Tricycle

Our itty bitty porch, with just enough room for Harrison's tricycle. He loves to sit on it and make motorcycle sounds.

Let me tell you how it is!

I have already seen him carry things around our apartment and sing into them, like they were a microphone. But this was the first time he had the real deal. He used it for quite a while and when he first picked it up he started singing and dancing, but by the time I got the camera out he was just lecturing! He obviously doesn't take after me, I get so nervous with a microphone in my hand. But he seems to be a natural and loves being the center of attention.
Enjoy

CPR and Baskets, what do they have in common?

Two weeks ago on Wednesday and Thursday, Ryan and I hosted the Taiwan Red Cross at our school to teach CPR. The first day they taught the class in English and the second day it was taught in Mandarin. Harrison was very interested in the 4 mannequins they brought!
So, our son loves to play in Baskets! The picture above is him in a basket I keep on the shelf full of food. He now regularly dumps it out so he can sit in it or push it around the house. The picture below is him in his laundry basket. We bought it at IKEA and it usually has a turtle lid. He has learned that he can easily get in and out of this basket because it folds down very readily and then pops back up when you let go of it.

Rock climbing Taipei style

Forget climbing walls when you can have climbing balls.
There is a nice walking/bike path under the MRT lines in Taipei. These two particular climbing balls are under the red line, in Shihlin. I have seen others like these in various places around the city. They have climbing grips fastened all over them and little kids have quite a "ball" playing on them. :)

Conquering the slide!

I took Harrison to the playground by our apartment on Wednesday. We go there pretty often and he likes to play on this slide but usually I slide with him or hold his hand and walk down the steps next to him while he slides. But he was so determined to do it "all by himself" he wouldn't let me near the slide. He was so brave! and he loved it.

Easter fun

I went to a couple stores on Friday looking for an easter basket for Harrison- this was the best I found. I had to add the handle, but that wasn't much work, and he picked out the bunny. The little chocolate egg had a toy in the middle. I ate most of the chocolate :)
We went to Daan Park today and picked up lunch on the way, after our picnic I set the eggs out, that Harrison and I decorated this morning with a kit Bomma sent last week (and I'm so glad she did because I didn't find any here.) Here he is after he found them all. He cracked all of them because every time he picked one up he threw it into the basket ontop of the others. After I showed him the first two, he knew exactly how the game was played and enjoyed the rest of the hunt.
He played a lot in this little garden and several kids joined in his fun, here is a little girl that stayed for a while.

On our way back to the MRT station we stopped and looked at two bike shops. I have been wanting a bike since we moved here. At the second one I saw this bike and Ryan said "OK", so we added the babyseat and basket and bought a lock. They even gave me better pedals for free! I am super excited to start exploring the bike paths, now we just need to find the perfect bike for Ryan. When we got back to the MRT station we discovered that bikes are banned on Sunday from 4-7 pm. So, my wonderful husband volunteered to ride it all the way home for me. While Harry and I rode the subway.
All in all, it was the perfect day. SMILES!!!

Pinghsi Sky Lantern festival

Lantern festival is held every year on the 15th day of the first moon-this year on February 4. It is celebrated in different ways, but in Pingshi, a small village north of Taipei they celebrate by sending up sky lanterns. We went with a group from our church. The sights were so beautiful. Most of Taiwan celebrates with fancy painted and decorated lanterns that sit on the ground or are hung from buildings. Pingshi is the only place you will find sky lanterns. There are shops all along the street where you can buy a large paper lantern, then you write messages on it. We wrote prayers and Harrison even added some decoration. Then they put a small stack of papers soaked in kerosene or some other fuel in the bottom of the lantern and light it. You have to hold the lantern up while it fills with gas before releasing it into the night sky.
This was definitely a worth while trip and will be stored away in our "favorite memories of Taiwan" collection.
This is a few seconds after a group let it go.
Harrison drawing on our lantern.
Holding it up waiting for lift off.
A beautiful, fun-filled night together.
shops along the main street with lanterns hanging out front to display the kind that they sell.

Badminton

during our spring break we went to Daan park for some fun in the sun. We had a yummy pic-nic and then busted out the badminton. Harry mostly liked swinging his racquet and making daddy hit the birdie.

a day in Danshui

During our spring break we went to Danshui, a port town north of Taipei. It was a very foggy day but perfect weather.
Here is a view of our stroll along the inlet.




