larry around to translate for me. Annabel is really coming out of her shell today. She loves to talk and babble. She giggles a lot too when playing on the floor or being flown around like a plane. She is also very ticklish. She says mama, up, hi and loves to give fishy faces and blow kisses. She is like a sponge learning new things each day. When we first got her she wouldn't let go of the furniture to walk across the room even though she was walking around everywhere holding on. Now she is very daring and walking quite well for short distances. Her legs have gotten a lot stronger in just a few days. I can't wait to watch her blossom as the next week passes. Amber and Joey you are going to fall so in love with her. She is the sweetest little thing and loves to cuddle. I can't wait to see you both. Thanks for all the emails and comments on our blog site. We have enjoyed reading each one. It is part of my evening routine. I apologize I havent been able to reply to each one but know that I have read them all and feel very blessed to have you all in our lives. God Bless, Mark, Tamara and Annabel