TJ is watching the Tom and Jerry "Nutcracker" for the third time. Jiejie and Meimei zonked out on the sofa a while ago. We were expecting Daddy at 7:30, but so far he's a no-show. Looks like that Christmas tree will go undecorated one more night. TJ's long-lashed eyelids are fluttering closed, too. We have been communicating a little better when no one is around to translate. When one of our Mandarin-speaking helpers is here, TJ is overflowing with questions. We have put a few questions to him as well. Today he complained about the bacon, eggs and pancakes on his plate but ate bananas and grapes. I asked him, through Haley, what he used to eat for breakfast in China. "Mei you," he said. Nothing.
Earlier, I patted his head, which was close-cropped when we met him but is starting to grow out. "Do you want to be a long-haired boy?" I asked. Yuanfang translated the question. "Only girls have long hair," was his reply. We had been told, however, that he hated haircuts and after the last one had bemoaned his lost hair and asked that it be returned. "Oh," I said "I thought you hated haircuts." Sure enough, he agreed that he does. At bath time he had a tantrum over hair-washing. It seems that in China no one has to wash their hair. He was assured that in the U.S. the hair-washing customs were far different.
Yesterday he cried for some treat he had been denied. "Did China Mama give you a treat every time you cried?" Haley asked him for me. "China Mama never gave me anything," he said of his foster mom. "She was no good." Hmm. I wonder what he's telling people about me.
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