A day of Firsts

This morning Hang brought her son over and we took off to the 'Children's Park' down in the south part of the city. The park has a beautiful lake as well as amusements for the kids. Dat had his first time in a ball pit.

First time on an airplane ride

First time on a baby roller-coaster, first time on a mini-ferris wheel, first time on a tram-train and first time in a bumper car. I think the bumber cars won the prize as the most fun of all as he wanted to stay on and managed to get Hang to agree to a second ride.

After we got back to the hotel, we went out to lunch at a new restarunt, then did a little bit of shopping before buying our favorite noodles and returning to the room for the afternoon. This has been our pattern and it seems to be working. After breakfast we do something, then eat lunch, maybe shop a bit more, then get noodles and return to the room. Aidan does his school work and we eat dinner when we get hungry, then bed. This way we don't spend all day in the room and we get back in before it gets really hot, but A gets his TV time in. It is also cheaper for poor mommy as meals, while not really expensive, have been costing me $20 to $30 a meal. We have got to have more than fried rice every meal and since we aren't eating in the sidewalk eateries it is more expensive than I thought it would be.

A lot of the trees around here have these huge bean pods and A is fascinated by them. He finally found a pod, and even though it was empty, is bringing it back for 'show and tell' at school.

And finally I will leave you with a picture of 'couch potates' wherein A is indulging in his love of cartoons and Dat is trying to make up for a lifetime lacking in TV cartoons.

Honeymoon is over

It took less than two days and the honeymoon is already over. Dat copies everything A does and A gets tired of it. It doesn't help that Dat doesn't understand when A tells him to leave something of his alone. Dat doesn't understand to be careful of stuff so he has managed to squash two of A' s paper airplanes. He didn't mean to do it, but he got carried away and landed on the plane when he jumped to catch it. A also gets upset when Dat doesn't do what he wants. He doesn't seem to understand that Dat doesn't understand what he says. When he is in the position of helping Dat, showing him something or hanging on to him when we cross a street (very dangerous thing here in Hanoi), he is a wonderful big brother. But then we get back to the room and A wants to lie down on the small couch but Dat wants to sit next to him, well, then A gets a bit miffed and pushes him away. Right now they are in the shower and A is helping Dat. Dat obviously has never showered, bathed yes, showered, no. It is very funny to watch. Dat keeps sitting down and squeals when the water is turned on.

We walked to the lake this morning and ate lunch at the Kangaroo cafe. On the way back, we got noodle cups for dinner. For some reason, I am not as adventurous with food here as I was in China, maybe because Chinese food is more familier to me and maybe because, this trip, I am here by myself, if I get sick, there is no one here to help with the boys. We have eaten with Hang a couple of times and the food is very good, but by ourselves we tend to go to a hotel around the corner that also caters to european and adoptive families. There are a couple of other resturants we have passed that I would like to try, but I have no interest in eating at any of the little sidewalk eateries that are all over.

We have seen a lot of beggers the last couple of days too. I feel sorry for them - people with arm and leg difference - in the states they would be whatever they wanted to be, but here they are reduced to being beggers. However, I know better than to give them anything. The guys selling lighters and wallets, the ladies selling pinapples and bananas, the guys with the cycle tours, the guys wanting to shine my shoes are really becomming annoying too, if I tell them 'No thank you' and keep walking, they will call out to Dat, I don't know what they say, but he turns around to talk to them and I have to keep my arm around him and push him on.

We've now been on all the streets that are labled as 'shopping streets' in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. They all seem to sell the same things. I haven't seen any different or unique items yet. I hope that where ever we go with Hang tomorrow and on the tour sunday we find some stuff I want to buy. Otherwise I'll get the Ao dias for the girls, a few Chinese dresses for a friend and a few of the neat jewelery boxes and be done with it. I was hoping to find a jade pendant in whatever animal was 2001, but haven't seen anything like that around. Pearls and some jade bracelets and ear rings, but no zodiac animal pendants. Seen a few cloisone bracelets but not a lot of variety. I was also hoping to find some stuff with dragons but haven't seen any of that either.

Hotel is trying to get me to sign up for a two day, overnight trip to HaLong bay, but I'm not going to do it, we'll stick with the one day tour that I wanted to do. I need to call the SOS clinic and embassy on Monday to see if they will let me do the SOS stuff on Wednesday before I get Dat's passport and the timing just isn't going to fit with a two day trip.

Dat

Dat has been so well prepared for this adoption, it is amazing. He shows no concerns, no fear and no sadness about leaving the orphanage. I know that it may surface in a few days, but for now, he has adjusted amazingly well. He chatters to him self and us in Vietnamese and doesn't seem to care that we can't understand him. He plays by himself with the cars and track I brought him or plays with A. They are getting along very well.

It is raining today, and while I wanted to do some shopping, A doesn't want to get wet. He and I may have a showdown sooner or later but he isn't going to spend the entire time in the hotel room watching TV. I have cut him a lot of slack because of jet-lag, but he has caught up pretty well now.

I made reservations for us to have a tour of Hanoi and some of the temples and museums on Sunday and we will do Ha Long Bay a little later in the week. Saturday we are meeting up with Hang and her little boy who is Dat's age to go to a children's park.

Pictures - as requested

DatDat above and Dat and Aidan below.

Street corner near the hotel Cemetary on the way to Thai Binh

View from hotel window

Another view from hotel window with roof top clothes line or wash line

Aidan holding a woman't baskets and wearing her hat. She grabbed me and put the pole on my shoulder and the hat on my head and asked if I wanted my phot taken. I said OK so she took one then put the stuff on Aidan. Then she got upset when we didn't buy her pinapples.

