Beautiful Embroidery Art from Vietnam

A few of my favorite things from VietNam

Here is one of my favorite embroidery pictures. I gave this to Julie who helped us at the very last minuet translating letters into Vietnamese. It was purchased at Tan My, the oldest embroidery shop in Hanoi.

http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/1006/4566267/0/brt0_art

I have been enjoying reading Scott's blog, http://www.scottlan.blogspot.com/
and seeing VietNam in his posts and pictures. He is currently in VietNam traveling and exploring this beautiful country with his very adventurous Mom. (Look on his blog for a picture of her on a motor scooter!) He is anxiously waiting for an invitation to his Giving and Receiving ceremony to finally meet his son Henry.

There is so much to love about VietNam; I love that: Frances was born there, the people were very friendly and that they love children, the combinations of French and Asian architecture, the good food, the amazing coffee and pastries, all the green, the warm rain, and the beautiful art. I had a very hard time adjusting, but still, I can't wait to go back. And we barely ventured past our hotels. It will be an amazing family journey when we return together when Frances is older.

August Update in Photo's

Frances with Julie, playing with the wrappings instead of the very nice books she received for her first Birthday. She also enjoyed the tissue paper from other gifts.

This month the birthday girl decided to reach as many milestones as possible before she turned one! She progressed through belly crawling, crawling, pulling self up, walking with dad, walking along couch in the short span of a few weeks! Now she can pull ALL the toys out of her toy basket.

It was not all fun, Frances also got her first shots- four of them. She was able to charm the nurse out of two toys. The ball she held on to for the rest of the morning and finally let go sometime in the middle of her first nap.

The three of us were able to hang out together on her birthday. We took Frances swimming, which we had not done since the hotels in VN. She still loves it and kicked and splashed. Here she is looking cute with Papa in her favorite hat.

Happy Birthday Frances

Please check out http://www.dlindley.typepad.com/ for some beautiful birthday photo's

Water Baby

As you can see, she loves bath time! (July 12, 2007)

Frances, Mom, & Kenya too

Getting ready for another bath in her tiny 1960's sink

August 4th 2007

Letter to Frances

Dear Frances,
I am not sure when it happened but I recently realized that I no longer feel like an imposture. I feel like your Mom. When you reach out, you reach for me. When you cry, you cry for me. It is amazing to have your love and for you to receive mine. It is a beautiful gift. I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Your photos we received were treasured. But knowing you and loving you is tenfold. It is like we opened a little box and so much… goodness is spilling out that it fills up everything. I was told your Vietnamese name means “Scent of Heaven”, but surely you were heaven sent.

In no particular order here are some things that amaze and entertain me:

• I did not know you had a bottom lip! I know now that you tuck it in when you are sleepy.



• I love that you are still my “Velcro baby” and are happiest when stuck to me.



• Your perfect little baby body sprawled out when you sleep.



• That you say Ma, Mom, or Mom-mom-mom when you are sad- And that you are talking to me!



• Oh, and that you say na-na-na with your scrunched up angry face that you make when you are mad



• Your funny faces that you make with me and at me like when you scrunch up your nose.



• When I “meow” like a cat you copy me…and your meow is more of a “mew” and the face you create when doing it is so not pretty, it cracks me up!


• The sweet way that you will lay your head on my shoulder and pet my arm or pat my face.



• That you feed me cheerios and sometimes pretend you are going to feed me a cheerio, but than snatch it away.



• That you laugh all the time, especially when Papa and I pretend to laugh.



• That you wave hello and goodbye sometimes with both hands instead of one.

You are learning and growing so fast. Everyday you show me a new funny face, make a new sound and crawl faster. I don’t want to blink.

Love Mom