Happy New Year

Nate has gone off with dada who today was excited to find the jewsih bakery and jewish butcher shop. Ike is asleep for his morning nap and seems in less pain after the sprouting of his first tooth. Hopefully the rest come much later. I bought him a NUK bottle which resembles his pacifier and so now he is happily back to having the bottle when I am out.

This place is really child friendly, the pizza place around the corner has a high bench for kids near the pizza making area and oven and kids can go there to make there own pizza's, they also get priority in the oven. Nate so far has made 2 and likes it... spreading the cheese, then the onions and placing the mushrooms then gobbling up his creation. They also have an outdoor area where kids can jump on big blown up things and slides and swings with a child minder there to watch them.

The malls have a car that nate can sit in while the parents push them and have a more enjoyable shopping experience, same with the zoo and the supermarkets all have small carts for kids to push and pick up their own groceries.

Next week as life slowly returns, Nate is already signed up for karate, will have to look for a swim teacher for him as well. His school starts on the 10th and the headmistress says we can ease him in there by spending 2 hours a day hanging out.

Our things hopefully arrive on the 15th. The dogs seem happy with their big walks. Since I last wrote, Nate has been to a croc farm, a place called carnivore where they serve deer, bok, impala, crocodile, ostrich and other meats, he liked the chips best.

Dada is teaching or should I say bribing him alot, every time he wants something he has to say, "dada I love you" or his version is "I lub you".

we went to a jewish play a few nights ago and that was quite funny. Loren is off to Dubai tomorrow and then end of the month he has a trip to the "real" africa.

In South Africa

So we arrived almost 2 weeks ago, the flight was ok, though olivia was airsick the whole way and took 24 hours to recover, we weren't sure if she was going to make it but she was up and bouncy after staying in bed and alive enough to go for the christmas church service at the clubhouse.

We are living with minimum furniture at the moment and averytime I am up in the middle of the night breastfeeding I am thinking where to place our furniture...

I think i better make this short, the computer beeped at me. Nate is bored at home, we need ot find more activities and structure his day, his school starts Jan 10... he has some rash now and is on antibiotics again, his cough is much better and since arriving he has fed giraffes, pat baby lion cubs, had a bird kiss his nose, been to the zoo, the craft market, swimming and maybe sometime this week the zoo.

ike has sprouted a tooth and prob one more on the way, just as his nose got better and his sleep extended.... he is now waking up again often. sigh... he does get out more often here, on long walks...

the walks are lovely, lots of birds and small streams and interesting things to see. Everyone has such lovely gardens and things are blooming nicely. We also have big big thunderstorms with big cracking lightnings. Nate isn't scared as he thinks and can "relate" to the sky "farting".

Bullet and Jake like their long walks, pistol wants to be carried... today he sat on the back of the stroller home. The trail unfortunately has ticks and we need to take them on an alternative route.

I have interviewed some help hopefully the ones I like will take a medical test and come up HIV negative. One woman I really liked tested positive, so sad as the gap for rich and poor is quite big. The part time help all seem so grateful to get our leftovers.

Loren is in olive and feta cheese heaven, he's bought all sorts of breat, cheese, olives, dips... and we have been to a number of the restaurants which serve up BIG portions.

Anyway I hope this gets posted and will also hope to get our permanent internet connetion once these people come back to work which is mid Jan and then I can start posting properly again.

Up and down

After a good nite, then a not so great day! Didn't get to nap as I gave nate some of the steam medication and one of the side effects is that it makes them hyper but happy, so he didn't sleep. Just as i driffted off to a nap, we hear a BANG and he had climbed his set of drawers, it ahd fallen down, luckily he wasn't hurt just a bit shaken.

That night Ike didn't sleep so well big globs of nose stuff, even with the steam it didn't help too much, no sleep for me. Today I go to the clinic and there is no more medicine of the second dose for cough, we have to make do with the stuffy nose dose and if serious cough then the dr still has some but low on supply too till tues or weds.

Ike made his poo yesterday and nate's last words before sleeping today is "kaikai do yoga"

Finally a break...

Brought Nate to the dr, he said nate's condition is quite bad, the stuff is in his lungs so we had to rent a cold steam machine that delivers steam and the medicine. He said to plop nate in front of the tv so that he isn't running everywhere and can breathe the stuff in. It is also very contagious and to keep ike away tho ike has early signs of the flu already.

he gave me doses for both of them. it is quite complicated, you have to stick a needle to take out the liquid from the plastic sealedcontainer because you are not using all the liquids at once but it didn't work for me, several bent needles later, I decide to just drip out from the holes in the syringe (try doing this in the dark with a wee light). Nate had two doses, once when we got home and once before sleeping, no cough that night and slept well.

