Ike is 6 months

and has 6 teeth already, when we take him out, people always ask what we feed him to get him SO big. He's full on to big meals and big poos. Its like russian roulette now, in the am's nomsa will get the jackpot, if pm then thembi or olivia at night, its me, last night I hit the jackpot.

He can turnover from back to front but not the other way and looks like he is swimming on land when on his tummy. Still no "mama" out of him yet, just "uh uh", he seems to smile more easily than nate at the same age who had a poker face.

more pics

Here are more pictures, the first is a wild flower bush at the gate of nate's school, we have been collecting wildflower seeds for olivia as she intends to scatter them allover her fathers land in the phillippines, maybe they will have a large bloom of wild flowers in spring?

The yellow flower is also another wild one near the stream where nate like to throw rocks, this plan attracts alot of bees

Nate and Ethan our neighbours kid who is 3 and Kaylen his sister, who likes to walk and carry pistol.

The background is a small stream and nature reserve area walking distance from our home, nate calls it his pootoom river, "pootoom" for the sound of rocks hitting the water.

some pics

I found out how to transfer pics via bluetooth from my phone to the computer, so there will be alot more photo's on this blog now! Here aer some of nate in school, his sand box and his wheelbarrow. loren went to visit him last week in school and nate was surprised.

Here is one of Ike, the angel, when asleep. His two front top teeth are popping out now so he is all fussy again. He will be fussier later as I take him for his 6 month shots!

The last one is of the fuzzy asparagus plant I bought, strangely once in the bathroom, the new shoot has decided to grow a whole 8 inches longer than the rest of the shoots... and all I did was feed water.

Julia

Some of you have wrote to say the injustice of our neighbours just feeding tea and bread, well employers have to provide a food allowance, which they use to buy food and then on top of that provide tea and bread. Also here are two additional stories from our short time here.

1.) I fired Boni, mainly because the kids didn't like her but also because she was rather inflexible and somewhat ungrateful, Boni was ok on the food front but there were many little things that she would be counting and always to her benefit, she also had a long face and seldom said thank you or please. When she was sick and Nomsa covered her weekend, she would not want to cover Nomsa's weekend and wanted to be paid while sick (which is ok if she worked for a longer period of time), luckily the contract was clear on these things. The agency woman actually told me to be less nice to them as they are prone to taking and taking and taking...

2.) Julia our part time helper which i got to tide us over when we first arrived, she only worked 4 hours a day cleaning for us but her tea and lunch breaks went from only 30 mins to over an hour! but the funny part is this, she ate like a vacuum cleaner. Olivia had a light fruit Xmas cake which we got for her and she sparingly ate a piece everyday, one day for breakfast, she offered Julia a piece, when she turned back around, Julia had eaten the whole cake! Olivia was stunned into silence!

Then after my lunch i would pass her rice to eat and instead of taking a portion she would take the whole plate as her main plate and pile all the other left over food as well. Future meals, Olivia had to make sure she saved a portion for herself.

Loren did not finish his big tub of yogurt, it was expired by a day but still good, she gladly drank down the tub! Olivia thought Wendy was a big eater but at least Wendy did her work efficiently, Julia just lived to eat. Our fridge was getting bare at a fast rate. She would have definitely eaten us poor.

Her second last day with us, we gave her sushi. She didn't come to work the next day, we aren't sure if her tummy did not agree to that? a month later she called asking if we needed a full time person.... yeah right, apart from the food, she was not particularly hard working if she was looking for a job.

I think we are lucky that Nomsa and Thembi both want to lose weight. That should be an interview question!

Titbits

Pic of the dog's beds upstairs, they also have beds downstairs. amazingly they haven't bitten a hole in them like when they were younger in Singapore.

Conversations overheard...

1.) Thembi and Olivia having breaskfast.
T: I am so afraid of Bullet...
O: Oh he looks scary but he is just a gentle goofy dog, not scary at all
T: But his farts smell so bad and they are silent
O: giggling
T: I swear, if there were other people around, no one would believe me if I said it was bullet, they would think I am blaming an innocent dog!
O: laughing with tears....

2.) Thembi and the neighbour's helper (translated), lunch time.
N: Oi... what are you cooking again, it smells so good.
T: eat you own meal ok, stop being so nosy
N: Oi... you guys are killing us you know, everyday the food smells so good and the wind brings over the smell. They only feed us bread here. Oh I still feel so hungry, I have doubled my bread intake smelling your food. I am gaining weight because of you! you make me fat!

