Eva, Month 5 or I Found My Toes in Cambodia

Picture of Eva on top of her zodiac statue at the National Folk Museum of Korea:

Eva turned 4 months old on July 5, the day that we moved in with my 2nd cousin who we met for the first time the day before. How's that for instant family bonding? We spent July touring around Seoul, going to the Mud Festival, hanging out at the pool, moving in and traveling to Cambodia. Eva spent most of that time riding in the Beco or Ergo, sleeping, nursing and smiling.
She is playing in the bouncer now and enjoying toys as well. She still prefers people to toys, but is starting to get interested. I'm glad she's a smiler because everyone in Korea seems to love to try to get babies to smile. Ian is not a smiler. He really has to be amused to smile. Eva will smile just because she was smiled at. When Ian was her age, he would just raise his eyebrows and glare when people tried to get him to smile. She's babbling a lot as well. She has always made noises, but she is awake more now so she seems to make more deliberate sounds.

While in Cambodia, she hung out with Buddhist nuns, the President of the Cambodian Senate, and climbed many temple steps with me. I over-dressed her because I was worried about mosquitos biting her, but she did fine. Eva is a delicate flower in her movements and appearance, but she sweats like man, so she was not amused with my choice of clothing for her. I brought one onesie and a pair of Baby Legs so she had to wear that a lot because she got too hot.

She became obsessed with her toes in Cambodia and rolled from back to stomach for the first time at the hotel there. (She did roll from back to stomach two times before but that was at 3 days old and two weeks old or something like that and I don't think she realized what she did). She rolled over again at home, but she often gets distracted by her toes and just hangs out on her side, trying to chew her toes. She really isn't left alone lying down, unless she is sleeping. She does not like tummy time. She is very strong and being in the carrier counts as tummy time, but doesn't present her with opportunities to roll over.

When Ian was 4 months old, we went on a Nile Cruise. The President of Egypt was meeting with Condoleeza Rice at the hotel where our boat was docked. He actually came on our boat and we got a picture with him. It was pure, dumb luck. We were staying at a nice hotel, but not the nicest and we did not know they would be holding a meeting there. It was cool. Not to be outdone, Eva got her picture taken with the President of the Senate of Cambodia, who just happened to be staying at our hotel. Again, the hotel was nice, but not the nicest in town. The tour guide said he stays there because he knows the owner and the owner is Cambodian. Very cool and lucky! Just wish our tour guide had arrived a few minutes earlier so he could have gotten his picture taken with him as well. Now, I do have to say, in order to protect Eva's potential future political career, that we do not know anything about this guy's politics. He is a member of the current ruling party and Cambodia is at Peace now, internally, but a lot of stuff has gone down in Cambodia in that guy's lifetime. We just got the picture taken with him because it was weird to have him there. Plus, his picture is hanging in every restaurant and all over the place in Cambodia.