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| Somehow we resisted the dancing animals in combat boots... |
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| Had to buy Hen a couple cheap toys to hold on to during all that stroller time... |
Friday, December 28, 2012
Morning Jaunt to Danshui
This morning, Mom, Henri and I took the Taxi to the MRT to the port town of Danshui to walk around Old (market) Street and see the sea.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Christmas
Well... Christmas was a bit tainted this year. I got really, really, ill on Christmas day. So ill we were unable to keep our Christmas dinner plans at the American Club - so ill I really couldn't even move.
But before I got sick Henri opened presents. I can't say he was totally into it - he didn't tear into them with the kind of dedication and focus I recall having - though I hear next year that may change... I took a video of him opening a gift so that you can witness for yourself this general lack of focus:
I'm still not 100% and so am going to use this valuable nap time to catch one myself... but I leave you with a few pictures from the last week or so.
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| Fishy face on the Gondola ride |
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| Taken from the Gondola |
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| Henri's new viking hat - at first he hated it then today when the temperature was actually quite warm he threw a fit because he wanted to wear it. |
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| Guess Who?! Hen and Maxime in front of Taipei 101 |
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| Too much excitement eating lunch at Chili's, I suppose... |
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Love my new camera!
Thanks Dad and Nancy for the camera for Christmas... No, I didn't save it for Christmas, you know I don't have that kind of self control. Here are some of the shots I've taken so far...
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| Henri is on a sign! Our friend spotted him so we went to Sogo to see if it was true - there he is towards the left bottom and on the top left. |
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| You don't see this everyday! Dog seemed happy enough to be pulling a cart... |
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| Maxime is back safely from England/France! |
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| This was taken on the grounds of CKS - We stopped by to show mom the site. |
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| Mom and Hen on the bridge at CKS. |
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Winter has Arrived
Maxime snapped this picture of Henri while walking home through the drizzle (and puddles that Henri enjoys stomping through). We are finally needing to wear coats! Ok, it is supposed to heat back up to the high 70's this weekend... but mostly it's winter. Henri hates wearing a coat - but he got over it considering there were puddles to distract him from his wrestling match with his coat (hasn't figured out how to both unzip and unbutton it... yet...)
Friday, December 7, 2012
Weekend Work
This morning we got moving pretty quickly in order to be across town at a New Balance modeling shoot. I was very nervous as Henri seems to have increased stranger anxiety of late - but he did amazing. It helped that the set was just wide open space and they encouraged him to play with balls during the shoot. I literally had to carry him off the set at the end, he was having so much fun.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Bronchitis and the Holidays
The last month has been full of
sickness… and some celebration.
About a month ago Henri had his
first case of Bronchitis. It was extremely traumatic - full of sleepless
nights, vomit and refusal of medicine… probably I was the most traumatized… I
worry so much about the little guy.
On the second day of his fever
when it got close to 104 we decided to take him in to the doctor – thankfully in
Taiwan not all doctor’s offices are closed on the weekend. We were given a
truckload of medicine to give Henri – zero of which we were able to get or keep
down. The next day we took him to a different doctor (who gave the same
diagnosis) but was able to prescribe his medicine in a way that would increase
our chances of success (i.e. suppository, combination of drugs, etc.).
God bless the nurse at Adventist.
When you tell the doctor that you can’t make your child take or keep down the
medicine they basically tell you to try harder. The nurse showed us. She
combined syrup and a powder medicine into a ½ teaspoon concoction. After Henri
showed her it wasn’t going to be taken willingly (through a straw or cup) she
knew we were going to have to restrain him and send it down his unwilling little
throat with a syringe. After her tutorial our success rate in administering
Henri’s medicine went up exponentially. Maxime is better at this than me… Once
the medicine was going in and staying in Henri started to improve right away
and while his coughing was painful to hear he was on the up and up.
In other news…
Henri attended the two-year
birthday party of his girlfriend, Jacie. They celebrated at Yu Kids followed by
dinner at Chilis and present opening at Jacie’s house where Henri did manage a
few bites of cake before issuing his trademark “no” to anything you try to feed
him that isn’t the one of the five things he is willing to eat. Henri got Jacie
a yipping puppy that is never far from her side, at least for now.
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| A somber Jacie, with Tristyn and Hen. |
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| Hen's got that crazy look in his eyes... |
The next week was Thanksgiving.
Our neighbors, The Kasprzak’s, celebrated with us, along with Jenny’s parents,
The Crawford’s. The food was great – The turkey was perfectly cooked (by the
Shangri-La) and the sides were the usual, familiar (and delicious) sides. We
had a kids table that I was not even close to being sent to (finally). The only
hiccup was that my building’s property manager showed up right as we were
sitting down to eat with the hot water heater repairman. She doesn’t speak English
so after a little confusion we allowed them to go see the heater while we started
dinner. Jenny’s dad said grace – but during the prayer, the property manager,
at the behest of the repairman, started turning off and on our kitchen sink and
saying in Chinese what probably amounted to “how about now, now? Okay, now?”
through the window that separates the kitchen from the utility room. They were
oblivious and I was irritated, but only for a few minutes. The rest of the
evening was perfect. The kids love each other and play well together and it
really felt like we were in the States, minus having my family around.
