the kids woke up early this morning, about 5:15 or so, and when Jeff heard them cry out, he called Chieu!? and little man Chieu (even though he was sound asleep the night before and had never seen this place) just waddled into our room. he laid his head on the end of the bed. Emma started crying and Jeff carried her in. next thing you know we're all laying in bed together with Jeff basically hanging on to the tiny six inches left him. (he promises me if they wake up early again, he'll make sure they lay down next to momma)
Peapods A and B had me running ragged this AM -- and this is a small hotel room. We had lunch in the room today. we've kept them on a Vietnamese diet so far. well my version at least. I'll order them something either rice or noodle based with seafood or meat. then something like a soup or broth. i mixed the two creating some ghastly looking concoction and feed them their yummy gruel. such good sports, they'll eat anything put in front of them. we've been giving them lots of fruit and we found those yogurt drinks all the volunteers talked about. they loved that! Once Jeff got back we went to the market downstairs which was fun for the kids. the look of confusion soon turned to delight as they saw all their favorites aisle after aisle. we both grabbed a cart (you know those itty bitty carts) and wheeled the kids around. each time we put something in the cart, they'd turn around convinced it was placed there for their special purpose.
i discovered this morning too that the kids say Hello and Goodbye. we figure it's from all the western volunteers they've met. so we practiced saying hello, goodbye and then I'd say something Vietnamese, which cracked them up... my Vietnamese being so wretched you see! but this led to me and Jeff starting to say both their American and Vietnamese names. we've been trying to use certain key words over and over.. eat? drink water? and so on... today we started the names.. hey they only respond to their Vietnamese names when they want to, so who's to say they wont respond any better to their American names?
we took the kids to the pool, and for some reason, David decided to have a hissy fit, which led to Emma getting all fussy too. we think it's because of all the huge changes in their life and the last time they left the hotel it resulted in a long and uncomfortable plane ride. so we struggled to get them calm enough to take them to the pool. Emma is such a trooper, she'll whine for 30 seconds then just go about her business. David on the other hand wants to out "siren" all the other noises in Ha Noi. Jeff and i looked at each other acutely aware we had become THAT family. the one with the screaming child while all the vacationers were trying to enjoy their time by the pool. so i took Mr Police Car off to look at the cars. he's usually very easily distracted and since the pool is on an upper floor it was a nice view. the kids finally got into the pool and what started as gingerly foot wetting eventually became a jump into daddy's arms, which led to David actually trying to swim and float his way to the pool edge. so once home, swimming lessons and gymnastics. these kids love the water!!!!
Emma had her My Way or No Way moment today. i was in the pool and she was jumping into my arms (first checking to see how David did it, how daddy caught him and how David would "swim" back to the edge) then she decided to take off down the length of the pool. i shouted a stern KHOMG!!!! which made her freeze but you can tell she was going to bolt at the first chance. then she stuck her tongue out at me so i grabbed it. she's so stubborn she stood there with her tongue sticking out and me holding it. she was pretty pissed at me but stood there. in fact she wouldn't move for a good 10 minutes ( i guess she was showing me it was HER decision not to run after all) after that something changed in our dynamics and David only wanted his Me and Emma, still mad at me, completely ignored me for the rest of the evening. she knows how much it hurts to be rejected by her and believe me she uses it to her advantage. she figured out a long time ago how damn cute she is and she'll just give you a look that stops you cold. Oye! she will be a major handful this wee one. and an actress. she can just give you look after look and they are hysterical. she knows we're wrapped around her pinky that one.
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