Today, it was Dad’s turn to got to the beach with Jessie. So after breakfast, we wandered down to the beach and swam in the South China Sea with Gracie and her mom for a while. The two girls had a great time riding the gentle waves in little plastic inner tubes. Then we built a large sand castle and, at the same time, looked for more sea shells. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning. Meanwhile, Mom and Grandma Patsy got to spend more quality time with Alyssa, learning more about her personality and especially her sleeping and eating habits since that is mostly what kids do when they’re five months old.

In the afternoon, it was Gracie’s turn to host Jessie in her room. Jessie disappeared for several hours and we were starting to wonder what had become of her. But, not to worry, she and Gracie were busy playing games and going on make believe adventures together.

That evening, Jessie and Gracie got another chance to watch the band that was playing in the resort’s bar. This had become a nightly event over the past six or seven nights. It started one night after dinner while the adults were chatting.  The girls grew tired of sitting and wandered into the bar area where a three person band had been playing nightly since we had arrived at the resort. From Singapore, the band was a typical night club act — a female lead singer, a bass player and a keyboard player — who played standard American night club music. You know Guantanamera and the like.

The first night Jessie and Gracie were sitting quietly at a back table listening to the music. On night two they had moved to the front row of tables and were starting to interact with the band and sing along with their music. Of course, this continued to progress. They next took chopsticks from the dining table and were using them as drumsticks to tap out the rhythm of the songs. And toward the end of our stay, they were up on stage with the band, playing air guitars and singing along. The lead singer even offered them the mic several times, which they took advantage of to belt out a few tunes. We weren’t quite sure what to make of this transformation of our shy little girls. On many nights, all of the adults in the group had to dance in order to persuade Jessie and Gracie that it was time to go to bed. They simply wouldn’t leave until we had all spent a few minutes on the dance floor.

I should explain that there were no other patrons on the bar while this was all going on. Only during the Vietnamese Independence Day weekend, when the hotel was full, did we see anyone else in the bar. On every other evening, the band was playing to an empty room and, I’m sure, was pleased to have these two engaging little girls as fans. Since the band was from Singapore, they spoke English and Jessie and Gracie were on a first name basis with the band, chatting with them at length during their breaks. The lead singer’s name was Christina, the keyboard player was Nemo and, for some unknown reason, they called the bass player Chicken Lickin’.

Unfortunately, we ddn’t get any pictures of these budding rock stars debut performance, but we did get a nice shot of Jessie and Gracie with their new baby sisters, Alyssa and Ella, which you can see below.

Too tired to read everything right now, so I’ll just look at all of the photos and catch up tomorrow. Great to see and read about all of your first days with Alyssa!

jessie and lissie look really cute

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