What a Great Day

It's 9:30 pm in HCMC and my two roomies have been asleep for AT LEAST an hour. Gracie is a baby, I don't know what Terri's excuse is. I am a bit bored at night after they go to sleep.

Today was a great day. We had breakfast here at the hotel and Terri was in heaven! She has been dying for "American food" and she hit the jackpot at this hotel - hashbrowns and waffles. It is a very nice hotel and a change of pace. The thing that strikes me most is the exceptional customer service here in Vietnam. Everyone at the hotels has been so nice and helpful. They have all been so polite and genuinely want your stay to be comfortable and enjoyable. It is completely different than in the US. The crib in our room at this hotel is great. Grace has been sleeping in it just fine.

Today Terri and I took Grace to her first mall! It is called Saigon Center and is more like a giant four-floor store that has everything. The fine jewelry was beside small kitchen appliances. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason. My goal for the day was to find something fun for Grace to play with, I know she is tired of playing on the bed with the small toys I brought from home. On the short walk to the mall, we walked past a store with baby stuff. I found the most wonderful thing. It is a thickly padded blanket (very thickly) that is about 3 feet by 5 feet. It has a pillow that looks like a puppy dog head and a round pillow (paw) at each corner. I also came across a Fisher Price toy at the mall and she lovesssss it. She lays underneath it and it has music and lights and things hanging down to play with. It was great to see her having so much fun, I will post pictures of her with them tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will have our first interview with INS/Homeland Security. Grace will also get her physical that the US govt requires for her Visa. After those things are done, we will just be hanging out here until we head to Hanoi for the second interview. I am very tired of just hanging out, I am ready to get the show on the road and head home! It is a shame that the govt can't do some of this while we are in the states. It would make things so much easier on parents and the babies. Not to mention all the hotel/food/airline expense just to do two interviews with the US govt.

A few things about Gracie:

She is very active and loves to jump around - she is constantly kicking her legs or something
She has verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long legs, I had to cut the feet out of some of her sleepers!
She gets very mad if you don't feed her quick enough, she will dive for the bottle when she sees it coming
The only other time she gets mad is if you are ignoring her
She is a very good baby, really easy going and fun
She loves taking a bath

More later.......