Happy Chinese New Year! (a week late...)

The last week has been pretty quiet, minus the occasional setting off of fireworks. Most small businesses were closed and lots of people were traveling or visiting families last week in celebration of the new year holiday. The election is over and the little speaker trucks also took a break so it was as close to peaceful as it can get here, I think. This year is the year of the dragon - Maxime was born in the year of the dragon so perhaps it will be an exceptional one for him...

On new year's day (last Monday) Henri and I went to the hotel to meet Maxime and have lunch at one of the Chinese restaurants there and to see a lion dance which did performances throughout the hotel. I really enjoyed watching it and Henri didn't cry, despite the loud drums, so... success!  A tradition for the new year is the giving of red envelopes with money inside. Bosses give them to employees, and families exchange them. You have to be sure not to give an unlucky amount or combination of bills - so if you want to give $1,000NT you had to give two $500's, not a $1,000 because that would be bad... Henri got a red envelope with a chocolate coin inside from his Papa.

This past weekend Maxime, Henri and I finally took a little trip out of the city up to Danshui, a little fishing village that sits where the Tamsui River meets the sea. It has a nice area to view the water and you could see a market type atmosphere but it was too crowded for us to push our stroller through.

Now I'm must preparing for my trip to the U.S. next week! I can't believe it's almost here!

Trouble Maker

In the past 24 hours Henri has shown me that he is gearing up for his toddler years. He is very into emptying drawers, unraveling toilet paper and really just making a mess wherever possible...

Here Henri has opened the game drawer and found the Uno Cards and decided to spread them about while tasting them...

Henri is very happy to have just finished removing several pairs of pants from a drawer - if you let him have access to any drawer you just assume it will be joyfully emptied very quickly.

Per the video above, Henri has discovered toilet paper....

Henri's Sense of Humor

Happy 10 month birthday, Henri!

Hen's getting up there, so close to the one year mark we can taste it! So hard to believe he will soon be entering into toddlerhood... 

Although I'm no expert, he's getting closer and closer to being able to walk. He has recently started to stand independently for a few seconds and even slowly lower himself down with no assistance (versus the usual plop, fall on the bottom). He loves pushing carts around and even tries to push his little activity table around the house. He'll grab onto my leg and we will walk (excruciatingly slowly) around the kitchen as I prepare his meals.

He is finally starting to really enjoy peek-a-boo... but he cheats. When I hide from him behind the side of the tub during bath time he immediately stands up to look over the edge and find me - he still screams and laughs when I say "boo" even though I'm not fooling anyone. 

He is eating lots more "solids" and only 4 bottles a day. He has recently started feeding himself little puffs and cheerios, but I haven't gotten him to extend this new talent to feeding himself bits of cheese or fruit - I cut up a banana into the same size as the puffs the other day and put a small pile of them next to the puffs - he gobbled up all puffs and left every single banana piece.

Belated Christmas Pics

So problably we over did it for Christmas. Henri was actually a little frightened by the act of opening gifts. For a few days after Christmas he was largely ignoring his new toys and went straight to his old ones but he has since gotten used to them. Here are a few pictures from the holiday.

Henri striking a pose

Fw: Henri modeling 3, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Maxime was off yesterday so he came with Henri and I to a modeling gig and was able to snap a couple pictures. It's definitely a very fast paced two hours and while most of the time Henri is sitting there having people try to make him smile it is a lot of work with all the wardrobe changes. I think this is fun but only once in a while!

Henri at the shoot

Fw: Henri modeling 4, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Screen with shots

Fw: Henri modeling 2, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.