Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day here on Saturday. We discovered that Xiaolei loves chocolate--so this was the perfect holiday for him. :) We got him a heart-shaped box of chocolate, which he devoured. He was kind enough to share one or two with Mamma and Babba! We torn pieces of red tissue paper I had brought for gifts for the orphanage nannies and glued them onto large paper hearts. He loved this activity. He gave one heart to our guide, Michelle and the other heart to our driver. Using a sticker, we hung the other one in our hotel room window. He is very proud of his work. We discovered that he has great fine motor skills in his "good" hand. Levi cut a straight line while I held the paper for him. He has also been cutting up pieces of yellow paper into strips and putting them into our paper bowls with a spoon and having us pretend to eat Chinese noodles. It is so adorable how kids play the same types of game universally! It delights him when we say, "Yum!" and pretend to eat all of our noodles.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would post some things about Levi that we have learned after knowing him for only 9 days. Here is a list of his what he LOVES and what he DOESN’ＴLOVE：

Xiaolei LOVES:
chocolate and all sweets
hugs and kisses
ice cream
eating
taking a bath
playing with cars and his bus
riding in the adopting agency van and taxi
driving toy cars
McDonald's hamburgers, French Fries
talking to Michelle, our guide (he calls her "sister" in Chinese)
being tickled
having lots of attention by the Chinese girls
dancing--he does the cutest Chinese dance for us on the bed each night!!
Playing with balls, playdo, coloring
PB&J Sandwiches--Must be universal!! ha!
laughing
talking
singing--he sings all the time and has a song for every occasion--like when we were walking in the rain!

Xiaolei DOESN'T LOVE:
getting his hair and face wet
being told "no" (boo in Chinese)
hearing English spoken all the time
lots of noise--like the firecrackers
pizza--We found a Pizza Hut--he only ate a little bit of pizza.
eggs
when he doesn't get his way (throws a little tantrum! ha!)
long walks--asks Babba to carry him
being without food too long--when he is hungry, feed him quickly! ha!! (Another way he takes after Momma!!) LOL

That's all I can think of for now. I am sure the list will continue to grow as we get to know each day by day. He is quite a character and keeps us laughing with all of his antics!!