Notes from today :)

We did a last-minute name change, and Thalia is now Thalia Kay SongGuo Whicker. Kay is my mom's middle name (and mine). We wanted a way to honor and remember my sweet mom, and this seemed like a good way to do it. My mom has been all over this adoption the last few days, and I know she knows Thalia well. I hope it makes her happy to share her name with our little cutie. :)

Thalia is far from nonverbal. In English, she says "up, down, uh-oh, mama, hello, look" and da (dad)" and there are quite a few things she says in Chinese. Obviously I'm limited in understanding what she says, but so far we have "baba (daddy), ayi (auntie)," and "wo de (my)." And of course, "mama" is also Chinese. She also signs "fish" and "toilet." She's a great imitator, master jargon-er, and a superb gesturer, so I have a lot to work with! She also has no significant dysarthria and good resting tongue posture. This kid's going to be talking up a storm!

Today we took a cab to Shamian Island so we could buy gifts for the family back home. It was fun to be there again, but it's so different than we remember. The beautiful European buildings and gardens are still there, but now that China adoptions have dwindled, the White Swan hotel is undergoing massive remodeling, and the US consulate has moved, it is much quieter. We only saw a handful of adopting families, and there used to be hundreds on any given day. Anyway, we shopped at a couple of stores, stopped for Thalia to dance with the school kids (see video in previous post - it's adorable!), and then we ate at Lucy's. We had planned to go to the Cow and Bridge which is a Thai restaurant that we loved on previous trips, but the recent reviews are really bad, so we skipped it. This was our first trip to Lucy's, even though that restaurant is an icon in the adoption community, because we never wanted to eat American food while we were in China. It was good though, and they had their vegetarian menu displayed outside which was really helpful.

After that, we went and did the adoption registration and the medical exam. Thalia was totally compliant as she got poked and prodded, including when she had her blood drawn. She was stoic! We thought it would be the first time we'd hear her cry, but not a peep!

After the medical exam, we went to a government-run jewelry market and bought a jade necklace for Lily and a jade bracelet for me. I have a jade bracelet from a previous trip, but I wanted a smaller one that was round all over rather than flat on the inside. It is very small in diameter, and I seriously didn't think it would go over my hand. The jeweler whipped out a plastic bag, slipped it over my hand, and then FORCED the bracelet down over my hand and onto my wrist. Thoughts of foot-binding and childbirth came into my mind. I don't think I'll ever be able to get the darn thing off! It's beautiful though, and was a great deal.

We're chilling at the hotel now and I'm doing a little speech therapy session with Thalia while Curtis sleeps. When he wakes up we'll go in search of dinner. We have to be ready by 7:30 tomorrow morning because we're visiting Thalia's orphanage, and it's. 2+ hour drive each way to Shenzhen. Lots of pictures to come!