Birthday week begins...

Today they threw me a party! I love parties...especially when I'm the guest of honour.

Nana apparently bakes great cakes and even helps blow out candles (with cousin M's help of course).
Ummm, only problem is I don't DO cake.

Mama will add "I hate cake" pictures later. She was too busy trying to get me to taste that icky stuff that there are no photos of the hate part on her camera. And they wanted me to get my hands AND face dirty. NOT. This picture shows my general feelings about the whole chocolate, iced, sticky, cold, not pureed eating thing.
Don't get me wrong. There were party highlights...

I hung out with my Uncle Matt

And my uncle Samspent time playing with my cousins grumpy and baldy (I mean M and E)...and shared my new toys with Boomer and now I'm doing a bit of thislike a big boy in a crib
(but I need bumper pads because my leg got stuck on Wednesday night and I got scared and then I screamed for hours informing mama that if there were no bumper pads she needed to move over and make room for me in her bed!

Stay tuned for more birthday fun on Wednesday when Auntie Kristen comes for a visit and we share yummy (and unfortunately COLD) ice cream with my friends in the neighbourhood.

Yesterday, May 28th, marked exactly 3 years from the day that I decided my child was in Vietnam...

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of an email from the agency noting that I would be "next". I was finally number 2 on the list and there were babies being registered with the orphanages.

One year ago, sometime this coming week, sweet Benjaminh was born and on the other side of the world his first mom made what must have been a terribly difficult decision. No matter how hard I try I can not imagine myself in her place. I think of her often.

Less than 3 weeks later, courtesy of good friends on their own adoption journey, I saw this staring back at me from my computer screen.

I fell in love

3 years from the beginning
1 year after his birth
I see this staring back at me
all day longand I fall more deeply in love
each and every moment.

From this to this in the blink of an eye.

I am so very blessed.

Home

Sweet Macy and her mommy arrived right on time and came through the arrivals gate quite a while later after a bit of trouble with Canadian customs wondering why Macy's passport had a different last name than Mommy's....ummm, could it be that her momma adopted her like 5 minutes ago?

Picture proof of the joy that was in the land...In other news Benjaminh found the whole airport thing to be a bit overwhelming, mostly because he was the only under 5 in a very large crowd without a shiny balloon.

I saw his trademark look a lot (this photo from earlier in the day-obviously-he wasn't half dressed at the airport)

Off we went with our favourite Auntie for a bit of Jack Astors...think overwhelmed baby, loud thumping music, hawian theme, flashing strobe lights.

Recipe for disaster resulting in Benjaminh's very first completely public purge. With a simultaneous diaper blowout. So special.

Home we went, a night time bottle, one last purge for the evening then easily off to sleep

IN THE CRIB.

(I'd take a picture but if he woke up I'd have to cry and then I couldn't finish my pukey diaper blowout laundry...)

I love happy endings.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Little Manh and I ventured up north to Auntie K and Uncle D's for a 3 night stay.
I sucked at taking pictures.
Here is the ONE decent photo of the weekend I have...
This is Autie K, the owner of the German Short Haired Baby eater. Benjaminh has the teeth marks to prove it though I'm told it was just a "kiss".
Yikes.
I watched the "kissing" dog more closely after that.

In other news we are excited to be meeting Macy and her mama Ellie at the airport on Wednesday!There is also an important follow up pediatrician's appointment on Wednesday.

There are a few little issues popping up that could turn out to be nothing (I hope) the biggest being little Manh's intolerance for wheat products. He had an episode of bad vomiting after wheat was introduced shortly before our first meetings with the ped. and the feeding specialist last month. At their urging I removed all wheat products from his diet. Last week, well after the vomiting and nasty diapers ended, I was asked to reintroduce wheat and within 3 days things were very icky again. Stopped wheat on Friday and things are fine again.

Makes me go hmmmm....
Here is Manh contemplating his eating troubles over a bowl of blueberries and yogurt thickened with infant oatmeal.On a good note I was also asked to reintroduce peas the week prior to the wheat intro and that went just fine.

Finally, this is the week...

This lovely crib will finally have an occupant, at least part time.Here is Benjaminh's preferred sleeping arrangement...sloped sleeping surface (he is propped up quite significantly as that headboard is about 18 or 20 inches high-the photo is deceiving as I was photographing in the dark)
close to mama,
big drop off at the edge making mama nervous now that the dude is very mobile...

Perhaps we will start with nap time.

Back on the Curve...

Literally, sitting on top of it. KG up the left months along the bottom with each block representing a year.
Go to 11 months and follow that ALL THE WAY to the upper dotted blue line and you will find my little Manh sitting pretty on top of the world (or the VN growth chart at least). More like the 50th% on my doctor's chart.

After 3 months of pretty much no weight gain, a bit of a loss, profuse vomiting and a gag reflex that couldn't be beat the thickened bottles and patient persistence has paid off...

little Manh has gained some weight.He is now 9.9 KG or about 21 pounds 10 ounces.

Gigantic I know...by Vietnamese standards but the general wisdom out there in doctor-land is "maintain the curve" and he wasn't. Flat lining is not great but he took a step backwards from 20 pounds 5 to 20 pounds 1 in 3 weeks and the doctor became concerned.

So, the advice of the feeding specialist and the pediatrician is working.
The reflux medication is working.
He sleeps well, eats well and hasn't had an episode of aspiration (where he inhales rather than swallowing his formula) since I began thickening it appropriately.

Life is good.

3 important follow up appointments in the next 2 weeks.

Up North...

Mama took me up north for the weekend.
Loved it!

Did a bit of walking practice on Saturday afternoon with my fancy dancy shopping cart after our long car ride......Woke up at the break of dawn on Sunday (because my bedroom has no blinds...but Gramp's is going to fix that, right?) and got right down the the business of perfecting my walking with TWO walkers...simultaneously of course. Too fast for pictures, sorry.

Monday, break of dawn, big day coming.

I wanted to be somewhere I wasn't (I was dog watching at the gate and wanted to be with people) so I let go and walked.

Alone. No warning to the sitting humans in the room.

No hands kind of walking. Took 8 or 9 steps, figured that was enough for a first effort and sat down to continue old style (crawling). Then I did it again and again and again every chance I got.

Mama was a bit weepy. I don't quite get that.

Monday was beautiful and walking just for the sake of walking was getting a bit old so I headed out to the garden.To study the flora and fauna...
Direct the grand units to get busy with the tilling and planting...Do a bit of raking...Rest...
Stand about observing my domain...And to end it all perfectly a swing before the big drive home.Great time!

Friends...I think

Little Manh loves his nature time...mostly...unless there is wind or rain or wind suits or rain suits. We have had quite a bit of both lately. He is not amused.If the weather is fair he wants to be out there with his favourite friend sharing the bounty that nature offers. In this case, a dead and browning twig from the evergreen tree.

Not too happy when sharing doesn't go both ways.

Moments after we met...

I'm sorting through my photos

picking and choosing those that will go into Benjaminh's scrapbook

and I came across this one...

Love it.

I'm mama to this bundle of joy and energy.
His gift to me this Mother's Day
is his presence in my life
every day
for the rest of forever

(and a 9:30 wake-up this morning).

I am blessed beyond measure

Hanging out with the boys...

Wonder what kind of baby to baby advise is being shared in this one?

Imagine

This...
and this...together...

by the way,
I'm finding that with a mobile baby comes quite a bit of this...

Thanks to the generosity of my school's staff I took the wee guy out for a beach time shopping spree...

what fun!