Good News...Finally

We will have our apartment by the weekend! The paperwork went throught this morning, we will get the keys tomorrow morning (Friday) and the movers will bring our shipment of stuff on Saturday! We're going to stay in the hotel until Saturday, mainly for the girls, so they'll sleep Friday night and have the weekend with both of us there to help them transition. Tomorrow (Friday) most of the day will be spent getting things we need like sheets and towels and silverware! I am so excited, you have no idea! Finally, a place we can call home! I don't know when we'll have internet access, so after tomorrow, I may not be on for a while.

One other note, last night we ate dinner at a little Italian cafe and Ashley ate escargot - yes, she loved them. I don't know if she knew that she was eating snail, but she kept asking for more. Pretty cool. She's a strange one - sometimes she refuses to try anything new and yet, other times, she loves new foods.

Smell from home

The girls were taking a nap this afternoon (well, Liz was taking a nap and Ashley was watching a movie) and I was on the computer, attempting to find a babysitter for us to use once we leave the hotel. I got cold and went to grab one of the girls blankets to wrap up in. I grabbed Ashley's Pooh Bear blankie out of the closet, pulled it around me and took a deep breath. I was so utterly surprised to smell home! She hasn't used the blanket since we got here, so it's been sitting in the closet and it hasn't been washed, so it still smells of home. It was so wonderful that I sat there sniffing the blanket again and again! It was so nice and relaxing and gave me such an uplift during the afternoon. Of course, then I went to lay down with Ashley and snuggled up to her and got a whiff of the Taiwan smell. It seems to permeate the girls hair everyday we are outside and since we spent the morning at the park, it's especially prevelant today. Thank goodness they both LOVE baths!

Still no Apartment...

Well, it's now Wednesday and we don't have our apartment. "Why?" You ask...well, I really don't know why, except that AMD didn't get authorization in time for payment to the landlord to be sent, and it's been a holiday week/weekend, so that has complicated matters even more. I am waiting to hear today when this all may be completed. I sure would like to move sometime soon! On the bright side, every night we stay here is more hotel points for staying at a Hyatt related hotel elsewhere in the world :)

On Monday, Anthony went to work, both girls were cranky, Liz was still not feeling well - she didn't throw up anymore, but she was tired and didn't want to eat much. She took a long morning nap, which is nice in that Ashley and I got to spend some time alone together. Then I took the girls over to 101 to eat and get out of the hotel for a bit, it was still rainy and icky out. We got back to the hotel and all took naps - long ones, so I think we were all recovering from the weekend and whatever sickness we all had. Anthony got home right after we all woke up. We decided to go eat at TGIFriday's, since we know we won't eat there once we've moved (not worth the money if it's on our dime). The food wasn't the best, never is there, but at least the girls ate some and were in a pretty good mood for most of the meal. When we tried to put the girls to bed that evening, it was utter chaos. Neither of them wanted to go to bed, so we had a lot of crying and screaming going on. I don't think Ashley actually went to sleep until 10:30pm and Liz finally fell asleep for good at around 1:30 am - from 10:00 to 1:30, she was up on and off crying and screaming. We tried Motrin, Teething Tablets and Orajel, none of which seemed to work. The only thing that would help in any way was nursing her, and that's when she finally went to sleep. Poor baby, it'll be nice when she can be a little more communicative so I can understand what is hurting her when she's upset.

Thank goodness Tuesday was a holiday and Anthony didn't have to go to work! We all slept in until after 8am! We had ordered room service for breakfast the night before and they delivered it around 8am, waking us all up. It was nice though to eat breakfast in our room instead of upstairs on the 22nd floor as we do almost every other morning. It was nice just laying around in jammies and not having to shower and get dressed and ready just to eat breakfast. We watched the Cowboys play the Redskins for Monday night football (we call it Tuesday morning football here:) and it was fun to see them win! I had even bought Tostitos Chips and Salsa to celebrate the fact that we got to watch the game (I found them at Jason's supermarket in 101 - expensive, but well worth the money just for a little nostalgia). It was great taking those first few bites of chips and tasting their wonderful saltiness and crispness. A taste of home!

After the game, we decided to go somewhere, it had stopped raining and the girls seemed to be feeling better. So, we took the MRT originally intending to go to a park, but it was a little hot and humid out for that, so we went instead to see one of the other hotels that Anthony had toured here months ago when he was out on a visit. Not as nice as the Hyatt, but they have a Duty Free Shop on their basement level, along with HIGH END shops such as Louis Vutton, Chane, Ralph Lauren, Mont Blanc, etc. We did a little shopping in the Duty Free area and then ate lunch at one of their Italian buffet restaurants (it was ok). There is a park next to the hotel, so after lunch we let the girls run around there a bit (it was starting to cool off in the late afternoon so it was very nice out). There is a ToysRUs next to the park also, so we had to visit it :) We've been to one other ToysRUs store here, in one of the malls, but this one was much bigger and had more stuff. Ashley had fun running around getting into stuff and pointing out everything she wants - which is a lot! She did get in trouble a few times for running off where we couldn't see her, which is one of her favorite things to do. I don't think she does it on purpose, she just gets to caught up in the excitement of seeing all the toys that she just keeps walking without realizing that she isn't anywhere near us anymore. After ToysRUs, we were heading back in the direction of the MRT and decided to visit on the malls (Mitsukoshi) that I'd been to before, with an indoor play area, to look for shoes for Liz. We also had gift certificates to spend there (Anthony had gotten them as a gift at one of the holidays when he first got here). So, we headed there and Ashley and Liz had great fun running around on the indoor playground. We did find some shoes for Liz too - nice thick walking ones, in red. I wanted pink, but they didn't carry them in pink and Red seemed to be the only other color that might stand up to the dirt and filth of the streets here - we'll see! She's just walking so much now that she needed some good shoes to wear since I'm tired of cleaning her black feet all the time. It was late after the shopping, around 7pm, so we took a cab back to the hotel, gave the girls a bath, put them to bed and ordered room service for dinner. I'll be so glad to have a kitchen so I can make myself a sandwich or soup or pasta for a quick dinner, instead of having to order room service and wait for a meal that isn't always good.

