Toward the end of last week when the rain stopped we ventured out by bus to Daan Park to meet Cynthia, Hilo & Hannah! Though a brief trip (how brief can you get when you're include commuting time?), we had fun a) meeting up with friends b) outside.
Helena is little miss Intrepid Explorer... she is pretty confident and just charged up the stairs to the top of the swirly slide! My goodness, I can not turn my head for a moment with these two!!! But she loves it! And I love that she's not afraid!
I don't think Hilo's sad... look a little closer! All the kids have been like this lately and Hunter has been enjoying the 'fruits' of his cold too!
Hunter was drawn to this kid's bike like a moth to a flame... I had tried to tell him to leave the kid alone, but his mom insisted that her son wanted to share his bike with the little foreigner (she didn't actually say it like that but sometimes I wonder why Taiwanese parents are so nice to my kids?)
Of course Hunter was not satisfied being a passenger and it wasn't long before the big kid gave in enough to let Hunter ride around on his own... here he is trucking around the playground like a 3-4 year old!!! Yep, so we've just got to decide if a bike will make a better gift for Christmas or for his 3rd birthday. Any suggestions?!?
Seeing her big brother work his charm, Helena follows suit and barges in on another little girl's bike - I embarrassingly try to pry her off but the girl's grandma insists the girl shares! What's wrong with these people?!? Shouldn't there be some sense of 'this is mine!!'?!? Or is that just a totally Western thought process? Are we going to be in for a super huge shock when we return to NZ?!? For now I'm thankful for the generosity of the Taiwanese parents in the parks - it gives my kids a chance to test out different toys - if I was truly smart, I'd be asking for the specs on each with price comparisons!
We haven't seen baby Hannah for a while - she's getting more and more alert! What a cutie! Lucky for Cynthia that Hannah's still content to stay in the stroller while Hilo runs around the playground like a wild man!
Last Saturday we had a special cellgroup meeting at our place... our Belarusian brother, Vladimir, has acquired a permanent position at a university in Spain so he's heading over to Europe soon and this was his last group meeting with us! It was also special because our pastors came to share with us the history and vision of our church. We had a great meal, some good insight into the church and good prayer time for Vladimir - really it was a great night.
I had been prepping Hunter for a few days that Pastor Young would be coming over to our house - well, Hunter absolutely LOVES Pastor Young - so even when he woke up from his nap earlier in the day he was asking about him... you should've seen him bouncing around as soon as Younger arrived!!! Hunter was surrounded by some of his favorite adults and he let it show!! When it was finally bedtime, the only way I could get Hunter to brush his teeth was to tell him the sooner it happened the sooner Pastor Young could read a story to him... well he bolted to the bathroom for that one!!! It is so precious!!!
We really appreciate Younger & Ann!!!
Hunter's got some cool duds that finally got pulled out of the closet... he's digging this new shirt from Grandad (good choice) and he's stuck on his 'skateboarding shoes' we brought back from Travis!!! This is his Sunday best for this week!!! In order to get in & out of church we've got to go through a series of elevators in the underground subway system... I should document the whole process one of these weeks! It's a miracle we find our way to church each week!!
We've set up the screen saver to do a random slide show using any/all photos in our files... it's actually been really fun and at any given time you may find one or two of us just taking a trip down memory lane. Hunter is one of the biggest fans - but one morning I was passing by and found two more fans - Preppy & Pinky!! Honestly, I did not put them there.. the little man did... and look he even put them in front of some water! No, Hunter, you're not going to get a dog when we move back to NZ... not for a really long time!!!
Because it started raining again early in the week, I decided to give the kids a bit of outside time with a picnic on the balcony! Why haven't I done this more often!?! No packing, not much room to run around - perfect combination of familiar and novelty - Hunter's been talking about it all week!! There is a drawback - the balcony is FILTHY!!! And we ended up having baths after this lunch to get rid of the black dirt all over their feet, hands (from playing with the screen doors) and foodie faces!!! But heck, it was fun!
Oh, now this is truly monumental!! We've been working slowly and not so steadily on the potty training thing with Hunter! The past week or so has seen a bit of progress in that he's more willing to use it and he's got better control when he's not wearing a diaper... but that said - he just hasn't wanted to do the bigger business there. A few weeks ago I finally succumbed to the bribe approach and told him he could have Emily (one of Thomas' friends - as in Thomas the Tank Engine) if he poo-pooed on the potty. At first it was going to be a sticker system - you go - you get a sticker - 5 stickers = half of the train... 5 more and you get the other half (yes, it's a two-part train). Well... after a whole lot of attempts, encouragement, dirty diapers when he finally did it the first time in the potty I just gave him the darn half! I figured he'd be super keen to get the front half of Emily so he'd just jump back on the toilet the next day to work toward it... but oh was I wrong!!! THREE WEEKS LATER - he finally decided (on his own accord) to get down from the dinner table, go to the toilet and do his business! I was so proud of him he got Emily right then and there - plus a sticker!!! Now we've got no other bribes, but he's been at least once since then on his own again!!! WOW - just like I thought/heard -when he's ready he'll be ready (but I'm still not ready to take him out in public, are you kidding!?!).
Another evening this week Baba and Hunter created a helicopter with the Legos... not your most conventional, but Hunter recognized it and played with it into the next day! I especially like the horse in the front!
And this one is just because they still are just so darn cute!
I'll have to do a proper entry on Tony's newest love - his road bike! But this morning he only had a short window for exercise so he pulled out the trainer and got to riding! He's getting more comfortable on it... and hey, he doesn't have to change into all his bike gear when he's here at home!
I'm still trying to get some wear out of some beautiful things Helena's been given... this is a top from the Vanderspuy's that I mistakenly thought was too small... so she'll be wearing it until the temp drops dramatically!
A good thing about going to the same fruit market stalls is that these guys really like the kids - so they score themselves a pre-lunch snack with an audience of course!!! 
.JPG)
2 comments:
1. Okay, I LOVE that in the background of the pic of Hunter riding on that kid's bike is Helena moving in on the girl's bike!!!
(as an aside, I have on more than one occassion knowingly taken Ellie to the sandbox without any digging toys assuming that someone would make their kids share with her. never fails)
2. your story about the potty rewards had me tickled. So funny!
I'd say not to wait until Christmas and just get him a bike now!
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