October

October began with An attending her friend Mollie's 3rd birthday party. An was invited to a birthday party shortly after coming home, but I don't think she really understood what was going on. For Mollie's birthday, however, it all came together and started what has become a near daily ritual. "Momma (or Bo), when An's Happy Birthday to You?" It's in May honey, we tell her. For a while, May was good enough. Then I think she learned the months in school and realized just how far away May was. Now she tells everyone who will listen that An's birthday is May 7th and she will be FIVE. She even tells you whose birthdays are happening before her birthday and is excited that the list is getting shorter.

Mollie's party was at a gymnastics place and An had a great time swinging on the ropes and jumping (or being thrown) into the foam pit. Seeing her swing on the rope brought back memories of one of the pictures we received while waiting for her...one of those that cemented in our minds that this was a tough, make your own fun kind of girl:
Hanging out in Vietnam

Hanging out in the US

Also in early October, we had to figure out how to explain Halloween to An. Hmm, you get dressed up, knock on people's doors and get candy! Thankfully at four, she really wasn't interested in the why - the promise of candy was good enough for her. However, choosing a costume was a chore. So many options: Spiderman, a Jedi Knight, Yoda, a tiger, a ride-on horse. Notice that there is not one "girly" option in there. My efforts to get her into a princess costume or anything remotely feminine were met with a resounding no! It was at this time that she started doing Yoda impersonations. She has his walk down and it is hysterical to watch.

Mid month, we went to a pumpkin farm and corn maze. She did a great job of picking out pumpkins, but her moment in the sun came when she got to ride the pony:


This girl loves horses...actually, she loves the concept of riding on things. Every time a new animal (or ficticious animal) is introduced, the first thing she says is "An going to ride ___ (insert dragon, reindeer, etc.)"

I wish I could upload a video (my program for compressing video's does not like Windows 7 so Blogger won't let me) because one evening, An treated us to what I must believe to be a Vietnamese children's song. After getting ready for bed, she came out of the bathroom and started singing loudly and dancing. She started by patting her head, then her shoulders, then her arms and on down. Words cannot describe how funny it was. The part where she sticks her bottom out and smacks it will be a source of great embarrassment in the future. I am so glad we captured it on video - both for the embarrassment factor and because it is close to the last Vietnamese she has spoken.

Towards the end of the month, I arranged a meeting with some local Vietnamese college students - they had been in the country for about the same amount of time as An and were excited to talk with her. It was very obvious that she understood everything they said to her - they would ask her a question in Vietnamese and she would respond appropriately in English. But there was no way we could get her to speak Vietnamese. We tried bribing her with candy, the promise of playing with a cell phone, but she just wouldn't do it. I am still saddened by this...it's one more loss that she has endured.

Finally...Halloween. I suppose you are wondering what she finally choose? We started with a tiger costume, but it wasn't big enough. Then we found an elephant, but that wouldn't do. Sooo...after searching long and hard (and not being able to find a Spiderman costume - but perhaps I didn't try too hard on that one) An settled on the ride on horse costume. Dad went as a doctor and me...well, I'll take any opportunity to wear leggings, a big, belted shirt, electric blue eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara! After all, I spent formative years in eastern Idaho and if you've seen the girls in Napolean Dynamite - their big hair was nothing compared to ours!

September

Let's start with the last two weeks of August because it sets the stage for September. After returning from Yellowstone, An and I spent a good deal of time "practicing" how she would go to school. First we scheduled a visit and got to spend some one-on-one time with a few of the teachers and explore her classroom. Then, many mornings, after getting ready for the day,we would walk to her school and go out on the playground or just spend a few minutes in the empty classroom looking around. Some days we spent 15 minutes there, other days an hour. On the last day before the official start of school, An was tempted by her teacher to go outside and have an ice cream sandwich with the other kids. I boldly told her that I was going to go to the store and I'd be back in 10 minutes. I walked out of her sight and watched her walk hand in hand down the hall with her teacher. I waited the 10 minutes and went out to the playground to find that she had finished her ice cream and was playing with a dump truck in the sand. She was happy to see me and after playing for a few more minutes we headed home. Her teacher said there were no tears or signs of distress.