Ike woke up at 1130pm with quite a clogged nose and small coughs.... now the dr said babies are easy you just put the steamer thing in front of them and let them breathe, he didn't say how one could load the container with the medicine while carrying the baby and that the machine is so loud that the baby is suspicious.... so with the help of my toes (holding the steamer tube), and dexterity of my big toe (thanks mom for that genetic material), I pour the medicine carefully into the container (haha kidding), I use my hands while ike is draped over my shoulder. The loud buzz scares him, so I have to breast feed him while sneaking the steam near his nose, it doesn't smell bad but isn't that great either. Sometimes he is mesmerized by the steam other times he is upset at the sound and smell but quickly he sleeps, which makes it challenging to load the part 2 medicine to complete a course.

In anycase, he sleeps with a clear nose for 5 and a half hours tho the last hour he is tossing again as the nose gets cloggy again. First time I got a 5 hour stretch......

Loren Trovolta

I never thought I'd see loren in saturday nite fever gear so here it is for a laugh!

I realised that poor ike only sees stuff at home and the dr's office, I think i read to nate at this age but ike just gets swaddled and eats and sleeps and grows.... today I took him in the baby bjorn around the nieghborhood and soon he was asleep, probably too much stimulation. He slept pretty well last night, except for the last 1.5 hours into 6am, he woke up around every 3 hours and fed and went back to sleep

Afterwards I have to take him along to go and pick nate up from school as Olivia is at the ministry of manpower to have her exit interview.

Poor nate too, he had about 2 days of clear nose, all better after last friday's dr appointment but yesterday his nose was like a waterfall, just poring out! poor guy also started coughing at night, the whole night. He woke up with hair plastered (by snot) to his head (which may have been how hair gel was invented?) and lots of coughing. Will be off to see the dr again after his nap.

Hope Ike doesn't get this but I see small signs of coughing!!! oh oh!

Feefaifeediai O

Nate like a few of the songs from sesame street, one of them involves an old banjo that cookie monster eats up at the end and says, "num num num". I always get a laugh out of him when I sing feefifeediai O, feefifeediaiiii O O O O, feefideediaiiiiiii OOOOOOOO, strumming on the old banjo and then he says, num num num, cookie monster. Today he started singing it too, but his version is peepeediaiOOOOOOO num num num.

Took him to Tom ball, I now too have Tom dragon socks as I forgot my own pair, today is much warmer, the cold front has gone which means the mosquitoes are back... I wanted to get him a small rubber ball but the machine was broken, he looked at the woman behind the counter with big big eyes and said broken? and she pulled out a free ball for him. He was so happy showing his new ball the Tom dragon layout, then how to eat then how to bathe then how to brush teeth. That is a magical ball!

Ike poor ike had a stressful morning. The pediatrician said that he may take up to 7 days to poo which is still ok for breastfed babies. She decided to helphim clear his bowels and he had two shots of liquid up his bum and he cried alot but still no poo. Hope he does before sunday otherwise back to the dr's again.

Since the weather is warmer, I did manage to take both of them out for a walk in the neighborhood, Ike's world consists of the house and the dr. I think he doesn't know that there are parks.... Sally the dog came up to nate affectionately (she doesn't like strangers) and nate did his rounds around the neighborhood. The por pors seem sad that we are leaving and even know how many days to go!

Spoke to the vet... seems that there are no sand flea incidences in Taiwan and if Jake has them the other two should as well. I think we have a strong case.

Poor Jake

First apologies to the new readers of the blog who had to see those scary teeth pictures and wrote to tell me so... but hopefully will be motivated go and see your dentist soon!

So, Jake apparently has been diagnosed with some sandfly thing and we are waiting an email to find out more about that. He will be tested again on Thursday with results next monday. If he fails he has to leave for Taiwan or get euthanised!!!! :(

The test is apprently very sensitive so it is likely to be wrong, anyway Jake and Pistol sleep together in the same cage if Jake has it, Pistol should have it too? Bullet tested positive for something as well but apparently treatable and he is being treated for it. Pistol has passed with flying colors.

Everyone, fingers and toes crossed, send all your acuumulated mitzvahs, accumulated good deeds and positive energy in the direction of the quarantine area in South Africa!

As for Ike, 3 days no poo poo again! tomorrow may have to take him to get a baby colonic again! poor guy.

Took Nate to the park today, he sure likes running, he was playing speedy gonzales running round and round and fast, till I showed him how to run backwards then he had to figure that one out a bit. He doesnt take the steps on the slide anymore but the ladder... then he started pulling weeds at some point in time and throwing a tantrum of which I walked 10 feet away and the Taiwanese seemed perplexed at the method but then he stopped and came running over.

8 days to go....

Brush brush brush

Took Nate to the dentist today for his teeth cleaning, not bad experience for him, tho he sure had bright shiny teeth afterwards! I have to now think of ways to clean his teeth... they were not in the cleanest of shape although we brush them twice a day and he does his own teeth in school.

