Yangmingshan

IMAG0171.jpg, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Our attempt at experiencing nature

IMAG0165.jpg, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Vanessa and Colin were interested in escaping the city as the one thing they wanted to do during their visit to Taiwan. Sadly the weather hasn't been cooperative for the hike we had in mind but we stumbled into a nice area to walk up on Yangmingshan (the mountain/national park close to where I live).

Tennis!

IMAG0124.jpg, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Only a few of us turned out for the last tennis clinic of the year... You can see how wet and dreary the conditions were... (We cleared our courts, of course).

Preschool Christmas Performance

071 a video by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Poor Hen was so distracted my a man who walked in behind him he basically just stood there and stared at him the entire time... So this wasn't his break out performance... Next time...

Preschool Christmas Party

Last week Henri's class put on a Christmas concert followed by a party that included a visit from Santa Claus himself... Here are a few pics from that day (video soon to follow):

 

Just hanging out

Fwd:, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Watchin' a little Peppa Pig...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I did miss home on Thanksgiving day - Henri and I had the whole cold and rainy day to ourselves as Maxime was at work. I tried to start a tradition with Henri by going to the movies but he mostly complained it was too loud and wanted to keep changing seats. Luckily we had a really nice dinner planned. We had six couples plus 8 kids. It wasn't home - but it was a lot like a thanksgiving dinner we would have had back home - kids running around, men sitting around (talking about football ;-), ladies providing the traditional fare... We got to try each other's family dishes - some amazing stuffing, crazy rich and delicious mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, ... I was a little disappointed that we only had four cranberry options ;-). I'm so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life here in Taiwan. I really love my friends here and I know my days here are numbered so it's easy to feel just really, really lucky to have them. Here are some photographs from last night:

 

 

 

Recent Pics

From a recent catalog with the word "KaKa" written across the top...

Here is Henri sitting with his and one other class waiting to be picked up (they hand off the children one by one)



Henri is a big help at the grocery store - he pushes our cart...

and unloads it, all by himself

The dozen eggs still in the cart... those were picked up upside down and one did not survive and I looked like a pretty silly momma taking pictures instead of making sure my two year old didn't break the eggs...

Handsome boy - taken  on the steps that lead up to the "fountain."

Happy Halloween!

I knew today was going to be at least a little bit stressful. I made muffins and cookies for Henri's class Halloween brunch - I had to do a second batch of muffins first thing this morning when the first batch turned out too doughy. Then I made the mistake of trying to give Henri "anti-gravity hair" to go along with his astronaut costume which caused both of us much grief. The class party was great - we did pumpkin bowling, digging for bugs, and a few crafts before having our potluck brunch. Henri gets a bit overwhelmed when there are strangers about so he wasn't quite himself. Fast forward to trick or treating in the rain and then getting home only to have a pretty jolting earthquake (6.3) and I think my stress levels have pretty much reached if not an all time high than at least a highly ranking high. Good to be a few minutes away from bedtime. I thought I'd go ahead and post a few pictures from our day.



The astronaut and the pumpkin fairy about to head to school

Circle Time

Digging for bugs

A picture of the class moms but no group shot of the kids :-(

Hen with Ms Trista, the Teacher's Assistant

Our posse: Jacie, Tristyn, Paris, Rylie, Georgia and Henri

The best part about trick or treating from diplomats! Candy from back home!

Routine...

I have become really quite awful at keeping this blog up to date. I guess that life is so routine right now that I feel that I have little to report.

Right now I am consumed with walking 5 miles a day 5 days a week (I finally did a Google map calculation and found that I walk 2 KM each way to school, times 4 equals about 4.96 miles).  Plus I’m playing tennis 3-4 days a week.  I have recently started a bible study that meets once a week with five days of homework on the Book of Daniel. I have also started taking guitar lessons! Both of these things are very new ventures for me. I am REALLY enjoying both.  All of this activity is finished before I pick up Henri at 11:45 a.m. Then the real work (and fun) begins!

Henri seems to really like school. His Teacher Ms. Megan writes really nice things in his communication book about his enthusiasm over… the construction they can see from the playground,… the book about the five little monkeys (which he enjoys reciting as he jumps on the bed – totally ignoring the “NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED” line)…. They are gearing up for Halloween festivities so I’m sure I will post pictures of that soon enough.

We are looking forward to having visitors soon – Maxime’s friend Thibaud is visiting next weekend and then two weeks later we will have Vanessa! So happy! We are also looking forward to having Vanessa and Colin for Christmas and somewhere along the way we plan to visit Maxime’s family in France/England. So the rest of this year is looking pretty interesting, indeed.   Of course next year will bring change for us but I’m still trying to live in a peaceful state of denial until… Well until I can’t anymore.