I hope the girls feel grateful for they are allowed to eat what we eat, by law we only need to provide tea and bread! Thembi has lost 2kg since working for us and Nomsa 10kg, I think from working and moving and eating better. Thembi said her heart has grown bigger though and she enjoys working here.

3.) Nate in School at story time, teacher finished telling a story about snails (his favourite thing now) and caterpillars
T: Steven, sit down... and so the snail went on its way and what did it see?
N: oooo luulalluuuooo (no idea what he is trying to make out) mao mao cong (caterpillar in chinese) and wo niu (snail in chinese) walking apu the hillu (walking up the hill, why he speaks like a japanese i don't know!)
T: (bursts out into a big smile), Mr. Nate, you are very talkative today.

4.) Dada comes home early to say good night, nate is in bed, they are looking into each others eyes....
N: Rafiyu
Loren: huh? (looks to me) do you know what he is saying?
Me: no idea... oh I think he said Love You
N: (big smile, good translation).
L: love you too
N: Lab you.

Nate's new friend two doors down is Ethan, he turned 3 in January and is slightly taller than Nate and they seem to understand each other. His mom thought Nate was older... so I guess they will still not be talking by 3? I do miss the time from taipei when he would come back with a new chinese word that I have not heard in a long time.

Nate is now into Nemo, olivia seems hooked onto it as well.

Air is SO dry

and it is summer of which it is supposed to be the wettest time. The rains have not come down in 2 weeks, but somehow water is cheap here and everyone's lawns are still green from the sprinkler systems. I need to get Nate used to wearing lip stuff and I need to start wearing slippers too as feet here are proned to cracked heels. i tried but just don't like slippers. Everyone wears shoes in the house and drags dirt in. I also need ot get good hand moisturizers at every washing station, I can understand why people don't want to wash their hands often but maybe the nice smelling moisturizers will help, my finger tips are so dry, they are going to peel too.

Bullet's nose is dry... so is ikes, tho thembi said for their kids, they use a bit of vaseline in the nose and last night that worked really well, he only woke twice, instead of a few times. The meter that measures the dryness in the air is always stuck at 20%, which is the lowest indicator, I wonder if we could be at 10% or lower?

I thought i tossed out my dehumidifiers in taipei but they got shipped here, I tried selling them at cash converters but they laughed and were surprised such a product exsited. I will try and hunt for a large humidifier soon.

I signed nate up for broadacres nursery school, they should have a spot for him next term, which is april. I checked out two other schools but they weren't as nice as broadacres... am happy that ike would also go to broadacres when he is ready. Next step apparently I have to start looking at primary schools as I have to put his name down or he may have no spot when the time comes and if we are still here.

Am planning to tackle our bedsheet and towel situation next, I have not done any shopping in that area as Taipei just had a very limited variety. The bookshelves arrived but I think i made have amde a measurement mistake, they look a bit short will have to think how to remedy that situation.

Settling in

Finally I feel that we are settling in. I bought some plants over the weekend and today took the plunge to buy one of my favourite ferns, they are quite expensive here and in Singapore I could practically pick them off the ground, I may have my mom bring a tupperware of small baby ferns for me to raise. There is one fern though near our house, but it is on a tall tall palm that serves as the mini round about, now way I can go harvest baby ones or pluck that one!

I"ve also been trying to buy baskets, there are quite a number of them but nothing that is perfect yet. The US is still the land of consumers, I clicked on to crate and barrel and there were my perfect baskets!

Some of you asked about the dogs, they are doing fine, bullet today jumped over the pool corner, barely making it, just to try and catch a Uaaark uaark bird. There were 2 in our garden today looking for fat earthworms. I do need to take a pic of them! Jake and pistol both used ot have black fur under their chins but both have turned white now, jakes eye brows and whiskers have also turned white. Ourd dogs are entering middle age.

I have instituted a new way to put ike to sleep, no more carrying and singing and 4 different methods... he cried some on sunday as we now put him down before he sleeps, so he learns to sleep unassisted but today did the best naps so far, 2 solid ones. A perfect nap day.

The bookshelves arrive on weds and then we will be all unpacked! yay.

Posted pics

I uploaded some pictures, some of them are on older posts. I need to figure out how to get smaller image sizes from the camera otherwise the uploading takes a long time!

