A Pic Post.

Coming after the camera . . .

Sleeping baby.
Helping papa (see that gigantic bandage on her arm-this was after her first doctor visit where they decided they need a vat of blood out of my child!)

Cute in the park.


Itty bitty pool.

The pussycats . . .

A lot of people have asked how the cats are doing with Josie-and the answer is: pretty good. They are fascinated with each other-Josie watches where they are and follows them-but gets really excited when she gets close and starts flapping her hands around, which scares the cats of course. So-we've been working on petting the cats and she's getting better.

Roxie is interested in Josie but scared so she keeps a bit of a distance. Toby, however, is quite funny. He hates it when she cries and both cats come running if she wakes up in the middle of the nite or something. He meows to her and even jumps in the crib and gets in her face as if to comfort her. This, of course, completely ticks off the girl and I inevitably have to scoop him up and throw him out of the room to calm her down.

Toby also loves bedtime. As soon as I sit in the glider with a bottle and a book (with Josie of course), he jumps on my lap, puts his paws on Josie's lap and gets comfy. Josie will only sit through one book at best after her bottle unfortunately and then I have to disturb him to get up and put her down in the crib. He'll love it when she wants to read and read . . .

The funniest thing, however, is bathtime. Toby has never really been afraid of water. He always jumps in the tub after my shower. He used to get in the shower with me and sit at the back of the tub-but he got nailed with the shower spray one too many times. I never take baths and now I find out I've been depriving him of the experience for years. He even once got in with Josie instead of waiting until she got out-but she gets a bit crazed in the tub and he didn't last long.

Please to enjoy (ever watch The Soup?):

The adjustment period.

The first couple of weeks were really rough-I must say. Josie was sick, teething and jet-lagged. She didn't sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time. So we were both exhausted. She wouldn't let me out of her sight and whined all the time. Unless there were other people around of course. She was always quite charming around visitors and at other people's houses. She's very social.

I finally had to take charge of the sleeping situation because we were both miserable. I was in tears one night at midnite surfing online for sleeping strategies while she screamed in the next room. I finally decided on one and stuck to it and after a week or so-she became a pretty darn good sleeper. Goes to bed about 8ish and up between 5:30 and 6am. She usually takes 2 naps a day too-for 90-120 minutes each. Couldn't ask for much better.

So-now that we've settled into a routine for the most part-she a pretty happy kid. But she's very stubborn and strong-willed. Not a mellow child by any means. And a total ham too. She cracks me up. She does want to be held a lot-actually now she wants to walk holding your hands-which is great, but hard on the back!

Sampling of the mood changes the first couple of weeks:

Happy Josie:


Mad Josie ( I see this face a lot-mainly between the hours of 6 and 7pm):

Yeah, yeah-I'm a slacker . . .

Okay-for those of you that have dial-up service can probably understand why I haven't updated my blog since I've been home-just too frustrating to do much other than check email every couple of days. Oh yeah-and there's a little someone who doesn't like it when I'm on the computer-or actually-SHE wants to play with the computer. So-there you go.

However-I'm at my parent's house this week and after banging my head against the wall and finally giving up on IE and downloading Firefox-I have been successful in logging in to Blogger.

Wow-where to start?

I suppose with the trip home. Gee-that was fun. Can't wait to do it again! Ha! Seriously-over 30 hours of traveling-including an 8 hour layover in Seoul. I didn't sleep for over 50 hours. All in all-Josie did great. Slept the entire flight from Hanoi to Seoul (thanks to a little Benadryl and the fact that the flight was a red-eye.) We kept her up all day in Seoul and did the Benadryl thing again for the flight to San Fran. She slept for the first 4 hours of the flight. Long enough for Mom and I to enjoy the perks of business class. Drinks, dinner, dessert, coffee and a movie. Then came the middle 4 hours of the flight-or Absolute Hell as I remember it. It could have been so much worse. Josie's crying really didn't bother too many people thanks to headphones and the white noise of the air system. But I was so tired at that point that I could hardly function. And mom had taken something to help with the aches and pains and it made her drowsy. She kept offering to take a shift (meaning walk the girl or watch her while she slept so she didn't roll off the seat, etc). So I would close my eyes and try to sleep and hear or feel something and open my eyes to Josie squirming off the seat or attacking the computer as it played a Baby Einstein video or something and poor mom sitting asleep upright. Of course, I didn't have a lot of sympathy at the time. Didn't have much patience for anything really. Shocking, i know! Really, it didn't matter though. Couldn't fall asleep anyway.

