Potty Training

Anh decided it was time to try his hand at peeing in the potty. This is what happened....

Pictures, videos, etc.....

So, it seems the only thing I can ever find time to do it upload videos and post pictures. Please scroll down for the 3 latest videos - 2 are from Yachats on the Oregon coast and one is from a local farm. I have also added a link on the right side of the page to picture albums of Anh.

Just a few little notes about what Anh is up to:
Anh is really talking up a storm. Every day it seems that he has new words and loves using them. Right now his favorite word is "No", thanks to our friend Elliot :-)
Anh is finally getting more teeth, including molars! It has been six months since his last teeth came in, and he has been managing on just the 6 front ones that he had. We are being reminded about how much fun getting new teeth is..
Anh peed "in" his toilet for the first time! It had nothing to do with us, and he didn't quite make it into the toilet, but it was still quite an accomplishment. We bought a training toilet a few months ago, just to have around so that he would be used to it. He has loved playing in it - he thinks it is a toy box. Well, a couple of days ago he said "pee pee" and pointed at the toilet. Patrick removed Anh's diaper and Anh sat on the seat and peed a little on the floor. We are very proud :-)

Anh is definitely not a little baby anymore and I am always amazed to look at old photots of him to see how much he has changed!
Enjoy the videos and pictures.

Through the legs

splashing in the water

more videos

All I can manage these days is just posting videos and pictures! Here is another one to keep you going

New Anh video - begging to talk

Sorry I don't have time to post, but enjoy this video.

Big Boy Shoes

Quick cute video

I only managed to snap a single video while in Israel. Anh insisted on playing with this small bottle of gin all the time and everyone kept saying he was starting early. No, he did not drink any alcohol! He has also taken to "dancing" to music - really just spinning round and round - which he demonstrates briefly here. Just this afternoon we were outside playing and he hear music from inside the house. Anh came running (ok, well stumbling) inside and stood in front of the stereo twirling around for at least 5 minutes.

New Trip - Israel

Ok, so we have been in Israel for the past 2 weeks visiting family and I haven't made a single post! Bad Shula. This means that somehow, in between working and taking care of a child, I will have to make up for this, so here goes....
We were lucky to find a fairly good flight itinerary to Tel Aviv by flying first to Portland where we met my sister. Then we hopped a 10 hour direct flight to Frankfurt, a quick layover, and then on to Tel Aviv in 3.5 hours. The only hitch was that we started with a sick child. Anh had managed to contract hand, foot, and mouth disease, a common childhood virus, the day before we left. He had sores in his mouth which made it painful for him to eat and caused him to be VERY cranky. There was a point when I questioned whether we would be able to travel at all, but we toughed it out, and thanks to my sister's help, made it to Israel in OK shape.

Within the first two days we reunited with family, visited Old Jaffa, went to an Israeli play at the theater that my uncle manges, and ate tons of hummus and pita. Anh was a little cranky all of the time, but it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. One memorable meal we had at Itzak HaGadol, where they brought us about 30 little salads, fresh pita, a tray of grilled meats, and pitchers of lemonade. Our first "Israeli" meal and it was delicious.


On our second full day in Tel Aviv, Patrick and I spent the day at Ethrog, Invitrogen's Israel R&D site. A day of work during a vacation sounds like a dull prospect, but it was actually quite interesting and hopefully will lead to some good collaborative projects.
Early the following morning, we were off to Eilat, the southern resort town on the Red Sea coast. My family had previously traveled here 20 years ago and had a fantastic time snorkeling and relaxing. We were in for quite a surprise when we arrived and discovered that Eilat has turned into a small scale cross between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Not exactly our idea of a great time, but we made the best of it by walking the board walk, eating fantastic sea food, snorkeling at the coral reserve and visiting the aquarium. Things have definitely changed for the worse and it is unlikely that any of us will want to return. Some highs and lows were:
The hotel, Edomit, was a bit crummy for the price. The breakfast and the cleanliness were pretty bad, but at least it was close to downtown.
The aquarium was fantastic, with really nice coral tanks and an underwater observatory. While we were there, a group of young teenagers saw Anh and were facinated to see an asian child. They all wanted to play with him and have their pictures taken with him. None of them had heard of Vietnam, but they understood that it is near China and Thailand.



To be continued....

