Christmas tree

We were nervous about putting up the tree in case things got eaten or destroyed but it went better than expected and Dylan is very excited about it.

Dylan and Ivo

Got some really cute pics of Dylan and his buddy Ivo from Sandy, these are from November...

Almost christmas

It has been a hectic month of computer problems. Each time the pc came back, something else was wrong so finally we seem to be up and running with almost all bits having been replaced. Only a few days before we jet off to SA for 9days so running around doing christmas shopping at the moment. So the month in pictures follows:



Flying a kite with Daddy behind the apartment block...and at the science museum gardens .

Late nights with Dylan

Dylan has had a week of ..not going to sleep early so it has been impossible to get time on the pc. Last weekend we went to the amphitheatre park on wenshin road. A really nice space to run around and bike (although we had just got him a little bike...Dylan preferred running...still warming up to he bike.) It was also a momentous weekend...first haircut! We were determined to leave it to get longer because of the cute curls...but after the windy day in the park it really looked scraggy..so we did it. Well we cut a little off the back just to neaten it, still curly and actually looks quiet cute. New words: "lala" from the teletubbies "bu yao" don't want in chinese"want"

At the park

Sleeping soundly

Haircut in process ...no really good pics because it took both of us with all hands on job!!!


After the cut...

His favourite snack at the moment..apple!

Dylan's big bed

On the spur of the moment we sorted out Dylan's big bed. Well we have been thinking about it for a while but we did not plan to do it this weekend. He has really been climbing up the sides of his cot alot lately..nerve wracking. So we went off on Sunday to pick out some bedding and pillows etc... Moved things around in the house and he now has a big bed...which also means he is free to wander about the room and it is a little more challenging getting him to go to sleep...very excited about his bed.

While out we went to a bbq restaurant and i guess dylan's favourite part was the all-you-can -eat ice-cream. He is verbalising more these days, said 'dog' and 'more' today. He has also started playing more with his "figurine" toys, especially likes Buzz lightyear from toystory at the moment.

Pics of the ice-cream face and the new bed (can you spot the tod?)!!

Dylan's Halloween

Finally all clear on the health. Still a bit grumpy because a tooth is coming through..which means not much sleep for any of us these days.
Halloween is celebrated here in Taiwan and after managing to get through all the school activities okay, we went through to a party in Changhua on the weekend. Had Dylan dressed up as a dinosaur...well the hat spent the evening off his head so he was dinosaur boy. He had a great time playing with all the kids and even went through the ghost house (on baby mode). Here is a pic..one of the only good ones I got..he was running around like crazy.



The little artist at work ...style of choice at the moment: pointilism

Sandy has uploaded some videos of the boys on youtube. Click here to check them out.

Been a while

Well after a bout of tonsilitis followed by bronchiolitis..Dylan is back and functioning almost on all cylinders. Still a bit of a cough and the grumpies!! Not too much to report ..had a bit of a scare on the weekend when the doc was concerned about pneumonia so he had to go in for a chest x-ray...(not pleasant)she warned me he might have to stay the night. been a bit hospital-phobic that did not sit well. Luckily though the xray ruled out pneumonia and we could stay home with the ventilator and meds. He is doing fine now.
Here are some pics from our last visit to the science museum...we have the dinosaur cards (which means for a nominal fee you can go there as often as you like over a year ) Dylan loves the dinosaurs so frequent visits will be on the cards.

Dylan and Ivo

What a weird week. We had to work Saturday to make up for the Monday we had off (confusing yes!) So we treated it as a normal week day and headed off to gym to meet Sandy and Ivo. Ivo was not too happy so we decided to go and have fun elsewhere instead of exercising and leaving the boys with the sitter. We headed over to their house and played with some water!! The boys love the water...difficult to explain to Dylan that he cannot drink that water though!!

Today was a really non-day. We just kind of chilled out at home. Dylan had every toy in the house out. He loves jumping at the moment and throwing things-trying to encourage only ball throwing. The babysitter was very excited on friday, he say "ni kan" -you see "wo de" mine and a few other chinese words ;the other night he handed Ciro his bottle and said "eang" same. His english vocab is also growing..."cool" three" "there""this" "good""juice" "shoes" and a whole bunch of animal sounds.

Dylan pics

These pics wouldn't upload earlier ...so here they are:
With the monkeys and running at the zoo

Dylan the explorer

A long (5 day ) weekend was declared by the government here as the Friday was moon festival and the Tuesday a public holiday. They gave the Monday off; although declared the following Saturday a working day...so a mixed bag. We decided to take advantage of the long break and head up to Taipei with Dylan, our purpose: to visit the Zoo! A teacher at school recommended the astronomical museum too, so when we got there on Friday we checked it out. Dylan enjoyed it , plenty of buttons to push and then there was a cosmic ride which involved getting in a pod and travelling through space for twelve minutes. Complete with the planets, milky way and a short accidental visit through a dimension portal to an alien planet..no fear we got back safe.













Here he is looking into the concave mirror, Reaching out to the spaceman and hmm...not sure what this had to do with space (rabbit in the moon maybe) anyhow thought he looked cute!






