Clean Hair and a Passport

We washed Lan's hair this morning for this first time. (Yes, I know we have had her for 8 days. But, honestly, until yesterday, it didn't look dirty and I was worried about what her reaction would be to having her hair washed. As some of you recall, until Gabe was about 4.5 years old, he screamed bloody murder whenever his hair had to be washed, so, I was expecting the same reaction from Lana.) Anyway, based on her prior bathing preferences (we have given her a "bath" almost every night) I put about 2 inches of water in the tub and starting pouring bowls full of water over her body. She looked at me kind of confused - we had just had a bath last night and this was the first time we had bathed her in the morning. I called in Dave for reinforcement, and then I carefully poured a bowl of water over her head and braced myself for screaming.

Except that no screaming ensued whatsoever. She looked at me like maybe this wasn't her favorite thing to do, all things considered, but, she wasn't going to give me a hard time about it. I started pouring more water over her head and she just wiped it away from her eyes every now and then. I shampooed her hair with the Johnson&Johnson's baby shampoo we bought in DaNang, and then I rinsed her hair. I was concerned that we didn't have any "no more tangles" type of product, but, as her hair dried - it was a parent's dream - it dried shiny and silky and fell perfectly into place. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but, her hair is absolutely gorgeous - it feels like silk and doesn't tangle much and is generally shiny and stunning. So, we lucked out in the hair department - she has none of the colicks that plague her big brother's head.

We have been experiencing some testing behavior, and I am pretty sure we can never go back to the Fivimart, where, this morning, Lan threw a bit of a fit and we had to pick her up repeatedly. She was wearing a dress and she didn't make it easy for us to pick her up, so, several times when we lifted her up her underpants were exposed to the world. It was such barbaric behavior on our parts (I mean, we weren't intending to behave like barbarians, we just had an out of control four year old and no means of picking up her wiggling, kicking body without causing her dress to ride up...very embarrassing - at one point I thought someone was going to ask us if we were kidnapping the child.) Anyway, she won't be wearing a skirt again until we can get some little shorts or some tights. As we were leaving the Fivimart, I saw a pair of children's denim overalls on clearance for 30,000 D - about $1.90, so, we bought those and she has been wearing those the rest of today.

We had omelets for lunch and then Lana took a nap for about an hour. (She still seems to need an afternoon nap), and the Holt picked us up to take us back to the Vietnamese Immigration Department. The children's passports were supposed to be ready today, but, when we arrived, they told the Holt representative that the passports weren't there. Thai (the father in our group who is Vietnamese and speaks quite a bit of Vietnamese) was understanding most of the conversation, and I could tell from his face that the news was not good. I think that the immigration people told the Holt representative that we would have to leave and come back another day, and, I'm not sure what was said, but, we sat down and waited for 45 minutes, with the representative from Holt talking to different people. Finally, they called us to the counter and miraculously, our children's passports appeared. I was very very very relieved to see that passport.

After obtaining the passports, we took the children back to the playground at the Somerset Grand, and then walked around the Old Quarter, and had dinner at the Cyclo Bar - the food was good - we had a goat cheese appetizer, and then a traditional beef Vietnamese dish made me beef and vegetables, and David had a dish made with eggplants, peppers and cumin. Lana had fish fingers and potatoes and tomatoes and lettuce. She absolutely loves lettuce and tomatoes - which is just shocking to me (considering that the only vegetables Gabe will eat are broccoli and cauliflower - to have a child who stuffs vegetables into her mouth is just amazing. Watch - she will hate broccoli and cauliflower, I can totally see that happening!) One odd thing that happened was that Lan suddenly demanded some of my steamed rice. (We have offered her steamed rice daily and she has refused it, even though we were told it was eaten by her foster family every day - her refusal to eat any of it was really confusing to us.) But, today, when I ate steamed rice and didn't offer her any, she was suddenly all about steamed rice, and ate quite a bit of it. So, so far the western foods that Lan enjoys are fish fingers, potatoes, and yogurt. She hates spaghetti. She loves pho, but won't eat the meat that comes with pho, only the vegetables and the noodles, and appears to love fruits (except pineapple) and vegetables of all kinds, but especially greens.

Today, Lan gave David a kiss on the cheek. She also didn't scream when we kissed her head, which is a good sign, I think.

Off to have a snack and put this girl to bed,
Gretchen