D18

Today Jason and I had the opportunity to do one of our favorite activities in life. We went for SCUBA!!!! Who knew the coast of Vietnam had some of the most beautiful coral I've ever seen?! Mom begged us to go so she could have uninterrupted time with TB. That's a joke actually because TB does not do well being away from mommy for more than two hours. But Grammer offered because she loves us all so much. And TB tested the waters for sure. Grandad says she cried for about three hours and wouldn't take the bottle I hand pumped that morning (hand pumping breast milk by the way is tedious). This in turn upset Grammer because she hates seeing TB cry. I felt terrible and it was hard to relax while we were gone for those five hours. It's a predicament we have found ourselves but not sure any way around it until we get home and get her on a schedule. Twila is used to having mommy around all the time. She is used to the breast and doesn't take the bottle. Although I officially did not take any maternity leave (I had my C-section on a Friday and was at work Monday morning) UTMB was very lenient on letting me work from home (I was studying for my FM boards) and letting me bring her into work. Which means our sweet girl has hardly been away from us. I spent one night away from her on the night before I took my 9 hour board exam. So of course if she goes more than two hours from me, she is upset. Not to mention hungry. But she survived. I mean it was only five hours.

Twila survived too.

It was nice to SCUBA again. We saw beautiful soft and hard coral, lion, stone and scorpion fish, eels, and this amazing eerie cauliflower farm. 60 feet deep sticking out of the sand were long pearly white stalks with bright purple cauliflower florets. I've never seen anything like it. I'm sure it's some sort of coral...

There really is not much to report the rest of the day. We returned to rescue Grammer, Grandad and Twila who was instantly happy and stayed so the rest of the day. We drank Vietnamese coffees and relaxed. Mom ordered the famous Banh Mi from town, which they delivered to the hotel. Oh and TB had her first taste of food! She doesn't know how to swallow but she definitely seems to like the taste of mangoes and bananas. It was hysterical watching her!

We had dinner at the hotel. Vietnamese. More Cao Lau! And delicious beef ribeye, suckling pig and okra (mom was so excited to find this)! Tomorrow we leave paradise.