From Saigon to Mui Ne and back again.

Hello from Hanoi! We arrived this afternoon to a rainy city coping with flooding. We haven't seen much of Hanoi yet, but here are some notes from the past few days.

Wednesday we were in Saigon for adoption related appointments. In this photo Alex is looking out our hotel room window at the street. He hated being in our room there and cried whenever we entered it. He loves to be outside and looking out the window was our best way to stop the crying during the daytime. He loves to be outside and did I mention the nannies say he likes to play in the mud? A child after my own heart.

Thursday through Saturday we were at the Seahorse Resort & Spa in Mui Ne, about a four hour drive from Saigon. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. I wish we could have stayed a whole week. I would love to come back again.

Alex has changed so much already since he first became ours last Tuesday. On Wednesday he accepted food from us for the first time. We were eating pho at Pho 2000 near the Ben Thanh market when he made it clear that he wanted some too. On Thursday evening he wanted to stand and walk around for the first time. Up until then he cried unless we held him constantly. We were having a group dinner at a restaurant in Mui Ne and he became quite a squirrel squirming and running around. Now he loves to walk. Here's a photo of him walking outside our hotel building at the Seahorse Resort in Mui Ne. On Friday at lunch he smiled and laughed for the first time. (Sorry, we didn't catch it on camera). We were eating out on the terrace overlooking the beach and he was getting squirrelly so I set him down and let him loose (it was late for lunch and we were the only ones there). He ran across the deck to small table and banged on it with glee. It was wonderful to see his smile and hear his laughter!

Here's a photo of breakfast on the terrace.

Here we are exploring the beach.

After exploring the beach we stopped to visit Kellen and his mom who were sitting by the pool. Kellen has lots of fun toys and he was willing to share!