godwin family in Vietnam blog 2

Back to school

2009-08-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

Charlie's school reopened on August 15 and he returned a few days later. I take him in the car every morning and drop him off. He has no issue with me dropping him off and is happy to be met at the door by one of his teachers.

He is studying (not to sure what goes on there and suspect there may not be too much actual studying going on) 7:45-11:30am, 5 days a week. Since his return to school we can see that Charlie has become more in to dancing and he is more willing to try new foods. In fact the only aspect of Charlie's development that I am disappointed with so far is his lack of willingness to try new foods.

His Vietnamese language skills are improving very quickly, with phrases such as these.

Co Thao len lau ngu. Miss Thao has gone upstairs to sleep
Me, be len lau Mum, carry me upstairs

His English is progressing much more slowly and the best I have heard is:

Key car
Car key (he prefers to say key car)

Starting work

2009-08-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last week Charlie went to the FV hospital for his monthly check up. Everything was fine and he has actually slimmed down quite a bit as he was sick earlier in the month. I am happier with his weight now than I was before as he was getting a bit porky.

Charlie's language ability is expanding daily. His Vietnamese is doing just fine and he is beginning to string 2 words together quite often.

I have decided that even though I have been spending time speaking to Charlie, I haven't really been teaching him enough nouns so this week started teaching him a few. He is picking them up quickly, but his pronunciation still needs working on.

Charlie is rapidly developing the goods looks of his father and we have decided to capitalise on this by renting him out for photo shoots so he can start paying us back for all the money he has cost us over the last couple of years.

School closed

2009-07-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Charlie had a high fever a couple of weeks ago, so we took him out of school. After about 4 days off school we were ready to take him back, but the school informed us that they had closed as a number of the children had fevers. There was no mention of H1N1.

Over the last few days about 5 schools in HCMC have been closed due to H1N1 outbreaks and Charlie's school has just informed us that they won't be reopening until 15 August.

H1N1 is still rare in Vietnam with only about 500 confirmed cases so the government is still trying to contain it. Looks like they are fighting a losing battle though.

Charlie is fine now, but we are being careful with him and not taking him to swimming pools, etc.

From what I can gather H1N1 doesn't sem to be all that much different from normal flu, but I summise it is getting so much attention, particularly in the UK, as it is going to have a much larger economic effect than normal flu.

Normal flu kills old people. As old people are financially a burden on society it may be quite financially benefical for the country if they die. H1N1 kills young people and this has huge adverse economic impacts.

1st day at school

2009-07-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we finally put pen to paper and signed up Charlie for kindergarten. The kindergarten isn't far from our house. This all I could find on the net about them:

Creative Young Talent Kindergarten
- Address: 101 My Kim 2, Phu My Hung, District 7, HoChiMinh City. - Tel: (848) 5412-1009
The kindergarten receives children aged 1.5 ~ 6 with 10 children per class. The facilities are of international standards, featuring live broadcasting of the children’s entire activities through IP camera to parents. Besides programs of language education and making familiar with natural science like British kindergarten program, C.Y.T. provides some aptitude subjects for children like ballet dance, vocal music, painting, and play-acting

At first I wanted Charlie to go to school so early to become more immersed in English, but I couldn't find an English language kindergarten that would take kids before the age of 2 years old. Even though the language of instruction is Vietnamese I still decided to send him there as I am worried about Charlie becoming too spoiled. Because of the huge amount of attention and the overcare he receives at home he is definitely quickly becoming a spoiled brat. I am hoping the school, along with better care at home, will despoil him.

Last Friday, was his first morning at school (5 mornings a week) and he cried most of the time. He still cried today, but most of the time he is very happy at school.

Language 2

2009-06-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

I am being told that Charlie's vocabulary is increasing by 2-3 words a day, but I feel that I have to take this with a pinch of salt. I have heard Charlie being told to say words then when he repeats them parrot fashion they want to add the word to the list.

I am not including words such as these in my list until I can see him using them in some real context. I am giving him a little leeway and if he is using the word in the correct context, but I still doubt he understands the word, I am giving it to him. IE I previously wrote that he was using the word "ky" for Kilo. I am sure that he doesn't understand this word, but he often stands on the scales looks down at the numbers and says "ky". This is good enough for me to add the word to the list.

