Free play

Hen and Ryan at My Gym, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Hen and Ryan at My Gym

Back to the Hospital...

Henri had an accident today. My friend Kat and her son had come over for a breakfast playdate. Henri was running around in circles, lost his balance and hit his face square on the corner of the wall. Since our walls are made of concrete I knew right away that this would do some damage. He cried really, really hard, so hard that he made himself vomit. His nose was starting to swell and there was some blood coming out so we decided to take him to the doctor to see if it looked broken who then directed us to the hospital.

The Taiwan system of going to the hospital can seem a bit bureaucratic. I pull a number so that I can register. I'm given another number and sent to an ENT doctor. The ENT examines Henri and gives us another number to go get an x-ray. We are then sent back to the ENT doctor to review the results who then writes a prescription with yet another number for the pharmacy. But first we go to the cashier in order to pay for the visit and meds where we also need to pull a number. (Grand Total $150 NT or about $5 USD) Then to the pharmacy to pick up the meds (our number had already been called!) and finally we are on our way. Thankfully Henri's nose was not broken. It was difficult to understand what exactly you would call it but basically he hit the snot out of his nose and broke up some tissue or vessels up there so is really just a really bad bruise. The ENT doctor informed me that Henri had a sinus infection so the drugs we received were for that and Henri's pain. This nose injury will be very difficult for Henri because he lives for Eskimo kisses.

I'm very grateful that Kat was there - she drove us to both the doctor and the hospital. She knows a bit of Cinese so she was able to help me navigate the hospital and she also was able to get us to the front of a line or two (of course babies get special treatment in Taiwan!). She also was able to stay with Henri a time or two while I waded through the aforementioned bureaucratic obstacle course that is the hospital... So Thanks, Kat!

Here's Hen once we got back home. The swelling is on his left side. I think the boo boo above his lip was from when he was fighting against the ENT doctor's examination (he used a couple tools - one to suck all the snot out of Henri's nose which I'm sure felt very strange and one to hold open his nostril - I had to physically restrain poor Hen because he was freaking out). After a large number of meltdowns this morning Hen has already returned to his sweet little self.

The Zoo

Taipei has a great zoo and this weekend was our third time visiting. This was Henri's first time really understanding, however, which was fun. We read about these animals and he can say "elephant," "monkey," and "gorilla," (etc.) with accompanying animal noises.

Off to the zoo by MRT

 



Trip to Tainan

Weekend before last Maxime, Henri and I headed to Tainan – a city in the southern part of Taiwan. There is a Shangri-La there so we decided to go check it out. We traveled by high speed rail. The hotel was great and we were treated to a tour of some of the sights. I actually really liked what I saw – While it’s still a sizeable city (pop. 750,000 approx.), it definitely felt less jam packed than Taipei.

On the train, headed to Tainan

 

 Anping Tree House: So at first I thought we were actually going to see a house built (intentionally) up in a tree - but instead it was a house that ended up being consumed by a Banyan tree. A Banyan tree is a sort of (strangler) fig tree that always grows from a host - it often consumes it's host but usually that would be another plant or tree - not a house... I've seen lots of these trees here. They have a sort of moss that hangs down and seems kind of creepy to me, and exposed-looking roots. I did a little research on them after reading something interesting on site. In the Phillipines many believe that spirits dwell in them and that you should never point at one as to not anger the spirits that may be residing there. On site I read that they were very unpopular because their wood is too soft for building so they were regarded as "good for nothing" but then since they were allowed to remain they provided much needed shade - so to everything there is a purpose...

 

 

 

 

This is a trimmed Banyan Tree

 

Orchids at Anping Tree House: I assume that since there isn't much to see at the tree house they decided to have small exhibitions there - they had some amazing orchids. It's becoming notable that I must have a strange fear of plants because like the banyan tree, I think some orchids are kind of creepy...

 

 

 

 

The Rest: We also visited a temple, an old (market) street, a Dutch fort and battleship... I became a less enthusiastic photographer as the afternoon (and rain) progressed...

Hen didn't mind sight seeing in the rain.

 



Old Street

 

Everytime I see this I think it's a big bowl of bumble bees - It's not - they are like little snail shells or something I have no idea.



 

First time seeing a cemetrary in Taiwan though not sure if this is typical.

 

 

Mother's Day at School

Here is the Mother's Day card I received from Henri at School. His hand print is on the back.

 

Henri never stopped jumping during their performance...

Happy Mother's Day...

007 a video by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Today I was surprised with a mother’s day treat at Henri’s preschool. Here’s a video of their little performance. You may notice a certain someone bouncing off the walls...

Henri Sans Pacy

Once Henri recovered from Hand, Foot and Mouth we had no more excuses. We had to cut the Pacy. The dentist said to cut it by 2 years and we extended that to cover our vacation and then illness. About a week ago, over the weekend, we did it. 

Henri only used it to go to sleep. It was about as effective as giving him an Ambien. The moment he took it his eyelids would get heavy and he would start resting his head on my shoulder.  It had been ages since he used it outside of the house (minus on airplanes and the occasional car ride melt down).  What has become apparent is that the little guy had no idea how to wind down without the pacy.

 

It wasn’t as bad as I feared – there were no tantrums. There was definitely some whining . At the times when I would normally give it to him (after the bath) he would tell me “pacy, bye bye.”  After a week he doesn’t seem to think of his old friend too often… But putting him down has become a nightmare.

 This child of mine is crazy. Without his pacifier he is bouncing off the walls. He talks nonstop. I have to tell him repeatedly to lay down. Sometimes I sit there listening to him babble on and I can tell he is thinking about his day (on a school day he starts talking about his classmates, if we had hung out with our neighbors he talks about them). Sometimes he just practices saying things. His nightlight projects stars and the moon on the ceiling and every night he points out the moon. I have listened to him repeatedly say “I see moon. I see moooooon. I SEE MOON!” Sometimes he lifts his shirt up a little and tickles his own stomach. He has head butted me a few times… One night it took him 1.5 hours to fall asleep. It’s gradually getting better.  Though he is waking up with the sun which is unacceptable!

When I was young I used to torture my sister – and probably anyone who ended up having to bunk with me – by talking to them until they fell asleep. With my sister I would continuously give her a little kick to make sure she was still awake so she wouldn’t miss the end of my story. So perhaps Henri gets his… bedtime chattiness… from me. Maybe this is revenge?