Josie

Whatever my expectations were of how my lovely daughter would handle this trip, they have been exceeded. To this point, she has been marvelous. She pushes Seth around in his stroller, and wants to help at every turn. She plays well with him and the other children, and has often acted more like 12 than 7. She has slept well all but one night, and has adapted well to the (somewhat minimal to this point) changes in food presented to her. Yesterday in the pool, she held him and bounced him around most of the 45 minutes were there. JieJie (big sister) and Didi (little brother) are a funny pair to watch. Somewhat reminiscent of Schwarzenegger and Devito, if only in stature.

Two nights ago, after putting Seth in his pack-and-play (does that give you an indication of size?) and doing lots of tucking in, kissing, I love you's, and zaitian jians- see you tomorrow, K and I were headed out into the hall as is our normal kids-to-bed-in-the-hotel custom (where we've been repeatedly harassed for loitering in "public areas"; whatever). I realized then that no one had done Josie's normal bedtime routine with her - tucking in, praying, kissing, etc. "Normally" she would have been quite unhesitant to remind us of this oversight, but she seemed to sense that we were spent and that she just needed to go to sleep on her own. I came back to her bed and apologized and cuddled with her for a few minutes.

I truly cannot imagine being over here without her.