Colby's foster parents kept track of when he had all of his firsts. This was a happy surprise! He had his first tooth at 6 mos, crawled at 10mos and just took his first steps about 2 weeks ago (and they took pictures!!).
I'm sure there will be more little snippets like this as I remember things that I should've included.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Gifts.
So about this time I notice that there is a HUGE amount of "stuff" behind me. Two shopping bags full and a suitcase and a diaper bag and a smaller bag with formula and bottles, etc. I had no idea that he'd come with so much stuff! Colby's foster dad starting bringing bags over and pulling things out. First he pulled out a hat (baseball style) with a blessing they'd written on the inside of the bill. Sally wasn't able to translate it for us, but she said it is a blessing wishing him well. Next it was the index pages and negatives for every disposable camera we'd sent. They developed them so that they could keep a set of the pictures. I don't even know what to say. Before I could even recover from that, his foster dad pulled out a cd and we learned that on it is all the pictures they'd taken of him over the months, and although I haven't yet had a chance to look at it, I suspect there are lots of him before we even knew about him. This had me reeling, but they didn't stop there. Out comes a scrapbook that they put together for him - it's bound and it's clear that a LOT of hard work went into it. Again, before I could even wipe the tears from my eyes, we were presented with a small teddy bear. Colby's foster mom thought up the design and then had it made - for me. I have a lump in my throat even now as I type this. She'd already given me the greatest gift I could imagine - loving my son when I couldn't show him love myself - and now this. Oh but the gifts continued. We got a small laminated photo of him (that looks shockingly like a chubby infant Kailin) and I was about to put it away when his foster mom began animated comments to Sally, who started to cry. I knew that whatever it was, I was done for. Sally asked me to flip over the photo, and with her voice cracking, told me that his foster mom stamped the edge of the photo with half of his chop and that when he returns to Taiwan to visit, she will give him the other half. Tears welled in my eyes as my heart overflowed with the emotion of knowing how much Colby had been loved and will continue to be loved. We got the photos taken at the hospital when he was born. There were more gifts. They bought him a beautiful jade pendant in which is inscribed the characters for "much good fortune". They hoped we would keep it for him - of course we promised that we would. Then there was two cans of formula (which his foster mom told us was the best brand in Taiwan), two big bags of diapers, and a whole diaper bag full of clothes. We also got back the toys we'd sent him and the photo album as well. I'm sure I'm missing something - the sheer volume of things we received is hard to comprehend.
Colby's foster parents were surprised that he came to us so willingly, as he is not fond of going with strangers. But then, they said (causing more tears to flow), of course we aren't strangers at all - we are his family. (and now I'm crying like a fool again typing this)
The greatest gift they've given us, though, didn't come in a bag or a box or with any writing. To say that I am touched to know how much they loved our son does not begin to explain my feelings and emotions. I couldn't put them into words if I tried. I will forever feel a connection to this family half way around the world and know that our updates, however frequent they are, could never begin to repay them for opening their hearts and their home to our baby.
All too soon it was time to say goodbye. Hearing the animated and lively conversation the whole time I was absorbing my new son gave me heart that his foster parents realize that in their time of sorrow we have joy and that they are joyful for us. In the lobby, we posed for pictures with Colby's foster family, his social workers, and the Chung Yi staff. Then his foster parents held him one more time and before we knew it they were saying "Zai jian" (goodbye for now) and were gone. We loaded into a cab (and loaded is certainly the right word there! we had some BAGGAGE) and headed back to the hotel.
More later, I promise, but my boys are up and it's time to call home and let some grandparents know that we're okay.
Colby unveiled!
Sally offered to video tape for us and we took her up on it. With that worry out of the way, I was able to concentrate on paying attention to what was going on.
Colby's foster mom was carrying him when they came in. She is a happy, bubbly woman with a lot of energy! She's very friendly and came right over to me with him. He is ENORMOUS!!!!! We were in for another surprise. We had the impression that Colby's foster mom was single, but in came his foster father and his foster grandmother! I knew right then that our child had been blessed, but I had NO IDEA just how much.
I was investigating him a little and Sally (or someone) told her to give him to me. He fussed a bit, but not like Kailin did! They told me he needed a diaper change and had me lay him on the conference table to do it. I felt a little like it was a test (it wasn't), but I think I passed. He didn't pee on me and the diaper stayed on. Ha ha ha. Then he started to cry a bit and she made him a bottle. Man alive, he sucked it down!! They told me that if you ask him in Chinese to give you the bottle when he's done, he will. I got a round of applause for correct pronunciation. Unfortunately, I haven't remember the second half of the phrase since, but I know Sally recorded it for us. All I can say is "ni ping" which is bottle. It's handy, though - in finding out if that's what's making him fuss!
Here we are for our first family photo op.... 
we were all very content and happy in that moment. The people around us were all chattering in Chinese and I felt really at peace. Colby didn't feel like "mine" yet, but he felt comfortable in my arms and it was wonderful to finally get to truly see his face. He's got amazingly long eyelashes and his teeth are very crooked (I found out later that it's his pacifier doing that - the pacifiers here are not orthodontic and his is ever present in his mouth. We'll have to work on a switch to American style once he's home and settled.). He has gorgeous eyes and soft hair/fuzz on the top of his head. His ears are tiny little things and he has huge hands and feet (he'll fit right in in our house!)
we were all very content and happy in that moment. The people around us were all chattering in Chinese and I felt really at peace. Colby didn't feel like "mine" yet, but he felt comfortable in my arms and it was wonderful to finally get to truly see his face. He's got amazingly long eyelashes and his teeth are very crooked (I found out later that it's his pacifier doing that - the pacifiers here are not orthodontic and his is ever present in his mouth. We'll have to work on a switch to American style once he's home and settled.). He has gorgeous eyes and soft hair/fuzz on the top of his head. His ears are tiny little things and he has huge hands and feet (he'll fit right in in our house!)
I gave him back to his foster dad after his bottle as he seemed to want to hold him and I have the rest of my life!! Colby was happy to go to him and his foster father was so tender with him - smiled and cooed to him. It made my heart sing. Here he is with his foster mom and dad. I wish I'd been able to get him looking at the camera, but I didn't yet know his nickname (that's a surefire way to get him to look and we'll be using it a lot!!). It's Xiao he (said sh-ow (like ouch) hay). It means "little black". When his foster family got him when he was 18 days old he hadn't been named yet and they used this term of affection since he had dark skin and dark peach fuzz on his head. His skin isn't dark anymore! He's almost as white as Kailin was! They would say "Xiao he!" or "Ah he!" and he would look immediately. I get the impression that he was rarely, if ever, called Tian fu. 
I'd had him back in my arms for awhile when I realized Steve hadn't held him yet at all. He went willingly to Steve and it was fun for me to see Steve explore his new son. Steve started feeding him crackers and THAT is the way to this boy's heart (just like his dad!). Then they were playing with a monkey toy we'd brought and we got to see his smile. He even thought he might giggle a little, but held back a bit. We learned in that instant as well, that our son loves to make noise and destruct. I think this kid is ALL BOY! He delighted in flinging the monkey toy off the table at great velocity or in banging it on the table with all his might. Boys will be boys, I suppose. New information...
Sally was fantastic from the start and wanted to know all about what we'd done so far and what we were planning to do and told me not to be nervous (that didn't work, for the record). We hailed a cab and started off for the orphanage. In conversation, I mentioned our appointment at AIT on 4/1. Sally said, "No, your appointment is on 4/3!" So it looks like a message got lost somewhere along the line and we now have today and tomorrow off. No big deal for us as we didn't have any concrete plans anyway, but I'm glad I mentioned it in conversation or we'd have showed up at AIT today - and apparently they're having some training and no one would've been there!!
The cab ride seemed long, but was really only about 30-40 minutes. Before I had much of a chance to think about it, Sally said, we're almost there!! My heart leaped into my throat and my stomach did a somersault.
When we arrived at Chung Yi about 10:45, we learned that Colby (Tian Fu) was still on his way and that we'd go over some paperwork first. I was initially confused because unlike with Kailin, Colby's adoption was already final and I couldn't think of what paperwork there would be left to go over! It was just his schedule and our copies of the first and final decrees and our copy of the contract. We were also presented with a chop (a Chinese stamp) with Colby's Chinese name on it. It was used on all the official paperwork to "sign" his name, and it's something we'll keep for him always. Then we received an even greater (and more unexpected if that's possible) gift. A photo of his birthmom and her parents. We think it's a little dated as she looks like a teenager in it and she is not a teenager now, but we are thankful beyond belief to be able to share that with him. He has her nose for certain and I feel good being able to tell him that if he ever wants to know who he looks like.
We were introduced to some of the Chung Yi workers, some social work students (who were very camera happy and you all know how much I adore having my picture taken - NOT), and Colby's State social worker. They were all very nice.
We were able to make a list of questions for his birthmom - some of which the social working staff was able to answer and some of which they will try to have his birthmom answer. I didn't know that we'd have this opportunity and so I was a little flummoxed. Sally helped us come up with some questions, though, and I know we'll be glad to have the answers if they can get them.
We went over his daily routine and learned that he doesn't go to bed until 10pm but then sleeps until 10am! WOW. That will be changing as soon as he's settled and ready for it! He's a good eater, and a laid back baby who only cries if he is sick, tired, or hungry. Of course they said that about Kailin as well and we know that girls got a set of lungs she's not afraid to use!! Let's see... he is crawling and took some unassisted steps recently, and has 10 teeth! He had a cold/flu infection a few weeks ago, but isn't taking any more medicine. He doesn't like loud noises, but does like toys that make noise. Likes to eat - that seemed to be a big point.
Just after we ripped into some rice crackers we were offered (which were mighty tasty!), the announcement came that he was here! (about 11:20)
The cab ride seemed long, but was really only about 30-40 minutes. Before I had much of a chance to think about it, Sally said, we're almost there!! My heart leaped into my throat and my stomach did a somersault.
When we arrived at Chung Yi about 10:45, we learned that Colby (Tian Fu) was still on his way and that we'd go over some paperwork first. I was initially confused because unlike with Kailin, Colby's adoption was already final and I couldn't think of what paperwork there would be left to go over! It was just his schedule and our copies of the first and final decrees and our copy of the contract. We were also presented with a chop (a Chinese stamp) with Colby's Chinese name on it. It was used on all the official paperwork to "sign" his name, and it's something we'll keep for him always. Then we received an even greater (and more unexpected if that's possible) gift. A photo of his birthmom and her parents. We think it's a little dated as she looks like a teenager in it and she is not a teenager now, but we are thankful beyond belief to be able to share that with him. He has her nose for certain and I feel good being able to tell him that if he ever wants to know who he looks like.
We were introduced to some of the Chung Yi workers, some social work students (who were very camera happy and you all know how much I adore having my picture taken - NOT), and Colby's State social worker. They were all very nice.
We were able to make a list of questions for his birthmom - some of which the social working staff was able to answer and some of which they will try to have his birthmom answer. I didn't know that we'd have this opportunity and so I was a little flummoxed. Sally helped us come up with some questions, though, and I know we'll be glad to have the answers if they can get them.
We went over his daily routine and learned that he doesn't go to bed until 10pm but then sleeps until 10am! WOW. That will be changing as soon as he's settled and ready for it! He's a good eater, and a laid back baby who only cries if he is sick, tired, or hungry. Of course they said that about Kailin as well and we know that girls got a set of lungs she's not afraid to use!! Let's see... he is crawling and took some unassisted steps recently, and has 10 teeth! He had a cold/flu infection a few weeks ago, but isn't taking any more medicine. He doesn't like loud noises, but does like toys that make noise. Likes to eat - that seemed to be a big point.
Just after we ripped into some rice crackers we were offered (which were mighty tasty!), the announcement came that he was here! (about 11:20)
Finally found it!
Please bear with me until I can get to the juicy details I know you all are craving....
