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Saturday, March 31, 2007

Lukang

Some of our students are doing a project for the Taichung City government,making a tourist brochure. So we went off to Lukang with them this afternoon. My pair are dealing with local food so Lukang was a great place, lots of local delicacies.We also went to the Lukang folk arts museum which is situated in an old dutch style residence. Walked through the alleys and overall it was a pleasant afternoon. On the way there Ciro and i were reminiscing about the first time we rode out there on bicycle..our first weekend here. Dylan was really great. He slept for the first hour or so and then he was so content to be looking at everything and he just loved the kids . At one point he was holing on to one of the boy's hands as he walked alongside Dylan's stroller...of course i missed that picture! Dylan gets into "no" moods at the moment, he repeats no, no , no and it sounds so cute!!...for now. Here are some pics from today.

The folk arts museum in Lukang


Dylan fast asleep and oblivious to the attention.

Just liked the following pic..



The oldest house in Lukang.

Fascinating rice "cup cakes" a spoon of a certain kind of rice pressed into this 'mushroom' container and dipped in sesame or peanut. Didn't taste but looked very different. Apparently a special Lukang treat.


Tofu drying...in the middle of the living room floor of a house we walked past.

This old guy was so interesting. He spoke to the kids and answered their questions without getting impatient, he was making big steamers. Then he proceeded to hand out cigarettes to all the male teachers...




The road home, tired!

Friday, March 30, 2007

A hot Friday

Temp is 30 degrees today. Very happy that the new car has air conditioning. Dylan and i popped in to visit Ciro at school today. Dylan loves the playroom there with the little slide , heads straight for it every time. We then headed over to MacDonald's for an ice cream (and ac of course) Outside there is a paved area with a teddy bear machine if you touch the machine it starts playing the music. Needless to say we spent a lot of time there, Dylan loves dancing and he kept checking the opening, on the off chance that a teddy bear had appeared. Yesterday he and Ciro walked (or should i say ran) to the cows at Dong Hai in the evening singing "old MacDonald" all the way. The little guy loves being out and about. In fact yesterday i went down to get his stroller out of the car and he was very upset that we were not going anywhere. it also disturbs him that our car disappears. We are on the bottom parking of a hydraulic lift (each space is made for two cars) so we have to lift the top car and put it back down when we use our car. You can't see our car so we have to reassure him that the car is still there.




Sunday, March 25, 2007

Blue Sunday

Yesterday we picked up our new "old" car ...yay! Drives really great and has ac and cd player so we are soooo happy! I have managed to pick up a cold so feeling pretty miserable and sorry for myself!!!Hence I will let the pics of our super little guy speak rather than me...





Ciro and Dylan on the streets of Taichung

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Dylan's teeth

It has been a bit of a teething week for Dylan, his bottom teeth still coming through. He has not been sleeping the best and super-moody! Still on a positive note, when we went to play at Ivo's yesterday he actually passed things to Ivo and they had a good interaction session (Dylan has never liked the idea of sharing)
He has also decided that he needs to climb anything that he can. From the drawers in his room to our bedside cabinet, the computer chairs and even the chair at Ivo's house was climbed and jumped over....very hectic for us because it is like he has no fear!! We are going to have to rearrange some stuff to toddler -proof further!!


Looking at life through a red balloon at 'TGI Fridays' on the weekend


The result of this teething episode...



Ivo and Dylan snacktime at their own personal 'diner'

We ran some errands today, always a good reason to stop for McDonalds ice-cream.


Sunday, March 18, 2007

Dylan 2 take two

We had a second try at celebrating Dylan's birthday yesterday with his two little friends...Ivo and Adriaan and of course Ivo's brother Burl was there too. We even managed to re-create the cake. Dylan was behaving as though he really got it that it was for him, he ran around shouting and screaming with excitement from the time Adriann got there. He actually had such a sweat going at one stage that a change of clothes was required.

The boys had fun and as the morning went on they played really nicely together and independently of each other. The only altercations involved the high chair. It is funny, when we go to Ivo's house Dylan insist on sitting in Ivo's high chair and this upsets Ivo (even though he doesn't use it much) so when Ivo saw Dylan's high chair he decided it was payback time (pic below) Memories like elephants these boys.

