Our new home

The lease was up on our old apartment, so we decided to move into Thao's apartment that she has owned for almost 10 years. It is a bit small, but she has great neighbours that always visit. You can always count on them to give you some eggs if you run out, or give you some fruit when they buy something at the market.

Here I look funny because I just woke up... And already the next door baby and grandmom came for a visit! :)




We spent a few days re-arranging furniture to get all the stuff from the old apartment to fit. As you can see, Thao's house is very decorated, and there isn't a bare spot on the wall anywhere to be found!

There are many differences living in Vietnam! For example, here you can sell your recycling for a bit of money, so many people ride around on bikes collecting cardboard. One lady came around, and Thao convinced her to clean the whole house, wash the floors by hand, and then take down big boxes of garbage down 4 floors... just so she can have our old moving boxes to sell! heheh




The walkway outside our front door. If we are home we just always keep the door open, because people like to come and chat chit :)




The next door baby and her big sister.




The baby is only 8 months, but loves to climb on our window like a little monkey!

9 weeks 3 days

We went for the second ultrasound today. Yes, it is a bit early, normally in the west people go at 8 weeks and 12 weeks. But Thao is always worried when she feels fine and worried that her belly seems smaller and worried that she has not gotten morning sickness and worried about everything... So we went to the clinic and of course everything is just fine!

It was such a wonderful feeling to see the baby move and listen to the heartbeat for the first time. Thao was crying, and I'll admit I got a bit misty eyed too! So many things to do to prepare for the new baby, luckily still 215 days :)

Due Date: March 5, 2010
Gestational Age: 9 weeks 3 days (since LMP)
Size: 25 mm
Heartrate: 180 bpm
Mommy's weight: 48kg (-1.5 kg)

most funy video of babies

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First Ultrasound!

We went to the clinic today and got our first ultrasound! Everything is going very good. And here is our new baby! .... ummm... somewhere in there... I think it is in the part that looks like an eye. Actually the bottom half of the picture looks exactly like an angry rhinoceros looking right at you! For Thao's sake, I hope that isn't the case heheh

Due Date: March 5, 2010
Gestational Age: 6 weeks 4 days (since LMP)
Size: 20 mm
Mommy's weight: 49.5kg (+1 kg)

From our googling, it seems that 20mm is verrrry big so soon! And Thao already has a 3 month belly! ;))



This dress makes her look very pregnant hehehe

Pregnant women everywhere!

We went to Big C supermarket yesterday, and I noticed something again that I remember noticing when I first came to Vietnam: there are a lot of pregnant women everywhere you look! I'm sure there were at least 20 pregnant women that I saw. I hardly remember ever seeing anyone pregnant in Canada or the US... Where do all the pregnant women go in the West? Are they hiding at home, always working in the office, or just wear clothes so you don't notice? Maybe it's just that in Canada I wasn't really exposed to as many people out in public. Mostly it is just: drive to work, sit in the office, drive home. Here in Vietnam everyone is outside eating on the streets every day, and of course I have a talking machine wife that likes to talk with everyone.

Anyways, after our shopping was finished, Thao noticed that they had a special promotion where you could win cash prizes or even a laptop. Based on our shopping receipt, we got 3 tickets to scan at the computer booth, which had a display like a slot machine. Thao was so happy when she won some money!! She won 10,000 dong... That's about 50 cents. So of course she told me to wait outside while she went in and got something quick. I tried to tell her that it was not worth it because the lines were so long, but she wanted to get her prize...

So I waited... And then I waited. And then I waited some more. It must have been at least 30 minutes... When she finally did come back, she told me that the first time she got something small and went to the cashier but she said "no, sorry, it has to be exactly 10,000 dong"... so Thao went searching again and came back with something worth 9,000 dong. "no, I can't give any money back, it has to be 10,000 dong." So of course Thao said "I don't care, you can keep the extra money!" but the reply was "no sorry, 10,000 dong..." Most people would give up at this point, because the store was very busy and crowded and long lines at the checkout. But Thao went running around the whooooole store searching for something that was exactly 10,000 dong so she could get her prize! So finally she found 4 yoghurts x 2,500 dong each! Heheheh good job hunny!