Why do I have to eat baby food!?!

Sitting here at Riverside Apartments in Vietnam, it's hard not to feel a little spoiled!  We wake up to sunshine pretty much everyday.  somewhere around 10:00 the cleaning lady shows up.  She makes our beds with fresh sheets every morning, cleans the bathrooms, vacuums and washes the floors, and even washes our dishes if we have not (embarrassingly) gotten around to doing them.  This has become a bone of contention with our kids - we want them to at least maintain a semblance of doing chores, so one of the older three is assigned to do the dishes after each meal.  They figure hey, someone else will do them, why should we?  Anyways, the kids are getting better at:
1.  doing the dishes, and
2. doing all things without grumbling or arguing (Philippians 2:14)

Jadon, while an absolute sweetheart, is also proving to be quite high maintenance.  Sara and I were expecting a toddler.  While we were aware of the likelihood of some delays due to his time in the orphanage, and also due to his poor heart condition, I don't think we had fully processed what that would work out to be for this little guy who is nearly 26 months old.  In many ways he is at the stage of a 1 year old.  As far as eating and sleeping goes, he is closer to a 6 month old!  First off, he takes bottles at 6pm, 8pm, midnight and 5 am.  If those go smoothly, it's still a lot of getting up during prime sleeping hours!  Also, he seems to get colicky when he drinks his bottles during the night.  This leads to lots of tossing and turning, waking up, crying and lack of sleep for Jadon and parents!  We went out today and bought one of the self-venting bottles (they have a little curve in them) with hopes that this will decrease the colic issue.

Cuddling with big sister Rykauna

On the other hand, while he is very much like a 1 year old, he is developing amazingly quickly.  We both had read that love does amazing things for these little resilient orphans and that once they join their forever family, many develop so quickly that they soon catch up (or nearly so) developmentally to others their own age.  We figure he is currently developing over 1 week a day  He has gained strength, his skin is smoother, he is babbling lots, he waves bye and smiles at us in recognition.  He is constantly imitating his older siblings, wants to get involved in what they do, and last but certainly no least, wants to eat what they do!  Now for a typical 2 year old, this would be the norm.  However, for the most part, Jadon's diet has consisted of formula, congee (thick rice porridge) and a bit of yoghurt.  There is lots to change.  The further complication is his esophageal atresia that he was born with.  His esophagus and trachea were joined at birth.  This was corrected within a few days, but there can be long term effects from this.  One of the more common ones is, due to nerve damage in the surgery area, the child's gag reflex is quite weakened.  Another is an increased risk of aspiration (fluids/food going into the lungs).  For this reason, we are hesitant to try him out on new foods.  He on the other hand has decided that baby food, congee and even bottles aren't really on his favourite list anymore.

We tricked Jadon into eating baby food by getting Li Lin to eat some first!  Of course, now he wanted some!

Late this morning we took a cab to An Phu Market which is really a grocery store with a few other stores in the same building.  There are also several shops and restaurants along the road.  We bought the new bottles for Jadon (we tried it out at bed time about 1.5 hours ago... so far so good!) as well as books for the kids to read (tablet replacement therapy) when they are in the apartment.  We had a great lunch (under $20 for the family).

Little 'foam' burgers Yummi brand.  Rykauna and Logan said these reminded them of the Shekel Shop days in Sunday School, but these burgers were much bigger - on steroids!

Before heading home, Sara and the two older kids ran into a bakery (interesting note: the French effect of coffees, baguettes, pastries and bakeries are still evident here in Vietnam) and bought some tarts for a snack this afternoon.

Apricot, Lime Meringue, Caramel Walnut, and White Chocolate - this was the winner!

Rykauna enjoyed taking pictures of the tarts ALMOST as much as she did eating them!

Once again we enjoyed our customary swim.  This time Jadon joined us and he enjoyed constantly splashing the water once again.

We have had rain most of the last 3 or 4 afternoons, but usually can swim through it.

For supper we bought Banh Mi, (a sub of sorts on fresh French baguettes) which are a very traditional Vietnamese food.  The family ate for $15 and we have leftovers!  Hard to force yourself to cook when we can eat so well for such good prices!