Weekend Trip

This weekend, we decided we needed to get out of the city and do something touristy. We didn’t plan far enough in advance to actually take a train or a plane somewhere else on the island, since it’s considered a holiday weekend and everything is booked weeks in advance. So, on Saturday, we decided to take the Northern MRT route to the end, to an area called DanShui in Taipei County, on the coast. The MRT ride took about an hour to get there and it had been raining when we left, but we were hopeful that it might clear up for our journey. It didn’t. We arrived in DanShui and it was pouring. So, we sucked it up and basically got wet, decided we’d come all this way, we might as well see it. We started out walking along the edge of the river/ocean inlet (we think), where there are little boardwalk type shops and game areas set up for tourists. We ate lunch at a sea food place, which had fairly good food (although all of us feel a little off today – Sunday – so maybe it wasn’t so good after all). It was here in the restaurant that Ashley made a truly momentous comment:
I read a label out loud that was on Liz’s onesie she was wearing that said “keep away from fire”. Anthony and I were talking about it and laughing since we thought it was funny that they have to make labels like that on clothing. Minutes later, after we are all eating, having moved entirely aware from that conversation, suddenly, for no apparent reason, Ashley stops what she’s doing, eyes wide and blurts out “Mommy, Daddy, don’t put Liz in the fire, I like her!”. Very sad, but cute, funny, and nice to hear one of the only unsolicited comments of true affection that Ashley has ever made about Liz (it actually might be the ONLY fully unsolicited comment we’ve ever heard from her).

After lunch, we walked again along the boardwalk, going into little shops and trying to stay dry in the off and on again rainy day. We went into one shop and looked around for awhile – it appears they import African tribal stuff here, very interesting, not something you’d think to see here. I was buying some little trinkets, when Anthony picked up something to show me, and broke it – dropped the glass on the floor and it shattered everywhere – OOPS. We ended up having to buy it, although for a discount since the shop didn’t have glass to replace what was broken.

We found out that they have ferry rides across the river/ocean inlet to the other side, called Bali. We decided to check that out and got on board. It started pouring down rain, but luckily they had a covered deck area so we could move inside and not get completely soaked. They have a nice wooden boardwalk down the entire side of the “coast” on Bali side. We walked down that a ways until we came upon a play area. We let Ashley run around a bit, getting totally wet in the rain. They also had pony rides, so Ashley got to ride a pony for a short bit, too. Probably would have been longer, but it started pouring down rain again. We found a building to go into and wait out the rain. It was some sort of look out building with a little history of the area – all in Chinese, so I’m not positive that’s what it was, but I think so. Once the rain slowed, we headed back on the boardwalk to the ferry. We let Liz walk most of the way and she really enjoyed splashing in the water and getting lots of attention from the onlookers calling her cute. We had a few minutes waiting for the ferry, so we watched all the crabs run around in the mud next to the shore. They were EVERYWHERE, THOUSANDS of them, about 1 – 2 inch crabs, looked like the mud was moving, but it was the crabs. Ashley had fun checking them out.

Once we got back to DanShui, we walked along the boardwalk again, and found a really interesting place that had a snake, parrot and iguana on display. They had an entrance fee, so we paid and went inside. They had some interesting animals on display – two other yellow and white snakes – one was HUGE, looks like it was either extremely fat or had just eaten something the size of a dog. There were piranhas and other sea creatures, some turtles, insects and a komodo dragon – yes, a komodo dragon, with smears of blood in it’s cage nonetheless – EWWW! Check out the pics on our picture site to see some fun ones Anthony took of Ashley in there.

At this point, we decided to head back to the MRT station and head home. We walked back through a market street, with vendors and little shops to look in. We stopped in a traditional Chinese dress store and picked up a cute dress for Ashley and a shirt for me. I tried on a traditional dress, which Anthony would love to see me in, but those things are made for stick women, not for anyone with any sort of hips whatsoever, so unless I can get one handmade to fit, that won’t be happening.

We started our long journey back on the MRT with both girls exhausted, since Liz had only taken a small nap during our walks around. Liz got very cranky, so I ended up having to stand up, with her strapped on in the sling. She finally fell asleep once we arrived back near home. We had decided to eat dinner at Chili’s, so walked there from the MRT line. Liz slept through the walk and through the wait for dinner and through about ½ the meal, she was pretty tired.

We stopped on the way home and bought a movie for Anthony and I to watch. “Somethings Gotta Give” with Jack Nicholson. Pretty cute movie, had some funny parts. It was nice and relaxing though after our long day out.

Liz didn’t sleep well, woke up around 4:30 and then again at 6:30 and then slept until about 8:30. Anthony woke up feeling ill to his stomach and I didn’t feel very well either. We ate breakfast, hoping that would help, but it didn’t really. We ventured out of the hotel only for lunch and dinner and because the girls were driving us insane inside. Liz ended up throwing up at dinner, so it’s either what we ate yesterday, or she’s teething, or she’s just plain sick. I feel better this evening and I think Anthony does too. After a pretty miserable evening of alternately between the sick Liz and the cranky Ashley (who kept having time out after time out), we finally have them both asleep and are ready to call it a night for ourselves.

We may be getting our apartment keys tomorrow! That’s the good news. We won’t move our stuff from hotel until Tuesday and then our stuff from home that’s been in storage will arrive on Wednesday. I am so excited and although I will miss the daily maid service and the help from the staff, I will be so happy to have a kitchen!!! It will be so wonderful. The bad news is that a typhoon is headed our way again, expected to hit tomorrow or Tuesday, so that may put a damper on our plans. There is a chance that it will head north and just clip us, which would be better. Although I could do without the rain, since it’s been rainy everyday here for what seems like weeks. Wish us luck with the move. I also have no idea when we’ll be able to get internet access set up at the apartment, so it may be awhile before I’m able to post again or get online.

