All About Mhyia (According to Dad!)

There are sooo many things we have discovered over the last few days with Mhyia.  It is amazing how you can get to know so many things about likes and dislikes in such a short time.

The most amazing thing about this little girl is her resilience. She woke up on Monday morning in a crib in her orphanage but fell asleep Monday night in the arms of her new parents, but, sleep does not come easy to Mhyia. She is a great sleeper when she actually falls asleep but getting her there is a monumental task, but we love it.

We have affectionately named Mhyia the Tiger-Lilly (Hu-Bai He Hua). She is as beautiful as the precious Lilly flower, but do not let that over power you as when this occurs, her inner ferocity of the tiger may be unleashed upon you. There exists an intimate balance of both of these characteristics to which mother and father dearest have now just begun to understand. But number one daughter is loved beyond the definition of love, she herself is what is love.

When Mhyia starts to get sleepy she starts to rub her eyes, then her head. She always rubs her head with her right hand and then just like a cat, starts licking her sleeve of her left arm. We think that this may have been a self soothing technique in the orphanage. Interesting enough, Declan, her orphanage alumni does that same thing when going to sleep.  If you are holding Mhyia and she is getting sleepy she will also lick your sleeve or skin. We gave her a blanket that Grandma Du Four gave us and now when she goes to sleep in her crib she licks that.  In the middle of the night you can here her licking and it really does sound like a cat drinking water.

After the licking starts she likes to moan like someone with a tooth ache which leads to a crescendo of a wail. This is accompanied by her Shoalin Fighting Monk Kung Fu moves which we need to defeat through rocking her followed by kisses (Qin Wen). This lasts for 10 to 20 minutes, then she falls to sleep. Tonight however, that being Friday June 8th she drank her bottle and fell to sleep without a peep, progress!

When she naps she likes to be held or chauffeured in her stroller where she will fall asleep with no interventions required. When she wakes up, especially if you let her nap in your arms she awakes with a smile. When she wakes up in the morning in her crib she introduces herself to the rising sun with a tiger's roar, well more like a shrill, but it is due to her insatiable appetite for food. Although we have noticed that each morning the crying is less and less and now when we come to her crib in the morning she will give us a big smile.

When she eats, she eats very well, drinking her bottle and other food stuffs. She devours everything in sight, including mum mums, puffs, fruit, rice congee, small game animals and anything not tied down.

She loves to play and is very playful which leads her to interact with every toy imaginable, even empty water bottles. She uses her toys to play games such as every child's favorite, knock down the tower, hide the cup, build a semi-conductor and calculus.

Mhyia loves to be outdoors and is euphoric to be on a walk where she can observe the world around her. She loves to watch people and what they do all while producing the most hilarious facial expressions in response to what she sees. One important item to note is that she does not like it when someone uninvited crowds her personal space. When this happens, she immediately deploys her "stink eye".

Everyday we learn more about her and I am sure she learns more about us, and both of us are honored to be her parents.

Mike