Blast from the past

Here are some images of Nate in Taiwan, I found the CD Rom from his old school teacher, I also posted some images in the Oct 2006 entries. Here he is at halloween dressed as a chinese tiger.

He is also on the see saw with his 3 buddies to make the gang of four. I remember his teacher telling me that they liked to hang out together, ie they are all of similar age. Today I asked him whether he remembered Sasha and Enzo and he repeated their names but then said Lightning McQueen. I guess Disney rules for now.

Mixed Rice and Chalk

In Taiwan you can purchase all types of rice, including mixed rice for health, each company has their own mix of healthy rice which is brown rice with oats, millet, barley etc, some have names like eight treasures (8 types of grains) or 6 grain rice. Here the chinese store stocked min amounts of brown rice till I kept coming and buying them up. I keep asking him to bring in more grains but he doesn't understand, he has heard of mixed rice but has a vague idea of what the final product is.

So in the beginning, I bought the brown rice from him and mixed with barley and jobs tears, had to nag him to buy millet. Then I found in the indian stores, some lentil, from the supermarket, rolled oats, int he beginning the rice really was not exciting. Then at the Bryanston Organic market I found a store that sold unpolished wheat, unpolished barley, sorghum and then the mixed rice became nice and crunchy. The store owner had not thought of mixing rice and the next time I see him I must tell him how yummy it is.

Since then I have been on the look out for more grains, I now have found red rice, fennel seeds and a few more interesting grains. Now I feel my "rice holder" is not big enough for me to do my mixing. I have tried looking for a plain large pail type tupperware with a lid but no avail. I think my mixed rice has something like 10 to 12 different grains apart from the brown rice. I should look into mixing rice for sale at health outlets!

I am now trying to convince the Indian samosa store that does not do very good biz to convert her mish mash store into a cooking school for kids and domestic workers. But considering her samosa's aren't so great, a school for kids maybe viable, since the goal is to make a mess.

Speaking of which, here is nate with his pile of chalk and us making a mess of the front area and the doggies. I also found a snow city here near our place, I can take the kids tobaganning.

Here is the website for people thinking of visiting SA with kids... www.sakidsonthego.com

Lots of wildlife

The weather is cooling down alot mainly because it has been grey and cloudy for the last week, with a bit of sunshine, which is rare as we have only had blue blue skies. here is Ike all bundled up for his walk with a little extra cap to keep his ears warm.

The next shots are of the master bedroom's bathroom, it is quite large, nate and Loren sometimes run the bubble bath in the Jacuzzi, mainly he showers with me in the shower room, loren just bought a new shower head, its not the sunflower but looks like a wiggly sun, ok I will get an image. Anyway the windows are always open and with the cooler weather, today we found a teeny tiny baby preying mantis (maybe the mom had built a nest in my asparagus plant?), thinking maybe only one had come in, nate spoke to it for a while, then we saw that there were more of them (one perched on the back of loren's electric toothbrush). Sometimes we get larger mantis in the house as well.

So the bathroom is so big that by the time one gets up at night to go to the toilet, one could be fully awake walking back to bed. Nate is there playing with his favourite toy, Lightning Mcqueen, the racecar from "cars". Today walking into Toys R us, thinking there is almost no chance of getting this toy, they have stocked up on it and its in the high quality metal with quality finishes!!! not the rinky dinky plastic ones from a lucky packet. I buy 8 of them or two packs. Nate is just obsessed with them and he only got one, wait till he sees the rest, if he is good. He has had etremely good behaviour with this car. Luckily the toy store stocked them too, Nate borrowed one from ethan and I have looked everywhere for it except bullet's stomach.

Speaking of cars, it has taken the car dealer a long time to settle my Renault Scenic, the car that will switch on the lights, wipers etc automatically... so I test drove a Volvo stationwagon. I never imageined driving a stationwagon but here it is, suburban soccer mom, with kids and dogs and a stationwagon. It is an automatic tho, has a pull up net to separate the dogs in the boot area and also the back seat converts into booster seat. At least no more one man band with that manual car.