Happy Birthday AMD

Last night, was AMD's Birthday party for the Athlon 64 product, here in Taiwan. Anthony and I went, while the kids stayed back at the hotel with a babysitter. There were several other AMD - Austin individuals here in town that came with us. It was nearby at a club/restaurant in the Neo 19 building, same building as Chili's :) We walked in, and the door greeters put those glow in the dark sticks around our wrists as bracelets. Then, we were handed party "hats" or other type of headband hats to wear and then had a photograph taken. Then we went into the club, where they had a buffet line set up, with a stage up front and a space cleared out for dancing. They started the evening out with three scantily clad women dancing - I have no idea what that had to do with AMD, I mean, they weren't even wearing the AMD colors! (It's interesting here, at trade shows and anything where they are promoting a product, there will be scantily clad women with the product - say for example, a vehicle or new game on display, and there will be people taking photos of it. It's strange.) Anyway, after the dance, there were some speeches by some of AMD management and then the band started. During the evening, they had these little tubes near the stage that occasionally shot fire up out of them, yes, fire, in the basement of a club. Doesn't seem real safe to me. They also had confetti dropping from the ceiling occassionally. So not only are there fireballs coming up from the floor, there's confetti falling down from the ceiling, hmmm...seems to me that wouldn't be a good combination. But, nothing happened, just something that I doubt you'd see back home due to fear of lawsuits. The band was interesting - singing a variety of English songs - not very good, I might add - but it was still fun. There was also a movie made by some of the people here in the Taiwan office for the Birthday celebration - they did some skits and then had people in the AMD office and customers of AMD saying Happy Birthday. It was very well done, although we suggested English captions next time for those of us who don't understand Chinese. Anthony was in the movie, saying Happy Birthday in Chinese. I'm so proud :) I got to meet many of the people Anthony mentions, so that was good. We had a fun time, even did some dancing, which I don't think we've done in years. We stayed the entire time, until around 10:30. That's late for us these days!

Football Time

On Sunday, we were really bummed to be missing football season - our regular Sunday afternoon relaxation game time with nachos is no more, very sad. But, I did find out that we are able to watch LIVE Sunday night and Monday night games! So, I was very excited to find that out - ESPN Asia airs them Live on Monday mornings and Tuesday mornings (our time) and also repeats it again at some point throughout the day. So, this morning (Tuesday), the Vikes were playing (for those who pay no attention to football whatsoever, that is the Minnesota Vikings, who I am known to root for) and Anthony even stayed home from work to watch with us (although, he rarely actually watched the game as he was on the computer, working, but at least he was in the room). The Vikes lost, probably because I was watching, but it was cool nonetheless that we got to see the game! And next week, the Cowboys are on, so Anthony is very excited! We are even hoping that we'll be in our new apartment, the cable will be working and we'll be able to watch it on the BIG screen TV! That would rock! We'll see.

Speaking of the apartment, we are almost there, I think...one side (the rental agent here) is saying that everything is a go and we should be ready for move in on Saturday - this weekend. The other side (AMD) hasn't confirmed, so we aren't positive and there last estimate was the end of this month. But, we are CLOSE, which is AWESOME.

Sunday, we switched from the 8th floor to the 13th floor, here in the hotel - boy, do we have a lot of stuff! Took the bellman three trips with two carts to move everything, but it's done. And now Ashley has a king size bed in her room instead of two twins, so she's very happy - she loves her new big HUGE bed.

Monday, I met up with another expat here from California (Beth), to see where her daughter goes to preschool - at Taipei Montessori School, which is within walking distance from our new apartment. The school is nice, very different from schools/daycares back home. Everything is in Chinese, although they do teach one hour of English a day. A few of the teachers also speak English, but mostly Chinese. There are a few expat children that go there, several are French children too. Ashley really enjoyed herself and didn't want to leave, she wanted to stay all day - she really misses school. All of the school information is in Chinese, so I'm having the hotel staff translate for me, so we know if we can afford to send her there. I'll keep you posted. After looking at the school, we headed back to Beth's apartment to let the girls play with her 11 month old boy. We all had a fun time and both Ashley and Liz really loved playing with all their toys in all the space they are unaccustomed to from being in the hotel. Beth also made us a simple lunch of pasta and sauce - it was delicious and so nice to not be eating in a hotel room or a restaurant, it's been so long! Anthony was jealous when I told him, it's just been so long since we've had a simple meal, made at home, where you sit at a dining room table and eat.

Tomorrow there is a citywide drill going on, the hotel has given us a letter with instructions to stay in the hotel and respectfully close the curtains (hmmm...you know I'll be peeking through the curtains to figure that one out). It should be interesting. Seems like they've been having "drills" every day or so at City Hall with fire trucks, bomb squads and police cars all out in front. It's very strange.

Funnies

So, before I forget this, as I often do with my children’s most funniest moments, I am writing it down. This morning, both girls slept in until after 8 am! I can not believe it, most days we are up sometime between 6 and 7:15 am. Must have been the babysitter last night who fed them candy and cookies and let them do whatever they wanted  So, Ashley comes into our room, wakes us up, goes with Anthony to get Liz, Liz comes into our room and immediately points to cookie tray – every night, we get “turn down service” here at the hotel, which includes a small little tray of cookies or chocolates. Liz KNOWS what the plate looks like and what is usually on it and immediately wants it. So, me being the coolest mom on earth, lets her eat a cookie, in bed, nonetheless, just because I’m so happy to have her sleep in and most likely the real reason is because I don’t want to nurse her, which is the other option she’d want.
Ashley is standing on the bed talking with us, when she crosses her hands over her PJ’s and declares – “I drew on my jama’s, don’t look.” We ask her “what?”. She repeats, “I drew on my jama’s, don’t look.” We ask her “why?”. She says “because I did it on purpose”. Sure enough, after having her remove her hands so we could look, she had drawn with pen on her princess PJ’s. She got a timeout, since she knows she’s not allowed to use the pen without us around. Last time she drew on something it was the wall of the hotel room (thank goodness the wallpaper is brown with blue and tan marks all over it, you can hardly tell there’s black ink on the wall.

