Jevin's New Hair

And this is what happened when Daddy took Jevin for a haircut.  Jevin came back bald.

WOW Grade 7 kids!

I was just floored last week when my one grade 7 classes stood up immediately after I said good afternoon.  Suddenly in unison they all said, "Good afternoon teacher," and bowed.
The homeroom teacher for this class has asked them to do this at the beginning of every class for every teacher.  

I had them do it over again today so I could record it.

Hospitals

On Monday evening Josie started feeling yucky.  We canceled her field trip in anticipation.  We also went to the doctor to get some meds hoping to minimize the sickness.  Sadly it did not work.  Tuesday she woke up throwing up.  We calmed the stomach and kept her close all day.  By the late afternoon her temp was around 39.  We got the medicine in her and it still didn't go down.  We had to put the dreaded super strong fever meds in her.  It worked after a while.  But around 1:30 am she was throwing up again.  I packed her up and took her to the Peds ER.  We stayed all night and finally left this afternoon.  She had to be rehydrated and get her fever in check.  It's still hanging around, but at least it is easier to be sick at home.  Hopefully we don't need to make another trip in tonight.

 I said, "Josie, why are you frowning?"  She said, "Mommy, I'm in the hospital.  I have to look sad."

And the rabbit look...

Oh, mom... You'll be interested to know that she has a new phrase now... One from my childhood.... "BARF BUCKET"

Josie's Birthday Party

In the early morning, little Miss Josie opened up all her gifts.

 Jevin gave Josie toy food - healthy and junk food.

 HA!  Disaster averted... Caught all the hearts before they fell on the floor!  Oh, beware your next card... Beware...

After dinner we went walking through the mall.  We had assumed that the birthday dinner was enough.  We always go to Chilis.  We went.  We ate.  We got the crazy song and the delicious dessert... but apparently because it was just us four, Josie assumed there was more coming.  "So when am I having my birthday party?"  I guess in hind sight we usually invite others to dinner with us so she must have just assumed that the others were still in the picture.  Well, not wanting to disappoint her, we sent out some last minute texts and made a few quick calls and pulled off a birthday party in less than 18 hours.

 Jeanne and Nick above...  

(Nick was Jevin's teacher last year in Baby class... When I sing "Jump down, turn around...." Jevin will freak out and say, "That's my Nick's song. You don't sing it!") 
To the left is the cake that Jason had specially made in like 30 minutes.... no extra charge.
And to the right, Jeanne and Chad, who will become the next additions to the Changhua parent scene in December.

 Carey and kids below with Chris in the jungle gym thingie... James in the blue shirt and Jeremy in the yellow shirt below.

 Death of the yellow cake:  Jevin was first to stick his finger in which led to the other kids poking so I got in there right away and cut it up. 

 And of course the gifts...  With only 18 hours or less to plan, she got an awful lot of gifts.  We have such understanding friends.  And they totally know what she likes!

 Thanks guys for making her birthday (in her words) 

THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Josie's Birthday Dinner Part 2

Here are some of Jason's photos...

 (See that little red nose?  Her summer school took the kids to Mala Bay Water Park last Tuesday.  She used super strong sun screen, but apparently the sun was our full force that day.  She came back super red... with her nose blistering.)

 Fun I-phone pictures.

 She bought herself a nice water bottle with Auntie Tammi's money, but still had 70nt left over, so she bought herself some candy.

Josie's Birthday Dinner

Josie requested a trip to Chili's.  It has been the place we go for everyone's birthday, so she basically expected it.

 The kids had their usual: pizza, broccoli and orange juice.

 And of course the song...

 Happy birthday Josie Girl!!!

Taiwanese T-Shirt

 The grade seven students haven't received their uniforms yet.  This is a t-shirt I came across last week.

Story Catch-up

Here are a few things to amuse you...
I have scrolled down my fb status page and collected all the funny "kid" stories I have.

**In February the third floor water heater stopped working.  The heater on the first floor was still working so I decided to give the kids a bath in the kitchen sink.  This is something of a Chevalier tradition.  Jevin was okay with the idea until I made a joke as I was picking him up. At this point (silly me) I said, "Oh, it's time to make Jevin Soup."  I can liken his reaction to that of giving a cat a bath.  Nothing I could say could take back that joke.  He absolutely would not have it. 

**Josie's favourite phrase is "Freak out."  I suppose I use it a little to much.  She even conjugates it correctly.  "I'm freaking out!"  "I'm going to freak out!"  "I freaked out!"  Oh, joy.

**In April Jevin was going through the colours on his toy train.  "Blue, lemon, orange, green, strawberry."  It sounded delicious.

