Well, Hello There Baby, Week 18!

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

Wasn't our trip to the Birthing center this morning exciting? We got a chance to take a look at our new baby! As far as the sonographer could tell, everything looks healthy and normal. Baby is weighing in at 9 oz. and has 10 fingers and 10 toes. According to Hannah, we should have 13 fingers. You counted yourself: 1,2,3,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. We know the gender of the baby, but we will hold off on telling you guys for just a few more days. We will actually be getting together with our birthing center friends for a monthly get-together and will share the news via silly string. I think it'll be a fun way for you guys to find out whether or not we will have 2 boys or 2 girls. And next week, I'll post pictures from the play-date and the readers of the blog will also get to find out which sibling will gain another ally.

Hannah is starting to ask "why" questions. Not all the time, but there are moments where the string of "why" just keeps on coming. I'm sure it has not hit its peak yet, but I know what to look forward to..."yay!" I think it's also pretty cool how I can now start to reason with you. If you do something wrong, I can usually talk to you and you understand how what you did was wrong. For example, you always like to play with your milk while eating breakfast. Whether it is when you are practicing your pour skills or milk drawing skills, or even bubble blowing skills, you almost always seem to cause some sort of mischief when left alone at the breakfast table. One morning I pretty much had it and sat down and explained how we only pour liquids in the bath tub or in the water table. You understood and you haven't done it since then. 

You are also great at following rules and directions right now. For example, when we get home every day, the first thing you do is take off your shoes and you put them back in their cubby. Or you will remind us not to step in the oily spot in the garage, and if we get close, you quickly yell out, "be careful! don't step in it!" 

Time outs are also pretty effective because you know understand cause and effect. Sometimes you are the one who reminds us that what you did deserves a time out. You basically ask us, "Do I need to go to time out?" 

For the most part, you two still play well with each other. While your games sometimes get a bit dangerous, we are trying to work on Nathan using words with Hannah instead of just running over to tattle.

Nathan had a great idea this week to play roller derby bowling. Hannah also joined in and the both of you had lots of fun skating over obstacles and knocking pins down...all in your underwear.

On Saturday, we went to an art fair and got to do lots of different things, include paint

and we even grabbed some wooden kits from home depot to complete at home. There was also live music, food trucks and other things for kids to do. We spent about an hour there, but could've easily spent 2 there.

Exactly a month ago, we put down a bunch of plant transplants from a local nursery. 

A month later, the tomato plants and basil plants have exploded!

Even though you both don't like tomatoes, everyday, one of the highlights is to come out to look at how much the tomatoes have grown and weather or not they have turned red yet. I think right now is the perfect age for gardening, because you both are able to appreciate the growth and help take care of the growing pants.

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to take a quick nap before Hannah wakes up.
Love,
Mommy

Pregnancy Week 17: Easter Egg Extravaganzas

Today marks week 17 and some change with Honey Bun #3. (S)he is about the size of a pomegranate and according to the midwife is pretty active in the uterus. We have our anatomy scan next week, so we will then get to see Baby 3 for the first time and find out whether we have have another mei mei (little sister) or didi (little brother). I think we are going to keep the secret from the kiddos a bit longer and break the news to Hannah and Nathan with some colored silly string. So, while we will find out by next week's post, I'll leave you, the reader in suspense for just one more so you can see for yourself if we will be having another prince or princess. (If I still had it my way, I'd prefer it to be a surprise, but Daddy does not want to come up with another name, and logistically, this makes things easier as far as getting rid of unnecessary stuff in the house, so I threw in the towel and we will find out our surprise early.) 

I'm feeling pretty good, still have some post nasal drip, which leads to a ticklish cough and some coughing fits at night, but I'll take it over being congested. When I have lots of sugar/glucose, it makes me very lethargic. I gave in to a few temptations over the weekend and discovered the after effects later. So, I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to escape the gestational diabetes this time around either. 

My blood test results indicated that my thyroid hormones, though still on the low side, are slowly creeping up. My HCG levels are still on the high side for this point in the pregnancy, so the endocrinologist is pretty sure that HCG is the culprit for all the crazy symptoms. This is extremely good news. 