Here are some pictures of his before and after cleaning, am sure only his grandparents will even enjoy these pictures. The pink one is the staining bit, he had strawberry flavoured coloring and then chocolate tasting cleaning paste. He got alot of dental things to play with post and of course balloons and stickers.

I think Nate does not have a peanut allergy, he had a quarter of a cashew nut and seems fine.

Ikes nose doesn't seem to be getting better, last night he woke up screaming because his nose was blocked, he was sleeping on his back and tilted upwards, he also could not sleep well on his belly, maybe I try his side tonight. He is wearing Olivia down in the day and me at night... hopefully in SA it is warmer and his nose stops acting up. The cold front isn't helping.

Nate hit 15 kg and Ike is known as the giant baby at 7 kg, everyone that sees him says, WAH big baby! My left arm hurts from carrying him.

Holding Hands

First of all.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBY! Today, nate suddenly said Bubby... and I said its her birthday and he said... cake? banoons? (balloons), then Hooray.

I bought him his own portable DVD player that plays VCDs as well, now my computer is free! Free from him hogging it and free from the food that sometimes gets catapulted on my screen, luckily the keyboard has a protector.

He finally can watch Thomas the Train which I bought some time back but was a VCD. He now has the habit of holding his own hands (clasping them), when i say hold hands to go up the stairs, sometimes he clasps his hands and says he is holding his own hands and no need to hold mine. When he watches a part of video that he is scared he wants to hold my hand but today he held his own hand... until a really scary part (a big boulder chasing the trains) then he started to cry and want to hold my hand! I think the VCDs may be too scary for his age?! then another scene the station blew up in flames (violent!!)

Ike is much better, no more spots, his skin has cleared up too, very handsome... (we are all biased!) but his nose is still blocked, today was much better. Nate still has hi cough and his runny nose, tho less runny. Debating whether to take him to the dr but they just give him cough medicine and send him away. Loren also caught a cold and went to get his flu shot. I got mine a month back and coupled with breastfeeding (body apparently has higher immunity) have yet to fall sick.

less than 2 weeks now to SA.

Loren has been sending information to me on Childminders, aupairs and governesses.... not sure which ones yet to choose and the rhythm of our life there. I'd like to restart nate on swimming and music and in a few more months ike can take a few classes too! Wonder what their extra curriculur activities will be like.

Baby Einstein and Story House

Yesterday someone sent nate a Baby Einstein audio CD, today we played it in the car.... he could recognize a few of the songs that are same as the ones played on the DVDs he watches. He esp likes the one with the race cars, which is "Trish Trash Polka" by Johann Straus and Schubert'e Militaire. I was stuck in the car for two songs after we reached home, he kept asking for another last song. At least he really enjoys classical music.

Today I brought him to Story House, not a bad place, nice story rooms but too bad we were the only people there otherwise he would have had more fun watching other children react to the stories.

Ike's rash is worse, will wait till tomorrow to decide whether to bring him in to see the dr again. Its been raining really hard and the weather is much cooler at 17 degrees.

I bought nate a new high chair which he can now sit at the dining table with us. Its quite a nice design but without the dogs, i now see how much he does not eat. He is really quite messy!

The dogs have made it safely to SA. I miss the cleaning crew.

poor poor baby ike

today he woke up with spots all over!! off to the dr's again soon.

The dogs are now on a plane to SA. They left last night and should land in another 4 hours. Bullet was already trying to break out of the cage as soon as he was in it. Hope the sedatives kicked in and he did not throw up his breakfast on route down our bumpy hill.

Nate said this morning, "oh doggies not in cage". "doggies went to work".

16 days to go...

poor baby ike

finally cleared his bowels but the nurse first tried to stimulate it by sticking a long cotton bud, when that didn't work she used a syringe with saline and then it came spluttering out, lots of it three diapers later.... now he has a fever and is very fussy, its very hard to put him down to sleep. The dr said that he also has the beginnings of a cold. It is going to be a long night.

The radio reported a 40% increase in patients with colds in hospitals.

nates school gave me a note that a kid has some type of sickness where he throws up everything even water, if nate clears the weekend he wouldn't have caught the bug. That sounds like an evil bug, if he catches it then its only water and soda biscuits for him and of course.... the doctor.

Had a big dinner but using alot of energy, two hours later, i am hungry again!

Vets and Doctors

I seem to see the vet adn the boys paeditrician alot, if its not for shots, its for other things... like... Ike is now constipated, I think he was uncomfortable this afternoon, spoke to the nurse in between nate's bath and his bedtime and she said not to worry but bring him in tomorrow. Have been doing biking exercises and tummy massages for him.... only toot-toot-tooting and no splutters...

Today pistol went ot the vet too, has some type of cough, similar to bullet but no throwing up... and bullet went to the dr last friday as he threw up all of thursday nite last week and saturday to get more blood sample and then i saw the vet on monday for more pills for bullet. Two weeks ago it was for blood serum to SA and their teeth cleaning and the week before that was jake's booster and rabies shots.