Leapfrog into March

Well, not much has happened since I last posted - yeah right! Can you imagine two months going by without any changes in the life of a 1 year old? Anh is seriously amazing and is surprising on a daily basis. Now he walks full time! He is quite the cautious guy, wanting to make sure that each step is safe. I had to laugh when I visited my friend with a daughter at the same stage and she was RUNNING everywhere, even though she was falling constantly. Nothing could stop her and she would just pick herself off the ground and keep going. Anh, on the other hand, is cautious about everything. At every new experience, he spends a lot of time looking the situation over and analyzing it before plunging in. Sounds just like his father! He is also beginning to talk, although "nana" seems to be his universal word for - food, drink, more. We originally thought he was asking for banana, but just about any food will please him. He is still eating like a horse and will eat just about anything we put on his plate, especially if we are eating it too. Tonight he had his first tabouli and seemed to like it. Well, enough talk - here are pictures! Yes, our boy loves to get inside pots, buckets, boxes - just like the cat. Oh, and he meows just like a cat too. I guess he is multi lingual.

First Steps!

Anh took his first real steps today! After all of these months of thinking that at any moment he would walk, there it was...... and in my lab, no less. Perhaps he was scared of the thought of all the Science around, perhaps he was just ready. Anh has been taking single steps as of late, but today he actually took 5 steps in a row, without falling.
Kids really are amazing! Just when you start to wonder how you can possibly juggle all the different aspects of your life, he throws a little surprise like walking... or like trying to kiss you on his own volition. What a sweetheart.
Hmmm, what else does Anh do? Well, he:
1. Talks a lot. Ok, so he doesn't really say anything understandable except dada, mama, and dog, but he sure loves hearing himself talk! He also loves to sing along with us - he doesn't yet know how bad we sound :-)
2. Takes toys out of containers and puts them back in again. You may say big deal, but I think it is pretty cool that he can pick up after himself.
3. Eats a ton! Yes, this boy will eat anything and his favorites are beans, beef (he takes after his fater) and most veggies. Unfortunately, milk products seem to give him excema, so no scoopy for him.
4. Wake up every morning between 3 and 5 am. Not so cool, but we are hoping he grows out of this in the not too distant future. For now, we are rewarding this behavior by bringing him into bed with us. Such softies.

Of course there are plenty more Anh tricks that I could list, but just wanted to give out a little taste.
The next phase of our remodel - kitchen and bath - begins in less than a month. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some of those pictures!

Here are some pictures!

Well, we have now been home a week and what have we learned?

First of all, it is horrible having to go right back to work after adopting! Not only was I completely jet lagged, but looking at Anh's sweet face in the morning and then having to leave was no fun. Of course, he is at his best first thing when he wakes up and I am getting to miss all of that. Thank god for weekends!

Patrick is an awesome dad! He and Anh are bonding really well thanks to his commitment to being an at home dad for a few months. Patrick is seeing the value in having a parent at home for the transition. I think that he is also realizing just how much work parenting is. Before we left for Vietnam, he had these high hopes for getting lots done around the house. Reality is starting to set in that maybe it is not so easy to watch a baby AND finish a remodel.

Parenting Anh is great! He fits so well into our family! Luckily he has no fear of the cats or dog (nor does he seem to be allergic) and the animals are all pretty tolerant of him. In fact, Hobbes is quite friendly toward Anh, allowing the boy to pull his hair! I don't know how we got so lucky - good with animals and will eat anything - but we feel that there couldn't possibly be a better child for us.

Co-sleeping doesn't work for us. We had these grand aspirations that we would co-sleep with Anh for at least a few months to gradually ease him into his new home. In his foster family in Vietnam, Anh had slept in bed with the family. We naturally assumed that he would be more comfortable sleeping in bed with us. Well, in Vietnam it worked fine, because even if we got up in the middle of the night with him, we could always sleep as late as we wanted. However, at home, I was having a hard time getting the rest I needed for work. Every little peep out of him would wake me up - and he seems to have a lot of nightmares - so I wasn't able to get more than a 4 hour stretch. That all ended on Thursday night when we decided to try the crib out. A full night of sleep later and we are hooked! He really slept a good 7 hour stretch, thankfully, and now we can actually function in the daytime. Perhaps it also has something to do with jet lag, but I'm not changing it now.

One very surprising discovery is how many people love babies! So many people that we interact with on a daily basis are turning out to be real children lovers. Most of these people I never would have guessed it about. We have had plenty of offers for babysitting and we have been given more baby items than I think we will ever use. I love the hand-me-downs and there are so many toys that I would never have thought to buy that Anh absolutely loves.

To be continued.....

Back in the USA

So much has happened, I don't know where to start! Well, we had our second interview and it was pretty uneventful. They gave us Anh's visa the following day and he is ours forever now! All in all, the whole experience in Vietnam has been great and everything has gone very smoothly. Couldn't have asked for a better adoption.
As soon as we were assured the visa, we started trying to book an earlier flight home. As much as we love Vietnam, the thought of going back to work on Monday with only a day of rest was not very appealing. In the end, we were able to fly back to San Francisco on Friday, stay the night with Grandma and Grandpa Quinn, and then fly home to Eugene in the afternoon on Saturday. We will have 3 full nights of sleep in our own time zone and be able to see our pets and home for at least a little while on Saturday!
We are now enjoying our time in California, and Anh is loving meeting his new family!

