Sculpture

Bid are now open for this 3.5 inch ceramic sculpture of the UAAAARK UAAAARK bird (real nickname the hardydar, I will try and get a picture of the real bird soon) by the artist, nate, pictured with his drinking bottle infront of some horsie stables. The sculpture is a colorful yet realistic rendition of the south african bird with a long beak that comes to feed on earthworms in the rich soils of our neighbourhood. The real bird is grey or black. The artist has artistically expressed his fondness of the bird by making its eye bulgy and giving it a nice red feathery harido. Limited edition of 1. Proceeds will go towards the earthworm orphanage.

The last image is bullet relaxing after a hard chase with the rat.

Rats, snakes and frogs

Here are some photo's of Dainfern, where we live and a shot of the road just outside dainfern, as you can see there is a lot of flat land, apparently over the next 15 years they plan to build 8,000 homes in the area, making traffic alot worse but we will be gone by then. The silver thing that runs across the outside of dainfern is officially a water carrying pipe but others have said it is sewerage. Hope it never leaks! Apparently the silver pipe thing has won many awards. The playground is where I take nate sometimes in the pm, tho now its under repairs.

Nate and loren in our pool and a view of the rest of our garden. They usually go into the jacuzzi for a big bubble bath afterwards (didn't have my camera then!)

Over the weekend we had a huge rat come into the house driving the dogs absolutely crazy (I'm still wondering if its maybe someone's guinea pig?) on sat morning, thembi saw it and ran in the other direction, on sat night the dogs were sniffing up and down and in a frenzy. Sunday morning I sleep in (bad night the night before) and loren went for a run. When I came downstairs, olivia said I had just missed bullet pouncing on a huge rat, she heard a crack (snapping of its back?) and blood flying all over the kitchen. Thembi hiding and throwing olivia plastic bags from a distance.

Bullet had his nose scratched and felt like a hunter.

The heat wave has apparently also driven a number of snakes indoors, we don't live near the nature reserve and haven't seen any but there have been reports by other dainfern residents. But there seems to be a number of frogs, I had to get one out of the swimming pool yesterday. Nomsa is so scared of frogs she needs olivia to escort her to her room at the back during the raining period.

Apart from that we went to a really nice italian restaurant called Casalinga, built around an old stable, beautiful grounds, they grow their own herbs, delicious food and unbelievably cheap wine.

Nate the comedian

Today i left nate with the neighbours (his heaven) to play while I set the house for shabbat. When I went to pick him up I find Shelley (ethan's mom) and Kaila (ethan's sister) rolling on the floor with laughter. As Nate gets more social he will also be reflecting what we have taught him (oh oh!), today it rained after a long dry spell and of course there was thunder.... so Nate was telling everyone that the sky is farting!

I guess if he can relate to that and not fear thunder that is great. The concept is not entirely wrong either since both involve gas molecules bouncing around.

The pictures this time are of Nate having his milk after his nap on his "Car" blanket, he likes Sally the best and she is a blue Porsche. He gets milk out of a bottle still and I see kids here being weaned at a much later age than Taipei. Some bring their binkys to school!

I also went to check out a child friendly gym, they have a separate area where child minders watch the kids for you!!! There is a big ball pit like Tom Dragon, unfortunately Nate has to be 3 before he is allowed in there and they want to see proof of his age. So it will be another 6 months before we join that gym.

Ike is lifting his head and doing some land swimming... Nate is into "peeling" things from lychee skin to hard boiled egg shells, oranges and also Haw flake paper wrappings.

Here is a picture of restaurant play areas for kids to entice those friends with kids to come visit, this place is really child friendly.

Tiao Pi

Here are pictures of the nature reserve near our house, I'd like to walk this area but with nate, he likes throwing rocks into the small stream or larger dam areas so I have not been able to see the rest of this nature reserve. I'd also like to rent a golf cart (can't buy as we have no more garage room!) so that I can explore the rest of this community, there are many other nice trails not accessible by car but to get a sense of the lay of the land by buggy would already take some time.

This week i went to speak to a property broker on whether we should buy here, it looks like although supply is dwindling and demand is great and apparently dainfern is 30% undervalued, the buyer's taxes, income taxes, commissions etc. don't make the numbers that attractive in the time frame that we will be here.

Today I pick nate up at school, I am standing behind the door area so I can only here the group time which is story time going on...

