Monday 22 February 2010
mama
he is saying 'mamamama'! He said it when I picked him out of Mrs. Chat's arms in the Ba Be guesthouse. Bernard is super-cute at the moment and making so much progress. He's taller and stronger. He's opening his mouth occasionally when the spoon is presented to it. Today playing with Linh he learned to clap his fists together and now is doing it whenever excited. Right now he is totally crashed out having had a dinner of self-fed tofu (mainly) and didn't make it to bathtime.
Sunday 21 February 2010
Ba Be holiday
It's very cold suddenly - a complete contrast to the week before the holiday which was blisteringly hot. The baby is asleep in his cot, with the electric heater on full on him, and the husband is downstairs cooking a very fiddly recipe from Risotto With Nettles, the memoir of Anna Del Conte which Mum gave him. It involves shelling, boiling and removing the skins from 120 pistachio nuts. Let's hope it's worth the effort! We are just back from Ba Be Lake where we spent the Tet holiday. Refreshed and in need of Western food. The food over Tet was extremely dull: variations of cabbage, egg, peanuts and rice twice a day, with a fried egg over noodle soup for breakfast. It was actually not as bad as that sounds once I asked them to put less salt in.
The homestay was the one where Nicholas had stayed when he went to Ba Be with some friends to look for the very rare Night Heron which hangs out there, so we took the opportunity to go and have a look at the fowl. It was right there in the same place as before, sitting about a metre away from its nest, looking in the poor light rather like a skittle. Still it's the rarest bird I've ever seen.
They were very nice in the homestay and despite the festivities did their best to make us feel welcome. They loved Bernard and especially enjoyed babysitting him during our mealtimes. They were sad to see us leave, I think. Mr. Chat's wife was of the critical-to-be-kind kind, however, and she occasionally frayed my nerves with comments such as:
She doesn't know how to feed the baby properly. Let me do it. Here, see. Oh, the baby eats so little!
The baby is cold. (despite many layers of clothing) - this comment every few minutes, from everyone we met on the road as well.
Put a scarf on him/ another hat/ a blanket.
Don't go out today; it;s too cold.
She doesn't know how to put the baby's trousers on properly.
You shouldn't sit up to breastfeed him, you should lie down with him and go to sleep together.
Having said that she loved the baby almost as much as Mr Chat did. We would certainly consider another similar holiday, as it was a super-cheap way to get away from it all. Bernard loved it, and we really appreciated the charm of Vietnam once again, tucked away from the pell-mell of Hanoi.
The homestay was the one where Nicholas had stayed when he went to Ba Be with some friends to look for the very rare Night Heron which hangs out there, so we took the opportunity to go and have a look at the fowl. It was right there in the same place as before, sitting about a metre away from its nest, looking in the poor light rather like a skittle. Still it's the rarest bird I've ever seen.
They were very nice in the homestay and despite the festivities did their best to make us feel welcome. They loved Bernard and especially enjoyed babysitting him during our mealtimes. They were sad to see us leave, I think. Mr. Chat's wife was of the critical-to-be-kind kind, however, and she occasionally frayed my nerves with comments such as:
She doesn't know how to feed the baby properly. Let me do it. Here, see. Oh, the baby eats so little!
The baby is cold. (despite many layers of clothing) - this comment every few minutes, from everyone we met on the road as well.
Put a scarf on him/ another hat/ a blanket.
Don't go out today; it;s too cold.
She doesn't know how to put the baby's trousers on properly.
You shouldn't sit up to breastfeed him, you should lie down with him and go to sleep together.
Having said that she loved the baby almost as much as Mr Chat did. We would certainly consider another similar holiday, as it was a super-cheap way to get away from it all. Bernard loved it, and we really appreciated the charm of Vietnam once again, tucked away from the pell-mell of Hanoi.
