Sleep and baking cookies

Alana has spent the last couple of nights sleeping in her own bedroom. She had been sleeping in a crib in our room, but recently Victor getting ready for work in the morning has been waking her up. She used to be the deepest sleeper and waking her was very difficult, but that seems to be changing. She was actually really excited when I pointed upstairs for her nap the other day. I borrowed Collin's CD player and put on some Chinese kid's music for her. I stayed in the room until she fell asleep and she did great. That afternoon we went out and I bought her a CD player of her own. She was so thrilled! That night I put her to bed and tried to leave the room (when I tucked her in she waved and said bye-bye). She played and came out of her room a couple of times. When I put her back in bed the second time she started crying, so I stayed with her until she fell asleep and she woke up happy the next day morning. So far so good!

It has been raining for the last couple of days here, so we haven't been able to go swimming or to the park. We've set up the bouncer in the living room a couple of times and we've watched too much TV. We also baked cookies yesterday. I let each of the kids have a turn using cookie cutters to make the sugar cookies. They all had a blast. It is so much fun to see Xin Yi doing these things for the first time in our family. What a joy she is!

Everything is still going amazingly well with her adjustment. She is understanding more and more English everyday. She still isn't using a whole lot of English words. I will say something in English and she will respond in Mandarin, but somehow we usually understand each other. Yesterday, Collin was watching "Bridge to Terabithia" and he kept watching a scene over and over where an older student bullies the younger kids into paying $1 to use the bathroom during recess. The kids revolt while chanting "free the pee". Xin Yi kept trying to say "free the pee" all afternoon. I thought this was way too funny! It sounded more like "fribee pee" when she said it, but it was hilarious! I really need to get out more!