Pearce practicing his numbers from 11-20.
Pearce's seven and nine were backwards, but this time when I corrected him he wasn't too upset, maybe because he still got the answer right.
Pearce's numbers are looking good. It's hard to count all those little dots.
It's been so fun to watch Pearce's picture journal evolve from simple to detailed drawings. Each really showcases Pearce's interests and the details he notices. The closest thing to a peephole into his 4-yr-old brain.
Pearce met this little girl at the pool one afternoon. Her family just moved here and was waiting for their house and furniture to arrive from Thailand. Most of the children we meet here are Expats in mid move from one country to another.
This is another girl that Pearce met at the pool. He was so fasinated that she had missing teeth. Also, Eric had mentioned something about writing small (smaller = smarter), and, well, Pearce immediately tried it out with his name.
Pearce's own idea. Too funny.
Notice the teeth.
Pearce changed it up with long letters.
The night before Pearce watched a bunch of Batman cartoon episodes. This was the beginning to Pearce's desire to draw animals.
Eli is the blue elephant that Pearce has had since he was two months. He calls Eli his best friend. And his baby.
We had just finished a geometry lesson on the computer.
Pearce continued his fasination with triangles.
I started having Pearce trace over the captions to give him practice writing in sentences. Back on Karate Kid.
Pearce started drum lessons from the Ho Chi Minh City Academy of Music (another blog). Pearce was adamant in this picture that his foot was on the base drum pedal.
Pearce had questions about how fish breath underwater, so together we looked it up on the Internet and Pearce was hooked. Hooked on finding information on everything. This is both a blessing and a curse. We all know how often toddler's use the word "why." Add the Internet to the mix and...well...best to brush up on your Google search skills. 
Pearce is obsessed with the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He pretends to be the main character, Flint Lockwood the inventor. He wears a sweater I have that looks like a lab coat and repeats every line by heart. It's ridiculously cute. I love the plug and the puddle of sauce.
After watching the movie Walle. Pearce is very detailed, making his clouds brown because he would explain, "on Walle's earth there is brown clouds because people didn't take care of it". Pearce traced over this caption too. His letters are improving.
The little black robot is the cleaning robot.
Pearce's best Walle pic ever. He even wrote the 'w' in Walle style.
This day, Pearce was interested in checking out dinosaurs on the internet. Have you ever seen a cuter T-Rex.
Pearce's first drawing of our house with an apple tree. We don't have an apple tree but he asked if we could get one because he really loves apples. Fuji apples to be precise. Too bad apples don't grow in tropical climates.
The picture journal pages ran out. All we could find was lined paper. This day, Pearce picked to look up Kangaroos on the Internet. Pearce's favorite part was drawing the baby in the pouch. He was actually the one who taught me kangaroos live in in savannas. He learned it on his own playing a game on pbskids.org. I had to look it up to confirm. 
This day, Pearce picked to look up giraffes.
This day, Pearce picked to look up lions. The black lines in the dirt are ants and the three brown blobs are antelope meat.
Horses on this day. Pearce now draws himself with a body, Feet with toes, hands with fingers and ears with lines in them. He asked if he should add toe and fingernails too. The black lines in the left corner are birds.
On to zebras. I love how Pearce turned one of the clouds into a picture of a face. When we are outside we like to play, what pictures do you see in the clouds.
From Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Pearce drew Sam with her microphone, Flint and the machine that makes food come from the clouds. The food coming down is bacon, eggs, Cheese, icecream cones, red sauce, and orange juice "in a glass." 
Another Pearce Obsession is our ski trip to Utah back in February. He constantly wants to know when we're going again. The other day he and Eric were watching extreme skiing footage on the Internet and Pearce kept asking how old he had to be before the two of them good go heli-skiing together. I'm not sure if I've ever seen Eric happier.Before I left Hawaii I had one last appointment with my OB, Dr. Rudy, who was concerned that I would be out of her care for three months after having a bad case of pre-eclampsia with my past pregnancies. It took a few nudges, but she reluctantly gave copies of all my medical records to give the docs in Vietnam. Thankfully, she sent me out the door with a 90 dollars a month, new-age European prenatal for girls like me. I was skeptical but willing to try anything.
My first appointment in Vietnam was with Dr. Jane at the Health Unit inside the US Consulate. She is American, of course, and went to medical school in New York City. She moved to Vietnam just for an adventure, met her Kiwi (New Zealand) husband, stayed and had kids. Aside from working for the Consulate, she also has her own private practice outside the walls.
The Consulates Health Unit is extremely thorough, showing a 15-minute power point presentation on Health Care in Vietnam. I was given little laminated cards with all cell and work phone numbers and addresses of all the Health Unit Consulate staff and the best doctors in the local Hospitals, and addresses, in case of an emergency. A second card was given to me, the non fluent Vietnamese speaker, that said in Vietnamese, "I am having a baby. I need to get to this hospital, at this address, very fast." Just in case I went into labor and Eric was not with me. My orders were to keep both cards with me at all times. Dr. Jane, also ran thru her plan for me if I delivered early. Details such as, I would be air vacced to Singapore or Thailand, where the medical standards are just about equal to US standards (but a fifth the price). Delivering in Vietnam would be the very last option, or as she put it, not an option at all. I felt confident that if I did go into labor Dr. Jane would have everything under control. The rest of the check up was routine, peed in a cup, measured my belly, listened to the heart beat, checked blood pressure and weight. Everything came back normal. I was 6 months and had gained 12 pounds so far, two pounds over my target weight. The baby is healthy and kicking a lot. My only complaint at six months is that my tailbone gets sore if I sit too long.
The US Consulate is a block away from the Intercontinental. I am taking this picture from our bathroom. Can you see the American Flag?
31 weeks. I feel really large because I am surrounded by the tiniest humans on the earth.
