It's Official!

Our first night together went very, very well! Our little monkey slept so long that we eventually had to wake her up so that we were not late for the civil affairs appointment.

Paul put Yan Yan in the carrier and it seemed to help her to feel safe. We prepared her morning bottle and she finished it while we were being driving to the civil affairs office. We finally figured out that what Ailee really wanted was a larger hole in the nipple of the bottle and once we did that, she drank it like a champ!

At the civil affairs office, Paul and I had to go through a series of interviews, sign more paperwork, and promise to always care for Ailee as she grows up. Not a difficult promise to make! We then took our official family photo, necessary for the remainder of the paperwork. To take the pictures, we had to take a bottle of apple juice out of Yan Yan’s mouth, so she is screaming bloody murder in the photo – priceless!

Now, Ailee is officially our daughter!

We went back to the hotel and Maelyn was dying to play with Kyle in the hotel play room. My mom took the kids to play, which gave Paul and I some time alone with Ailee. At this point, we decided to change her clothes as we had no idea what size she truly was and some of the clothes she had on were very tight and making grooves in her skin. It looks like the 12 month clothes I brought will do – but she is truly in 18 month clothing.

I was able to connect with her a little, making faces and funny sounds, which made her both smile and laugh. She was sitting on Paul’s lap and would look up at him to confirm that this lady was truly funny and that it was okay to laugh. Precious!

By the afternoon, she even allowed me to hold her for a few minutes, as long as her Baba was within sight. But by the evening, it was all about Baba again. I am just so happy that she is feeling comfortable with one of us!

Enjoying her first yogourt

An afternoon nap with Baba

The four of us spent the afternoon together in the hotel. Maelyn, who normally is all about me, suddenly only wants her Daddy to pick her up and carry her – just like her sister. Sibling rivalry/jealousy perhaps?

At one point, we decided to go for a walk up and down the hallways and stretch our legs. It has been difficult to get outside to play at the parks because it has been raining consistently. Ailee wanted out so very badly that she freaked out when Paul moved her away from the door, just so that he could open it for her!

Yan Yan started off walking while holding on to one of Paul’s hands. But at one point, she pulled her hand away and toddled off on her own. Maelyn thought it was hilarious and she thinks her sister walks like a penguin, so they played ‘penguins’ for quite some time. Hehe! Ailee couldn’t be stopped – she just kept going up and down hallway after hallway. So cute!

After a massive dinner of pasta and tomato sauce (the girls ate our entire order!), we noticed that they were both getting very sleepy, so we changed Ailee into her pyjamas (which she wasn’t happy about), and I gave Maelyn a bath. When Maelyn was ready for bed, we came out into the living room area and found that both Ailee and Baba were asleep sitting up on the couch!

It was bedtime for everyone at this point – we were exhausted! The girls slept well all night, but they moved around all the time, which kept us awake. There were a few points in the night when we found Maelyn sleeping with her head on Ailee’s tummy and Ailee had her hand on Maleyn’s head. No matter how often we moved them apart, they drifted back together.

Life is good!!