Steve finally woke up with the alarm (I'd forgotten to turn it off) at 6:30. He jumped in the shower (I keep telling him that jumping in the shower is dangerous and he's going to fall one of these days....), and I packed a diaper bag for Colby. I noticed that again - with Kailin I had our diaper bag packed as soon as we landed in China (or close) and with Colby, I kind of nonchalantly threw some stuff I thought we might need in there and that was that. I didn't have any of the nerves I had with Kailin and was actually looking forward to walking to the bakery and searching out Starbucks.
After I was ready, we headed out (looking drizzly again - not us, but the weather) for Starbucks with the intent to stop at the bakery on the way back home. We turned down the road that Eric Echols had said was the right one and we walked a few blocks to find that we ended up at the same bakery we'd been at the day before - so clearly this was the wrong street AGAIN. We picked up some yummmmmmy breakfast and headed back on to the street. My philosophy this trip, and it's served me well, has been "one more block". Whenever we think we haven't found what we're looking for I compel us to go one more block. So far it's worked more times than not! We went one more block down the road and there was Starbucks. We'd been a block away the day before and just hadn't looked that direction!
Coffees in hand we strolled another block away from the hotel and turned into a residential area. On the end of that block we found a little market section with tons of beautiful fruit. I think we're going to head back over there today and get some fruit to bring back to the room. Yes, I know what they say about eating fruit in foreign countries, but we wash it really well and we've been eating it all along and been just fine. I may live to regret those words, but at least I'll regret them with yummy fruit in my tummy. You can't believe the fruit here. It makes the stuff we get at home seem like cardboard!! This fruit has got some serious flavor!
Strolling back to the hotel was nice. I wasn't nervous yet and it was a nice little stroll. It started to rain a little, but not enough to get us wet.
Back at the hotel, bag packed, and nothing to do but eat our bakery and sip coffee - the nerves finally set in. Finally, it was 9:55 (66?) and time to meet Sally in the lobby. We gathered up our gifts, the diaper bag, and our cameras and headed out...
Steve finally woke up with the alarm (I'd forgotten to turn it off) at 6:30. He jumped in the shower (I keep telling him that jumping in the shower is dangerous and he's going to fall one of these days....), and I packed a diaper bag for Colby. I noticed that again - with Kailin I had our diaper bag packed as soon as we landed in China (or close) and with Colby, I kind of nonchalantly threw some stuff I thought we might need in there and that was that. I didn't have any of the nerves I had with Kailin and was actually looking forward to walking to the bakery and searching out Starbucks.
After I was ready, we headed out (looking drizzly again - not us, but the weather) for Starbucks with the intent to stop at the bakery on the way back home. We turned down the road that Eric Echols had said was the right one and we walked a few blocks to find that we ended up at the same bakery we'd been at the day before - so clearly this was the wrong street AGAIN. We picked up some yummmmmmy breakfast and headed back on to the street. My philosophy this trip, and it's served me well, has been "one more block". Whenever we think we haven't found what we're looking for I compel us to go one more block. So far it's worked more times than not! We went one more block down the road and there was Starbucks. We'd been a block away the day before and just hadn't looked that direction!
Coffees in hand we strolled another block away from the hotel and turned into a residential area. On the end of that block we found a little market section with tons of beautiful fruit. I think we're going to head back over there today and get some fruit to bring back to the room. Yes, I know what they say about eating fruit in foreign countries, but we wash it really well and we've been eating it all along and been just fine. I may live to regret those words, but at least I'll regret them with yummy fruit in my tummy. You can't believe the fruit here. It makes the stuff we get at home seem like cardboard!! This fruit has got some serious flavor!
Strolling back to the hotel was nice. I wasn't nervous yet and it was a nice little stroll. It started to rain a little, but not enough to get us wet.
Back at the hotel, bag packed, and nothing to do but eat our bakery and sip coffee - the nerves finally set in. Finally, it was 9:55 (66?) and time to meet Sally in the lobby. We gathered up our gifts, the diaper bag, and our cameras and headed out...
Throwing you a bone....
For all of you who have been waiting patiently (and some not so patiently) for a post, I'll throw you a quick bone....
I'm downloading pictures right now and will be writing a longer post as soon as I post this.
Yesterday was amazing, exhausting, a little scary, and heartbreaking all in one. I wasn't able to get back on to blog before we all went to bed on the early side (anticipating that Colby would be up much of the night based on how the day was going). It turns out that once he's out, he's a fantastic little sleeper and has been sleeping for about 8 hours straight now. Some of that could be grief, but I'd like to hope he's resting up from his monumental day and will awaken today with a brighter view of the world.
As I'm sitting here trying not to wake the boys in my family, I can't help but watch them and thank God for blessing me so. He could not have made more perfect boys for me - temper tantrums and all (and Colby had some too... just joking - Steve hasn't thrown a fit yet).
More in a few minutes - probably in the same choppy format as the last posts so you newshounds can get your fixes.
Thank you all for your emails - I wish I could respond to them, but outgoing email doesn't seem to be an option for me unless I take 900 steps and I'm more worried about feeding the masses as it were.
I'm downloading pictures right now and will be writing a longer post as soon as I post this.
Yesterday was amazing, exhausting, a little scary, and heartbreaking all in one. I wasn't able to get back on to blog before we all went to bed on the early side (anticipating that Colby would be up much of the night based on how the day was going). It turns out that once he's out, he's a fantastic little sleeper and has been sleeping for about 8 hours straight now. Some of that could be grief, but I'd like to hope he's resting up from his monumental day and will awaken today with a brighter view of the world.
As I'm sitting here trying not to wake the boys in my family, I can't help but watch them and thank God for blessing me so. He could not have made more perfect boys for me - temper tantrums and all (and Colby had some too... just joking - Steve hasn't thrown a fit yet).
More in a few minutes - probably in the same choppy format as the last posts so you newshounds can get your fixes.
Thank you all for your emails - I wish I could respond to them, but outgoing email doesn't seem to be an option for me unless I take 900 steps and I'm more worried about feeding the masses as it were.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Scrounging for supper....
Steve and I decided to go out in search of some dinner and I thought that pizza sounded good. We headed over to the local convenience store to pick up some sodas and they had Coke Light (Diet Coke)! It's the first I've seen here, so I splurged and bought two. We walked over to Dominos where we discovered that a pizza is $10 for a smaller size or $20 for a larger size. Ummm... not for Dominos. So we decided to try Mos burger right near our hotel. We should have known that things were interesting when the counter clerk asked if we wanted our burgers "regular or spicy". Ha ha. Actually they were pretty tasty and the regular or spicy applied to the onion relish sort of stuff on the top of them. We had onion rings to boot and then snacked out of our junk bag for dessert.
We found a plate of fruit delivered to the room when we returned and we'll have that for breakfast before we walk to the yummy bakery and indulge a little on our way to Starbucks (the street for which we searched in vain yesterday and the Echols pointed out to us on the way to the markets (we walked right past it about 4 times!).
It's just 4 hours now until we get Colby and I am strangely calm this time around. I'm not sure why. Steve and I sure have enjoyed our time here alone in a much different way than we did in China. I've remembered how much I love to travel with him and it's been very nice. Okay, off to the shower for me and a leisurely morning before life changes in a big way!
We found a plate of fruit delivered to the room when we returned and we'll have that for breakfast before we walk to the yummy bakery and indulge a little on our way to Starbucks (the street for which we searched in vain yesterday and the Echols pointed out to us on the way to the markets (we walked right past it about 4 times!).
It's just 4 hours now until we get Colby and I am strangely calm this time around. I'm not sure why. Steve and I sure have enjoyed our time here alone in a much different way than we did in China. I've remembered how much I love to travel with him and it's been very nice. Okay, off to the shower for me and a leisurely morning before life changes in a big way!
I want to buy a bowel!
The night market was very very interesting! The merchandise section was a bit smaller than we'd hoped (but I later learned that we missed most of it as the covered portion of the market is really only the food stuff...oops!!), but the food section was astounding. The variety of things available for sale was dumbfounding. And if you wanted to buy a bowel, this is the place to do it!
Eric and Nicole are looking for some dinosaur slippers for their son who loves Ni hao Kailan about as much as Kailin does, and we walked over to a stand to have a look. It turns out it was some sort of game for kids involving live shrimp...but the kids were darn cute! Nearby, they were skewering live shrimp and then throwing them right on the barbie.... it was not a pleasant thing to watch, but I'll share it with you anyway.
There were stands selling fruit drinks of every kind and every kind of meat, vegetable, or egg dish you could possibly imagine. It truly was overwhelming (and so was the sauerkraut smell that came from a few of the stands!).
Despite the huge variety of foods available, these people (I don't know if you can truly see the line here, but it was massive!) are all waiting in line to eat chicken in a bag. From what we could see, it was basically an entire chicken (minus the head and perhaps the feet) fried, and put in a bag. Nicole saw a little kid eating a whole one!! Sunnie and Bill told us the Chinese love their fried chicken (attested to by this and also the fact that there were people lined up in the KFC at 9am yesterday!).
Steve and Eric were determined to eat some food on a stick. Eric got pork of some sort while Steve went for the gusto and got chicken kidneys - on a stick. Yes, innards on a stick an all American favorite. I guess it's true what they say about us Americans - put it on a stick and we'll eat anything...
We actually weren't very hungry yet (or perhaps we were less hungry after the foods on a stick experience), so we all indulged in a cream puff sort of thing - filled fresh with your choice of strawberry, blueberry, chocolate, cream, green tea flavor) or red bean - and decided to head back to the hotel.
Riding the MRT and looking like fools...
The lady with the pumelos told us that we should take the MRT (subway) over to the night market. We were cool with that, but her directions regarding getting to the MRT station were vague to say the least. We started out anyway figuring that worst case scenario, we'd grab a cab and it'd be no different than if we'd gotten one of the dozens parked outside the flower market.
We walked and walked and walked some more and then while Steve and I stopped at an ATM (and nearly had accidents in our pants when we saw the amounts pop up on the screen - not thinking that we're talking about NT (30:1), seeing $1000, $3000, $5000, or $10000 as options was NOT normal!!! Then we had a good laugh about it.) Eric, who speaks a little Mandarin, busied himself going into the 7-11 (shocking that we could find one...you could seriously throw a stone and hit one anywhere in Taipei - and sometimes you could be at one 7-11 and throw a stone and hit another one, but they're handy to have around, so I'm not complaining!) and got directions to the station.
We got to the station just fine but realized that we didn't know which Subway line to take. Two teenagers approached us and asked if we needed some help. We were grateful and they got us on the right track.
Next we needed to know how to calculate what fare to buy. We needed to take the blue line into Taipei central and then the red line out to Jiantan station to get to the Shilin night market. Fortunately for us another teenager could see our dismay (and we were quite obviously making multiple trips to the route map and the fare machine and pointing a lot and probably looking far more than confused) and asked if we needed help. We learned that it would only be $25NT each to take the MRT, so we bought tickets and away we went.
The process is pretty cool. You put your money in the fare machine and it spits out a blue token. Then you scan the token at the turnstile and you're in. When you get off on the other side, you deposit the token into the turnstile to get out again. We got on the blue line just fine and headed to the main station. Then I thought I knew the right direction to head on the red line and we got on it. I was WRONG. So we got off at the next stop and got back on the red line going in the opposite direction (and looked like those idiots you see taking a freeway off ramp only to use the on ramp at the other side of the exit) and then we were fine. We got off the MRT and could pretty easily find the night market.
We walked and walked and walked some more and then while Steve and I stopped at an ATM (and nearly had accidents in our pants when we saw the amounts pop up on the screen - not thinking that we're talking about NT (30:1), seeing $1000, $3000, $5000, or $10000 as options was NOT normal!!! Then we had a good laugh about it.) Eric, who speaks a little Mandarin, busied himself going into the 7-11 (shocking that we could find one...you could seriously throw a stone and hit one anywhere in Taipei - and sometimes you could be at one 7-11 and throw a stone and hit another one, but they're handy to have around, so I'm not complaining!) and got directions to the station.
We got to the station just fine but realized that we didn't know which Subway line to take. Two teenagers approached us and asked if we needed some help. We were grateful and they got us on the right track.