Ba Be - continued
When we arrived the women of the village were engaged in making banh troi, a special ethnic minority delicacy made from deep fried sticky rice flour stuffed with home-made treacle
Bernard relaxes after a meal
The tree where we found the night heron
Ba Be trip
A pile of piglets keeping warm. The ones at the bottom are squealing under the pressure
Bernard looking at a dog and laughing. This was at the pagoda on an island on Ba Be Lake
The wife of Mr Chat at the guesthouse attempting to persuade Bernard to eat rice porridge
daily life
I proudly photographed this tower of carrot-potato puree, put in sterilised tubs and frozen for baby's daily consumption over seven days
Grade One made a trip out to the Tet Flower Market near our house. In the background are the blossoming peach trees
Another excursion, this time to the organic farm, where the kids were allowed to pick organic veggies to take home
Friday 12 February 2010
off we go
we are going to ba be tomorrow. we are busy packing. it is 10.35pm. the driver (inshallah) is coming at five thirty a.m. in order to minimise the delays from the markets in our neighbourhood. it was so hard to get a driver - i missed a call on my phone earlier and am afraid he will blow us off because he couldn't confirm. it's a little bit like trying to get a bus or train on New year's day. n is doing all the re-packing (my tesselation skills) and most of the packing. time for bed.
Sunday 7 February 2010
further mould
the back of the front door
the tablecloth
the front of the oven
the base of the kettle
the cutlery drawer
all bernard's toys
all the clothes in my hanging wardrobe
my winter boots (again)
the tablecloth
the front of the oven
the base of the kettle
the cutlery drawer
all bernard's toys
all the clothes in my hanging wardrobe
my winter boots (again)
Friday 5 February 2010
season of mould and mellow stickiness
19.54pm. b asleep in his cot. baby alarm on the table in front of me, beeping intermittently as the batteries in this country don't seem to enable a signal that satisfies the hungry British-made alarm. sitting looking at the jungle stickers we have on the wall of what is currently the 'playroom'.
on thursday jae hee whispered to me a real word - the first i've ever heard her utter since she started school in August. she is an infuriating student because she refuses to work with me at all, and does not speak at all despite the fact that she understands English perfectly well. she is just taking the tiniest of tiny steps towards speaking. She squeaks for attention now, and she says 'meow' when playing the infinitely exciting game of kittens with her friends. but yesterday she drew a picture of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and I asked her which billy goat she had drawn and she whispered 'big' in my ear. I screwed it up because i couldn't hear properly, and she had to whisper it three times. but she is actually starting to talk to her class teacher, which is amazing.
today i went to the flower market with the class. hanoi is entering that spring phase of mould and mellow stickiness, typical tet weather - however it's a shade too warm and the special peach blossom trees being sold all over our locality are 'going over', and won't be at their peak for the Tet break; the tree farmers are at their wits' end. Things that have gone mouldy in our house this season include baby's soft books and some toys, his baby carrier, the underside of his highchair, one or two pairs of shoes.
bernard's chest infection is on the mend but he is still not sleeping well. my current theory is that he is hungry, because I don't know how to feed him. i have some lovely videos of him self-feeding but not much is going in, and definitely nothing off a spoon. this evening he was extremely interested in sucking a banana and two pieces of tangerine. Unfortunately when my back was turned he also found the dishcloth and started sucking that! he looked very pleased with himself.
on thursday jae hee whispered to me a real word - the first i've ever heard her utter since she started school in August. she is an infuriating student because she refuses to work with me at all, and does not speak at all despite the fact that she understands English perfectly well. she is just taking the tiniest of tiny steps towards speaking. She squeaks for attention now, and she says 'meow' when playing the infinitely exciting game of kittens with her friends. but yesterday she drew a picture of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and I asked her which billy goat she had drawn and she whispered 'big' in my ear. I screwed it up because i couldn't hear properly, and she had to whisper it three times. but she is actually starting to talk to her class teacher, which is amazing.
today i went to the flower market with the class. hanoi is entering that spring phase of mould and mellow stickiness, typical tet weather - however it's a shade too warm and the special peach blossom trees being sold all over our locality are 'going over', and won't be at their peak for the Tet break; the tree farmers are at their wits' end. Things that have gone mouldy in our house this season include baby's soft books and some toys, his baby carrier, the underside of his highchair, one or two pairs of shoes.
bernard's chest infection is on the mend but he is still not sleeping well. my current theory is that he is hungry, because I don't know how to feed him. i have some lovely videos of him self-feeding but not much is going in, and definitely nothing off a spoon. this evening he was extremely interested in sucking a banana and two pieces of tangerine. Unfortunately when my back was turned he also found the dishcloth and started sucking that! he looked very pleased with himself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)