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.