Singing ABC

Here's a video of Sophie singing ABC. It's very loud!

Áo Dài for Tết

My friend Tuyến bought Sophie an áo dài outfit from Hanoi when Sophie was just a few months old. It was too big for Sophie at the time, so we put it away in storage. We almost forgot about it. Now, after two years, it was a bit tight on Sophie, but it looked pretty cool when paired with tights. I think cô Tuyến has to buy Sophie a new áo dài outfit soon.

Princess Dress

There is a used clothing store close to where we live. Each time we pass by it, Sophie points out to us the princess dress she wants. So I took her in one day to buy one.  She was very surprised and took her time to find what she wanted. Of course, it was pink -- with tulle.

Tết - Part 2

We took Sophie to the Tết Festival at Seattle Center. It was nice to see young children singing in Vietnamese and celebrating Tết. But it was also sad to see how disappointed the adults were. They were too absorbed in their own pain and suffering due to displacement and war trauma to realize that their children had nothing to do with it. The children just wanted to sing and have fun -- and eat their egg rolls.

Enjoying her egg roll

Children from Trường Việt Ngữ Lạc Hồng singing

Tết, Phở and Macarons

Tết (Lunar New Year) came and went months ago, but I never had the chance to create a post for it. So here are some pictures and a video for what we did. Our own Tết tradition.

To prepare for Tết, Vân and I took Sophie to Green Lake to gather some twigs. Then we bought some fake  flowers from Viet-Wah and used them to decorate the twigs. Sophie helped Vân stick the twigs in the pot and filled it up with styrofoam chips. Voilà, our own hoa mai.

Hoa mai

Hoa mai close up -- not so pretty

On New Year's Day, we went to the ID (International District) for the dragon dance, which Sophie did not care for. She was scared of the sound and the people. So we only stayed for about 5 minutes.

Sophie with Plex

Dragon dance

For our Tết meal, we had phở with bò viên (beef balls). Vân made a big pot of stock, which lasted us for three meals. And I bought some grass-fed beef by Painted Hill. It was the best phở. Sophie had a big bowl, and she wanted seconds.

Bò viên in stock

Painted Hill beef

Phở with bò viên and beef

But the best part of our meal was the macarons Vân made. We fell in love with macarons when we were in Aix. We had pretty good macarons in Seattle, too. But Vân wanted to make her own. They turned out pretty well. Check out the "pied" (feet) on those macarons. Of course, Sophie was the biggest fan.  She would never share her macaron with anyone.

Macaron shells

I'm not sharing!

Sophie is eating her macaron with chocolate ganache