New Blog!

I will be posting my new blog entries at a new address-- www.henryduc.blogspot.com.

This blog will be password protected. I have sent out emails to the people I could identify who follow the blog. If you did not receive one email me at scottlan903@gmail.com if you are interested in continuing to follow our exploits.

I have been wanting to get a protected blog for some time. I am reluctant to put all the photos up that I want because it has other children or other people and I didn't want to put people out in an uncontolled environment without their approval.

Also I've thought of postings lately like stories about potty training, but I wondered how Henry would feel in a few years to discover his early bowel movement on the toilet were chronicled for all the world to see. When I started this blog it was just me and my quest to complete an adoption. And I've always been a pretty open person, saying whatever I thought. But now it's not just my story, it is Henry's story, and by extension everyone we come in contact with.

I looked into Wordpress, but I was overwhelmed with the idea of having to learn a new blog format (though I'm sure it's not that complcated). Then a couple of weeks ago I discovered Blogger now has a protected blog format, and I could easily transfer everything from one blog to another.

I'll leave this original blog open to the public because I think the information I posted about the process I went through and the interviews in Vietnam will continue to be of benefit when Vietnam opens again. I might delete a few of the later entries, but they will be available in the new blog.

Country Life

It's another Tuesday--I'm working in the library, which is quite busy now with people getting their papers written before spring break next week and the athletes who are coaxed into keeping their grades up to stay on the team. Henry is staying with Sunchai and Su and their daughter Pammy, the Thai couple who are here studying. Henry ate chicken and okra with me in the new student center. This photo was taken last Tuesday in my office--he had a kid's meal of macaroni and cheese and fish.

I sort of got burned out on Imagination Movers, but over the weekend we saw one. Henry enjoys the music. He has started laying on a wooden box to watch tv. This was an old quilt box that my grandmother had--I refinished it and put wheels on it and use it as a coffee table. But I cover it with a towel because Henry kept running into it with his scooter.

Henry has a play saxophone. I was a little surprised when he tried blowing on it, because it makes music by pushing the buttons, you can't blow into it. But he recognizes it as a musical instrument that should be blown into.

I bought some pinwheels for the yard because it's so windy outside. I guess it is a lazy way of watching him play in the wind--it takes less energy than a kite and there is no string to untangle.

Henry seems to get better at communicating every day. He understand everything I say and he can make himself known with one word and pointing. He is more energetic about making vocalizations now. He usually starts jabbering in the morning as soon as he sees me.

Henry is interacting more with his environment. We went to a store a few days ago and as I was walking out (pushing him in a cart) I wasn't really thinking and was just moving through the parking lot. He started jabbering and waving his hands and pointing--I had passed the car and he was trying to get me to see it. Another time he started pointing back in an aisle we had just passed through in another store. I thought he wanted something off the shelf, but later I notice one of his shoes was missing--it had fallen off in that aisle.

As part of our country living we encounter such things as this racoon. I have actually seen five or six raccoons in the yard--all three times bigger than the cats. I chased two out of the laundry room in the guest house a couple of months ago--they were locked up in there two days and made a big mess. Somehow last week one got in the garage. It was difficult chasing it out, at one point it actually got in the house because I left the door open.

But a couple of days later I realized there was a racoon in the attic--maybe the same one I chased out of the garage. Friday night I opened the garage door and the racoon lunged at me like it was trying to get in the house. I was barefooted so I didn't want to kick it--I just screamed and slammed the door shut. Then the next morning I bought the trap. Monday morning I had caught the racoon.

I put the trap back in the box it came in and released the racoon in a small roadside park 15 miles from home on the way to work. This is as close as Henry got to it--he didn't seem that interested in getting its attention.

As soon as I opened the cage the racoon scurried off to the small nearby woods.

I have reached a milestone I set for myself with Henry. When I picked him up at the orphanage in Binh Duong he was a week over 16 months old. Now he has been with me the same amount of time. Before this point I thought about the fact that Henry had spent more of his life before he came to me than he had spent with me. Now we have passed that hump and I am really glad to have him be a part of my life.

Mama Rene

Last weekend Henry and I visited with my grandmother. I tried to get him to call her "Grandmother Lorene", which was what I was taught to call her. What came out was "Mama Rene", which she found even better.

Becky, a friend of my aunt Barbara Sue, saw Henry for the second time. She seems to have an easy time winning him over.

We also drove over to a park to meet Julia, a librarian who used to work with me. She had entered her dog BiBi in a contest/parade. Henry enjoyed running around the park, and he seemed to especially be interested in the fountain.

Julia and Henry meet each other for the first time. Julia worked with me all during the time after the referral but before my trip to Vietnam, so she saw the monthly updates and went through the excitement and anticipation with me. Then she moved jobs while I was gone and this is the first chance she has had to meet him.

