Electric E; dinosaur coffee; more Covid, no waiver news

He can be the Big E, Little E, Easy E, but he's always E, as in Electric. My son Elijah, who's getting tall as well as big, jacks up the microwave to full heat and maximum time whenever he passes by. If I heat up coffee, he turns the dials to their limits so coffee will boil all over the place if I'm not there. But I've always been there because I know my son's behavior. I worry about his height and size now because he can reach the stove dials and every outlet in the house. Coffee is a special problem, and not just because of the microwave dials. He goes ballistic if I don't let him drink it, and he's oblivious to how hot things are or could be. My after-dinner coffee is a scream-fest and he has to be diverted. Electric is the big lure and we have to use it to get him off the coffee, letting him turn off the ceiling fan. If we're not focused on him, he'll move chairs to reach light switches, creating concert-like effects in every room, especially the bedrooms and bathrooms.  We got him a sensory board with switches, plugs, locks and shapes, and he's starting to get into it. My daughter did everything on the board a couple of times and the thrill is gone. Elijah smashed the bell on the board, laughed and applauded himself. He's a fun guy with a ready smile.
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Joanna and I spotted a T-Rex Coffee and Tea on Vo Thi Sau during our afternoon walk. It was easy to spot because it's next to the ATM  I use. Oh no. Joanna loves the place (the T-Rex coffee shop) and she was fascinated by the large and scary anatomical T-Rex inside, along with plastic and relatively realistic triceratops, parasaurolophus, and velociraptors. It took her a little while, but she now she touches the moving, roaring T-Rex. She'll eventually get bored with the place, but it will take a while since she's enamored with dinosaurs, sea creatures and all animals, really. We went on a Sunday and the crowd of kids was a little rough; one kid kept hitting the styrofoam dinosaur with his fist and anything else he could grab, another kid about 6 or 7 was flipping off the T-Rex while his parents sat nearby and laughed, and another kid grabbed the T-Rex tongue and ripped the tip off. Adults were nearby but preoccupied on their cell phones ... or laughing at their kids' unsavory behavior. Joanna started getting a little wound up, pulling up some flowers to feed T-Rex. I didn't laugh, explained the problem to her and we left in a veil of tears. I tried to explain so she would understand and not get too upset, but my daughter is very sensitive to criticism. I really just wanted her to know that other kids can be fun and good friends, but we have to make our own decisions and do the right thing. Thank goodness my daughter is very bright and seems to understand what I'm telling her most of the time.
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Covid keeps hanging around here, averaging more than 8,000 new cases a day in Vietnam in the past week, but life is returning to normal. More and more noisy vendors are walking the streets, more bikes are appearing and more speeders on bikes and in cars are making their presence felt on our street. Food produced locally is still relatively cheap, but imported goods are getting costlier all the time. Joanna and I end up in the park sometime each day, often to meet my wife and Electric E, who loves kicking the ball and chasing it down.
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We're still waiting for any word regarding our waiver application for my wife to get a visa to enter the United States. It was sent mid-September. My daughter isn't in school but should be (she's 5 years old), and probably will refuse to go to school in Vietnam. The only school she could do here would be online kindergarten, which I nixed. So we're hoping for good news on the waiver and we're hoping for it soon. Homeschool continues, but my computer broke down, the internet can be problematic, and Joanna needs peers and she needs to be challenged more. We're on a break at the moment waiting for a new laptop to arrive. In the meantime, she draws and colors while humming the entire time, reads on occasion, and walks in the heat with her dad. We watch British Council kids videos and she'll answer the accompanying questions.
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I've surpassed 100 weeks and 700 days in a row of reading, having recently finished the riveting Labyrinth of Ice by Buddy Levy, which was about the Greely polar expedition.  Now I'm reading Conquistador, his book about the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortes. ... I'm a month away from two years without a drink of alcohol. I might share a beer with my wife if we get the visa. ... Rainy season continues here, with a daily downpour usually starting late afternoon. The Coffee House always lends Joanna and I an umbrella if we happen to be out walking in the rain. Nice folk work there.