The good news... they have passed all their blood tests and are now leaving for SA on sunday via singapore, I wonder if they would recognize the smell of the air. I prob have to see the vet tomorrow or saturday to get the sedatives for bullet. He hates cages and is determined to break out of them

Nate still has his cough and sniffles and by early next week I will take him in to the dr as well tho he does seem to be getting better, he also enjoys the use of the nose vacuum to suck and examine all that gunk.

I think i want to get one of those proper mommy diaries and note down all sorts of appointments for these guys and it has features for grocery lists and other lists.

Nate is now very upset when he has to give up his toy car at bed time, one nap when I did take the car away he woke up earlier than usual asked for his car and went back to sleep for another hour, I laid down with him thinking he would probably get up but he actually fell back asleep! That night I let him take his car to bed but parked in the far end corner with his soft toys, after my shower I hear him playing with it, as I open the door he flips like a commando pretending to sleep and hiding his car... then gives himself away by peeking up. I don't yell at him or take his car but say do you want me to fix your blanket and he smiles, gives me the car and gets tucked in. I say, "ok car parked at the end of the bed but if I find you playing again, I will take it away". The next time I check, its still parked there!

Today at nap time I say the same thing, it can stay parked there but you can't play with it, if you do I will take it away, he talks to himself for a long time and I thought he took the car but when I went in it was parked where it was and he looked groggily at me. Tonite his cars are parked at the corner when I went to check. I think I will just build a mini car park at the end of his bed.

Ike is very intent on standing up, jumping and talking, also fly swatting... I get to take him for a short walk around the neighbourhood usually between 3-4 pm, before nate gets up.

kai kai and ming ming

I missed a really good shot today, the teachers dressed him in hi new shirt from Shanghai Tang from Jason and jessica, it is bright blue with yellow and red accents, with a bright red pair of shorts with blue trimming! then he had his spider man boots on (blue and red) and his blue school bag. He looked like a superhero with bad fashion sense. By the time I grabbed my camera his boots and bag were off and he was zipping away to his red match box car.

Since dada allowed him to sleep with one of his toys he has wanted to sleep with his toy car, toy tractor etc, till I take it away if he is still playing 15 mins in bed. The side of his wall is scratched with all sorts of colors.

Today after school he did not want to come home, he does not want to take a nap and so thinks that if he stays in school he would get away with it. His friends were all perplexed why he did not want to leave, his teacher said he could stay in school but he would have to nap too then reluctantly did he come to the car.

M&Ms are called magic beans. The weather looks nice today, hope I can take him to the park and not another day of TOM BALL.

Ike, likes to talk, that guy can sure talk on and on and on. We had to give him emergency formula the other day as I took nate out and he ate everything in the fridge and was still hungry! anyway, now he maybe has constipation, 2 days no sign of poo. We have gone to harvest a tonne of green papaya from the orchard and the papaya is working its magic, more milk in storage now.

Went to the market today, everytime I go, I ask the fishmonger what I do with the bits and pieces of fish, like the head or the bones... he always says make soup, what is this boney fish good for, "making soup"... anyway today I ask for 2 slices of this particular fish and he complains that no one buys the head, I said, well you should make soup, maybe sell soup, he asked me if I wanted to work for him... that fish couple have the greatest smiles! she has a big broad one and he has his cig dangling all the time. I must remember to take my camera and a shot of them next time.

A full day

Today was quite a full day. We picked sasha up and went to the amusement park, rode on the carousel, it was quite scary, I got a big horse and it went up and down, then the choo choo train twice and two types of spinning cups. Then headed to the club and met Enzo. We had lunch with Enzo and they were both racing to eat their fried rice until the potato chips came then it was only chips for kaikai, he is into his ketchup that he even wants it on his cheerios in the morning (yuck!)

We came home and he took his nap and when he woke up we went to Hagen Daz, he likes only the Gweem ice cream (green tea) and was enjoying scooping it up! then to the park with the river, he saw several children fishing small fish from a tank, while he was catching fish he was speaking in chinese to the delight of his audience, he managed to get 1 fish (wo hao bang ah, I am great), yu lai je bian (fish come here), xie xie, thank you, zhang zhang (dirty). Then we went to throw rocks into the river and watch people play badminton, the jiejie's even let him play with their racket and he got a feel of the bounce of the shuttlecock against the racket.

Then home again and Ike was awake, Kaikai pushed him round the front area then wanted to show him off to the neighbours so off we went. The porpors think Ike has smaller eyes than nate and he even talked to their dogs, lucky and sally, about "didi". After dinner dada came back from his yoga and bathed nate and read to him and then tucked him into bed.

