You know you are mother when:

- your can't think clearly due to lack of sleep
- your washing can pile up so high when the weather rains too many days
- your house is NEVER fully cleaned up
- you are on the phone to the Tax department and a young lady takes her very full nappy off and runs around leaving you in a quandary as to whether to clean her up or continue with the call that has had you on hold so many times
- you go to a lot of effort to make a more elaborate dinner and it gets eaten 'less' than a simpler version
- clothes in the cupboard for the children are always too small before you know it
- your TV cabinet is full of kids DVDs and a visit to the library is basically all about the childrens section
- you never get as much done at work anymore...but try your best..

Cultural dancing and singing

We have booked a B&B in a Hutong area in Beijing next year and might go to Inner Mongolia after Liaoning (there is a train that takes like 21 hours if to schedule). The 2 hump camel riding in a desert, and the horse back riding and staying in a yurt look like a LOT of fun.. so long as we are warm enough...

The gingerbread house, that was....

Happy Birthday.... our little one is growing up!! But still small...

Some relevant Youtube videos of HCMC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8USZmiW9kk&feature=related

Water puppet show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y22kmOrqO0&feature=channel
War Remnants Museum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6ioaZn0M8&feature=channel
The art of crossing the street in HCMC - this is near the Ben Thanh market and yes it was that busy everytime we went across the road to the market or the bus shelter.

Return trip to China booked!

We have taken the plunge and booked a trip back to China mid-2011. We will go to Beijing and to Charlotte's finding city and hanging out. Charlotte will get a lot out of this and hopefully it will help her. Certainly seeing Chinese people that look like her will be a shock. No one down south when we went to pick up Lotus looked anything like Charlotte. Time to work on Mandarin skills meanwhile.

If we get a chance we may go to Inner Mongolia and see the horses on the grasslands, although that is not the priority this time. Another option could be to visit out sponsored Tibetan students, although it is a fair way out East and the altitude is meant to start kicking in around then, so again we may just focus on Beijing x 2 days and Liaoning about 10 days. Charlotte's foster parents (2nd family) live in Lijiang on the Tibetan route in Yunnan province, which is out of our pathway entirely.

And now we are looking at about a month to be heading to Bali. It has no doubt got more modern, and catering even more to tourists but hopefully not to lose its style.

Halloween... OK M rated

Halloween pics, and the castle was at Dam Sen park where the very large Lotus lake was.. have added a few other pics we have missed from elsewhere.

More pics

Food

Water lillies

Victoria Amazonica's.....

Victoria would be a lovely name if we ever added another girl!!

Mekong Delta

Orphanage pics