She puts her fingers in his ears, crayons up his nose and has a habit of digging her wee nails into the red flush of his cheeks.
These are the tactics two-year-old Felicity used to endear herself to Petty Officer Andy Cotterill, a Canadian sailor here who has spent what little downtime he has had recently figuring out how to bring the little girl home.
Stationed aboard HMCS Halifax off the coast of Jacmel, PO Cotterill has been coming ashore each day as part of the Navy teams assigned to help rebuild orphanages and other priority sites around this seaside city. While many Canadian sailors serving in Jacmel and nearby Léogâne have pondered adopting a Haitian child after long days working at orphanages here, PO Cotterill has fully made up his mind.
"Officially, I'm going to see if I can make her my daughter," he said recently, after his sixth meeting with the little girl.
"I didn't know how special … she was going to turn out to be until I'd met her a couple of times. The first time I met her she was just a little girl in an orphanage. I didn't know her name, I didn't know anything."
Still, Felicity's initial fearlessness caught his eye. At about two feet tall, she toddled out from a pack of orphans into the first crowd of Navy sailors that had arrived to help fix their orphanage and she reached for PO Cotterill's hand.
"I put my hand in hers and she spent the next couple of minutes picking at my fingernails, very intently gazing down at my fingernails. I don't know what she was doing," he recounted. "Then she grabbed my pinky and walked me around for the next 15 to 20 minutes and just showed me stuff. She didn't verbalize anything, just kind of stopped, took me here, took me there, walked me around."
The second and third time PO Cotterill went to the orphanage - the trips were by chance because, as the ship's photographer, he rotates between sites - Felicity latched onto him again.
"That little girl quickly grabbed my heart when she grabbed my finger," he said while flipping through a collection of pictures he's amassed of the two of them together. "I decided that I was going to see, since it was an orphanage, if I could possibly adopt her."
PO Cotterill's next step was to inform both his chain of command of his intentions and his girlfriend of five months, who is waiting at home. He also e-mailed the orphanage - which is called Faith and Love in Action - to make his interest known.
"I just thought, I don't want this little girl out of my life," the 40-year-old said.
Once he began corresponding with the orphanage, which is connected with adoption agencies in the U.S. and Canada, he learned that taking Felicity home might be more difficult than he had anticipated. The little girl was apparently dropped off at the orphanage, just outside of Jacmel, in the days after the earthquake by some male relatives.
There is a possibility, PO Cotterill was told, that her mother is still alive in Port-au-Prince. Where she might be is unclear.
"Of course I had mixed feelings," PO Cotterill said of learning about Felicity's family. "I had all built up in my head that it was going to happen. I've been ready to be a father for a long time and this was my moment," he said, adding: "But you know, I truly hope her mother is found safe and sound.
"But if not, I made it very clear I'd feel very blessed to be able to take Felicity to my home in Canada as my daughter."
There's no telling how long he may have to wait to find out.
Stephana Cine, an administrator at the orphanage, said there is still no word of the whereabouts of Felicity's mother. If she is alive though, she may still offer her daughter up for adoption, Ms. Cine said.
"The majority of the time, they don't have the means to care for the kids," she said "It's possible she'll let the baby go up for adoption."
Even if she does though, PO Cotterill will face a few hurdles. The process of adopting Haitian children is often hobbled by onerous restrictions and red tape. However, agencies in Canada and the U.S. have been flooded since the Jan. 12 earthquake with inquiries from families looking to adopt Haitian orphans. Some child-advocacy groups have spoken out against expediting the process for fear of abetting fraud, abuse and trafficking, or blocking families separated during the quake from reuniting.
Still, the Canadian government said recently that it will give priority treatment to Haitian children being adopted by Canadians. Other developed countries, including the United States and the Netherlands have instituted similar policies.
In Jacmel, PO Cotterill squeezed in another visit with Felicity Wednesday. While he was carting her around the orphanage compound, she attempted to draw a red crayon picture on his face.
PO Cotterill confessed he's already thinking of what schools he'd like to send Felicity to back in Halifax.
"I supposed it's a little irrational," he said, shrugging.
Already he's managed to stitch the little girl a custom baby blanket - with pink Winnie-the-Pooh fabric - which he embroidered with her first name and his last, "which I hope," he said, elevating his voice for emphasis, "someday will be her name."
Jessica Leeder