Cry Baby

Katerina woke up yesterday in a great mood and even tolerated the torture of being changed better than usual. They took her sightseeing in the morning followed by a stroller ride in the park which she loved. As delightful as the day was the evening was a challenge. It was a "cry baby" night as Emma put it. Everything was wrong, nothing was pleasing her and no one could figure out what she wanted or what might be bothering her. Constantin said it was so painful and frustrating to not know how to help her.

When she gets angry or frustrated she walks away from everyone, faces the other way and plops herself down on the floor. She'll show them! Then someone walks over to her, reaches out their hand and she'll take it, stand up and go on her merry way.

Yet again, she did not want to go to sleep. I posted an Email to my Yahoo Group of adoptive parents from China telling them of the problem and someone replied that it's very common among Chinese adopted children to be terrified of going to sleep. They're afraid that when they wake up, you'll be gone. "Well, little one, for better or for worse, you are now with your forever family." With a stroke of genius, Joseph decided to put her in the stroller and roll her around the hotel suite to soothe her. It worked. She started to get sleepy and whatever she was holding in her hands started to fall to the ground one by one. Next, the little head started veering to the side and she was out. Ah, success; and she slept right through until Constantin woke her up this morning.

The dynamics of this group is a riot. Emma is in charge of changing and I'm told at one point she (jokingly) told Constantin and Joseph to "shut up - I'm in charge of outfits". She'd have tough competition if Schmabe was there!! Joseph is the one Katerina seems to have bonded to the most. Sure, Emma says, he's the fun guy. He doesn't torture her by changing, feeding, etc. Apparently, whenever Joseph walks into the room she smiles and lights up. And she doesn't want anyone to leave the room. When Emma left last night to go to her room (next door), she cried and looked behind furniture for her and eventually went to the door determined to will her back into the room. She's also a bit fussy about things. When she has items to play with, she lines them up just so and you can't disturb them. Constantin brought out the crayons to draw yesterday, but all she wanted to do was take them out of the box and put them back in. And if she put one in wrong (butt side up instead of point side up), she'd take it out, turn it around and put it back in again. Like mother like daughter! I told you they knew what they were doing when they matched us.