Ike does a nice solid 6 hours of sleep, usually 530 - 1130pm then 330 and then 6ish. Then usually a nice solid 3 hours again after 730am... good sleep patterns except the nose in the morning when he struggles abit.

Bullet is getting over his throat infection. Had to take him to xray yesterday, lucky no foreign object in his throat and the night before he threw up the whole night. No food for a day, stil coughing today but better now.

Kaikai's first lurrrve

So i see Sasha's mom today and tell her that Kaikai said "sasha I love you" and she says oh every morning sasha looks forward to school and says "kaikai I love you".... I bet she tells him that a million times and so he repeats it as "sasha I love you". So far I haven't heard a "mama I love you yet!". Age 2 and already another woman controls his emotions.....

Will try and get a picture of the two lovey dove birdy wirdies together for this post. I wonder if they just like images of themselves? since before nate's haircut they definitely were hard to distinguish from behind.

I took nate to the hair dresser, they have little brrooom broom cars to sit in and tv to watch, nate didn't like it so its still me the main hair cutter..... snip snip!

Ketchup and snails

Here is a recent picture of Ike taken with my handphone... he was smiling so broadly after his shot though!

I have been taking Nate to Tom Ball everyday now, lets see if he asks for the park, its gotten cooler and darker so tom ball isn't so bad, plus with their padded floors I can do some stretching exercises too. Today we had a big ball war in the ball pit. I also got to try out the "niu niu qe" where you can basically skid around without putting your legs down, I think Nate somewhat got the concept.

At bed time we used flash cards with animals on it, he went, peeg (pig), da xiang (elephant), oog ooog ooo (monkey), bird (chicken), peacock (macaw), horse (horse), zebra (ah finally not horse anymore), changjing lu (giraffe) and then went OOOO (it was a snail) and then said funny animal.... giggle giggle.

The latest thing to get him to eat is a small dish of ketchup, he dips his spoon in it then into his food but he finishes his meal! I need a new trick for his toothbrushing tho......

Bu dan

Today, nate said something surprising, he was hoarding all his tractors (yes now tractors) by sitting on them and then he said "Bu dan" which is the term used when mother hens are sitting on their eggs. Obviously he must be doing this in school? where else would he learn this?

Also he suddenly said in the shower, "Sasha I love you"..... hmmmmm..... not mama or dada.... but sasha! We were in the bath together so I wonder if the soap suds were clogging my ears? I need to get a picture of them together, esp. when she grabs him to kiss him. This friday they are going on a big field trip, olivia will go with him, maybe she can get the shot?

Nate has a cold again. Ike too...... and he seems to be refusing the bottle. Eats to sooth himself fromt he panic state of not being able to breathe... but I think he is gaining alot of weight!

I've been taking him to Tom Ball alot, lets see if I can get it out of his system. He thought he was getting sushi for dinner but deh deh made fried rice and he happily ate it down with his new discovery.... ketchup and last week he discovered Thai sweet chilli sauce. At Tom Ball I was doing some stretches and then realised he had dissappeared in some tunnel system, I called for him and didn't hear anything, I didn't start crawling but I heard something in the bathroom... he had run off and gone to peepee himself! Later at home, I just turned away and the next thing I find him on tippy toes trying to pee over the ledge of the toilet but not quite tall enough. I guess I have to buy stools for every bathroom now?

If you ask nate where bubbi is, he says... onetreeall. If you just say Bubbi, he says Hooray.

Anyway, for the grandparents here are some shots of him at the children's park.

Stuffed up nose

Poor Ike has had a stuffy nose for a few days, hates it when i try to clean it with the salt water spray but he does breathe a bit better. Its the really sticky gunky nose stuff and is like cement in his nose. The worse night I had to sleep upright with him but I think that is a few nights behind us now. If he is relaxed, there isn't even sound to his breathing but when he realises he can't breathe properly then he gets anxious and it gets worse. He's been feeding alot as that is the only way he calms down such that he made 4 big poos yesterday. I took him to the dr on thursday, he grew 0.2 kg from last sat to thurs, I think with friday and saturdays feeding, he's put on another kg? his side profile really resembles that of hitchcock!

Nate has gone off again with dada to the amusement park. Looks like apart from the ferris wheel and choo choo train he is now on the horsie that goes round and round. Yesterday his gege's came over and I think the younger one is now not scared of the dogs anymore. I plan to give Mr. P man lamp to the older gege as he has "taught" nate to pee, its funny seeing him ask nate, "pee pee?", "kaikai peepee?", nate seems to know they are making fun of him and says "NO". But when gege whips off his pants to pee, guess who does it too?!

Bullet seems to like his new big cage, we toss his treats in there, the two smaller dogs and nate seem to like it too. Its our new piece of furniture in the living room!

