Wednesday

I am so tired of people here telling me what I’m doing wrong with my baby, especially when they are speaking in Vietnamese! The Vietnamese culture is incredible. The crime rate here is almost nonexistent and the people here are so kind. HOWEVER, they have no concept of personal space, take the baby from your arms without asking, and like to tell you what you are doing wrong. I have acclimated nicely to the first two but am having trouble accepting so much criticism about my mothering abilities. I’ve been told a couple of times that I look too young to have a baby which I think makes me a little more susceptible to people offering their advice. Last night at dinner with the two other families I was the only one who had the privilege of being targeted for advice. I had two people tell me that he was cold (although he was the only one at the table wearing a coat and hat) and one woman told me that he was too small and that I needed to feed him more. I had another lady in the elevator tell me that he was probably afraid of me. The nannies covered his outfit up for the G & R on Monday b/c they said he was too cold although it was 80 plus degrees and I brought long pants and a hat (for all of you that were wondering the yellow jacket and pink pants in the pictures were not something I brought for him). The list could go on….

It’s been above 70 here the whole time we’ve been here and the humidity makes it feel like ten degrees warmer than that. People here think this is cold. When you watch the hundreds of motor bikes zoom by on the street you see that most people are wearing winter coats. They remark at how chilly it is when to us it feels like summer. I brought mostly summer clothes (and of course hats) as it is hot here but the local people will not let me leave the hotel with out him bundled up, regardless of how much he is sweating. So we just smile (or in my case bite my lip and nod) and say thank you.

Other than the unsolicited advice, the Vietnamese people are wonderful. They are so helpful and are extremely hard workers. They work so hard to ensure you are happy. A young man brought a fruit tray up to our room the other night and spent three or four minutes arranging our plates and silverware on the table to ensure that they were perfect. The whole time he was saying, “I want bring you fruit. Hope this is good. Thank you. Thank you for coming.” They are so cute and sweet and so different from Americans!