Trip to Visit Bố

Yesterday Dan went into the office for the first time since we've been back from Vietnam. He leaves the house around 6:15, which is thankfully before she wakes up. When she did get up at 7, she only wanted Bố as usual. I showed her that his car was gone from the driveway and said "Bố went bye-bye". She looked at me puzzled, then pointed to the kitchen for breakfast. A few tantrums later, we hopped on the train to lower Manhattan. She started to fuss on NJ transit, but thankfully fell asleep on the PATH. Dan met us near the trade center and we walked to Wall Street as she slept the whole way. How nice to be out and about in the land of adults! Just being in the city put me in a good mood. We went inside his building and she eventually woke up as we were riding the elevator to the 26th floor. When we got to his office, the blinds were mostly closed but she was still pointing out the window, so maybe she could tell how high up we were. Everyone was happy to meet her. They told me that they really enjoyed reading the blog (made me blush; I'm happy to share with anyone that wants to read). At 1pm, we went down to Sophie's, a Cuban restaurant, to meet Jada Thuy and her parents Maria and Joe. Maria and Joe work just a few blocks away from Dan; small world! Jada has gained two pound since she's been home from Vietnam--she looks so good. We traded stories with Maria and Joe; its always soooo nice to talk to people who really understand what you are going through. We also discussed the red tape required to get her a social security card, a US passport, and to get her name legally changed. But that's material for another blog post. After lunch, we said good-bye for now to our old friends and Bố walked us back to the PATH. Gianna threw a tantrum of major proportions while waiting for the PATH to leave. I don't like waiting either, but 2-year-olds really let you know how impatient they are by screaming and throwing things. We had to wait almost an hour at Newark to catch the NJ transit train back to Metropark, so we passed the time stalking and feeding pigeons, which she refers to as "gà", chicken in Vietnamese. She also calls Big Bird gà, which I suppose is mostly accurate.

Today we went for our normal lunch-time drive to get Gianna to fall asleep and to get me a pumpkin latte at the Dunkin Donuts drive-through. So now I'm sitting in the driveway getting some computer "work" done while she sleeps in the car seat. As we were putting on her coat going out to the car, she was asking something about Bố. She probably thought we were going to see him again. Sorry to disappoint you tiger, but we're just driving around the neighborhood so you will fall asleep!