Here are some flowers in our garden. Its a miracle how they just keep popping up. Nate likes taking the rose petals and throwing them in the air and running through them like a bride, we tell him congratulations and he has learnt the word, he thinks the rose petal game is called "congratulations". After pruning the roses, more buds just keep coming!

Other pics included Nomsa and Ike, Thembi is the one by the clothes line, Peter is the gardener and pool man. Nate likes seeing him everyday.

The dogs went for a run with loren today, at least they aren't barking at other dogs and loren likes to run and now they are passed out.

Ike is growing up

Ike determines to sleep at 730pm everynight, its pitch dark at about 720pm with my new black out curtains, sometimes he appears tired at 630 or 645 and I try to put him to sleep but its a struggle, light still seeps in and he just refuses to go down, thena t 725 he will suddenly put his head down and finallly go to sleep.

Last night as soon as he slept, loren and I went out to dinner. Olivia said he woke at about 915 and was patted back to sleep, he does a first waking at 915 to 930. Then I was so tired I slept, the room has a double bed and ike was right smack in the middle, I also moved his cot there but the girls don't like using it, so I also have a mattress on the floor. I slept on the floor as my new experiment to not wake ike while I toss and turn and vice versa. 1215am, ike asleep, I sleep on, 2am, no noise, this is good zzzzzz. 330am, shirt wet, do I go pump? how come this guy is sleeping so much? hover hover, ike is breathing but sleeping. 345 a stir and feed and change of diaper. Will he make it to 7am??? 4am, argh now I can't sleep, so I am mentally planning his new routine day.

He has more wakeful hours, I have been taking him to nate's school if he is awake during that time, yesterday he went with me to check out the broadacres nursery school, tomorrow maybe i take him swimming, I also remembered that I have a bouncy toy that I should use before he is too big and I think also a new bedtime routine which will include reading. Poor guy just gets led into a dark room. I should try and get him a CD player too for some classical music.

So 430am am at the blog... I can think of a few more stories to write but will save that. I will take the camera with me everywhere tomorrow and get shots to upload. I mananged to hook up the new printer/scanner yesterday and I will try and hit the plant shop tomorrow for smaller potted plants around the house and will try to go when ike is awake, 25mins more and Thembi's shift starts and I can switch on the baby monitor and head back to sleep in the main bedroom.

Will Ike sleep through tomorrow?

This week, while checkin gout the Dainfern nursery (15min walk fm home), the owner called Ike, "fatty". Ike is really not quite pleased with the dr's plan to give him a teaspoon increase of rice cereal a day. Yesterday, he grabbed the spoon from olivia and fed himself. The rice cereal is creating a bit of havoc to his tummy, very smelly farties and just as olivia was preparing a suppository yesterday, he made a BIG one, three days worth for Thembi, the new jackpot winner.

Broadacres Farm Nursery School

It is Nate's mid term and his montesorri school is closed for 3 days, I signed him up for the Dainfern nursery which is a 15 min walk from home or a 2 minute drive in the car. He seems to adjust to the new place really fast, yesterday i got a hug when I picked him up, today he didn't even want to come home! I think he is just hoping to avoid his naps. When his teacher started laying out nap mats, he said "go home". The difference I think is that Nate spends more indoor time and doing indoor things like craft than running around outside.

I also finally checked out the Farm nursery school, its not far from our home, maybe a 10 minute drive, they also have buses doing pick up and nate misses sitting on a bus. Its quite a large place, different sections for different age groups, there are lots of farm animals, a resident hog, a group of geese, ducks, chickens and they get to ride a horse once a week! There are about 250 students but it did not feel like it. It is run by a husband and wife team and they also get healthy meals there. They try to create group pressure to get the kids to learn from each other. There is also the same teachers that teach golf, ballet, action ball, swimming etc here. The school also only closes for the December holidays and none of this mid term then end of term breaks. I really like this school, there is unfrotunately no space for Nate's age group. I think i will just sign him up and then when they do have space move him over.

The other thing I like is that they have big shady trees, his montesori school has some shade but not as much. Some parents I spoke to did not liek the place because they thought it was too grimy but I think it is not much more so than the present school and kids at this age should get grimy anyway.

Bubbi marcia is now booked to come out in April, missing the lovely montreal spring into summer for SA's autumn into winter. I hope I get my car by then, otherwise we will have one man band bubbi....