Taking a ride with Harry by my side : )










Had to stop and appreciate some artistic gymnastics



















The two men in my life














Stopping in the park to eat our Starbucks lunch and take in some sun.

School Picture

Harrison's first school photo. As you can see he takes school very seriously. This was taken last month by a student at Tapa, Emily Chi. bonus info: his shirt says "chill'n out, i;m so cool"

Church Retreat

This is walking down the hill with the NEWSTART building on the left, which is where we stayed for the weekend. We just couldn't get enough of the beautiful view.
Harrison next to the sign for newstart.
Taking a stroll together around the campus of TAC.
Ryan took a lot of pictures of the scenery. Maybe you can tell how much he misses living in the country.
Harrison playing with a little girl at a meeting on the first night there.

clothes

His GQ pose.
Today I went to the night market to buy an outfit for Harrison. On Sunday we are going to a wedding and then on the 24th the school is having a formal banquet. So, this is what i picked out for both. We also picked up the shoes, I tried them on his feet to make sure they fit before I bought them, and he liked them so much he wouldn't take them off, so he wore them all the way home.
Playing dress up in daddy's sweater. This was last weekend on the church retreat.
"trying to get my hands out of these looong sleeves."
" ah, a perfect fit"

ROAR

Harrison's favorite animal in his books is a lion. Here he is seeing real lions for the first time. He was spellbound. He kept pointing and saying "ooo"

Ryan's favorite exhibit

Zoo

Not exactly sure what all the animals are in this but I was impressed nonetheless.
Harrison and I enjoying the camels from a distance. The ones in the pen right behind us are supposed to be two humped camels, but one of his seems to be falling off :( Maybe that is why the one humped camel next door looks so proud...
Harrison making his monkey sounds as we watch them through the fence.
Asian elephants. Soo cute.
My favorite animal of the day, Mr. Koala! I wish I was that zoo worker, she climbed a ladder just to pet him.

We made a trip to the Taipei zoo during our long Christmas break. It was a rainy Monday, and they don't have all the exhibits open on Mondays :( Oh well, because we didn't make it too all the exhibits, it got too cold and wet. The biggest disappointment was the panda exhibit not being open yet. So, we will definitely be heading back when we hear that it has opened!

more Christmas

Here are a few more to complete the day: Harrison and I in front of the same tree, my beautiful son, the Tiffany tree in front of the 101 mall, 101 and the moon (taken by Ryan), all tuckered out from a long and fun Christmas!

Christmas

We started the day with french toast. Then Ryan read the about the birth of Christ from Luke. We showed Harrison how to open the presents and he went to town. Ryan has it all on video. After Harrison's nap we went down to Taipei 101 and bought some stuffing, applesauce and waffle mix from Jason's.

Here are some photos from our day: Harry and I listening to daddy read, our makeshift Christmas tree, Harry's first attempt at bowling, making a silly face at daddy and Harry and daddy in front of a tree downtown.

Cubicle

Harrison and Brigitta playing in their cubicles. The two of them just love playing together. Last night was the first time we have seen him do this, Brigitta plays in them all the time. You can see how much we are doing with our vacation time :) The last picture has them both in the same square.

Sabbath School

Here is a small glimpse of our Sabbath school. This month we are doing the story of Jesus birth, so Harrison is a shepherd. He is in the lap of Janine Show, mine isn't available because I'm the teacher. The boy next to them is Christopher, he speaks pretty good english. The little girl in the next picture is Ann, she is so beautiful and sweet. She just turned two a couple weeks ago, we celebrated in Sabbath school with a felt cake and fake cake with two candles, a birthday song and a felt birthday name tag. She has an older sister, Eline, who blew out the candles for her, took her birthday tag for herself and immediately took the little teddy bear gift. I thought it was soo funny, and Ann didn't even seem to notice any of it, I guess she is just used to it. Eline is in the first picture back by the felt board. Ann and Eline don't speak english but their mother does, and she stays in the class with them.

The last two pictures are in a room by the church where we take Harry when he is getting too loud.

Oh, our school just hired another teacher for next semester and his name is Harry, I think he is moving here from Kenya.

