Monday January 19

Today we had a rather quiet day. I went out early in the morning to do errands and Greg was in charge of getting Elizabeth ready for the day. When I returned an hour later, she was bathed, diaper changed, fed and clothed, happily playing on the floor with her Daddy. Go Daddy!! The only thing that he has yet to try is changing a poopy diaper. He has watched me do it, but he’s not quite ready to take the poopy plunge!

We went off to the Temple of Literature, very lovely with lots of bonsai trees. It was probably the quietest place we have been to and even then, you could still hear the car horns honking in the distance. We then found the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and looked at some wonderful sculptures and paintings. We walked along the main street near the museum and found all kinds of wonderful art stores. One of the big things they sell here are embroidered pictures but we also found pictures that looked more like sand art. Found a gorgeous one for our master bathroom.

Came back to the hotel so Elizabeth could nap and have lunch and then we just spent the afternoon playing. Her latest thing is something we had only starting doing with her yesterday. I was giving her one of her toys and did the old “Psych” thing to her and she fell into a fit of giggles. Of course today, wouldn’t you know it, she would start to hand Greg or myself a toy and would do the same thing back to us, laughing her head off! I have to say though the best thing by far is that she has started to give me kisses. Yesterday, we were sitting on the floor and she came up to me for a cuddle and put her face right up to mine and let her lips go on my cheek. I didn’t quite know for a second what she had done, but then she did it again, and I realized, oh my God, she just gave me a kiss! What a little love she is!

Our hotel has a really nice restaurant that offers a buffet and we’ve eaten there for dinner now twice because I figured it was a good chance to let Elizabeth try a few things. Nothing major, just some cooked carrot, a little plain chicken, that was pretty much it. It was great to watch her face when she picked up the food because the only other thing she has eaten with her fingers has been Cheerios and some animal crackers.

So tomorrow is our interview with the American Embassy and then we just hang out until the end of the week. We plan to continue doing a little sightseeing everyday – naturally working around Elizabeth’s schedule. We were off a little yesterday – short morning nap, tried to feed her lunch too early and then not enough nap in the afternoon and by dinner, we had a very unhappy little girl – if I so much as put her down for one second, we have full meltdown! We learned quickly and today was back to schedule. Very much looking forward to coming home. It has been lovely here but we do miss everyone and it’s hard for Greg to make sure that he isn’t eating things that contain gluten. We think he has once or twice, possibly soy sauce or barbecue sauce that a restaurant didn’t realize contained it so we’re trying to be a little more vigilant. No point in him feeling unwell the rest of the week. We keep hearing about how cold it is in NY. Kind of weird considering we walk around in short sleeve shirts. 

We’ll let you know how the interview goes!