7 and 8, good and bad

Days 7 and 8, Christmas and the 26th were spent in the hotel room for the most part. We were all hit hard with a bad head cold, and our only excursions were for food and to the local pharmacy (the Chinese one) for drugs and more tissues, which we were going through at an alarming rate. We Skyped with family on Christmas and watched movies in the room, blew our noses, and played on the floor with Drew. And guess what? Drew became Drew. Not completely, but slooooowwwly over the two days, she stopped clenching, crying and started to play, relax and enjoy. She laughed a little, not just when running, and babbled. It was the first time we had heard noise, other than crying, out of her...intentional noise. It was so wonderful to see and hear, and so encouraging. Sadly, we also got a taste of the heartbreaking institutional behaviors too. We knew she rocked, when standing, and clenched her fingers, clossed, but had not seen any other self-soothing behaviors that were disturbing. Both of these nights, on being put to bed, she was so angry she not only rocked, but engaged in head-banging. Horrible to see, and of course we stopped it at once, but it was still so disturbing. We are all so happy she is moving forward, but it's hard to forget how far she must come.