She's a funny baby; but how big is she?

Friday night here in Changsha. We've been hanging out for three days with Elizabeth, who still answers to Xia Shuang, and we are incredibly lucky. She is such a funny, easy, happy baby. We are all adjusting to each other well; she goes easily from me to Andy and back again. Her transition from the orphanage to us seems to be going incredibly smoothly. Andy got her down to sleep tonight with no tears at all: a minor miracle.

She has a husky laugh, and she smiles at us when she wakes from her naps and in the morning. She loves to sing, and she loves being sung to. She called Andy "Baba" at dinner tonight(Mandarin for Dada), and she knows that I am Mama (how do we know? The many, many rounds of the timeless game "Where's Mama?" ) She loves to go for walks in the baby Bjorn, preferable facing outward like a space alien, and sings her "wo-wo-wo" song. We know she is doing well when she says "da" and she says "da" a lot. She makes everyone on the street smile in spite of themselves. She cracked up an elevator full of stuffy businessmen yesterday by informing them "lolololo" and rolling her tongue around.

We know the big question back in the states is "just how big is she?" She's huge. She weighs 22 lbs, and she's over 24 inches long, but she's not fat. She's just a big, big baby. She's wearing 12-18 month clothes now; we expect by the time we get home she'll move into 18-24 month sizes, as we're updating her diet and she is growing fast.

To give you an idea of her personality: when we go downstairs for breakfast in the hotel dining room, she sits in a highchair, slaps her little arms on the table and looks at us expectantly, as if she's saying "bring it!" Waitresses, grannies, teenaged boys all come up to her, pinch her cheeks and ask us questions. Unfortunately,because we can only talk in Mandarin about noses, states of hunger or thirst, bellies and whatever comes out the bottom of her, we sadly can't answer. These topics have helped us immensely with Elizabeth and that's what's most important of course!

P.S. More photos will come once we get back to the states on the 15th - we can't download from the camera.