Next we needed to know how to calculate what fare to buy. We needed to take the blue line into Taipei central and then the red line out to Jiantan station to get to the Shilin night market. Fortunately for us another teenager could see our dismay (and we were quite obviously making multiple trips to the route map and the fare machine and pointing a lot and probably looking far more than confused) and asked if we needed help. We learned that it would only be $25NT each to take the MRT, so we bought tickets and away we went.
The process is pretty cool. You put your money in the fare machine and it spits out a blue token. Then you scan the token at the turnstile and you're in. When you get off on the other side, you deposit the token into the turnstile to get out again. We got on the blue line just fine and headed to the main station. Then I thought I knew the right direction to head on the red line and we got on it. I was WRONG. So we got off at the next stop and got back on the red line going in the opposite direction (and looked like those idiots you see taking a freeway off ramp only to use the on ramp at the other side of the exit) and then we were fine. We got off the MRT and could pretty easily find the night market.
Floral fantasies....
Just across the street is a humongous flower market. They were just starting to close for the night, so we didn't get to walk the whole length of the market, but what we did see is beyond words. I can assure you that the pictures here do it a great disservice and there is no way to describe the aroma- amazing is a good start. Orchids everywhere, amaryllis, lilies... you name it and it was there. The variety of bonsai trees for sale was astonishing (and made Steve wonder aloud if I thought he could sneak one past customs....ummmm....NOT going to happen!)! 
We were stopped by a young girl who spoke great English. She was selling pumelos (those enormous grapefruit looking things that you see in the grocery store) that had been stuffed with Chinese herbal medicine and then cut up (or you could actually buy the whole thing). She urged us to try some samples (good for a sore throat) and after quick looks around the group to say "really, should we?" we went ahead. I can see why that'd be good stuff for a sore throat because it sure cleared my sinuses fast! I did not care for the taste AT ALL, but then again it's medicine not candy. Nicole joked that she wanted her picture with the pumelo so that we could show it to the hospital later if she keeled over. We laughed and then followed suit (couldn't hurt to have the evidence, right? only joking) There was a humane society set up adopting out puppies and there was a brindle one I would've loved to take home, but they didn't want Peanut in trade (only joking....) You can also get your hair washed right at the flower market. We're still not entirely sure what that was all about!!
At the jade market...
The jade market was not at all as I had imagined it. First, it was covered so that was nice because rain was no longer an issue. Second, it was HUGE. You can't imagine all the tables and all the people. Beautiful stuff everywhere. Coral carvings and pendants, amber sculptures, jade in every color, beads, necklace cording, those brown clay tea pots that I love... amazing doesn't begin to cover it. I wish I would have ventured to try to take pictures of everything we saw, but I was chicken and a little embarrassed since we were the only tourists in the joint, so I took these general pictures to give you a feel for it.
If you are traveling here, you this market is a must!! It's only open weekends, though. We were able to pick up some gifts and also bought a hand carved stone shaped like the head of a dog (it's sooo cute!) for one of Colby's adoption day anniversary gifts since that's his zodiac sign. It's been weighing on our mind that it's harder to find things to give a boy and this worked out great! The man who carved the stone was right there and I wanted to get his picture, but it became very clear that he was chewing Betel nuts and his teeth (those that he had anyway) were COVERED in red paste and seeds and I had to try hard not to loose my (expensive) lunch! Steve found a jade dog to add to his necklace with his and the Kailin's zodiac symbols. We also got Colby and Steve each a Qing dynasty antique coin to put on a leather cord as a necklace. They were really cool and really cheap ($3 for the pair). Kailin got a small bracelet with jade beads that we think she'll love. I got another ornament for me cell phone and....something else that is presently escaping me. Everyone was anxious to tell us that their stuff was all natural and not from China. Not that Taiwanese people are natural experts at jade, but it bolstered my confidence that this is a "local market" and not a tourist trap. We were some of the only white folks in there. I'm sure we probably paid higher prices for stuff than we needed to (speaking for ourselves - Eric is a master bargainer), but we had fun and really enjoyed ourselves. We've actually decided to go back next Sunday after we see what other stuff we find this week. I could've spent a week in there and about a million bucks!!
Pretty pink umbrellas
(It's now actually Monday morning here - I could not stay awake worth beans last night, so I slept and am back at it this morning. It's 4:30am here and I can't sleep. Shockingly, I'm not nervous about getting Colby in 6 hours (although typing that did make my stomach lurch). I've just not been able to sleep much more than 6 hours here. Wish that were the case back home!)
We played cribbage until lunch time and not having heard yet from our friends the Echols, we headed out to find something. I tried to get back the message we'd left them earlier regarding meeting us for lunch and replace it with a new one telling them when we thought we'd head over to the jade market, but something got lost in translation. I just asked to leave a new message and after I'd filled it out, the desk clerk noted that they already had another message at which point I said, "Yes! That's my message! Can I have it back, please?" He wasn't so sure, but then decided it'd be okay. Ha ha. We thought maybe we'd try the Italian place not far from our hotel so we set off. Well, pasta was $10 and we can get a lot of Chinese food for that price, so we crossed the street and thought we'd head back and have a McMeal. It was kind of raining again so truth be told we just wanted to find some food in a hurry and make sure we got something in our stomachs (the bakery breakfast was good, but the scrumptious muffin/cake we had was a little lighter than we thought and we were pretty hungry!). As we were walking down the sidewalk I heard "Sarah!!!!" and turned to see Nicole and Eric across the street. I waved and Steve (who hadn't seen them as they were in a doorway to a store and also hadn't heard that it was my name they'd yelled) gave me a look like "what on earth are you doing, woman? WHO could you possibly know here?!"
We crossed the street and learned that they'd bought umbrellas from a hole in the wall shop for about $100 NT. We decided to go get some lunch together and then stop by the hole in the wall to pick up some umbrellas for ourselves. We went to Fang's and let me tell you the hullabaloo isn't for nothing! We had dumplings, fried rice, and fried noodles and they were AMAZING. We shared some guava juice(much better tasting than the actual fruit we'd had the day before) and Taiwan beer with our new friends and had the best time. The Echols are so down to earth and friendly and so easy to talk with! What a blessing! Lunch was a bit expensive at about $20/couple, but it lasted us well into the evening before we were hungry again and it would certainly have cost far more at home (and was way better than the Italian place would've been!). It was truly worth every penny and I can assure you we'll be eating there again before we head home.
A short walk later we were able to select from a happy variety of umbrellas in every shade of the rainbow. I picked a pink one with koalas on it that we'll let Kailin have when we go home and Steve got a blue one with flowers (also my choice as the remaining ones were rather....heinous).
We decided to give the jade market, flower market, and night market a shot even though it was still drizzling a little bit. A quick trip back to the hotel to drop off their purchases/pick up necessities/make pit stops and we had the desk call us a cab. "Cab 668 will be here in 3 minutes." and he was right on. Off we went - always an experience to take a cab in a foreign country and this was no different!
We played cribbage until lunch time and not having heard yet from our friends the Echols, we headed out to find something. I tried to get back the message we'd left them earlier regarding meeting us for lunch and replace it with a new one telling them when we thought we'd head over to the jade market, but something got lost in translation. I just asked to leave a new message and after I'd filled it out, the desk clerk noted that they already had another message at which point I said, "Yes! That's my message! Can I have it back, please?" He wasn't so sure, but then decided it'd be okay. Ha ha. We thought maybe we'd try the Italian place not far from our hotel so we set off. Well, pasta was $10 and we can get a lot of Chinese food for that price, so we crossed the street and thought we'd head back and have a McMeal. It was kind of raining again so truth be told we just wanted to find some food in a hurry and make sure we got something in our stomachs (the bakery breakfast was good, but the scrumptious muffin/cake we had was a little lighter than we thought and we were pretty hungry!). As we were walking down the sidewalk I heard "Sarah!!!!" and turned to see Nicole and Eric across the street. I waved and Steve (who hadn't seen them as they were in a doorway to a store and also hadn't heard that it was my name they'd yelled) gave me a look like "what on earth are you doing, woman? WHO could you possibly know here?!"
We crossed the street and learned that they'd bought umbrellas from a hole in the wall shop for about $100 NT. We decided to go get some lunch together and then stop by the hole in the wall to pick up some umbrellas for ourselves. We went to Fang's and let me tell you the hullabaloo isn't for nothing! We had dumplings, fried rice, and fried noodles and they were AMAZING. We shared some guava juice(much better tasting than the actual fruit we'd had the day before) and Taiwan beer with our new friends and had the best time. The Echols are so down to earth and friendly and so easy to talk with! What a blessing! Lunch was a bit expensive at about $20/couple, but it lasted us well into the evening before we were hungry again and it would certainly have cost far more at home (and was way better than the Italian place would've been!). It was truly worth every penny and I can assure you we'll be eating there again before we head home.
A short walk later we were able to select from a happy variety of umbrellas in every shade of the rainbow. I picked a pink one with koalas on it that we'll let Kailin have when we go home and Steve got a blue one with flowers (also my choice as the remaining ones were rather....heinous).
We decided to give the jade market, flower market, and night market a shot even though it was still drizzling a little bit. A quick trip back to the hotel to drop off their purchases/pick up necessities/make pit stops and we had the desk call us a cab. "Cab 668 will be here in 3 minutes." and he was right on. Off we went - always an experience to take a cab in a foreign country and this was no different!
Pizza-ped
After having typed this entry as one big one for Sunday, I'm going to do you all a favor (thank me later) and divide it up into a bunch of sections. It was a MAMMOTH post and I hadn't even added all the pictures yet. This way you can read the sections that sound appealing and you won't be bored into a coma (that's not a guarantee) or have to devote an hour of your time to avoid losing your place and having to start again.
We started the day a bit late and thought we'd head to Starbucks and treat ourselves to a coffee. We walked the direction we thought it was from our hotel. Not so much. It wasn't long and the street ended entirely and we sheepishly had to turn around and head back the way we'd come. We ended up just picking a direction and walking. We didn't find the Starbucks, but we did find a beautiful Chinese temple, a Dunkin' Donuts (Steve suggested that we could do Friday night special Taiwan style one night - leave it to him!), several examples of the ever ubiquitous 7-11s, and a traditional street market. Unfortunately, we also found it to be raining at an ever increasing rate. We'd brought our rain jackets with us (and I have to give a shout out to Steve here because I wouldn't have brought them and I DIDN'T bring our umbrellas, so he was the man who saved the day), so we put them on and meandered through a nice little neighborhood. When we came out on the other side, we found a wonderful little bakery and stopped in. They had buns of every shape and size and cakes and cake rolls...cookies... YUMMM!!! We each grabbed a bun and went to pay. The cashier hadn't said a word the whole time and just pointed to the number on the cash register. It's not unusual to find people who don't speak English, so I didn't think much of it. When she gave me my change, I said Xie xie (thank you in Mandarin) and her whole face lit up in a smile. My guide book said that most Taiwanese will really respect any attempt to use Chinese and it surely appears that it's true. We saw these pizza hut mopeds on our walk and I couldn't resist taking a touristy shot of them.
We never did find the Starbucks and it went from misting when we left the hotel to a downright downpour at one point and then back to just light rain by the time we made it home.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Some comments on our room....
I'm up early (6:30 which ISN'T early back home - I'm usually up by 5:30!), but Steve is still sleeping so I figured I'd let the man sleep since after tomorrow there will likely be no more of that! I've been meaning to make a few comments on our room, so I figured this was as good an opportunity as any!
I consider myself a reasonably intelligent woman (well - I was before I had kids anyway! Now I guess maybe it's questionable.) The faucet in our bathroom turns ON by pushing the handle DOWN. I absolutely cannot get my head wrapped around this. We've been here a little less than 36 hours and I've used the faucet more than a handful of times. I've also soaked the surrounding area more than a handful of times trying to turn the faucet off. WHY? Why can't I get it right and why is it configured in that manner? Two questions which will undoubtedly remain unanswered for all time.
Okay, SERIOUSLY people - I JUST typed the above paragraph not five minutes ago and then decided to take a quick bathroom break. Yeah, you guessed it, I nearly ripped the faucet handle off trying to turn it on. SENSELESS!!!!!