We went up to breakfast this morning on the 22nd floor and were notified that Ashley is a “TV star” now. She was on the news last night (as were Liz and I also). Yesterday, Angie and I were going to go to a park for the afternoon, but it looked like rain, so we decided to go to the Living Mall, which was having a grand opening for it’s kids floor. They’ve just redone it with a jungle theme and a kids play area and a “Nursling Area” (no, I didn’t misspell that, the sign they have says nursling, not nursing). We were in the nursing area, which is a play area for toddlers, with benches for parents and a sink for washing kids stuff, and 2 rooms with big cushioned chairs to use for nursing and a diaper changing area, which also has a toddler toilet – this toilet is tiny, green and in the shape of a frog – IT IS SO CUTE! So, we are in the mall, the girls are in the first play area and a TV news camera crew starts filming them play in the jungle gym. No biggie, I’m fine with that, although it’s weird, since they don’t ask permission or anything. Then, later, we’re in the nursing area, since both Liz and Joseph needed diaper changes. The girls were playing and the camera crew has come into the area and is filming everyone, but from what I can tell, seem to be focusing on the girls. I’m playing with Liz, when I notice that I don’t see Ashley or the camera crew – UHOH, I go find Ashley, who is going potty on the frog toilet, with the camera crew FILMING her! I immediately asked them to stop and they kept saying, “ok, ok, will use respectable footage”, then Ashley blurts out, “I have to go poo-poo” and proceeds to scrunch up her face and grunt – I am so embarrassed, but it’s hilarious at the same time because they are filming a kid going to the bathroom. Thank goodness, Ashley didn’t really need to go poo, she was done quickly and got up to flush. Then went over to the sink and washed her hands, then dried them. The crew said she was so proper and filmed her doing all of this. Ashley even looked into the camera and said “I wash my hands everyday after everytime I go potty” as she was drying her hands. They asked her name, to which she replied “MMMMRRRR” in a big growl – I think she was tired of being followed around by this point. So, she ran off and left me in the room with the crew who tried asking me all these seriously ridiculous questions like “Do you find this a respectable and proper place for children?” – WHAT? So weird. I don’t think I do well in front of a camera and mike, I just freeze up and go yes, no, yes, no. So, I ran out of there, back to the kids, where they continued filming while we all played a few more minutes. So, apparently, this footage made it on the news, the girls playing and Ashley going to the bathroom – I asked how much they showed and the lady upstairs said it was just from head up, showed her getting up from toilet and flushing, washing hands and what she said after that, although she couldn’t understand the words. So, we are famous right now, in the hotel anyway. Too funny!

Still waiting...

...not much exciting has been going on here. We are still waiting on the apartment. We do think that we are getting the one that I've posted pictures of and talked about - we have a possible move in date of September 25th. We are very excited and can't wait to have a kitchen, I sure hope I can remember how to cook and do laundry :) I just can't wait to get our stuff from storage, the toys for the girls and clothes that we haven't seen in ages, I've forgotten what most of my clothes look like, so I guess it will be like Christmas!

Something weird is going on at the moment...in front of our hotel is Taipei City Hall and close by is Sun Yet San Memorial. I was coming back to the hotel from lunch with a friend, when we were diverted by police cars and fire trucks, all surrounding city hall. And there are people in bomb threat gear (air masks and white body suits) walking around and in buses outside the buildings. At SYS Memorial, there were fire trucks everywhere. As I'm typing this, I hear helicoptors flying all about. Now, I'm seriously hoping that whatever is going on is just a test, a rehearsal, a practice for anything serious that actually might happen. The hotel hasn't used their emergency broadcast system (which I know they have only because we've been here two months and they test it once a month) and everyone around the area is going about their daily business, no crowds are accumulating, no people are running away screaming, so I'm assuming that there's nothing wrong and it's just a test. Weird.

I've just been trying to go day by day, finding things to keep the girls occupied, since that's what life is all about these days. Yesterday, we had to get out of the hotel, girls were going stir crazy, so we walked to MRT line, took the MRT to a shopping area of town with a few department stores, went into one that I knew had an indoor play area, got there, took shoes off, started playing with Liz, Ashley went up the stairs, through the tunnel, down the slide, then declared she was done. Yup, all that way (about an hour, with Liz cranky and screaming on the MRT) for one minute of playtime. Fun, Fun, Fun. We walked around the mall a bit, letting Liz walk and crawl and get into lots of stuff she probably shouldn't have gotten into. Then went outside, where lo and behold, it had started raining, so no catching the MRT back home again, since that would mean walking for at least 20 minutes in the rain with a stroller, a kid that loves rain and no umbrella. So, we caught a cab, our first female cabbie, and went back to the hotel. Ashley got a timeout in the cab, for hitting her sister on the head, so there was quite a bit of screaming and crying going on during that RELAXING trip back to the hotel. Sometimes, I wonder why I venture outside with the kids, then I realize that if I didn't, surely, I'd go insane just sitting in the room listening to them scream and cry rather than making sure others get to see them throwing fits and wondering why I'm just standing there and not comforting them. They took long naps, which was nice, so I did have some time to relax a little on my own, which is quite enjoyable.

Today, we met Angie and Joseph (1 year old) at Playspace and had a very enjoyable time. It amazes me how much Liz can play on her own at that place. She'll just wander around, climbing on and over toys, sliding down this ramp, then back up again, then over to the book and puzzle area, where she'll pick up a book and "read", then back to the baby area, where there's a rocking horse she loves to climb on. Ashley found a princess costume and wore it the entire time, declaring me "king" and ordered me to dance with her (too cute!). Afterwards, we ate at a place called "Subbers", which used to be Subway - they've kept the same Subway colors (green and yellow) and the same wallpaper, and the same bread type and just changed the name (so they don't have to pay franchise fees?). It was pretty good. It was definitely a nice afternoon spent with the girls and Angie and Joseph. Now the girls are napping and I'm going to relax and play around on the computer for a while.

Ashley and Elizabeth Accomplishments

Some things about the girls we thought you’d like to hear about:

Elizabeth –
She’s now walking, it’s slowly becoming her preferred method of getting around, although crawling is still faster, so she reverts to it often.
She says “Zao” in Chinese, which is good morning, every morning when we go upstairs to the 22nd floor, that’s what she hears and she repeats it (well, for the last 2 mornings).
She says bye-bye, I love you (or at least we swear that’s what she’s saying), night-night, hello, ahahahahahah (I want, I want, I want or Give me, Give me, Give me).
She hums along when we sing to her and sways back and forth as if dancing.
She understands the word No and can follow simple commands, such as Go Get Something or Shut the Door or Bring Me Something.
She sleeps with blankie, at least 2 stuffed animals and a baby doll. (She can go without, but this is her preferred method of sleep)
She will hug people when prompted.
She hugs stuffed animals and baby doll all the time – we try to carry one around with us wherever we go since it makes her happy.
She can blow kisses.
She will “read” along to books, making sounds as she turns the pages.
She loves phones (including cell phones) and will say “hello) when she picks it up.
When she’s really upset, I can give her my cell phone and a stuffed animal and she’ll hug both of them tight and lay her head down on my shoulder (too cute!).
She loves bathtime and tries to take off her clothes when you mention bath and then tries to put her leg up over the bathtub (which is as tall as her shoulder).
She eats anything in sight - still only has 8 teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom, but can eat an apple, a hamburger, chicken, pizza, etc.
She says "vroom,vroom" when she's riding her little ride on bike.
She talks to herself when we put her down in bed at night, sometimes humming like she's singing.