New Vietnamese words are:

Tu = wardrobe (15 July)
Chay = run (15 July)
Ban = friend (14 July)
Nuoc = water (12 July)
Mo cua = open the door (12 July)
Tha = give (10 July)
Kieng = glasses (8 July)
Mo = open (July)
Lay = get (7 July)
Cu = willy (6 July)
Bung = tummy (6 July)
Bin bin = beep beep (6 July)
Vui = happy (6 July)
Ngon = tastes good (6 July)
Di ve = go home (6 July)
Di ra = go out (6 July)
Tai = ear (4 July)
Do = red (2 July) He may actually think this means traffic lights.
Co = neck (2 July)
Me = mother
Cua = door
Gau = bear (teddy bear)
Vao = in
Moi = new (he got new shoes so is saying this, but I am unconvinced he really understands)

English

Park (mid August)
Zoo (mid August)
Gate (mid August)
Door (mid August
Key (mid August)
Fish (mid August)
Hello (25 July) (actually sounds more French than English)
Go (13 July)
Home (12 July)
Up

Khmer

Haven't heard Charlie speaking any Khmer yet, but both of his maids/nannies are Vietnamese who come from a place near the Cambodian border and I would say that one of them actually looks Khmer. I sometimes hear them speaking Khmer, especially on the telephone, and Charlie does occasionally listen to Khmer music. Probably wouldn't know a Khmer word if I heard one.

18 months!

2009-06-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

In 2 days' time Charlie will be 18 months old. I notice that I haven't posted any pictures of Charlie for sometime so here are a few pictures that were taken within the last few weeks.

Language

2009-06-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

I estimate that about 90% of the language that Charlie hears from people (excluding TV and music) is in Vietnamese with the remainder being in English. Because of this, and because Vietnamese words are generally much shorter than English words I assumed that the vast majority of Charlie's initial vocabulary would be Vietnamese.

His comprehension is without a doubt considerably better in Vietnamese and he seems to understand a surprising amount. The lexemes below are the ones which we can remember that he can say with reasonable clarity:

Vietnamese

Ky = kilo (22 June)
Bu = suck/drink (22 June)

Ve = go home (21 June)

Xe = vehicle (20 June)
Uong = drink (18 June)

Chua = no/not yet (18 June)
Baba = Dad
Da = kick
Giay = shoes
Choi = play
Di = go
Dau = hurt
Danh = hit
Mua = rain
Ra = out
Bo = cow
A = yes
Ca = fish
To = a small bowl
Troi oi = Oh my God! (not as strong in Vietnamese)
Cai gi?= What? What is it?
Di dau vay? = Where are you going? (grammatically simpler in Vietnamese)
Mummummummum = eat
Lalalala = His attempt at singing
Vietnamese version of various animal noises such as: tiger, dog, duck, mouse, and a few more

English

Bye (24 June)
Dad
Ball
Car
Star

I conclude that as Charlie is already making simple sentences he can probably say much more than I have listed.

Dual citizenship

2009-03-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

This morning Charlie received his Vietnamese passport. Charlie had dual citizenship before this event, but I suppose this does concretise the fact.

I believe that until later this year, under Vietnamese law, it is illegal for a Vietnamese citizen to also be a citizen of another country, but this has been ignored by Vietnamese authorities for many years now and I think the law is being changed in July this year to officially permit this.

Aha!!!! Look what I have just found: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/17/asia/AS-Vietnam-Dual-Citizenship.php

Believe that a foreigner has the right to obtain Vietnamese citizenship after living in Vietnam for 20 years. I have been here for nearly 16 so only 4 more years to go.

I want to pay my taxes!!!

2009-03-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have been holding off from getting Charlie a British passport up until now as I can see that at sometime in the future the British government will decide that, no matter where Charlie is in the world, he needs to help the UK by paying his share of the national debt. It has been mentioned to me that my getting Charlie a British passport is tantamount to child abuse as it will undoubtedly saddle him with future taxes.

Dspite this belief, much to my chagrin, I relented last week and put in an application for a British passport for him. Much to my surprise we picked this up today.

Now we have to get Charlie a Vietnamese passport, so when he enters Vietnam he can do so on this passport and therefore a Vietnamese visa won't be necessary.

Toddler

2009-02-06T01:28:00.000-08:00

I have now decided that because of Charlie's toddling abilities he has advanced from being a baby to a toddler.

