Passport and Water Puppet Show

Passport was ready today! Yay! Her passport photo has her tongue sticking out, which is typical Miss Maelie. She loves to have her tongue waving in the air!!! I got to be one of 'the guys' again to pick up her Vietnamese passport, while the 'moms' (and auntie and grandma) took the babies to get their visa photos. I guess Miss Maelie did just fine for her photo.

Outside of the passport office today while we were waiting for another person in our group, I had a little fan club. I noticed an older gentleman looking over at me and would smile, kind of gesture, just nice. Then, as we walked down the alley to get to the passport office, he looked at me, gave a thumb's up and said, "America Number One!!!" One of his friends standing next to him joined in. It was great!!

AND....today at the passport office, I actually got one of the staff members to make eye contact and half-ass smile at me. Improvement!!!! LOL!!!

We went to the water puppet show today, which was really neat. We got there and bought tickets and since we had some time before the show, we went to a little shop next door. The clerks were quite smitten with her. She was hesitant to have one of the ladies hold her, which is a good sign!! The greatest thing, though...we were looking at these very adorable cotton hand embroidered dresses. We were all trying to decide on which one, and the lady came with a size 9 month cute pink one. Maelie took a look at the dress and grinned and started dancing!! So...guess which one we got???? I also got her a very pretty dark blue Ao Dai for when she is two, and a beautiful statue...all for $27. Not bad!!!! Very nice store, and very nice people. Can't remember the name of it at the moment, but it's just to the left of the water puppet theater.

Then it was time for the show. We had front row seats!! The show was wonderful, great Vietnamese music, and since we were in the front row, the musicians could see Maelie. A couple women would look and watch her all through the show, made eye contact with me, and grin. It was great. Maelie catches attention wherever she goes. She's special.

Afterwards, we met up with Michelle L., and her lovely family, and talked for a little while in the lobby. They are doing great, and Grace is beautiful. Maelie loves looking at babies, and dances whenever she sees them! Kim, my mom, Maelie and I then walked a little bit down the street and stopped at a market stall that sells hats. We did end up buying a conical hat, two brim hats for Maelie, and a Vietnam hat for my brother. Let me tell you, the market people are relentless. We all agreed that our ten minute foray into market shopping was probably enough for us. We'll see about going again, but.....

Tomorrow, we have a free day. We're going to do a little walking around, maybe find the local mall, maybe go to Hoan Kiem Lake. We have a free day on Sunday, too, so we'll try to get out and about a little bit. Will keep you posted! I will post photos tomorrow....too tired tonite. Maelie has been a little fuss budget all day and is finally sleeping. I am hoping it's for the night now!!!!!!!