Our San Fran to Portland flight was delayed a bit-so we sat on the tarmac in coach with Josie on my lap. I was in a middle seat with her and of course the person in front of me just HAD to recline her seat. Josie's face was about 2 inches from the back of the seat. She was a wiggle worm and I was so annoyed (yes, yes I know-shocking again!) at that person I didn't try too hard to keep her from kicking the seat. She fell asleep right after takeoff and woke up when we landed. Perfect.

Some pics:

Cute kids in the Seoul airport on their way to Detroit for a "creativity competition".



Josie in her very own business class seat-all for the price of a lap ticket! WooHoo!

On our way-I think we look pretty darn good for being awake for about 30 hours at this point . . .

The Wonderful World of Baby Food . . .

Okay, before someone says "What did you expect to happen if you bought and fed Josie Lentils and Vegetables?"

Here's a list of some of the baby food offerings . . .

1. Lentils and Vegetables (obviously)
2. Potatoes with Leeks and Rabbit
3. Vegetables and Veal
4. Pumpkin and Couscous (a favorite of Josie's, by the way . .)
5. Morrocan Lamb
6. Tuna ratatouille ( I'm totally serious!)
7.Tuna Mornay
8. Chicken and vegetable risotto

So-you can see why I bought the lentils right? I'm not feeding my daughter rabbit until she's old enough to order it herself. Same with veal and lamb. However-I have no problem with risotto, couscous, and until recently, lentils. The tuna ratatouille-well, if you can't figure that out-there's something wrong with you.

On that note (and I'd like to mention I'm a big fan of tuna-steaks, sushi, sandwiches)-they put it on all sorts of strange things here-there's Tuna Spaghetti and Tuna pizza.

Couple of things I've been wondering about . . . .

1. How on earth will I use the bathroom once I'm alone with Josie-I'm guessing holding her on my lap isn't a good idea.

2. Who decided that Lentils and Vegetables would be a good flavor for baby food? Josie totally smoked me out of the room.

3. Why do my hands still smell after changing the "lentil" diaper even after scrubbing my hands with soap and scalding water? Please don't tell me I'll get used to it. Who wants to get used to that?

4. Am I going to Hell for planning to dose up the child with Benadryl for the flight home? Before anyone answers in the affirmative-you must first try to get Josie down for a nap. Then-I'll hear your input.

5. Why do "they" insist on playing God knows what kind of music (patriotic?opera?karaoke?) at 110 decibals over a loudspeaker at 8am?

6. If sleep deprivation is a form of torture, is motherhood a form of terrorism?

7. I'm going to need a lot more clothing as Josie LOVES to do raspberries while she's eating. A pair of black pants lasts about 30minutes around her.

8. If nothing I typed here makes any sense, see #6.

Visa!

Well-we had our second interview at the embassy today and will get Josie's visa tomorrow. We've changed our flight out of here (again!) and are leaving the 21st-arriving in Portland on the 22nd.

Mom and I are starting to get better-we feel better when we go out-so we think the air conditioning is making us sick. Then again-a cold or something is not inconcievable with the lack of sleep and stress going on right now.

Josie's doing great-slept 10.5 hours straight the other nite, and 8.5 last nite. And the last couple of nites I've put her in the crib awake and she cries a little of and on-but gets herself to sleep. Cool! Still doesn't really want to nap in the room-she keeps falling asleep in weird places-the highchair in the restaurant, in the snugli, the lounge chair by the pool . . .

We did some shopping today and hope to hit the museum of ethnology tomorrow.

Cute pics . . .

Well-first Mom had the crud, now I've got it. The only thing either of us really wants to do is sleep. And the only thing Josie wants NOT to do is sleep. So-all you get is some pictures.

Trip to the orphanage . . .