Then, on September 1, our beautiful An started school! I dropped her off at 8am - her teacher meeting us in the hall to reassure her. She showed us where to place An's lunch, her placemat and napkin and then led An to the art room to play for about 20 minutes before class started. At 12:30 my mother-in-law and I met at the school door and went in together. In addition to practicing going to school, we had practiced taking a nap and playing at BaBa and Ba Noi's for a few afternoons. We greeted An (or, I should say she greeted us with a smile) and we went to BaBa and Ba Noi's house where I told her that I needed to "di lam" (go back to work) and it was time for her to "go nap".

She loves school - and has not shed one tear about it. Some mornings, she will grab my legs or my hand as I am leaving and say "no, no momma!" but when I turn her face up to mine she has an enormous smile on it and I know she is playing me. She bursts into laughter and waits for one of the teachers to lead her to an activity. Most days, though, she wants to hide behind me as we enter the classroom so that she can surprise her teachers. It's a cute game that everyone plays with her. It may not be for every family but we are sold on Montessori school. The gentleness and respect that everyone shows for each other (teachers for children, children for other children and children for teachers) creates an environment that An is just thriving in.

In mid-September, we had the opportunity to join the Idaho Families with Children from Asia group for Tet Trung Thu. An and our neighbor Mollie, also adopted from Vietnam, spent the morning making their lanterns for the parade. In addition to wonderful food and people, there was also a Tai Chi lesson that An really enjoyed.



Can't say the same about the climbing wall. But this is an anomly because An spent most of the summer climbing to the the top of the climbing wall in our neighborhood park so she could sit with one leg hanging on each side...


We finished off the month with a few trips to the cabin and a visit with our wonderful friends from North-Central Idaho. Alec and An had a great time together and didn't really want to part when it was time to head home.

One final picture since it is one of my all time favorites. And in case you were wondering, its a rare moment when the girl isn't smiling.

Honesty

Today, Brian related that on the ride home from school, An told him that "momma going to be mad at An". She said "momma told An to eat all her lunchmeat before eating cookies and An ate her cookies but not all her lunchmeat." Are four year olds typically this honest? To prepare for her homecoming, I first read about the developmental stages of a two year old. Then I read about the developmental stages of a three year old. Finally, I got to stop after reading about four year olds because it turned out that we were actually going to meet our girl before she became a teenager. But its now all jumbled up in my mind - I can honestly say I didn't expect that much honesty from her!

I did tell her during dinner that I heard that she didn't eat all her lunchmeat before eating her cookies (with a smile on my face because I knew that she ate 2/3 of her lunchmeat, a bag of cherries, a load of green beans, a graham cracker and drank her chocolate milk before she ate the 3 Nilla Wafers). She replied quickly "I'm sorry momma, tomorrow I eat all my lunchmeat!". We just laughed and I told her that I was proud of her for telling the truth.

On another note, I have, honestly, been terrible about keeping up on the blog. My friend Shelby is the latest to remind me of it. Since I need to capture a "report" for each month since An has been home for her "baby" book, I am going to post for September, October, November and December in the next few days. Honestly...I'm going to!

I do have to say, in my defense, that it has been far more fun to play with An every day than post about her...

As a teaser for the December post, here's a preview of what we've been up to.

July & August with An

So it's been a little more than a week but I finally got the pictures downloaded from our trip. To make this easy on me, I'm adding them as a slideshow - just click on the photo below. An had a wonderful vacation - her only complaint was that we couldn't produce a live moose for her. For the 3 days before coming home...and just about daily since we got home, she gets out her animal identification card and says "mom - MOOSE". I had to tell her that it was very unlikely that we'd see a moose in Boise. Brian wanted to show her an elk and tell her it was a moose but I said absolutely not!

Falling in Love

*I meant to post this before our vacation to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP last week but it just didn't happen. So now the blogosphere may actually get two posts in the span of a week - please, no heart attacks.*

I had two years to fall in love with An - from the time we got her referral until the day we met her. And it was easy to do - the pictures, reports and videos we received while waiting were filled with her personality. Happy, confident, full of life. Those were the characteristics we anticipated. It is a rare moment when An doesn't have a huge smile on her face. And her giggle is quite contagious. Her ability to jump right in with inquisitiveness and a can-do attitude has amazed us. She is beautiful inside and out.

