At 9:30 we were down at the street and waiting to head to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees also called Six Banyan Temple. If it isn’t too crowded I have been trying to put Penelope down and just walk her in large circles around any area to get her more practice at walking. Even though she is 18 months old she walks like a 12 month old so we know she hasn’t gotten much practice. She is so cute, she looks like a drunken sailor because she doesn’t know how to bend her knees and is very unstable, a couple days ago we were able to get her walking a few steps holding two fingers, now she is only holding one finger and I can see she is a little more limber. When she goes down or up a stair she is very unstable because even then she doesn’t bend the knees. We are getting lots of practice now that she will not cry as long as we are moving. Eva was 15 minutes late in picking us up so we got lots of practice walking around and SHE voluntarily let go of my finger three times. I think she needed a break and immediately looked up as if to say “don’t you dare walk away” she rested a minute and held out her hand to grab my finger again and we continued walking. Later in the afternoon, when we back in the room, we were doing more walking, she let go two more times and actually stepped one step away to grab her Sippy cup and with both hands grabbed it and drank herself. This was another first as she hadn’t gotten the knack of holding it with two hands, bringing the cup up to her mouth and drinking, so this was another great step. She is more delayed than we expected but know with that twinkle in her eye she will catch up soon.
Once Eva arrived with Gerry, Laura, Sophie and John we were all on our way to the Banyan Temple. It was fascinating, we talked about the irony of so many cripple beggars at the front gate, and people would walk by and then put money into several of the statues and throw it into the ponds with prayers to the Buddha. Violet had a great time with Sophie and John. From there we were off to the Chen Family Home which was a marvel. Interestingly enough the Chen family men all pooled money to have this built so they could come for the Moon Festival (around Thanksgiving) and the Chinese New Year in January to pay homage to their ancestors. Once again the kids loved checking out things together and running around and I had Penelope walking as much as possible. Eva took us to the old city for a photo op then we were on to lunch which wasn’t great but the kids loved the noodles
Back at the hotel Todd took Violet swimming and Penelope and I practiced walking. Dinner at Lucy’s and walking around looking at all the lights on Sha Mian Island’s park and then off to bed. Penelope has been doing so much betting with going to bed, it started with crying for a half hour and each night there is less crying, tonight she went right to sleep… maybe this is the new phase.
No comments:
Post a Comment