Ai an gioi? Do tay len!

Scuppy is asleep for the night and David, the more regular contributor to this blog, handed me the computer and asked me to write the blog for today.

"Who is a good eater? Raise your hand!" is being demonstrated here - a rather patriotic looking move that could easily go with the local phrase, "Chao, Dong Chi!" or "Hello, Comrade!" This has become Scuppy's favorite game at our daily lunch spot at Thim Lac and Chu Nghien's house - taught to her by her great-auntie "Ba Thim".

This photo was taken this morning over a banana breakfast in the hotel garden. Mama had Bun Bo Hue, her favorite soup, and Ba was already teaching in the classroom by then.

Vietnamese onlookers still marvel everywhere we go at Scuppy's highchair, her ability to sit still in it and to feed herself . Local children are carried while being fed until they are 3 or 4 years old, if not being chased around with food or as we see at the local kiddie park, being fed while riding coin-operated horses or swans. Scuppy is considered skinny, especially because a plump fat baby or child is still the ideal here. From what I've witnessed, local children are force fed "chao" a rice porridge all day long, even when they are not hungry. My guess is that they are so distracted during these "chay dut" or "running feeding" sessions that they do not protest. Scuppy and I are both admired for our wily Western know-how - she for being able to self-feed and chew solid food - and me for not playing maid servant to my daughter and being able to eat at the same time.

Scuppy is thriving here and has settled into a good routine. Her activities include admiring snails in the garden, collecting what she calls heart leaves to drop in the pond, going on bike rides with Mama, feeding raisins to the imaginary monkeys around the corner, and making the housekeeping staff laugh with her various funny faces. Today she played with a 5 year old boy named Samuel from Italy at the pool and had pizza, her favorite exotic food, for dinner at a local backpacker restaurant called Little Italy. There, she ate a whole slice all to herself, while commenting to the curious waitstaff, "Delicious. Ngon lam."