"Panda"monium

Two giant pandas have been sent over from the Mainland as a token of good-will... and it seems all of Taipei is capitalizing on the craze!!! We've seen the build up...

at the lantern festival...
at the carnival...

in the mall...

but last week we finally got to see the real deal! We went to the zoo on a beautiful Thursday morning with our friends and neighbors Yin-leng & Ashley. Surprisingly the lines were short so we got right in there for our viewing of the creatures. When the pandas were first available for viewing on Chinese New Year the lines were hours long - queues to enter the zoo, queues to view the pandas, queues that just kept going and going (which is why we've waited a few weeks)... but even on a weekday, you'd be surprised how many people were there to catch a glimpse of these two animals... and catch a glimpse is about all you get to do...

Helena was brimming with anticipation...

Here's part of the group in front of us as they walk past the enclosure catching their 'glimpse'...

this is the 'switchback' type line getting closer and closer to the enclosure...

From my almost front row vantage point - this is the crowd behind me! There are two levels of standing platforms where people can actually just stand to observe the pandas - but it's quite a distance from there... I'm telling you... "Pandamonium" is what's going on around here!!!

And here they are... Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan!!!

So, we saw the pandas... and then it was time to move on! Ashley thought it was great fun holding on to the monkey's tail and sticking close by Hunter... it was pretty much a win-win situation as Hunter seemed to prefer having his friend close by rather than his mother.

There were plenty of other worthy animals to look at as well... it's not all about the pandas for these two! The elephants were cooling off in the pool so that kept their attention for a while! But not Helena... she was ready to move on!

Seeing Helena have her milk made Hunter a bit more empathetic and he decided the hippo might be thirsty too.

A Good Week or More

It's Lantern Festival here in Taipei and we've spent many an evening walking around looking at the fun cow lanterns... but since it's not over until Sunday, I'll wait to show those to you next week. Instead, here's a random look at some of the other things we've been doing in the past week or two...

One of my favorite things to do is put Helena in Hunter's bed when they've just awoken from their naps. They love seeing each other and Hunter gets so excited to hug and hold her! They really are good buddies - well as far as you can be buddies with someone who doesn't steal your toys yet!

Helena's been a bit more adventurous lately... Ashlely took her down the slide a couple of times and they both loved it!! It

Hunter has an obsession with shoes lately... he loves to take them off and put them on... and can even put them on the correct foot 95% of the time! This day he found Ashley's shoes and decided they were cooler than his so he pulled his off and put hers on! It was funny enough that they were so much bigger than his feet, but even funnier that they were pink Hello Kitty shoes!

We went to visit a school for Hunter early in the week. Everyone's favorite part was the ball pit!

Ching, our dear little sister from Wellington, was in town visiting her family for Chinese New Year so we got to meet up twice. Once for ice cream and the other at our church. It was fun to introduce her to Helena... and reintroduce her to Hunter. Last time we saw each other, Hunter was 5 months old!!! It's always fun catching up with old friends.

Daddy's first time giving Hunter a haircut... it turned out much shorter than when I do it, but I must confess - there are a lot fewer stray hairs than when I have a go!

Last week Hunter had his first trip to the dentist. He sat and waited like a big boy (cartoons help) and I was so impressed at the way he let the dentist look into his mouth, apply the flouride treatment and demonstrate good oral hygiene all without complaint or tears! What a guy! He even 'ahhhh'ed when they told him to... and thankfully, nothing to report! His teeth, though smallish, are healthy! YAY! Must be the lack of juice and sugary snacks... let's hope so!

A Boy and His Toys

Hunter's really having fun lately playing with all his toys and using what he's got available to make more (see the 'dishwasher train' in following entry)... so it's been fun to watch his imagination at work.

He's no longer just the 'demolisher', he's becoming a 'builder' too! Here's his super high Lego car... he gets so proud of himself when he makes these! It's great!

Train crazy at breakfast too... he's got Thomas on his utensils...

One day we made tracks out of boxes & books and pretty much anything we could get our hands on... he loved it!

Here's his other favorite train too... now he'll line all of them up and have a go... sometimes he even tries to hook them altogether for a really long one. Inevitably they come apart and he calls out "hatch" which is English for "help" - we're working on the L P sounds...

He didn't want to ride on his bike, he wanted his goat to get a go!

General January Wrap-Up

January flew by because of a few big events - saying good-bye to Tony's dad after Christmas, Hunter's 2nd birthday and Chinese New Year... yet there were plenty of 'regular days' with monumental moments that I just didn't get around to showing you... so here we go - a bit from my "General January" photo file.

Hunter is train crazy... he'll push anything around calling it a train!!! Good thing I emptied the dishwasher first!

