shopping day-Monday

Love those toes!

Last night Christopher rolled over for the first time for us. Unfortunately, it was at 1:30 in the morning and he couldn't get back over so we all were woken up. But, what a great moment. I just had to sneak a picture before helping him out. I am sure he really appreciated it. LOL!

We call this the grandpa pant look!

Today was a shopping day for us. You can get so many things for little to nothing $ wise here. We already have filled a suitcase with all our great finds. I am having velvet and silk coats made for him and his cousin which were $14 each. I also have been using my hotsling, which he loves, and am going to have her make me some extra's. The people here are so talented, it is simply amazing. She is having the jackets completed in 2 days and the hotslings will be done in 1-2 days also.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Christopher's health. We have been having eating issues and he is not taking as much as the other babies here are. But today was a better day and he is very alert and active. One day at a time. He gives us many grins and loves to be kissed. He is very ticklish, especially under the chin.

I wish that I could read the comments while we are here but please keep posting them. To whomever left the directions to video store - My sis forwarded it to me, Thank you!

Friday

Friday, we went to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. We were hoping it was air conditioned but no such luck. It was very interesting and had many exhibits of the different tribes. We were unsure what village that Christopher was from and one of the girls working at the shop asked us. We showed her some of our paperwork that had his town on it and she told us he was Tay. It was nice to be able to identify his specific ethnic group and see the exhibits about the Tay.

Christopher does not do well in the heat and looked just plain miserable at the museum. His body temperature rises + he is not 100% yet. We are trying to stick to a/c or very short ventures out for him. We have 2 more days of antibiotics and hope they do the trick for him. After we got home, we put him in a nice luke warm bath to cool him off which helped. He loves a bath!

Christopher has to know what is going on around him. He is scooping out the Martinez Family and their baby Nicholas.

Multi-tasking. The fruit here is wonderful, just don't eat the skins. Daily, I have been having wonderful fruit smoothies. You can get them at most restaurants and they have a variety of choices. Every day, the hotel brings us a plate of fruit that we quickly devour. We are not sure what we are eating but it is still very good.

Shoes we purchased at the museum shop, they are a little big!

Me, pitch a fit? Never happens!

GT HAT

For My Papa

What do you do when a baby spits his entire bottle on you, ALL over you? Jump in the shower with him, of course!


This has been a once a day occurence here. Between the antibiotic, gas drops, tylenol, eating and pitching a fit when being given all the above ~ Spit Happens!

Today was our 1st INS interview, it went very well and was not all that bad. It was over and done with in a little over an hour with 3 families being interviewed. Because of staffing, our papers will be sent to Ho Chi Minh on Monday, instead of Friday. We have the weekend free and need to figure out what exactly we are going to do.

Random photos from the last few days.

We at at Al Fresco's tonight. Dean had the ribs and I had the beef quesdillas. Very western & very good. It was a little pricey but we enjoyed it. Our dinners has mostly been $10 for the 2 of us. But tonight, we had an appetizer of nachos, fruit smoothies and dinner for the 2 of us was around $30. We walked to the Catholic Cathedral after dinner and are planning to go back tomorrow and explore that area more. Christopher & Dean after walking the streets of Hanoi. Notice the sweat stains on both.

1st night

Last night Christopher was up about every 3-4 hours. When sleeping, he is a very good sleeper and sometimes I think he sleeps too much. He has been running a low grade temp and seems very uncomfortable & unconsolable at times. He has been through alot. Yesterday, he was thrust into our arms (complete strangers). He was taken from all that was familiar to him; sights, sounds, smells, touch, everything is new and scary to him. Who are these people kissing me on the face and neck and whispering in a strange language in my ear? For all that he has been through - he seems as if he is doing well and coping through the unknown. He really is a sweet baby and coo's to himself and is still always playing with those hands. He has 2 bottom teeth, and 2 top teeth, 1 on top is just now popping through. When we got him, he had little to no muscle tone especially in his arms. We have seen a difference in just 1 day of being with him. He can hold his head up and does that well. He is not pushing up yet when we have him on his tummy. But he is improving every day.We took him to the SOS clinic today and they diagnosed him with an Upper Respiratory infection. He has started to pull at his ears some and has an occasional cough. He weighed 14 lbs and was 26 inches long. He absolutely HATES all medicines and hated the doctor touching him today and assessing him. He can go from 0-60 with one drop of Tylenol on his tongue, it really is crazy to watch the personality change so quickly. He definetely has spunk. Tomorrow, we have our first INS interview with the US govt. Dean applied for Christopher's passport today and it should be ready sometime next week. We wish that we would have brought some movies or something, it is easy to get stir crazy in the hotel. You can only take so much of the outside heat and street peddlers, so you have to stay inside. We are hoping to do some sight seeing this weekend.
Blogger won't let me post photos, so more pics tomorrow

Gotcha day!

We have waited a long time to write that word, Gotcha! I am just going to start posting pics cause I know that is what everyone wants anyway. The caretaker brought Christopher out first and it was quite unexpected when she breezed into the room holding him. He was very calm and just taking it all in. I will have to right in more detail when it is not 3 am. Tomorrow, we go to SOS clinic for eye infection, wheezing, fever, body rash that is all for now. We are so in love with him! He has a great little personality and calms very easily.

Being held by me for first time
After G&R ceremony, he was changed into clothes that we brought for him.
The long van ride home. Christopher slept most of the way home.


Chillin'

My beautiful face after spitting up nearly all my dinner on Dad!

Crib!

So wonderful to get a crib in the room today and also so odd. We have waited so long for this day and to have it upon us feels so strange. We are gathering our baby supplies & orphanage items for the trip tomorrow morning. We are leaving at 5:30 am and will probably be back some time in the afternoon. I am going to try to take lots of pics and video and hopefully the jet lag will be gone by then. Today we bought some formula & wash cloths. We walked to a big indoor mall and didn't buy a thing. It is cheaper on the streets. We have actually not done much shopping at all yet - this jet lag thing is hard. We are off to shop and have some dinner. We had breakfast in the hotel this morning, it was pretty good. But I think something made me sick from it - could it be the fried spring rolls? Everything else I had was western (eggs). We had lunch at Little Hanoi today and it was very good. They have mostly a western menu with a few VN items. Dean had a cheeseburger and I had some spagetti Pomadora. We will be going back. It was filled with tourists, which is a good sign for the tummy.

Tomorrow is Christopher DAY!!!! We are so happy!