Memories are Coming Out

Nina-Li has been with us for three months. The past week she has been rejecting me speaking to her in Chinese. She tells me so 'bu dong, bu dong, I don't know.' bu dong means I don't understand. This is a normal part of international adoption. I don't know if she is foregoing her knowledge of Chinese. She still sings and listens to her Chinese CD's. But, she wants to know, understand, speak and be spoken to in English.
Yesterday, February 8th a couple of memories came out. I want to document them, just so I don't forget. We were looking at pictures of her in pre-school in China. Nina-Li remembered that her teacher's name was Lovey and sometimes Lovey took her to school. The other memory kind of saddened me a bit. I was tucking her in at night. She is obsessed right now with warmer weather, she wants it (don't we all). She asked if when it is warm if we can open her windows. She told me that her Ayi (pronounced I.E. which was her nanny)would open the windows at night when she was sleeping and she would be cold. She asked me what her sheet & blanket were called. After I told her she explained to me that she had no sheets and no blanket. That she said 'ayi it is cold'. I have seen a few pictures of her bed at the orphanage with no sheets or blankets. Just a mattress. I assumed that maybe they took them off daily to clean. However, now I wonder if she really didn't have those things. I used the opportunity to celebrate what she does have. She said her sheets and blanket are pretty. And then we talked about her room, and what mommy made, what daddy built, who bought what, etc. All because we love her. That helped her go to sleep on a happy note.