On the other hand, An had a foster mom that she loved very much. She made it very clear during the first two weeks together in Vietnam that she was not in love with me. Despite her best efforts though, I think it may be happening.

How do I know that she is falling in love with me?

The way she melts into my body when I carry her downstairs in the morning. The first month and a half, I carried her exactly the same way but she was cautious to keep a little space between us.

She now comes looking for me when she discovers something new and leads me by the hand to whatever it is (this happens even if Brian is around).

She occassionaly wants to sit on my lap while she's eating and asks me to feed her.

She has become an incredible snuggle bug in the evenings before going to sleep. The first month & a half she would just happily lay down in her toddler bed, tolerate a kiss from us and go to sleep. Now she'll ask to lay between us and snuggle for a few minutes before going back to her toddler bed.

And finally, there have been a few improptu kisses!

This is only the beginning of the journey...we continue to take it one step at a time. However, we've come a long way - from the days of a raised fist if I even looked at her to the start of this new love, I can definitely say that it was worth the wait.

Pictures!

The camera cord has surfaced so here's a recap of the last week...

At the Point Defiance Zoo in Seattle with Grandma Lora:


Checking out the peacock:


Caught in the web:


Swinging in the park:


Riding my bike:


Learning to play with stickers (she still hasn't figured out they go on paper):


Swimming!

Back Among the Living

We are nearly unpacked from the trip. However, the cable for the camera has yet to emerge - thus no photos. You'll just have to be satisfied with words on this Fathers Day.

An has been adapting fabulously to life in Idaho. The first afternoon we were home, she started exploring her room and toys and just loves anything that plays music. Her leapfrog caterpillar (which has the ABC's on it) is by far her favorite and it almost always has to be in the same room as she is. It definitely has to be under the bed while she sleeps so that she can be sure it will be there the next morning.

The first full day home we tried out her bike and by the next afternoon she had it mastered. Last night we took a long walk by the ponds in our neighborhood and she rode the whole way. With bursts of giggles from time to time to signify her excitement with going "fast" or seeing the ducks and geese or running into a mailbox - she likes it all.

She also loves soccer. During our first shopping trip, Brian showed her a soccer ball and a basketball and asked her to choose. She went for the soccer ball and now we kick it back and forth in the yard. She is amazingly coordinated in my mind. I really don't know how coordinated 4 year old's should be, but she can do a running kick and doesn't have to stop the ball before kicking it back at you. I can assure you that I could not do that at 4.

We've settled into a really nice routine and typically go out for a few hours each morning or afternoon. Otherwise, we stay around the house and park. She just loves to meet people and is learning to play with her friends Mollie and Audrey. Today, her Ong and Ba Noi return from Vietnam as they've been touring through the country since a few days before we left. She's excited to see them again.

What a glorious honeymoon! We've had a few 4 year old temper tantrums but they are typically matched to her level of tiredness. We don't expect it to last forever, but we are eating it up right now.

Jetlag

...is miserable.

More later,
Wendi

Back in the US

We are happy to be back in the US. Not home yet as we stayed the night in Seattle but we will be soon.

An and I woke up around 3am after going to bed at 11pm. She slept most of the flight from Taipei to Seattle so she has an excuse. I did not. I'm sure it'll take a couple of days to get back on Mountain time.

Brian, of course, is still sleeping.

Anyway, Grandma Lora greeted us at the airport with a big teddy bear for An. An was thrilled! Then we got to come back to the hotel room to play with Kira, Lora's dog, which sent An over the edge with excitement. She threw the ball for Kira, tried to give her hugs (while Kira tried to avoid them) and just squealed with excitement. Chester and Murphy are in for it...she's going to love them to death!

Well back to reruns of the Nanny and Tool Time - TV is such a wonderful thing at 4am...

Signing off from Vietnam

Well this is it...we are packing up and winding down for the evening. Tomorrow morning we'll catch a taxi to the airport at 9am to start our journey home. It's a good thing since today An decided she was done with having her picture taken:



You might notice in the picture that Brian decided to shave off his mustache and beard today. Interesting is all I'll say.

Tomorrow we fly to Taipei, spend about 8 hours there before boarding our flight to Seattle. Then Lora picks us up at the airport in Seattle and we spend the evening and morning with her before continuing on to Boise. We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Love,
Wendi

PS - yes, we finished the shopping and no, I did not enjoy it.

