At Home!!

Violet meets Lili, well Aoli, at last!!  

We have been settling in and recovering from jetlag, all the while figuring out how to be first time parents.  Um, yes, lots of Hard Work.  

Aoli is doing very well.  She is cheerful and silly (mostly and except yesterday when she was exhausted and briefly sick to her stomach), seems to enjoy the house and yard, and has recently demanded Raman Noodles (instant).  She and Violet are still in the Getting To Know You phase.  I think both are a little skeptical, curious, and jealous of one another.  More Flashcard Fun, now out in the yard.  We broke into the second set.  We trace and copy them and then color in the pictures and write the text.  This was Aoli's idea in our first days in Shanghai.

First night home!!  So nice to be welcomed by beautiful  flowers, food, and gifts.  Aoli loved the grapes.

Aoli likes lots of different types of dolls.

Our 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Detroit was great.  Aoli loved every minute of it and every amenity provided on her bus/first class flights.  The flight staff and passengers sitting near Aoli were completely taken by her.  She was extremely polite throughout the flight and Mamma got to watch two foreign films, read, and even nap!  One of the films was about Coco Chanel and her rise to fame in the fashion industry after she spent several years in a French orphanage (when she was 12) where she learned to sew.  Of course, this couldn't have been more fun to watch!

Aoli on the train out of mainland China.  I think I will always remember this moment, not sure what she was thinking...
I was fascinated with the train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong for other reasons too.  An amazing view into the industrial landscape of factories and factory housing (dorms, mid-rises) as we rode through Dongguan, known as the workshop to the world.  I read a really neat book about this area called year "Factory Girls" in which a journalist follows some young "urbanized" women as they move from the countryside to industrial towns like this and move from job to job.

Aoli's moment on the Red Couch, ostentatiously flashing her custom-made necklace that Baba bought for her at an art museum in China.  Though this looks all lighthearted and fun, she was actually a real stinker to get to take photographs of at different parts of the trip, including here at the White Swan hotel. I had to bribe her for photos here and also on the flight out.  Too bad I hadn't mastered the art of bribery earlier on (at least for our stay in China).