Sudoku master

I'm not the only one in the family who loves sudoku. Thanks Eric and Angela for the great wedding gift, I'm not sure how many years it will take us to do all 1000 puzzles. I bought her a little kitten bed on Sunday, but this is where she napped.
We are anxiously awaiting Christmas break. Finals are next week and Wednesday is the last day. Grades are due by Friday, so I'm sure Ryan will be quite busy all of next week preparing those. This Thursday night is the school's Christmas party, it will be at our church, which is inside the Adventist hospital downtown. We have had secret friends this week and we will find out their identity then.
Tonight we went out and bought a heater, yes, it actually gets cold in Taiwan- thanks China. I also bought Harry a pair of mittens.

Walking to school

This is the usual route we take to school from our apartment. Tapa really stands out, it is a funny looking four story building nestled between highrise apartment buildings accross the street from the Jiantan MRT station. The building on the left, where I work on the fourth floor, is called the Red building- due to the color of one outside wall. The building on the right, where Ryan works on the second floor, is called the green building- although you cannot see it the wall opposite the red one is completely green. The last picture is a view from my desk in the library, beautiful staircase, but oh so scary with a toddler.

One Cool Dude

Today we stopped by the smaller of the two playgrounds by our house. Harrison insisted on wearing his sunglasses the whole time we were there. Sadly, we lost them somewhere on the way to school. He loves these little spring rockers. I'm not too crazy about them because he wants to ride on each one and change between them frequently. The park is always a nice treat for both of us though.

Kitten update

last week I named the kittens Louisa, Brigitta and Gretl. I have since learned from the vet that Gretl is a boy so his name is now Hansel. I am pretty sure Louisa is a boy as well, and if I'm correct his name will be Amos. The inspiration for the original names is The Sound of Music. Then I went from Gretl to Hansel because of the childrens story. And from Louisa to Amos because it was Louisa May Alcott's father's name. Now for the sad news. Little Hansel stopped eating about two days ago so I took him to the vet. They took his temp, listened to his chest and fed him with a stomach tube. All this for just $5. Anyway they said he was weak and hungry. They gave me the feeding tube with the instructions to feed him 5-6 ml every four hours. The first feeding on my own was unsuccessful but I managed the next three. At 7 on Sabbath morning when I got up to feed him his front right leg was really swollen. I was afraid I had fed him wrong and that that had caused the swelling, so I didn't feed him then. The vet didn't open til 10 so he was hungry for a long time. I had to go teach SS so Ryan stayed home to take him to the vet as soon as they opened. They fed him and x-rayed him; found that his shoulder was fractured and he had lost 20 grams in 2 days. They said he would need to be fed every two hours and we would have to take him everywhere we went to be sure and keep him fed. Ryan decided to admit him for a couple days. They will call tomorrow to give us an update.
The other two are doing great. Brigitta opened her eyes on Tuesday, she is so pretty.

sliding all by himself

I am so glad Ryan caught this with the camera.

Harry has been watching the bigger kids climb up the slide, and trying in vain to do it too. Well, he finally succeeded.

playground

Harrison had so much energy this afternoon, we had to get him out of the house. So, we decided on the playground a couple blocks away. It was the first time we have taken him there since he started walking. He had so much fun and even made a little friend. He really likes babies now, he is always trying to talk to them and touch them.

all grown up

Ryan took these three pictures of Harrison, when I saw them I thought he looked so different-older! He is changing so quickly I can't keep up.

The other picture is taken from the playground, it is just a large court where the kids like to ride their bikes and play games. In the early morning or late afternoon groups of elderly women gather by the stage to excercise together.

not enough sleep

Well, we have had the kittens for two nights now. Ahh, it's like having a newborn again. Feeding them every two hours, getting up during the night, heating bottles of milk. Thank goodness they grow fast. I don't think I could do this for a very long time. Here is a little bit of their cuteness, just after dinner last night.

Kittens

Here is the big news of today; we have taken in 3 very young kittens. It seems their mother gave birth to them in the athletic equipment locker at school and then the security guard got rid of her (not knowing she was a mommy) :(
So, here we are with 3 little girls, nursing them through their first weeks. Several of the students have already claimed them, but we need parental permission before sending them home, also want them to be a little older so they can handle going without food for at least 9 hours at a time.