Evidence and Musings on Shopping

Since I didn't get a picture last night of our waiter feeding An her clams, I was sure to take one tonight of the 5 waitresses she charmed.



We went back to KOTO which is a non-profit that takes street children and teaches them culinary, service and English skills so that they can get jobs to support themselves. They don't just teach them to cook Vietnamese street food...but Vietnamese and Western food that would rival any gourmet restaurant in the US. Brian had seafood dish tonight that he said was the best he's ever had (and it was about $8). Anyway, the waitresses were all vying for An's attention and were holding her smoothie when she wanted a drink, feeding her fish and french fries and then carried her around while feeding her a dish of ice cream. At the end of the meal, we ordered a dark chocolate mousse for dessert and they took off with An to introduce her to the rest of the staff.

Thankfully we'd been forewarned that the staff in restaurants would take your child and hold/play with them while you ate. Tonight she was gone for about 20 minutes and when the staff sensed that we were getting nervous, they came over and said she was downstairs with more of the staff. When we walked down, there were probably 7-8 talking to her and stroking her hair. Truly a wonderful place - both for the food and the people. If you are ever in Vietnam, KOTO is a must.

Speaking of good causes, check out the blog of the family that adopted An's foster sister - www.withhonour.blogspot.com. Her dad is the executive director of a wonderful organization that works to end child sex slavery and exploitation. Apparently Stephen Baldwin has selected Love 146 as his charity of choice on a reality show. I hardly watch TV at all so I can't tell you about the show, but if you call a toll free number or vote by email for Stephen, Love 146 receives money to carry out thier work. We're a fan of An's foster sister's family so if you can take a moment to read his post, please do so.

Now about the shopping. I'm just not cut out for it. I know that there are screaming good deals to be had here, but it just exhausts me to shop. This morning we went to the Dong Xuan market and probably didn't spend more than 10 minutes in there. There were so many people and everything was just in big piles and I just can't do it. So then we wandered the street of the Old Quarter, but that was exhausting too. Finally, because KOTO is next to the Craft Link store (a fair trade store that works with the ethnic minority groups) we stopped in there before dinner. I'm just overwhelmed with all the options. It is all beautiful and I can't decide what to buy. I have some more shopping to do tomorrow morning and I have to say I'm not looking forward to it...

Off to bed for a good nights sleep before our last day in Hanoi!
Wendi

Forgot One Photo Last Night...

For all you "experienced" moms out there...is there anything wrong with letting your child eat a bowl of clams for dinner? A whole bowl of clams? She really likes them...

This picture show's An squatting on her chair (so she could get closer to the clams) at one of our favorite restaurants, Quan An Ngon, a few nights ago. We learned that she liked them on the Halong Bay trip. She had another bowl last night and was so charming that she had the waiter feeding them to her. It was adorable...but unfortunately we didn't get a picture.

The clams cooked with lemongrass costs 38,000d. That's about $2. I think we'll keep feeding them to her while we are here because they get rather expensive in Idaho.

Busy Days

Bob and Judy left this morning to head south through Vietnam before flying home on Sunday the 21st. As Brian mentioned, they headed to Sapa a few hours after returning from Halong Bay so we only had Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday to do everything else they wanted in Hanoi. Thus no posts because we've been going a million miles a minute. So, to get you up to date...

On Monday, we had a low key day and hung around the hotel swimming and having fun. An finally decided she wanted to explore what we brought for her and she wanted me to do it with her - we had to take everything out of the closet and she was really excited about the sunglasses and jeans:



Tuesday, we had our "interview" at the US Embassy and got An's visa to enter the US. She's official now - the minute we land in Seattle, she becomes a US citizen. It was a breeze, they asked us if our application was correct and to sign a few things at the window and that was it. We didn't even have to go into the interview room.

