Harmonious Family Bonding Time

The official title for the period after receiving our babies is "harmonious family bonding time." After the first day of shock, Lilia spent the next two days whimpering, clearly confused and missing her normal surroundings. We figured out a few things she likes: walking outside in the hip carrier, eating congee (rice porridge), glugging water from a cup. But her smiles were very few and far between.

Today, Friday, she seems to have figured out that we're okay to hang out with. She'll sit on the bed, rocking gently as she plays with her toys, smiling when we make funny faces, and even laughing when Ryan does his crazy-boy dance. Her smiles and laughs are heaven!

This morning we visited the Six Banyan temple for a baby blessing by a monk. The serenity of the setting was marred only slightly when Ryan got upset by the monk splashing us with holy water. All was better when we stopped by a Papa Johns pizza place on the way back to Shamian Island. After a week and a half here, the pizza was a treat.

The heavy mugginess finally gave way to a rain shower this afternoon. Lilia's been sleeping on James' chest for the past two hours. Ryan and I explored the hotel before he settled in for some BBC cartoons. These cartoons are different from the US variety. The last one featured kids that shrunk and rode through the human body in a microscopic ship. Today's destination was the bowels. With Lilia and James' content breathing in the background and Ryan's odd cartoons next to me, all feels well with the Tjoa/Ryan family unit.

Harmonious, family, bonding. Yes.