7

Hat Day!
February 17th

"My" Little
Lessons

Memory Lane: One of the things I keep forgetting to talk
about is how Mylin spins cookies. The day we got Mylin we
observed her eating a round, flat cookie. It was obvious that
she loved that cookie. The first time Pete and I journeyed to
the store we hunted through every cookie and cracker choice
looking for "that cookie." We remembered that the cookie
was tanish in color, was unfrosted, that it had textures on it,
and a large open shape in the center where there may have
been a word. I'm not sure that we ever found that cookie but
we did buy a whole box of one that she seemed to love. Pete
and I like them too...maybe too much!. They have Chinese
writing on them and they have raised designs on the top side
and best of all they have a wonderful buttery almond flavor.
Here is the fascinating part of all of this; Mylin has the most
developed finger dexterity I have ever seen in any baby. She
can spin one of these round, flat cookies inside one hand. She
can spin it, flip it, turn it over itself end to end, and keep it
moving for quite some time. It was unbelievable to watch her
do this with exceptional precision and remarkable scrutiny. It
was like watching an experienced jeweler examine a diamond
to make sure it was real, however Mylin spins her cookie and
moves her fingers all about it to seemingly process the
information and to memorize the familiar parts of the cookie.
I wonder if she had spent lots of time living in her own small
world waiting for interaction but making her own
entertainment within her tiny hands.

9:00 a.m. Today we went along with half of our adoption group
to the Chinese Provincial Museum in Wuhan. The museum was
very interesting. In the first building we toured we had an
young, female Asian tour guide who spoke English. She led us
through the museum and told us about amazing items
recovered from an ancient burial tomb of the Marquis Yi of
Zeng. It was truly fascinating to see the remarkable
workmanship of people who lived about twenty-four hundred
years ago. Many large and elaborate pieces of copper work
were found, which included large wine containers, huge sets of
bells that were played for musical entertainment, sculptures,
warriors' armor, spears that had been made of wood, wrapped
in silk and then covered with bronze, as well as many more
interesting things. We went on to another building where we
walked around without a guide. Again I was fascinated in the
fact that these museums weren't heated. Both buildings were
cold and I was very surprised that they didn't keep the items
in the museums at a consistent temperature. After the touring
we went to a music show/demonstration where people played
reproductions of the instruments that had been unearthed in
the tomb recovery. The bells recovered from the tomb were
very large and they originally hung from a wooden frame. A
recreation of the bell stand was made because the original
wood frame had broken down in the tomb. The bell frame was
probably about eight feet high. When these bells are rung
they each produce two tones. The instrumentalists wore
authentic looking costumes which made the show on stage very
beautiful. Our tour group went to a famous carpet factory
next. Shirley our tour guide mentioned that George Bush had
visited it twice, once just last November when he visited
China. We enjoyed looking at the carpet factory but we felt
the prices were too high. The factory was unheated and it was
cold that day. The rugs were somewhat dirty, and we couldn't
envision paying to ship anything home. They did have one wall
rug that included "Wuhan" printed in Chinese writing.   Wuhan
is the place where we first met Mylin, but it's brown color
scheme didn't match Mylin's gray, cream, red and black
bedroom at all.   One thing I keep noticing in China is that it
has many old buildings that look old, smell old, and show years
of wear and use. China is a much older country than America
and it buildings reflect a palate of much old, much new, and a
lot of everything in between.

Today Pete told me that Troy, one of the adoptive parents
found a mistake in his final adoption decree. This is very
serious because Troy may not be able to go on to Guangzhou
with us now. He may have to wait because the Provincial
government offices are closed until Monday. It's sad because
the mistake was that a lower case "l" was typed as an upper
case "I" in the abbreviation for Blvd. Either Troy missed it
when he checked the rough draft or their was a typing
mistake made by the government preparer. I guess it is
essential that everything is accurate. Troy's wife did not
come with him to get their daughter. His wife's mother came
along to help him bring the new daughter home. They already
have a young son waiting in Minnesota for his sister's arrival.
Grandma Jo, Troy's Mother-in-law is a lot of fun to spend
time with and she has been looking forward to going on to
Guangzhou to shop for her grandchildren. We are praying
that things work out for them.

During the day today when Pete was visiting with Troy and
changing American dollars to Yuan, I and Mylin took a trip to
the hotel gift shop. We strolled around the small shop and
then I spotted it, the Chinese Princess hat. I knew before I
put it on her head that she would be a beautiful image in it!
When I placed it on her head I began to giggle like a giddy
schoolgirl. "Mylin, Mommy has to buy this for you!" I told her.
We also bought something cool at the same time for big
brother Ben which we have to keep secret right now.
Mylin was so quiet and timid the first few days that I thought
she was the world's easiest baby...but now she is showing a
new "wild side" that is both funny and realistic. She is
definitely feeling safe now and she is acting more like a
strong willed baby that wants her way. She wouldn't lay down
for an afternoon nap today, she would just stand up in her crib
and whimper. We checked all the usual baby problems but
none of those were the culprit. This evening at bed time Pete
and I laid on each side of her and tried to play with her
because she seemed unsettled and less happy. At one point
she rolled back and forth from Pete to I repeatedly and was
almost on the verge of mania. She couldn't settle down and go
to sleep as she had done so easily the days before. She would
arch her back and whimper, then the whimpers would turn to
cries.   I would rub her little legs and her tummy and she would
calm down but not to the point of going to sleep. We decided
she was either teething, constipated or both. Today is Friday
and she hasn't moved her bowels since Tuesday, the day we
got her. We gave her a small amount of Tylenol and finally our
little beauty became Sleeping Beauty. I had to title today's
journal entry "Hat Day" because a wonderful lasting image of
today came to me when I laid down to rest this night...
Princess Mylin moving all about with beads dangling and
jingling around that precious little face of hers- our simply
adorable, cookie spinning Princess !