A full day

10:34 p.m. in Nanning.  Meiying is zonked out.  I've just finished packing up the room.  We have to be checked out by 6:00 a.m. to fly to Guangzhou.  My luggage finally arrived about 2 hours ago if you can believe that.  I'm planning on taking a nice long shower, shaving (lol) and putting on some clean clothes!   So Meiying started out happy today; we went to the zoo with 2 other fam's.  Somewhere into the first part of the zoo, she got really quite, started lagging behind and didn't want anything to do with me again.  (You'll see the pictures; shot 1 on the van, all smiley; shot 2 at the zoo posing w/ me and not happy; shot 3, happy again.)  Anyway, we came upon the white bunny rabbit exhibit and she turned around, shouted "Mommy" and pointed and then had the biggest grin on her face.  (In Meiying's report it said that her favorite thing is a white rabbit.)  Well, I took advantage of the situation and put on my charm.  I nudged in and took a photo, then showed it to her.  I showed her how to take one.  Well, she was off and smiling and being quite the photographer the rest of the day (118 pictures later and dead camera batteries)!!  And boy were we the "exhibit" at the zoo.  The locals were following us, taking our pictures, taking pictures of themselves with us.  What's the fascination?  It is so funny.  I'll try to upload one of the photos 'cause it just cracks me up.   When we came back from the zoo, she wanted to call her foster mom.  I politely said, "no", pointed to my watch and to her bathing suit.  She nodded yes and was okay with that.  She and I swam alone in the pool.  Yes, I had to buy a hideous bathing suit since my luggage still hadn't arrived and all swimmers must wear a swim cap now at this pool.  So, picture this.  I walked into the shop at the pool and pointed to the 4 ladies bathing suits they had on display; 3 of the 4 were ok.  The sales lady pointed to the rather matronly looking one and I said no, pointed to the other 3.  She said no and took her hands, spread them way open to indicate that I'm too heavy for those!  Ha, ha, ha... Whatever, give me the darn bathing suit, I have a 7 yo who wants to swim.  So, then I asked for the cap.  She gave me the tightest, ugliest cap.  When I got into the pool (keep in mind I also haven't shaved for 5 days), I said to Meiying, "For the love of a daughter, a mother would wear such a ridiculous get-up for the pool."  I don't know whether to save the get-up for humor or leave it here in the room?  Later, the other fam's all joined us and we had a great time laughing about how silly we all looked and that no doubt, they pawned all the "no-sellers" onto us.  They all stood in that little shop, watching and laughing.  We were definitely a sight.  Anyway, Meiying had a great time swimming and "needing" me to help her.  It was the start of a good mom-daughter relationship building.  (Thanks Elizabeth or Adriana for that suggestion; sorry I can't remember which one of you recommended me swimming with her.)   After swimming, we left the hotel room door open and played Jenga in the hallway for a while and visited with other fam's.  She was very happy.  I thought we needed to move out of the room a bit; the guide told me that Meiying was fine, happy, but that she just wanted to play and not rest in our hotel room.  So, that's why I did that and it worked.  Later, she wanted to call her foster mom again and I said "no" again, pointing to my watch and demonstrating "eat".  I told her she could call them before bed (all this thru mime, of course).  She nodded yes again and was okay about it.  So tonight, as I packed she made about 5 back to back phone calls.  After the last one, I said no more, and pointed to her bed.  She smiled and got into bed.  She was watching me for a few minutes.  I looked at her and smiled and gave a thumbs up; she did the same thing back and then fell asleep.  (My guide did tell me that Meiying told her today that she wanted "us" to go to Guilin so I could meet her foster fam and say goodbye with her.)  Oh, I wanted to be able to do that sooo bad and I was so glad that she wanted to share that with me.  Unfortunately, with the new TB testing rule enacted by the US, we just don't have the time.  I think the back-to-back phone calls while I was packing was all about nerves, but as long as she went to bed looking at me and smiling, she's okay.   So, I felt a little more motherly today; I also took some charge today, which she seemed to respect.  Baby steps though.  She called me mommy all day long and honestly, a few times, I didn't acknowledge because I'm not used to her voice yet.  You know what I mean?  I laughed and would say, oh yeah, I'm your mommy and that's your voice calling to me.   One of the dad's taught her to say "yee haw"...he thinks that's what we say in the south.  I told him to teach her