Back to the Daily Grind

We are back home in Taipei. Got back 2 weeks ago, when a typhoon was hitting the island! Of course, what else would be expected of us. I swear we just attract the water. We landed in Tokyo and waited the storm out there for a few hours. They told us it would be a bumpy ride (I was really hoping we would just stay the night in Tokyo) but they were going to fly us in on the backside of the storm. The flight really wasn’t that bad and I managed to sleep through the majority of it, so that was good. We got back pretty late at night, I think around midnight. The girls took a long time getting back to schedule. Elizabeth figured out how to climb out of her crib the first night we were back! So, everytime she woke up, she headed into our room or the living room to play. It was quite frustrating. She’s still waking up super early – between 5 and 6 am, but at least Ashley is finally back to sleeping all night.

We had a great time back home in the States and really enjoyed seeing family and friends. I got to celebrate my birthday with everyone, so that was wonderful. The girls really had fun with the grandparents (thanks granddad for the pool!). It was great staying in our house and we felt completely comfortable there. I was sad that it was such a short visit – 2.5 weeks just isn’t enough time to see everyone and spend quality time with all. It also isn’t enough time to get kids adjusted to the time zone difference and then do it all over again on the way back. UGH. That is the one thing that really bites about traveling with them.

Ashley is back in school – for summer session. It’s a smaller group and she’s got the “baby” class in with her class. When she started going back, she asked why her school was different and said she didn’t like it. I explained to her that it’s different because there are some new kids and lots of kids are still in the States visiting family and that the whole school is all in one classroom for now. They are remodeling the upstairs where they had some water damage from the last typhoon – so the two classes that were upstairs are downstairs for now. She seemed to understand all this and then was fine with her “different” school. They have outings once a week and do cooking, music and gymnastics during the summer session, so she actually is enjoying herself. Today, they made sushi – not that she would eat any of it, but she did have fun making it. I went to pick her up and she was sitting eating pretzels while the rest of the class ate sushi. At least she was eating something, right?!