Passport in Hand

My husband and I take our marriage vows very seriously, and yesterday we added a new one for the first time since we were married eight years ago: never trick your spouse into eating the meat of a strange animal without first getting her permission. We ordered a huge hot stone bowl of soup with boiled turnips, lasagna size rice noodles, and very tender beef, or so I thought. Later it came out that it was donkey meat, and he had known it all along. I was ok with this particular animal, but we saw the need for a new rule nonetheless. Ruby ate it happily too. I imagine the Neffs' donkey would have been much tougher. Here's she's eating a sugar-crusted sweet potato.

Ruby and her daddy had a breakthrough in their relationship last night too. I got her to sit in the bathtub--it seems she had always showered over a tub while standing, so she didn't want to sit. Well, she soon saw how much fun it was to splash and play with soap in the tub. Jasper took over as lifeguard and only pulled her out when she unfortunately tried to use the bar of soap to wipe water out of her eye.  She let him put her jammies on, and then they played and romped and tickled for half an hour. This morning she was shy of him again, but maybe not as much as yesterday morning.  I'm sure the prayers are helping!

Today we visited the Hohhot police station briefly to pick up Ruby's passport. Her little passport photo is so cute! Then we went to the enormous, new Hohhot museum of Inner Mongolian culture. It contained rooms focusing on the prehistory of the land, dress, weapons, animals, and mineral extraction.  I liked seeing the life-sized dioramas of Mongolian life from long ago. They also had a whole room dedicated to Ghengis Khan (they pronounce it "Chengis Can"). He is their big hero, and they have many traditional stories about him. Ruby saw some of it, but she also slept in the baby sling that draws a lot of stares when we walk around with it!

Ruby doesn't look Mongolian to anyone here, so she is probably Han. She doesn't come from the provincial capital of Hohhot, but from a farming region several hours west of here where they grow sunflowers and melons.

I'm hanging out in the room while Jasper sees the last of Hohhot's sights this afternoon and Ruby naps.  We saw most of the interesting buildings our first day here, but there was a pagoda we missed then. Having a nearly 2 year old does change things, and I'm reminded of the parenting skills that have grown rusty in our house: daily naptime scheduling, temper tantrum management, and the ability to redirect and distract. Ruby does not like to hear "no", even when it is said gently and for a very good, that-lamp-might-fall-on-you kind of  reason. At least we know she understands us! I'll ask for prayer now that the infrequent meltdowns come at manageable moments during the rest of the trip and that she soon learns to handle "no" better.

Ruby has a happy shoulder jiggle. We noticed her doing it when she tastes something new that she really likes. She'll sit there and bob her shoulders up and down, smiling as she chews.  It doesn't happen all that often, and we feel like we've hit the jackpot whenever she starts doing it.

Ruby loves seeing photos of herself and her sisters (so do I). Soon they will be in photos together.