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.



Somehow we resisted the dancing animals in combat boots...

  

 

Had to buy Hen a couple cheap toys to hold on to during all that stroller time...

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.

 

Fishy face on the Gondola ride

 

Taken from the Gondola

 

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.

Guess Who?! Hen and Maxime in front of Taipei 101

Too much excitement eating lunch at Chili's, I suppose...

 

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...

 



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.

You don't see this everyday! Dog seemed happy enough to be pulling a cart...

Maxime is back safely from England/France!



This was taken on the grounds of CKS - We stopped by to show mom the site.



Mom and Hen on the bridge at CKS.

Winter has Arrived

Fwd:, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

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...)

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.

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. 

A somber Jacie, with Tristyn and Hen.

 

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: