Vanessa and Henri

IMAG0294.jpg, a photo by mdelagrange on Flickr.

Henri and his Aunt at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Maxime and Henri atop the Shangri-La Hotel,
with Taipei 101 in the distance

Our Visitor

I’m happy to report that we are currently hosting our first visitor… My sister! She had a 24 hour trip with only about six of that being in the air. She flew Kandahar (flight delayed one day) to Kabul – Kabul to New Delhi (delayed three hours, 11 hour layover) – to Bangkok, finally to Taipei (without her luggage!).  I’m very happy she is here and this should* force us to finally see some of the sights… Pictures to follow…

The Hen – Making him earn his keep.

Here in Taiwan, in attempt to appear international, local stores and brands often prefer to use Caucasian models. So one day we were walking down the sidewalk and a lady circled my stroller to take a look at Henri. Rubbernecking is quite common here so I didn’t think anything of it but then she hands me her card, explaining that she is a modeling agent. Not a week later she calls me up with a job for Henri. I decided to give it a try. I thought it might be fun and that if it turns out too hard on Henri then I won’t do it again.

So Henri decides to refuse his nap time in the morning so he shows up completely exhausted. Luckily they told me to take a walk, let him sleep and return when he awakens so that’s what I do.  When I return there are two other models there and we start alternating – Henri would be dressing while one of the other kids were doing pictures on the set. Henri was very intrigued by his surroundings and wanted to see everything. When he was up he did quite well. There were two Taiwanese ladies whose job was to get him to smile, set him up the way they wanted (turn this way or that) and smooth his hair or outfit. They had all kinds of equipment – remote control cars they would drive right at him to his delight, they would throw a ball back and forth… This is their JOB… Anyway, Henri had to change about 10 times during his two hour shift which he didn’t really like. But once he was dressed he was back to his chipper self and seemed to like the picture part.  Towards the end both of us were ready for it to be over but all in all I didn’t think it was overly rough on the guy. He was in good spirits the rest of the day and caught up on his sleep so I would be open to doing it again. Plus he earned $3,000 NT! (about $100 USD)

Taiwanese Potluck

Last weekend Maxime, Henri and I were invited by our landlord attend a potluck lunch in the common area of our building. Our building is owned by a family of five or six siblings – each owning one or two apartments. One of these siblings is estranged and so his unit’s tenants were NOT invited…  Anyway, they had a full spread of unfamiliar food, including pig liver and boiled chicken. The host accompanies you while you fill your plate – hovering and putting unspoken pressure on you to try EVERYTHING. So I filled my plate, stomach twisting at some of the dishes, and sat with the other tenants in a big circle with Henri crawling around in the middle entertaining everyone. It was explained to me that THIS was a very traditional Taiwanese thing to do. The family of owners was there with their grown children and their children… there was even an elderly matriarch sitting on the couch, reigning over it all. .. I looked around and said outside of what was being served this is how it would work in the States, as well… Well, we left and were upstairs for a few hours.  Probably four hours later, when Maxime and I reemerged around 5 p.m. we were surprised to see that the party was still going on. The elderly grandmother and four sisters (50’s or 60’s) were blasting music, singing karaoke (in mandarin, of course). Then when we came back around 7 p.m. with an exhausted Hen, the party was STILL going on.  So possibly this potluck turned karaoke fiesta wasn’t EXACTLY how my family would roll back home – it was pretty funny to see them at it.

The Help

About a month ago Maxime and I hired a helper who comes three days a week for half a day. She is a housekeeper and babysitter. Since having Henri I had stopped doing certain things for me – like yoga, haircuts, and so forth – so having her around means I have someone to watch Henri so I can duck out a couple of hours and take care of shopping and maybe do something just for me.

So through a friend we found Ana. Ana was born in the Philippines to Chinese parents, speaks five languages and assumes all Americans are fat.  On her first day she tells me that she is surprised I’m not heavier being from America. She often makes comments that I could find offensive but for now I find pretty humorous. When she saw me making a sandwich for lunch one day she looked confused and said “you don’t eat rice? You must do exercise then.”

The first two weeks I nearly let her go three or four times. This is not because of anything she did but because I suffered some major anxiety about letting her watch Henri. At first I thought she might kidnap him… Then I feared she might be rough with him... I really imagined her as a monster and it kept me up at night. One night I had resolved to call her the next morning and tell her not to come back – ever. Deep down I knew it was me – not her. So I pushed myself to keep her a little longer and just watch, wait and see.  I tortured myself by googling awful things and then stumbling upon even worse things. When my family visited after Henri was born I had anxiety over leaving him with them, and God knows they would never hurt him – so you can see this was a very difficult thing for me.

Now I can say that Ana does make my life easier. The floors are thoroughly cleaned three times a week, which is great since Henri occasionally lays on his belly and starts licking the floor before you can stop him... While she will never take care of Henri like I would, she does a good job and he smiles at her when she arrives which is a good sign.

Halloween

For Halloween we were graciously invited to take part in trick or treating at a park here in Tianmu. Henri was SUPPOSED to be dressed as a cowboy but that didn’t really work out. He screamed until we removed his chaps. His hat was too big and he kept kicking off his fake cowboy boots. So basically we showed up with him in wranglers and a plaid button up.  I cried. I know that’s silly but I wanted him to be dressed up for Halloween and I wanted really cute pictures. Next Year…

This group of parents, mainly American School faculty, gathers at a park which is nestled low beneath a sheer cliff by a river.  It is beneath a canopy of trees and I was actually pretty creeped out wandering around there in the dark.  The way it works is one parent accompanies the kids and the other sits down on a bench or somewhere along the path of the park and sets up shop – some actually brought a jack-o-lantern and were dressed up themselves.  So the kiddies walk around from spot to spot, trick or treating. Sadly, it probably takes less than twenty minutes to hit everyone, but their bags are full and they can play on the playground when they finish.

So next year I will definitely buy a proper costume WAY in advance from the U.S. and I will blow you away with amazing photographs for sure.