**He doesn't do it now, but as recently as May when asked, "What colour are your eyes?"  he would respond with, "Orange."  And he still stalls on the hair colour question but sometimes will answer, "Black," because all his classmates have black hair.

**Josie has known her months for a long, long time.  Her kindergarten had a wonderful little song that drilled it into her brain.  Being able to tell time via months, only happened a couple months ago.  In May she announced to her, "Daddy! Say happy birthday to me!  It's almost my birthday.  Two more months."

**When our cousin was up, he and Jason went to Snake Alley night market and they actually ate snake soup.  When I told the kids that Jevin responded with, "Is kusting!"  Naturally, I had to agree.

**In June we went out to a restaurant that had clams.  I don't eat seafood, but the kids have Taiwan-tummies so I put some on their plates.  I just assumed that the schools had clams on their menus but now I question that because when I gave Jevin the clam, he started crunching down on the shell!  I had to show him the soft, gross part in the middle.  He enjoyed that part much better than the shell.

**Life with pop is not fair.  Jason can drink his Coke Zero everyday without any mini-mes begging for some.  On the rare occasions that I have a ginger-ale, I cannot escape the, "Mommy, share."  I found a strategy that works for me though.  If I put the ginger-ale in a coffee cup, I have no problems at all.

**Josie's grammar is so fun.  Sometimes she will speak Chinglish.  An example is when she asks to turn on the light she will often say, "Open the lights," to which I respond that I can't because I don't have a screwdriver.  Haha... Once however she was inspecting her bruises and in comparing two of them she said, "Wanna see something badder?"  I said, "Badder or worse?"  She responded, "Worser."

**Last month we saw a car hit an ambulance.  We were at the red light.  The ambulance was going through his green that had just changed to a left hand turning arrow.  The car went as the ambulance was going through.  We had a front seat view.  It really affected Jevin.  He couldn't stop talking about it.  Even now when he plays with his cars, he reenacts the whole scene again and again.

**Josie's eyes almost popped out of her head when I told her that lemons were yellow in Canada.  They are green here.  No, they are not limes.  They are green lemons.

**Lady Gaga came to Taiwan.  The mayor of Taichung even called it Lady Gaga day.  She held a free concert for those who bought her new album.  Josie asked, "Why do you need to buy her elbow to see the concert."  Jevin pipes up, "I want her Elmo."

**Josie came home talking about a new friend at her summer school.  She said, "Luckful he speaks English."

**I had gone out on Sunday and when I returned Josie was so excited to tell me that they had been watching the music channel and had just seen Black Guy Pees (Black Eyed Peas).

I guess these stories can now be filed away for the 3rd Edition of the Letkeman Cookbook. lol

Kending Vacation Grammar, Grammar, Grammar

 And for your entertainment, here are a few of the signs we encountered while at the resort.

Kending Vacation July 4-6, Day 3

 On our last day there, these birds made their appearance for the first time.  Are they ducks?

 Our mornings were filled with feeding fish and watching the swans steal the fish food.
 The swans had a feeder to the right of our house.  It was interesting to watch them.  They would put it in their mouths and then dip their beaks into the water to moisten it.  Some would fall out and as you can see, the fish were right there to clean up the mess.

 I guess there must have been a pecking order because the doves were only allowed to eat after the swans were finished.

 There were three swans that were segregated from the others.  Oh, did they cry when the free swans swam by.

 

One last dip in the pool and we were off.

 We stopped in Kaohshiung on the way home.  They have this new super mall called Dream Mall.  It has a Ferris wheel on the roof....
While we where making our way through the mall, we came arcoss a transformers display.  Jevin liked it... Yes, Jevin liked it.

 Before heading up to the Ferris Wheel area, we made our way to the food court and the kids and I ate at a restaurant called Century 21.  It had whole roasted chicken like you can get at Costco.  The funny thing is that they gave everyone gloves to eat the chicken with.  Nothing like finger food. Jason got some food from the 7-eleven restaurant... Not the 7-eleven store.. Nope.  They have a restaurant devoted to the Open Jung character that the Taiwanese have just gone wild about. 

 We did eventually make it to the roof and on to the Ferris Wheel.  It was a regular amusement park up there.  It was very tailored to children.

 They had all the usual night market games like fishing.  They timed the kids and then weighed their catches to determine what prize they got.

 They had these animals on wheels.  Josie got hers going right away.  Jevin (and Jason) were unsure how to start it.  Jason didn't see the foot pedal and couldn't figure out why Jevin's ride was jerking so much.  It was amusing to watch.

 And there were other amusement rides for us to have some fun with.

 Before heading on our way, we made one last stop at the theater and took a picture of the much awaited cars move.  I think it said it will arrive here some time in August.  Poor kids will have to wait.