Ikey Teething

Poor ikey is very fussy and not sleeping good naps, he like biting down hard on fingers stuck in his mouth too. He did have a check up with the dr on friday and is in the 75 percentile of height and weight, dr said luckily he is long as well as chunky. Apart from the 3 meals, he now gets a mid afternoon snack of yogurt and fruit. Nate though has very dry skin and now we have to moisturize him twice a day. I've started buying him heavy duty moisturizers and my feet are getting pretty dry too.

Nate went to the oral hygenist, no tv on the dentist chair but we brought our own, so it was rather uneventful but I need to brush better, there was a thick layer of gunk at the gum line, but its all bright and shiny now!

We have given up on the Renault Scenic car for me, the woman handling in just can't seem to get the car ready and its already end of March, I have been in this manual car for too long! Today I test drove a Volvo stationwagon. Now that is a car I never thought of driving. Its not bad though, it has nets in the boot that will keep bullet in the back area and a booster seat built into the back seats so when nate turns 3 we don't even need to drag around a seat. But a VW beetle punch buggy this car is NOT!

Here is Nomsa with Ike and Nate and his favourite "heart cookie". I can't wait till he starts in his new school where he will get a wider variety of food and not that we have to pack food that will not go bad as he doesn't seem to eat much fm his lunch box. I think also the teachers may be able to influence him better, I notice the teachers here always picking on him and the more they do, the more disobedient he seems to want to be with them.

We had a nice dinner at the pizza place, nate makes our pizza and then runs off to the jumping castles then eats, plays and then gets some magic beans (M&Ms). As he is bigger than Lucas, he has a fan that follows him like a shadow!

Tiao Pi-ness (mischevious)

So today Nate's headmistress pulls me aside to tell me that he is very intelligent but doesn't listen to them and when they tell him to do something, he does the opposite. They have to single him out alot and wanted to know how he is disciplined at home. She tthought it would not be good if he is singled out as being "naughty" all the time and so the behaviour has to be corrected

He is actually quite well behaved at home or when I am around, I give him a choice, do you want to go up with me or aunty thembi, he can choose but if he dilly dallies then I say I am going to do something else. I suspect he is picking up alot of behaviour from other kids, some of the moms are not very good at carrying through with the discipline, one kid even tried to teach nate to disobey me! nice try though. The teachers in his school are strict but the childminders are not. I think this will improve in his new school as they are in a smaller environment where he can't run off to the large fields/playground if he is being told off.

His teacher in Taipei also said the same thing about him but in a classroom they are able to guide him better (can't run off!) and also the peer group pressure helps. The teacher did say that his behaviour changed around the time when porpor and bubbi and wendy were in taipei, more people to test! so when porpor or bubbi are here, remember to be consistent with this guy!

Here are some shots of ike on his walk, today I took him on a BIG walk, across golf courses and bridges. He slept well after that. I then went for my riding lesson, its a good workout for 30 minutes, time just flies when you are outdoors on a horse trying to balance with bowlegged feet but at the same time must not squeeze the horse such that it thinks you want it to gallop off fast. I learnt to bounce up and down with a trotting horse, to stick my bum on the saddle as it trots and to stand and hold its mane... My legs still feel ok now but apparently I will be sore tomorrow. The stables are only 5 mins away and apart from yoga, bubbi will be put on a abs building horse riding program!

I do need to find my sketch book, there are so many things to sketch if one has a bit of time. The riding instructor also introduced me to a children and horse playing place called rinky dink, have booked nate for a 30 min session next weds.

Sculpture II

Here is a clay sculpture by artist Nate of a Penguin, an animal that would apparently sunbathe on your front turf lawn if you lived in Cape Town, where they would pop up on the grass and just lay there for a sunbath. The sculpture is 3 inches in height and the artist has made it with sunken feet to express the protest of the polluting of the seas and the day when he cannot eat "fish and kips (chips)" anymore. Bids are welcome, the highest bidder for the last sculpture is Bubbi Marcia.

Yesterday was human rights day, a holiday, loren took nate to Lory Park Zoo, for rehabilitated animals. Nate tries to play tag with a turtle.

