3 month anniversary....

Yesterday February 19 was the 3 month anniversary of when I first met and
held Matteo. You can look back and see my post here

Thank you Georgina for reminding me...things have been busy these days with juggling a few things and just don't seem to paying much attention to days floating by. Tomorrow is family day in Ontario and Matteo and I will spend it together as a family. Have a few things in mind but nothing set just yet. It has been a busy weekend. There were winterlude activities planned with a number of adoption families...will probably only be able to join them for a pot-luck dinner tonight....also the SPA group was having a get together tonight.

Last night instead of the adoption group dinner, we got together for dinner with the godparents for Matteo's baptism and we made the bonboniere to give out as gifts to those attending the baptism...will post photos on that later so it will be a surprise to those attending....They turned out exactly as I had wanted them so was very happy....Things have been going
very well for the most part. I am also on reading week so will enjoy no teaching, no prep, and no marking, and having a few days of stress free living...though of course there is always stress....Matteo wants my attention immediately when he needs something and this is probably the hardest part of caring for him, as he is easy to care for...it is the immediate demands he makes and sometimes it isn't possible as I need to be preparing food, formula, doing laundry and I don't have enough time to do this in the short naps he takes and can't leave it all until after he is asleep for the evening....so at times he has to try to be patient, not easy for him, and not easy for me.

Other than that, I enjoyed looking back at the blog posts and remembering those first few days. I am so glad we are here and not still there in the beginning of our relationship. It does indeed get better and better as you get to know your child's personality and they start to blossom as little individuals....so Happy Anniversary to us. I am posting a photo of the three families who I hung out with. I travelled with Georgina and Mario and they adopted Galen and met him on the same day as I did Matteo. And Lea adopted Zeke, our adoption journey was very similar and we had our G&R together. All of our children are from Vung tau 1....this photo was taken a few days before we left Vung tau for HCMC.....very happy memories!!

CHEO appointment...

This afternoon Matteo and I headed to CHEO for his appointment at the International adoption clinic and 4 hours later we headed home, a very exhausted and asleep Matteo and a very tired mommy. The prognosis at the moment is that Matteo is doing really really well developmentally, is exactly where he should be as a child of 8.5 months and is as normal and even advanced in comparison to a child who was never in an orphanage. The doctor was very impressed and said he is doing great....then she ordered lots and lots of bloodwork!!...so hopefully we'll get those results and they will also show that he is doing great....however he is still on the small side of weight, 5th percentile....so he has been consistent....growing slowly.....so we'll go back in 2 months for the next checkup and will discuss the results and where to go from here medically, if needed.....The nurse who took the blood did really well and only had to poke Matteo twice, one in each arm and she was able to get enough to fill all the vials she pulled out....Matteo on the other hand screamed and cried throughout and then raised his arms to me crying and wanted to get out of there.....hope we won't have to go through that again anytime soon!!

Matteo at bedtime...

Chopsticks....

I was having my lunch (some rice and chickpeas) and was eating with chopsticks while feeding Matteo....he kept reaching for them so I got him a pair and continued to feed him his lunch with chopsticks too....a bit of a challenge to scoop up pureed carrots and rice but we managed and Matteo enjoyed it too...

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year!

The day is coming to a close but the decorations are still up! Happy New year to all and welcome to the year of the cat!...Matteo and I celebrated on Sunday by attending the Vietnamese festival here in Ottawa (photos in the previous blog) held on Matteo's 8 month birthday.

Tonight we went to dinner at the Mekong restaurant with a few of the people from the SPA groups - (single parents adopting).... unfortunately Matteo was not himself today...he had another vaccine yesterday and while he was fine yesterday, today he was not himself, not eating much, sleeping briefly at one moment and then longer the next and not so many smiles today....however as the restaurant was near here and we wanted to do something special we went even if it wasn't for a long time....the restaurant was very nice, as was the company, however Matteo was so good, but I realized it was really not going to work for me to stay and eat my main course...managed the appetizers.....so we asked for it to be wrapped up and said our goodbyes....instead of going straight home I took a bit of a drive...Matteo fell immediately to sleep so I wanted to not disturb him for a bit...then we came home...I put him to bed and then I ate my Tet dinner.

I did manage to read up a bit about how to celebrate Tet and hopefully each year Matteo and I will celebrate and add cultural markers to the event......

This year some decorations were put up....we have somewhat of an altar, as I have a place on one of my buffets where I have photos of my parents and a favourite aunt who have died...and there is a candle there that I light on the anniversary of their deaths...., and in the future I will add some of the Vietnamese cultural elements to what I already have. As for cleaning the house....well that didn't happen, had great intentions, but it seems that is one area I have not been able to keep up on ....so the cleaning will only take place in the near future (I hope!)....I did buy a wonderful Vietnamese cookbook and will work on getting my kitchen well stocked with the appropriate spices....to begin our celebrations, Matteo and I went to the T&T and am posting a photo of their decorations....So for now I hope everyone had a wonderful day and pray once again for everyone waiting for their children, that the year of the cat will bring them all home!!....

Photos of Ottawa- Vietnamese Community Tet Festival

Happy 8 month Birthday Matteo and Happy Tet!