Swimming and All about Ellie

I wanted to share a little bit about Ellie now that we have been with her for one week. Yesterday at her medical exam, we found out that she weighs 23.6 pounds and is 33 inches tall. Sometimes we wonder if she is only 2 years old, but she does not have her lower or upper canine teeth yet. I believe those typically come in at 18 months. Lilly was late in getting hers too probably due to nutrition. They appear to all be coming in now which is one reason we have lots of drool. I guess the other reason could be that she still has an unrepaired palate. Anyway, due to the teeth just coming in, we assume that her age is pretty close to 2 years. She is a very happy child and has come out of her shell now. She laughs, smiles, and plays hard with Fulton and Lilly. She loves to eat and does so very quietly and independently; therefore, she is a pleasure to eat out with because she keeps herself busy shoveling in the food. (I do feed her also to aid with bonding. She also likes to feed me which is a great sign of attachment!) She did not like the formula we brought and with the milk scare over here in China, she is only drinking juice and water which she likes fine. She is doing well now with a sippy cup w/out a valve. She does not use her top lip much yet which I assume is because she has only had it for 6 weeks. She makes lots of noises but mostly it is just babbling. She loves the soft doll we gave her on Gotcha Day, and she does say the Chinese word for doll- "wa wa". She has said "ma ma" very plainly a few times. She does like to get her way but what 2 year old doesn't? She does hit, bite, and scratch but we are working on teaching her to "give love" rather than hurt people. Overall, she is a delightful and happy child, and we feel very blessed and honored to have been chosen by God to be her parents. In the orphanage paperwork, she was described as "outgoing, lively, and full of joy". A very accurate description indeed.



Our happy girl Ellie who is warming up a lot more with her Ba Ba especially if it's in the pool!



Views of Guangzhou from the rooftop of the hotel. Lots of buildings and people everywhere!

Having fun in the rooftop pool at the Holiday Inn Shifu! Ellie loved the water, but she did not want to get her face wet. Hopefully there was plenty of chlorine in the water because she drank a good bit!