Loren is in Mozambique today, apparently some ammunition supply store blew up 5 km away from where he is. Shook all the buildings in the nearby vicinity. Luckily he didn't go to DRC (democratic, hah, republic of congo) this week, his colleagues that did are holed up in a hotel, unable to leave and there are tanks in the streets. All the shots for immunizations are minor comparatively!

And back in Fairyland... Shelley, our wonderful neighbour has arranged for a manicurist to come do our nails when the kids are playing, the manicurist has a friend that does hair, nate's bad haircuts may be a thing of the past.

Fatty Bom Bom

Well its all based on time and location, if I walk ike at 8am and in the neighbourhood, he is a marshmallow nunu cutie pie. If he is at the supermarket, he is fatty bom bom!

Here are shots of him in a baby seat attached to the shopping cart (note again, child friendliness!) and the background is "Pick n Pay" one of the supermarkets near here. The other shot is of him at the post office boxes where I collect my mail.

Actually if I keep this up, photographing him in this baby seat with a variety of background... I could have my own photo exhibition, "The world of Fatty Bom Bom" and I guess once he is too big for the seat, it will be time to change my artistic subject matter. I may have to steal one of these shopping carts though!

The last shot is for the grandparents again... can you see how big his two front teeth are?

For those who are interested in a funny read, log onto www.berkshirehathaway.com for buffet's latest annual report to the shareholders.

Nate is growing up

Here are some shots of nate when he comes out with us for dinner, he likes fish and chips or fish and kips as he calls them and gets upset if I get him chicken nuggets, anyway the grilled fish with lemon juice is more yummy and healthier. He also likes olives and lettuce!

We got him a smaller bag, the spiderman one was just too big, this one we bought at Oriental Bazaar which wasn't that interesting a place to go. He chose Sponge Bob and it is smaller. The last bag, although many commented on how heavy it looked, it was actually empty, also many of the roads here are not paved so pulling on sand is quite hard work. His hair looks patchy, I swear I have not cut his hair in a long time, its just a bad hair day for him and with the dry weather it gets a bit fizzy too.

Also a shot of him and his buddies at the stables, only nate is still reluctant to get on a pony, he is more obsessed with his toy cars.

I took him to the dr on Friday, dr says his development both physically and mentally are that of a 3 year old, with that information, I called up Virgin Active, the gym to see if with a drs letter i can get him into the 3 year old Tom Ball like ball pit. They are checking with headoffice, fingers crossed, I will be able to go to the gym and someone else can watch him or he can play with his buddies in the big boy pit.

ike the yummy marshmallow nunu pie

Here are some pics of ike, he is a smiler, he really likes to smile, olivia thinks its less effort to make him smile than nate and so ike is searching for his niche in the family. Ike is chubby and soft and always smells quite good. One mommy called him a marshmallow, nunu's are what they call babies here and he is a really yummy marshmallow nunu pie. Oh maybe I should add the word giant and smilie... The only time he is grumbles is when he see food not heading to his mouth and when I am late for his walk.

The weeping willow is on one of my favourite part of the walk when I walk ike in the morning. They are just huge and weepy. Now that summer is coming to an end, the mornings are sometimes cold so little nunu pie is wrapped up in his blanket before going out. Today started out at about 13 deg, with sun and at noon we are up to 23 degrees. Many of the plants here are producing seeds and there are some really wierd ones, they are like durian pods but less prickly, not sure if the image here is big enough to view, I could not get close enough for a close up shot. Soon it will be dry and no more rains till spring/summer and everything will be brownish, except maybe fairyland dainfern with its sprinklers.

Homes in dainfern

Homes here are still quite cheap considering the market has tripled in the last 5 years. Here are some pics of homes from our walk, they range from more local looking ones with lhapa roofs (no pic yet) to french riviera's to italian or balinese or modern homes. A home that is about 4,000 sq ft, 3 garages, 5 bedrooms, formal living, informal living, patio and pool is about US$600,000, which isn't bad for prime residential and on a golf course.

More life in dainfern pics

Some of you have commented about how nice the open spaces are, well this is a suburban community and its nice in that just around the corner there are kids and other parents to mix with, our home in taipei was a bit far from everyone else. Here it seems nate's good friends are the ones outside of his school.

