Back to Normal

Well, sort of. Hen is back in school which is great - he was happy to go. Some of my friends were traveling for CNY and now they are back, which is great. People are still setting off fireworks in the middle of the night which is not great. This whole week Henri has reverted to crying nonstop when put down to sleep. I don't know if it's the fireworks going off outside that he hears and now wants to "see!!!" or if he just realized he could mess with us by making us go back and forth repeatedly to tell him to settle down over the course of an hour and a half after bedtime. And then waking up in the middle of the night to start the whole process over again. I haven't had uninterrupted sleep since before CNY. For some reason when I stumble into Hen's room at 2 a.m. and tell him "mommy's tired" it doesn't have an impact. Anyway, here's to hopin' it's just a short-lived phase.

Here is a cute pic from the park the other day. The weather continues to shock me with it's sunshine and warmth.

Happy Year of the Snake

Sunday was Chinese New Year - This was rung in by super crowded grocery stores (which are rumored to be closed so you must stock up - but in reality they just open late so stocked up for nothing...), and late night firecrackers set off just beneath my window (or so it seemed).

We celebrated by eating at one of Maxime's Hotel restaurants - Shanghai Pavilion- and watching the drum performance and lion dance in the lobby of his hotel. At school Henri was taught to say "Gong Xi" with his little hangs clasped, tilting up and down - which is short of Gong xi fa cai (Happy New Year) - and it works a lot like "trick-or-treat" - people say it to potential gift givers - but instead of candy you get a red envelope with some kind of gift in it (lottery ticket, cold coin chocolates, gift certificates, real money). My least favorite thing about CNY is that many businesses shut down - including schools... for a week.

Here are a few pics from our time at the hotel yesterday:

Looking out over Taipei

Henri and Tristyn playing in the breeze

Getting comfi watching the drummers

The lions

Hen and Jacie hanging out in the lobby after the show

Chillin' at the park

Fwd: Chilin' at the park, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Here is Ryan (13 mo) and Henri hamming it up on a park bench at, what I call, the airplane park. Ryan is one of Henri's few guy friends and while he is a bit younger by toddler standards, they still have fun together. I look forward to watching Hen teach Ryan lots of naughty behaviors, like excessive "no!" exclamations, climbing furniture and whatnot.

Progress…

One month in, Henri seems to have really adjusted to school. When I dropped him off today he was dancing and spinning around and being silly from the moment we walked into the classroom. He also ate (half) a vegetable dumpling that was provided as a snack for his class, which I thought was pretty awesome considering I can hardly get him to try a single kernel of corn! Today his teacher told me that he prefers playing with other children rather than playing with toys. This is why we wanted to put him in school in the first place – He is so very social and I thought he would enjoy being around more people during his away-from-me-time.

 But wait, I’m not done…

This evening, just before bath time, Henri went into his room, opened the drawer that holds his diapers, brought one back to Maxime and I in the living room, and laid down for a diaper change - without any prompting from us whatsoever. He had pooped. This is huge, it means he is finally noticing when he needs a diaper change. Let’s hope this awareness continues. I’ve been shopping around for potty chairs of late – In naïve hope that I will need one soon… By the way, I love saying “potty chair” because it reminds me of the infamous story of when my angry then-toddler sister, who had formed an attachment to her potty chair, came out of the bathroom upon its disappearance, angrily demanding to know “who stole my potty cha-oh?!”

Lately we have just been nursing our colds – Maxime stayed home two days this week to try and recover – Luckily Henri seems better this week. Mine has been more of a nuisance than anything. Luckily I knew it was coming and drugged myself accordingly…

The other big news is that we are thiiiiiis close to booking our April spring break trip to Malaysia. Then once that trip is behind us we will start planning our summer travels back to the States!