My poor phone

My poor phone, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

This is what I get for letting Henri play with my phone... This phone suffered much abuse in the name of distracting Henri in stores, taxis, restaurants, etc. I have learned my lesson, however... Getting this phone switched out was no easy task. Try making two trips to the cell phone store with an ... energetic... Henri, where no one speaks English so having to use an interpreter over the phone who doesn't speak English very well - Henri is all over the place, pushing chairs around when I was tied up... on the second trip they let Henri take over mopping the floor so he was a happy camper.

Our first trip to the beach

Beach, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

This weekend we drove about an hour to the northern most point of Taiwan to a beach called Baishawan. Baishawan means white sand beach, so I read, though as you can see from the pictures this name is slightly misleading. I'm told that most Taiwanese beaches have black sand so I guess this is white by comparison... There we're many things that stood out to me - lots of people kept their clothes on, even in the water - there are rows of tents - you rent one for about $10 USD for the day. They have a very small swimming area roped off and they cram all the tents in front of it so even though there is this really nice big beach everyone's forced into a tiny area so it was quite crowded. Henri entered the ocean for the first time here - the east china sea... And no I didn't take a picture. Maxime took him in while I huddled beneath my $10 strip of shade.

Baishawan

Beach2, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Henri and... A pink creature of some kind...

Pinkdude2, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

This weekend we went to a park to visit an exhibition we heard about and we stumbled upon some kind of children's event. Henri had the opportunity to have a photo op with this strange pink creature so we took it! Henri didn't freak out though he didn't want to be too close.

Another bad sign

Carrefour, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Henri looks as turned off by these fish as I am... Hopefully he doesn't pick up my strong aversion to seafood...

My Gym - I'm Lovin' It

Henri and I took our second class at My Gym today. It opened only a few weeks ago and I'm glad it's at least somewhat close to Tianmu. The class lasts an hour and flies by. They boogie through the opening warm-ups and get right into various fun activities for the tots. For example, the first station was a maze they created out of folded mats. Then they moved on to gymnastic focused stations were you could try the balance beam or the rings. Later they hang up different types of swings - one was a giant mat they hung and called it a water bed, which Henri enjoyed trying to balance upon standing unsuccessfully. They also had a roller coaster station where you could ride a cart down a slide into a set of mats positioned like bowling pins. Sometimes Henri just wants to throw balls around or find a set of steps to climb. Okay I also have to mention that they have a zipline to which they attach a toddler swing - so cool.

To balance out this post I will also mention that our first class was really overwhelming. They do move very quickly and there are 2-3 teachers and they repeat each other a lot - so the lead teacher will yell out "it's time to go back to the circle" and the others will repeat "back to the circle" sort of on cue and it's like a really annoying echo. The teachers also try to interact with your kid, which is great most of the time, but I think they need to give the child a little more time to warm up to them before they just grab them and flip them over (which a teacher did last week).

We were the only foreigners in the class but the whole thing was done in English. Henri loves it - I find it entertaining and really just enjoy watching him have so much fun. I took lots of pictures today:

Peeking around the corner in the maze

Henri prefered walking beside the balance beam

Swing time

The "roller coaster"

Crash!

The mattress swing

"independent play time" - they ask parents to stay away

Just general happiness

My picky eater

Highchair2, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Henri may have taken after his mother's unadventurous palate... Here he is removing the cheerios that have strawberry yogurt flavoring on them - they are pink hence they must go! He will also remove broken cheerios or ones that are stuck together. If I dare to put a piece of fruit on his plate - IF he acknowledges it - it will be to poke it once and then ignore it or eject it from his plate. How will he ever take to a new food if he won't even taste it? Ugh.

Kitchen helper

Kitchen helper, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Here's Henri reorganizing my kitchen drawer. Such a little helper...

Inpired by The Bachelor

Here is the video I posted a couple days ago with a few minor edits...

Leading the way

Walking, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Heading to the dinosaur exhibit at CKS Memorial Hall.

Dinosaur!

Dinosaur!, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Today we visited a dinosaur exhibit at CKS Memorial Hall. I can't say the little ones got too much out of it but it was a nice change of scenery and a fun indoor activity (anything to escape the heat!)