A Little Spill

We'd been out cow hunting with Suzanne and Michael earlier in the day when we decided to see what Tony was doing for lunch. Thankfully he had time, so we met up for a spontaneous picnic at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall park. All went well until Hunter over-zealously chased the pigeons and slipped in a big muddy puddle! It was a good thing lunch was over and it was a good thing we had a blanket kicking around... toga boy goes public!!

Checking out the turtles was a disaster avoided...

but he was not so lucky during the pigeon chase.

Good thing it's not really winter anymore.

Beautiful Helena

This blog used to have a feature called "Hunter, the cutie pie". Well, that lasted through his first year and I guess that's where the second child's ball sometimes gets dropped. So in order to ensure Helena doesn't grow up with 'second child syndrome' here's a few highlights of our super adorable little girl!

Just look at those cheeks!!! Here's our smiley girl on her 7 month birthday!!! She's eating about two solid meals a day and now that I've stopped watering everything down with formula, she's really enjoying her food! Even devoured broccoli & sweet potato mixed... not bad!

This is pretty hard to capture on camera, but she's really on the move now. I will put her down on a nice, warm mat with a few toys around her and turn my back for a second and there she goes - onto the cold tile floor headed toward something of Hunter's. I can't say she's 'crawling' yet, but she's a real quick 'creeper'! Needless to say, I'm spending my spare moments scanning the floor (and surrounding areas) for potential hazards.

Her first volunteer job!!!

Our friends upstairs are starting a baby-food company, so they've enlisted Helena as a taste-tester! So far she's been a pretty easy-going judge. I'm just thankful it's another meal I don't have to puree on my own!!!

Look at these gorgeous little legs!

At her 6 month check up we discovered she really hasn't grown as fast or much as we'd expected (according to the percentile charts anyway) and her standing strength was pretty poor. After a month of 'practice' (actually letting her stand on our laps and a bit of time in the ole Johnny Jump-up) she's really gotten a lot stronger. And she's hit a bit of a growth spurt lately (wants to eat almost every 2.5 hours instead of 4) so she's doing just fine.

Basically, she's absolutely lovely and we are so grateful for her! Hunter still adores her and is such a great helper (most of the time).

Pay To Play???

I accept the fact that my kids need 'outside stimulation', but some of it seems to have a pretty hefty price tag attached here in Taipei. Having said that, I do appreciate the fact that there are indoor, air-conditioned, safe places for our kids to play when I'm the one who needs a change of scenery. We visited Y-17 for the first time last week with our friends from upstairs. Hunter had a good time and I'm thankful for the option... but since Helena has to pay full fare, I'm just not sure how soon we'll be back at 28NZ$ per session!!!

These blocks are super cool, though... I wouldn't mind having some of them at home...

Yeh, there's a big difference here!

Y-17 is good because they have story time and other classes on offer throughout the building, which is a really great service.


I wonder if they'd give me a discount if I was a featured reader?!? Though I don't think all those kids could fit on the bed.


And why pay to play somewhere else when you can dress up at home?

Or have your own pad?


Or have access to the shoe closet???

When you're a 'train crazy' 2-year old who makes everything into 'train tracks' or trains, the possibilities are endless...



Then again, maybe it's more outside stimulation that he really does need!!!

And Yet Another Adventure at The ZOO...

February 28 is a Taiwanese national holiday which normally means we stay home because public parks, shops and other popular places are super crowded and we'd rather not wait in lines. However, it landed on a Saturday this year so it was just a regular day for us... and just a regular crowded day at the zoo! We shared this zoo day with two other families - the Kohler's and Sutton's - which made it really fun to just take it at a slower pace and enjoy the company.

The Zoo Crew

Hunter enjoyed keeping up with Paul (5) and Luca (3) (more so than he's letting on).

With six kids between the three families we took our share of breaks... at one stop Tony found a bottle of bubbles someone else had left - what a great idea to take to the zoo! This kept the kids occupied through Helena's bottle and a few diaper changes.



Checking out the zebra... of course Hunter's got one of his trains with him.



The lions woke up just in time for us to catch a glimpse... this is what the kids were waiting for!!!



And the rhinos!

Feeding time at the zoo!!! Since she's become more distracted during nursing, I've started taking bottles out with us to public places... this shaves about 10 minutes off her eating time and the time my skin is exposed to chilliness.

Around lunch time our good friends Stephen & Felicity joined up with the crew... the kids love hanging out with them!

Hunter learned how to 'fly' clovers from Uncle Stephen... he loved it!

Lantern Festival - Year of the Cow

The year of the cow (or ox) is a bit more palatable than the year of the rat... at least when it comes to lantern designs. The 'rats' of last year were actually pretty cute, but when you stop to think you're looking at animated rodents, it just made me feel a bit creepy. So cows are a better deal! Since the Lantern Festival is held at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall we took full advantage of the 15 minute walk and took the kids out about four times to have a look. I'm not sure who liked it more - us or them! Tony and I really enjoy the buzz of living in the capital city and find these kinds of opportunities really rich!

Ahhh... aren't we cute!!! Most of the streets around the Sun Yat-Sen are lit up with these little fairy lights... it's a sensory overload!

The traditional drums are always a favorite with our little drummer boy.

They had a huge projection system going to create designs on the face of the City Hall... it was really quite impressive! Each night it changed.

Taipei will be hosting the summer Deafolympics so they had a big promotion out with the Lantern Festival. New Zealand is sending athletes to compete so they were represented, but can anyone notice what's wrong with the map in the background???

One night Hunter took his puppy out for a ride with him. This was a cool night with a beautiful full moon (that you can just see next to the tall building there)!

Of course there were panda lanterns too!!!

We were at the opening ceremony despite the rain!

One of the student lanterns we saw on the night before the opening ceremony... we were committed!!!

Monkey see, monkey do... Hunter ran toward the cows with his arms held up just like they were... it's pretty funny to see him mimic not only us, but inanimate objects?!? Is that in the toddler books?!?

"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!