Ashley –
She asks us how to say things in Chinese all the time.
She can say thank you, your welcome, hello, good morning and a few other words in Chinese and her pronunciation of the words is outstanding.
She is starting to understand what words are and that letters form words that we read.
She loves book and being read to and is beginning to use her finger to “follow along” with the words.
She walks everywhere with me in the city and is no longer stopping and crying for me to pick her up (well, most of the time anyway).
She loves parks and playgrounds and shopping and bookstores – basically anything to get out of the hotel.
She can ride her bike now – it has training wheels – and she loves to wear her pink bike helmet with Hello Kitty stickers on it.
She rides in cabs all the time now, with seatbelt if available, but I don’t think she’ll ever want to go back in a carseat again!
She plays doctor with her stuffed animals and baby doll and plays mommy too, wrapping them up, putting diapers on them and taking care of them.
She loves tea sets and likes to have tea parties.
She “calls” people all the time on the phone (we’ve unplugged a phone in the room) and has very long conversations – at first, they were just hi and bye, but now, she’ll talk about anything that pops into her little mind.
She wants friends, talks about meeting her friends at the park and playground. We haven’t had consistent outings with the same people her age, so she’s missing out on that.
She LOVES the rain and puddles of water – loves splishing, splashing and playing in water.
She still LOVES dresses and wants a “wedding dress” (just bought her a white dress today, so I’m hoping she’ll be satisfied).
Her hair is a mess all the time, it’s very fine and she tends to take any ponytail holders or braid holders out after a little while. She prefers to wear her hair down and to “tuck it behind my ears, mommy”.
She eats one thing (or sometimes two) of Plain yogurt every morning – no flavored yogurt because it has pieces of fruit in it – Yuck, according to her.
She likes to eat cheese and drink apple juice when we visit the 22nd floor.
She pretends to be a puppy dog about 90% of the time we are on the 22nd floor – everything is said in puppy language – woof, woof.

Rain...Rain...Go Away

Saturday was a fun day, we were invited to a birthday party at the American Club in China, for Jonas, a little boy who turned three. The girls were finally in better moods and Liz’s nose had quit running quite so much, so we were actually able to get out and socialize with people J It had been raining since Wednesday when we headed out and we noticed something very unusual – there were cars parked on the highway overpasses. So, a three lane highway was turned into a one lane highway due to cars being parked on both sides of the highway. We crossed over the main river here in Taipei (the Keelung River) and noticed that it was completely flooded. I have no idea how to describe it – there is usually a lot of grassy area on both sides of the park, with parking lots, some basketball courts, tennis courts, etc. Both sides of the river are flanked by very large concrete barriers and then there are streets on the other side of the barrier. Well, you couldn’t see any parking lots – just an occasional top of a car, and you could just see the tops of the basketball hoops. It was just amazing. Although I think they are used to this river flooding, since they have the concrete barriers on each side, I don’t think it’s a normal occurrence. Someone told us that when it floods, the government issues a statement that cars can be parked on highways to avoid being flooded in parking lots underground and in flooded streets. Very interesting.
We had a good time at the party, met lots of new expats living here, some very close to us, and the girls had a great time playing with other kids their own age. Angie was there with Joseph and he and Liz seemed to enjoy playing with the balloons the most. Both kiddos have just started walking so it was fun to see them going after balloons. They had a Chinese clown who did animal balloons and did a little magic with some doves. He was fun and the girls enjoyed him, especially Liz who just wanted the balloons he was blowing up. Anthony got to meet some of the husbands, which was nice for him since he hasn’t really met anyone outside of work. We also took a quick tour of the American Club, which has a pool, workout facility, several restaurants, bars, hair salon, library and kids play areas. It’s nice, but the price to belong is a bit hefty, so we most likely will only visit with other members. From what we’ve gathered so far, many of the expats are a bit higher on the pay scale than Anthony – lots of vice presidents, company executives, etc. I think the price was somewhere around 9000US to join, plus 260US a month (with some of being reimbursable), but still that’s quite a bit of money!

After the party, we took the girls back to the hotel for naps. It was still raining, never seemed to stop! Once Liz woke up, it was close to dinner time, but we thought we’d take the girls for a walk, since the rain looked like it was going to let up for a little while. We headed out and it started downpouring, so we sat on the steps at the Hyatt and let Ashley play in the rain – she got soaked, but she loved it! She splashed and danced and ran around – completely enjoying herself. We went ahead and started walking in the rain – it wasn’t too bad and if you stay on the sidewalks, which are usually covered by signs and building overhangings. We walked for a ways, visited some stores, then decided to catch a cab and go to Amaroni’s, an Italian restaurant here. It was delicious and both girls ate a good amount of spaghetti, with Liz getting it EVERYWHERE, including her hair.

On Sunday, we decided to visit Taipei Sea World (NOT affiliated in ANY way with the US Sea World). It was another rainy day, so indoors was a good place to spend the day. It is an interesting aquarium – they have a large variety of fish species, along with some insects, frogs, turtles, sharks, etc. It’s all packed into 3 stories of a very small building. They do have a shark tank, with some nurse sharks and rays, among other huge fish. We watched the shark feeding, which was quite interesting. The diver got closer to the sharks than I’ve seen any other before back in the US. He would hold them, getting them into position to show various aspects (I have no idea what he was saying – all in Chinese), and one of the sharks got quite aggressive with him, wanting more food – the diver kept having to hit the shark away from him. I was tense for him, but I guess he’s used to it. It’s a fairly small tank with a large variety of sea animals, so not a lot of room for him to move around. There were also sea animals on display that we’d never seen before – they called them “angels” and they looked like little round angels with wings and you could see a pink “heart” in the middle of them. They were the tiny – and in a very dark area with very cold water. No idea where they are normally found or any other information on them, but they were pretty cute.