Ikes first meal and shopping here

Ike at first rolled his tongue about then decided he liked the rice cereal and I saw olivia sneaking him another teaspoon when he is only supposed to have 2 today, 3 tomorrow, 4 the day after and so on. He was not happy when the food was taken away from him, like sometimes when he is hungry and sees me walk in the opposite direction, he gets quite distressed.

He is so plump he has a huge double chin, I got a pic of him eating, now to figure out how to upload!

I also swung by a place called Design Quarters, I feel like I have gone from the home shopping desert of Taipei, where the only exciting shopping is costco and ikea, where if there is an interesting shop, parking would be impossible to malls, malls and more malls with free parking and endless large parking spots.

Anyway at design center, I found many shops to finally buy the things I have been putting off, like replacing our sun bleached pillow cases to finally getting a set of dishes that looks alike, the variety is overwhelming and the pressure now to create a lovely dinner setting for shabbat has increased! Help marcia!

Ike is on solids! yay!

Took Ike for his check up and "poo review" with the dr today, he is now 8 kg which is quite big compared to the dr's daughter who was there and is a 2.5 year old walking child and they are the same size (he says she is on the small side). They had the same sized feet, hands, head... only one was still more of a blob.

Dr is happy with his poo progress and has agreed to start him on solids, tomorrow he will have 2 teaspoons of rice cereal for breakfast, two weeks later then vege's then fruit then progress to dinner by 7 months with meat etc. The time for weaning is near, which spells freedom for me and better sleep. I am so happy that there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

He also ok-ed some dimetapp as he may be getting nate's cold. Nate if his cough doesn't improve by thurs, I'll bring him in on friday. Today nate helped me make lemon and honey juice. The next appointment I bring both of them for the developmental check up with the dr around mid march.

I came home and nate found loren's big exercise ball, which we took out and rolled around the street, nate racing with the ball, bumping into the ball... I also got to admire the rose bushes in our front area, last week nate helped me put the dead flower stems that I cut off into a pile, at first I was reluctant to have him help me as there are thorns but he managed well. This week there are many new buds and we will have alot of roses popping up again.

Nate with his new running speed has also had a number of boo boos. In the last week, he fell and cut his lip twice, his knees are scratched up, now he asks for long pants so they don't hurt as much when he falls, he goes everywhere barefoot but likes to kick rocks so.... a boo boo on his big toe too.

One man band

This is the sound of me and the stick shift car passing through the security gates, within sort of a 20 second range the following tune is played... voom, squeek squeek, click click click, BEEEP, pause pause pause, VOOOM, mama Sai Qe, shuga shuga shuga, pupuupurrrrrr.... and if its raining, add swish swish swish to the background...

voom : changing to a lower gear as I apporach the gate
squeek squeek : as I wind down the window
click click click beeeeep : as I fumble with the access card and beep the gate
pause : 3 seconds for gate to rise
VOOOOM : as I am on low gear and don't want the engine to die
MAMA SAI QE : nate says, mama's sports car!
shuga shuga shuga : as I wind up the window
pupuupupurrrrr : as I change gears again

I can't wait till I get my Scenic, a renault I think with many small compartments to put things away and all the driver does is stick in the key, and put forward or reverse, the car will switch on the lights if needed, switch on the wipers if needed! Its now been in service check for a month as we are buying it second hand from loren's predecessor.

TIA or This is Africa is the latest phrase word from Blood Diamonds or TISA, this is south africa, you can't pay for express service, two weeks delivery means probably three.

Today I snet nate to school and there was a big pile of cut grass, the boys took a wheelbarrow and chucked a pile of grass in, ran to the geese and fed them, i got some pix, now to learn to download fm new camera!

Sniffles

Nate has caught some bug... I hope Ike doesn't get it though he did have a stuffyish nose last night which meant he woke up more than twice in the night.

I found Nate's train set and he has definitely grown since the last time he played with it, he now puts the little sign posts up though he can't quite fix the tracks himself.

My family thinks Ike looks like Wendy so Olivia is now nicknaming him, "wendel".

I finally got to join a yoga class today, it was quite good just to stretch and so when mom and marcia come they can come with me in the morning, half the class time is done outside which is really nice to absorb the positive energy around us from the environment. Bernie can go with loren for the father and son, HOT yoga.

We have several fountains in the garden and I have converted one into an herb garden.

We have our new camera!

Conversation overheard

Am upstairs on my computer sorting through bills, Ike took a short nap and not settling in yet for his first am nap...