Day 3 - slightly anticlamatic but Dat is mine

I have Dat now and he is officially mine. The boys are now tossing a tennis ball around as they try out all the toys I got for them to play with.

We got up later than yesterday, I slept until 5 and A slept until about 7. Breakfast then waiting for Hang to arrive around 12. She arrived and we walked down the alley to meet her. In the car and drive for 2+ hours. Got to the adoption place, and there was adorable Dat waiting for us. They had me sit in a particular chair then sign what felt like 2 dozen papers. Then the adoption official had me promise to love him, take care of him, treat him as I would a biological child, send the reports and bring him back one day to visit. They introduced themselves again and asked if I wanted to say anything. Caught cold, all I could think to say was something along the lines of 'Thank you for letting me have him and for taking care of him until I could get here". Then they took pictures and we left. I don't think the whole thing took 30 minutes. Back in the car for another 2 hour drive back to Hanoi. Of course, I didn't get any pictures as I was busy signing papers but Hang said they would send me copies of the ones they took.

Decided not to go to the orphanage as Dat was totally ready to leave with us. He has been beautifully prepared for being adopted and was ready to move on. Hang talked with the orphanage director and they felt he would be confused by going back. I felt sure I could beg copies of the pictures Emily took at the orphanage when they were there last month (please, please Emily) so I didn't object.

Got back to the city just in time for rush hour, I thought people in China drove crazy, here you have motor bikes competing with cars and a few bicycles and of course - pedestrians tossed in for good measure. If their side of the road is too slow, they will drive on the wrong side. Dear Heavens. Hang took us to a great restaurant for dinner, then back to the hotel. Dat is playing with each toy for a few minutes, then moving on to the next. A is watching TV and I don't think Dat has seen much TV before, he is totally captivated by Tom and Jerry. A is sitting in the bed watching and Dat is on the floor. I don't know how I am going to tell him to get ready for bed. A sleeps in gym shorts and I didn't get Dat any pj's as I didn't know whether he would use them or not.

We'll meet Hang at 8:30 tomorrow morning to apply for his passport, then we are free until next Thursday. Hang seems to think that we can get his passport, do the medical and the Visa interview all the same day which means will be able to get his visa and make our flight (Please God - I need prayers that we can make this happen, I really don't want to stay here over an extra weekend.

Got him into the gym shorts without any problem, a little pantomime and he changed. He seems to be a very bright little boy albeit a little overwhelmed by all the new stuff. Luckily I didn't bring much. The matchbox cars and track are a BIG hit.

Oh, on another note, the kid has quite an arm, he was easily tossing darts clear across the room which A couldn't do consistently. There may be baseball in this guys future.

Now A is teaching him to jump from bed to bed. I forsee hospital visits in the future too.

Day 2 - Later

Met Hang at 11:30 and she took us to buy shirts for two adoption officials. I told her to chose as I ad no clue what was appropriate so she did. Then we walked to a restaurant called Pho 24 for lunch. It was good but needed a little salt. A scarfed his down. Then a taxi back to the hotel, where we we arranged to meet with Hang tomorrow for the trip to Thai Binh and the GR. After we found that our stuff had been moved to our new room - this one huge and has two beds - yay, we went back out and walked to the toy street. Most of the things we saw weren't worth the money. Stuffed animals and cheap plastic toys. A had decided he wanted a carved dagger we saw yesterday but couldn't find today. But then we went the other way yesterday and had to turn around and go back. I figure it must have been the other way, but A didn't want to walk any more so we came back to the hotel. We are supposed to meet a couple of other adoptive families here for dinner, but I don't know if A is going to make it. He s laying on the couch watchng TV and his eyes are drooping. We are supposed to eat lunch before meeting Hang tomorrow and I'm not sure how to do it. If se comes around 11:30 - 12:00 like she said, it will be too close to breakfast for either A or I to be very hungry. I think I'm going to see if I can get some noodles we can cook here in the room.

Hang said that after the G&R tomorrow, we will take Dat to get his passport Thursday am which means that we will get the passport next Thursday. Apparently we can't do the SOS clinic until we have his passport, which makes no sense to me, becuse if we have to wait to do that until late Thursday, we can't go to get his Visa until Friday which means that I probably wont have it until the next day which means Monday. I really don't know what to do, don't know if the hotel will have room for us for three more nights - I really want to make my Friday midnight flight out.

Another downer is that neither A's DS or the DVD player will re-charge in the room. I even got a transformer from the front desk and it doesn't work. I'm not real surprized about the DVD as I don't think that charger is the right one (universal my a**) but it works OK at home. I haven't tried either of the camera battery chargers but they should work, I know mine did in China so there is no reason it wouldn't work here.

Also haven't been able to upload pictures. The USB disk reader I use at home wasn't recognized on the computer in the other room and I haven't tried it on this one. Figure that out later.

Day 2 - very early

It is 4:30 am here and A is wide awake. I was hoping for a few more hours sleep, but no luck - once he is awake, he starts bouncing. Heard from Hang yesterday, she called several times before we connected (right after we left for an early dinner, while I was in the shower and finally I got the phone) We are meeing today around 11 to discuss the G&R and whether or not I need to buy more gifts and anything else I need to know. Afterwards we hope to meet with a lady I met on the internet and a couple of World Child families who are staying at a nearby hotel. G& R will be tomorrow as orphanage director is traveling and won't be back until then.