A Car, A Car
I can’t believe its December already! Time just flies by so fast. We haven’t really done much of interest lately. On Monday, Ashley woke up coughing and said her throat hurt – so she stayed home with me all day. After her nap, she was fine and wasn’t coughing anymore – nor was she even acting in the least bit sick. It was a long day with both girls, but we managed. I don’t even remember most of the day or what we even did that evening – that’s what happens when you have children – they zap your memory.
Tuesday was a good day. Ashley went to school, not too happily, she was crying when I was leaving. Miss Christy said she stopped after about two minutes, not long at all. During Liz’s nap, I had an interview with a Chinese Language School to see where I’m at with the language for learning. The director of this school is very nice and she had great things to say about Anthony’s Chinese speaking ability – she said he’s wonderful and speaks very well. I told her not to expect that from me – I definitely don’t have the natural ability he does to pick up a language. It will be good to start taking lessons again; I’ll be having two lessons a week starting next week, with the instructor coming to the house during Liz’s nap. After school, we walked over to a small mall near us, New York New York 2, and did a little shopping. They have a GEANT store, which is similar to a Target or Walmart (except for the prices) and I thought they might have some Christmas decorations – no such luck. We haven’t done any Christmas decorating yet since we didn’t ship any of our Christmas stuff and it’s not too easy to find here. I did get three shirts for the girls on the kid’s floor of the mall though – 3 for $500 NT – that’s dirt cheap here. We stopped at bakery to get some bread and Ashley was hungry so I got her a sausage wrap – fresh from the oven – both girls LOVED it. Bakeries sell many different types of bread here – with lots of strange things in them. Usually they don’t like anything I buy, except plain bread, but they liked this.
When Anthony got home, we headed off to National Taiwan University to see if we could buy tickets to a futsal game for today. We made it there, although at the opposite end of the campus from where the arena is. So we walked through the university campus to get there. We walked through the sports area, with basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts, rock climbing wall, swings, etc. It was packed with people. We found the sports arena where the futsal championships are being held, but they don’t sell tickets there until right before the game, which is tonight, Wednesday. So we jumped back in a cab and went to Chili’s for dinner. MMMM…
Today was playgroup day. I took Ashley to school this morning and it was a bit hectic. If we had lots of days like today, I would swear off ever having any more children. Ashley was just whiny, crying, upset, not moving, pouty, etc. Anthony stayed home late to help me get her to school. She kept saying she didn’t want to go, she wanted to stay home all day with me. I was not handling it very well, debating what to do. If we take her out of school, I don’t think it would be good for her or for me. She needs to have a structured environment with other kids her age. If we do ½ days, then I spend the afternoon fighting with her over lunch and taking a nap and we both end up miserable and tired. So, we just have to keep trying – see if we can make it fun for her to go to school. Once we got her there though, she was fine. As soon as she saw the street her school is on, she got excited and pointed out her school and ran there. Once inside, she showed me the hamster and we did puzzles together. She kept telling me not to leave – so I hung around and told her to tell me when she was ready. She went off and started doing her own thing, so I went over to her and said “hey, you forgot to say goodbye” and she looked up, gave me hug and kiss and said goodbye. That was easy. Too bad getting her there wasn’t as simple. I’m reading a book right now called “Playful Parenting” – which I highly recommend. It’s a great book about how to play with your kids, which may seem easy and natural for some (like Anthony), but not to easy or natural for me. I have a hard time playing with Ashley, and I feel like I’m always telling her what to do or what not to do. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s given me some good ideas for being with her and to make things into games, especially if she’s being difficult. So I need to come up with some way to make going to school into a game.
Angie saw me walking home from school, she said I didn’t look happy and looked like I was mumbling to myself – I probably was, talking to myself about dealing with Ashley. She came over and we hung out for a little while and then went to playgroup at DaAn park. It’s a nice park with a sand pit – although the sand pit isn’t really refined sand, it has some pretty large chunks of rock in it, so Liz didn’t like the feel of it. There’s a kids area, but the actual playground equipment is for much older kids and Liz is so adventurous I was constantly trying to prevent her form injuring herself. Didn’t get to chat too much with the other moms, but it was nice getting out anyway.
We got our car today. I’ll take some pictures when I get a chance and post them. They delivered it to Anthony at work, so he’s driving it home this evening – he’ll be leaving early so he will miss rush hour and so it will be light out. We won’t be driving at night until we get used to driving during the day. I’m very excited to have a vehicle now!
