A Lot of Firsts

First time flying with Abigail was a real trip. I sat in the middle seat between David, who was so ill he could barely move, and Abigail, who was trying to absorb so many new things in such a short time that she could barely contain herself (and often didn't).

Jane had told her that she was going to be flying on an airplane to Guangzhou. So, with her arms, she was continually making swooping moves like a bird and asking when we were going to go flying. The long wait in the airport did nothing to stem the excitement.

When we got on the plane her excitement mounted and she was continually motioning to me, asking me when we were going to be flying. Meanwhile, it was shade down, shade up; reading light on, reading light off, tray table down, tray table up... Anything that could be moved or manipulated was, and multiple times. It was a relief to tell her that we were finally flying. The moving and manipulating continued, but at least the flying motions stopped.

She was beginning to be a little frustrated that I could not understand some of what she was saying, so she motioned for a pen. I gave her a pen and a piece of newspaper. She then spelled out what she was saying in Chinese characters, and looked expectantly at me, probably thinking I would understand if I saw it written on paper.

She could tell I wasn't getting it. She then re-wrote what she was trying to say in pinyin (the Roman representation of Chinese) and pronounced it slowly to me. I could now pronounce what she was trying to convey fairly well, seeing it written sort-of phonetically and hearing her say it slowly to me, but I still had no idea what she was talking about. I think she finally gave up and moved on to something else. She has since attempted this with us on several occasions including one time when we thumbed through a Chinese translation book for a half hour, trying to figure out what she was trying to say. I think that will probably be one of the hardest things when we get home, trying to communicate.

She had been motioning that she wanted food for some time and when the meal was served (try getting a meal on a 2-hour flight in the States!) she lit up and signed the question: eat? She was thrilled. She was able to order her own menu choice (in Chinese) and ate the entire meal.

The whole flight was non-stop chatter and trying things out. She must have tried the headphones for the in-flight movie seven or eight times. She couldn't make any sense out of the movie (but neither could I).

The whole experience was a sensory overload of new experiences. I probably didn't help matters by piling her on top of all the luggage on the luggage cart and pushing her around the airport (I regret not getting a picture, it was quite a sight). When we got to the hotel room around midnight it took a little while to get her settled in. But it was finally quiet and she was asleep.

Of all the times to schedule a medical appointment, hers was set for 9:00 the next morning. Getting her out of bed is another whole story.