Wal-Mart run

We've had two "firsts" today -- our first trip to a big department store with Lillian, and her first blowup. Luckily they were not concurrent events!

 

Our group loaded up into the van to drive to the central business district of Nanjing to Wal-Mart. The other families bought extra luggage, one piece to replace a suitcase that was sliced open on our flight from Beijing, presumably by some mechanical luggage handling device. We bought some groceries and supplies. We were surprised to find pullup diapers in Nanjing, as we'd read that they are hard to find in China. They are Pampers brand but are a little different from the American version we brought along. We bought some, as we've gone through more than we anticipated. We also got a cheap training potty (for the equivalent of $2) because Lillian had been using one in her CWI to go potty in the mornings.

 

Lillian had a great time in Wal-Mart and, like the other families' girls, got lots of attention from the locals. A group of ladies stopped us and asked us about the scar on Lillian's eye and about her English name. We were able to answer those questions on our own, and then Lisa, our agency guide, came over to translate the rest of our conversation. The ladies were very impressed with Lillian's beautiful skin tone, how well-behaved she was, how much she seemed to like us, and how well she was dressed -- which mostly meant that we'd put sufficient layers on! They said she was lucky to have us, and we said we are luckier to have her. Awww.

 

Lillian liked pushing the cart around and trying to pick trash up off the floor (ick), and apparently that tired her out a bit. After we got back to the hotel and fed her some pineapple and Cheerios, she had a big blowup for no apparent reason, other than that she was clearly tired and resisting falling asleep. She cries every time we change her diaper, but immediately stops crying and starts laughing once the old one is off. She also lets out a few tears to tell us when she wants to be picked up or put down, but those also stop immediately. This time there was no easy way to stop the tears. She was ticked off, but eventually was OK with being held and rocked, as long as Kari did so standing up.

 

So now she is nearing the end of an 1 1/2-hour nap, which was part of her routine in the CWI. We'll see what her mood is like when she wakes up! (Usually she wakes up very easily -- basically shakes her head a couple times, then smiles and looks around for a drink of water.)

 

The other photo is from this morning. Lillian likes to wrestle around in the morning, and seems to be especially fond of flopping on Kari crosswise.