We Have our 2nd Interview!

Well, the wait was not nearly as long as we expected between interviews, and we are scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, at 3:00pm! We should have Anh's visa in hand sometime on Thursday and then we are free to come home. Yeay! The funny thing about it was that the Embassy didn't even call us, they called the other family at our hotel and asked them to let us know. How weird is that! In the end, it doesn't really matter how we found out, we are just glad that we get to come home with our sweet little boy!

Why worry?

In life, there are only two states of being, you are either healthy or you are sick. If you are healthy, there are many things to worry about, but if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about: whether you will get healthy or whether you will die. If you die, there are only two things to worry about: if you will go to heaven or if you will go to hell. If you go to heaven, you have nothing to worry about anymore. If you go to hell you will have lots of time to meet new people coming to hell, so you won't have time to worry about anything. Therefore, you shouldn't worry at all!

Vietnamese cooking class

First off, I've added new pictures to the album and the link is on the right side of this page and right here

http://ahnvietnam.shutterfly.com

As adoptive parents to a Vietnamese child, Patrick and I decided that we had better start learning the fine art of Vietnamese cooking soon! It is definitely one cuisine that we both enjoy greatly, but have never attempted to cook at home. Yesterday, we set off to try our hand at cooking up some seafood dishes, under the experienced guidance of Mrs. An at Hidden Hanoi
cooking school. Although this class is listed in some guide books, it is conspicuously absent from our trusty LP. Even quick searches on the internet failed to turn up reviews of this cooking school, although we did find some bad reviews of another class in town, so we had no idea what to expect. Mrs. An asked us to meet her at the Sheraton hotel on West Lake, a swanky place where they tried to shuffle us off as quick as possible - we must have been looking extra scruffy yesterday! This part of Hanoi seems very much like an old European city and very quite compared to the old city. We found out later that 80% of the people living in this area are ex-pats. After a bit of confusion, we finally met up with Mrs. An, a friendly woman who owns the cooking school and also offers unique walking tours around Hanoi. Her English was excellent and we later learned that she is married to an Australian, which explained her Aussy accent.
Our class started off with watching a quick scene from "The Scent of Green Papaya" where the young girl from the country is being taught how to cook for the masters. Mrs. An then discussed with us the importance of different types of food in Northern Vietnamese cooking and gave us a bit of a history lesson in the culture of food in Vietnam. We learned that "no rice, no zao (green vegetables), no meal" and that MSG is an important spice that most Vietnamese would never cook without. Luckily, Mrs. An has developed Vietnamese dishes that do not use MSG and as far as we could tell they were just as good as those with MSG! In Vietnam, the meal is based around the type of vegetable that is being cooked and each vegetable has a specific cooking method. Only green vegetables, and herbs, are considered "zao"; one would never serve potatoes or carrots as a vegetable. A meal typically consists of rice, at least one vegetable dish, and one kind of soup, and if the family is very fortunate, some kind of meat. The soup is eaten at the end of the meal, to sop up the remaining rice and as a liquid instead of a drink.
As we talked about food, Mrs. An's assistant set up the cooking area so that Patrick and I could make the 4 dishes plus dipping sauce that constituted our meal. After surveying the counter with all the ingredients and recipies, An said "Ok, now you cook"! Patrick and I jumped right in, with the assistant of An and her friend, to make sweet and sour shrimp, shrimp and pork spring rolls, snake fish soup, green papaya salad and the fishy dipping sauce. We made everything from scratch and An showed us step by step how to prepare each dish, but allowed us to do the actual cooking. I was surprised at how well our spring rolls turned out, even though I managed to turn the shrimps upside down in one :-) In the end, we cooked for more than an hour and turned out an amazingly good meal! All the while we kept up a lively conversation with Mrs. An, who we found to be interesting and very knowledgable. After dinner, we ate grapefruit dipped in salt and hot pepper and a type of sticky rice that is not cooked! It was all really fantastic. Our class was topped off with a gift basket containing cooking chopsticks, a mortar and pestal for peanuts, and the recipies that we made.
This class has got to be one of the best experiences of our current trip, although it would have been made better if Anh could have joined us.

One down, one to go

Well, we had our first US Embassy interview today and it went fine. All of the questions they asked us were pretty standard: what are our jobs, do we live with anyone else, do we have other children, is this our first adoption, etc. No surprises, although the interviewer did ask us why Anh was kept in foster care and not at the orphanage. I would have thought that would be pretty obvious - babies get better physical and mental care in a family - but he just didn't see it that way. Oh well, perhaps he doesn't have any kids of his own. Now we just wait. If we are very lucky, we might get our second interview as early as Tuesday or Wednesday and then we would have Anh's visa the following day. We are not holding our breath, though, and we are getting out enjoying what time we have here in Hanoi! So far, we have a local tour booked to see the nearby villages, and we are trying to arrange a cooking class. Of course, there are still so many things to do and see around Hanoi, that I don't think we will ever get bored.

