The Love Affair

As parents our worst nightmare has been reached. Josie is infatuated with boys. Yep, that's right. She's in love. His name is Boss. (Apparently it sounds close to his Chinese name.) And every day she would come home saying that she loved Boss and that she was going to marry Boss.
But as all relationships have their rocky patches, so to did Josie's. Suddenly Josie wasn't going to marry Boss anymore. This information even made it into the communication book that is sent home to us every day. There was some lover's quarrel.
Josie told me that Boss no longer loved her. She said he liked Elaine instead. He was going to marry Elaine.
Devastated, she found another boyfriend. Now she is going to marry Kenny. I guess Kenny is a good second choice, but Boss will always be number one for our little broken hearted girl. You see, I can still trick her into a conversation about Boss. She is filled with so much excitement when she speaks about him and then she remembers that she is no longer engaged to the-Boss-man but now to plain old Kenny.

When their love affair was fresh, Josie came home with this picture. Note how it has Boss written all over it... Oh, and see all the hearts? I am impressed that she figured out how to spell his name

Night Market

Oh, I have to laugh when things like this happen... It's the evil me that comes out.
So Josie and I were walking through the night market last night. Naturally people were pointing and saying, "Hoa ke-ai!" This one lady was pointing and pulling at her kids to look at the foreign kid... Well, recently it has been raining... and as she was pulling at her kid, pointing at Josie and walking forward to keep in step with us... she stepped in a huge puddle - high heals and all. Needless to say, Josie was no longer the object of her attention.

After all that excitement... Josie went finishing. There is a little magnet attached to the end of a cooking chopstick. All the 'fish' have screws in them somewhere so Josie can snag them.

Carnival!!!

Jason took Josie to a carnival at a Changhau high school this Saturday. It was great fun for both of them. There was even a haunted house. He said that they needed to buy a drink and then goo in the haunted house to find the ticket and when they had the ticket they could claim their drink.
They had a little garage-type sale there too. Lots of little things for very little money. He bought himself a golf club for all of 50nt...

Funnies

This video is amazing. They use sheep to create some amazing things. I showed it so some classes at the end of class.
LED Sheep Art

And Jason sent this to me by email. This guy's facial expressions are the best. You just need to ignore the fact that he is chewing his gum like a cow. That is explained a little later.
Rich Guy Flies

Enjoy!

Playing Catch-Up

Okay... So I still haven't found my charger and there is a new complication. My display on my phone is now cracked! So they have informed me that it would be cheaper to get a new phone than it would to replace the charger and the screen. So as I consider this, research this, and try to decide on this... you are stuck with cell phone pictures.

4/21
So as I was driving home today I happened to see a truck... Well, actually the truck tried to cut me off. I made my way through traffic and at the next red light we ended up almost side by side. I happened to look over and.... Tada! There was baby Josie and baby Olivia! Needless to say, I pulled out my phone just in the nick of time!



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4/20
In addition to Jevin's excitement two weekends ago... he decided to get sick every time we gave him medicine. Since I believe in finishing a sickness at the hospital we started at, I took him back to the big hospital. Thank goodness the English speaking nurse, Sho-Lien, was there. Sho-Lien helped me the whole way through. I mean, I can do it myself, but it is so much easier when an expert shows me where to go and what to do. We had to take x-rays. NOT FUN!!! And he turned out not to be as bad off as the doctor had thought. (Oh and I asked yet another doctor about the first one saying "Whooping Cough" and Jevin being vaccinated for that... Perhaps the first the first doctor was just making a comparison to the sound of the cough. It definitely must have been a communication error.)
So in this picture we are at a coffee shop waiting for our number to be called at the doctor's office. Jevin is drooling over all sorts of cakes that he will never get. Though, I guess he was cute enough to attract attention. The servers were all trying to get him to smile and one even brought him a cookie.
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4/19
The local McD's had a show on Sunday. On Thursday I got some take out from McD's (to speed up dinner - explained below). We picked up this flier that said that Ronald McDonald would be there. I thought it was pretty cool, so I took her. Well, was it ever cool!!!!!!
He asked questions and played games and did all sorts of things. Josie had a great time and even won a prize. Then we went inside and I handed Josie a one hundred NT dollar bill and told her to order the Happy Meal that she wanted. They gave her an ice cream cone and her Happy Meal for free. I was shocked...
Then when we were upstairs, Ronald came up for pictures with everyone... And I mean everyone! Not just the kids, but all the people. He went to every table. It was very, very cool. I have no memory of Ronald McDonald expect from commercials. Josie was totally into it!



