Christmas

Harrison bundled up because it is always cold in our apartment. He is giving the peace sign, because that is just what you do for photos in Taiwan.
Wearing my scarf and posing, Taiwanese style, for the camera.
Our tree with all our presents underneath.
Now- with our presents plus all the presents Kenny brought from our family back in the US.
Christmas eve, he arranged his trains at the top of his pillow and went to sleep.

We have had such a fun and eventful Christmas break, and it isn't even new years yet. As soon as exams were over we took Tiffany to the Adventist hospital to have her teeth cleaned. That weekend we sent her to Japan for a day to renew her visa.

On Tuesday Kenny delivered the presents he had brought from our family back in TN, and took us to the glass museum. Wednesday's excitement was a doctors appointment for me where we found out we are expecting another BOY! - Marshall.

Of course Thursday was Christmas eve. We went downtown, bought a few more presents, had dinner at a Japanese place where they cook in front of you, saw lots of pretty lights and some very large Christmas trees. Then headed home to unwrap presents with a very excited toddler. Harrison barely got his shoes off before running to the tree and yelling "otent prepents" translation: open presents. Harrison handed out all the presents before he sat down to unwrap his. When we finished opening presents, I told Harrison it was time to get ready for bed. He immediately jumped up, grabbed all his trains, went to his room and called us in to have prayer with him.

Christmas morning Harrison actually didn't wake us up like usual (standing beside our bed loudly saying EAT), instead he quietly came to the living room to play with his new train set. Then when the rest of us joined him we opened our stockings and then headed to Alice and Harry Bennett's for Christmas dinner with them and Tamara Karr, all TAPA coworkers. Saturday was pretty uneventful, but we did rent Polar Express for Harrison, boy did he love it.

Yesterday Tiffany and I went to a fabric market with Alice and Tamara, I had no idea of it's existence before. I bought some fabric to make a few things for the baby. Ryan got me the book Simple Sewing for Baby for Christmas. It was a book I saw at Barnes and Noble this summer and told Ryan I wanted it if we ever had another baby. I was very surprised that he remembered.

And now we are at today. We planned to go to the Martyr's Shrine but after waiting at the bus stop for more than 45 minutes in the cold and when it started to rain, we gave up and headed home. We will try again sometime this week, hopefully on a day that rain isn't in the forecast.

Tittot Glass Museum

Kenny Lee and Tiffany picking out glass for their projects.
Kenny working on his pac-man tray.
The finished project, complete with ghosts.
Tiffany working on the mold for her project.
Tiffany's project after decorating with glass fragments.
Angel made a beautiful and very artsy clock.
Here she is at the beginning stages.
Harrison's beautiful project, not accomplished without the shedding of a few tears.
Very glad Harrison insisted on bringing his backpack he packed with toys, since he was done with his glass art project within about 5 minutes while the rest took around 2 hours.
Ryan designing his map on a glass, before it was etched on.

Last Tuesday Angel and Kenny took us to a glass museum. We had a wonderful guided tour, Kenny translated, and then finished up with each of us doing our own glass project in their workshop. The museum pieces were beautiful although some were a bit confusing. The first floor of the museum was a showroom of pieces that were all made there, by the Tittot artisans. While the second floor had local and international pieces and a brief history/time-line of glass making.

Ryan got to bring his home that day but Tiffany and I have to wait two weeks for ours to be finished. Can't wait!

Getting into the holiday spirit

This year, we decided to go ahead and splurge on Christmas decorations. We bought a small fake tree and went with very traditional colors- red, green and gold. We put everything up during our Thanksgiving break; and since then Harrison has had many opportunities to reorganize the placement of all the ornaments within his reach, or to simply take them off and play with them. The snowman ornament I bought especially for him and told him it was his and he could take it off any time he wanted, guess in his mind that meant "all ornaments are Harry's to do with as I please." And yes he speaks about himself in third person, so I assume he thinks about himself that way to.

The stockings we had last year. The red ones were a gift from Ryan's parents, with our names on them. The blue and white one says "boy" on the front, I bought it here for Harrison last year, and we used it for Tiffany, hehe.

The pictures in front of the tree are ones we took to send out in our Christmas cards this year.

Thanksgiving 09

Our first Thanksgiving all by ourselves! What a fun time we had. Ordered our pie from Wendels German bakery, Ryan made the potatoes and gravy (I helped), and I made the corn and rice. The turkey was compliments of Tiffany, she won it at the school's Thanksgiving dinner at Chili's.

