Red Couch Day

Today was a lazy day, chopped up with random stuff. Poor Eric was still feeling terrible, so he went to see the medical clinic in the hotel here. The doctor didn't have anything conclusive, but gave him Tylenol Cold and some Chinese medicine ... one of the items has a bit of English on it, saying it is Watermelon Drops to be put under the tongue! The good news is that the Tylenol Cold seemed to make him feel a bit better.

Medora was a hoot this morning. When it was time to do her hair, she gave me instructions that rambled on and on and on, involving braids, twisting, and bows, on different parts of the head. I was flummoxed, but she offered "Mom, I'll go draw it for you". And so she did. I challenge you to interpret this into a hairdo.

I ended up dividing her hair down the middle and braiding each side. I then took the ends of each braid and tied them together with a bow. She told me I did great. :)

Lian's baby doll has been a big hit. We had brought a Raggedy Ann doll and some stuffed animals with us, but she had no interest in any of it. This baby doll, however, is a different story. This morning, she was placing her doll's hand on a piece of paper and tracing around it ... just like we'd done with her hands a week ago. Then she'd bring us the tracing and show it to us, which was very sweet. She feeds her baby pretend food, and I showed her how to swaddle it in a bathroom towel. Eric helped her fashion a baby bottle from an empty water bottle. She takes it to bed witih her at naptime and bedtime. Twenty bucks well spent!

We had to return to the medical center this morning to have Lian's TB test read. She did fine walking into the building, but removing her jacket and pushing up her shirt sleeve started the sobbing, poor kiddo. Her test was negative (woohoo) so we got to leave quickly.

Then it was time for Red Couch pictures. Eric still wasn't feeling great, but he toughed it out for the pictures.

Since Lian still has no preference regarding clothing, I let Medora pick out what she and Lian would wear. As you can see, she chose matching outfits. Medora also got fancy silk shoes. Lian wanted NO part of the shoes, preferring her sneakers.

After lunch and a nap for Lian, I decided to kill some time by taking the girls to Carrefour. It is similar to Target or Walmart. Eric was feeling better by this time, and decided to accompany us (hooray!). Last year, I'd gotten some super cute shoes for Medora at Carrefour, and was hoping to find something again. But the shoes were a bust. We did, however, get a small thermos (stainless steel, vacuum sealed for < $3) and children's cartoon DVD that Lian clearly recognized - hopefully we can get it onto our iPhones for the plane ride home!