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June 12, 2009 So much has happened in the last 10 days. Most importantly, though, the Trio is out of school for the summer! We all ended on the same day, surprisingly enough. Now, take careful notes because from here it gets complicated: Saturday June 13, Papa & Bebé Trio leave for Papa Trio's boyhood home for a long over due visit with Grandma Trio deep in the heart of Texas. We'll be about 24 hours in transit! The next blog entry should be plenty exciting! I'm not anticipating any fireworks, but after getting up at 3:00 AM to make our flight, anything can happen. Tuesday June 15, Maman Trio leaves for the great northwest to visit friends in her old stomping grounds. We won't be a trio again until July! Earlier this week, I got home and found Bebé Trio hard at work on the couch. I sat down next to her and on her color doodle, she was writing each letter in order of the alphabet! She did it three times! That girl has more of Maman Trio in her than I care to think about. She is focused on letters! FOCUSED! Saturday June 8 was a busy day. First, Bebé Trio went to Megan's birthday party. Megan is a school friend. It was here in PMH at a place called the Red Box. It is a toy store with a children's play area over it. I'll let the pictures tell the story:
Then it was off to Kindermusik. I'll only supply a few pictures from here.
We are going to have to leave the blog here because it is getting late and 3:00 AM comes awfully early. June 2, 2009 Tonight while Maman Trio got her weekly massage, Bebé Trio and I played cache cache or hide-and-seek! I fulfilled a goal that I've had from the beginning -- shooting some video tape of the action! Get ready for some hide-and-go-seek action like you've probably never seen before. If you thought the picture on the Fun Photos page was a joke, just watch!
June 1, 2009 This has been a very exciting week and weekend for the Trio! Because there is some unpleasantness with a medical emergency, let's start with breakfast and getting ready to go to school!
Giang helping Bebé Trio eat her breakfast of apple slices and buttered baguette. Oh and play with her toes -- an important part of any healthy breakfast or so the Surgeon General tells us! Brace yourselves for the following pictures. I know this is a family site, but these things happen even in the best of families. Last weekend Maman Trio had a pedicure and the tech injured her big toe. Of course it immediately got infected, but Maman Trio put off going to see the doc until...
Yeow! Look at the inflammation and discoloration! It hurts to look at. I can't imagine what it was like to walk on.
Just in case you didn't get enough here is another shot. It's a beaut, ain't it? On that note, let's hurry on to Saturday morning. Giang's daughter Yo had a birthday recently, so we invited Nanny Trio and her two kids to celebrate. Also, Bebé Trio was a good girl all week, i.e. she didn't bite no body and we usually do something fun Saturday as a reward. We bundled the whole kit and kaboodle off to Lotte for a fun morning at the indoor playscape!
Here are the three chums and Nanny Trio passing through the first floor of Lotte.
Nanny Trio helps them load the ball gun!
Yo discovers the ball fountain!
Nanny Trio looks on at the floating ball fun!
Bebé Trio watches in rapt fascination.
Yo and Ye are captivated... okay only Yo is. I'm sure Ye is captivated by something, but I couldn't ever figure out what.
Yo is so photogenic. Just like her mom!
Ye and Bebé Trio cavort in the crawling tubes suspended from the ceiling. Ye doesn't usually have that demonic look in his eye, this was a special occasion. And yes, Papa Trio is still limber enough to cavort with them.
Look at the intense excitement and pure unadulterated enjoyment on the birthday girl's face!
The ball fountain is an endless source of entertaining joy!
Three videos for your downloading bandwidth clogging enjoyment: (i) The much praised ball fountain; (ii) Ye followed very closely by Bebé Trio sliding down the slide; and (iii) Yo sliding down the slide. Bebé Trio had to leave the ball and slide action of the playscape for Kindermusik! Yo and Ye went on to KFC heaven and gifts from the Trio.
Here Bebé Trio is soaking up the musical instruction
The whole class of musical sponges: Jared, the twins, Lulu and Lily (don't ask me which is which), Bebé Trio. And that is Ms Lorelei giving the words of wisdom.
Bebé Trio practices opening her imaginary music book as Luli as their mother affectionately calls them looks on.
Here we have two clips of video of Bebé Trio in glockenspiel action! I'm shooting this through the mirror from across the room just so you know. (i) She demonstrates the correct resting position of the mallets, the pinch, wrap, and elbow float. And it looks like oh so much fun! (ii) They are doing their Dr. Foster Went to Gloucester routine: Dr. Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain (they play random notes on the glock). He stepped in a puddle (they hit two notes simultaneously) right up to his middle (they play a glissando) and never went there again (they put their mallets down and put their hands defiantly on their hips)!