Miracles happen

This weekend was a very enjoyable one. We decided not to make the hour long trek to church, so Ryan and Tiffany got to sleep in on Saturday. We went to the playground with Harrison in the afternoon, until it started to rain. Then we had the pleasure of babysitting little Camille. She was so fun and adorable. She talked and talked to Harrison and he showed her his favorite toy- Bubba, a stuffed puppy. He showed her Bubba's foot, hand, ear, nose, eyes, tummy and back.
On Sunday, Ryan and Tiff slept in again. Harry and I went to the grocery store and when we got back they were still... Sleeping! That afternoon after Harrison and I took a nap, we all went downtown to Eslite bookstore, where I found an adorable memory book. Then we went to a food court to eat some yummy Japanese food, unfortunately that eatery was closed. We did happen across a Godiva store where Tiffany and I each got a truffle! Then we picked up food from about three different booths and ate to our fill, except for Ryan, who- as you probably know, is never full! As it was getting late we headed home knowing Harrison wouldn't be in bed by his regular bedtime. When we got to our stop, Jiantan, on the MRT we deboarded the train and headed to the escalator. When we got about halfway down on the escalator Harrison started fussing and saying "SHOE, SHOE," I looked down and saw his shoe had disappeared into the side of the escalator! I immediately picked him up and tried pulling his leg, it didn't budge though, so i quickly pulled down his sock and managed to free his foot that way, then the escalator spit the shoe and sock back out onto our step. I picked it all up just before we reached the bottom. He was wearing his crocs and the one that had been stuck was completely destroyed. Ryan tossed it in the trash, and I carried Harrison home. All the way home Harrison kept telling us about his harrowing experience. "Shoe, away, daddy. Hurt." Which meant, "Daddy threw away his shoe." And "his foot hurt."
How grateful we are to have been able to bring home our little boy, without even a scratch! God is so good.

Proud moments in a mother's life

This weekend was pretty big in my book!
In Sabbath school Harrison said the main three words from the memory verse this week. After we say the memory verse together as a group, parents included, I have the kids come and repeat the memory verse to me. Then I give them a sticker to put on a chart by their name, for saying the memory verse. Well, Harrison wanted to put up a sticker too. So I said the memory verse to him one word at a time and he repeated "good to help". I was so thrilled. It is of course my prayer that the Bible will be one of his favorite books and that he will put much of it to memory. I am so happy that he is starting now :)

Then on Sunday morning, while Ryan and Tiffany were still asleep. Harrison and I were playing in the living room and I asked him if he needed to go potty. He yelled potty and ran to the bathroom and pulled down his pullup, sat on his little potty for a while and peed!!! Yay. It's a start anyway. There is much more work to be done.

Pinata time

Harrison's 2nd birthday party

We celebrated Harrison turning two at Daan Park on Sunday, September 20. Those in attendance: Harrison (a given!), myself, Ryan, my sister Tiffany, Cha Ye -Ryan's friend, Nestor and Karina - our coworkers, and their daughter Camille.
Here is a glimpse of some of our fun!

Tiffany, Ryan, me, and Harrison

Karina and Nestor with baby Camille

Cha Ye, me, and Tiffany doing our Taiwan pose

Cha Ye got Harrison a book with blocks and pictures of shapes you can make with them.

Harrison loved his cake. I bought the box of cake mix a week before the party and all through the week Harrison kept getting it out and asking for "day day" which means birthday.

I made the pinata and Harrison was so excited! It turned out to be more than he could handle though, and aunt Tiffany had to cut a hole in the side so he could break it open.

birthday song and Sabbath school

Harrison is so excited about his upcoming birthday. He talks about it everyday. He practices for the big day by blowing out our candles. He carries around his wrapped presents saying "day day!" which means birthday. The above photo is us getting ready for church yesterday morning.This summer I decided we needed something better for the offering time. Up to this point we have used a small brass bowl that one of the kids would carry around so the others could dump their change into it. So, my super great mommy got this fun giraffe-shaped bank for our class. The kids absolutely love it. On the Sabbaths that our organist is running late we get down the giraffe and start Sabbath school with taking up the offering, which takes quite a while now since they do one coin at a time instead of a handful at a time. But I am happy about that; with this age group time fillers are great, especially when they are all involved and enjoying it.
Harrison played on the large lion stuffed animal after class while I put things away.


Ryan and Tiffany came to Sabbath school this week to help sing happy birthday to Harrison.

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.