Meanwhile, Back In Taiwan...

When you have a look at the entries from our trip to California, you'll understand why it's taken me so long to get back to what's been happening here in Taipei. But... life here is our reality and a good one at that! We've been having a good time catching up with friends, getting reaquainted with our neighborhood, as well as celebrating births & birthdays and just trying to settle back into some kind of routine. Looks like we'll be here til mid-2010 so we're happy to have a bit more time doing what we do...

The first Saturday we were back we went to Hunter's favorite place: Leo Foo Cun! In fact, during the week he kept asking questions like: "Where's Grandma, where's Grandpa?" to which I'd answer - "California"; "Where's Grandad? Pappa, Nanni?" to which I'd answer - "New Zealand"; so finally on Friday I asked him "Where's Hunter" to which he answered - "Leo Foo Cun"!!! What a funny guy!!! Anyway - Bob was on his own with the kids for the weekend so we drove out together for a change of scenery. It was much more crowded than the previous times we'd been - but it was still fun - and the animals were still the highlight for Hunter.

It was nice hanging out with Anna, Sharon & Brian too... it gave us a bit of flexibility around rides and kids, etc... Plus, it's just always fun hanging out with them.

It took Sarah a while to warm up to it, but eventually she succumbed to his charm.

The carousel ride seemed to be worth the wait. All in all, it was a good day back at Leo Foo Cun - now that our season pass has expired, I'm not sure when we'll get back out there - I guess we'll have to see what their next deal is!

This is Hunter's favorite part about Sundays (besides seeing Pastor Young at church and Enen & his mom) - we let him get one sample taster from the Movenpick stand... thankfully the ladies there are very generous and patient (we never buy anything from them) and they don't seem to mind his grubby little handprints on their display case. Though there have been a few Sundays where he's had to skip it due to poor behavior... but if ever you need a bribe to keep a child sitting through a Sunday lunch - this seems to be doing the trick for us!!!

Tony's birthday was on the 23rd of August - which happened to be a Sunday. We went to church as usual and went to lunch with our cellgroup as usual - but Anna picked him up a cake so we sang to him in the food court - which is unusual.


When you have your birthday on a Sunday, at least you know you'll be seeing most of your friends!!! Thanks everybody for celebrating with us!!!

Later that evening, Stephen & Felicity tested out the new U-bike (bikes you can rent around the city) and we took them to our normal spot over to the riverbed. This photo is funny because it seems there's a bit of flash strike just bouncing off the moisture in the air (or maybe it was just so humid it caused my lens to get wet... hmmmmm).

It was a gorgeous night... as Tony said, "the kind of night we could just keep riding"... except for those tired little kids in the baby seats... that's okay... we all had a lovely time out together!!! Happy birthday, TONY!!!

We had the opportunity to welcome two new babies... Cynthia & Gerald have just adopted little Hannah so we had a "Welcome to the Family" shower for her. And surprisingly Rachel came along with little Caleb who had just turned one week on the day! Wow!!! Praise God for two new sweet lives!!!


I find myself getting so tired of repeating directions to Hunter, telling him "no" or "don't" or "please stop"... but he's 2 and a half and this is the time to test boundaries, right? I remember reading in Ian Grant's book "Growing Great Boys" that boys need to be part of the solution - so I've been trying to get Hunter to 'right' his 'wrongs' lately (after the stern explanation of what the wrong behavior was). The big one happened the first week we were back and he colored the dining room wall with a pink highliter... with tears streaming down his face he (with minimal help from me) scrubbed the wall with a wet rag (it actually came off!!!). So it shouldn't have been entirely surprising that a couple of days later I found him outside on the balcony filling up the bucket... at first I was going to get on his case for whatever reason, then I realized that he had made a mess somewhere and was trying to fix it. In the end, I showed him how to ring out the mop and the rest of the job was his own doing. If only it were always so easy.

We've hit the 101 fountain a few times since we've returned. This was the second time that I actually joined in... you won't see many other moms wearing their swimsuits in the middle of the financial district - but heck! We had a great time!!! (and someone's got to look after Helena so she doesn't get water up her nose or eyes - right?!?)

Michael, Siena & Hunter

This is just not fair - an animated Oreo plopping down into milk right along the footpath on the way home!!! My mouth was watering as I walked by... I could taste the cold refreshment of the milk mingled with that soggy, yet just still crunchy enough chocolate goodness as I walked past on my way to eat my bean soup leftovers... good thing they weren't selling boxes right there!!! What great marketing, eh?!

Helena's loving her new found mobility... though not really walking yet, she's standing and cruising all over the place and absolutely loving the freedom she's now got to climb all over the park toys.

Hunter's really hauling on his tricycle... so much that this is the current view I have of him when we go out!!! We're thinking he could be ready for a bike (with training wheels of course) but we'll wait til his birthday in January (remind us, I'm sure we'll forget) when he's 3 and make it a bigger deal. In the meantime, I'll keep going to the gym to stay fit so I can keep up with him!!!