We also took a trip to see Santa and like the snow he didn't quite know what to make of the old guy. At least he didn't cry.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
First Snow and Santa
Here in New England we finally got our first real snow (not counting the October 16th weird storm). At first he didn't really know what to make of it but he had a lot of fun throwing snow balls. We can't wait to get out the sled this year.
We also took a trip to see Santa and like the snow he didn't quite know what to make of the old guy. At least he didn't cry.
We also took a trip to see Santa and like the snow he didn't quite know what to make of the old guy. At least he didn't cry.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Finally, an update!
Sorry for the lack of blogging. We can't believe it's been two months since we've been home with Tyler. It feels like he's been part of our lives forever.
Tyler is doing excellent. He loves to eat everything in sight! Especially chicken, spinach, strawberries (also known as straw-babies), bananas and ice cream. His English is excellent-- the most recent three word sentence being "watch out Jenna".
We've done a lot with him and most of the events are outlined in the six minute slide show below. For Halloween he dressed as Elmo-- one of his favorite Sesame Characters.
Tyler is doing excellent. He loves to eat everything in sight! Especially chicken, spinach, strawberries (also known as straw-babies), bananas and ice cream. His English is excellent-- the most recent three word sentence being "watch out Jenna".
We've done a lot with him and most of the events are outlined in the six minute slide show below. For Halloween he dressed as Elmo-- one of his favorite Sesame Characters.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Home
The last day in Taipei all we did was pick up our finalized travel documents and nothing inspiring really happened so we didn’t blog. I don’t want to fill this blog with average diaper stories and turn this into the last season of Seinfeld. The blog as of the time I am writing this has over 12 thousand hits. I realize that half of these are our parents, but still, that is a lot! When we started our second trip I notice about 4 thousand hits.
The week’s build up of anxiety over spending 24 hours traveling with a 2 ½ year old turns out was completely warranted. Two days later Sara is still pestering me about the 3 hours I got to sleep compared to her shabby 2. I’ll more than likely be hearing about this disparity for years.
Everything started out great. Our preferential treatment continued and United Airlines upgraded us for free to some middle tier seats. The extra 4 inches of legroom was amazing and easily turned what could have been 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep into a solid 3 hours.
The trip could have been worse, but not much. Ty never wanted to sleep, fussed during every take off, refused to wear his seat belt, and was not at all entertained by the in flight movies. He did enjoy systematically navigating the plane isles and turning on most everyone’s overhead light. From time to time when he turned on the light of a sleeping passenger he would turn to us, put his finger over his mouth, and ssssshhh. Very polite, I must say.
Tyler also exposed himself and a nose picker with eating potential. When I first saw it go down I rationalized it away as an accident. The second incident was of substantial size and elasticity. The way he cleaned that finger off there could be no doubt.
We came home to find a giant welcome home banner with balloons across the doorway. The banner and the 4 hour nap are starting to make us feel at home again. Here is a recap with the pictures.
This is a view of Taipei from the train. Imagine some sections like Manhatten, toss in a little Central Falls, then a good helping of the Carribean when you leave your all-inclusive resort and you got it.
A look at Tyler’s going away party. Note the sweating back on the nanny to the right. I told you it was hot.
Day one…when the slinky was still fun.
Day two…typing in good form.
Carnie like skills. Circus Folk. Small hands.
Tyler was afraid to go in the water. In retrospect and in observing this picture it may have been my unruly chest hair that was scaring him off.
He seems rather smart despite this picture.
Sara got him onto the first step of the pool after me and my Austin Powers chest hair were removed.
If you look carefully you can see the spit up on Sara’s back. Good times.
Tyler and Sara in front of Taipei 101.
Obligatory brand placement.
Napping position.
Climbing on everything.
Time for some car shopping in the hotel lobby.
Pre-flight prep talk.
Let the fun begin.
For those that don’t know us that well, this is Sara’s pissed at Justin face.
See, I helped!
Tyler took a turn with the camera.
Back in the United States loving his first confined car seat ride. If you recall no seat belts, much less car seats for the most part in Taiwan.
Home at last.
The last day in Taipei all we did was pick up our finalized travel documents and nothing inspiring really happened so we didn’t blog. I don’t want to fill this blog with average diaper stories and turn this into the last season of Seinfeld. The blog as of the time I am writing this has over 12 thousand hits. I realize that half of these are our parents, but still, that is a lot! When we started our second trip I notice about 4 thousand hits.
