Day 6: Coming out of her shell

I got my first real genuine smile since the G&R. Mom left for an hour or so to run some errands with a member of another family. Relieved of having to keep a watchful eye on another new person, Molly totally came out of her shell. This is her "camera" smile. She had just finished some shrimp congee and had discovered that banging on the arms of the chair was really fun.

She is a banger. This morning at breakfast, she took the chopsticks to everything--trying out the different sounds everything makes. This afternoon it was her hands and feet--on the wall, the suitcases, my face...



She's also very into textures. She likes to scratch the back of the chair (though that could be considered a noise as well). She likes to play in the water. And she most desperately wants to fingerpaint with yogury. I just wish I could find a good place for her to be messy--its a little hard in a hotel room.

We went to apply for her passport and to get her medical exam done. The passport business was a piece of cake (interesting note: while we were there, 5 families from another agency showed up as well). The medical exam was not quite so much fun for Molly. She was tired for one thing, but she hung in there--until they pried her away from my arms so they could weigh her. They did let me stand over her and make noises and hold her hand. She cried and cried, but was fine once they let me pick her up again. She fell asleep in the car.

It is worth noting that she can apparently sleep through nearly anything. Last night I picked her up, put her in the Baby Bjorn (no easy feat the first time you try it), took her down to dinner, came back upstairs and laid her down again and she slept through the whole thing....all the way until 5am this morning. We made it through a whole night with nothing more than a few whimpers. Mind you--I'm making this statement based on a mere 26 hours of knowledge.

She is napping now, and then we are planning to go adventuring. She seems fascinated by the sights of Vietnam.

This is Molly playing cell phone. She does this if you say "Allo" (hello).



I also learned that she's fully a crawler--the nannies told me she only scoots.

She's up now. Have to go.

Note: I added an entry about the G&R below.