July 16

Today was Shamian Island day. I was tempted to stay in the hotel and sleep, but in the end I didn't want to miss Melody's medical exam. It's a pretty basic exam, just to check height, weight, ears, and overall medical condition. I was a little apprehensive going in, based on my experiences with Julie and doctors. I should have known Melody would be different. They are different in so many ways. Melody didn't cry one tear as each doctor did his/her thing. She even fell asleep before we saw the last doctor and almost slept through that part of the exam! She woke up when we took her diaper off, but went right back out when we put it back on. This child amazes me! We have noticed that she seems to glaze over when we are out and about, at least compared to how she behaves in the hotel. When we're in our room she jabbers and plays and makes faces, but when we're out she pretty much just hangs out taking it all in. I don't blame her...I find a lot of the places we visit to be overstimulating as well!

Waiting for our turn:


Temperature check:


Getting weighed. She is 16.4 pounds! You should see the belly on this girl!


How long am I?


Let's look in the ears...


Sleeping away...


After the medical visit, we were free to walk around the island and shop for a few hours. Julie was delighted that we found a playground! She sure has missed her playgrounds at home.



We walked through a few stores, but it was just too hot for us to even concentrate on shopping. Instead, we went to Lucy's for lunch and hung out in the air conditioning for a while! We plan to take a taxi back to the island sometime before Friday so that we can buy a few things for the girls.

In the afternoon, we all headed to the pool for Melody's first swim. She loved it!













Then we played in the room for a bit.





Here's another one of Melody's funny faces:


To end our day we ate noodles for dinner and then walked to McDonald's for ice cream. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Melody won't eat baby food to save her life, but she will gladly eat vanilla soft serve! I can't wait to have access to more foods that might work for her. We think she doesn't like the consistency of baby food because it is hard to move it back in her mouth before it goes up into her palate and into her nose. She also likes food with flavor. None of the bland stuff for her, thank you very much! At least she's getting better with a spoon, and we've added scrambled eggs to her repertoire. I guess it's hard to eat when you have no teeth and no roof to your mouth. She'll be getting teeth soon though, judging by the drooling and chewing going on. I'll leave you with a picture of Melody's first ice cream cone. It won't win me any parenting awards, but that's OK.