On Wednesday morning, I headed to the airline office to see if we could get earlier flights. They said there was no availability so I went ahead and purchased An's ticket home (I wasn't able to buy it before showing them her passport and visa - it was being held and that's probably the one thing that has made me the most nervous on this trip...what a relief to have proof that she was on the flight with us). That afternoon, we went to the One Pillar Pagoda and the Museum of Ethnology. Both were beautiful places. In this picture, Brian decided to take An up to the Bahnar communal house:



He may not have been thinking about coming back down:


That evening we went to the water puppet theatre which was truly amazing. I know An got much more out of it than us since she could understand it (it was in Vietnamese of course) but it was a great experience. She pretended to conduct the music for most of the show. They even had a segment that showed Bob fishing:



This morning, Bob and Judy packed up and headed to Hue. Bob found a way for us to get An around in the airports:



After breakfast, we took the hotel shuttle to the Big C - a grocery/department store. It was an experience! The music in the store was deafening. I was happy to head back. When we got back we had a message that we will be able to fly home on Sunday. I was able to easily shift our Seattle-Boise segment so we'll be arriving on Monday instead of Wednesday now. We really do love it here - our only complaint is the heat and humidity - but we will be happy to get home!

One last picture of An and Brian - very hip on the streets of Hanoi:


Wendi

Wendi's Photo Story of Halong Bay

Rice field between Hanoi and Halong Bay - the 3 ladies asked us if we wanted to help


Our junk boat - the Hai Long Dream


Quick family photo at the start of the trip


An's lunchtime "phone call"


Floating city


Checking out the view


Riding the dragon with Grandpa


Beauty




Surreal Scenery


View from Surprise Cave


An watching a card game and eating lychee


Hanging out - literally


Telling our guide a story

More Parenting Lessons

No, we haven't hurt her again but I did learn a valuable lesson today. Always have the camera ready! We visited the Temple of Literature this afternoon and when we got inside the altar area An placed her hands together, raised them in the air, knelt down on her knees and bowed to the floor two times. Then she instructed each of us to do the same. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to capture her doing it but I may have gotten a shot of her showing Grandma Judy how.

We are going to head out to Halong Bay tomorrow morning so there won't be another post until we get back Sunday evening. I'm going to turn the computer over to Judy to finish posting about the day while I get us packed.

We went to a restraunt tonight where they train disadvantaged young people to be waiters and speak English. An was the center of attention. They all spoke to her in Vietnamese, stroked her hair, and were very loving to her. We think it is a combination of her charm and their realization of how lucky she is to be going to the US. It was very moving and made us realize how lucky we all are to have been born in the land of plenty.

Eat your heart out Jim, I had a casserole of green bananas and tofu with tarragon rice. It was yummy, but the best thing was the beer was really cold and not served with ice.

Pictures from Yesterday

Since we could never deny An's foster sister...here are pictures from yesterday especially for Honour:

Checking out the wading pool


Who needs the wading pool - I'm a big girl!


Safe in daddy's arms


Playing with grandpa


By the way, her arm is just fine. She started using it again after swimming yesterday afternoon. She continues to run around with excitement and happiness. We're going to head down to the childrens play area to see if we can exhaust her before naptime.

A Good Day

We took it easy today...ate breakfast, played in the room and then went swimming after lunch. No fear whatsoever in the pool. Put her face in the water after the first few minutes and just laughed.

This evening we walked to a brewpub for a beer and dinner. Yes, they have a few breweries in Vietnam and we aim to try them out! After a nice walk back to the hotel we are all ready to pass out which means no pictures tonight. Sorry!

An and I did have a few small breakthroughs today. When we returned to the hotel we were all in the lobby. Brian went off to do one thing and I started walking towards the mini-mart as she was having fun with Grandpa. She jumped off his lap and started running down the hall towards me. When she caught up she wouldn't let me pick her up or hold her hand, but this is the first time she's paid any attention as to whether I was near or far. It's a good sign...

Can't remember if I posted this, but even though we'll have her passport and Visa next week, we aren't able to get an earlier flight at this point. We'll keep checking, but are just as happy to stay here.

Wendi

No Video...Photos Instead

Photobucket hates me. Or perhaps it just hates video. I think its because we record at a high resolution and don't have any editing software to downsize the files. Anyway, it did let me load some great photo's tonight:

Making it official - signing the book at the G&R


Celebrating with her cake (yes...ours was sent with us from the orphanage!)


Hanging out with dad


Catching a nap after the excitement of takeoff


Enjoying a lollipop from the doctor while on a cyclo ride around Hoan Kiem Lake