Sweet and Sour

I hear that people are still checking the blog for updates. It is harder to sit down everyday like I did on the road. Having to be responsible for shopping, cleaning, laundry, and cooking, plus trying to establish a routine leaves me with less time and less creative energy.

Here's an update on how the past few days have gone. We are seeing more challenges to limits. Alice continues to check if we mean what we say. Monday she tried getting around a limit one time too many and lost the use of the computer for the almost the entire day. She was a very unhappy and bored girl. I was able to have a helpful conversation with another mom who adopted a 10 year old boy from the same orphanage almost a year ago. She said most of what I was seeing was similar to what they experienced with their son and gave some useful insights and encouragement for the days ahead.

Yesterday my Chinese tutor came over to help bridge the communication gap. She also shared helpful suggestions as a mom and teacher. Because of her idea, Alice and I went to the bookstore and purchased a few workbooks on English sentence, vocabulary and reading skills and a math workbook. My tutor thought that something more "schoolish" would work better than just reading library story books. We ended the day with dinner at Pizza Hut with JJ and boyfriend and a visit to JJ's job - a brand new Target store that was having their special pre-opening celebration for employee friends and family. Alice enjoyed Pizza Hut. We had a wonderful server who as soon as she heard that Alice was new to America immediately said hello in Chinese to her! It was so sweet. I used that as an opportunity to tell Alice that Americans are friendly, which was enforced by all of JJ's coworkers who were so happy to meet the new sister from China.

Today was a terrific day, until the last hour. After breakfast, Alice asked for her daily phone call to China. I told her she could have 30 minutes and set the timer. She hung up promptly when it went off. (YEA!!!) We had her first visit with the pediatrician. My tutor came along so Alice understood what was going on. This is a different pediatrician than I had with my older kids and he was wonderful with Alice. No new information from this visit, but he did send her for a CT scan to see if we can get more details about her neurological situation. We were able to get that done right away - same building - while I still had my tutor's assistance. Alice did great in the CT machine. After that Alice and I made a quick trip to Target to deliver some mail to JJ and we pick up a few groceries. We had a little bonding over chips and snickers in the car on the way home for lunch. We also stopped for a quick visit to see some friends at church.

After lunch Alice asked for computer time. I suggested that since all the other kids were in school, she should spend some time studying also. She spent an hour reading & writing Chinese and reading & writing English (the latter using her new workbooks). I set the timer and she moved through the 4 activities on her own, changing every 15 minutes as I suggested. I told she could then have an hour of computer time. She brought the timer out and set it herself.

Tonight was our regular Tai Chi class and we decided to take Alice. Three people there tonight including our instructor speak Chinese. Alice really didn't say much to anyone, but she participated for a while. Around 7:30, about the time I figured she would run out of steam based on the past few nights at home, she indicated she was ready to leave. DH and I drove separately just for this possibility, so Alice and I came home. Once inside she made a beeline for the translator while I headed for the dirty dinner dishes. The computer says, "Can I call classmate and auntie?" I said, "No." I went on to explain that I left my class early because I thought she was too tired to stay, not so she could call China. After a second request to call (since it "is 6:48 AM in Beijing", I pointed out it was 7:48 PM here and bath time. So while the day on the whole went EXTREMELY WELL, it did end on a slightly sour note. I guess I should have expected it was too good to last for an entire day, but it was nice while it lasted and a HUGE improvement over the past several days.