On Monday, about 9am as we were about to head out of the room-we got a call from Cherie that we were going to the orphanage at 10am. Okay . . . I was caught off guard and forgot to change Josie into a cute dress the nannies could fuss over. Not that she didn't look cute of course! I also almost forgot the bag of gifts for the nannies.

Cau Giay (pronounced Ko Zay-long vowels) was only a 15 min cab ride away. There was a gate at the entrance and there we were. The orphange is tiny-one really long room divided up into three rooms. One for very little babies (I didn't go in that room), one for older infants, and another for the older children.

One of the nannies saw Josie and came running out of the room to see her. She's the one in some of the referral photos holding Josie. It was sweet. She took Josie-and Josie let her, but she was very serious. Maybe concerned.

I got to see Josie's room which held maybe 6 children-they all had there own cribs. We also saw the room with the older children. Very beautiful children. But it was so sad-it looked a couple of queen size beds pushed together and they were all sitting on the bed. If I'd known-I would've brought toys and candy for them. They were cute-smiling for the camera. It didn't look like the kids got to go outside much, if at all. The orphanage was clean though-which makes it likely that the cause of Josie's skin issues was mosquito bites.

Some pics:




I've been having trouble embedding my video today-clink on the link to view one of the 10 short videos from Cau Giay . . . .if you click on the "more by this user" link-you can see all my videos. I apologize in advance for the quality . . . .i won't quit my day job. Also-i tried to keep them short so that they wouldn't be too big to upload to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0iswh7SfU8

Silk Village

Okay-here's a pic for all of you clamoring for a photo of Grandma and Josie . . . .
it took some doing.

On Saturday-we took a trip to the Silk Village with some other PLAN families along with Cherie (our in-country liason), her son Brian, and Cong (who does a lot of the driving). The Silk Village is comprised of at least one silk factory and a street full of shops. We ended up buying a bunch of beautiful Ao Dais for Josie. I think we have at least one for every year until she's four.

Josie liked the Snugli . . .she fell asleep on the bus and woke up halfway throught the trip.
Silkworms . . . .

More silkworms . . . .
After shopping we went to lunch with everyone at Wild Rice-where mom and I shared some spring rolls and she had some fried rice and I got noodles and seafood. Josie wanted our food-or maybe she just wanted the chopsticks. Not sure. So far-none of the waitresses at any of the restaurants have taken Josie during the meal. This was a time that would've been nice as she got quite squirmy.

Sorry for the lack of updates . . . .Josie got 2 more teeth over the weekend . . . . she was very cranky, didn't sleep much, and had a few bouts of inconsolable crying that almost sent me over the edge. However, it's getting better and hopefully I can post and put up pics and video of our trip yesterday to Josie's orphanage in Cau Giay.

video

A little about Josie . . .

I've been so concerned about making sure I get new pics and video up of Josie, I really haven't told you much about her.

She's covered in mosquito or some type of bug bites and skin rashes. They don't seem to bother her-she isn't itchy or anything that I can tell. We've been greasing her up in Aquaphor and putting a medicated cream on the bad ones. Looks like they are getting better. This is really common in children from the orphanges, and Josie was in the orphanage the whole time. We haven't gone there yet-I'm hearing it's not great. They said Josie was not thriving there. We're not sure what she weighs-we think about 14 pounds. She's got long legs though in comparison. We've got her in 9 mo clothing-though some 6 mo onesies also fit fine. Her legs completely stretch out the 9 mo sleepers-but they have plenty of room around. She's already eating quite a bit-I think she'll put on quite a bit of weight before we even bring her home.

She's started crawling yesterday-not sure she even realized what she was doing. She wasn't getting around too much the first day-but now if we put something she wants out of her reach-she'll start crawling to it. Her legs are not all that strong-but she's trying to pull herself up. She can stand and hold onto the couch pretty good-but I can't really let go of her for too long. She can pick things up pretty good with her hands. I'm not real good at knowing where children should be developmentally, but I'd guess she's a couple months behind. But -I bet she's going to catch up really quick. If not-they recommend early intervention right away. She has a peds appointment right away after we get home-and I'm sure we'll go over all that.

