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.

Jake attacked again!!!

Today we go for a walk with Kaylen and ethan and their mom and we take jake instead of pistol as jake is "hardier". As we finish our walk from the golf course, jake grrrrrs at this other dog a Jack russel mixed with something else and this dog growls back. Both are on leashes

If Jake is spiderman slim then this dog is hulk as he had a thick neck and biceps. As we pass this house, this dog was unleashed and runs out to attack Jake! he bites jakes jugular, their maid comes running out, I am pounding this other dogs head with nates tupperware. This dog is biting Jakes leg, Jake accidently bites my finger (ow!). They separate but then the dog goes for jake again and finally they separate, jake is shivering and in shock.

The owners come out to check jake, he is limping a bit, my finger has a small hole but no puncture wound, would likely be a bit swollen. When we get home, Jake is limping and bleeding a bit so I take him to the vet. He has a puncture wound on his bum bum. His back leg seems to be ok but if he still limps tomorrow then its xray time. he gets a shot and some antibiotics and no ball playing again, just rest.

In the meantime, bullet jumps over our 6 foot wall, tries to find us as I took Jake out and not him, not able to find us he is whining, olivia can't find him but hears him, she darts out to see if he is outside but he isn't and he has jumped back over the wall. I wonder now that he knows he can do that, what he would be up to????

All this before olivia's farewell dinner. Took olivia to the hairdresser and she looks alot younger with this stylish short hairstyle. She's all packed and even has a letter to ask for ground support help should she be too sick to get to her connecting flight back to Manila.

Last night Loren came home with a bruised knee and a hole in his pants at the knee part. Apparently adter a client dinner he felt like his stomach was bloating up. He drove back to the restaurant to use the washroom but as he was crossing the road he fainted, got up adn then collapsed again in the middle of the road. Luckily the restaurant people saw him and picked him up, they initially thought he was drunk. He saw the dr today and all seems well and a likely case of food poisoning? or allergic reaction to some food?

The sun is coming up a bit later and setting earlier, its also cooled down alot. It was 15 degrees this am going up to 27 in midday but summer is nearing an end.

The Hardeedar

Here is the bird, if I snuck up on the bird by foot, they usually fly away, this picture was taken with me in the car, slowly inching closer, screening down my window manually (yes these people have not delivered my automatic car), aiming a nokia phone and taking a picture then enlarging the image on photoshop. I got a pic of that bird finally!

Ike is using a binky here, his two front teeth are popping out and they are BIG, I think he may have buck teeth. He is biting shoulders and moving his lips alot.

This is Nate with my hat. I bought in in Taipei thinking it would come in handy here, I have been using it almost everyday. People even stop to tell me its a nice hat. I thought I'd find another hat shop by now but have not bought a spare one. I would hate to lose this one.

When I ask nate where is bubbi coming from, he still says "onetreeall". He also says "Bluedozer" instead of bulldozer. He borrowed Ethan's bluedozer and at bed time asked me to take it away, I think he knows he would be too tempted to play with it and I would have to take it away anyway. I have been putting him to bed earlier at 730pm and he sleeps till about 630am, spends alot of energy in school and takes a good nap from about 130 to 330.

I have also decided to have olivia help me wean ike and so she does the night shift. Am hoping he sleeps through the night and I will have more energy to deal with this house. Averted another situation where the pool would turn into a pond... fished out 2 frogs in 2 days. Still need to pack the library and add some furniture, will maybe wait for marcia and some good suggestions. Finally put some cash to good use as the markets have fallen, have been patiently waiting for this point which isn't so hard when my internet isn't always stable and had a carpenter here to sandpaper down the dog bites marks in some of our furniture. I still have a box of documents to unpack and things to put away properly........

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...