Charlotte tries Mexican food

Despite last night’s ordeal, Charlotte woke up around her usual time. Today was a busy day.

Just after 10 am, we took Charlotte to have her Hallowe’en photos taken in her beautiful butterfly costume. We arrived just in time—-there was a huge group waiting by the time we finished our photo shoot. The photographer asked if they could include Charlotte’s photo on the wall of fame for all to see at the Real Canadian Superstore—-I was thrilled.

Later in the afternoon, Charlotte attended a “Bouncing Babies” class run by the Early Years Centres. This program is for infants 0-12 months, but the instructor had a space open for the last day of this session and suggested we try it because of Charlotte’s delay in learning English. Most of the children were around 6 months old, so were not mobile; however, a few escaped their mommy’s holds and “army crawled” across the floor to visit with other children. Charlotte, being mobile, was quite the social butterfly, checking out other children’s toys, one mommy’s painted toes, and another child’s snack. Charlotte was quite entertaining as she danced in the centre of the circle to the encouragement of other mommies and the instructor. Two children tended to gravitate to Charlotte—-she initially liked it and then pulled away—she seemed to be a little frightened by their grabbing onto her leg; however, they were only 7 and 10 months old and she didn’t understand.

After class, we went to Tim Horton’s and got a snack to take on our stroll along the Ajax waterfront at the foot of Harwood. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind was quite chilly. Charlotte enjoyed the wind blowing through her hair, watching the rolling waves, smiling and waving at everyone that passed going the other direction, and seeing and hearing the Canadian geese and birds fly by.

Mommy wasn’t ready to go home, but it was getting a little too chilly to continue walking, so we drove along the waterfront, looking at the homes. Charlotte began to fuss, as it was getting close to dinner time, so we decided to try a Mexican restaurant in Whitby. Charlotte really likes nacho chips and, according to a report from the orphanage, she also likes a little spicy food, so we gave it a try. Charlotte liked the nacho chips and the rice, but wasn’t too crazy about the chicken-—it had a different texture than she’s used to; we didn’t even bother to try her with the refried beans. We met a couple at the next table who were quite taken with Charlotte. They wanted to know our story—-the lady has a real soft spot for people who adopt, as she is adopted herself.

We weren’t in the car very long before Charlotte nodded off for a catnap. Once home, Charlotte played with daddy for a little while; we watched the clock very carefully to ensure that we didn’t put Charlotte to bed before 8 o’clock to avoid a repeat of last night.

Oh, oh! Charlotte awoke at 11:50 pm with a few whimpers—-mommy held myself back from going into her room so as not to wake her. Whew! That’s all there was. Let’s hope she sleeps through the night.