Back to the room. The oddities of this room do not stop there. No.... We have no shower curtain. This presents two interesting situations. One is that we will get water all over the bathroom floor when we shower (although admittedly the effect of this is somewhat diminished due to the handy trough right next to the tub). This is not a huge problem. The second is that we traveled with only 7 days worth of clothes (more days worth than we took to China!) and were planning to repeat our "in room laundry scenario". Well now we have nowhere at all to dry clothes. We're still thinking about what our options might be here. Capris (me) and shorts (Steve) can be worn and re-worn, but shirts, socks, and underwear are kind of another story because...
It's hot and muggy here. For anyone who's been to China, but not Taiwan - think Guangzhou. Everything feels a little wet. ALL THE TIME. I thought I'd better explain that before I continue...
I hung up a bra to dry the night we got here after I quickly rinsed it out and when I went to bed last night it was almost all dry. Does that give you a good picture? So I'm actually not convinced that the in room laundry scheme would've worked all that well anyway. I think our plan will be to wash underwear and socks in the room and hang them on the towel bar (I'm sure the maid will love that one!) to dry for however long it takes them to dry and we'll have to find a dry cleaner/laundry or something to wash a few shirts, etc. Or we'll stink. That's another option. Just stink it up. "Those stinky Gannaways" they'll call us.
Now that you know all about that (and those of you who said, "oh, blog away, we'll read whatever you want to write" are cursing yourselves for ever having said it), I'll continue the running oddity commentary.
Another oddity of our room is that we have two suitcase racks that look like marble covered dressers. Yep, that's what they look like. That's not what they are. They are marble covered tables with what LOOKS LIKE a drawer. It is not. It's all a big facade. Literally. there is a small drawer much like you'd find as the "top drawer" in the middle of a desk. Hmmm.... not much space to put anything, so we'll be working on rearranging the suitcases today. Dividing things equally amongst them is great if you are traveling and anticipating the possibility that you'll lose one (or more), but not so great if you're trying to find something.
Lastly (and I can hear the collective sigh of relief from HERE! ha ha), we've been running our air conditioning in the room on low since we got here. It takes most of the muggy out of the air and our room is pretty comfortable. The humidity plays a little trick in the early morning and the evening though - I don't know if it's because it's cooler outside and the moisture can hang low or why it is, but our room feels chilly but sticky. So I find myself putting on a sweater but hesitant to turn the air off. It's just an interesting feeling - I'm not complaining - it's something we don't feel at home and I thought I'd throw it in here so I can remember it later.
Sadly, I have no fun pictures of any of these things, so I'm going to take my leave and maybe scrapbook awhile before my darling husband wakes up and we start the day.
I consider myself a reasonably intelligent woman (well - I was before I had kids anyway! Now I guess maybe it's questionable.) The faucet in our bathroom turns ON by pushing the handle DOWN. I absolutely cannot get my head wrapped around this. We've been here a little less than 36 hours and I've used the faucet more than a handful of times. I've also soaked the surrounding area more than a handful of times trying to turn the faucet off. WHY? Why can't I get it right and why is it configured in that manner? Two questions which will undoubtedly remain unanswered for all time.
Okay, SERIOUSLY people - I JUST typed the above paragraph not five minutes ago and then decided to take a quick bathroom break. Yeah, you guessed it, I nearly ripped the faucet handle off trying to turn it on. SENSELESS!!!!!
Back to the room. The oddities of this room do not stop there. No.... We have no shower curtain. This presents two interesting situations. One is that we will get water all over the bathroom floor when we shower (although admittedly the effect of this is somewhat diminished due to the handy trough right next to the tub). This is not a huge problem. The second is that we traveled with only 7 days worth of clothes (more days worth than we took to China!) and were planning to repeat our "in room laundry scenario". Well now we have nowhere at all to dry clothes. We're still thinking about what our options might be here. Capris (me) and shorts (Steve) can be worn and re-worn, but shirts, socks, and underwear are kind of another story because...
It's hot and muggy here. For anyone who's been to China, but not Taiwan - think Guangzhou. Everything feels a little wet. ALL THE TIME. I thought I'd better explain that before I continue...
I hung up a bra to dry the night we got here after I quickly rinsed it out and when I went to bed last night it was almost all dry. Does that give you a good picture? So I'm actually not convinced that the in room laundry scheme would've worked all that well anyway. I think our plan will be to wash underwear and socks in the room and hang them on the towel bar (I'm sure the maid will love that one!) to dry for however long it takes them to dry and we'll have to find a dry cleaner/laundry or something to wash a few shirts, etc. Or we'll stink. That's another option. Just stink it up. "Those stinky Gannaways" they'll call us.
Now that you know all about that (and those of you who said, "oh, blog away, we'll read whatever you want to write" are cursing yourselves for ever having said it), I'll continue the running oddity commentary.
Another oddity of our room is that we have two suitcase racks that look like marble covered dressers. Yep, that's what they look like. That's not what they are. They are marble covered tables with what LOOKS LIKE a drawer. It is not. It's all a big facade. Literally. there is a small drawer much like you'd find as the "top drawer" in the middle of a desk. Hmmm.... not much space to put anything, so we'll be working on rearranging the suitcases today. Dividing things equally amongst them is great if you are traveling and anticipating the possibility that you'll lose one (or more), but not so great if you're trying to find something.
Lastly (and I can hear the collective sigh of relief from HERE! ha ha), we've been running our air conditioning in the room on low since we got here. It takes most of the muggy out of the air and our room is pretty comfortable. The humidity plays a little trick in the early morning and the evening though - I don't know if it's because it's cooler outside and the moisture can hang low or why it is, but our room feels chilly but sticky. So I find myself putting on a sweater but hesitant to turn the air off. It's just an interesting feeling - I'm not complaining - it's something we don't feel at home and I thought I'd throw it in here so I can remember it later.
Sadly, I have no fun pictures of any of these things, so I'm going to take my leave and maybe scrapbook awhile before my darling husband wakes up and we start the day.
Train to Taichung
Today we got up, went downstairs and had a yummy breakfast of stir fried green peapods, ham, eggs, and steamed buns. We were disappointed that there were no noodles, but you can't have it all.
We asked the front desk to call us a cab to the high speed rail station and two interesting things happened. One, the front desk required us to leave our key if we were leaving the hotel and secondly although the front desk told the cab company where we were going, the driver had no idea and we were thankful to have a taxi card because he didn't speak any English. We got to the rail station and it was really beautiful. Very new and full of shops. We hit a 7-11 for some drinks and I got my first jasmine tea of the trip. YUM!!! Steve wanted a giant steamed bun (for 20NT (about 60 cents) but couldn't figure out the protocol for getting one, so decided to skip it for then. We saw some really cool postcards that you can cut out and build into things.
The train platform is actually underneath the building, so we headed down there and then noticed that the train we were about to board was labeled Zaoying. Turns out that Taichung is just a stop on this route and the terminal point is Zaoying. We got on and our seats were nice - tons of leg room. We were zooming along at 300 something km/hr and Steve said, "wow, this must be what it's like to drive NASCAR!" Neither one of us could imagine making those tight turns at that speed! It was a really neat experience, but wouldn't you know our train was delayed (we later learned it was a problem with a train 4 ahead of ours) and made the poor Hardts wait half an hour for us in the train station!
Sunnie and Bill met us at the train station with their kids, Sabrina and Jonathan, and the baby they are fostering. What a bunch of beautiful kids they get to claim! I can't say enough about the generosity that Sunnie and Bill showed us today. They showed us all around Taichung and bought us lunch for the small price of 3 bags of powdered sugar and some other assorted groceries. It unfortunately decided to rain on our parade - or at least to haze on it. So some of the things they wanted to show us were out.
They have a 12th floor apt and the view from there was still great! Then it was off to drop the kids off at a sitter and we adults headed on to lunch at "the shack". I can say with a heavy heart that I truly regret having left the cameras in the car. The place we had lunch had exactly zero ambiance (seriously.....I'm not at all squeamish, but this place was....indescribable), but what it lacked in ambiance it made up five thousandfold in the quality of food! Handmade dumplings, AMAZING sweet and sour pork, and a vegetable called "empty heart" that was also just delicious!!
After lunch, we went to Taichung central market. First we strolled down a row of mostly hardware stalls and Bill joked that we could "get our bearings" there. Ha ha. We thought about buying some just to be funny. Across from one stall selling "new" used phones was a woman butchering chickens....not something you'd see at home! We made a right turn and found ourselves walking down meat alley. I'll spare you the pictures of that, but suffice it to say that you know right where your food comes from in Taiwan! Ha. We got a mango ice drink and a coconut milk tea. We bought drinks for all for about $3. They were sooo tasty!!!
Then we went to a mall of sorts and hit a dollar type store where everything was 39NT (about a dollar). We got several sets of chopsticks for the kids, a scissors (forgot mine and have some gifts to wrap - hope I remembered the tape!), some curlicue straws and some finger puppets for Kailin. Downstairs was a Carrefour market and we got some interesting Lays chips (swiss cheese and welsh smoked cheese), candy for Kailin, some surfboard crackers for Colby (Kailin's favorite from China), and grape mentos. I've never seen those before!
We stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some fruit. The number of colors was amazing and I took some pictures that I already love. We got some guava, plums, bell fruit, and Sunnie said she had some amazing pineapple to share back at their place (she wasn't fibbing on that one! WOW!).
We stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some fruit. The number of colors was amazing and I took some pictures that I already love. We got some guava, plums, bell fruit, and Sunnie said she had some amazing pineapple to share back at their place (she wasn't fibbing on that one! WOW!).
We went to a folk park where we bought some traditional Taiwanese toys and a very spunky older Chinese woman gave me a lesson in tossing a traditional top. It was fun (but a little scary as it involves flinging the top forward and I was not at all sure of my aim!!) and I wish I'd thought to take her picture. The kids went to feed the fish while Bill took us to see the museum part of the park. It was really interesting to see traditional clothing from the many aboriginal tribes as well as pottery, old smoking pipes, and even a bridal sedan.
All too soon the time neared for us to go and Bill walked us down to a little restaurant where you fill your own box with whatever amount of whichever foods you want and then you pay accordingly. Steve and I both got a box full of rice and 3 or 4 dishes for a total of $3. We headed for the rail station and passed a ton of betel nut shops. Betel nut is something the men here chew and the shops selling it compete by having scantily clad girls out front hawking the stuff and huge blinking neon signs. VERY INTERESTING!!
We got back to Taipei without incident and bought the buildy postcards we liked from earlier and some drinks at the 7-11. Caught a cab (again thankful for a taxi card) and headed back to the hotel. It's 9pm now and I think I've made myself stay up late enough. It's off to bed for me!
Tomorrow we're going to explore the area around our hotel and then head off to the jade market and a night market with another couple who is here picking up their daughter.
Addendum to yesterday's post...
I forgot to mention the most amusing part of our long flight. You know when you fly you get on the plane and then they announce that you should take your seat and put your seat back up and securely fasten your tray table and STAY IN YOUR SEAT WHILE THE SEATBELT LIGHT IS ILLUMINATED? Well these are all apparently just suggestions or you can feel free to roam about the cabin, use the bathroom, get your carryon luggage down from the overhead bins... stand at your seat and chat to your neighbor....anything goes. We had to laugh a little on the inside at the total irreverence. Of course I'm a rule follower so it was particularly shocking to me... ha ha ha.
Friday, March 28, 2008
We're HERE!!!!!
Hello everyone!!
After a looooooonnnnnnggggg 31 hour journey we can finally say we are HERE!!
Of course the journey was not without it's fair share of.....hmmm.....sighs of relief (to put a positive spin on it...). We made it to the airport in plenty of time despite some wet snow/sleet/rain falling on our journey. Sigh of relief. We checked in with no problem and our luggage was blissfully well within the allowable weight range (HUGE sigh of relief!) The screener at the airport was the first person to ever inquire about my maiden name being on the front page of my passport (but not the last - it's been examined quite a few times since!). Security was a little hinky, but the line wasn't long and we had plenty of time.
