A good, quiet Sunday

I had asked Veronica to call the orphanage to get more information for me. For example, was Sidou chatty there? There original paperwork describes her both as very shy and quiet, as well as outgoing and extroverted. Before she could get back to me, I figured some of it out- and Veronica confirmed it. She is enormously outgoing and extroverted- but only once she is very comfortable. Otherwise, she is sort of hypervigilant and shy. Last night, she decided she would watch CNN with me, rhather than go to bed too early When I suggested otherwise, she giggled, tossed several stuffed animals my way, and tried to do a somersault in her crib. Many times. She put her hands on eitehr side of it, climbed the head board and tried to keep going, Um...OK.
Yet, she is terrified of going into Nan's room, and is much more reserved with her. For those of you who know Nan- how absurd is THAT!
Nan, by the way, is the unsung hero of this trip. No matter how cranky I get, she remains teh center of calm, and contineues to keep a back seat, never asking to hold or play with Sidou, unless she seems ready for it. She has absolutely allowed thetwo of us to connect- no easy task, when clearly she would love to see what I am seeing- and deseves to. But Susie seemed to be able to connect to me from the start- even when we saw her Nannies in the lobby of the Civil Affairs Office after they left her, she just clung to me. Very sweet- and a but odd!
Today, as Nan has a cold, and Susie needed quiet, we hung out here. She has chosen to alert me of several things today. A) She is perfectly capable of putting her OWN shoes on, thank you very much. B0 She has now figured out how to use a fork. (must be form watching Nan and I- I certainly never tried teaching her!) I had started out by feeding her,then putting finger food in front of her so she could eat it herself, but as of last night, she just picked up an a ult sized western fork, the proper way, no less, and now will only use a fork when eating. Now mind you, this includes food that is not really meant to be eaten with a fork. Her preferred method is to pick up all food, quite delicately, place it on the fork, and then bring the fork politely to her mouth- and then shoveling the whole thing in before anyone takes it away.

More pics later this evening.