Hives

We took Ella to the medical clinic today because she has been scratching the rash on her arms, legs and head a lot lately. I have been putting cortizone cream, and that helps, but we finally decided to get her checked out in case we should be doing anything else. The doctor said she has hives, and using the cream is good to do. We also bought some Chinese medicine that should help with the itching.

So now we know what that itchy rash is ... we were told a few months ago that she had eczema, but we are very familiar with eczema because of Jasper, and we were sure that diagnosis was wrong. So glad to know it isn't something contagious, like chicken pox or scabies.

Dad asked about captions for the photos .... we wish we knew how to do that! Unfortunately the place in the blog where you post and grab photos and manage the blog is all in Chinese! So we have managed to figure out how to post, and how to put photos on the blog, all just by luckily clicking on the right Chinese characters. Tim, do you have any suggestions?

Some photos you may be wondering about ... the boy with Cyrus is just a 6 year old boy we ran into on the street. Robert asked his age, then asked if we could take his picture. The photo of Ella, myself and the Chinese woman is at the conclusion of our second interview yesterday. The woman is the woman who asked for our phone number for when she visits the US.

In the next group of photos, the first one is the moment I first held Ella, which you probably figured out. Then Cyrus is holding Ella for the first time. Below that is a group photo that includes the assistant director of Ella's orphanage, who answered all our questions about Ella and seemed to know quite a lot about her. She also visited Ella every day while she was in the hospital. She called her "Feng Feng" which is a common nickname for Chinese children (that is, they typically double the second name. Xiao Feng becomes Feng Feng). The next photo is of Cyrus walking Ella for the first time. The final photo of that group is Maya, telling the camera that now there are two girls!

Finally, the final group of photos ... sorry about all the scrolling up and down! The top photo is of Jasper, Maya and the man who met us at the airport, Jason. Then one of Cyrus pushing a luggage cart that was extremely heavy, but he did great. He really had to push a cart since we loaded up five with all our suitcases and there just weren't enough adults! THen a photo of Maya, myself, Connie and Kellie. And the rest should be self-explanatory.

Whew. I think in the future we will explain photos as we go.

OK - I just have to list everything that Ella has learned in the last 48 hours. It is pretty impressive. She has learned to wave hi, point, hold up her arms to be held, babble, share (we shared a sucker), smile and laugh with us, pick up Cheerios and put them in her mouth, recognize her name, and finally, she learned to crawl. She was walking before but when i tried to get her to crawl she just laid on her stomach. I told Cyrus that we wanted her to learn how to crawl (it is good for overall development) and next thing I know, Cyrus is holding out a Cheerio to her and moving back ... and she started crawling towards him! Clumsily at first, but she is fairly proficient now (only about 4 hours later).

I feel confident in saying that she did not do any of these things before we got her.

Her favorite toy is this awful McDonalds toy that if you press the button, it plays this romantic-sounding Chinese music that Robert can't stand. But he doesn't have the heart to take it away from her.

We're off to dinner with the Jaspers (hee hee). Going out for American food. Not sure why I feel guilty about eating American food in China.

Stephanie