Passport photos

This photo is of Ike a few days old, he does not frown like this anymore but smiles alot, I am too busy smiling back to take a picture but will try to do so soon. When the picture was taken and loren brought it to the embassy, they insisted that the picture has his ears, so loren came back to do that, unfortunately his cheeks then were SO big that it was impossible to have ears in the picture... No said the embassy, must have ears! so back to the picture taking, this time, we put fingers under his ears to stick them out beyond the massive cheeks.... and so Ike has passport photos.

He slept really well last night, 6pm to 11 pm then feed and clean nose, then did 12 to 4am, woke up with a stuffy nose (no cleaning) but ate and slept to 6am also stuffy nose. Today we were more careful with his awake times and made sure he ate and was soothed to sleep before he was over tired (ie no more than 1.5 to 2 hours) and its like a dream, no fuss, no cry and sleeping much more. The few days before this for some reason or other, mornings usually getting nate out ike suffers... we would miss this window and he is a lot harder to handle, up for 5-6 hours! Now hopefully its sleep beget sleep, thank you Dr. W!!

Nate had a great time on a trampoline yesterday bouncing up and down. He's also found where I keep all his new toys and pull one out when necessary, today he even brought it to school and wanted to take it to bed with him.

We finally got a cage big enough for bullet. The vet was given this massive cage and it fits bullet, now its cleaned, we have to get bullet used to it. Loren should probably just sleep with a towel form now till we leave and we toss that into the cage. Jake and Pistol may be able to travel together in a cage...

Round and round and choo-choo twain

Nate went with dada to the children's recreation park on sunday. It is the old Taipei zoo. Dada took him on a ferris wheel ride and a train ride. Apparently the train goes thru a tunnel. He was so excited he could not calm down for his nap, in bed he talked about the round and round and the choo choo twain. this morning he talked about the tunnel as well.

The weekend was a good one for him, started out with Tom ball on thurs and fri (raining both days), sushi on friday and then sushi at the restaurant on saturday... and on sunday he was so hungry (am tryiing druiker's logical consequences, ie hunger method again) that he wolfed down 90% of the kiddie char siu friend rice. Oh and he had Hagen Daz ice cream at the big Hagen Daz store, he only chooses green colored ice cream and so far its been mint and green tea.

He as learnt the word awake and now says that when people have their eyes open, If closed then he says asleep. Today he said, no nap, kaikai awake. But is quiet and asleep now...

Ike has caught loren's cold, has a snorty nose but I can't seem to get at the snot. I tried the sucking utensil but still nothing at least the salt water spray seems to relieve his breathing abit. Saturday night was bad, I only had 2 hours of sleep, the trick now is to just sleep as early as possible.

The dogs go for their teeth cleaning tomorrow and blood withdrawal for their final tests. If all goes well they will be sent off end of the month and finish quarantine by the time we get there.

Teeth and new shoes

I took nate to the dentist a few days ago. It went really well, I think nate has really grown up since his last appointment maybe 4 or 5 months ago. He got to use the camera to take pictures of his own teeth, press the buttons on the chair. The dentist was very patient, showed him the instruments, pretended to work on me first then nate. We could do better brushing but it is quite hard as he is quite independant and wants to do it himself. I also got him an electric toothbrush. I call plaque, teeth poopoo, he seems to relate to that and wants to clean it out, esp. when I can scrape some to show him. Wanted to have the dentist clean his teeth as well but he said they had such a nice session, better to do it in a few weeks from now so he doesn't have a bad impression of the place. He will get his teeth stained red (strawberry flavour) and then cleaned with a soft spinning sponge, of course with the dvd on for him to watch. He got two balloons at the end and was happily kicking them throughout the clinic which was nice an quiet as they space their patients but charge quite a bit!

Nate also got to wear his new shoes (japanese size 17). He likes them, I threw out his old blue sneakers which were very well worn for 6 months and looking very scruffy. I also bought a cheap pair of sandals with Thomas the train on them and yesterday found a pair of open toes on sale as the seasons here are changing but will be suitable for SA.

Ike.... phew, this guy was hard work the first night wendy left. Between burping and eating and struggling (bottle vs. breast?), he ate small amounts but many times. Last night its a bit better with longer stretches. We also got bigger diapers that we don't have to change so often. He is now due for his 2 month old shots!

Bullet, Jake and Pistol passed their first blood test. Next week they go in for teeth cleaning and more blood drawn for tests.

I managed to also go thru the items in the guest room and will work on the library next. Have managed to sell quite a number of items on the internet.

Gege and Jiejie

There are amny kids in the nieghbourhood but they seem to only appear on the weekends. On weekdays they have school and then tuition classes. Otherwise the little land plots are used only on the weekends when the family gather together and the cousins can play.

Being the weekend, kaikai awoke from his nap wanting to look for gege (bigger brother), there are two cousins that live across the street, their porpor (grandmothers) are always passing us fresh vege's and the gong gong (granddad) is farming, kaikai sometimes sits with him near the trail to help sell his vegetables. Gong gong likes asking kaikai about his big belly, they do a belly rub together now and he asks whether kaikai has had his milk.