Our bags were checked through, but we were not, so when we got to San Francisco we inquired about how best to address that issue and found that the ticket counter didn't even open for over 2 hours so we got a soda and watched a movie on my laptop. I thought I'd take advantage of WiFi, but SF airport doesn't have free WiFi afterall. Oh well. We thought we'd check in and then get something to eat over in the international terminal while we waited out the rest of our layover. Hmmm.... SF airport has a surprisingly small international terminal! We were doing laps (just to be doing something active) and could walk the whole terminal in about 10 mins. Our food options were slightly less than stellar(in number), but we stumbled onto a Japanese noodle place where we had a yummy bowl of Udon noodle soup with tons of chicken and seafood for $2 more than the place next door was charging for a white bread sandwich.
No problems getting on to our Taipei flight and it was really neat to watch the waves crashing against the coastline as we left SF. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from the air and that was also pretty neat! Our flight was great and there were two adorable babies to watch for some of it (they were kind of far ahead of us). Now I'm antsy to hold that baby of mine! We landed, changed money, and went through immigration with no problems at all. Then it was time to pick up our luggage. Around and around the carousel went.....and around....and around.... and I said to Steve, "you know, I'd feel a little more comfortable if just ONE of our bags would show up (we had 3)." and he agreed. A couple more times around and two of them showed up at once. And then the baggage carousel went around and around and around some more and we kept saying "well there's still lots of people here...." and then pretty soon there weren't so much lots of people there. There was us and another couple and one bag which wasn't ours. Vermont anyone?? Thankfully, it suddenly came into view - alone and forlorn and we excitedly plucked it from the belt and met our driver.
I'm calling it quits for tonight, but will try to blog some more tomorrow night. I'm warning you all now - I'm not double journaling this trip, so you'll have to read whatever volume of material I decide to write for myself and LIKE IT! ha ha ha. I'll try to keep myself in check or divide it up or something. Tomorrow we're off to Taichung for the day and we're excited!
After a looooooonnnnnnggggg 31 hour journey we can finally say we are HERE!!
Of course the journey was not without it's fair share of.....hmmm.....sighs of relief (to put a positive spin on it...). We made it to the airport in plenty of time despite some wet snow/sleet/rain falling on our journey. Sigh of relief. We checked in with no problem and our luggage was blissfully well within the allowable weight range (HUGE sigh of relief!) The screener at the airport was the first person to ever inquire about my maiden name being on the front page of my passport (but not the last - it's been examined quite a few times since!). Security was a little hinky, but the line wasn't long and we had plenty of time.
Our bags were checked through, but we were not, so when we got to San Francisco we inquired about how best to address that issue and found that the ticket counter didn't even open for over 2 hours so we got a soda and watched a movie on my laptop. I thought I'd take advantage of WiFi, but SF airport doesn't have free WiFi afterall. Oh well. We thought we'd check in and then get something to eat over in the international terminal while we waited out the rest of our layover. Hmmm.... SF airport has a surprisingly small international terminal! We were doing laps (just to be doing something active) and could walk the whole terminal in about 10 mins. Our food options were slightly less than stellar(in number), but we stumbled onto a Japanese noodle place where we had a yummy bowl of Udon noodle soup with tons of chicken and seafood for $2 more than the place next door was charging for a white bread sandwich.
No problems getting on to our Taipei flight and it was really neat to watch the waves crashing against the coastline as we left SF. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from the air and that was also pretty neat! Our flight was great and there were two adorable babies to watch for some of it (they were kind of far ahead of us). Now I'm antsy to hold that baby of mine! We landed, changed money, and went through immigration with no problems at all. Then it was time to pick up our luggage. Around and around the carousel went.....and around....and around.... and I said to Steve, "you know, I'd feel a little more comfortable if just ONE of our bags would show up (we had 3)." and he agreed. A couple more times around and two of them showed up at once. And then the baggage carousel went around and around and around some more and we kept saying "well there's still lots of people here...." and then pretty soon there weren't so much lots of people there. There was us and another couple and one bag which wasn't ours. Vermont anyone?? Thankfully, it suddenly came into view - alone and forlorn and we excitedly plucked it from the belt and met our driver.
I'm calling it quits for tonight, but will try to blog some more tomorrow night. I'm warning you all now - I'm not double journaling this trip, so you'll have to read whatever volume of material I decide to write for myself and LIKE IT! ha ha ha. I'll try to keep myself in check or divide it up or something. Tomorrow we're off to Taichung for the day and we're excited!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Burning the midnight oil...
I've finally succumbed to my husband's way of thinking (apparently). Steve very optimistically believes that any task could only possibly take 15 minutes (think - packing for a camping trip or mopping the floor or cleaning the whole house). I probably don't need to tell you that he's mostly wrong about that. But I love him for continuing to believe it (when it isn't driving me nuts).
Anyway, I had just a few little tasks to finish up last night. We were in good shape (I naively thought). We were just about ready to head out the door! Half of we went to bed at 9pm because he had to get up early to go to work early this morning. The other half found that the few little tasks led to some more little tasks which led to..... bed at 1:15 am. Needless to say I was not overly pleased to hear my daughter awaken at 4:45 with Steve. I got her to lay still in our bed with me until 5:30, but she never did go back to sleep and neither did I. I guess we don't need to worry about whether or not I'll be able to fall asleep at 7 or 8 at my mom's tonight! Ahhh well. There are much worse things in the world than a little sleep deprivation (although I haven't had any coffee yet and I'm not sure just what those things might be.... joking, of course) and I'm feeling pretty good about where we're at as of this morning. I just have the bathrooms yet to clean today and some laundry to do and we're ready to go. I did, however, have a horrifying realization this morning in the shower. I have neglected to pack bras. Any. I have not packed a single one. THAT would be an absolute disaster - all joking aside. I can virtually guarantee that if one could find a decent bra in Taiwan one would not be finding it in my size! I apologize if that embarrassed anyone reading this but a. GROW UP and b. then you have no idea how much of a crisis has been averted here. On that supportive note, I'm over and out until we hit Taiwan (unless another noteworthy event happens in the next 8 hours - then I'll be ALL OVER IT!)!
I hope you will all have a good couple of days and perhaps branch out into other hobbies and obsessions.... I mean..... I hope you will miss reading my thought provoking posts!
Anyway, I had just a few little tasks to finish up last night. We were in good shape (I naively thought). We were just about ready to head out the door! Half of we went to bed at 9pm because he had to get up early to go to work early this morning. The other half found that the few little tasks led to some more little tasks which led to..... bed at 1:15 am. Needless to say I was not overly pleased to hear my daughter awaken at 4:45 with Steve. I got her to lay still in our bed with me until 5:30, but she never did go back to sleep and neither did I. I guess we don't need to worry about whether or not I'll be able to fall asleep at 7 or 8 at my mom's tonight! Ahhh well. There are much worse things in the world than a little sleep deprivation (although I haven't had any coffee yet and I'm not sure just what those things might be.... joking, of course) and I'm feeling pretty good about where we're at as of this morning. I just have the bathrooms yet to clean today and some laundry to do and we're ready to go. I did, however, have a horrifying realization this morning in the shower. I have neglected to pack bras. Any. I have not packed a single one. THAT would be an absolute disaster - all joking aside. I can virtually guarantee that if one could find a decent bra in Taiwan one would not be finding it in my size! I apologize if that embarrassed anyone reading this but a. GROW UP and b. then you have no idea how much of a crisis has been averted here. On that supportive note, I'm over and out until we hit Taiwan (unless another noteworthy event happens in the next 8 hours - then I'll be ALL OVER IT!)!
I hope you will all have a good couple of days and perhaps branch out into other hobbies and obsessions.... I mean..... I hope you will miss reading my thought provoking posts!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Near miss!
Back in December, Steve and I got a "huggy bear" for Kailin for while we are gone. You can record up to 20 minutes of messages on it and then it'll play them back one at a time when the bear is hugged and another winning attribute is that he is insanely soft. I had a very perfect plan of reading her bedtime stories into it so that whenever she was feeling lonesome for home she could give it a squeeze and hear my voice (okay, so in my very very perfect version, Steve and I sat lovingly on the couch taking turns reading the stories so that she could hear either of our voices....not so much). Of course the perfect plan didn't come to fruition until tonight at 10pm when Steve had gone off to bed and I finally decided that it was now or never. Never almost won. Little did I realize that I needed two AAA batteries (inconveniently not provided). I was wondering aloud to myself about which something or other took AAA batteries that I could pilfer in this dire situation when to my delight I discovered a stash of them in the drawer. (delight is an understatement because to this very moment I can't think of ANYTHING in our house that takes AAA batteries - even most of our remotes are AAs) I gleefully installed them into the huggy bear and pressed the record button to test it out. Nothing. I removed the battery cover. I switched them around. Nothing. I stared in the light of the dining room at the black plastic battery case searching in vain for a diagram about how to insert the batteries (I had tried the standby of negative end on the spring, but as that wasn't working I thought that perhaps huggy bear required a custom configuration.). I cursed the store that donated huggy bear to the auction where we won him. I figured they knew he was defective and it was therefore much easier to make the donation....it was all a conspiracy to ruin my perfect vision (which of course in reality was not Steve and I sitting on the couch alternately reading the stories - it was me uncomfortably seated in the dining room on a hard chair already exhausted and now disgruntled...). Okay, so it turns out that ACTUALLY one of the batteries was dead - but I still like my conspiracy theory. Huggy bear is now happily recorded and I am off to tie up some more loose ends and redistribute some luggage into another bag (we're not taking any donations after all, but we still want to take an extra bag) and quintuple check that we have everything and then this tired mama is off to bed!! I'll post something wonderful in the morning if I have any energy. I'm not convinced I'll be getting much sleep tonight.
Packed! and ready to go?!
We're packed! All the stuff fits in our suitcases, and I know that I can lift each with one arm for at least several seconds before I wimp out and set them down, but the greater question remains - are they within the weight limits allowable?? Hard to say. What an inopportune time for the batteries in our scale to die! I'll figure out what kind we need and replace them later today and then I can stop fretting. I'm excited to be able to say that we won't be cramming things into the suitcases at the last second, but a little nervous that we'll forget something at home. Of course provided that it isn't our passports, drivers licences, or dossier copy, I guess we can live without it (I did double check the deodorant and toothpaste, though!).
Fair warning that tomorrow will be my last post until probably Saturday (unless I hit Wifi in San Francisco) or maybe even Sunday. We will be leaving my mom's house at 2am on Thursday and won't land in Taipei until 10pm on Friday (their time) but then we're headed to Taichung first thing Saturday morning and won't be "home" til Saturday evening. I'll post then if I'm not dead tired!
Fair warning that tomorrow will be my last post until probably Saturday (unless I hit Wifi in San Francisco) or maybe even Sunday. We will be leaving my mom's house at 2am on Thursday and won't land in Taipei until 10pm on Friday (their time) but then we're headed to Taichung first thing Saturday morning and won't be "home" til Saturday evening. I'll post then if I'm not dead tired!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter, everyone! We had a great Easter. Strange thing, though... it turns out that the Easter bunny was REALLY busy this year, so although he left Kailin's basket for her in the morning, he also left an IOU for an egg hunt later in the day. We went to 8am church and then headed down to Steve's Grandma's house to celebrate Easter on his side of the family. We got a lovely surprise when we got to see our new niece, Evalyn, for the first time. She's just a tiny little thing and cute as a button! We were able to snap some shots of Steve's parents with all of the grandkids (minus Colby for now), so that was a nice little surprise as well. We stayed til about Kailin's nap time and thankfully she zonked on the way home.
She really got into the egg hunt when we got home and was equally ecstatic each time she opened an egg with "BEANS!!!" in it! Then we moved on to dyeing eggs. Yes, I know - a bit late on that one! We were out of eggs last week and I figured it would be no problem to dye them on Saturday, but we headed to Harrington park for a long hike with our friend Rachel (dog sitter extraordinaire) and Kailin CRASHED after that (read - egg dyeing would have been a complete and utter disaster and possibly dangerous as well!). So we dyed them yesterday and she was quite intrigued by the process and mesmerized by the "magic crayon"!
