She walks, she talks, and she's a drama queen!

Maya has been talking the last few days. She says one syllable words that we don't understand, like "ish" and "Yai". When she wants Matt's attention she calls something like "Yah!" and then waves her fingers, palm down. Like our "come here", only upside down. She has been walking around in the hotel for a few days but this morning was the first time we let her walk outside. She took to it like a fish to water. It was hard to get her back into the sweat sack. When we pick her up to cross the street she screams bloody murder, then stops screaming and smiles as soon as we set her down again. She refuses to let you hold her hand unless it's a big curb or stairs. She is very independent and fairly strong willed. I suspect that she and her friend Autumn ruled the roost at the orphanage. Poor Kiet and the other boys probably just did what they were told!

This afternoon we walked around Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace and the Citidel. It was a great place for her to walk because it's off limits to traffic. This morning we took a walk in a park but she was more interested in walking around the park than through the park. We must have looked like the president's body guards trying to surround her, or alternately, the paparazi, chasing her with our camara.

Here she is having a tantrum because she wants to walk in the opposite direction. We sat on a wall nearby and waited for her. She decided after a minute to join us on the wall:

Now she cries again because I pick her up to cross the street:

Yesterday we went to the police station to apply for Maya's passport. We spent the rest of the day walking around, shopping, looking for the street with the squirming fish and chunky frogs. We never did find it but we did find some bottles of liquor with cobras, scorpions and geckos in them. We bought several for guys back home that need to boost their virility, or just want to have gross things in bottles to impress their friends.

We are also learning that she is a very picky eater. We have tried to offer her a variety of foods. We went through great lengths to obtain chau (rice porridge with meat or fish) for her, only to have her eat a few bites and then shake her head when we offer her more. She refuses most meats. If you manage to sneak some in her mouth, she parks it on her palate. We find gobs of meat stuck to the roof of her mouth an hour later. She doesn't care for rice, noodles or vegetables. She likes fruit but only eats maybe 6 bites. She loves plain Cheerios and Gerber toddler fruit snacks. She likes yogurt. She doesn't like super sweet things. She likes water but not beer. Doh! I didn't say that. Today she took a sip of Matt's beer and then hit him because she didn't like it. We have been managing to get at least 4 bottles of toddler formula per day into her.
Developmentally, the only delay I can see is her speech. She has great fine motor skills. Seems to know what things are for. For example, the telephone. I'm sure the front desk is getting really tired of her calling. She also picked up my LL Bean fold up travel alarm clock and put it to her ear like it was a flip phone.

Don't feel sorry for her because she is crying in some of these pictures. She pretty much cries anytime she doesn't get what she wants. Last night we had our first dinner in shifts. Matt walked around with her outside while I ate, then we switched. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her self esteem, that's for sure. The word manipulative comes to mind, too. She has an arsenal of skills for getting what she wants. First, there was the shy smile. Then came the sly smile. Then the big toothy grin. And now, the tantrums. I keep telling myself it's good that she doesn't try to please us. She wil fit right in with my other bratty kids.

Yesterday we moved from the dungeon to a smaller room on the 4th floor with a window. It cost us $10 more and I thought it was worth every penny. But now I am having trouble connecting to the internet and uploading my pictures. This morning I had to take the computer down to the lobby to chat with the boys. I'm going to head down there again to post some pictures on the blog.

Update: I have been able to upload only certain photos to the blog. It's very disappointing but I have so many great pictures I want to share. My blog is also a day behind and I skipped a day because of us being down. You have no idea how frustrating this is to a blogger addict (unless of course, you are an addict yourself).