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4/18
Saturday was a wonderful day! We had rain all week and then Saturday was a gloriously sunny day. Josie and I got up early and left the two boys at home. We went to Ba Gwa Mountain and played. First she rode a mechanical horse. Then we went to the playground where she met a little girl. Josie played with her for a bit and then we moved on to the sand picture place. Basically it is a picture made up of stickers. You remove certain parts and cover them with the sand to create a picture. It is fun. We invited the little girl to join us and bought her a picture too. Josie had so much fun. One of the merchants even helped Josie and the girl make their pictures.
Hello Kitty was her first choice and the Power Rangers was her second pick.


The view of Changhua City from Ba Gwa Shan.
Josie with Buddha behind her.
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4/17
Josie always asks to play in her school's playground. I let Jevin walk to school on Friday. He was happy. They played for about 20 minutes. Then Jevin FREAKED OUT. It was even hard for me to carry him home.
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4/16
Josie failed a test at school. Not to worry. She is only 4 years old. She failed an eye exam given by the Huatan Health center (as I understand it). We then had to take her to a 'real' eye doctor and have her checked out. The technician put these glasses on her and popped lenses in and out. Then we got to see the doctor. He took a look at her eyes and said she had an astigmatism. Then he prescribed eye drops to fix it... and we are to go back in two weeks to see if they helped.

EYE DROPS!!!! Come on!!! Once again, another example of Taiwanese doctors' over prescribing.
I pretty much think it is her lot in life to have glasses. We all have them: parents, aunts, cousins, grandparents. And from what I can read, the only way to fix astigmatisms are either glasses or surgery. EYE DROPS???!!! Ack!

The Latest News...

I still have yet to find my camera charger. It's starting to really get to me. I love taking pictures of the kids.
Needless to say, I still have my words. So, here is what has been happening lately.

We had our Easter celebration on Saturday. We sat down for breakfast and during that time the Easter Bunny came. Josie found all sorts of wonderful candy from Canada. (Thank you Grandma!) Not only did she score with candy, she also scored with those water painting books. She was so stoked about that!

We didn't celebrate on Sunday because my school had their entrance exams. All the grade six students from around the county came for four big tests. These tests will determine which classes they get sorted into. It is one of the biggest days for our school.

But just to add some excitement to our weekend, Jevin added his two bits. Saturday night at about 1230 am, Jevin began coughing. The noise was horrible. Jason came into the bedroom and took his temperature. He had a high fever. We gave him some ibuprofen but that cough was so terrible. It really sounded like he couldn't breathe. So we made the decision to take Jevin to the pediatric ER.
The doctor checked him over and said it was just a common cold and was ready to let us go with some meds... Until Jevin preformed for us. When the doctor heard his cough, he took one more listen. He said that it was a mild case of whooping cough. Jevin had to have some medicated-humid air and a steroid shot in the leg. Poor guy.
Today, he seems much better. He still has his cough but it is not that choking sound.

Besides that, there is nothing else exciting to report this week.

Happy Easter everyone!

Oops...

So there are no new pictures this week. I have somehow managed to lose my charger for my camera. Though, that doesn't mean I don't have stories for you.

Jevin is a dancer. While watching American Idol, he started bouncing to a song by Lady Gaga.

Josie finally changed her earring studs. It took a lot of convincing but she agreed to finally take them out. Daddy bought her some hoops. I'd show you a picture but...

And I have yet to have a piece of cake for my birthday weekend. I have been ill since Thursday night. I am still only able to stomach bland foods. It has been challenging. It's hard to be a sick mommy.

4/7 I forgot to tell you all about Josie's love-life. Oh, yes! At four years old she knows who she wants to marry. His name is Boss. (Not a joke! Apparently it sounds like his Chinese name.) She keeps coming home with these papers that have "Josie heart Boss" all over them. She also asks us if she can marry him, which naturally we say yes to. Why break her heart at such an early age?

niveJ = Jevin

So we took out the wheel-less walker so Jevin could have a snack. Well, he decided he only wanted to go in it on his terms... And his terms meant that he got in by HIMSELF! As you can see, he had some issues with it.

Ahhhh, can I say "Daddy's boy"?

Taichung Science Museum

On Saturday we went to the Taichung Science Museum. It has been a long time since the last time. I had forgotten how freaked out Josie got the last time we saw the dinosaurs. They really did a great job on them. The picture above is of the robotic-dinosaur. It was VERY realistic. You'll notice how far away we are from it. She absolutely refused to get any closer to it. I suppose I shouldn't have said he looked hungry.

