Chopsticks

We discovered that Olivia can eat with chopsticks and it's so cute to watch her use them! Today at the zoo we stopped for drinks and popcorn and after we'd eaten them, she got up from the table with some urgency and pulled me back to the vendor. She then patted a bowl of instant ramen noodle-in-the-cup and handed them to me with some insistance before dragging me further down to the line to where the man poured the hot water in the noodle cups. She knew exactly what she wanted and she let me know it! They seem to be very popular because we see people eating them everywhere. This video shows her eating those noodles at the zoo with chopsticks. She is not real keen about being photographed yet (better get used to it, kid!) and you can see her expressing her displeasure.

At about 6:00 tonight she brought me a similar cup of noodles that we'd bought at Wal-Mart the other day and again let me know that she wanted them NOW. She could hardly wait for the water to heat up and was in heaven when she finally got to slurp them up. I guess I know what we'll be buying at home! Thankfully it's a lot easier to make than other things she might have picked, like sticky rice.

Baba (Daddy) is now giving the girls a bath before bedtime and I'm glad Olivia's "allowing" him to do it :) I hear her giggling, so apparently it's going well! Earlier she played catch with him, let him take her (and Emily) for a little walk to the gift shop and...drum roll please.... she even put up her arms asking him to pick her up for the first time :) Progress!!

Tomorrow (Sat.) we are leaving bright and early for a long road trip to see Olivia and Jack's home town. It's 3.5 hours by van each way so it'll be a long day. We're not allowed to visit the orphanage, but did get permission from civil affairs to visit the town. It's a small town that doesn't see many westerners, so we've been told to expect even more stares than usual. We're also supposed to be low-key so we don't ruin it for future parents who might want permission to visit. I'm not sure exactly how to be low-key when we stand out like sore thumbs, but we'll try not to draw attention to ourselves. I hope Olivia doesn't think we're taking her back when she sees the outside of her orphangage...

Oh, and by the way, I've asked Mandy to tell the driver not to pick Olivia up. I don't suppose he's read up on attachment theories to know any better, and probably thinks he's being helpful, but it undermines our efforts to get her to bond with us. I hope he gets it without being offended. I'm confident that Olivia will bond with Andy sooner or later, but it's just a little hard to watch her resist her new dad and then see her reaching for this strange man that's been picking her up. The strange man does look and talk more like her so it makes sense, but it's just hard to swallow at times.