Sunday morning the Trio went to breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Gourmet Deli. After we got home, Papa and Bebé Trio played another rousing game of cache cache or hide-n-seek. We then shot these glorious pictures!
Okay, so this was taken earlier in the week. But the dress and Bebé Trio are both beautiful.
Bebé & Maman Trio clown for the camera. Another beautiful dress for her to shine in. May 25, 2009 Maman Trio returned home from her girl's weekend at a lavish Mui Ne resort. Bebé Trio welcomed her home with these beautiful flowers.
Bebé Trio picked out la fleur violet and Papa Trio got the orange ones to match and fill out the bouquet. Besides they were out of purple ones.
Then we got this bunch of lilies. They have such a strong beautiful scent! And they really liven up the room! Notice the shabby vase -- our good vases have all gone the way of shards, if you know what I mean.
And here's a close up the lilies. The Trio had a great time at the SSIS school-wide student art show this evening. We saw art made by students across the grade spectrum including some of my old seventh graders there, my old AIS students who transfered there, Jo's assortment of elementary school students (2nd - 4th grade), and of course Bebé Trio. Unfortunately, the camera was left at Trio Central, so we'll have to wait on the photos of others to be published. May 24, 2009 Bebé Trio and I have had a wonderful day! We went to Gourmet Deli, you may recall that it is our favorite restaurant here in PMH, for brunch. While we were there, a boy about her age began running around like crazy! I mean running around and crazy! Eventually Bebé Trio started chasing him and they ran and ran and ran and ran. They never did anything dangerous and were never out of either his father's sight or mine. But they ran and ran and ran. They ran around the restaurant to the back door, through the back door, out to the front door and back again. Sometimes they would stop and sit and spin on a bar stool -- no it's not a bar! Then, when we got home, we had another rousing round of cache cache or hide n seek. We also so watched Monster's Inc. complete with repeating the lines and a lot of the "Old Waternoose Jump N Growl's!" Finally, she tuckered out and went to sleep!
Here is the artist at work creating her "pooping" masterpiece! Bebé Trio is getting to the age where she wants to help you do everything! Enjoy this video clip of her doing chores around the house!
(Just click the picture -- it's an editorial change!) May 23, 2009 Mama Trio is spending an all-girl's weekend in Mui Ne (a beach resort not far from here) with 18 other teachers from SSIS in a kind of last soiree of the school year. So, that leaves Papa & Bebé Trio at home for the weekend. It's been fun! Friday night we had a rousing game of cache cache or hide-n-seek! Now that's a first! Bebé Trio led me to a corner said cache cache and ran off. I started counting slowly to ten. Then I went looking! She was under her little table -- very easy to see. What made it even easier was the uncontrolled giggling which set her to giggling and led me right to her. Then she counted and I hid behind a door (I always hide behind a door. Other hiding places: (i) in front of the couch, (ii) in the knee-hole of the desk with hind-end sticking out, (iii) under the glass-topped end table, and (iv) behind the chair with legs sticking out. I don't think I've laughed this much in a month! We had a lot of fun at our favorite Phu My Hung (our neighborhood) restaurant, Gourmet Deli, and our favorite breakfast: croissant with café sua nong (hot coffee with milk and sugar) for me and a banna-apple smoothie for Bebé Trio. While we were there, Bebé Trio "wrote" in one of her "how to write" books. She drew straight & squiggly lines and big & little circles. We also balanced as we walked a long a low curb in the parking garage! Bebé Trio is getting pretty good at it. She loved going back and forth along the narrow curb! Then, when we went out to the bicycle to go home, she fell off the curb into the mud puddle on the street and liked to killed herself in her haste to get her shoes off (crocs) because of the muddy water that got into it! On the way home I was treated to a private concert of the "12 Monsters of Christmas" sung to the tune of the "12 Days of Christmas" It was sweet! Otherwise, its been pop corn, mac n cheese, yogurt, and baguettes, movies, bike rides, and the jollie jollie penguins:
Her newest favorite toy! Maman Trio's gonna kill me! She plays with it non-stop even getting up in the middle of the night to play with it! Oh we've also been writing on the computer:
She wrote this all by her lonesome!
The proud writer and the instruments of destruction!