His toddling ability is improving daily and now he toddles quite well in the house, but outside he is invariably on surfaces that aren't as flat, and these are still causing him problems which on occassion bring him back down to earth.

13 months and 1 day old

2009-01-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Charlie started walking by his own volition.

Since his first steps just over a month ago Charlie has been a reluctant walker and really needed intensive coaxing before he would bother gracing us with his walking ability. That all changed yesterday, when he decided it was time to walk about. He's now peripatetic http://www.thefreedictionary.com/peripatetic He still falls over every 40 steps or so, but so far, hasn't hurt himself.

Because of his new found willingness to walk, today I rushed out to buy a "baby gate" to install at the top of the stairs as when he walks from his bedroom to ours he invariably gravitates towards the stairs and needs grabbing before he decides to plunge downstairs head first. None of the Vietnamese in the house had seen anything like this gate before, and as it is Chinese New Year there were certainly enough of them, but I believe they were most impressed when they saw me install it. I believe I have gone up in their estimation.

I went to the post office this morning to pick up a package that his English grandparents sent him. We received a letter from the post office notifying us of its arrival just before Chinese New Year, but the post office has been closed until today so this was the first opportunity I had to pick it up.

The parcel contained two swimsuits to keep Charlie warm whilst he is splishing and a splashing in the local pool. I took him to the pool this afternoon and the difference in his temperature whilst in the pool was palpable and I felt very comfortable with keeping him in the pool considerably longer than on previous visits.

His, walking, swimming, dancing, speaking, listening, and being demanding abilities are all improving daily. His walking ability will undoubtedly give us whole new host of safety issues to think about.

Walking progress

2009-01-21T01:31:00.000-08:00

Charlie was keen to try and walk up until about the turn of the year, but since then he has been lazy. He prefers to crawl and to only walk whilst holding on to things.

Saying this, however, Charlie's walking ability is progressing and he did walk about 20 unaided steps last night. I stood close to him and he thought it was only a few step walk so he went for it. I continued moving away from him and he ended up at 20 steps and still going strong when he caught me. If I had started that far away from him in the first place I am sure that he would have made no attempt to walk towards me.

Do intend to be spending more time with him over the Chinese New Year and hopefully his walking ability will increase in leaps and bounds, or at least in lots of small steps.

Charlie's 12 month check up

2009-01-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

Up until now I have been posting these every month, but I am getting bored of posting these as they are less of a concern to us as up until now they have always been fine. Because of this I have decided that I will just say that his 12 month check up was fine and I am not going to be religiously posting these anymore.

Charlie's 1st Birthday

2009-01-21T01:28:00.000-08:00

Will update this later

Charlie deciding his future

2008-12-28T01:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a Youtube link to a 3 minute video of Charlie deciding his future:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GayhBYqQtc

Depending on your Internet speed you may be able to watch it at normal speed or it may keep stopping and take ages to watch. If it is taking a long time to download I suggest that you just let it download in its own time, and press "Replay" after it has downloaded to watch it at normal speed.

If you are really keen here is a 1 minute video taken shortly after the one above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKxPmKoYl7g

More pictures

2008-12-27T23:36:00.000-08:00

Morning of Charlie's 1st birthday

2008-12-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

As is tradition with a baby's first birthday in Vietnam weird things happen.

Not quite sure why the spread above was prepared, but it looks remarkably similar to one he had prepared when he was 1 month old.

After preparation of the above Charlie had to decide his future profession/talents/successes. Various bits and pieces were spread over the floor which are supposed to represent what he will do in the future. Items that were placed on the floor included: pens, money, gold, something that I was told was meant to represent a computer, a handphone and an array of other objects.

Charlie crawled straight for a pen so he is obviously going to be scholarly like his father.

Standing and walking

2008-12-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

As always, Charlie is progressing well. A few days ago, Charlie started standing up by himself. Now, when he stands he usually manages between 2 and 30 seconds before falling over.

Bought Charlie a walker for Xmas and presented this to him on Xmas Eve. He immediately took to this and can walk around whilst pushing this. He can also walk about 3-4 steps totally unsupported before falling over.

11 months

2008-12-02T22:44:00.001-08:00

I took Charlie to the local swimming pool a couple of times during the month and he enjoyed this very much.