The other night we had rice and black beans for dinner. After his first bite Harrison had a bean on the tip of his nose throughout the rest of dinner. He is always so cute!

Candid

Here is Harry in Daddy's shoes, he is in a hurry to grow up. I took the other two at school. He loves to play under the desks, sometimes I go in with him.

Harrison's new room

On Wednesday Harry and I went to IKEA to get a bigger bed for him, his legs would hang out the end of his crib when he was sleeping. He also picked out this rug and a stuffed panda, and I picked the curtains. He was so excited when we got home and started putting his new bed together. He kept crawling in little circles on his rug and then all over the bed and up and down, up and down.

It is so cute how he just comes out of his room after his naps or in the morning when he wakes up. After his nap he doesn't fuss or anything we just see him standing in the hallway. I think he enjoys this new bit of independence.

Handsome hubby and baby

We bought Harry his first magnetic train piece and a toy clock before we hit up Pizza Hut. He was so cute playing with his new toys at the restaurant but he quickly tired of them and busied himself trying to make a mess of everything. I wish that picture had his whole head.

Pizza Hut

This is the new Pizza Hut that just opened down the street a little way from us. It was quite fancy. We had an interesting pizza, also delicious, pumpkin and mozzarella. I think it was the first night they opened. The front was full of large flower arrangements and on the street corners their were Pizza Hut employees wearing masquerades and giving out flyers for the restaurant. I loved my dessert, some kind of apple yumminess.

Skateboarding baby

Today I took the skateboard out of the library and put it in the hallway. I was getting tired of Harry using it all the time and then getting fussy when the students would try to help him. Harrison soon discovered it there and found the railing by the window to be most useful when practicing his skateboarding. I also have a short video of him doing this but unfortunately it is sideways and I haven't figured out how to rotate it yet. As soon as I do I will try and post it on here. Maybe next time I will just make sure I don't hold the camera sideways, so I won't have to bother with all this technical stuff.

how about a walk

The first one is from last night. Harrison climbed into a shoe box where I keep his blocks. This morning he was in it and it broke and he fell out and bumped his head on the floor.

The rest are when we were leaving the park.

what a lovely day

From the top: a woman in a traditional hat, picking up litter in the park. Yuanshan MRT station. 2 where you can see Taipei 101 in the distance. There aren't many places in Taipei where you can't see it. Harrison was showing us a bicycle he wanted.

Back to the park

Today we went back to the park for a sushi snack and some frisbee. Harrison seemed very interested in the roller-blading area. It seemed they were having classes to teach young children how to rollerblade.

Spaghetti

Today was Sabbath, and I taught the combined cradle roll and kindergar- ten class. The lesson was on the lost sheep and we made some little thumb print and cotton ball sheep at the end of the class. Janine helped Harrison with his. The coloring was all done by him (except for the smiley face.) For lunch Ryan made spaghetti. Harrison had his in a bowl that on the bottom suctions to the table. Well, he pulled hard enough to break the suction and the contents of the bowl ended up all over him. So, most of his dinner he had to eat off of his stomach and lap.

Afternoon at the park

Today was Friday and I don't work. So, for lunch we, including daddy, went to Yuanshan for some sushi and ate at the park across the street from the MRT Station. We spotted this beautiful Indian something tree, that seemed just the right size for Harrison to get his first taste of climbing in. He really loved it and wasn't scared at all. He only fussed when we got down. After this he found a huge leaf and contented himself with it for as long as mommy and daddy could stand the heat, then we headed home.

Welcome All

Well, here it is, 3 full months into our life here and I am finally starting a blog. I hope this in some way keeps us close to you while we spend our 2 years here. Maybe even a glimpse of what it is like for us living abroad.

We dearly miss our "home" in Tennessee. The hardest part about our move is leaving behind such an amazing and supportive family. And for Ryan having no big franks is proving quite distressful. I am convinced I wouldn't be as homesick if sweet Guinevere was with us, but I would feel so guilty if I put her through all the necessary protocal to get her over here. The only other thing I can think to mention is leaving our friends, fortunately the world doesn't seem soo big with the internet and we manage to keep in touch, although probably not as often.