I posted 2 pics of the 12 foot wall and electric fencing. Its not visiable from where we are but this is what "protects" the community. There is also alot of security at the gates, more as a deterrent. They also check the bags of the domestics and call me to check if I gave them items that they carry out. We all need passes to get in. Several moms that I have spoken to moved here because they were attacked in their own homes, one when she was 8 months pregnant had a gun pointed to her belly.

Anyway, today i take ike on his morning walk and see like these big grubby maomao cong's (caterpillars) crossing the road! Funny the birds had not spotted them, they were really big, like 3 inches long and fat. When we first got here there were swarms of tiny frogs, not bigger than 1 cm each, hopping all over the place.

I also finally got a pair of crocs, they are really comfy and easy to slip on and off. Too bad they didn't have a pink or sky blue so i settled for off white. I highly recommend them!

Here's a pic of a hen at one of the playground areas of a child friendly restaurant that I took nate to. 3 other mom's were there and the kids played well with each other. We now have them negotiating among themselves and not interfering and letting them settle their own disputes.

Views of Dainfern

here are some pictures from ikes walk. This is the route thru the golf course area, the last image is the road leading to our home, the left wall is the wall to our house.

We see all sorts of birds and plants on this walk, since Ike has been sleeping thru the night, he wakes up at about 645 and plays by himself, we get him at about 7. I take nate to school and when I get back at 8, ike is fed and has had his milk and is looking forward to his walk, today he made lunge movements towards his stroller. While in the stroller he did not want to sit back, just always leaning forward.

I also got my bike back, it has a toddler seat at the back, nate actually says giddyup! although the slopes here are small, they are still slopes...

ducks on rooftops?

Ike slept through the night again! I hope he does it again tonight, we put him to bed at 6pm without his 3rd nap, I hope he makes it till 5am again. Yesterday he took a small nap and then slept at 7pm. My new routine includes coming home after sending nate, then taking ike for a big walk around the area, then back again for his 9am nap. Today on my walk, I walked pass the holiday care place I put Nate to when his normal school is closed for holidays, it is in the Dainfern compound and has a lhapa roof (apparently flammable). Today when I walked pass, there were two ducks on top of it, squawking away and a hardeedar as well, not sure you can see those birds from the 4th pic posted. I"ll take more pics of the area we live in, the golf course (dream) and the 12 foot electric fence perimeters (reality) as well.

I had such a good sleep I felt really energetic that I signed myself up for horseriding lessons next week. The stables are only 5 mins away and the latest craze exercising machine in Asia is a milder bronco horse thing where you can watch TV sit on this thing for 30 mins and then work you inner thighs and abs, why not do the real horse then in the lovely outdoors. Yeeha here I come. If I get another good night tonight, I will look into my art classes and also sign up for the Virgin active gym.

The first pic is of nate and his new school bag, he has wanted a wheelie bag for some time now seeing that his friends in school has them. The second pic is of our house, nate is standing in front of the garage, and to the left is our front door. Not sure its that visible and the last pic is of angel ike the baby that now sleeps through the night!

Ike slept thru the night!

Ike's sleep had not been consolidating well so I reread weisbluth and decided to make a change, ie if he wakes at around 2pm to put him to sleep again at 4pm and wake him up at 5pm and then put him to sleep again at 7pm. Usually I'd try and stretch his awake time to 5ish and let him sleep through the night resulting in him waking up at about 5am too. He also was used to waking up at about 9pm and 1am for a feed.

Last night he went down at 7pm and didn't wake till 5am, then a bit of milk, went back to sleep! me on the other hand... have been awake since 1am waiting for him to get up! hope he does this again tonight. A friend lent me a book called "baby wise" by Gary Ezzo, he combines dr. Weisbluth's sleep methods with an eating and activity schedule, producing babies that will sleep through the night by 7-9 weeks old. Apparently it works, before I could implement it, Ike is hopefully on the path to sleeping through the night.

Here is a picture of nate discovering that bark can be flaked off trees and singing pop goes the weasel to every flake he flicks off.

Bullet and Pistol snuggling.