This last Tuesday I picked up a "Happy Meal" at McDonald's for Henry, and we ate in the outdoor area by the library.

Henry continues to like to dip his fries into ketchup. I never taught him to do this, I'm not sure where he picked it up.

Yesterday Henry went in for a haircut. First I got my hair cut, then I picked him up and he goes his cut. This is the third haircut he has had, and the first time he has sat in the chair by himself. The other two times he had to sit in my lap.

Here is Henry before the haircut. I like the length in front but felt like it needed to be trimmed a little. He also has a lot of hair in the back, and when he eats yogurt or some other sticky food he tends to put his hands in the food and then run his hands through his hair. It makes for a mess.

Here is Henry after his haircut, when we got home. I got him a battery operated scooter. He is still learning how to operate it, and doesn't feel comfortable holding down the "gas" button. So he ends up stopping and starting. The thing also doesn't seem to have very good traction so it's hard for it to go on the slick grass.

Campus New Year Celebration

Last Tuesday we went to a campus celebration of the Chinese New Year. Henry wore his Vietnamese ao dai and made quite a hit. He enjoyed watching the dragon, and chased it around when it made the rounds of the room. He got really excited about it and finally managed to touch its tail.

Dragon Dance!

After picking up Henry on Saturday we dropped by Blake's house for his third birthday party. It was a lot of fun. Henry really enjoyed the cake (and he ate most of the icing off my piece too) and he had a good time playing with his friend.

We also ate out at La Madeleine--Henry's first introduction to faux-French food. He threw the croissant on the floor but liked the chips.

On Sunday afternoon we drove into Dallas to meet up with friends to attend the Tet celebration at the Vietnamese market in Carrollton. It was a beautiful day. I tried to get Henry to sit on my shoulders--he didn't quite make it yet, but did get halfway and helped carry his weight by putting his arm around my neck.

The dragon dance--a young man and woman did the ceremonial chasing away of bad spirits.

They had stools and a bench as part of the dance--jumping up and then the woman got on the man's shoulders. Henry watched, though he was frequently distracted when somebody let one of their balloons go and it flew into the sky.

Then we all went out to a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed dim sum and other food. It was really a fun day and a continuation of our Tet celebration.

Saturday at work

I have to work a Saturday every six weeks or so, and today is my day. Henry is staying on campus with a new doctoral student Sunchai and his wife Su. They have a daughter Pammy who is Henry's age. They come from Thailand--Sunchai is a doctoral student in the English department (along with me) and Su is preparing for the MBA program. After I got to the library they sent these photos to show me how well Henry is getting along with them.

Snow Day!

Yesterday the university campus (including the library and the children's center) was closed due to bad weather. I was scheduled to work Tuesday night but thankfully the entire campus closed at 4:30. I had a babysitter lined up but I wasn't looking forward to driving the 24 miles home on a very rural highway at 10 PM during the beginning of an ice storm.

So Henry and I had a relaxing day at home. I had just bought him a dancing Pablo of the Backyardigans and he enjoyed watching the show while playing with his own character.

With a little coaxing from me he got up and followed the motions of dancing, as the doll danced and turned around. It is an amazing toy, it pretty much follows the same movements that the cartoon version does, which is computerized from an actual dancer so it is realistic.

Henry also mumbles with the words--I suppose he is actually saying the words but I just don't understand them. He has taken the next step toward language development--he puts more than one word together. He says "Baby's nose", "Daddy's nose", "Baby's ear", "Daddy's ear", etc. as he points from his face to mine. When we are in the store he will point to every baby we see and say "Baby", the point to himself and say "Baby too".

Overall it was a fun and productive day. I didn't have anything planned like I usually do on our days off, so I was able to just stay in and get tasks done in the house that have accumulated.

The photographer wouldn't let Henry stand at the studio the other day, because he was on a platform and I guess they are afraid he might fall off. So I put his ao dai on him and got a full length shot of him. I plan on having him wear it next Tuesday to the campus celebration of the Lunar New Year. We are also going to a celebration in Dallas on Sunday and another on the following Saturday. He might wear it to those, or I might have him wear his red and yellow Vietnam flag shirt.

I was standing in the front door to take these shots, to see what amounts to a snow day here in Texas. This would probably be considered a spring thaw to Henry's brother in Wisconsin.

The weather wasn't that bad, but there was a thin coat of ice on everything and that makes driving dangerous. I guess it isn't worth it economically to do all the plowing and salting and other things that are done up north. It's just easier to close things down for the two or three days a year when the weather gets this bad.

This morning it was still cold, and it was scheduled to get warmer around 9 or 10 AM, but I didn't get the call that things were closed down so we packed into the car and made our way to campus. I stopped along the way and took a photo of the cemetery where my grandparents and brother and other relatives are resting, just to give an idea of the extreme fog that made the drive very slow--but fortunately there were no mishaps and now the sun is shining.