The week’s build up of anxiety over spending 24 hours traveling with a 2 ½ year old turns out was completely warranted. Two days later Sara is still pestering me about the 3 hours I got to sleep compared to her shabby 2. I’ll more than likely be hearing about this disparity for years.
Everything started out great. Our preferential treatment continued and United Airlines upgraded us for free to some middle tier seats. The extra 4 inches of legroom was amazing and easily turned what could have been 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep into a solid 3 hours.
The trip could have been worse, but not much. Ty never wanted to sleep, fussed during every take off, refused to wear his seat belt, and was not at all entertained by the in flight movies. He did enjoy systematically navigating the plane isles and turning on most everyone’s overhead light. From time to time when he turned on the light of a sleeping passenger he would turn to us, put his finger over his mouth, and ssssshhh. Very polite, I must say.
Tyler also exposed himself and a nose picker with eating potential. When I first saw it go down I rationalized it away as an accident. The second incident was of substantial size and elasticity. The way he cleaned that finger off there could be no doubt.
We came home to find a giant welcome home banner with balloons across the doorway. The banner and the 4 hour nap are starting to make us feel at home again. Here is a recap with the pictures.
This is a view of Taipei from the train. Imagine some sections like Manhatten, toss in a little Central Falls, then a good helping of the Carribean when you leave your all-inclusive resort and you got it.
A look at Tyler’s going away party. Note the sweating back on the nanny to the right. I told you it was hot.
Day one…when the slinky was still fun.
Day two…typing in good form.
Carnie like skills. Circus Folk. Small hands.
Tyler was afraid to go in the water. In retrospect and in observing this picture it may have been my unruly chest hair that was scaring him off.
He seems rather smart despite this picture.
Sara got him onto the first step of the pool after me and my Austin Powers chest hair were removed.
If you look carefully you can see the spit up on Sara’s back. Good times.
Tyler and Sara in front of Taipei 101.
Obligatory brand placement.
Napping position.
Climbing on everything.
Time for some car shopping in the hotel lobby.
Pre-flight prep talk.
Let the fun begin.
For those that don’t know us that well, this is Sara’s pissed at Justin face.
See, I helped!
Tyler took a turn with the camera.
Back in the United States loving his first confined car seat ride. If you recall no seat belts, much less car seats for the most part in Taiwan.
Home at last.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Use your words
Tyler seems to be picking up English words pretty quickly. The first words this two year old learned are “no, no, no”. He confirms his understanding by accompanying his mimicked renditions of “no, no, no” with a finger wave and a smile for defiant emphasis.
I would calculate generously that 75% of the time when we need to say no to him he stops on his own accord. The remaining 25% end badly in some shape or form.
Because we have been eating most of our meals take out in our room, Tyler knows me as the man that comes with bags of food. I am generally greeted with him smiling and running to me. There are a lot of food options nearby so we have been able to get a good taste of things. We supplemented one meal for him with some gold fish crackers. Dexterity is not a problem for this kid, he was able to use chop sticks to eat several little gold fish. We have some pictures we will post later to prove this to the non believers.
We did go out to eat last night. The table and surrounding five foot radius looked like a rice bomb went off. I think he tricked us during our first trip into thinking he was a neat eater who was very attentive to our wishes. Either way I bought a double sized bottle of Cabernet to take the edge off bed time drama. For me, not him, relax!
I would calculate generously that 75% of the time when we need to say no to him he stops on his own accord. The remaining 25% end badly in some shape or form.
Because we have been eating most of our meals take out in our room, Tyler knows me as the man that comes with bags of food. I am generally greeted with him smiling and running to me. There are a lot of food options nearby so we have been able to get a good taste of things. We supplemented one meal for him with some gold fish crackers. Dexterity is not a problem for this kid, he was able to use chop sticks to eat several little gold fish. We have some pictures we will post later to prove this to the non believers.
We did go out to eat last night. The table and surrounding five foot radius looked like a rice bomb went off. I think he tricked us during our first trip into thinking he was a neat eater who was very attentive to our wishes. Either way I bought a double sized bottle of Cabernet to take the edge off bed time drama. For me, not him, relax!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Taipei 101
The new room has a view and is directly across the street from Taipei 101 which I was excited to find out has a KFC as well as being the world’s tallest building. See the link below.
Worlds Tallest Building Link
At 10 o’clock as we are fighting Tyler, literally fighting, to go to bed, it sounds like bombs going off outside our window. I scramble to the shades to see that every tier of Taipei 101 has ridiculously large fireworks shooting off. Some of these explosions seem to be coming right for us because we are on the 16th floor of our hotel. It was really nice to watch and it wasn’t like the fireworks set us back on getting Ty to bed. We were losing the battle at the time anyway. Here is a youtube video from a different night. The display we saw was much shorter so watch the first minute but notice the hotel in the lower right and you can see the rockets heading right for us.