In the basement area of the aquarium was a play area with ballpit and slides for the kids to play. Ashley and Liz had a lot of fun playing in that and Liz figured out how to crawl through the ball pit and even throw balls – although she threw them backwards, not forwards J We went straight to Chili’s for lunch afterwards and enjoyed a nice lunch watching the rain outside. Liz took a long nap afterwards and Anthony got to spend some quality time with Ashley upstairs on the 22nd floor playing while I rested and watched a stupid HBO movie with no kids! It was a nice afternoon. For dinner, we ate here in the hotel and are now entered into a drawing for a brand new Audi car. The hotel had a promotion going on for every 2000NT spent in a restaurant here, you could get a stamp on a card and once you got 10 stamps, you could be entered in the drawing (that’s 600 US dollars). We really haven’t eaten that much in the hotel, but twice we had dinner with several of Anthony’s coworkers from AMD and charged it to the room, so we got the credit for it. So, wish us luck and we may have a new car soon J
As we were about to head back upstairs, we ran into Beth and her husband, Ingu, with her two children (ages 3 and 11 months) who had just had dinner in the hotel. We had met Beth and her family the day before at the birthday party, so it was nice to see them again and exchange phone numbers and business cards. Turns out they live a few blocks from the hotel and often come over here for dinner. Beth is a stay at home mom, so it will be nice to have someone living nearby for playdates! Her 3 year old daughter also goes to a nearby Montessori school (which happens to be nearby our future apartment too) so I’m going to go check it out sometime soon and see if it’s a place we’d like to send Ashley.

It finally stopped raining today and I was able to take a walk with the girls and get out of the hotel for awhile. We mainly just walked around the neighborhood, checking out little shops we hadn’t been to before. It was a nice day spent with them. We all took naps too, which is always enjoyable, since these days, it’s hit or miss whether I can get Ashley to take one. I met Anthony at Costco after his work since we ran out of Cheerios and desperately needed some more. Back at the hotel, we ordered Pizza Hut after visiting upstairs on the 22nd floor for a while, and enjoyed a meal in our room for a change. Doesn’t happen very often, but it’s nice to not have to go out.

We have decided that Liz is going to be the musical one in the family. She has now really started to enjoy when we sing to her and actually will lay her head down whenever we start singing to her. It is so cute! She will also sway and hum along with us when we sing to her. She’s walking a lot more now and even ran today when Ashley got up from her nap – she was running to her. She still prefers to crawl, but everyday her walking is getting better.

Ashley is doing good, she’s starting to discover her feelings more and trying to voice sadness, happiness, anger, etc. She uses her stuffed animals for this, voicing how they are feeling. It’s nice to have conversations with her and it’s amazing how much she picks up. She asks how to say things in Chinese, so she’s trying to learn bits of the language. She’s a joy to be around most of the time, although I’ll be glad once she gets over the 3 and ½ year old stage of not being able to control her emotions and throwing rather large fits wherever we are.

Even with a Second Child...

I still occasionally completely freak out :) Yesterday morning, Elizabeth was very cranky - and she screamed at the top of her lungs for about 45 minutes, and I could not calm her down with anything. Right before this had occurred, Ashley had pushed her down and I was not in the room, so I did not see exactly what happened. After talking with Anthony on the phone (as Liz was still screaming), we decided to take her to the doctor. So I hop in a cab with Liz and Ashley, and of course, once we get in the cab, Liz quiets down and stops crying. We go to the hospital, only wait about 10 minutes to see a doctor, who looks her over, listens to her chest, looks in her ears, pulls her legs, has her pick up objects and pats her tummy and proceeds to tell us she just has a cold. So much for an emergency! He gave us some cold medicine and sent us on our way. Anthony was trying to meet us at the hospital, and the taxi driver took him to the wrong one, so he ended up meeting us right as we were picking up presciptions. The whole visit only cost us 372NT (about 12 US dollars), so it was definitely worth the money to find out nothings wrong. The rest of the day was just about as miserable. Every hour or so, she'd scream and cry and wouldn't calm down. She didn't want to nap, but I know she was exhausted. And when I would get her to sleep, Ashley would wake her up, because Ashley also refused to take a nap. I finally got Ashley to settle down while watching a movie, so I could concentrate on Liz. I tried teething tablets, teething gel, wet washclothes, baths, food, milk, juice...everything I could think of. It was just a horrible day. To make matters worse, it was pouring down rain, so I couldn't take them anywhere to see if she'd relax in the stroller. And Anthony didn't get home until almost 7pm. He had trouble getting a cab back from work. These are definitely not the days I enjoy while being a stay at home mom now. It was pretty miserable and one I hope to not have to experience again for awhile. Once Anthony got home though, we were able to manage to get both of them down by 8:00pm and watch a movie and order room service and relax a bit, so the day ended nicely.

Our nasty evening

Last night, we decided to go out for dinner, to the Japanese buffet restaurant over in 101. I had wanted to go to the bookstore and the kids seemed to want to get out of the hotel. When we got to the restaurant, both kids were pretty cranky - Liz hardly ate anything, which is NOT NORMAL for her and Ashley just picked at her food. So, Anthony and I ate as quickly as possible and then headed over to the bookstore. I was in one section when Anthony called me on my cell - said, meet me in the nursing bathroom (they have men's, women's and nursing bathrooms at the mall), Liz just threw up! So, I went over there and the smell was horrible. She had thrown up everything from lunch, and it was GROSS! We hosed her down in the sink and carried her naked back to the hotel. She was in the stroller when this occurred, so the stroller was nasty. Once we got back to the hotel, Anthony took the stroller to the mens locker room showers where the gym is and hosed it down. Then brought it up to the room and we took it apart and thoroughly cleaned each and every part of the stroller. It was so gross! Poor baby, I knew she felt bad, but didn't know it was her stomach too! So, we won't be doing much today, especially without a stroller!

Seems like time just flies

You would think with me staying home everyday that I would have time to post on our blog everyday - but as you can tell, that just hasn't been the case! It amazes me how busy we stay. The weekend went by too fast, I'm envious of you back home who had an extra day off for Labor Day - they don't have that here! We didn't really do much this weekend, nothing major or exciting anyway. We did some walking, some shopping and generally not much else. We were invited to a birthday party on Sunday for Josephs one year birthday, but Liz woke up with a runny nose, so we had to forgo that, which really sucked since it would have been a nice chance for Anthony to meet some people outside of work and meet the people I talk to him about all the time.

We visited a "night market" on Sunday, although it was during the day, so not all the stalls were open. It is so hit or miss in those places. We were looking around and found a new swimsuit for Liz - she's outgrown the one we brought. The shop that we bought it from was actually a women's undergarment shop. The women thought Ashley's hair was so pretty, but must have thought it was very unkempt as they proceeded to sit her down and do her hair in pigtail braids (there's a picture on our picture site). It was too cute and she actually sat there and let them do it with no complaint, of course, when I try to do it, she whines and moans and won't sit still. The gave us a discount on the price of the swimsuit - we said it was too expensive and they said okay, only because Liz is adorable. Too funny.