She has really taken to both Mom and me. She constantly checks to make sure she knows where we are. She's begun reaching for us to be picked up-and of course you've seen her smile. And laugh. She's really very happy and content. The only issue we've had is with sleeping. We can't get her to nap for very long-and at nite she wakes up after a couple of hours and it takes hours to get her back asleep. She doesn't really cry much during all of this-she's obviously tired, but she wants to play and be held. Held while standing/walking/swaying to be precise. She loves to be held and touched. So-thank God mom's here-we're tag-teaming at nite so we can get some sleep.

Crazy weather today-it's like a monsoon out there. I was going to go shopping for a stroller and more baby toys, but I'm going to hold off for a bit.

She's all mine!

This morning I applied for Josie's passport and in the afternoon we had the Giving and Receiving ceremony at the Dept of Justice. We signed a book and some paperwork and had to assure them that we would care for our children as if they were biological children and provide updates and pictures for the next 18 years.




Another dose of cute . . .

The cute!

A couple of pics.

The moment we all waited for . . .

Well, I hate my speaking voice, and I pretty much look like a doof-but I guess it's not about me. They brought Josie and the Brown's baby to the lobby. The man holding Josie asked: who gets the bigger one? Well that would be me. Enjoy!

Gotcha Day-Wed, May 2nd!

So we got word that Josie will be brought to the hotel tomorrow morning at 9am. Wow . . . this is really happening. I need to stock up on some more diapers and some baby food.

Mom and I walked around Old Town some more this morning. By the way-they can't get the weather forecast any more accurate than in Portland. The last couple of days have been partly sunny, mid-to upper eighties, with some humidity. It was getting uncomfortable though while we walked through the streets. Pavement and no breeze and no where to just sit and people watch-which I could do for hours.

Mom and I have been real careful not to drink the tap water here or order anything with ice. (we've been drinking beer at most meals so far. And bottled water. tons of bottled water). We have to brush our teeth with bottled water and we're told not to open our mouths in the shower. When someone told me that, I thought, no problem . . . .who opens their mouth in the shower? Well-you know what" Apparently I do . . . .Never realized it before. I've really had to concentrate on not doing it. Also-we're not supposed to eat cut up fruit because the knives used to cut it may have been rinsed in tap water. We have whole fruit in the hotel room that I've rubbed Purell on and then washed with soap and boiled water before cutting up. After all that-i decided it smelled and tasted funny and threw it away anyway. Not sure how much fruit I'll be eating. Maybe it was just the mango-I'll try the Asian pear next. Or one of the other pieces I can't identify.

I did eat some of these tiny bananas i bought off of a woman off the street. Well, really i was more conned into it. A women was carrying these 2 baskets of fruit on a stick carried over her shoulders and as I tried to sneak past here-she literally threw the stick over my shoulder and put her straw hat on my head (gross i know!). She said-take picture! So-i told mom to take my picture-and she did, telling me i was gonna pay for it. So-of course, after the picture was taken, she put bags of bananas and cut up pineapple in my hand. I said no to the pineapple and put it back in the basket. She took it back out and put it in my hand again. This went on for awhile. I asked her how much for the bananas (figured they'd be safe to eat)-and she wanted 50,000dong (about 3 dollars). I told her no way and offered her a dollar (which really is still WAY too much!) and after going back and forth-she agreed to the dollar. It was worth it to get her to leave me alone-which they know and many use that same tactic. Wear you down til you buy something just to get rid of them. So-far the shopping is tiring-dodging the traffic in the street, the heat, feeling guilty when you don't buy something. I bought an awesome purse, but that's it so far.

I decided to spend my last afternoon as a non-mom sitting by the pool, drinking beer and reading a book. I can already tell i got a bit of a sunburn. I thought mom had brought sunblock-but i couldn't find it and she was taking a nap.

Okay- a couple more pics . . .

An intersection near the lake.


A parking lot . .


me holding baskets of fruit with a strange woman's hat on my head . . .

Getting out and about . . .

I'm thinking we aren't going to be getting Josie until Wednesday. If I hear otherwise-I'll let you know.

Today, Mom and I ventured out and walked around Hoan Kiem Lake and then met up with some of the PLAN families currently here and in various stages of the process. The weather is actually pretty nice-mid-eighties, some sun, some clouds . . .The forecast for the week isn't so great-showers, thunderstorms, upper 70s. Welcome to the rainy season in Vietnam!