Drawing! We've got a whole exposé on her burgeoning art skills on the Artworks page!
The artist at work!
And we can't forget the Kindermusik experience!
The musician plying her craft! May 16, 2009 Bebé Trio had been especially good this week -- no biting, no getting angry/frustrated with others at school or home -- so Maman Trio promised her that Papa Trio would take her to the indoor playscape at Lotte Dept. store while Maman Trio went shopping. So, I did. Maman Trio also has devised a system of smiley faces for Bebé Trio on days she's been good so we can all keep track. This seems to have made a big impression on the impressionable. Here are some picks from our latest outing to Lotte!
Bebé Trio -- just like all of the other kids there -- loves falling into the balls. Every time she climbed the barrier she tripped!
Bebé Trio is looking down into one of the intakes of one of the ball machines -- don't worry there aren't any exposed moving parts to catch her hair!
Bebé Trio went into the nose of the bi-plane that is attached to the end of the tube network that is suspended from the ceiling!
Bebé Trio riding one of those coin-operated shaking rides. This one was kinda like Noah's Arc in that the little house was filled with animals and the dash had buttons that would cause them to move up and down and make characteristic noises. Well, the one's that worked anyway. She loves these things.
Hey everybody! I can READ! One night Maman Trio had her act out the action in this book as she read it -- it's about a hot pot on the stove. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to catch it on video! While you're waiting for the vid to download, check out the maniacal gleam in her eye!
Look at the concentration! Along with her advancing graphics skills (see her Artwork page), her writing has been developing, too. Check this out!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, that IS a twelve! While taking these pics, I also shot some video!
Now for something really disturbing! While Maman Trio was off spending the night with the fourth grade at Cat Tien National Park, Bebé Trio began constructing, well, nothing quite as disturbing as the mountains in Close Encounters, but just not quite. Judge for yourself.
She disappeared into the kitchen and came out with two utensils. Got two objects from her corner of the living room and arranged them thus: the two objects and the utensil connecting them. And, she just kept doing it. The photo doesn't do it justice, so more video, because you gotta see it to believe it!
And of course there was Mother's Day! In addition to all of the fabulous gifts that Papa Trio showered upon Maman Trio, Bebe Trio got her a little something and we went to one of our favorite brunch spots, the Hide Away Cafe! And here are the pictures.
Bebé Trio at the table wearing the Mother's Day necklace she made in school.
Maman and Bebé Trio outside the door of the cafe and Beaky, the infamous Mother's Day gift (see Firsts)!
May 2, 2009 I've been feeling guilty that I haven't been updating very often and have been missing golden photo and video opportunities. So, I've over compensated by shooting lots of pictures and taking lots of video. But, at least we were having fun and doing interesting things while I was shooting and taking all those photos and video. Okay, judge for yourself. Let me know what you think on our guestbook that no one uses any more! Today was the day One Third got to spend with Bebé Trio! We started with breakfast at our favorite cafe in Phu My Hung, Gourmet Deli, and we had our favorite breakfast, croissant and coffee... oh wait that's One Third's favorite. Bebé Trio had had her breakfast already, cereal, so she had some bites of croissant and a banana smoothie. Here's a little video of Bebé Trio reading her Monster Math book at Gourmet.
Bebé Trio reading in her big Finding Elmo. This is before we went to Gourmet Deli.
Here she is hopping like one of the monsters in the book.
This is a page from her Monster Math book and it is teaching her to add and subtract! Before we left to find out that KinderMusik had been cancelled in favor of May Day, we hung out at Trio Central until it was time for the disappointment. I got these shots and video from that hour.
Bebé Trio clowning on the stairs.
This was such a nice picture that it deserved to be a little larger.
In this clip Bebé Trio making Toupie dance to her favorite band, Abba!
Here, Bebé Trio flies like butterfly! Watch her flap her arms as she runs around the room!
Now Bebé Trio is crawling like a snake across the floor! After a while, Bebé Trio noticed that presence of the camera and couldn't resist taking some of her own shots!
A self portrait -- love the diamonds in the eyes!
The first in a series of self portraits of a different type -- her finger.
That's the living room in the background.
You could fingerprint her from this one. Lucky for you, it was time to be disappointed by KinderMusik and then onto Lotte Department school.
The playscape featured this ball pit. Bebé Trio had lots of fun here just like these kids were. You can see the barrel of ball mortar that flings balls across that pit. There in the middle is a boy playing with the ball fountain that floats balls over the top of the vertical barrel. At the other corners is a device that floats balls through a tube and delivers them to a reservoir that will eventually rollover and dump the balls on an unsuspecting child below.
