Maya's first word

I can't believe I forgot to tell you all! Maya learned her first American word two days ago. American sign language, that is. She made the sign for "more". She also knows "milk" and "all done". We are now working on "please", "thank you", and "water."

My friend Falcom Greear has a rooster just like this guy.

Random photos on our walk. By the way, the meat on a stick restaurant even has quail eggs on a stick. They must be hard boiled already. They also have eggplant and mushrooms on a stick so I should stop calling it the meat on a stick restaurant. How about "Kabobs Are Us"?

Today we had nothing to do but walk around. We walked to the big market. We were the only foreigners there so we suspect it is where the Vietnamese go to shop. On the way back we finally found some bun cha. So we had our first lunch at a sidewalk kitchen. It was delicious. Bun cha is pork grilled over charcoal, then served up in a bowl of sweet broth with a bowl of dry noodles and a plate of lettuce and herbs. See the Curry's blog for Jud's "Ode to Bun Cha". Bun cha to Jud is like Pho to Matt. Maya had fun pushing the little tiny stools around while we ate. She also practiced picking up noodles with chopsticks. I managed to sneak a few tiny bites of meat and noodles into her.

After lunch we walked some more and found a street barber. Matt has been wanting to shave his head for a long time. Here was his chance to get his head shaved for $3. He is feeling a lot cooler but now we have to worry about his head getting sun burned. Today was the first fully sunny day we've had in Vietnam.

Then we walked down junk food street. We were trying to find some kind of snacks to bring back for the office where we work. Maya saw the cookies and went crazy. She couldn't wait for us to get the bag open so she could tear into them like Cookie Monster. Then she had her ice cream cone from Fanny's while we walked around the lake. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a minimart and bought her little containers of yogurt. She chowed down some yogurt back in our hotel room. Now she's napping in her little crib.

Last night we went to a vegetarian restaurant called Tamarind. It was a funky international place. I love any restaurant where you can sit on couches and eat. We had salad, eggplant and tofu in clay pot with steamed rice, creamed spinach and sweet potato soup,and sticky rice with mango for dessert. The 9 year old Australian boy next to us had pancakes for dinner.