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

I love Easter time. The weather is amazing and since this year, it fell on a later part of the year, we missed the Oak pollen season and were able to spend a lot of it outside sniffle-free. We dyed Easter eggs, which turned out really cool!  

Who knew vinegar, food coloring and water, along with some crayons could make such cool looking eggs.

We had a chance to visit the playgrounds that we haven't visited in quite a long time.

 And found wild blackberries during our afternoon walks. Our garden is growing lushly and we are starting to see some tomatoes, peppers and asparagus ferns start to grow. It's an exciting time!

I want to take a moment to tell you two how much I appreciate you. Sometimes I feel like I've lost my ability to contribute to society; that I'm living each day, going through the same routines and simply being a housewife. But I've come to realize that you two are who I am passionately in love with. To spend time with you, to teach you, to grow with you has been such a rewarding journey.

With the coming of the new baby, it seems like you two have really come to be closer to each other, like you are a team. Sure, you have your moments where you are on the brink of murdering each other, but I'm starting to see more moments like these, where you two are really communicating and embracing each others' feelings, and thoughts.

Both of you were sent to time out. You both picked the same chair and as I was waiting for an argument to break out, I heard some endearing words and then an embrace. I didn't insist that you separate for the duration of the time out because it was such a sweet moment. 

 And then another afternoon, I was so tired that I just laid down on the couch to rest and ended up falling asleep for 30 minutes. When I woke up, you two were just sitting at the dinner table playing games. I guess at some point, Hannah lost interest and was "reading" the instructions like a story, but it just warmed my heart to see you two laughing and Nathan trying to teach Hannah what to do so that you could win the game.

 And then Easter weekend came around and we went to Easter egg hunt #3: The neighborhood hunt. (#1 and #2 took place at a party, and school, respectively).

 Since we each contributed 12 eggs per kid, we told you both that you can pick up 12 eggs. Well, at the end of the hunt, Nathan only counted 11 eggs and was determined to find the 12th one. There were several moments where you ran away from us, and luckily it was contained in a relatively small area, but we had to search for you.

 Easter Egg Hunt #4. Church.
Our church puts on the most amazing Easter Celebration. Nathan took some pictures with the Easter bunny.

 Played some games in the inflatables,

 And Hannah got to pet some animals: a bunny, a chick, a guinnea pig (which you did not like at all), and another bunny.

 We participated in the never ending Easter egg hunt and Hannah quickly found the limitations to how many eggs your basket could hold.

 Nathan was able to fit 25 eggs in your vest all by yourself.

 And you both got a chance to experience a blue tongue.

 This is the first year I prepared Easter "baskets" for you and I tried to tie the presents into the actual meaning of Easter, but you can't compete with sugar and toys.

 On Sunday morning, we attended church and you guys started dancing at the perimeter of the seats. Usually, there's a toddler mosh pit at the base of the stage, but since one didn't form organically, we just started a mini one on the side.

After church, we went to a friend's house for lunch and Easter egg hunt #5. I didn't get any pictures because I left my camera at home, but you guys had a lot of fun, so much fun that Nathan started to cry when I announced that it was time to leave. I was pretty proud of my advice to you about how right now, parties all have to end at some time, but when we go to heaven, we can party all the time. That seemed to placate you and maybe helped you (and myself) understand heaven just a tiny bit more.

In life we are broken people. We get angry, we throw tantrums, we don't want to be patient; but because Christ rose from the dead, he knows and understands our brokenness. He forgives us and allows us to have everlasting life: a party that never has to end.

I love you two so much. Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Pregnancy Week 16: Holy Week Funsies

Updates with baby 3. The only pregnancy symptom (beyond my growing and now visible bump) that remains is nasal congestion. I've weaned myself off of the decongestants and cough meds at night, so I can pretty much survive without any meds, but it's still annoying to always be sniffling and coughing occasionally. I feel like I always have to explain to people that this is a pregnancy symptom because I don't want them to think that I'm sick and contagious.