Teacher : and what color are the blocks NATE...
N: yellow
T: class...
class: blue
T: Nate stop that, and what did john then do with the blocks...
T: NATE
T: he stacked them up into a tower
T: Nate please stop that

I can't see what is going on but the other day I could spy Nate eating his dirty toes (urgh). After class I ask the teacher what Nate was up to, she said he is very disruptive in class, he likes tickling or bothering other kids, tho he is adapting better to group time and working indoors more often now. I said his Taipei teacher called him "Tiao Pi" (naughty or cheeky) and his teacher here said, he is very intelligent, we must be firm with him, he likes pushing the boundaries more than normal kids.

sigh... I better go back to reading Dreikurs on pshychology of kids. I have minimised the use of 1-2-3's but may need to reinstate that and also the naughty mat again. How does one stop a kid from whining? He does pick up alot of bad habits from observing other kids whose parents aren't strict and nip the problem at the bud.

So, I have been reading, the biorgraphy of Africa, I did not realise how big the continent is until the author put a map of africa and showed how one can fit the USA, China, India, N. Zealand and Europe land masses to come up with the equivalent size! This place is huge.

We are having our first shabbat tomorrow. I still need to get some loose cushions, some hand towels, mats etc etc etc... but hopefully with the warmth of our home and the presence of good company, food and wine, no one will notice these minor things?

Just to end, wine here is so good and so unbelievably cheap... its great. To all you readers, please come to SA and join us on a drink fest...

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!

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.

Ballet

Looks like the ballet teacher thinks twinkle toes is too young! He is however very fascinated by cars. Our latest routine is to walk to the playground after his nap, there he plays at the junkle gym and meets other kids. He often takes a toy car so that he can exchange with another kid for a bike to ride or this bluedozer (bulldozer).

On the walk there we hit the main artery road of Dainfern, he would name cars and he can recognize the difference between a Toyota, a BMW and a Mercedes.... boys heads must be wired differently.

Nate goes to an art class to and the other day came back with a candle holder for dehdeh.

Today I got a tonne of giggles out of Ike. We swayed next to the big mirror and everything he was closer to his own reflection, he giggled out in a series of giggles.

I also found our camera and the cables, it is being charged as we speak so soon there will be more images.

Found a place that sells bookshelves, the next area I plan to tackle. I also fired our childminder today and will be on the interviewing route again.

Patron Deity of Sleep

I think if I were still in Taipei I would have a clay bust or porcelain statue made of Dr. Weisbluth and then a little altar and place a little inscense there make it the space for the Deity of Sleep. I finally found his book among our things, the library is the last to be unpacked as we have no shelves there, I knew I should have packed it in my suitcase.

Ike had such a nice sleep pattern developing according to his age in Taipei, it all went pear shaped here and the log I kept was just terrible, small naps, no consolidation in sleep, lots of wakings at night. After rereading the chapter on am sleep, it was so easy to rectify and he now has regained his am nap nicely! a lovely 2-3 hour chunk where we are free! now his pm naps are starting to get into place as well. ahhhhhhh. bow-bow-bow, thank you patron deity of sleep!

Yesterday after Ike had his big am nap, Olivia had the jackpot, a big poo. He was fussy in the afternoon and I left him to soothe himself while taking nate to the playground. He was still fussing an hour later so olivia picked him up and hit another jackpot! if this were a casino, she'd be rich! The good news is he poo-ed in time so no need for glycerine today.

Today, I went to the garden center, we have a really nice garderner called Peter. It is a bit further than my normal radius and so its was nice to go explore with someone else. I didn't find my herb pot but I did see that they sell large metal masks, which i think I will pick up next week with Peter and hang in our outdoor area. Loren has a big wall of masks and has proclaimed that his mask collection will increase by 500%, so I have left him several bare walls. He is eyeing a coffee table that has lions or elephants underneath (urgh!) but I think I have managed to steer him to a african door that we can make into a coffee table. We also saw in a restaurant a bench that has a crocodile head on both ends, that can be our stool to put and take off shoes.

The floor tiles here are strange, no matter how we mop, the floor still feels dirty. Olivia tried scrubbing it and voila, it was so nice and clean and nice to walk on, now she and Nomsa will probably over time scrub all the tiles, hopefully we can maintain it, I still can't get used to wearing slippers at home.

Congrats to T and SF with a new cousin for Nate and Ike.