Over the last couple of months Charlie has met a few like minded similar aged friends and last week he went to a babys' group that is held every Tuesday morning. This is quite a diverse group of both expats and Vietnamese and will probably be localised to just our area quite soon so Charlie may well be attending this on a regular basis. Charlie enjoyed this immensely.

Charlie is:

getting more teeth now (about 8 so far)
able to crawl to a wall and stand up by pushing himself up against it
saying some things that sound like: ba (father), ba ba (father) me (mother), co (I have), da (father), troi oi (Oh my God!)
developing at a prodigious rate
teaching his maids how to clap their hands

Charlie went for his 11 month routine check up at FV hospital 2 days ago. His vitals were:

Weight: 10.5 kgs

Height: 77.5 cms (growth charts suggest Charlie will end up at about 181cm's, 5ft 11 1/2 inches)

He is doing very well.

Charlie will be having his first birthday party on 28 December and will be inviting all his friends. If you don't get an invite then you should understand that he doesn't like you.

10 Months

2008-11-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Charlie went back to the FV Hospital for his 10 month check up last week. His stats were as follows:

Weight: 10 Kgs
Height: They seemed incapable of recording this.

Charlie is doing well and it has just been the last week that I can say he has started crawling properly.

Standing up

2008-10-07T23:27:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days I have noticed that Charlie has started to get to his feet with just the help of a suitable piece of furniture.

This morning whilst on his daily morning walk/push with me we sat on a bench together and he swivelled around and placed his two hands on the back of the bench and pulled himslf to his feet. This was the first time I had witnessed such a feat.

Charlie still seems quite unstable whilst standing.

Charlie's crawling ability is progressing slightly and now he crawls like a Viet Cong.

9 month check up

2008-10-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Charlie went for his 9 month check up this morning. His stats are as follows:

Height: 74cms (2 cms taller than last month)

Weight: 9.7kgs (only 0.1 kgs heavier than last month which Hien is not happy about)

The above stats do back up the feeling that Charlie had slimmed down a bit over the last month or so.

Charlie is doing just fine!!!

Charlie misses me

2008-09-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

Charlie now starts to cry when I leave or say goodbye to him. Last night when I came home I didn't notice him and went straight to my room. He saw me and cried because I didn't go to talk to him.

Hien is very jealous as he only does this with me.

Charlie is standing up and jumping about much more everyday. Think it is for this reason that he appears to be slimming down a bit. He will have his monthly check up next week (9 months) and we will get his vital statistics so will know more then.

Charlie goes to the seaside

2008-09-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason I decided that as September 2 was a national holiday we should take Charlie and a few of Hien's family to Vung Tau for the day. Knowing what traffic can be like and how bad Vietnamese can be at travelling I quickly came to the conclusion that I must have been mad to even suggest this, but within 2 minutes of it being suggested we had 16 people confirmed so there was no backing out.

We set out in 2 cars and arrived in Vung Tau at 11 am. Spent about 4 hours at the beach then had a 4 hour drive back to HCM City. Traffic was terrible and saw a few dead bodies along the way (nothing strange for a Vietnamese national holiday).

The day was much enjoyed by all. From the very outset Charlie has been over cared for and consequently has had at least 1 bath a day (most websites suggest that 2-3 a week is ample). Charlie has always enjoyed bath time immensely and kicks, splashes and makes sure that he leaves a mess everywhere. Despite his proven bathroom entheusiasm I was still very apprehensive about how he would take to being introduced to the sea at such an early age, especially as I had heard from friends that many of their children were scared at first.

I carried Charlie to the water's edge and sat him down on the sand where the waves could just reach him. He was very happy with this so within no time at all I picked him up and started dipping him in to deeper water. He was loving it- kicking, splashing and laughing all the way through it. For the next 15 minutes or so Charlie and I were playing in the sea together and he was having a great time. After 15 minutes of midday sun I decided enough was enough.

Charlie was a little grumpy on the way home, but it was a 12 hour day so it was hardly surprising.

My Birthday

2008-09-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

On 1 September, my birthday, Charlie, Hien and I went to the Hyatt for dinner. This was Charlie's first formal dinner. Despite being fed foie gras and caviar before he was born he didn't take too well to the atmosphere and was pretty grumpy. By the time the main course came we decided to call someone to collect him and take him home so we could enjoy the rest of our meal in peace. The food was delightful and I had a thoroughly good time.

8 month check up

2008-08-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Charlie is exactly 8 months old today and went to the FV hospital for his 8 month check up.