I’ve posted a lot of new pictures on the pictures website – some of our weekend hike and the field trip Ashley’s school went out – check them out when you can.
http://community.webshots.com/user/akaearmstrong
Tuesday was a good day. Ashley went to school, not too happily, she was crying when I was leaving. Miss Christy said she stopped after about two minutes, not long at all. During Liz’s nap, I had an interview with a Chinese Language School to see where I’m at with the language for learning. The director of this school is very nice and she had great things to say about Anthony’s Chinese speaking ability – she said he’s wonderful and speaks very well. I told her not to expect that from me – I definitely don’t have the natural ability he does to pick up a language. It will be good to start taking lessons again; I’ll be having two lessons a week starting next week, with the instructor coming to the house during Liz’s nap. After school, we walked over to a small mall near us, New York New York 2, and did a little shopping. They have a GEANT store, which is similar to a Target or Walmart (except for the prices) and I thought they might have some Christmas decorations – no such luck. We haven’t done any Christmas decorating yet since we didn’t ship any of our Christmas stuff and it’s not too easy to find here. I did get three shirts for the girls on the kid’s floor of the mall though – 3 for $500 NT – that’s dirt cheap here. We stopped at bakery to get some bread and Ashley was hungry so I got her a sausage wrap – fresh from the oven – both girls LOVED it. Bakeries sell many different types of bread here – with lots of strange things in them. Usually they don’t like anything I buy, except plain bread, but they liked this.
When Anthony got home, we headed off to National Taiwan University to see if we could buy tickets to a futsal game for today. We made it there, although at the opposite end of the campus from where the arena is. So we walked through the university campus to get there. We walked through the sports area, with basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts, rock climbing wall, swings, etc. It was packed with people. We found the sports arena where the futsal championships are being held, but they don’t sell tickets there until right before the game, which is tonight, Wednesday. So we jumped back in a cab and went to Chili’s for dinner. MMMM…
Today was playgroup day. I took Ashley to school this morning and it was a bit hectic. If we had lots of days like today, I would swear off ever having any more children. Ashley was just whiny, crying, upset, not moving, pouty, etc. Anthony stayed home late to help me get her to school. She kept saying she didn’t want to go, she wanted to stay home all day with me. I was not handling it very well, debating what to do. If we take her out of school, I don’t think it would be good for her or for me. She needs to have a structured environment with other kids her age. If we do ½ days, then I spend the afternoon fighting with her over lunch and taking a nap and we both end up miserable and tired. So, we just have to keep trying – see if we can make it fun for her to go to school. Once we got her there though, she was fine. As soon as she saw the street her school is on, she got excited and pointed out her school and ran there. Once inside, she showed me the hamster and we did puzzles together. She kept telling me not to leave – so I hung around and told her to tell me when she was ready. She went off and started doing her own thing, so I went over to her and said “hey, you forgot to say goodbye” and she looked up, gave me hug and kiss and said goodbye. That was easy. Too bad getting her there wasn’t as simple. I’m reading a book right now called “Playful Parenting” – which I highly recommend. It’s a great book about how to play with your kids, which may seem easy and natural for some (like Anthony), but not to easy or natural for me. I have a hard time playing with Ashley, and I feel like I’m always telling her what to do or what not to do. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s given me some good ideas for being with her and to make things into games, especially if she’s being difficult. So I need to come up with some way to make going to school into a game.
Angie saw me walking home from school, she said I didn’t look happy and looked like I was mumbling to myself – I probably was, talking to myself about dealing with Ashley. She came over and we hung out for a little while and then went to playgroup at DaAn park. It’s a nice park with a sand pit – although the sand pit isn’t really refined sand, it has some pretty large chunks of rock in it, so Liz didn’t like the feel of it. There’s a kids area, but the actual playground equipment is for much older kids and Liz is so adventurous I was constantly trying to prevent her form injuring herself. Didn’t get to chat too much with the other moms, but it was nice getting out anyway.
We got our car today. I’ll take some pictures when I get a chance and post them. They delivered it to Anthony at work, so he’s driving it home this evening – he’ll be leaving early so he will miss rush hour and so it will be light out. We won’t be driving at night until we get used to driving during the day. I’m very excited to have a vehicle now!
I’ve posted a lot of new pictures on the pictures website – some of our weekend hike and the field trip Ashley’s school went out – check them out when you can.
http://community.webshots.com/user/akaearmstrong
posted by The Armstrongs at
12/01/2004