Bebé Trio is filled with wonder by the ball fountain.
Here she is playing obsessively with the ball floater thingee.
But it was that sea of balls that was the most fun as this and the next few pics will atest.
Its fun just being down in all of those balls!
She's virtually swimming!
Bebé Trio is climbing up the platforms to the tubes and the roller slide! Keep going for a shot of the fun!
Sliding was never so much fun! April 30, 2009 Bebé Trio continues to amaze us with her language skills. Maman Trio reports Trio Central has become Kid Central as the neighbor's children have been coming over to play. Bebé Trio has started using lots and lots of English. It is funny because she will insist on using English when we read books and converse, but if I ask her a question in French, she'll answer in French. Maman Trio also reports that not only does Bebé Trio love having her little guests over, but the other kids are loving it too. And as an added benefit, it gives Maman Trio an opportunity to instruct Bebé Trio when she gets frustrated with her playmates and develop some options to biting. She has also taken to singing frequently! She asks for her Kindermusik CD to be played and likes to sing along. But, much more fun is her love for the soundtrack of Mama Mia and her rendition of the song of the same name. I can only offer the lame, I'll try and get some video. I do have a photo of a boo boo to offer. This was a more severe boo boo and she picked at the scab.
Now that is an owie! Since having returned from Hyderabad, she seems so much more active and talkative. She seems so engaged in the world and oh so happy about it all! I'm looking forward to documenting it all in pictures and video here on the site.
Bebé Trio is waiting for breakfast to be served at one of our favorite restaurants here in HCMC, The Hideaway Cafe. April 19, 2009 I thought some pictures of Papa Trio at his workshop in Hyderabad would at least be entertaining if not helpful. I'm here training to be the coordinator for an education program called the International Baccalaureate which offers a curriculum that prepares students for university classes and helps develop skills beyond the academic.
This is a student at the school dancing to entertain us. It was hypnotic and incredibly well done.
This fellow was here participating in the training. He is a great example of the clothing that distinguish many of the groups of people living on the sub-continent.
More examples of the incredible clothing and adornments that can be found on a daily basis on the sub-continent.
The class that Papa Trio participated in. These folks were just as likely to be dressed in the unique garb of their cultures. There were 18 countries represented at the workshop including the young woman from the United Arab Emirates wearing her chadra.
April 17, 2009 Well, it has been a regular tale of whoa here in Trio Land: Papa Trio's computer was on life support for a while and looked like it was time to go to the great byte register in the sky! But, in the high tech land of India, it was resurrected and we're posting today from that happy blessed place! Here's the latest from the amazing four year old: she's sounding out words in French and English. She's reading "The Cat in the Hat" and "Hop on Pop!" She's really reading. It's true, Maman Trio and I have pinched each other repeatedly to make sure we're not just some overly proud parents seeing what we want to see. Bebé Trio looks at words and screws up her cute little face and then makes the sound of the first letter and slowly goes into the next ones. She gets it right! Then she can switch the first sounds and get another word. Hopefully we'll have video soon! Now on to some pictures!
Okay okay, I'm a big softee and she got the car keys from me, but she's not getting the credit cards or drinking beer or smoking cigarettes! Nope she's not getting that out of me, I swear!
No, she's not making off with the furnishings and they are definitely not fighting! She's just making friends wherever she is!