I’m excited that Christmas is
around the corner and that I get to share it with my mother. She arrives in
less than two weeks and I look forward to seeing what she thinks about Taiwan
and having her spend some valuable time with Henri. The Christmas tree is up –
I’ve downloaded large amounts of Christmas music and I’m just really excited
about it this year.
Along with the Christmas Spirit -
sadly the last couple of weeks have also ushered in Taiwan’s winter – which means
we won’t be seeing much of the sun henceforth. I hope it isn’t as dreary as
last year - but if last year was the norm, a blue sky will not be making an
appearance until around May when the extreme heat sets in and just burns off
any clouds that dare appear.
Due to my quest to break every small
electronic device that crosses my path, I now have no camera until Christmas. In
four months, I have broken two phones and a camera by simply dropping them. So
anything I post on the blog for the time being will have to have come from
friends or Maxime… Though I can’t see how much slower this will make my posts
since I have been pretty slow as it is…
Here are a couple pics from our night out with the grown up Kasprzak's - in honor of Jenny's 30th Birthday:
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Henri's Second Haircut
Henri was such a good boy during his second haircut - his first in Taiwan with someone who didn't speak English... He didn't cry, try to get down or make things difficult in any way. I was proud of him. The little car seat probably helped a little.
Henri Update
Time flies. After Hen’s nap this afternoon I was sitting
with him on the coach – where he leisurely wakes up – staring up at a framed
picture of Henri from maybe around four months. It’s amazing how much change a year (and a few
months) can bring. Henri has become quite a little handful. He’s still really
sweet and really funny (see below "Henri the Toddler" video) – but he knows how to push my buttons and I’m starting
to think he’s doing it on purpose.
I think our main frustration at the moment is that he can
understand so much – but can communicate so little. I felt like we had a little
breakthrough today because he started crying right after a toy dropped so I
asked him to show me where it hurt and he grabbed his foot. I know this seems
like such a small thing (I did deduce that it was his foot before he told me) but
for me it was a real milestone. Two way communication that didn’t involve
whining or the ol’ “uh uh uh” routine! I
ran some cold water on it – which probably wasn’t necessary but I feel like it’s
a good sensory distraction– and that was that. Now I need to do a better job
asking questions he can somehow answer until he gets his words. Speaking of
words his current favorite words are “bubble” (which he says whenever I blow a
bubble with my gum) and “apple.”
He cracks me up every day. He does a happy dance when he
sees the family on Skype, our neighbors or really anyone he likes. This
involves some bobbing up and down, stomping and squealing. He’ll just up and
yell “go!” and start running back and forth across the apartment with his
little hands flapping. He likes to spin until he’s dizzy. He knows how to turn
the dishwasher on and when he finally succeeds in pushing the button hard
enough for it to cycle on he gets scared and runs over to me and grabs my leg
all terrified. Sometimes I think he’ll take any excuse to laugh. He will decide
saying “boo!” is hilarious so the next five minutes he’s just cracking up
saying “boo!” over and over.
Tonight was a push my buttons night. He went from opening and
slamming every kitchen cabinet, to seizing the remotes and messing up the TV
settings, to grabbing my cookbooks and throwing them across the room, to
climbing onto the coffee table repeatedly, back to the kitchen to empty one of
my drawers… I hate my mean voice and I
had to hear it a lot tonight.
I realize this is just the beginning…
Out and about with his lady friends
Last weekend we headed to the Taipei Childrens Recreation Center. It's only about a 15 minute car ride, is very affordible, and despite the drizzle, we enjoyed their handful of rides. We rode the teacups - twice. I think I prefer the tilt-a-whirl.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween
Tonight Henri and I went trick or treating with our neighbors. There is a neighborhood of american state department workers who live in Yangmingshan (on a mountain overlooking Tianmu). There are about 20 houses there that participate in trick or treating - and about 500 trick or treaters! It was crazy busy - but many of the houses were well decorated and once we were there it was a good time... despite the rain, and the wind... and the cold... Hen mostly took in everything from the relative comfort of his stroller.
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| Henri playing with "the girls" toys before heading out. |
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| Our posse - and a chilly looking Princess Leia and Rainbow Fairy |
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| Henri and Yoda (with no mask) |
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Quick stop - Martyrs Shrine
Today we stopped by a tourist attraction we drive by all the time. It had a changing of the guard ceremony and pretty pagoda style buildings. I wasn't actually allowed inside because I was wearing flip flops... So I can't speak to what was being guarded by some seriously still guards...
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