Journey to Alana: Shoes

I finally went shoe shopping for Alana yesterday afternoon. She's been mostly wearing the same cute little pair of shoes I bought for her in Nanjing since I got her almost one month ago! It was hard to find shoes in her size in Guangzhou and I'm notoriously picky as well. We bought four pairs of shoes yesterday and she was thrilled beyond belief. She kept pointing to the boxes of shoes and then pointing to herself asking if they were for her. She did that at least 10 times. She wanted to carry two boxes of shoes in the store and wouldn't let me help her. She dropped them several times and would let me take one for a minute or two and then wanted it back. She even took a pair out as we were leaving the store and kissed them. It was sweet to see her so excited, but a little sad at the same time. She wanted to wear the little tennis shoes all last evening and even put them on first thing this morning as well.

Things continue to go amazingly well. Alana is using more and more English every day. She even said her first phrase on her own the other day. She was eating cake and sharing with Dylan. She kept saying "Do you want more?" to him although it sounded more like "Do-ooh-wuh-mo". It was beyond cute! At night before bed she likes me to count in Mandarin and throw her in bed. The last couple of nights she has started saying I love you repeatedly in English and Mandarin to me. It is mostly a stalling tactic to avoid going to sleep, but it is really sweet anyway.