Schools

Today I went to check out the nursery school at Dainfern College, the way the schools work here are that there is a nursery school, then an aftercare center that takes young children all the way up, some of these colleges have kids gong from nursery to end of primary school sometimes secondary. Nate goes to the Montesorri at Summit college which is about 15-20 mins away with traffic which is about 1 hour in the car to and fro, to and fro. Dainfern College is 5-10 mins to and fro.

In the mornings, there is a big jam going on the major artery, William Nichol highway, luckily it is in the opposite direction to Nate's school and the traffic is moving as opposed to Asian traffic, it does however add on 10 mins sometimes. The school is quite isolated and it is not like I can go pick up groceries or other items, I have to basically travel another 15 minutes or more so alot of time is spent in the car. I now listen to classical music but I should maybe get theTteaching Company series on Chinese History, tho to nate's school its FEEEE-FEEE-AI-OOOOOOOO and Cookie Monster.

Ike had his shots today, I am about 20 days late, though the clinics were not open for 10 days in early January and then our container came. I also spoke to the doctor as his nose isn't getting better and I have everything, humidifier, steam, vaporisor, eucalyptus drops, sterimar nose spray, nose drops and also "Maddie" the blowfish. So I have to bite the bullet on sleep and do this for about a month more then maybe we can consider antihistamines or something. By then his nostrils should also be bigger and he can deal with this dry air better.

I have also unpacked my baby sleep bible by Dr Weisbluth and will read it tonight. Since we moved here, he has gone off the bottle, refuses it! and is fussy when we put him down, as we didn't have furniture for some time, he was spoilt! I also have been keeping a log of his naps and sleep hours, it is not good, not consolidating and comparing to nate at the same age, its dismal. The longest stretch we ever get is 2 hours, mainly 1.5 hours or less.

Apart from that, his hairline is growing nicely, parted at the side he looks very smart! also Nate has been watching disney's "A Bugs Life", Ike resembles that chubby caterpillar. He doesn't have cradle cap like Nate did but instead has....... cradle cap on his face!!!! luckily, it is more like a heat rash and comes and goes. There is no air conditioning in this place and maybe that is contributing to his lack of sleep? in Taipei he could sleep in length only when it was cold enough. Must be the Canadian genes or Uncle T is like that too.

Black big bird

This is a picture of me and nate at dinner, loren's phone seems to be able to send images to email but mine can't yet! so this is a rare picture till I figure out my phone. The haircut btw was done by loren and his clippers, what you don't see is a big chunk missing at the back of his head.

A few weeks ago, loren was sick of hearing sesame street over and over again and he convinced nate that the rap radio channel was a big bird but a "black" one and he should listen to the music. Nate did for a while then said, "no black big bird". Yesterday while he was in the car, there was another rap on and he said oh Black big bird here....

I hope I can get to the bike shop soon to get his bike fixed up, that should keep him occupied for a while!

Things are slowly shaping up here but slowly is the key word. Loren has put up his 50 inch TV and nate seems to like watching his DVDs there. He hasn't learnt the concept of continuation and insists on watching the DVD from the beginning everytime.

I really don't know what to do with Ike's nose! the humidifiers don't work, the water spritzing work a bit and it sure seems harder to pull/suck boogers out of his nose with the device we have, than it was with nate. Even the eucalyptus patches don't seem to work.

Ikey's revenge

A day later after the suppository insertion and around 830pm, I head to bed, exhausted from the move, I open the room door and something smells!!! I have not set up the bedside lamp so I have to scamper downstairs to get the torchlight, it has two modes a dim and a bright, with the dim light I approach ike, I smell his bum, oh oh can it be? he made another poo? with the strong light I shine into the diaper, wah! big one, the first night clean up job I have had to do in a long time, it was everywhere, somehow I manage cleaning without smearing any on the blanket or bedsheet!

Another day later as I lay down to sleep also around the 8pm mark (after reading to nate), I am falling asleep and TOOOOT he went, it was not a small toot, it was a TOOOT, in the dark I swear I could see him smile. I awake fearing another clean up job, with my torch light I go looking again, luckily for me there is none but then I still can't believe the sound, I think he will make it into the orchestra quite easily as the tuba or trombonist if his mouth is as talented as his other end.

He hasn't been sleeping well because of his nose, the dr also gave him an allergy test which he scored 40, low allergies are 1-4, some kids score over 100. Now I have to note what I eat so we can cut out stuff that will give him a reaction. Apparently the tests say he is not allergic to six items including wheat, eggs, nuts, fish and two others. The dr also suggested buyint somthing called Maddy the blowfish, it is a toy fish that distracts the kid while we squirt moisture up his nose and that apparently clears the gunk as he sucks.... hmmm!

