Happy Birthday To You...

Today, we had a good day. Miss Maelie took a nice, long nap, which she very much needed. Then, we were all going to go out to the Trang Tien Plaza, which is a western-type shopping mall, but Maelie was a bit fussy right before we were leaving. So, Grandma volunteered to stay back and babysit while my sister Kim and I went.

The mall was interesting...it was fun to see the Vietnamese take on the shopping mall, BUT, the prices were awful. We did find a corner of the mall dedicated to some sellers of authentic Vietnamese handicrafts, and Kim and I did some damage there. I picked up a beautiful Ao Dai for Maelie that would fit her now, great for photos when we get back. Also, we were able to get some gifts for people back home.

It was nice to hear from my mom when we got back, that Miss Maelie missed me. And tonite, when she was fussy, she reached for me. *** BIG GRIN!!! *** We are certainly making some serious strides in a very short amount of time. In fact, she has a bottle from the orphanage that she keeps her eye on. It broke my heart to watch her stare at that bottle and cry if she couldn't see it. I know she didn't get all she wanted to eat at the orphanage, even if she is nice and dimpled. But, the other night, as Auntie Kim was feeding her her bottle, it sunk in for her that the milk flows like water around here. She just let the milk run into her mouth and out the corners, smiling all the way, as if to say, "This is the good life." She seems to understand now, that we are not taking away her bottle and she can get it anytime she wants. I'm so happy for this improvement!!

And now, for the title of my post! Today, after breakfast, we decided to step outside the hotel and walk around the block. Maelie loves to watch the traffic, and we needed to give housekeeping a little more time to clean our room. We were standing outside our building and heard some kind of electronic music playing the song, "Happy Birthday to You." We were all looking around to see where it's coming from, and the only thing we saw were a couple of larger trucks backing up. Wouldn't you know it, the tune was honest to God one of the truck's back-up alarms!!!! "Happy Birthday to You." Go figure!!!

Tomorrow, we might go try to see the Museum of Ethnology. We'll see how Maelie is doing. She pretty much dictates the course of the day. :)