 I had an appointment with an endocrinologist and after listening to my symptoms she diagnosed me with hCG induced hyperthyroidism, which usually goes away during the second trimester. This makes sense, because 2 weeks ago, I woke up distinctly feeling much better. She still had me go in and get some blood work done, but we are pretty sure that I don't have hyperthyroid disease. Man, this little baby has caused me to have some pretty strong hormone imbalances, I've read that lots of morning sickness may indicate a little girl, so here's another "clue" before we officially find out (whenever that may be). 

I should be feeling kicks anytime soon. Both Nathan and Hannah are asking questions about the baby and I always show them updates on the baby's size and what the baby may look like at this point. Technology is pretty awesome in this way. The baby is about the size of a dill pickle right now and can sense light through my tummy. He or she may even be able to hear my voice. 

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

The weather has been amazing, so we've been venturing out for short excursions in the afternoon before the little bit of pollen left in the air starts affecting us. With a renewed of energy, we've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen. 

Last Wednesday, we made Nathan's favorite Chinese "Lion's Head" meatball dish. Your friend also loves these meatballs, so she helped out as well. As you can see, two 4 year olds can make quite the mess when there is cornstarch involved. 

 We also baked up some Easter cookies. You two did a great job cutting out the shapes, peeling away the excess dough and rolling out the new dough. Surprisingly, you both are doing a pretty good job with taking turns.

 And then you both decorated your cookies with entirely too much frosting and sprinkles. Decorating on cookie sheets actually worked out so well because all the sprinkles were contained and any frosting drips were easily cleanable by simply rinsing the cookie sheet afterwards.

 On Saturday, a friend invited us over for a playdate. We had so much fun with crafts, a little story about the meaning of Easter, games, and snacks.

 We even got a chance to work together on a really cool project for VBS.

Photo credit: E. Bernhardt 

For most of the time, you two play pretty well together. Hannah just copies Nathan and plays whatever Nathan wants to play, but still needs to work on not "swiping" things from him. Hannah, when we remind you with "Hannah no swiping!" You pout a bit and reluctantly give it back most of the time. I think usually when we remind you that Nathan is playing with it first and that you can play with it after he is finished, you calm down and say, "OK."

Hannah, you recently get freaked out very easily. If you are coming down the stairs by yourself, you usually come down screaming as if someone is chasing you from behind. When you go to bed, you want us to leave the door open, so some light comes in, but you don't want to sleep with the night light. I think your imagination is starting to develop more and you are starting to imagine scary things in your head.

Slowly, Hannah, you are starting to figure out what you like. For example, one morning I asked you two if you wanted pancakes or waffles. Nathan loves pancakes, so he immediately said pancakes. I expected you to also reply with pancakes, but you surprised me with, "I like waffles. Nathan will have pancakes and I will have waffles, OK?" Now, I usually will go ahead and make only 1 thing, but since you were stating your own opinion, instead of just following along with Nathan, I went ahead and made both waffles and pancakes, (which wasn't too difficult, just altered the batter a bit) and in fact, breakfast was prepared faster because 1 waffle maker was not the limiting factor.

Both of you agreed to have strawberries in your pancakes or waffles, so I had you guys cut the strawberries while I prepared the batter.

 One morning, I took Teddy out for a walk and saw a neighbor that I haven't talked to in a long time. I stopped for awhile to chat and she asked if she could give Hannah a baby high chair that she didn't end up selling at the neighborhood garage sale. I gladly accepted and when I took it home, Hannah has been loving it. Every meal the baby sits with us.

This morning we went to an Easter/Passover party hosted by a fellow MOPS mom. She had 1,000 eggs stuffed and ready for the kids to find. Amazing! The weather couldn't have been any worse for an egg hunt (stormy) so we had it inside. It was crazy, but the kids were so excited as they raced from room to room, quickly placing eggs in their basket.

 Nathan's basket is kind of small (holds only 6-7 eggs) so you had an idea to bring your explorer vest. After the hunt we counted 24 eggs in that vest!

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm thinking we will have a pretty exciting weekend ahead of us, so I'll have more updates then. Until next week,

Love,
Mommy

Pre-schoolers' Guide to Travel in Taipei

Considering my last itinerary post to Taiwan has been visited about 1000 times by other readers, I decided I create a more updated and more of an off the beaten track type itinerary for people traveling to Taiwan with young kids. 