The two gege's like taking nate to see the bugs they have caught or now its apparently the season for BIG fat worms. Today we found one gege playing with the other kids and invited kaikai to join in. There was a jie jie (big sister) that really took to kaikai and wanted to carry him, instead she helped him peel the green steamed soya beans and made sure he got down the stairs ok.

Their parents and older kids were playing cards and laughing and having a great time, there were remnants of a barbeque and small snacks. One of them gave kaikai a boiled peanut which I let him try, I think he is not allergic to peanuts, no severe reaction immediately nor a few hours later.

Kaikai is really into his tractor tom show and trys to talk like him going, duk duk duk duk duk....

Ike smiles alot now, especially after a good meal or "toot" (as bubby says) or poopoo.

Some point today olivia said HOORAY to kaikai and he looked at her and said, bubby... bubby....

TAS food fair

The American School which is about 10 minutes away from our home had their 24th annual food fair today. They start at 10am and have a carnival like atmosphere.

At 9 am I see Mr. Twinkle Toes (nate) run quickly from the back of the kitchen to the front door, grab his small chair, where he sits to put on his shoes, runs back quickly with it to the back of the house, I suspect to join olivia and wendy at their small breakfast table. I am sitting on the single seat sofa feeding ike. little ike now has eyelashes that poke out of his eyelids, ie getting longer and more hair too. Then mr. twinkle toes zips by again, puts on his new thomas the train sandals and goes around the front to the back area. hmmm?

by the time ike finishes his breakfast it is about 9:20, I go to the back and find nate looking at me saying, bread yummy and wendy and olivia going shhhhhh. They were eating their Qong yubing (onion pancakes, really thin and crispy from the neighbour who makes that for a living and sells it in Tienmu), they admit to feeding him quite a bit, hmmm, dada wasn't so successful at nate's breakfast I see.

9:30 and I say we should try and get ready to go... nate gets his socks and puts on his shoes, I get his snacks and olivia is cleaning up, wendy is preparing ike.... as I get nate into his car seat, I hear this giggles and bug splutter noises.... oh my god screams.... tissue paper flying, more laughter.... ike has pooed on wendy, she catches the stuff without getting the area dirty, olivia is pulling toilet paper out of the toilet holder.

9:45 ike is cleaned up and ready to go... phew.

10:00 we get there, nate tries an ice cream cone by himself (will post picture soon), he will need alot of practise he had a big chocolate beard, ike slept through it all. With all the good malaysian food wendy has been cooking, both the malaysian and singaporean booth was really not that appetising. Bought some NZ cookies which nate had one. Oh and he had two mini sweet potatoes too before the Qong yubing. Where does all this food go?

Before 11, ike is awake and is hungry! wendy and olivia think his poo was bigger than his intake of food! we zip home to feed them and then it was their nap time.

Car Wash and Blankets

I went to the gas station yesterday and nate insisted on going to the car wash. As we approached the car wash, he changed his mind but it was too late... so he said, "scared, mama hold hand" and held my hand throughout the carwash cycle. He says scared too when the DVD reaches a part where two tractors are racing each other. With bugs tho, instead of side stepping them like in the past, he now goes forward to stomp them! Must have learnt that from someone in school.

Nate has this blanket that he likes, it is actually a bed sheet with the elastic around it. Last night he was all tangled in it, so I decided to bring it to the seamstress to remove the elastic band part. At nap time he tried to tuck his feet into the area that the elastic band makes but it was gone! he said, not same, not same.... Speaking of blankets... Ike has outgrown all his swaddling blankets, so i ripped up an old thin bedsheet into four parts and Wendy has sewn up the seams in four different patterns! I think Ike must be 6 kgs by now. He still has dark hair but light skin.

Wendy and Olivia liked the neighbours "chong yu bing" so much that they went over to ask for the recipe... they started a conversation about the weather, the food they have exchanged but when it got to "can you teach us how to make this", apparently the neighbour pretended like she didn't hear that sentence. I guess they are protecting their business as they have a little stall down in Tienmu that does rather well.

Sweeeng and da bian

Every morning when i take nate to school we play at the swing set. he has learnt to balance on the swing for some time now. It must be quite a funny sight as we both pull back the swing, he says "one, two, tweeeeeeeee" or "yi, er, saaaaaan" and then swing forwards and back and forth and back. Some times he continues on, "four, five, six, eight, TEN". Because the swing is quite low nera to the ground, I have to raise my legs, and I like looking at sky (my body is almost straight), he now does that too, tho there is enough room for his legs. We are usually going "wheeeee!! or wheeeeheeeey or woooooo.... recently i realised that other kids are now standing to watch us swing on their way into school... while their parents are grumpily at the gate of the school asking them to hurry on inside. Today I showed him how to jump off when the swing is still moving. He doesn't quite get that yet. Magic he thought?