Then it was time to abandon fun for the day and move on to packing wildly. So far, we've been able to get everything into our two main suitcases except one of the gifts for our interpreter on the day we get Colby (a bit bulky) and Steve's boots. Why the man can't ever save an extra pair of tennis shoes to use as a spare is beyond me. So instead of packing a nice, somewhat compact pair of tennis shoes into our already stuffed suitcase, I get to try to find space for enormously unwieldy hiking boots "just in case" his tennis shoes get wet. Anyway, those two items will be spilling over into one of our donation suitcases. All in all, though - we did fine, and we are taking a lot more gifts this time than we did to China. They'll all be gone coming home, so there should be plenty of room even for the clodhoppers! I think we're all packed now except for some last minute toiletries. One more thing checked off the list!
She really got into the egg hunt when we got home and was equally ecstatic each time she opened an egg with "BEANS!!!" in it! Then we moved on to dyeing eggs. Yes, I know - a bit late on that one! We were out of eggs last week and I figured it would be no problem to dye them on Saturday, but we headed to Harrington park for a long hike with our friend Rachel (dog sitter extraordinaire) and Kailin CRASHED after that (read - egg dyeing would have been a complete and utter disaster and possibly dangerous as well!). So we dyed them yesterday and she was quite intrigued by the process and mesmerized by the "magic crayon"!Then it was time to abandon fun for the day and move on to packing wildly. So far, we've been able to get everything into our two main suitcases except one of the gifts for our interpreter on the day we get Colby (a bit bulky) and Steve's boots. Why the man can't ever save an extra pair of tennis shoes to use as a spare is beyond me. So instead of packing a nice, somewhat compact pair of tennis shoes into our already stuffed suitcase, I get to try to find space for enormously unwieldy hiking boots "just in case" his tennis shoes get wet. Anyway, those two items will be spilling over into one of our donation suitcases. All in all, though - we did fine, and we are taking a lot more gifts this time than we did to China. They'll all be gone coming home, so there should be plenty of room even for the clodhoppers! I think we're all packed now except for some last minute toiletries. One more thing checked off the list! Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday night special!
I had a HORRIBLE sweet tooth on Friday. HORRIBLE. Steve's told me a zillion times about the "Friday night special" when he was a kid. His parents would get a gallon and quart pail of ice cream and a ton of donuts and just let the boys dig in - for SUPPER! So I thought, "what the heck?" We've been trying to do "special things" for Kailin before her world turns upside down (not that I think for one minute she'll think back "oh, it's okay that my brother takes all of my toys and I have to share my mom and dad - we had ice cream for dinner one night not so long ago) so I told Steve to run out to the store and pick up the Friday night special. Then I asked Kailin if she wanted to have some ice cream for supper. Her response was, "I have ICE CREAM - for SUPPER??? Can I have a COMB??" My mental vision of ice cream in a comb is not particularly appetizing, but the darling way in which my daughter excitedly wondered about the possibility of a cone made me want to eat her up. (that would have totally ruined my appetite, though)
As you can see, she delighted in the Friday night special and it was well worth every calorie consumed (and she did, to my heart's delight, opt to have a banana after her ice cream comb instead of a donut)!
Friday, March 21, 2008
What was I thinking??
My apologies. I had you all reading about my package receipts yesterday when I could have had you reading a mushy tribute to my darling husband. Oh, wait....maybe NOW I need to apologize... ha ha ha. First and foremost, though, I don't want to keep any of you hanging - the backpack DID arrive yesterday, but the Life is Good package won't arrive until today. Also, my replacement shoes shipped yesterday already - so I guess gambling on the free shipping paid off this time. Okay, now that I know you can rest easy tonight knowing that my package delivery situation is well in hand, I'll move on to boring you into a coma with my sappy rendition of "how I fall in love with my husband all over again". Enjoy, and you might want to have a soft pillow nearby so you don't hit your head....
Actually, I'll make it short and sweet. I love that man I married. Way to proclaim the obvious, Sarah! I know....DEEP THOUGHTS on a Friday morning. But (and yes, my high school English teacher as well as some moms I know would find it appalling that I started that sentence with "but". Well it's MY blog and I'll decide!!! Ha ha. Only joking, Mums!) there are some moments in life when I look at my mate and just marvel at the fact that I get to be married to him. The night before last he snuggled on the couch with a very tired Kailin while I was making dinner. Then after she'd finished eating, she asked to be excused, but decided that perhaps she was a little too tuckered to play after all. She came back to the table and climbed up on Steve's lap and the two of them just sat there for the longest time. I didn't ask him about it, but I suspect he was having one of those moments I've been having recently of realizing that our lives are about to change in a huge (and happy) way and taking advantage to soak in these last days of Kailin as an only child. Watching him snuggle with her and be absorbed in his little girl literally made me warm inside like a cup of cocoa on a cold day and I smiled with my whole self and thanked God for blessing me so. Steve is such a good Dad. I can't wait to see that bubble over into two kids!
The trip, which at times still somehow seems far away, became VERY real yesterday when the wonderful people who have agreed to show us around Colby's hometown said, "We're really looking forward to meeting you next week!" NEXT WEEK?? What to you mean NEXT WEEK?? That threw me into high gear. It's going to be a busy weekend in the Gannaway house for certain!
One last tidbit for those of you in warmer climes - we are getting 8-14" of SNOW today and I am not one bit happy about it! Enjoy some sunshine for me if you can get it!
Actually, I'll make it short and sweet. I love that man I married. Way to proclaim the obvious, Sarah! I know....DEEP THOUGHTS on a Friday morning. But (and yes, my high school English teacher as well as some moms I know would find it appalling that I started that sentence with "but". Well it's MY blog and I'll decide!!! Ha ha. Only joking, Mums!) there are some moments in life when I look at my mate and just marvel at the fact that I get to be married to him. The night before last he snuggled on the couch with a very tired Kailin while I was making dinner. Then after she'd finished eating, she asked to be excused, but decided that perhaps she was a little too tuckered to play after all. She came back to the table and climbed up on Steve's lap and the two of them just sat there for the longest time. I didn't ask him about it, but I suspect he was having one of those moments I've been having recently of realizing that our lives are about to change in a huge (and happy) way and taking advantage to soak in these last days of Kailin as an only child. Watching him snuggle with her and be absorbed in his little girl literally made me warm inside like a cup of cocoa on a cold day and I smiled with my whole self and thanked God for blessing me so. Steve is such a good Dad. I can't wait to see that bubble over into two kids!
The trip, which at times still somehow seems far away, became VERY real yesterday when the wonderful people who have agreed to show us around Colby's hometown said, "We're really looking forward to meeting you next week!" NEXT WEEK?? What to you mean NEXT WEEK?? That threw me into high gear. It's going to be a busy weekend in the Gannaway house for certain!
One last tidbit for those of you in warmer climes - we are getting 8-14" of SNOW today and I am not one bit happy about it! Enjoy some sunshine for me if you can get it!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Christmas in March?
I suppose it goes without saying in one sense of the phrase - we'll have our baby soon and that's a gift beyond gifts. My meaning is again not the obvious, though. I'm referring to the rather sudden influx of packages into our house. Granted they are not at all unexpected. I just wasn't expecting them all to arrive at the same time! Two days ago, my scrapbooking program (which you are all likely tired of hearing about) arrived. Yesterday, it was a pair of cute shoes I ordered (and will now be returning - cute they were....fit they did not) for Taiwan as an alternative to tennis shoes or sandals. The battery charger I ordered for our little camera (what a fantastic time to misplace the battery charger for that!) arrived most unexpectedly just two days after I ordered it. Today I am expecting the backpack we ordered (to serve as a new diaper bag and as one of our carry-ons for the trip and general schlepping "stuff" around Taiwan vessel) and also a package from the Life Is Good company with whom I've spent the past 3 months making multiple attempts to successfully exchange a Christmas gift I got. My experience with them has caused me to less than affectionately dub them the "Life is Stupid" company. Moving on though, we're also expecting a replacement battery we ordered for our big camera and now the replacement pair of shoes that I ordered. We RARELY get a package, so to have this many in one week or so is unheard of!
As you can see, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for post topics. This serves a twofold purpose. One is - there really isn't anything terribly exciting happening right now other than ticking off the remaining days until we leave (there are 7 in case you missed the ticker at the top of the page....) and the other is to prime you all that I will do my best to post daily from Taiwan, but that all bets are off once we're home! At least for awhile. Besides - who wants to read 900 posts about what was in my trash or which junk mail arrived for the day?
I'll try my best to have a profound experience of some sort today so that I can post something of some sort of value tomorrow. I'm not betting on it, though - neither of the big kids had a decent nap yesterday, so today is going to be a movie day to keep them from killing each other!
As you can see, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for post topics. This serves a twofold purpose. One is - there really isn't anything terribly exciting happening right now other than ticking off the remaining days until we leave (there are 7 in case you missed the ticker at the top of the page....) and the other is to prime you all that I will do my best to post daily from Taiwan, but that all bets are off once we're home! At least for awhile. Besides - who wants to read 900 posts about what was in my trash or which junk mail arrived for the day?
I'll try my best to have a profound experience of some sort today so that I can post something of some sort of value tomorrow. I'm not betting on it, though - neither of the big kids had a decent nap yesterday, so today is going to be a movie day to keep them from killing each other!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The passage of time...
I always find it interesting to travel far from home because I'm fascinated by the passage of time when you travel. I'm familiar with the phenomenon that time will speed up infinitely when you are on vacation and cause a week or more to pass in the blink of an eye, but that's not what I meant. It's curious to me that with the time change, we will leave Chicago at 7am our time on Thursday and then arrive in Taiwan on what would be Friday at 9am if we were at home, but what will be Friday at 10pm Taiwan time. We are effectively eliminating Friday, March 28 from our lives. Not all of it - but certainly what would be the usable portion of it! In this case, we don't actually "eliminate" a whole day, but I imagine that there are itineraries where that would actually be the case. I know the time isn't really gone - and we certainly do gain it back coming home. We leave Taiwan at 11:55pm and arrive in San Francisco at 7pm their time,(ostensibly before we've even left!) and then in Chicago at 5am their time, which will be 6pm in our heads. So we "skipped" the usable portion of April 9 in our heads, but then will actually go through it all in "real life". I'm sure that was clear as mud and now you all think these are the ramblings of a less than well slept, packing crazed, copy making fool. Go ahead and think that - I'm so far gone I won't even notice! But it is interesting in my head and one of the joys of travel for me. Now if I could just get that warp speed of vacation time to apply to the flights themselves, that would be great!!
My scrapbooking program arrived yesterday and I'm anxious to dig in. I was chagrined to find that we do not have power outlets in our seats for the long leg of the flight as I had previously thought. Oh well. We have a full day of touring planned for the Saturday after we arrive, so I think it's probably better if I rest some on the plane anyway. (that's what I'm telling myself to feel better about it...)
A week from today we take Kailin to Steve's parents' house and then head to my mom's for the night so she can take us to the airport! It's getting close! (as is my sister's due date - her doctor told her yesterday that he expects her to deliver a week or so early- so baby Henry could come while we're gone! I want whatever is best for him and for my sister, but HANG ON HENRY!!!! ))
My scrapbooking program arrived yesterday and I'm anxious to dig in. I was chagrined to find that we do not have power outlets in our seats for the long leg of the flight as I had previously thought. Oh well. We have a full day of touring planned for the Saturday after we arrive, so I think it's probably better if I rest some on the plane anyway. (that's what I'm telling myself to feel better about it...)
A week from today we take Kailin to Steve's parents' house and then head to my mom's for the night so she can take us to the airport! It's getting close! (as is my sister's due date - her doctor told her yesterday that he expects her to deliver a week or so early- so baby Henry could come while we're gone! I want whatever is best for him and for my sister, but HANG ON HENRY!!!! ))
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Another one for me....