Today finally the house is coming into some shape, the handy man was here to hang up pictures but he is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t one I have ever met! he seems really measuring and doing everything well, when he drills no plaster flies off. This is in contrast to (try and envision this), the singaporean guy with drill in one hand and vacuum cleaner in the other. He can drill and vacuum the dust away at the same time, this no need to clean up. He hangs a picture in 3 minutes, the guy today took an average of an hour a painting.

Jake has to be in a cast for about a month, he must be sad, no ball chasing and tied to a leash when pee pee and walk and eat and drink, otherwise he would run and not heal.

Agh Shame

is an expression used here alot, I think it means "what a shame"... agh shame, I can't remember why I put that as a heading! I wanted to also answer some of the many questions posed by the readers of this blog, but agh shame, now that I am typing, I can't remember a single question, of course tomorrow as I am driving nate to school, it will all come back to me.

Today is third day of unpacking. everything is still messy but I can't believe how much stuff we have, how do we reduce and de-accumulate? the mover in taiwan told me that with kids there will be even more stuff at the next move as they have stuff too.... scary.

Ike went in yesterday and had a big suppository placed in him, an hour later nothing! Dr said, to put a glycerine in everyday if nothing happens then on saturday we will have to admit him into the hospital and then he swallows some colored liquid and they xray that to see the passage through the large intestine... luckily an hour later ike did it! a BIG BIG BIG poo!

Nate still asks to go to school but today he did not want to join in the swim class, I guess he is a bit too young. oh and the ballet teacher, I mean stretch class teacher was sick, so he didn't get to try that one out.

Its only 8ish but I am heading to bed!

The dogs

Loren walked Jake and Bullet on saturday morning, pistol usually doesn't get to go as he wants to be carried after a while. It was probably a good idea since a BIG dog darted out and suddenly caught Jake and shook him like a rag doll. Poor Jake has a fractured leg and has now spent 2 days at the doggy clinic.

The doggy clinic looks really nice and clean, he has a big cage and clean towel, looks like I can bring him home today. Loren pounded on the door of the owner who turns out to be a sleazy chinese looking man who first claimed its his neighbours dog. Later I went with him and the owner agreed to pay for the hospital fees but at no time did he even apologize. He claimed his home was robbed and his dog abused. His dog wasn't very well kept in any case but wagged his tail and went into that home... so much for "not my dog".

I spoke to the chinese grocery owner and he said that guy was robbed last month, apparently he had something like US$100k in cash. Also apparently the chinese residents are rather flashy with their cars, jewelry and cash and hit the casinos often. So much so that also apparently the robbers have rented a house in dainfern to track these big whales and then rob them.

Today it rained, its quite cool, down to 17 degrees, everyone is back and the road back from nate's school, there was a traffic jam. Its quiet now but our shipment will be arriving anytime soon and then it will be all chaotic again. A moment of calm before the storm.

Will take Ike to the dr to rule out Hirshbaum's disease or "lazy gut", he hasn't pooed in over a week, he is trying but sure has smelly farts. Bullet too which must be his dog food (sometimes I can't tell if its Bullet, Nate or Ike smelling bad!). Olivia was just commenting on the days when Ike was a newborn and pooing several big ones a day, always seeming to be aiming at Wendy's shirt...

I need to try and post some pictures, so far have failed twice. Am glad the internet connection on my mac is up but also need to adjust the mail settings, then I will be fully up and running!

Tiger Kaikai

Nate had his first taste of golf on Friday at a demonstration in school, he really likes the tiny clubs and his concentration is intense. It will be about a term before he can get all coordinated in holding and swinging the club.

The last 3 days he has been intensely studying the wheelbarrow, turning it upside down, playing with the wheel and wheeling it everywhere, wobbling around at first and now he's racing over bumps.

I spoke to the ballet teacher who said the class is more like a stretch and balance class, so that is what we refer to at home, "the stretch class".

I also made some Yimai Fuzhuk (barley, gingko nuts and soya skin) dessert here, the barley cools down one's body heat and nate really likes it.

Today I took him to the garden center and at the back they have a really nice area for food and a large play area for kids, they have little plastic scooters for toddlers to zoom around in. Again it took a long time to leave.