Petit Chou

This summer Henri and his best buddy Jacie were in a modeling shoot together. The final product is an accordion style mailer piece and I love it because it's just the two of them. This was the shoot that took place in an antique store. It was cramped and full of items that could get a toddler in a lot of trouble but the end result is great. I like that we have something that has these two featured together. It's a great keepsake from our time here.

Henri at 2 and a half

During this blog’s infancy I used to give monthly updates on Henri and what he was accomplishing at that time. As he got older it seemed less necessary as his first steps/words, etc., were long behind us. But since it’s been a while I thought it might be a good time to take a quick snap shot of Henri at two and a half.

Physically: He’s basically functioning like a slightly clumsy big boy. He can climb up ladders (at the park), go up and down stairs unassisted - he continues to run, jump, dance, spin, pretends to fall down, actually falls down… He attempts summersaults (to my dismay, his neck position looks really uncomfortable), he loves to climb onto my back for a horse or piggyback ride. He’s very physical; he is always flinging himself about which leads to head bumps he seems less than concerned about. He did a back flip off our arm chair the other day when he threw himself backwards thinking the back of the chair would catch him – his angle was off… luckily it resulted in a minor bump on the head.

Speech: His sentences are coming together quite nicely. He surprises me now and then. Yesterday we got into a taxi and Henri belts out a big “Ni Hao!” to the driver (hello in chinese). He has started tattling on his friends (apparently last time his little friend Ryan was over he banged our empty water bottles and I heard about it every time we walked by the bottles for two weeks! I asked Henri if he banged them too, and he admitted that he was an accomplice to the crime so I’m not sure he understands good tattling strategy, but I have faith that he will get there). He has also started telling me when something is hurting him, which is a good development. I thought it would make me feel less helpless than when he can’t tell me what’s wrong but I’m still pretty helpless when he tells me that his belly and mouth hurts, which I can’t do much about. He doesn’t always speak in sentences but he can construct proper ones with a subject, verb, etc. Last night I listened to him count to 20 in French nearly perfectly (I did not ask him to) – Occasionally I hear him counting in Chinese.  He loves singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (which he learned in school – he tells me to sing it “fast!”… then “slooooooooowly.”

Potty Training: Is going fine. He gets it. I wouldn’t call him potty trained yet as he mostly goes when I make him. The other day we were walking through the park on our way home from school and a look of panic crossed his face as he grabbed himself so I took him behind the closest tree (we were in a secluded area of the park) and told him he could pee standing up. WHAT a disaster. Really Maxime needs to give this tutorial. I ended up with pee all over MY leg, shoes, hand, etc. I ended up needing to tip his whole body at an angle head over feet to prevent the pee from going all over both of us. It was awkward. Lesson learned.

Interests: He loves being sporty - We often play the arcade basketball game where you shoot as many baskets as you can – he made 5 baskets yesterday! (Yes, I let him stand where the basketballs roll in so he was standing three feet away from it but still!) He is very into all things transportation. He points out buses, construction sites, garbage trucks, etc. He always wants to run/walk everywhere and likes to spot and pick up rocks for me to carry for him. He likes playing catch. He still prefers the swing at the park before doing anything else.  At the grocery store he likes to carry around an item and he wants to be the one to hand it directly to the cashier. On the iPad he puts together some pretty challenging looking puzzles (though I think he does so more by trial and error versus looking at the “big picture”) and loves to watch Dinosaur Train. We play at least 1-3 hands of UNO every day. He often wins.

Henri looks and acts less like a toddler and more like a little boy. He still strikes me as a positive little boy who loves learning, playing, being sporty… His teacher reports that Henri is enthusiastic about every activity they do. He is being much more mature about going to sleep by himself. If only this maturity would extend into what he is willing to eat…. And don’t take this update like we don’t have our challenges. Yesterday I had to put him in timeout when he wouldn’t stop licking the front door when I told him to stop (he issued a direct challenge) and then again this morning for screeching and running away from me when it was time to brush his hair (which takes me all of 15 seconds if he would stand still!). So he is still an…. Independently minded child… but lucky for me the good FAR outweighs the difficulties so… life is good!

Here are some various recent pics:

 

Henri and Ryan playing at the park

Henri showing off an Engineer hat he made at school (as well as a monkey mask from last semester)

August was Ghost Month - there were many a fires where people made offerings to their ancestors via burning fake money. Often when our neighbors do this it is accompanied by a big meal they set up in the doorway with incense burning all around, also in offering it would seem. 

Henri and I are both finishing our antibiotics from our illnesses we have suffered over the past couple of weeks. I took a picture of what prescription medicine looks like here - the bottom packets are mine, the top bottles are Henri's. What I have come to realize is that they "prescribe" things that we would normally buy over the counter - Not all of it, but some. (one of my prescriptions was basically Claritin D).