Someone pointed out to me that this blog will be a great reminder of all that goes on in our life. I hadn't intended it for that originally, but I think it's a fantastic idea - I've never been consistent (or even close to consistent) with journaling so this will be great. I think that was a horrific sentence and there it is for all to see. Oh well.... Anyway, what this means for the casual reader is that some of these entries will really be for me so that I can remember what my kids were up to in their everyday lives - not so entertaining, maybe, but I know you'll all put up with it so that you can be privy to my innermost deep thoughts on the world on the other days. ha ha ha.
I'm really impressed with Kailin's vocabulary attempts as of late. She's always surprised me with her willingness to try new (and big) words - like "Worcestershire" over six months ago. Lately some of her attempts have just tickled my funnybone and I wanted to document them before they pass to the land of better speech capabilities.
She's big into pretend play these days and is constantly pulling things out of her pocket for us. Steve accidentally "ate" something meant for his hair the other day - much to Kailin's disappointment! Her favorite pretend game, though, is "I have a nimitation for you!!" You never get to know to what event you are being invited, but trust me - if Kailin's throwing the party it's going to be a great time!
My other favorites are "Hit-toe pom-us" and "fridgadater". The one we hear most often, but which I believe will soon be replaced is "shish". Kailin has a "shish tank" and loves to feed her "shish" twice a day. As a parent you want your child to speak properly and we try very hard not to encourage mispronunciation by repeating the word as she says it, but "shish" is just one of those that's hard to let go of! Alas, I will also miss "peep". "Is Daddy still peepin'?" is just too cute (and knowing she'll say it actually compels me to let the man sleep in some mornings!). We work on how to say the real words, but sometimes it pains me to know that these gems will all too soon be gone for good. Lastly (and then I promise to stop droning on about how cute this all is....), I love when she's going to "six" something. Whether the object or situation actually gets fixed is of no matter - her attempts to "six" it are good enough for me!
Oh, okay, I lied. I have to throw in her version of the alphabet song. It goes a lot like this a, b, c...e, f, g, h....j, k....uh uh uh...P! q, r, X, tuvx, y,Z!!!!! Now I know.....next time won't you sing with me. (make sure you pause after all the commas and then slam tuvx all together as fast as you can!) I love it. I try to get her to sing it at least 900 times a day.
Alright - enough for one day!
I'm really impressed with Kailin's vocabulary attempts as of late. She's always surprised me with her willingness to try new (and big) words - like "Worcestershire" over six months ago. Lately some of her attempts have just tickled my funnybone and I wanted to document them before they pass to the land of better speech capabilities.
She's big into pretend play these days and is constantly pulling things out of her pocket for us. Steve accidentally "ate" something meant for his hair the other day - much to Kailin's disappointment! Her favorite pretend game, though, is "I have a nimitation for you!!" You never get to know to what event you are being invited, but trust me - if Kailin's throwing the party it's going to be a great time!
My other favorites are "Hit-toe pom-us" and "fridgadater". The one we hear most often, but which I believe will soon be replaced is "shish". Kailin has a "shish tank" and loves to feed her "shish" twice a day. As a parent you want your child to speak properly and we try very hard not to encourage mispronunciation by repeating the word as she says it, but "shish" is just one of those that's hard to let go of! Alas, I will also miss "peep". "Is Daddy still peepin'?" is just too cute (and knowing she'll say it actually compels me to let the man sleep in some mornings!). We work on how to say the real words, but sometimes it pains me to know that these gems will all too soon be gone for good. Lastly (and then I promise to stop droning on about how cute this all is....), I love when she's going to "six" something. Whether the object or situation actually gets fixed is of no matter - her attempts to "six" it are good enough for me!
Oh, okay, I lied. I have to throw in her version of the alphabet song. It goes a lot like this a, b, c...e, f, g, h....j, k....uh uh uh...P! q, r, X, tuvx, y,Z!!!!! Now I know.....next time won't you sing with me. (make sure you pause after all the commas and then slam tuvx all together as fast as you can!) I love it. I try to get her to sing it at least 900 times a day.
Alright - enough for one day!
Monday, March 17, 2008
The second time around...
I thought that the major difference in our adoption trip this time (other than country) was that we do not have a guide this time. I guess that probably is the MAJOR difference, but as the date draws near, I'm noticing lots of other differences as well. I've had "stuff" in a suitcase since Kailin stayed with Steve's parents for a few days last month, but I decided that the time was nigh to examine the stuff more closely a see what, if any, stuff we still needed to buy. Also paramount was dividing the stuff between the two suitcases we will carry (we are allowed 2 each (as compared to 1 each weighing no more than 35lbs when we went to China!) weighing up to 70lbs/piece, but we're "donating" one suitcase to donations from our agency to Chung Yi and another to taking a pack 'n play that our agency is donating to the hotel we're staying in). The beauty of this selfless 'giving of suitcase space' is that we then have two whole suitcases worth of space coming home for sovenirs! As some of you no doubt remember...when we went to Vermont for our honeymoon in chilly (read -17 without the wind chill) January, we foolishly packed his and hers suitcases only to find that his didn't arrive and he went without clothes (involuntarily) for 3 days. We've learned our lesson well!!
At any rate, I laid out the stuff I had amassed and then assessed the situation. I carefully divided the clothes between the two suitcases, noting that I had all of Colby's packed and that I needed to add a few things to my stash. Steve's stash was (surprise surprise) missing. (In keeping with honest reporting, he has now put his clothes into the suitcases.) It seemed that our medical bag needed attention, so I left my post briefly to see if there was anything in our closet that could be added to it. FOOLISH MOVE. In the time it took me to check the directions on the Immodium and find a box full of waterproof bandaids, my darling daughter had gleefully combined the contents of the suitcases back into one giant mass.
Take two.... I'm sure you're wondering when the heck I'm going to get to the differences between this trip and last and stop boring you with the details of what is or is not in our suitcases. Here it comes....wait for it.....wait for it...... I packed the rice cereal and baby food (of which we don't anticipate him to eat much - we are under the assumption that having been in foster care, he's probably eating a lot of "regular food" already.). When we went to get Kailin, I opened the box of rice cereal and carefully divided it between two ziploc bags (carefully labeled) because WHAT IF THE SUITCASE WITH THE RICE CEREAL GETS LOST?!?!?!?!?! This time, it's still in it's box in a bag with ALL of the baby food and a brief thought regarding it's general safety. Colby won't starve if our supply of rice cereal is lost. We'll have bigger problems than that if a suitcase doesn't show up! The same holds true for the bottles and liners, diapers, and toys - no longer are they carefully divided and counted. They are now indiscriminately smashed between layers of clothes in whatever suitcase they fell into when I was dealing it all out. We made sure, last time, to carry two changes of clothes for Kailin in our carry-on in case ALL of our luggage was lost. This time, we realize, the problems will be much larger than the possibility of a naked child if our luggage is lost! I suspect that our trip through the airports, despite the added weight of a laptop, will be eased by this more laid back approach to what we NEED in the carry-ons.
Another difference has been that I didn't worry a bit about the clothes we took when we went to get Kailin. We'd had no update at all on her - just her 5 month measurements (where they claimed she already weighed 17lbs... HA!) and I packed happily and in blissful ignorance of any possibility that we'd arrive and find that none of her clothes fit. That's not been the case with packing for Colby and we HAVE HAD updates - reliable and recent ones. Yet I'm finding myself very nervous that the clothes we're taking will all be shockingly too large. I hope not, but again - in the grand scheme of things, being swallowed up by his clothes for one week of his life is certainly not the worst thing in the world. Definitely not a travesty. Shoes are also evading me. We were fairly certain that Kailin wouldn't be crawling at 9.5 mos and definitely not walking. We are fairly certain that Colby IS crawling, and may even be walking - so the need for shoes is more concrete this time. I have NO idea what size he'll be and Asian feet seem to be disproportionately wide (or at least the feet of the Asian kids I know are), so I'm hesitant to take a stab at both the length and width of his feet. The Robeez are coming and we'll have to find him some shoes at a market if we need something beyond that. A mom's got to worry about something, though - right?
I'm sure all of the experienced parents out there will be chuckling to themselves thinking that everyone knows that you're more laid back with your second child than your first. I know that, too. I've joked about it with friends and observed it first hand. I figured I'd be more laid back with Colby than I was with Kailin - heck - even looking back at some of the things that had us so worked up in China now seem silly to me and I find it a little absurd that we worried about them at all. This is not to say that I'm supposing that we'll have no hair raising moments with Colby or that it'll all be smooth sailing and old hat. We'll still be navigating in a foreign country where we don't speak the language, getting to know a 14 month old who will be much more in tune with what he wants or needs than our 9.5 month old was, who will likely grieve more for his loss than Kailin did, and learning all about how parenting a boy is different from parenting a girl. I do think we'll be coming at it from a different angle and in a more relaxed state of mind.
I bet I'll look back at this post someday and laugh. I wonder how long it'll be before I can do that!
We're exactly two weeks away from holding our baby boy for the first time, but it still seems far away. I think it won't be really real until we're in our hotel room with the pack 'n play set up - just like it wasn't real for Kailin until we walked into our Changsha hotel room and there was a crib set up. The trip is getting to be another story, though - stay tuned for frenzied posts this week about how much I have left to do and how little time I feel I have to do it in!
At any rate, I laid out the stuff I had amassed and then assessed the situation. I carefully divided the clothes between the two suitcases, noting that I had all of Colby's packed and that I needed to add a few things to my stash. Steve's stash was (surprise surprise) missing. (In keeping with honest reporting, he has now put his clothes into the suitcases.) It seemed that our medical bag needed attention, so I left my post briefly to see if there was anything in our closet that could be added to it. FOOLISH MOVE. In the time it took me to check the directions on the Immodium and find a box full of waterproof bandaids, my darling daughter had gleefully combined the contents of the suitcases back into one giant mass.
Take two.... I'm sure you're wondering when the heck I'm going to get to the differences between this trip and last and stop boring you with the details of what is or is not in our suitcases. Here it comes....wait for it.....wait for it...... I packed the rice cereal and baby food (of which we don't anticipate him to eat much - we are under the assumption that having been in foster care, he's probably eating a lot of "regular food" already.). When we went to get Kailin, I opened the box of rice cereal and carefully divided it between two ziploc bags (carefully labeled) because WHAT IF THE SUITCASE WITH THE RICE CEREAL GETS LOST?!?!?!?!?! This time, it's still in it's box in a bag with ALL of the baby food and a brief thought regarding it's general safety. Colby won't starve if our supply of rice cereal is lost. We'll have bigger problems than that if a suitcase doesn't show up! The same holds true for the bottles and liners, diapers, and toys - no longer are they carefully divided and counted. They are now indiscriminately smashed between layers of clothes in whatever suitcase they fell into when I was dealing it all out. We made sure, last time, to carry two changes of clothes for Kailin in our carry-on in case ALL of our luggage was lost. This time, we realize, the problems will be much larger than the possibility of a naked child if our luggage is lost! I suspect that our trip through the airports, despite the added weight of a laptop, will be eased by this more laid back approach to what we NEED in the carry-ons.
Another difference has been that I didn't worry a bit about the clothes we took when we went to get Kailin. We'd had no update at all on her - just her 5 month measurements (where they claimed she already weighed 17lbs... HA!) and I packed happily and in blissful ignorance of any possibility that we'd arrive and find that none of her clothes fit. That's not been the case with packing for Colby and we HAVE HAD updates - reliable and recent ones. Yet I'm finding myself very nervous that the clothes we're taking will all be shockingly too large. I hope not, but again - in the grand scheme of things, being swallowed up by his clothes for one week of his life is certainly not the worst thing in the world. Definitely not a travesty. Shoes are also evading me. We were fairly certain that Kailin wouldn't be crawling at 9.5 mos and definitely not walking. We are fairly certain that Colby IS crawling, and may even be walking - so the need for shoes is more concrete this time. I have NO idea what size he'll be and Asian feet seem to be disproportionately wide (or at least the feet of the Asian kids I know are), so I'm hesitant to take a stab at both the length and width of his feet. The Robeez are coming and we'll have to find him some shoes at a market if we need something beyond that. A mom's got to worry about something, though - right?