Monday I decided to go to a few different malls to see which one has a good kids area and unfortunately, spent about 3 hours walking around the city with the girls and ended up at one of the malls we'd already been to. There is a section of town that has several shopping malls within a few blocks of each other, but most of them are really high end clothing retailers. It amazes me that people can afford that stuff here. I did manage to find Liz some absolutely adorable Espirit pink pants and shirt that were 50 percent off. She looks so cute in them, especially walking around. We decided to walk back to the hotel also, since Liz was asleep in the stroller and I didn't want to wake her up to get in a taxi. We walked a LONG way, and Ashley did awesome, hardly complained at all. Of course, I was completely sore that evening, so I imagine her little legs were too. She's such a trouper.

Yesterday, we didn't do much. Ashley wanted to go swimming, so we ventured out to the pool, where neither of the girls really seemed to want to do much swimming, they just wanted to wander around the pool and scare me by getting close to the edge. Ashley has also figured out how to order from the pool staff, so we had a plate of french fries show up after a little while. It started raining after we'd eaten so we headed inside for naptime. I think Ashley and I were still pretty exhausted from the day before, so we both took naps. Once Anthony got home, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant here in the hotel with his boss, Gary, and two other individuals here on business with AMD. It was a nice dinner (I had tenderloin...mmmm), and the girls were all over the place - running around everywhere. Luckily, most of the staff don't seem to mind. Although, at one point, we did get asked to keep Ashley from playing with these things that hang down from the ceiling. It was a nice dinner and good company.

Today, both girls woke up with runny noses and Ashley's sneezing a ton. We rested this morning, Liz took a morning nap, which she rarely does and I rested in bed with Ashley while she watched "Brother Bear". It was a nice calm morning. For lunch, Ashley wanted to go to 101 - I think that's her favorite place here in Taipei, so went ventured out (in the rain) and had chicken and fried rice in the food court. After lunch, Ashley wanted to go to the supermarket (Jason's) because they have these little carts for kids, so she loves pushing it around the market. We walked through and I couldn't resist my urge to pick up some Dr. Pepper. I have not had any since leaving Texas and I miss it! It's sitting in the fridge right now, getting cold, and I'm very excited at having some this evening - it's the little things :) Carolyn, my stepmom, had given us a bag of goodies "a survival bag" before leaving and it contained a box of "Junior Mints" for me, which if you know me well, you know it's my favorite candy. I have been savoring that box, eating only a few a night or every other night. I don't have much left, but it has lasted so long! I think the DP and the Junior Mints will be so good together and help remind me of home. Back to today, after the supermarket, we walked about looking in shops and I got a few things for Anthony that he needed. Many of the stores are having big sales trying to get rid of the summer clothes to make room for winter clothes. Ashley even picked out some clothes and wanted to try them on - for the first time ever - my big girl. She even closed the dressing room door and told me I couldn't come in. It was so cute! I can't believe how much she's growing up.

The apartment situation is looking up. We have a "letter of intent" signed by both AMD and the landlord on the apartment in XinYi (I'll post pics on our photo website). Right now, the actual lease agreement or contract is going through the AMD channels for approval. This process may still take a few more weeks, but I believe that we may actually finally have an apartment. We are excited. I can't remember if I've described it yet or not so here goes. It's in the XinYi district, which is where we are now, so within walking distance to 101, the Warner Village complex (for movies) and Neo 19 building (Chili's :). It is a very nice area, with a lot of upper end apartment buildings. Around the corner is a new pediatrician's office called "Dr. Bear" that is supposed to open this month (this is the doctor we visited on our first trip here when Liz had an upper respiratory infection). There are several supermarkets in the area, and a park with playground equipment around the corner. There are also several preschools in the area for Ashley. The building is nice, with a water feature that the apartment looks onto. No fish, but we're going to try and talk management into getting some :) We will be on the 2nd floor - not ideal, since we have no view of anything, but the water feature, but that's ok. The apartment has white tile in the main areas and dark wooden floors in the bedrooms, along with dark wooden closet space. It's a brand new apartment, and the building is 2 years old. There's a large living room, with space for the kids to play and a curved built in bench with storage for the girls toys. There is also a built in entertainment system with huge flat screen TV and surround sound. A small dining area with built in china cabinet and a TINY kitchen - when I say TINY - I mean tiny, I think only 2 people can actually fit in it. But it has a brand new regular size fridge, a rice cooker, a small portable oven, a water purifier and a microwave. There is a laundry room off the kitchen with a small washer and dryer and room to hang stuff to dry (most locals don't have dryers, they hang their clothes). There are three bedrooms. One small one, which will be Ashley's since it has a small bed and desk and closet. Perfect size for her and she's already stated she wants a Hello Kitty room - I guess we'll have to integrate Hello Kitty and princesses together :) Elizabeth's room has a full size bed for guests (hint, hint...) and another full size closet. There will be enough room to put her crib in that room. The master bedroom has one large wall of closet space, an area with built in desk to use as study and it includes another flat panel TV :) There is a bathroom in the master suite with shower and jacuzzi bathtub for two. The other bathroom also has a shower - both showers are very strange and will take us some experimenting to figure out. There are knobs and spouts all over, with a seatpad and everything. Ought to be interesting - very hightech! We've asked for instruction manuals on everything, but that may not really matter since it may all be in Chinese anyway. We'll see. The apartment includes one parking space for our use. The apartment itself is 59 pings, which is around 1800 square feet (I think). There is a common gym, which Anthony is happy about. No pool or kids area, but with the playground near by, that's ok.

So, here's hoping everything goes smoothly within AMD and we get everything signed off on the apartment and we'll be able to move in before the end of September. I can't wait to cook again and our first trip to Costco after moving will entail buying Pancake Mix and Syrup!

Oh and Ashley had her first "nightmare" that we can truly say was a nightmare last night. She came into our room saying, there's ants in my bed, there's ants in my bed (or something like that, I was deep asleep). Anthony took her back to bed, showed her there were no ants and she went back to sleep. She woke up this morning talking about it. We know she's had dreams and nightmares before, but she's never voiced to us what it was that woke her or that she dreamt about. She's growing up...