His stats are as follows:

Height: 72cms

Weight: 9.6kgs

He appears to have not grown since last month, but as I wrote after the 7 month check up I don't trust their ability to measure Charlie.

Charlie is doing very well and has at least half a dozen teeth now.

While taking charlie out for his morning walks one can definitely see that Charlie has become a lot more interested in his surrounding and is generally a lot more alert. He can move around the bed much better than a few weeks ago, but his walking ability seems to be progressing quite slowly.

I am British

2008-08-28T02:52:00.000-07:00

Charlie was delighted when I showed him his British birth certificate, that I picked up at the British Consulate yesterday morning. Not actually sure if Charlie was British before he got this piece of paper, but he definitely is now.

Next month we will be getting Charlie his British passport and probably a Vietnamese one as well. Under Vietnamese law it is theoretically illegal to have another nationality in addition to Vietnamese, but the government knows that this happens and doesn't appear to have an issue with it.

I wrote the above on the 23rd of August, but have had blog issues yet again.

7 month check up

2008-08-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

Charlie went for his 7 month check up at the FV hospital this morning. All was fine and his vital statistics were as follows:

weight: 9.0kgs

According to this table this is just over 75th percentile:
http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/WFA_boys_0_5_percentiles.pdf

His weight increased by 0.4 kgs since last month and this also ties up with the table.

length: 72cms

According to this chart he is just a little over the 85th percentile: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/LFA_boys_0_2_percentiles.pdf

One has to take in to consideration that his 7 month check up was actually after 7 months and 7 days.

I don't believe in the length figures that we have been receiving from the hospital. On 28 June they said he was 68.5 cms, then we took him in about a week later as he had a fever and they said he was 71 cms. He couldn't have grown 2.5 cms in a week.

I am in two minds at the moment whether we should change from referring to his length and start referring to his height. I actually think height is more appropriate now as when I usually see him he is either sitting or standing up.

When asked by the doctor to open his mouth Charlie apparently did so. I think this was a fluke or it was imagined.

Charlie is progressing excellently!

Recent pics

2008-08-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Charlie can now sit unsupported for long periods of time, but sometimes he still falls face first in to the mattress.

Last week I had to hold on to Charlie's hands so that he could stand up, but now Charlie can hold on to furniture and stand up by himself.

7 months old

2008-07-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

Charlie will be 7 months old tomorrow. Pictures above were taken yesterday.

This week Charlie has progressed significantly. He can:

stand quite well when I am holding on to his hands
move around the bed much better than he could last week
wave goodbye

It has been a very rewarding week for Hien and I seeing his excellent progress. Think his 7 month routine hospital visit is scheduled for the 5th of August.

Certainly not a crawler

2008-07-22T07:47:00.001-07:00

Charlie is progressing well, however his crawling ability is not. When Charlie is on his front and he wants to go forwards he raises his bottom and tries to move like a snail. Unfortunately he more than often goes backwards rather than forwards.

During his 6:30am push around the block this morning Charlie sat up and started looking around much more than usual. I take Charlie for these walks nearly every morning and he invariably sees other children, who are no bigger than him, but are running around. I doubt that he realises these kids are 3 times as old as him. I believe that seeing this is a great motivator for him to get mobile as soon as possible.

Charlie seems ahead of his age in his standing ability and when being placed down he always tries to stand up rather than sit down. He can stand up if, being held on to, but after 30 seconds or so his legs usually give way.

Charlie sets a new PB

2008-07-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Charlie is becoming better at sitting unsupported. Yesterday he set a new personal best time of 29 seconds before he fell over. If Charlie is falling to the left or the right he can put his hands down to support himself and this usually works to prevent his demise. However, falling forwards is a bit more of an issue for him and if he is gravitating backwards his fall is quick. He is always sitting on the bed with pillows all around him so falling over isn't much of an issue.

One of Charlie's bottom teeth has emerged and it looks as if another 4 are coming soon.

Charlie gets high

2008-07-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

Charlie decided it was high time he had his own chair so at the weekend we bought him a highchair. Charlie was delighted with his own chair and is now making a list of things that he requires to be purchased for him.

