Thursday, May 14, 2009

Today we went to the Six Banyan Temple and The Family Chen Temple. The Six Banyan Temple was very relaxing and quiet. It is hard to believe it is surrounded by the busy city. In the temple there are a lot of statues of Buddha. There were a lot of people burning incense and praying to the Buddha’s. They walk around and pray to each one. We saw some monks and there was a little area with a bunch of turtles in it. John, Lily and I were the only ones in our group who went to the Family Chen Temple. It was very nice and is in the process of being refurbished. There is a museum at the temple with relics dating back as much as 300 years ago. Our guide was able to spend a lot of time with Lily since we were the only family and explain some of the experience with her in Chinese. We decided to skip the traditional Chinese dinner tonight because John and I both needed a break.

Lily is coming out of her shell a little and let me hold her a long time in my lap today. She still will not hold hands with John. Her interaction with him is more playful. Just now she was trying to scare him and then he was trying to tickle her. She is so ticklish, it drives her insane. She “talks’ to him a lot and plays with him but he so wishes she would hold his hand. She is getting bolder out in public and doesn’t stay right up on me all the time but she does grab for my hand if she feels uncomfortable. She still smiles a lot and is laughing a lot. She has adopted my iphone and now feels like one of the girls since her Oklahoman friends all have itouch’s. It’s funny to think I only brought younger toys because I thought electronics would be too advanced for her. She is so smart, I should have brought them!