I'm sure all of the experienced parents out there will be chuckling to themselves thinking that everyone knows that you're more laid back with your second child than your first. I know that, too. I've joked about it with friends and observed it first hand. I figured I'd be more laid back with Colby than I was with Kailin - heck - even looking back at some of the things that had us so worked up in China now seem silly to me and I find it a little absurd that we worried about them at all. This is not to say that I'm supposing that we'll have no hair raising moments with Colby or that it'll all be smooth sailing and old hat. We'll still be navigating in a foreign country where we don't speak the language, getting to know a 14 month old who will be much more in tune with what he wants or needs than our 9.5 month old was, who will likely grieve more for his loss than Kailin did, and learning all about how parenting a boy is different from parenting a girl. I do think we'll be coming at it from a different angle and in a more relaxed state of mind.
I bet I'll look back at this post someday and laugh. I wonder how long it'll be before I can do that!
We're exactly two weeks away from holding our baby boy for the first time, but it still seems far away. I think it won't be really real until we're in our hotel room with the pack 'n play set up - just like it wasn't real for Kailin until we walked into our Changsha hotel room and there was a crib set up. The trip is getting to be another story, though - stay tuned for frenzied posts this week about how much I have left to do and how little time I feel I have to do it in!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Traditions
Now that I've ranted myself back into a decent mood, I decided that a nicer post was in order.
I mentioned in my last post that Fridays are pizza (and beer) night in our house. They are. Before we had kids, Sunday nights were reserved for pizza (more often than not the frozen variety), a beer, and a movie. It was our way to have a quiet evening before the new work week started. I can't remember why, but this fall we agreed to move pizza night to Friday. I think it had to do with the fact that it kept seeming to get moved to Friday anyway because by then I wasn't feeling much like cooking a meal (and a beer sounded really refreshing)!
Anyway, I mentioned the Friday pizza night to a friend yesterday and that got me going on how Friday nights are pizza night and that Sunday nights, in our family, are pancake nights. Steve always dreamed about having weekend morning pancakes which one of us would cook while the other one lovingly played with the kid(s). Well of course that doesn't work out so nicely in our family because Saturday mornings (at least from September to May) we are rushing off to Cricket school (Kailin's Chinese culture and language class) and we attend 8am church on Sundays - not much time there for pancake making even if we do get up at the crack of dawn. So instead we've made Sunday nights pancake night. We're usually home (which is why Saturday got ruled out) and it's a nice family meal. We vary the type of pancakes we have - some weeks it's apple cinnamon, sometimes peach. Sometimes it's double chocolate chip or pumpkin or spice or banana walnut. They're all fun - and easy - and it keeps it interesting! Kailin loves to help me make them and I love to have her help (usually) sharing in my passion for cooking. Talking about that reminded me (as did a survey that a friend filled out for me earlier this week) that the long cold winter made me forget that we also have a Saturday morning ritual during the farmer's market season. We pack up and head off to the local farmer's market. We get our fresh veggies for the week (or toward the end of the season, buy peppers or beets by the bag full so I can freeze them for the long winter - that was my best "find" last year and I'm so glad I did it!) and we each get a "treat" from the bakery/deli. I like that Kailin can see her food "whole" and know where it comes from before it hits her plate and I love knowing that we're supporting local farmers and "eating local." I loved those Saturday mornings last year - even when we had to rush off to Cricket afterwards. I can't wait for Colby to join in our fun family traditions, and I was so happy to discover that we have some. Family is the most important thing in my life and it makes me smile to know that my kids will be able to look back someday and remember all the little things that made up their everyday life.
I mentioned in my last post that Fridays are pizza (and beer) night in our house. They are. Before we had kids, Sunday nights were reserved for pizza (more often than not the frozen variety), a beer, and a movie. It was our way to have a quiet evening before the new work week started. I can't remember why, but this fall we agreed to move pizza night to Friday. I think it had to do with the fact that it kept seeming to get moved to Friday anyway because by then I wasn't feeling much like cooking a meal (and a beer sounded really refreshing)!
Anyway, I mentioned the Friday pizza night to a friend yesterday and that got me going on how Friday nights are pizza night and that Sunday nights, in our family, are pancake nights. Steve always dreamed about having weekend morning pancakes which one of us would cook while the other one lovingly played with the kid(s). Well of course that doesn't work out so nicely in our family because Saturday mornings (at least from September to May) we are rushing off to Cricket school (Kailin's Chinese culture and language class) and we attend 8am church on Sundays - not much time there for pancake making even if we do get up at the crack of dawn. So instead we've made Sunday nights pancake night. We're usually home (which is why Saturday got ruled out) and it's a nice family meal. We vary the type of pancakes we have - some weeks it's apple cinnamon, sometimes peach. Sometimes it's double chocolate chip or pumpkin or spice or banana walnut. They're all fun - and easy - and it keeps it interesting! Kailin loves to help me make them and I love to have her help (usually) sharing in my passion for cooking. Talking about that reminded me (as did a survey that a friend filled out for me earlier this week) that the long cold winter made me forget that we also have a Saturday morning ritual during the farmer's market season. We pack up and head off to the local farmer's market. We get our fresh veggies for the week (or toward the end of the season, buy peppers or beets by the bag full so I can freeze them for the long winter - that was my best "find" last year and I'm so glad I did it!) and we each get a "treat" from the bakery/deli. I like that Kailin can see her food "whole" and know where it comes from before it hits her plate and I love knowing that we're supporting local farmers and "eating local." I loved those Saturday mornings last year - even when we had to rush off to Cricket afterwards. I can't wait for Colby to join in our fun family traditions, and I was so happy to discover that we have some. Family is the most important thing in my life and it makes me smile to know that my kids will be able to look back someday and remember all the little things that made up their everyday life.
Eating, sleeping, and pooping....
These are the basic tenets of life, aren't they? (I thought about leaving the pooping off....but then I decided that most of you who read this blog are parents and we all know that much of parental discussion involves at least one of the above....) Then WHY can't kids just accept them, do them, and MOVE ON???? I'll warn you now that this is a bit of a rant. Okay, it's going to be an outright knock down rant. Let's be honest. Ha.
I'm fortunate, first and foremost, that Kailin will eat just about anything I put in front of her and that she will usually clean her plate of fruits and veggies before she eats anything else. I KNOW that this is a huge blessing. So for me the eating thing is really not an issue, but I know it's an issue for most of my friends with small children and I included it as part of my wonderment at how kids work (or how they don't).
On to the sleeping and pooping. Kailin is not a sleeper. Never has been. Once she's out, she's out cold - you could drive a truck through her room and get no response. For that also - I am grateful. BUT she does not sleep nearly enough. I don't mean "not nearly enough for my taste" - that is a different animal entirely. I mean, not nearly enough to keep her well rested and happy. She's never napped very long - she tops out at about an hour and a half if I'm lucky. But lately she'd been getting up at 5am no matter what time we put her to bed (and her "usual" bedtime is 7 - so we can't go much earlier, and trying to go later yielded no results). Luckily, as mentioned in a previous post, daylight savings time has worked its wonders and she's back to sleeping until 6 or so. And I do appreciate that.
What I don't appreciate is the fact that I arranged to take just the big kids to the gymnastics place I visited with Kailin a few weeks ago on my day off. They ran around like chickens with their heads cut off all morning. They had a yummy lunch and then we came home and NEITHER OF THEM NAPPED. I asked them nap, I debated with them about the nap, and finally, out of desperation, I ORDERED them to nap. Neither complied. Upon giving up and bringing them downstairs (where I summarily informed them that if they weren't going to sleep they'd be cleaning up the toys in the living room), I quickly learned WHY my daughter refused to nap.
Segue briefly into the topic of "poop" at this juncture. I ASKED her (after some noxious toots on the way home) if she needed to make poops before nap. She answered resolutely "NO!" It became clear to me that this was not the truth or the whole truth and was in fact anything BUT the truth. Soon after she came downstairs, she told me she had to go. What she meant was that she needed to FINISH going. She'd already pooped in her pants. She hasn't done that in MONTHS. So my question is "WHY couldn't she just have told me that in the first place and taken her nap??" And I know some of you are thinking "well it's only one nap and although it's nice to have the time to recoup and regain sanity, they usually do nap and it's only one day, right?" And you'd be right. BUT what ensues after a day of napping is never what should ensue - early to bed or late to rise and back on track the next day. No, instead I was treated to 47 minutes of my child screaming her fool head off last night for no good reason. She'd already been asleep for nearly 3 hours. This is what happens EVERY TIME she misses nap. 47 minutes is actually getting off light. She has gone off and on for five HOURS some nights. She's barely even awake enough to have any concept of why she's even screaming! Obviously, then, she is TIRED. This brings me back to my original question of "Why can't kids just eat, sleep, and poop and be done with it?????" This is not rocket science people! Dakota apparently didn't want to go to bed last night and the result of it all is that for my efforts to do something extra special nice for them before we can't go anywhere anymore (after Colby comes home), I now had no sanity time yesterday and have two VERY cranky children today!!! Okay, rant is over - this is all part of the parenting game, but it is a part I will NEVER understand!!
On that note, I'm thrilled that it's Friday and that means pizza night in our house!!
I'm fortunate, first and foremost, that Kailin will eat just about anything I put in front of her and that she will usually clean her plate of fruits and veggies before she eats anything else. I KNOW that this is a huge blessing. So for me the eating thing is really not an issue, but I know it's an issue for most of my friends with small children and I included it as part of my wonderment at how kids work (or how they don't).
On to the sleeping and pooping. Kailin is not a sleeper. Never has been. Once she's out, she's out cold - you could drive a truck through her room and get no response. For that also - I am grateful. BUT she does not sleep nearly enough. I don't mean "not nearly enough for my taste" - that is a different animal entirely. I mean, not nearly enough to keep her well rested and happy. She's never napped very long - she tops out at about an hour and a half if I'm lucky. But lately she'd been getting up at 5am no matter what time we put her to bed (and her "usual" bedtime is 7 - so we can't go much earlier, and trying to go later yielded no results). Luckily, as mentioned in a previous post, daylight savings time has worked its wonders and she's back to sleeping until 6 or so. And I do appreciate that.
What I don't appreciate is the fact that I arranged to take just the big kids to the gymnastics place I visited with Kailin a few weeks ago on my day off. They ran around like chickens with their heads cut off all morning. They had a yummy lunch and then we came home and NEITHER OF THEM NAPPED. I asked them nap, I debated with them about the nap, and finally, out of desperation, I ORDERED them to nap. Neither complied. Upon giving up and bringing them downstairs (where I summarily informed them that if they weren't going to sleep they'd be cleaning up the toys in the living room), I quickly learned WHY my daughter refused to nap.
Segue briefly into the topic of "poop" at this juncture. I ASKED her (after some noxious toots on the way home) if she needed to make poops before nap. She answered resolutely "NO!" It became clear to me that this was not the truth or the whole truth and was in fact anything BUT the truth. Soon after she came downstairs, she told me she had to go. What she meant was that she needed to FINISH going. She'd already pooped in her pants. She hasn't done that in MONTHS. So my question is "WHY couldn't she just have told me that in the first place and taken her nap??" And I know some of you are thinking "well it's only one nap and although it's nice to have the time to recoup and regain sanity, they usually do nap and it's only one day, right?" And you'd be right. BUT what ensues after a day of napping is never what should ensue - early to bed or late to rise and back on track the next day. No, instead I was treated to 47 minutes of my child screaming her fool head off last night for no good reason. She'd already been asleep for nearly 3 hours. This is what happens EVERY TIME she misses nap. 47 minutes is actually getting off light. She has gone off and on for five HOURS some nights. She's barely even awake enough to have any concept of why she's even screaming! Obviously, then, she is TIRED. This brings me back to my original question of "Why can't kids just eat, sleep, and poop and be done with it?????" This is not rocket science people! Dakota apparently didn't want to go to bed last night and the result of it all is that for my efforts to do something extra special nice for them before we can't go anywhere anymore (after Colby comes home), I now had no sanity time yesterday and have two VERY cranky children today!!! Okay, rant is over - this is all part of the parenting game, but it is a part I will NEVER understand!!
On that note, I'm thrilled that it's Friday and that means pizza night in our house!!
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