Listening to Charlie

2008-07-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

Not sure of the best way to do this, but suggest that if you can be bothered to follow all the instructions below it may be best to print the instructions before starting. You will need to start by downloading suitable software to allow you to play the Charlie's sound clip. If you don't already have suitable software for this (I didn't have it) I suggest you click this link:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

Put in your email address and press "Free Download Now" Then press "save" and press "save" again. Then wait about 12 minutes, depending on Internet speed, for this software to download. Then press "run" and "run" again, then "finish" Once the above has been downloaded you should be able to listen to most sound clips and watch most video clips and you won't have to go through the above process again.

Charlie's sound clip:

Then click on this link:http://widgets.movedigital.com/127280

then download-save-save-open folder-left click on Ghi Am...-select the programme from a list-OK-then click on "Quick Time Player"-OK-left click on play button- listen to Charlie

Make sure you speakers are turned on and the volume is up.

Good luck with trying to get the above to work.

Progress

2008-07-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

The above picture was taken earlier today. It is just about the first picture we have of Charlie smiling. When we take a picture of him using our camera a red light comes on just before the picture is taken of Charlie and this distracts him. Hence no smile. The above picture was taken with a telephone camera with no red light, but obviously lower picture quality.

Charlie can now turn from his front to his back as well as vice versa so now we have to be careful as this means he can roll. His legs are now becoming noticably stronger and he can now give his Mum a hefty kick.

He is progressing very well.

6 month check up

2008-07-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Charlie was off to the FV hospital again for his 6 month check up. He is getting used to this by now so he wasn't fazed by it at all.

His stats are:

Length: 68.5 cm's
Weight 8.6 kg.s

You can see from this chart that 68.5cm's in length is somewhere between the 50th and 85th percentile: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/cht_lfa_boys_p_0_6.pdf

His weight is also somewhere between the 50th and 85th percentile: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/cht_wfa_boys_p_0_6.pdf

Charlie is in excellent health and hasn't had a day's sickness since he first left the hospital.

6 months old

2008-06-29T03:24:00.001-07:00

Charlie was 6 months old yesterday and will be going for his 6 month check up tomorrow. Charlie seems to be hitting all his expected development milestones.

1-6 month milestones that we have been following are here:

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/development/milestonesfirst6months/

Charlie can only sit up for a few seconds unaided, but I would imagine that within a week or so he will be able to sit up by himself for a reasonable amount of time. He is just beginning to come out with consonant sounds and think I heard something like "baba" today. We have been teaching him "mummy" and "daddy" so am unsure who or what baba is.

Charlie's legs are strengthening so a couple of weeks ago we bought him the thing in the picture above. He loves it!!

Going to the Zoo

2008-06-29T03:11:00.000-07:00

Apart from his 10 minute push around the block before I go to work every morning Charlie doesn't get out of the house much. Because of this, last weekend, I decided it was high time Charlie went to the zoo. The Ho Chi Minh City zoo is definitely nothing to shout about, but at least it was an outing.

By the time we got to the zoo it was already quite hot and Charlie was getting tired so I didn't have that high hopes for the success of this trip, but as it was only about 60 pence for the 3 of us to go in it wasn't going to be too much of a waste of money whatever happened after going through the turnstiles.

We were only in the zoo for about 40 minutes in total and during that time Charlie saw a few of the animals. He appeared to be interested in some, but not in others.

In hindsight I think he is a little too young to do such a trip at the moment so will probably hold off doing it again for a few months.

Didn't take the camera.

Birthday Party

2008-06-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Charlie and Hien attended one of Hien's family's birthday parties. Pictures above were taken there.

Charlie the scholar (3 May)

2008-06-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

These were pictures that I tried to post on the first blog on 3 May, but I was unable to do so.

As soon as Charlie was presented with the above book he reached out for it and started handling it. I think this was really the first time I saw him reach out for anything. When he is given the book these days he tries to stick it in his mouth.

He is pretty handy with the ball as well now and can really kick it very well.

Continuing on from first blog

2008-06-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

After much perseverance with the last blog I just gave up on it as no matter how many times I tried, despite it saying I had only used about 1% of the usable space, it just wouldn't let me post any more pictures. As posting pictures was the most important reason for the blog in the first place I have decided to give up on that blog, start a new one and hope that this one serves me better.

The first blog can be reached here: http://mjgodwin.blogspot.com/

As the first blog hasn't been working for some time I have been decidedly lazy in taking pictures of Charlie, but if this blog works as I as I am hoping it will I'll be taking more pictures.