Good Day

We had a good day Wednesday. I took the girls, first by taxi, back to the Handicraft mart, where I picked up the beautiful ring Anthony got for me. Then we walked a few blocks to the MRT station and took the train to the Transportation Museum where a playgroup was meeting. There were lots of moms there with kids. We played for about 2 hours, both girls just running around everywhere. Basically, they have three different playrooms all connected - one is a big "McDonald's" type play area with tunnels and ladders and little swings. All of the floor is covered in spongy mat type stuff. There is another area with a little trampoline, another with Little Tykes play houses, slides, cars, etc and another area with a ball pit and more slides, tunnels, etc. They had a blast playing and I had fun getting to know some of the women. I mainly talked with two women from Britain - so I occasionally say the funniest things because I heard it from them. Sometimes I just think them in my head and laugh because I haven't actually said it outloud, but it seems so funny. Anyway, we enjoyed our play time, then headed to their little cafe where we waited about 10 minutes for them to cook a pretzel - seems kind of slow to me, but hey, it is Taiwan. We sat with some of the moms and talked about areas to live in, apartment searching, etc. We got back to the hotel pretty late, took naps and then when Anthony got home, we went over to 101 and had Tepanyaki in the food court - mmm, good :)

Yesterday, I walked around for awhile with the girls, found a new mall (NewYork, NewYork 2), with a nice kids area, lots of games and rides for Ashley. We ate lunch at the food court, had fried rice, lo mien and some sort of fish. Ashley loves the rice and Liz loves the lo mien, so it was a nice meal. There is also a store in the basement called GEANT (giant) that's 2 floors. We didn't check it out, but supposedly, it's a grocery store on one level and a household goods store on another level, supposed to be decent. We then walked to an apartment that we were looking at. It's a nice one, on the 11th floor, overlooking highway, but also mountains in the distance. There was no furniture in it, so we need to see what kind of furniture they are going to put in it. It's little - 49 ping, but still 3 bedrooms, plus a study, would work for us. The other apartment in HsinYi area, we are still negotiating on, so we are still looking until that's final. The landlord wants us to sign a 2 year lease and we won't do that since we don't know if we'll be here for 2 years from date of lease (we'll have already been here 2 months at start of lease) and we don't want to be committed to a place that long since we don't know the area. It was late by the time we finished looking, so I took the girls back to the hotel for baths and naps (they were filthy are crawling and playing around in the apartment we looked at). A van picked us at 5:30 (with Anthony in it) and we had dinner with 2 individuals from AMD, visiting from home. We ate at Ruth Chris Steakhouse - all I can say is...mmmm...Fantastic...mmmm. It was delicious :) The girls were fairly well behaved, crawling around and playing. Glad the staff there don't mind our kids making messes and being loud in their restaurant. No way they'd put up with that back home. One of the waiters even took Liz and walked her around showing her different decorations on the wall, kept her occupied for a little while. It was nice to have dinner with people from back home, one of them was Molson, who helped Anthony build our deck and one was his boss, Gary.

This morning, I took the girls to the National Palace Museum. We didn't actually go into the museum, but walked the grounds, where they have a beautiful koi fish pond and covered walking trails, along with a sand pit. There were a few other moms there from the TienMu playgroup. It was nice talking with them. One of them is moving to China in a few weeks time, her husband is already there, and she's packing up stuff, selling stuff off and getting ready to move again. Guess this happens quite often in the expat community. A lot of people coming and going. There was a women there who I met the first time we went to the Transportation Museum who is originally from Russia. Her husband is Taiwanese and they lived in China for awhile. We talked briefly about the sad Russian hostage situation in the school going on right now. She said they have satellite and are able to get a Russian news station but that her husband will show her the Taiwanese newspapers here with news about Russia and it will be different information. She said the government is in charge of the news, so what gets broadcast over there will be different than what really happens. She also said she doesn't like CNN because they'll focus on one story and talk about it over and over again, and ignore other news worthy stories going on in the world. It was interesting! I enjoyed speaking with her. She has a cute little girl who is 2 years old who shared her sand toys with Ashley. Now, we are back at the hotel and I'm enjoying room service pizza while the girls nap :)

What I don't like about Taiwan/What I miss most from home

We've been here for over a month now, so I thought I'd post what I don't like here and what I miss most from home (besides family and friends as the obvious!):

What I don't like about Taiwan:
1. The smog/hot, humid days here
2. Uneven sidewalks - not fun with a stroller and a 3 year old who doesn't watch where she walks
3. No shoes in my size - largest womens size is an 8, maybe 8.5 US
4. Hard to find clothes in my size - usually only carry up to size L, which just barely fits here, and I know I haven't gained that much weight eating at McDonalds :)
5. Having no car to just drive around the city in, having to rely on cabs/MRT all the time
6. How rude people can be - we've been pushed, shoved, ignored - it's amazing some people can't seem to see a stroller coming right at them
7. The smells - the food, the people and the cabs. Many people here aren't into personal hygiene and it can be quite nasty to the nose and some cabs just smell awful.
8. The bathrooms - many women here squat over regular seat toilets and make a mess on the seat, it's pretty gross. Many places also won't let you flush the toilet paper down, it goes into bins and if not properly cleaned hourly, it builds up and smells nasty and looks gross since for some reason, women seem to miss the trash bin and it ends up on the floor - UGH!
9. Sometimes, not knowing what I'm ordering to eat since I can't read Chinese yet and they often don't have things translated into English (this is completely my fault because I've been lazy and haven't kept up my lessons on my own)
10. The apartment rental situation - seems every agent works with his own landlords/buildings, so you have to find the right agent to look at the right apartments in certain areas - no central database of apartment listings, very frustrating. And, some landlords will charge more for rental to a company than to an individual - which is our situation. And other landlords won't even rent to a company at all. Sucks! And it's CRAZY expensive for small places.

What I miss most, so far:
1. Super Target - I used to go there at least once a week, oh, I miss it! But our bank account sure is liking it :)
2. Chuy's - mmmm, I really could use some good Tex-Mex food
3. Outback salads with Ranch dressing - they don't use Ranch over here and I've yet to find a salad as good as the Outback or even similar. We did find some Garlic Ranch dressing in the supermarket, but have yet to actually try it.
4. Fresh Cool Air without the "city" smell to it
5. The Weather Radar Channel!!!