Olivia : oh I smell something, oh oh you are making poo poo?
Nomsa: no I think its another fake call, just air...
O : No, I smell it, its strong... oh oh here its coming out, oh thats why you don't want to sleep yet...
N : eeee what a big one....

well at least a glycerine averted. Now he should sleep? Dr. W didn't have a chapter on these types of sleep diversions.

Camera Kaput!

After finding the cables, the docking station, charging the camera.... we took some pictures on saturday... I was about to take pictures today of ike, the house... well the camera is broken. Sigh, loren says he will pick up another camera, now that he is in dubai.

Nate is very into Thomas the train, today he wore thomas shirt and his thomas slippers and wanted to go to this toy store that had a thomas table with thomas traacks and all thomas's friends. I now know how kids bankrupt their parents, these toys are really expensive! TOMY the maker is making a killing, I must check out their stock! A matchbox toy car is between US$1 to 3. The train is like US$8 onwards. I am now motivated to look on ebay.

Ike did a great sleep schedule today, a good am nap, a 2 hour pm nap (the longest ever, otherwise its 40 mins, max an hour) and then another short 3rd pm nap. Sleep begets sleep, or is this the illusion of things getting better and tonight will be a bad night for me?

Peter's sister was offered another job so back to the grapevine.

Teeth and feet

Ike has had 2 bottm teeth sprout out about a month ago and now the next two bottom teeth are coming out too. He's been a grumpy little pot. The african's say if they have teeth young they are supposed to be quite intelligent. I've also stopped using a swaddle for him.

Nate on the other hand now runs like all kids here, barefooted. he started going to school with sneakers on (tekkies they are called here), then i got a note saying that its summer and all kids should come in slippers. Now as soon as he gets to school he takes off his slippers and races barefoot to see the geese (whom he calls donald duck).

Today, peter our gardener's sister will arrive to work for us on trial. If she is anything like her brother, who is nice, Nate likes him and he is diligent, honest and trustworthy then we would be on the right track.

Nate has a new girlfriend here, she just turned 2 and he went to her birthday party, her name is Sophia. They moved recently from Surabaya in Indonesia, her mom is polish and her dad is american. Looks like we will have more than enough families with kids here to have afternoon playdates. One of the mom's told me about another nursery school near us that resembles a farmyard, where they have farm animals and also classrooms, which sounds quite interesting. Will have to check that one out.

It was Olivia's birthday yesterday and we took her to Moyo, a nice african restaurant, which we will bring all visitors and tourists when they come visit. They sang her happy birthday with drums and in native african fashion and we also had our faces painted with little dots, hers was a flower, ike had a little caterpillar and nate was too shy to get one.

Today i finally went to the birdpark and its not far from where we are. Outside the birdpark is a big balloon ride, it goes up to 120 meters, another tourist attraction for those who want to go way up there. The birdpark is really nice too, seems more lush than KL, its smaller but neater and cleaner and less smells.

Cockle doodle doooooo

In Taipei, our farmer neighbours have chickens and when Nate was a baby, the crow would be my signal that morning is coming, I was awake anyway.... once I misread my watch and though nate slept through the night all the way to 5 am (yay!) only to wonder why there was no crowing, then I realised it was only 2 am (sigh~).

Here, there are all sorts of birds, tiny red ones to big ones that look like mini emus with a long curved beak, they seem to find worms everywhere. Anyway these birds make this piercing noise 30 mins before the sun comes up, a UUUAAAARRRK, even if you were asleep, you would be jolted awake and these birds travel in flocks of 3 ish, so its UUUUAAARKKKK UAAAARRKKK UAAAARRRK. I wonder if they grill well or are good on a braai (SA for BBQ).

Nate is back to his 530 am schedule, even with the double dark curtains. Ike seems to take really well to Nomsa. Today she was able to put him to sleep quite quickly much to our amazement and as I write this, she has the hardest time slot the 6-7pm. I've fed him at 6 and tried to put him to sleep, his nose wakes him up then it takes effort to get him to sleep again. Worse today he has discovered the fan, that rotating thing that blows a breeze and can't stop staring (I hope those indian curtain makers have my blackouts tomorrow!). Anyway, today for the first time he did a long first pm nap and a decent second one, soon he will be sleeping well at night too... and with that I will light an incense to the deity of baby sleep for why would one want any other deity of luck, happiness and longevity when if your baby sleeps, you are lucky, happy and will live long!

Having said that, I read an article recently that all studies point to pets prolonging one's life and kids shortening it.