Today we tried bananas...

Hai had a big day yesterday (Tuesday). In the morning I had to go with our group of families to pick up his Vietnamese passport, so Jaap and Josie took Hai out for breakfast. I think they would have kept him all day except that I found out we had our appointment that afternoon at the SOS international clinic for his medical exam for his US Visa. Since we've been there 4 times now, the man at the desk knows Hai's name and they are all happy to see him (especially now that he's doing better).

The exam consists of just a normal, cursory check up (pretty much like the last 3 times he's been in the clinic!!) They check his heart, lungs, stomach noises, temperature (normal for the past 3 days - hurrah), eyes, throat, ears, etc. This doctor (Dr. Frank - ponytail and all), told me that Hai has a "hole in his left eardrum". Apparently, the ear infection that we found last week had been going on for some time and his little eardrum was perforated. the good news is, less problems with pressure on the plane :-) The doc told me that about 90% of the time these things spontaneously heal themselves and that we should just check with the pediatrician when we get home.

The even better news is that was the last appointment we have to do before our "2nd interview" with the US embassy. Typically, when we do that 2nd interview it's really just to pay the visa fee and then we go back the next day for his visa and we can come home!! the woman from the agency says she hopes this interview will be Friday or Monday, so I'm hopeful we will be home mid-next-week.

Last night we tried out the blow up bathtub I brought. Hai's still not sure about baths, I think he's just a little afraid of the water. Just as well as he's not supposed to get his ear wet anyway :-)

And this morning we tried some mashed up banana in his cereal. Funny, he liked it a lot better than the plain rice cereal. I tried some and I can see why! I think what it really needs is a big spoonful of brown sugar and then it might be worth eating.

He's sound asleep on the couch next to me now with the bottle hanging out the side of his mouth. (Yes, all you mothers out there, I do know he's not supposed to fall asleep with the bottle, but that's what they did in the orphanage and as far as I'm concerned the little tike gets a break until he's stateside - besides, he doesn't have any teeth to rot just yet).

I'll try to get a couple more pics up now. Hope everyone is well and that we will be seeing you all soon!

Love - Melissa