Hanoi is pretty crazy-motorbikes everywhere and pedestrians, motorbikes, regular bikes and cars all weaving in and out-but not running into each other-which is pretty surprising. Just crossing the street was an adventure for us. There was one shopping plaza we wanted to check out-but the street was so wide and so busy-neither of us felt comfortable. Towards the end of the afternoon we were getting more and more courageous. Maybe by the end of our trip we will be renting our own motorbikes. Then again-maybe not.

The street noise is pretty amazing too-everybody honking, construction projects that are only going in the middle of the nite, and there always seems to be some random guy singing very loudly around 2 am the last couple of nites. But I don't think it was the same guy . . . There's so much energy here. It's really neat, and the noise doesn't keep us awake either. It's quickly becoming ambient noise.

It was fun to get a baby fix today with the other families. We went to a restaurant where some of us sat in seats made from cyclos(the kind that are attached to bikes so you can be driven around). I had some delicious steamed fish in banana leaves. Still working on Mom trying some Vietnamese food-she was pretty interested in my noodle/veggie/meat meal last nite. We're going to meet up with some of the same families again tonite for dinner here at our hotel. So-let's see if I can get some pics to post . . . .

View from the hotel . . .



Another view . . .


Hoan Kiem Lake


Random people on the street.


Cool cat, huh?

We're Here!

Wow-what a long trip! We arrived at the hotel at about 1am Sunday morning. I believe we're 14 hours ahead here . . . We traveled for about 27 hours. Mom and I both managed to sleep about 5 hours last nite-I'm hoping to not nap and get right on a regular sleeping schedule. We'll see. I feel pretty good-Mom's a bit rummy.

So-we got the internet to work here in the room. I can't seem to access my email-so for now-if anyone needs to contact me-use my netzero account: juliemarie16@netzero.net. I hope I can figure out the problem with my groupwise access. I think I might lose my mind if I can't access that account for over a month. I think the WiFi is the issue, but not sure.

So-the trip. We did end up getting the upgrade to business class from San Fran to Seoul. Wow-that was cool. The seats recline fully and they have adjustable footrests. When we sat down-we were immediately given glasses of champagne and little bowls of warm roasted nuts. yum. After a couple of rum and cokes-they served dinner. Okay-i have never eaten airline food that I would rave about before-smoked salmon appetizer, sesame chicken with noodles for me, Mom had some sort of beef and cheddar potato, caramel cheesecake for dessert. yeah. We had our own little TVs and several movie options. I watched The Holiday and amused Mom with all my giggling. Notes From a Scandal was also good-but a bit intense. I dozed during Blood Diamond-which was good because it was a little distressing and quite frankly a little too "real" for me.

While the seats were comfortable-I was in the middle, which made getting in and out a bit of a challenge. Mom and i seemed to be the only ones not able to completely sack out during the trip (were they all drugged or something?). The seats in front of us were completely reclined and Mom and the guy next to me had their footrests completely extended. The first time I came in from the wrong side and basically fell on the guy next to me getting back in-after that I chose to climb (literally!) over mom to get in and out.

We had a about an hour delay in Seoul-and then a 4 hour trip to Hanoi. I thought it was funny that the only sleep we got on the entire trip (besides half-asleep dozing) was while we were in coach seating. When we got to Hanoi-we got through customs without any problem and had a hotel car pick us up. The guy was holding a sign with mom's name on it-how cool is that? Not that I could see it or anything as I had taken out my contacts and spent half the trip blind as a bat. I was going to take a pic of us standing uder the sign at the airport-but after such a long trip-there was no way I was permanently documenting the state my face and hair was in.

We ordered room service this morning-because we hadn't yet figured out how to get coffee and well, you all should know how important coffee is to us! After a quick shower-I headed downstairs to change some money and find more coffee (one cup is NOT gonna do it!). On the first floor of our hotel is a shopping center with a grocery store, baby store (dangerous!), coffee shop (yay!) and a whole host of other shopping. Buying groceries in another country was fun.

Okay-I'll check in later when I hear from Cherie and find out when we'll be able to get Josie!