Attachment

When Patrick and I started the process to adopt from Vietnam, we were excited to find out how young many of the babies being referred were. In fact, we were hoping that our baby would be no more than a couple of months old. We didn't want to miss anything with our child and we were also concerned about attachment issues of an older baby. At referral, Anh was only 5 months old and without medical issues, so we accepted him immediately. I am ashamed to say it, but when I found out that other families were being referred 2 month old babies, I was jealous. I really started buying into the idea that at 8 or 9 months, Anh might be too old! And I thought this knowing that the child we adopt from China will likely be much older. Sad, sad, sad. However, now I have no regrets! Eight months is a perfect age - Anh is curious, independent, learning to crawl and stand, fun to play with, interactive! But what does this all have to do with attachment?
When we first picked Anh up, he didn't smile too much and would just allow anyone to pick him up. Our first dinner out with Anh, the wait staff whisked Anh away and played with him while we ate - to his delight. He was fine when Patrick or I would hold him and care for him, but mostly he was just indifferent. Over the past week and a half everything has changed! Anh loves to play and is mostly a very happy baby, only getting cranky when he is hungry or really tired. And he would rather be in my arms than anyone else's. Today, we went back to that original restaurant for lunch and again the women offered to hold Anh while we ate. Within 5 minutes of being away from us, Anh was inconsolable - of course until he was brought back to my arms! A week ago, Anh would have rather been in any Vietnamese woman's arms than mine, now he reaches out for me when someone else is holding him. I think he is very attached - and even actively so!
These are definitely the little joys of motherhood in adoption. Now, I just have to work on getting him to sleep without having to be rocked in my arms.......

Tam Coc

We decided today to brave a one day tour to Tam Coc with Anh. Tam Coc is suppose to be the Halong Bay on land because of it's tall limestone cliffs that grow straight up out of the plains. As usual, booking through the hotel meant being cramped into a 14 seat "van" with every seat occupied. It always amazes me that they can fill every tour we have been on no matter what day it runs. Also, as usual, we were the lucky recipients of the rear seats, squished in with no way to escape unless all the other passenger disembarked first. Figures for a person who is claustrophobic - luckily working around an MRI has greatly reduced my fear of tight spaces :-)
The ride was a very bumpy 2.5 hours, with a stop to see the ancient Vietnam capital. Anh's sweaty body in my arms made it difficult to fully enjoy the ruins. Not to mention that I was looking for a good place to change him the whole time we were there. I didn't suppose it was proper to change a screaming baby's diaper near one of the sacred rooms!
At Tam Coc itself, we all boarded small row boats, 2 passengers per boat, for the 2 hour trip on the river. It was very kind of the locals to provide us an umbrella and a hat in exchange for a few dong. Aside from the scenic nature of the boat trip along the cliffs, there were no car horns, no people yelling, no motorbikes trying to run you down. Peace and quite and a chance to relax. Well, at least until Anh blew his diaper! Yes, our first explosion experience, in a small row boat, with no spare clothing, but at least a spare diaper. It was fairly hilarious trying to hold Anh and his umbrella while cleaning the bottom of the boat, my pants, and his bottom. It was probably the highlight of the day for our "guide".
Other than that small mishap, the rest of the trip was leisurely. We saw everyday life on the river - people fishing, praying at shrines, and selling their wares to tourists. There were brahman cattle, mountain goats (!), and a strange bird with iridescent wings and a long beak for catching fish. The river itself has carved its way through 3 caves in the cliffs where stalagtites grow from the ceiling and you must crouch down in the boat to pass. It was a day of wonder away from the bussle of Hanoi.
Back on the bus, and after a short formula induced nap, Anh decided that play time had started. He has become more and more vocal, and was talking and singing to himself and anyone else who would listen. As soon as the woman in front of us took notice, he began squealing with delite and putting on his best flirt face. I had to pull him back for fear of him grabbing hold of her hair. He is quite strong and has a death grip. So, Patrick and I spent the 2.5 hour ride back distracting Anh so that he wouldn't pitch a fit. Unfortunately, a new bottle wouldn't do, so instead the bottle top became a play thing. Play time continued back at the hotel, through dinner, and right up until 9pm. One second he was bouncing his hands on the bed talking up a storm and the next second his hands came down, he became quite, and he started snoring. Ahhhh, a boy who takes after his mom and can fall asleep in seconds flat!
Another day down in the books!