Distance

Wynn does her very best to distance ourselves from us.  She walks a distance away, sits away from us in the bus/car if she can.  (I make sure I sit by her anyway.)  She has also not used her voice to say anything to us at all, in English or in Chinese.  She will use the translator a little.  Since she denies/rejects 99% of what we say or offer, it feels like such a triumph when we get something right. For example, at breakfast, I got her a small amount of some kind of dairy drink (yogurt?) that is very sweet and tastes like creamsicle.  I had to convince her to taste it, but then, she went back for more. Yes!  Those are the tiny things we must count as successes.

She warms up in the evening and allows more conversation (a tiny bit more).  She also gets curious about what I'm doing and peeks over my shoulder, so I browse pictures of the kids and also study Chinese so she can see me do so.  I'd like to get her into a turn-taking game of translations, but that hasn't worked yet.  I did push her into a game of Uno (after I took out the skip and reverse cards because I didn't know how to explain them!).  She shook her head and waved me away, but I just kept dealing, and she played. Once.

Last night, I asked if she wanted to know her American name.  She said yes, and when I told her, she shook her head strongly and refused to acknowledge my presence for the rest of the night.