quicky!

Ticking time bomb is asleep in her tent next to me, but will wake up at any second, so this will (likely) be short. Due to a misguided couple of sips of caffeinated iced tea that I let her have yesterday afternoon, I wasn't able to wrestle her down to sleep until 11:30 pm (ouch) which means that she will likely be grumpy and hungover when she does wake up this morning. Note to self: do not allow baby caffeine.

Yesterday wild mama H. fixed up for us all to go and get a formal family portrait photo taken at one of the many wedding photo salons that are in Kaohsiung. Turns out Taiwan is the wedding photo capital of Asia, if not the world: people travel from all over Asia to take their wedding photos (well before the big day, in most cases), and for the low, low price of several thousand dollars, you get: full hair and makeup, multiple snazzy outfit changes, and photos of you and your intended stretched out on white grand pianos under chandeliers, standing under a Photoshopped waterfall, with angel wings, under a jungle canopy, etc etc. So exciting! It almost made me want to get married. Almost.

We went for the more basic family photo package (one with a white background, one with a brown background, and a few snaps of the little girls romping around trying to take Mickey Mouse soft toys from each other, baby drooling madly the whole time as she has got a canine (!) coming in, so she looks a bit retarded in all the pics, unfortunately) but we did get a quick session out the back of the studio where they have a (1) mock Tudor doorway (2) an artfully peeling barn door and (3) a bus shelter on a trendy Prague street. We had the photographer's assistant gamely waving teddybears at baby to get her to look at the camera with a cheerful expression, but when it came time for the pic of just babydaddy, baby, and me, we had the entire clan jumping up and down madly waving an army of teddies, Snoopies, Mickeys, etc. and manically shouting Whee! Hooray! and I couldn't stop giggling (difficult for photo-taking).

After our morning photo shoot, we piled into the car to go off to lunch; this was nothing short of terrifying, as for various stupid logistical reasons I was riding shotgun with baby strapped onto my front, which meant that for the first time I was made aware of just how terrifyingly bad papa H's driving is (until now, I have been in the back of the minivan, so I am aware of jolts and sudden stops, but not so much the reason for them.) We ran a red light, despite my saying several seconds before the red light "um red light red light RED LIGHT STOP STOP STOP!" in a panicked voice, and nearly killed several moped drivers. I don't know how to say this nicely, but it really makes me think twice about sending baby back to Taiwan for future solo visits. Hmm. Will consider. Anyway.

Lunch at posh restaurant (this was the Payback Lunch where babydaddy and Big Kahuna were expected to treat about fifty cousins, and sure enough, about fifty assorted relatives showed up, including some I hadn't yet met - not sure how that factors into the Payback Equation). Lunch was totally delicious (thank you babydaddy) and, because it was a buffet, I made a total pig of myself; diet definitely starts tomorrow...

and then after that cousin L. took me, Big Kahuna, and wild-brother-in-law for a little spin around the trendy street market where if you are nineteen with too much money to burn you hang out. She was incredibly enthusiastic, and took us into all sorts of shops I never would have gone into on my own, and despite the very high Hello Kitty/rhinestone factor, I did actually emerge from the afternoon with several purchases: a delicious cabbage and pork steamed bun, a bowl of shaved ice and fruit, a pair of surgical masks forbabydaddy (one a crisp pin striped seersucker, and the other a funky retro 60's breakfast cereal pattern for when he's feeling a little wild and crazy), and a pair of shark socks for baby.

It was a little weird to be away from baby for that long (nearly four hours), and clearly she thought so too, because I was greeted at the door when we finally got home by a leg-clutching hugging mama!-ing tornado, which is the closest I will ever get to being a movie star, I think. (The tornado was dressed very classically in black with pearls - black onesie and a string of oversized plastic faux pearls which babydaddy had repurposed from some fabulous gay event to the small-children-airplane-entertainment cache, and baby has gotten very attached to them. She likes to wave them around her head suggestively, and thus they have been christened her stripper beads). Nadal very gratifyingly beat Federer over dinner, and then the rest of the evening was devoted to endless stories, singing, and milk to try and convince baby that she needed (for which read, "I needed her") to go to BED....

tonight we leave, so no bloggy tonight. Wish us luck for the plane....