March 20, 2009 There have been a slew of exciting developments in Trio Land since last I posted -- as any parent of a four year-old can tell you is want to happen. I'll list them in no particular order and support them with pictures: Bebé Trio is now a proud member of a Kindermusik class. She loves going there and doing all the music things. Mostly, she likes running around with the other kids. But, now she sings all of the time. She has some favorite songs and often does not want me singing with her... No one who's lived through my attempt at singing need wonder why. Look here for Kindermusik pictures. Bebé Trio is now one year older than last I posted. She is now four and we had multiple parties to prove it! We had a party on Sunday March 15 at the Trio Annex pool and we had a party on Tuesday March 17 at her school with all of her little schoolmates. Look here for birthday party pictures. Bebé Trio is now dressing and feeding herself with occasional help from the circle of Trio caretakers. She can pull her clothes off and pull them on again. She can also sit at a table and move spoon to mouth with only the occasional spill. And, you know she is very fussy about being messy, so she uses her clothes to wipe up. Bebé Trio is practically spelling. She loves to sit at the computer and write her letters. She does the alphabet. She writes her name & Caillou. She loves to ask for the spelling of words like maman, papa, grand-maman, & grand-papa. Well, the other night she got between me and the computer when I was trying to update the site -- I SWEAR it's true! -- and started typing. She wrote... oh here, I'll let her do again right here, right now! My comments are in black -- the annotation coming after the typing. LOCKS (How odd, I thought, it looks like she wrote a word!) BELL (Now that's really odd, I thought. That can't be a coincidence) BOX (She said the word, boit, several times before writing it -- boit means box in French. Then she would point at the word and say it again and again in both English and French.) MADELEINE (She's long been able to spell her name -- she got a computer for Christmas and one of the programs taught her.) PAPA (She asked me for the spelling, so I sounded it out for her!) MAMAN (Again, she asked me for the spelling, so I sounded it out, but I had to give her the n it being silent and all.) Needless to say, I've been a flutter ever since. Bebé Trio rides on the padded rack on Maman Trio's bicycle. She can stretch her tippy-toes down to the pegs on the wheel hubs. Bebé Trio now sleeps in the petite lit (the little bed). One night when she was having a hard time going to sleep, she was put in a time out in the corner of the room. Maman Trio asked her if she wanted to sleep there or with us and to our surprise and wonder -- both heartbreaking and welcomed -- she said she wanted to sleep there in the corner. Welp sir, we brought up the couch cushions and made her pallet on the floor. She's slept there ever since. January 10, 2009 A soon to be nostalgic reminiscence of a bucolic scene is being played out here at Trio Annex. Bebé Trio is watching children's programming on the TV; Mama Trio is sorting the contents of her purse and looking up the long since forgotten medications on the internet; Grand-papa Trio is investigating cooking with Cassava Root (soak in water overnight before cooking to avoid poisoning the in-laws... next time your making grandma's tapioca pudding recipe); Grand-maman Trio is puttering in the kitchen; and Papa Trio is updating the website. A kind of 21st century Norman Rockwell scene. Last Sunday, we were out for breakfast over the river in the other part of our suburb of Phu My Hung at the quiet Gourmet Deli and took these pictures and video.
One of Bebé Trio's favorite drinks -- coconut juice out of the coconut! You can see the Petite Poulich that she got for Christmas and her scrambled eggs.
On the street after breakfast
Apartments reflecting in one of the channels of the Sai Gon River Delta where we live.
Trees reflecting in the pond in the park in front of the quiet Gourmet.
Bebé Trio cavorting in the park!
Bebé & Papa Trio clowning with funny hats -- and yes they are made from her PJ's!
More clowning from Bebé Trio January 3, 2009 Well, here it is the first blog entry for 2009 and for a re-visit to the whole babyhaler incident, click here. For some photos and video of Trio Annex, click here. And last, just scroll down for some photos of Babe Trio's new furniture. Maman Trio and the grand-parents went off for groceries and returned with furniture! A table and two wee chairs with plenty of letters, pictures, and words for the letters. Here are the pictures to prove it!
There's Babe Trio, Grand-maman Trio, and the table and two wee chairs.
That table top with letters, pictures, and words... always fascinating. Why don't all tables come so decorated?
Here Babe Trio and Grand-maman Trio are fretting over the Cotton Bowl! Relax, it's only a game -- unless of course you've got money riding on the outcome... (back to the top!)
Now let's visit Trio Annex... okay photos and video shot by Maman Trio out of the living room window. But okay without further adieu here are those photos.
These are the Trio Grand-parents (are you pronouncing this with an outrageous French accent?) walking along the river outside of Trio Annex. Remember this is taken from the 10th floor and out a window.
Yep! They're still walking!
And that is the river -- at low tide and mud exposed -- with the Trio Grand-parents (accent!) walking and a barge! Who says you don't get value for your money with the Marshall Trio?
The Trio Grand-parents (outrageous accent!) walking and some reckless panning about! (back to the top!) You remember the babyhaler don't ya? Well, we're done with it here at Trio Central, but we never showed it in action. Check out Baby Trio's eyes as she inhales deeply. I don't know what she's thinking, but she sure is enjoying it.
An establishing shot just to let you know how it's done!
You can see the haler in Maman Trio's right hand. The face piece must be pressed into her face so that it seals, but you can still see her smile.
That grin extending from either side!
Look at the glow in those eyes. Somebody is feeling satisfied! (back to the top!)
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