Ike is sitting up and is much more responsive these days but he is a very white and fair baby.

nate's new school

is called the Happy Days Montessori. It is about a 10 minute drive from our place and a nice pleasant drive, everything is quite flat here so one has a view of alot of sky.

Nate absolutely loves this school, he didn't want to leave after being there for 2 hours, we had to go home as I had to feed ike. They accept kids from 7 am to 12:30 pm which would have worked great in Taipei as Nate was such an early riser (I think now it must be the piping in the house). Here he sleeps till 7:30 or even 8.

The school sits on like at least 50,000 square feet of land and with 50 students that is 1,000 sqft per child! Today he ran straight to the basketball hoop (under two great big pine trees) and started throwing balls with the other kids. Then we went to see Mr. goose and Mr. duck and the guinea pigs. Then he discovered the wheelbarrow and was learning how to lift and balance pushing on one wheel. Then he discovered another area, a sandbox with all sorts of small trucks and spinning wheels when you pour sand down the area. Then he took a break had a snack and back to some slides, then someone had a birthday cake and he sang happy birthday.

When it was time to go, he discovered the inside part of the school, there was a paint area and a playdoh making area, he has his eye on making paydoh tomorrow. On the way out he saw the goldfish and stared for a long time.

The kids range from 2 to 6 years old and they all mix in the different areas. There are about 8 staff, each overseeing a certain area. Kids come and go as they please. Several kids came up to him to play. Another boy, Ethan who is 4 months older than him and never went to school before had a rather more traumatic time, when his mom dissappeared, he was crying and screaming. When I wanted to leave, nate said, see you bye!

Maybe tomorrow I can leave him there the whole time? Before his nap he said, I want to go to school, after dinner he wanted to continue watching his DVD till we told him that if he slept earlier, school time will come sooner, I have never seen him zip upstairs for his bath so fast. This school transition is definitely looking easier than I thought.

1811 Spyglass Village

I feel like our house has too much space and loren chose a smallish house. I just had two women over who can help out with a few things I wanted to do (bookshelves etc.) and they had good suggestions on how to rearrange my initial thoughts on furniture layout etc. I had really wanted to start reducing and deaccumulating but I think it may be hard here!

The shopping is great, esp. after 2+ years of being pent up in Taipei with not much to buy, there are just malls after malls of very interesting things. The house has space of an informal living room, a formal one then also an outdoor one. A formal dining and an informal dining and then even a place for a bigger TV room and then a smaller TV room. But somehow no main rooms that would make a great library or study, those rooms are tiny.

The garden is lovely, Aunt Edna, only yours is a nicer garden! the weather is very conducive for growing and I hope to try my hand at more of these plants. The neighbours have these big bushes of lavender that I am tempted to crop for lavender cookies and cakes or drying them, just a breeze and whiff of air smells so nice.

The landlord has agreed for us to convert all the fountains to planting areas. We really are not big fountain people. The house is only about 3.5 years old, in a newer area of Dainfern and I am also looking into maybe buying the place.

The pro's - Dainfern has great security, a golf course, limited housing so likely a shortage if the economy keeps growing.

The con's or uncertainties.... mortgage rates here are 12% and the yield on the house is only 8% which points to renting instead of buying. If we bought we'd pay cash and the opportunity cost of this place vs. the markets is evenish. Also we would stay only between 2-4 years so not sure if we can sell when we want to. For it to be a really good investment, the price will have to go up and the rand is another issue.... its down 20% against the US$ last year and seems to be correlated to gold (is gold over or undervalued?)

Anyway... will speak to a few agents and economists and run some numbers, in the meantime anyone with interest in sharing a property investment in SA... send me an email! :)

Life here

I posted two notes and I see that both did not make it on the blog, hopefully this one does!

Nate starts school on weds, I just filled out the form and his extracurriculur activities include golf, swimming, action ball, pottery, kindermusik and ballet! loren thinks I should not send him to ballet... tho I think i may sneak that activity in. I am also going to have him try out Karate at the estate's clubhouse.

There is also a music group for younger kids on weds and I will try and bring Ike for next weeks one.

Things are moving into shape, we have wireless internet but I still need cables to set that up with my laptop for the first run. Our container will arrive tomorrow and clear customs etc for delivery next monday.

The two people we hired (olivia has staff!) will come tomorrow. Our bank services will be set up soon too.

Will try and post this before anything happens!