Dylan got really excited with the candles on the cake , but proceeded to put a cookie in his mouth instead of blowing them out.


Adriaan in the ball pool


"My high chair"


Dylan with his "Toy story" figures

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Ides of March

Haven't posted in a while. Getting back into the routine of things. We went to see Ivo's little brother Burl on Tuesday ..very cute and looks just like Ivo as a baby. Then on Wednesday Dylan and I went to gym. He had fun playing with two other kids in the ball pool and then proceeded to unpack all the new toys that are there. He loves unpacking shelves, but hasn't quiet got the love of repacking them -unfortunately.
We are having a bit of a "clash of cultures" with the babysitter again..she wants to potty train him, but her way is not necessarily our way. She takes of the diaper and lets the wet themselves so they know when they pee. We are also not sure that he is ready for it, he seems distressed by her leaving his diaper off and is quiet happy when Ciro puts one back on, he never usually lies still.
Some pics of the little guy...note we do not usually give him two bottles, but if he has juice and milk bottles nearby he grabs both and stuffs them into his mouth. so we handed him these two to capture that.





Sunday, March 11, 2007

Sunday evening

Had a very quiet weekend. Dylan passed his cold on to me, think i have sufficiently blasted it away with vitamins and rest. Gran's service was today. As i am writing this everyone is gathered at the house. We had our own "remembrance" here so it has been a quiet day..just one of the many reasons i love my husband..he has been amazing this week, he helped set up a "balcony 'remembrance' garden" and organised a little memorial for gran..knowing how much she meant to me and how difficult it was being far away from the family! It meant so much and made it easier. Thanks Ciro!!
Will post some pics in the week.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Finally Friday!!

It has been a bit of a downer as far as weeks go. Dylan has also not been able to shake this cold and on top of it he is teething. I can see the tooth coming through this morning, so hopefully he will feel a bit better at the weekend. On the home front, a service is going to be dedicated to gran on Sunday, the fam will attend and then have tea etc at home. Mom is a bit worried as she mentioned this at work. She works in an African school and it is the african custom to visit your coworker and eat a plenty on the day of a funeral. Not too sure how many people she should expect on Sunday.
All for now. .. Pics are of the little guy who thinks he is a cat lately watching TV lying on the back of the sofa, loving his peanut butter and a result of me messing around with the software bundled with the camera.








Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Farewell to a lady

It has been a bitter-sweet weekend. It was Dylan's birthday and then on Sunday night my gran passed away at 8:30 SA time. We got the call at 3am . She has been bed-ridden for a long time and it is not unexpected. That does not make it any easier though. We were especially close when i was a child and she taught me so many things. It is really dificult being so far away now. we were there at Christmas and said our goodbyes as we were not sure that we would see her again. At least the whole family was together for her last Christmas. If i were to sum my gran up in one word it would be " lady". Although she has not been herself for a long time and i know that this is better for her in a way , i will miss her!

At our wedding September 2001


With one of her favourite flowers.


Last Christmas with mum, me and Dylan

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Dylan is two!!!!

Dylan turned two yesterday . I got my babycentre newsletter today and it said he is now a preschooler not toddler anymore..growing so fast..he is still my baby!! We woke up very early and he opened presents, he got a junior engineer set and a frying pan set (the latter due to his fascination with cooking) We set off to the Natural Science museum where he had a lot of fun running around the botanical gardens. It was a really hot day , if i look back to the pictures of his birthday last year we were all in winter gear and this year it is T-shirt weather. After a busy morning we came home for a nice nap. Unfortunately after his nap Dylan was very unhappy, he has been teething and initially i thought it was that. Turns out he has got a bit of a cold with an explosive nose. We were supposed to have his friends Adriaan and Ivo over to celebrate his birthday but we had to postpone. Adriaan is also sick with gastro and Ivo has a little brother in the house and we don't want him to catch anything from Dylan and pass it on to Burl. Still Ciro and I made his cake already, so here are some pics of Chicken Little


Photography

I have always loved taking photos, now with the new camera i have been going crazy again. So thought i'd put up some of the pics..not eveything i photograph is Dylan...tulips and fish from the botanical garden at the Taichung Natural Science museum and a sculpture at the Taichung art museum