medicine

If you say you are ill then anyone, whether stranger or friend, will ask you "uong thuoc chua?"  which means, "Have you taken any medicine yet for it?"  This is all very well and it's ok to say "chua" which means "not yet", but when it's a baby that's ill the concern becomes very acute.  In fact we met some people at the weekend who thought the baby must inevitably die if it did not receive medicine for a slight cold.  The doctors apparently prescribe a course of injections, twice daily, for symptoms such as Bernard is experiencing, and no complaint is ever left to the body to sort out by itself.  I'm quite used to being confronted on my medical outlook in England, but this is a whole new level of disapproval, and it feels terrible to be labeled as a careless mother.  The nanny is especially worried that I am not dosing baby full of cough syrup.  I just feel that since he's turned a corner, no longer miserable with a runny nose, and he's happy and feeling well, there's no need to help his immune system along - it might even be counterproductive.  Plus that cough syrup smells disgusting.

first solid food

bernard properly ate his rice porridge last night - mixed with a bit of pureed carrot.  i had boiled some carrot and liqidised it and frozen it into an ice cube tray for convenience - actually it is a bit of a faff making one pureed carrot so the ice cube tray is a great idea!  he really licked and swallowed the miuxture, working on an alternating-spoon system where he held one spoon while i refilled the next.  if i don't let him hold it he cries. what an achievement - it didn't go in the bib; it went in the baby!

hue

I took the train down with Bernard.  Travelling alone on a night train with a baby is a bit of a challenge, but the guard was very nice and held the baby while I went to the toilet.  Next door was a tiny 3month old who was just returning from a trip to Hanoi for a heart surgery operation - she seemed very well indeed.

We went to the beach in a taxi.  The place was windy and deserted.  No birds.  A few hawkers plied the few tourists:  I bought a rather sandy plate of banh loc, water dumplings.  The sand was squeaky.

In the mornings we tried this litlle group of food stalls.  The first day I was really hungry and had egg sandwich followed by this one.  You can't see it but the noodles are square.

Spot the product placement on the table!  This was at Che Hem, where we had sweet soup.  Bernard liked Hue and tried to eat everything, including the above table.

bernard laughing with daddy