Speaking gobbledygook

All of the above pictures were taken today.

The first two pictures above are of Charlie outside our front door. Most mornings, at about 6:45, I take him out around the block for about 10 minutes and get back just in time to see the BBC News at 7:00 am. He appears to enjoy this and seems to becoming more aware of his surroundings with each trip, especially now he is sitting up more in his pushchair. This time of year it is becoming increasing overcast and this makes our trips easier as when the sun is out it can be quite blinding.

Having difficulty taking a picture of Charlie when he is smiling as just before the camera flashes a red light comes on and this distracts Charlie from his smile.

Charlie's recent progress:

• day by day he is coming out with more and more gobbledygook and this can go on for a few minutes at a time.
• he can control his head better and he is able to sit up more
• he is begining to grasp at colourful objects
• he responds more to sounds and turns his head to them
• he does the things that a 4 month old should be doing

He should be having his 4 month check up on 4 May.

Charlie ventures out today

The 3 picture above were taken today.

Charlie has been ridiculously molly-cuddled since birth and I insisted that he went out of the house today. I believe that today may have been the first time he has been exposed to the elements for more than about 20 seconds. Hien and I placed him in the his pushchair and wheelled him around the block. During this 10 minute jaunt we met more of the neighbours than we have in the 5 months we have been living in our present residence.

Charlie enjoyed the outing very much and from now on will be going out very often.

3 month check up

Charlie went for his 3 month check up after 3 months and 7 days. He had his injection and had a slight temperature for the next day, but is OK now.

His 3 month and 7 day numbers were:

Weight: 7.1 kg's (15.7 pounds)
Height: 64 cm's (25.2 inches)

Looking at various American baby growth charts it appears that as Charlie's birth weight was 3.5 kg's and his birth height was 50 cm's, he would normally (50th percentile), have reached the above weight and height at about 4 months and 10 days old. The charts have many disclaimers about ethnicity, breast feeding verses bottle feeding etc., but regardless of all the disclaimers and small print we summise that Charlie is a healthy baby who is growing well.

Charlie at 2-3 months

Above are a few pictures of Charlie at about 2-2.5 months old.

Charlie is now 3 months and 2 days old. He was due to be taken for a check up on 28 March, but he hasn't been yet as the hospital said they were too busy and have asked us to call back next week to make an appointment. Charlie is doing very will so the above doesn't cause any concern.

Charlie is:

• making lots of funny sounds (believe cooing may be the correct term)
• becoming more aware on a daily basis
• very healthy and is growing normally
• happy he has had his first haircut
• looking forward to getting out of the house more as apart from scheduled hospital visits he has hardly been out
• liking his swing
• in agreement with me that English is a much better language that Vietnamese
  

He's a swinger

A picture of Charlie at 1 month 25 days old.

Chinese New Year (Tet)

At new year Charlie had the opportunity to venture our of the house again when we did the rounds of the various houses that Hien's family live in.

The 3 larger pictures above are the lunchtime spread and the other smaller pictures were taken at the party.

Upon arriving back in Ho Chi Minh City we arrived to a spectacular sight. It was the day of Charlie's 1 month party and in Vietnam one month parties are very serious occasions. Unbeknown to me it is tradition to lay on a spread at lunchtime, which you can see above. Mum, Dad and I were all greatly relieved when we found out that we didn't have to eat this food and that it was all going to be given away to people. I still don't know who it was given away to.

The evening of the party had arrived and we set of to a famous seafood restaurant in downtown Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate with Hien's family and a few close friends. Making the invitation list was a long drawn out task when we realised how many people we had to invite. Hien's family consisted of about 40 people and then there many others we wanted to invite as well. In the end we invited about 115 people to the party, but thought only about 80 would arrive.

An hour after people were asked to arrive the room was still looking decidedly vacant of guests and if I were in any county other than Vietnam I would have been panicking. In Vietnam it is customary to be very late for everything and it is not the done thing to arrive less than 1 hour late for a party and 1.5 to 2 hours late is generally considered very acceptable. An hour and a half after the scheduled start time Hien turned up with Charlie and it was around this time that the majority of the guests turned up as well.

Many of the guests brought presents for Charlie and as is customary in Vietnam many guests brought money. The party was a great success with over 100 guests in attendance and we would like to thank everyone for coming and especially for bringing gifts and money. Charlie now has enough presents to last until he is about 35 years old and he has the finances to put himself through university.