Yes, so someone is capitalizing on boys' train craziness and Hunter has discovered 'Thomas the tank engine' and is still "train" crazy!!!

Our lovely little girl looks to have gray eyes... not sure if they'll change or not now...

Helena has started eating "solids"! So far she's enjoying the spoon more than anything else, but the brown rice cereal seems to be staying down! Way to go, Helena!!

She got a few red envelopes from friends this Chinese New Year... and she's found them all to be quite tasty! Good thing she'd been practicing on the rice cereal!

We had a great visit with our dear old friends, Andy & Celia, who are expecting a little one next month... we're so excited for them and their little boy!!!

What's with toddlers and thumbs in their mouths...

or fingers in their nose???

Beautiful Beach Day

We've reconnected with some friends from language training, Andrew & Joyce and their baby Alan, who invited us out to their place in Danshui on what happened to be the most stunning day of the week so far!!! We had lunch together with Joyce's cousin & her son Guan Yi and Andrew's mom who was visiting from the US. Guan Yi and Hunter hit it off immediately singing, dancing and just being boys (surprisingly well behaved boys). After lunch, we went for a walk down to the beach and the Fisherman's Wharf. Honestly, it was one of those days you wished the sun stayed up a bit longer for... absolutely stunning! Thanks A&J for a lovely day!!!

Hunter and his new little buddy - Guan Yi. Guan Yi is just 2 months older but it's enough that Hunter wanted to follow everything he did!

There was a minor incident - broken glass - so the boys had to play outside while we cleaned up inside... they didn't skip a beat... they were having so much fun together.


Pretty cute in pink!

Where are we again???

Hunter and 'Uncle Andrew'

It felt like a warm winter's day in New Zealand... and if you didn't see the tall apartments in the background you'd almost think we were back!

My two favorite guys

Be careful little feet where you go...

A Fun Family Day Out

The bags were packed, car seats secured and with Daddy behind the wheel we were on our way only 25 minutes behind schedule!!! We started our day planning to see the Window on China amusement park just about 40 minutes outside Taipei. That was before Gloria took charge. 'Gloria' is what we've named the GPS system that we use when we rent the van. English speaking Gloria had no idea where we wanted to go so we had to take her Chinese speaking sister's word for it. She found the place we wanted to go, though 1 hour and 30 minutes later we realized a glitch in the system had us traveling there on the 'shortest route' rather than the 'fastest route' and still in the throws of chinese new year holiday shortest definitely did not mean fastest! Since we hadn't really gotten that far in all that time we decided to change plans and go somewhere back in town - originally over to the Miramar mall. But as we headed that way we saw the signs for the Children's Recreation Center so we changed our plan once again and thankfully found a parking spot within 1 minute... I'm not sure daddy would've lasted much longer in the car! Having said all that, once we walked through the golden gates all that driving frustration was far behind us and we had the best time together!!! Finally we made it to the amusement park together and I have a feeling it will give the zoo a bit of competition for fun weekend places to go!

The freebie slide was a hit too... at the entrance to the park this could be the final destination if we're not careful! He loved it!!!

His little monkey buddy helps us remain in control in big places like this, though we all need a break sometimes and Hunter had a blast on this regular playground equipment.

Mama and Hunter on the spinning 'coffee cups' as they're called in Chinese.

Most of the rides had to be done twice... once with baba and once with mama...

He was quite serious about his carousel ride... I wasn't really sure how he liked it until we got off and he ran back in line! Pretty sure he liked it A LOT!!!

Helena's first train ride

While dragging Hunter to the front of the train, two little kids got there before we did - but baba put them right (afterall, we were in the front of the line)... happy Hunter got to ride as the engineer on the little choo-choo. He LOVED it!!!

The ferris wheel was a bit slow, but they enjoyed the view of the rest of the park...

Everyone loves bumper cars, eh?! Hunter was soooooooooo excited to drive and even managed to contain his excitement while waiting in line...

Unfortunately - he was too short! Not quite 100cm yet!!! Sorry Hunter... maybe next time... or the time after (he's got about 2-3cm to go).

Chinese New Year

Hunter's birthday happened to fall right on Chinese New Year's Day this year! What fun!!! So we took him out to experience the festivities nearby. We caught 2 lion dances and a dragon dance (though my camera battery died after the first of the lions) at a local mall and hotel where they're hired to entertain customers as well as bring luck for the new year. Perhaps saving money on the performers would've been a better investment in the current economic climate, but hey - we enjoyed the free shows!

I love the colors of Chinese New Year!

Hunter was a bit shy when the 'lions' got up a bit closer.

Both of the kids enjoyed the performances - I think Helena even more so! Her little legs were bouncing all over the place to the beat of the drums.

There were a few little lions...

The drummers are always so cool!!!