Taipei 101 fireworks link
I was able to hold off for a few days but Sara and I decided it was time for KFC. Taiwan KFC’s have calamari as a side order instead of mashed potatoes….how great is that!
Tyler is definitely having some separation anxieties. Luckily he has bonded with Sara. Ty followers Sara around like a puppy and cries if he loses sight of her. The first trip to Taiwan this was not the case but he definitely understands to some extent he is leaving his nannies and friends behind. On the plus side he only wants Sara to change his dirty diapers so it’s not like he hates me or anything.
Worlds Tallest Building Link
At 10 o’clock as we are fighting Tyler, literally fighting, to go to bed, it sounds like bombs going off outside our window. I scramble to the shades to see that every tier of Taipei 101 has ridiculously large fireworks shooting off. Some of these explosions seem to be coming right for us because we are on the 16th floor of our hotel. It was really nice to watch and it wasn’t like the fireworks set us back on getting Ty to bed. We were losing the battle at the time anyway. Here is a youtube video from a different night. The display we saw was much shorter so watch the first minute but notice the hotel in the lower right and you can see the rockets heading right for us.
Taipei 101 fireworks link
I was able to hold off for a few days but Sara and I decided it was time for KFC. Taiwan KFC’s have calamari as a side order instead of mashed potatoes….how great is that!
Tyler is definitely having some separation anxieties. Luckily he has bonded with Sara. Ty followers Sara around like a puppy and cries if he loses sight of her. The first trip to Taiwan this was not the case but he definitely understands to some extent he is leaving his nannies and friends behind. On the plus side he only wants Sara to change his dirty diapers so it’s not like he hates me or anything.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Saturday Adventures
We got a call from Grace, our translator from the first trip, that we were in one of the largest multi-city Taiwan newspapers. Apparently it is very flattering according to the concierge who tracked down the article for us. We’ll need to get it fully translated when we get home so that we can make sure that is the case.
Our 15 minutes of Taiwanese fame has scored us a free room upgrade from the Hotel. We are now in a large suite with the best view available where fresh cut flowers and little gifts for Tyler were left. The second big plasma TV is the den is not necessary but we will deal.
We spent the morning at the pool. Tyler enjoyed getting his feet wet and throwing toys at me in the water. However, he was not brave enough to get in the water even with Sara holding him. He definitely trusts Sara more than me at this point. When he is uncomfortable or tired he is all over her. Basically he is a tiny version of me.
He was clearly tired but refused to nap when we got back from the pool. After a good deal of coddling, Sara decided she needed a shower. He stared at her, face against the glass shower door, to the point that I was getting uncomfortable. I was half expecting him to start whistling and clapping. When I tried to explain to him that he didn’t have enough dollar bills for that kind of view and remove him he put up a good fight. He’s definitely a hand full and then some.
Note to other first time parents. Swim diapers that slide up instead of unfold like normal ones add an additional layer of difficulty for changing when they include a double sized deuce.
P.S. Sara forgot the cord to download the pictures to the computer. I haven’t been able to locate a replacement. We may have to wait until we get home to post all the pictures.
Our 15 minutes of Taiwanese fame has scored us a free room upgrade from the Hotel. We are now in a large suite with the best view available where fresh cut flowers and little gifts for Tyler were left. The second big plasma TV is the den is not necessary but we will deal.
We spent the morning at the pool. Tyler enjoyed getting his feet wet and throwing toys at me in the water. However, he was not brave enough to get in the water even with Sara holding him. He definitely trusts Sara more than me at this point. When he is uncomfortable or tired he is all over her. Basically he is a tiny version of me.
He was clearly tired but refused to nap when we got back from the pool. After a good deal of coddling, Sara decided she needed a shower. He stared at her, face against the glass shower door, to the point that I was getting uncomfortable. I was half expecting him to start whistling and clapping. When I tried to explain to him that he didn’t have enough dollar bills for that kind of view and remove him he put up a good fight. He’s definitely a hand full and then some.
Note to other first time parents. Swim diapers that slide up instead of unfold like normal ones add an additional layer of difficulty for changing when they include a double sized deuce.
P.S. Sara forgot the cord to download the pictures to the computer. I haven’t been able to locate a replacement. We may have to wait until we get home to post all the pictures.
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