Not everyone gets to ride a bullet train when they're a week old

We still don't know if Naomi's eyes are going to go blue or brown. They're brown in the centers but blue around the edges. Kevin keeps reminding me that even if they go brown, I definitely had a blue-eyed baby for a few weeks.

Here she is getting some sunshine to help her mild jaundice. And I think she's absolutely gorgeous.

We eventually took the train back to Shenyang. It didn't strike me until I was leaving the train at the end of our trip, but in some ways I felt very close to my great-grandmother (read story here). However, I am happy to only have two children and to have my mom along with me to share the burden of our two suitcases, stroller, toddler, infant-in-arms, and backpack. We barely made it with the two of us carrying everything!

Penny enjoyed most of the train ride. She likes the tray tables and the magazines in the seat-back pockets. Even though she is short enough to ride for free, we did buy her a seat. There is no way we could have managed with only two seats and a child on each lap.

Naomi enjoyed the ride. She went through several diapers and stayed awake most of the time. But she was still in her unaware infant stage, so she didn't have much to say.

I know this next one is a weird picture. I don't remember if it is a self-portrait or a Penny portrait. I think this is Penny's photography on display, though. The train oversold its seats, so they sold some standing-room-only seats. That's why there's a random guy leaning against the back of my mom's seat. He rearranged all the luggage, put ours up on the rack, and made a place for himself to sit. There were several people sitting and standing in the back and in between cars. I hope they got a discount.

Now we're back home in Shenyang. Penny loves her little sister. She misbehaves a lot more now that we don't focus all our attention on her. It took her 2 hours to go to bed one night. She kept getting up and turning on her lights to play. She does that and throws random tantrums-- ahh, the joys of introducing a new child to a soon-to-be-2-year-old's family. And potty training has gone out the window (not literally, although that would be interesting).

We gave Meimei her first at-home bath the other day. She seemed to like it, and Penny is fascinated with the new baby. She likes to push her in the swing (I now know why they have buckles on those things!), give her kisses, and sometimes smack her in the face.

I'm very happy I went to Beijing, but it's nice to be home. The exhaustion has set in, and I'm kind of an emotional see-saw some days (like today). I couldn't be happier about having my two little girls, but I don't know how I'll manage when my mom goes home, Kevin's at work, and our housekeeper doesn't come. I have so much help these days and it's still exhausting. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now I'm just grateful for all the help!