Saturday it was off to the zoo. Last time we were there we realised it can be a long day, so only focused on a few areas: children's petting zoo, african animals and penguin house (we gave up on the walk last time) It was a real ohhhh time at the zoo. He loved seeing the animals and was pointing and growling(the way he does when he plays with his animal toys). Loads of fun. After a good morning at the zoo we went up to the tea plantation area in the mountains above Taipei, planning on chilling out at a tea shop up there . This did happen but only after confusion with the taxi driver who ripped us off (i didn't even need to rely on my chinese , I had a printout from the net. ) still "around the corner there" does not necessarily mean that and after about a 20 minute walk (no more taxis in sight) we arrived at our destination!!! Lovely place with friendly people. A fantastic view of the city with 101 (the tallest building in the world) standing out miles above the rest of the city. Dylan spent most of our time there feeding the fish.

The rest of our time was spent browsing and picking up some books at the bookstore. Needless to say the little guy slept well after all the excitement.
Now for a little gripe:
It is always nice travelling in Taipei and using the MRT, very "stroller friendly", with elevators available at most stations as an alternative to the escalators. Sometimes I do look at the abundance of able-bodied people without children or elderly people accompanying them and wonder "why?" The escalators are often much quicker to take and yet people will walk further to get to the elevator and then ride it ahead of those it is intended for. Don't get me wrong i am not on my hobby horse for my own purpose entirely. As there were two of us we could pick up the stroller and Dylan and take the escalator. At one of the stops however there was a group of people waiting to get into the elevator , just after we approached a woman on an electric wheelchair car approached. The elevator arrived and this group pushed and shoved to get into the elevator leaving only the woman, her partner and us. These elevators take a long time to close and throughout the closing Dylan was calling "Bye bye"..."bye" and waving. Once the doors closed the woman burst out laughing and said "Did you see their faces...embarrassed!!! Good little boy, they must know it is not for them it is for us." This is a frustration we deal with occasionaly and we have an alternative. It must be so frustrating for her.

Dylan arcade pics

Dylan, bubbles and things

Dylan has been teething the last while, so he's been a bit grumpy. Sleeping like an angel now ,which gives me the chance to catch up. We went to Lukang last weekend and for Dylan the history, the people and everything that makes lukang, faded into the background..all he saw were the bubbles!! A group of children were blowing bubbles and this was definitely his highlight. That and of course the teletubbies that we found. He is addicted to the teletubbies at the moment. I am including a pic of his preferred seating while watching the teletubbies!

It was our anniversary yesterday and so we went for a meal, and then into the arcade at Tiger City. Dylan is a real little boy...straight tot he games...had to sit on every bike, car adn jet ski machine there. The best was Ciro shoeing him how to change gears on the one machine...after that only car games that had gears were good enough. Pics will follow.

Dylan and the dinosaurs part 2

Dylan and the dinosaur

On Sunday Ciro had a school field trip to plan, so off we went to the science museum with Dylan, we have not been with him fo a long while. He was so excited and from the moment he saw the large dinosaur he was shouting "goh" (dog in chinese). He then proceeded to growl at the dinosaur. It was very difficult to get him to move on to the other section, but when he did he had not forgotten the dinosaur noise. He ran through the entire exhibit growling at people!! He had loads of fun and was exhausted by the end of it... who wouldn't be at the pace he was moving.
Just tried to upload some pics...didn't work, so will post them up tomorrow.
We had a great morning this morning, Isabel, Adriaan, Sandy and Ivo came round and we went swimming with the little guys which was great for many reasons...swimming and playing with everyone is always fun and when one is teething and very cranky it is nice to have someone to play with!!!Unfortunately no pics of that...three little tods at the pool...a very busy time!!

Dylan at play

It has been a while. Getting back into the swing of the new semester i guess!! Dylan is teething and once again he is doing it two at a time. He is getting the bottom two molars and at first i did not see that there were two, but they both peeked through yesterday. Thank goodness for the teething meds from SA, have kept me sane. He does love playing in water to take his mind off of everything, of course that means mom must get soaking too.

We have been going to the gym quiet a lot and he knows when we are heading there he gets to see his buddy Ivo, so when i turn into the parking at the gym he starts "ohhh" ing. Aside from these cute noises he is expanding his "vocab"-lion growls are the latest as well as a little actual english and chinese "shoes " in english and "wo de (mine)" in chinese.

We went for a walk to the park the other day and everybody we passed got the "Dylan royal wave". Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that people are always greeting him. He has always reciprocated, but now he is inititaing these exchanges. Needless to say a walk to the park can take us all morning with my little social butterfly.

Happy half birthday Dylan!!

Dylan is 18 months old today. We went to the gym this morning. Instead of working out though Sandy and I stayed with the little guys, a lot of kids in the play area...too many!! Had a pretty relaxing half-birthday otherwise... just went to lunch and Dylan was so exhausted after his exciting morning that he passed out for most of the afternoon. It is hard to believe that he is already 18 months old, find myself remembering the day he was born a lot today...seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time!

Here is Dylan with Ivo having a juice break from running around and later he was very proud of the tower he built.