Wanderer's Daughter

This is my favorite picture so I'm posting it first. I love QQ's and daddy's hands reaching out for one another.
Today we had our big four-hour clinic with the craniofacial team at Rose Medical Center with the Q. Since she did not yet have her lip repaired when we brought her home, we scheduled her first palate and lip surgery as soon as possible after getting home from China. This meant that we put off the team clinic until later, after she was fully healed and well-acclimated. The clinic was great and we learned a lot from the speech therapist and the pediatric dentist. Most of the other specialists won't come into play for several years, allowing her plenty of growth time. She did have a third hearing test, and her hearing tested perfect with the tubes in, so that was a plus.
After the long day at the clinic, and after Q's loooong-delayed nap, the need for some basic supplies compelled us to make a big grocery run to the Big Box store.
Recently, prompted by the fact that I had yet again managed to wear through a lens on our big Nikon, we purchased a tiny Nikon Coolpix with 10 megapixels and a 5x zoom. It's definitely a different sort of camera, but it works well for moments when we can't comfortably carry the big camera, and for moments when high-rez photos are not essential.
This seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out (stashing it neatly in a coat pocket, which is its major advantage) and we were glad we did, since at 8:30 pm on a Thursday night we pretty much had the big box to ourselves, and QQ was free to expand her world and do plenty of walking without wreaking too much havoc.
Daddy thought it was pretty hilarious to take this picture of Mommy and Q, who had not noticed the clearance Camp Rock suitcase that Daddy had humorously loaded into the cart. Oh, haha! Very funny.
Q was fascinated with the shoe aisles...
...she's pretty into shoes. And socks, for that matter...though the sock aisle is a lot less interesting.
Here is her pavlovian response to the sight or sound of the word "shoes". No matter that she's already wearing shoes of her own. The girl can't help it. She lifts her foot to have a shoe and/or sock applied every time the concept comes into play.

It was thrilling to see how much she enjoyed the new parameters of her expanded world. I'm not sure she had yet understood quite how much freedom the ability to walk would afford her.
She's actually quite speedy at this point.
Fortunately, she still generally accepts a Daddy or Mommy's hand when it is offered. I'm sure her independence will soon kick in, and she won't be quite so willing to be guided.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh....... the world is my oyster!
Here she is checking out the sale price on some men's clothing.
She studied the tags intently. Apparently she wasn't convinced that the clearance price was low enough.
Daddy also thought it was pretty funny to offer Q this Hello Kitty bath mat. Now, sure, I've had my Hello Kitty kwaii phases. But I just can't have this in my bathroom.
In the end, the monkey was the obvious choice for our household. We needed something soft to cushion Daddy and Mommy's knees while they give the Q her oft-needed baths.
Oh....my....goodness!!!! So much to consume!
This was the moment right before Q realized that Daddy had snuck up on her from behind.