I am sitting here blogging as Thom reads Lili her bedtime story, Goodnight Moon. It is a lot of fun to listen to him read it to her. My favorite part is when he reads her the author and illustrator off the front cover and often mentions that it is the 60th anniversary. There are so many things I love about this experience and one of them is watching Thom fall in love with Lili. It is great to see. I know the whole thing scared him to death when we began and even just before we came but he has adapted quite quickly although he does avoid the diaper changing a lot of the time. Of course, I enjoy falling in love myself and everyday it gets stronger and stronger. I never knew that I would be able to spend so much time just staring at someone awake or asleep. I can also just put her down on the floor with me or sitting next to me and watch all the new things she is learning to do everyday. Her sitting has become much stronger and she will often catch herself with her hand now when she falls sideways. Backwards remains a problem but she will overcome it. Today she picked up a piece of shut-up cracker and put it in her mouth. She did not quite know what to do with it once it was there but it was the first time she made a concerted effort to put something she picked up into her mouth. She also seems to be realizing that she can pick up the cheerios and drop them back on the ground although she does not understand the idea of putting them into her mouth.
Today we went for our doctors appointment. That is quite an experience. I guess they are also busier than normal because it is just before New Year’s and so there are a lot of babies now. It was essentially an assembly line. She got weighed(with all her clothes on), measured and her temperature taken then she went to the ENT room for a hearing screen. They squeaked a duck next to her ear but she was more interested in trying to get the doctors mask. On the other side they played a little toy piano. It all worked much better when we closed the door so she did not have all the outside noise. She can ignore many noises going on about her. We had the room door opened today and were talking in the hallway and she slept through the whole thing.
After the physical, we came home for a nap which ended up being 2 hours spread over lunch time, of course. Thom headed out to pick up some lunch just before one because she was still asleep and she woke up about 5 minutes later. Luckily, that meant by the time Thom got back (with fabulous Thai food – Otter was right), Lili had eaten her lunch so I could have mine. By then it was 2 and we had to get dressed in our new outfit we had had made in Nachang and go down to get the red couch picture taken. This is a picture of all the babies in our group. Lili was perfectly fine up until taking the picture then she started crying. She finally did get comfort in the end although she never smiled.
Preteen?
Ready, set picture time
Red couch picture. You try and get 10 babies to look in the same direction.
Daddy and Mommy and Lili
After the red couch picture, we rested for a bit and our baby who had just woken up from a nap about 2 hours ago started acting very sleepy again. She fell asleep as we were getting onto the bus to go to the temple for the baby blessing and awoke just before the blessing. She was in a good mood, however, and she just watched the ceremony with these big eyes. We spent about an hour at the temple including the blessing which was a great experience. It was in one of the buildings with 3 large Buddahs and we all went in and knelt on the rug with our babies while the monk did the ceremony.  This buddhist temple is special because it has a bone from Cambodia that was a special Buddah relic that a monk from this temple travelled to get. It also has a female Buddah which as far as I can make out is essentially the fertility Buddah. The pavillion in the middle of the temple is also not common usually it is just another one story building which is the biggest in the temple.
Female Pavillion at temple
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Dragon on urn like structure at temple. Money for good luck
  
  Lili and Mommy at temple
Incense at temple
After the temple, we headed for an early dinner with dumplings. Yum! Yum! Lili ate like her father and believe me he ate a lot at this meal. We could not believe that she could fit any more into her but she kept going for it like a champ. Since dinner was early we had a chance to walk around the island before putting Lili to bed. It was a nice walk. Lili was in a great mood smiling and laughing at everyone. She really likes to be full.
Another very full day although a lot of it was spent in the hotel room which I would never imagine that I could enjoy as much as I have but again watching Lili is so much fun. Tomorrow we essentially have a free day except for the half hour we need to be in the room when Candy is at the US consulate getting Lili’s visa.
