Family Reunion Day March 31,2008

The post you have all been waiting for. Once again I am late but morning seems to be my best opportunity to post. Yesterday was another long day. We left the hotel at 9:40 and went directly to the office of civil affairs. When we walked in Luke Bo Bo was sitting on the couch. I went up to him saying his name and he just kind of looked at me and looked around at all the strangers coming in the room looking for their children. I think he went into overload mode and shut down while all the action was taking place. All four kids reacted differently to the reunion. One cried off and on all day, two seemed all geared up to play with their new toys and Luke just observed. That reaction did not last long as we finally heard him speak some Chinese when his friends got ahead of him outside. He yelled "Hey!" and then something we could not decipher. Then he answered two of John's questions in Chinese, one involving the bathroom (I don't need to go) and another involving a toy balloon. John said "Zhege shi balloon" (this is a balloon) and he answered "bu shi, pua pua" (it is not, it's a pua pua).

The day was spent going from one office to another, signing, fingerprinting, photos and by 5:30 it was all done and Luke was legally our son.
It did not take long once we got back to the hotel to get a glimpse at Bo Bo's personality. He is very physical and curious about anything electronic.
When we got to our hotel room he immediately went over to the computer and turned it on and started moving the mouse around. He then managed to get a hold of the flip video and turned it on to watch video of himself. He gives us hugs and calls John,"Ba Ba" and knows that I am Mama. He's a great eater! We took him to dinner in the hotel and I ordered him congee with meat as the report says he eats congee everyday. We also ordered noodles and vegetables and shrimp dumplings. When I set the congee in front of him he immediately moved it to the side and went for the shrimp dumplings. He loved them! He even used large chopsticks with some success. I think as far as motor coordination he is not too far behind Lily but he is behind in other areas. He is talking a lot now and John is able to communicate to some degree. I find that pantomimes work well for me. He has a naughty side and likes to test what he can get away with. He will do something and then look for a response and he laughs when he knows you do not want him to do that. He giggles when you tickle his tummy and tolerates hugs and kisses well.
He and Lily are on totally different times....Luke stays up until 10:30 (really 8:30 Urumqi time) while Lily passed out on us by 7 last night. but luckily they both woke up at the same time this morning. Lily was so tired I just had to carry her to dinner and let her sleep on my lap while we ate. So far Lily is dealing well with jealousy issues. She is sweet to Luke and gave him her ballon when his popped.
Today we hope to get to a Walmart equivalent and I'll let the kids get some more toys. I can see Luke playing with cars or building things. He loves the magna doodle and quickly learned how to make the picture disappear.
Time to get ready for breakfast. The staff thought we were all so funny yesterday as all four families were the only ones eating at 7am (5am Urumqi time) I don't think we will ever get our times down. I miss my soft bed! This bed is so hard that if I lay on my side, the seams in my pjs painfully indent in my skin. What is with the hard beds?