Maybe we should apply for citizenship . . .

So-we leave on Friday for Vietnam! Yesterday we were informed that there may be some delays in the process in Vietnam-and it was possible we would need to stay longer. Mom and I decided to go ahead and change our return flight now, rather than having to deal with it in Vietnam. We are now returning home on June 4th. If we get done with the US Embassy early, we may try to leave sooner-however, flights out of Hanoi are very difficult to get. Apparently, it's quite the hot spot for tourists in SE Asia. We also only have a 30 day visa, so we'll have to get extended ones while we're there. It was suggested we consider arriving in Hanoi a week later so that we don't have to stay in country for so long-but since I will be able to Josie next week-there's no way I'm delaying my trip. It just means we'll have even longer to explore Josie birth country. And I hear it's just beautiful. Even in the rainy season!

We're staying at the Somerset hotel-which has little apartments. We'll have a kitchen, washer/dryer, 2 bedrooms, and a living room. I think we'll be quite comfortable. There's also a pool-can't wait to take Josie swimming.

I will update my blog with pics and videos while I'm there. And I will do as many individual emails as time allows.


I can't wait for you all to meet Josie! She will be baptised on June 17th at the 11am Mass at the Cathedral. It will also be her first birthday! And Father's Day . . . . . We'll have some sort of celebration at the house afterwards.

I can't thank everyone enough for all their support, prayers (Thanks Maddie!), gifts, good wishes, excitement, and help throughout the last 7 months. I'm so lucky to have all of you in my life! Thanks especially to those (ahem, Shu!) who've talked me down from the ledge more than once. This has been the most amazing and stressful time of my whole life! The control-freak in me has had a bit of trouble letting go and just letting things happen. Soon-it will be all worth it.

Much Love-

Julie

Finished room . . . .

There are a few people who have apparently been anxiously awaiting pics of the finished room-and with the exception of the glider (which hopefully all the pieces will arrive UNBROKEN soon) and the proper hardware for the shades (so that they can actually go up and down-a good feature in a shade)-the room is finished. I need to arrange things on the shelves too I guess . . . .




Uh, oh . . .I just realized I forgot to put the stuff I had on top of the changing table back after I took this picture. That's a bit of a problem because, apparently changing tables make really comfy cat beds.



It's harder than you would think to hang those letters straight. Plus-the O is larger than any other letter. weird.




My aunt made the curtains . .don't they look great?





See those dresses hanging on the changing table in the first pic? I want to take all 3 to Vietnam. Why, you ask? Why would one child need 3 fancy dresses during a 3 week period? Well-she doesn't. But I love all 3 and can't bring myself to leave one behind. Besides-we need a Giving and Receiving dress (the green one), a coming home from the orphanage dress (the purple I think-it's in the back-you probably can't see it), and a coming home dress to greet Papa and any other family members that travel to the airport (pink). And-there's church, too! See-so many uses for fancy dresses!

Seriously-I have so many baby clothes packed-I'm not sure I'll get to bring any clothes. Last weekend-I took all of Josie's clothes down to Mom's so we could wash and decide which ones to pack. Mom's been feeling a bit stressed about the trip-it's really hard to have no control over any part of this trip. We have no control over the arrival and departure dates really (we've already had to change our departure date-and I've changed our hotel booking 3 times), we won't know when we get Josie until we get there, we will be at the mercy of the US Embassy and just hope and pray that we can leave on our scheduled flight on May 22nd.

Anyway-even though it's laundry-i thought that playing with baby clothes would cheer her up a bit. It works for me-I have taken the clothes out of the closet and rearranged them at least 4 or 5 times. But now-i figured it was time to cut of the tags (so many tags, piles of tags!) and wash them. When i got there-Marina was there to help-Mom asked me where the baby soap was. Huh? You know-there's a lot I have to learn about babies and how to care for them (did you know walkers=BAD!?), but I thought I at least knew how to do LAUNDRY! So-off to the store for Dreft and liquid Downy (no dryer sheets for Josie!). Wow-the clothes smell and feel so good-I think I could just dive into a pile of freshly-washed baby clothes. I want to wash my clothes in this stuff now.