This dinosaur didn't look so real so Josie was comfortable posing for a photo with it.

After walking through the museum (and stopping Josie from jumping over a barrier - how mortifying!) we had to stop for lunch. I figured since it was our day out, we could go to McD's. It was conveniently located in the museum. They invited Josie to watch the show.

There were three performers: a man and two women. They had to recruit their audience. The man kept looking at Josie but was too scared to invite her, but one of the women was outgoing. She invited Josie to join - in English. The show began and the questions were thrown out and of course Josie answered everything in Chinese. It was just too funny to see the man's eyes bug out when he realized he could have spoken Chinese to her.

Naturally we needed a picture with the gigantic mosquito.

And with the waterfall.

And also with Josie's new best friend.

And then there was an opportunity to do an art project. DIY as they call it. The lady guided Josie to make a birthday cake using clear glue and colored rocks.

Jev's Party

On Saturday we had a combo birthday party with Olivia. It was a fun time for all. Jevin had his first experience with CAKE. It was... messy.

Ahhhh, One year old. My how time flies. Above, Liwen and Jevin are playing on the trampoline.





And the winner for the coolest gift wrap job was the Brian Crowd - Brian, Peggy and Susan. A gift bag wrapped over like a dress shirt complete with a tie. It was so cool... And of course so was the gift!
Special thanks to Brian & co., Stanley & co., Eric & co., Rebecca & co., the Lindenbergs, the MacLeods, and Ron & Terry for the wonderful gifts.

Dinner Time!!!

So Josie has become a very good helper. And a very cute one too. As you can see above she is feeding Jevin. And below you can see she is teaching him to open his mouth, "Ahhhhhhhh." It was really just too cute.

And here he did the big "Ahhhhhhhhhh" for her.

First Hair Cut!

Poor Jev. This was in response to the "girl" pictures. Haha... (Feb. 20th)

Birthday Cards!!!

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes.

Can we call it a race? Hee hee...

And in first place we have Auntie Lois and Uncle Schubie. Forever remembered as "Jevin's first Birthday card." giggle

In second, a great big thanks to Ron and Terry.
And in a very close third, many thanks to Great Mama and Great Papa.

We are greatly anticipating Saturday when we can celebrate our little walker's first birthday and his PAAAAART-AAAAAAAY!

Josie Speaks Out

So little Josie has so many questions for us:

"When i am 5 years old, can I be on American Idol?"
Of course we answer, "Sure, but how will you get there?"
"We'll take the blue car."
"But how will we get the car across the ocean?"
"It can drive on a boat. We did that in Canada before." (BC Ferries)

"When I am 17 can I get married?"
"Well, I hope you would wait for a little longer than that."
"When I get married can I have these flowers?" pointing at the carnations at Costco.
"Sure can!"

"Mommy, what are you doing? Are you 'computering'?"

But the cutest things aren't words at all. She will blow kisses and when we blow the kisses back, she will reach out, catch it and put it on her lips!

Jevin Walks!!!

So it is official... Jevin is walking. He started walking on Saturday (Feb. 28) and he has be motoring ever since. Above is a 4 second clip that Jason took just as it all began. He had taken some steps before but only randomly so we didn't count them. Saturday was the first time he took many steps at once.

It's funny to compare children.

• Josie walked at 10 1/2 months.
• Jevin walked at 11 1/2 months.

• Josie stood freely at 10 months (without walking).
• Jevin is only figuring that out after the fact.

• Josie was all over the sofas at this age.
• Well, yeah, some things are the same.

• Josie figured out how to pull herself up, swing her legs over and drop out of the crib shortly after one year.
• We are crossing out fingers that Jevin never figures this out.

And some other observations:

• Josie would finish 240 cc's in seconds.
• Jevin takes his sweet time, and still chokes occasionally, which freaks me out. (For those of you who know about our summer experience, you'll understand.)

• Josie slept through the night the first time when she was 3 months and through the night regularly after 6-ish months.
• Jevin has slept through the night a total of 4 times since birth... and by through the night I mean 8 hours.

Well, enjoy your week. When it warms up a bit, I'll get some park pictures now that Jev is walking. Little helper JoJo is sure to show him the ropes (or perhaps the swings :P).

Photo Shoot...

So Selena from Kuku called on Tuesday asking for a Wednesday morning photo shoot for Jev. Jason took him... Then Jason told me the stories... Something about PINK... I was so curious that I msn-ed Selena and asked for pictures... She sent all the pictures. Scroll down for the pink ones...

And introducing our daught... eh, uh... SON!!!