Today is day three and he finally made a poo. Not constipated but I suspect his intestines wait for a certain mass before producing any output. His new word is "Da bian" (poo poo), the whole way back from school, bla bla bla da bian, kaikai juo da bian, da bian, da bian, da bian. Ike yesterday, while I was burping him made a big sound, unfortunately it was not a burp but from the other end... its velocity power was strong as by the time I passed him to Wendy, the stuff was half way up his back, by the time wendy let him finish it was near his neck!! early bath time for that one!

The last few days I have been retraining Nate's eating habits with bribery (since starvation didn't work), until my new book on children and eating arrives from amazon. At breakfast he gets an evil yellow, orange or pink ball of cereal (I have stars ready for the next meal, maybe I should start a star sticker book?) for each spoon full of cheerios. He hasn't caught on about small spoons = more balls at the end so he takes BIG spoon fulls. Every time he throws cereal on the floor, a ball goes into my mouth (yuck) and he gets one less. If he loses attention span I give him one ball from his collection, he wants the color pink all the time.

The teacher says his eating has improved alot in school. He was doing well by himself then deteriorated to one point, where he sat there with his mouth open like a baby bird. Its bribery for now...

The BIG pee

Nate like going over to the neighbour gege (big brothers) house. Juin Juin is 10 and his cousin is 7, they like collecting fighting beetles and big fat worms, apart from fish and turtles. They also like showing nate their booty and take him on their adventures around their home, which is surrounded by bamboo areas and vegetable patches. On the weekends are when they get to play with nate as other days their schoolwork and tuition classes means they have little time for play.

On Sunday, nate went over to gege's house, he was shown these beetles with big jaws, nate is going through a fear of everything stage and can say the word "scared". At some point he says, pee pee and sow I take him to a tiny drain and he pees with a low arc. Gege seeing this, pulls down his pants and proceeds to make a big stream jet of pee, producing a big puddle and lots of foam. nate seemed very fascinated and now only wants to make big pee puddles and empties much more with less frequencies.

Ike hates the hot weather. He sweats alot and can't sleep well, he needs the aircon and will definitely survive montreal weather. Today after work loren held him till he fell asleep. The other day he had hiccups and I took him for a walk, the breeze and the rustling leaves put him to sleep.

Loren has found us a home in Dainfern, a fenced community with 1,600 homes. Our home plate is number 1811, at least in chinese its a good number meaning sure to prosper everyday. Am checking to see whether it makes sense to buy the house since we will be there for some time. Loren left the pictures of the house in the agents car but described it as about 4,000 sq ft, no funny rooms or carpeting or wierd layouts. I think he said 3 or 4 bedrooms upstairs and one more downstairs. A den area which I will try and turn into the boy's playroom. He has also found a helper who has 2 children aged 6 and 8, who can also stay with us during their school holidays.

The limited reading material that loren brought back is quite interesting, have not found a suzuki music school but otherwise alot of activities. I think I have also found my "print shop". The website of the montesorri school supplier doesn't have table and chairs and I may buy that here. I now have their catalogue.

Today, wendy made soya bean milk, it is very yummy and without preservatives nor sugar. Let's see if nate takes to it tomorrow, he does not seem to like the other drinks that were good for his coughing like red dates and boiled apple.

Nate is making associations that all the lions in different books that he reads are the same type of animal, he puts the pictures next to each other and says "same". He refers to a lion as both a lion and roar.

talking talking talking

Well Nate is talking alot these days. Both in english and in mandarin, this week he started to say "bang mang" and seems to have forgotten "help", he knows both "airplane" and "feiji" but hasn't gotten the hint of magic word. He still does the sign language for please, so actually he is speaking 3 languages? he does niao niao and pee pee.

He thinks "too much" means too little because when he wants more he says "more" and we say "too much". The other day he said to dehdeh, xiexie (thank you) and was surprised that she knew to say "bu keqi" (welcome). He must be able to distinguish who speaks what language. He likes adding "ah" and "ma" to the back of sentences, it makes him feel like he is speaking mandarin and he does a good, "Aiya"

Ike on the other hand is also talking, he talks when awake, when eating and when sleeping. He makes these small noises like mmmm, nnnh, nnng... it is really hard to sleep next to him with the small noises going on then of course he has the big WAAAAHHH.

Today we went to the flea market at TAS (taipei american school). He saw sasha and she grabbed his hand and they walked down the sidewalk hand in hand (where is my camera when I need it?). Sasha's mom said she is quite bossy but she clearly knows what she wants! After they left, kaikai asked for her several times. I think a lurve story is developing there?

The american school has really lovely facilities, even the kindergarden, huge playground, swimming pool, field, activities... lots of developmental material on the wall but too bad there is no chinese classes involved.

Tonight Nate had sushi and that was an easy dinner to do.