Hi, 

This is Hannah and Nathan. Nathan is almost 4.5 years old and Hannah is 2.5 years old. We are going to share with you all the fun things that kids like us like to do in Taipei. I believe mom will also write a post about other day trips that we've made, but we got Taipei covered. 

One of our favorite and cheap things to do is to explore the gardens at the Cheng-Kai Shek Memorial. There are little containers of fish food that you can buy for 10NT  and then you just throw them in to the water to feed all of the giant hungry koi fish.

 And if you explore the park some more, there are cool things that you find like a Rudolph on a see-saw.

 And the view! Just beautiful. We visited at the end of cherry blossom season, so there are just a few pretty flowers left on the trees.

After feeding the fish, a close walk away is a cafe with an amazing playground! It's called Mr. Big Tree's house. There's a playscape, along with an area with wooden kitchen sets where kids can play, and on top of it all, there is someone to watch us, so we don't have mom asking us if we needed to use the potty every 5 minutes. 

 There's kids' stuff going on all the time in Taipei. We stumbled across this Poli event and spent a morning playing in the pop-up amusement park.

Taipei Museum of Art
The thing we liked about the museum of art was that you were able to touch all the kids' exhibits, which were all in a separate (free area) in the basement.

 There was a sound installation where we got to make different types of music by touching different things (a personal favorite for Hannah).

 Special exhibits and we were even encouraged to sit on the indoor swing!

 And then there was a craft room where we got to make our own version of one of the pieces of art that we saw inside.

 Washi tape window mosaics.

Da-an Park

Da-an park is a mega park, like how central park is for NYC. We could easily spend an entire morning or afternoon there, as there were lots of things to climb, 

 A giant sand pit,

 And an actual playground structure with slides and tunnels (which mom didn't get a picture of). It is right next to the MRT station, so super convenient to get to. I'm not sure about restroom facilities, but we just had everyone use the potty at the MRT station before and after we visited the park.

Taipei Zoo
Riding the MRT to the zoo was an adventure in itself. Be sure to get the front car so that you can get a great view of the tracks.

I love the Taipei Zoo. The exhibits are mostly cage free and the animals all have pretty close to natural habitats to hang out in.

 Somehow we got stuck in the monkey cage.

No cages! For the larger animals, you can see them from various vantage points since their habitat space is so large.

There is also a panda house, home to 2 panda cubs.

 Danshui
At the northern most stop of the MRT red line is a fishing port called Danshui. The ride is a bit long (45 minutes) but we always find ways to entertain ourselves.

 Food on a stick is very common here, which is great because we love food on a stick! Just don't feel like you need to buy  food from the first stands that you see. I found that as you walked deeper into the shopping area, the same foods cost less.

 There are lots of things to see, like boats, and yummy food stalls, but there were also lots of arcade games that are only for little kids. It's just for us, adults are not allowed to play.

And you even win a prize! 

Strawberry Picking at BaiShaHu
Even though everything says that places open at 9:30, most of the strawberries orchards were closed by 11 because all the strawberries had been picked. So, if you want to get a good pick without having to walk too far, listen to mommy, get dressed quickly, go potty, so you can arrive early.

 We eventually found one place that was open and got a pretty good supply of strawberries.

 At a price...who knew pick your own strawberries would be so costly. 4 pints of strawberries cost us about 600NT ($20) Oh well, they were very yummy.

Taipei Science and Technology Museum Basement

The regular exhibits are pretty cool for kids to explore, but when we were buying our tickets, the ladies at the counter told us about the basement area for toddlers. We planned on spending about an hour there and then would go upstairs to explore the exhibits...We ended up spending 3.5 hours playing. The toddler's area is open in sessions (like many of the play areas in Taiwan). For 100 NT, I think it was a good deal for an indoor play session. So for a rainy day, visit the basement of the Taipei Science and Technology Museum.

Evergreen Maritime Museum

This place was interesting for both the adults and kids. Each floor had something different, from models of boats starting from early canoes, to the modern warships that are used today. No photos were allowed in there, but we managed to take a few in the more public areas where they were allowed. 

There were also interactive video games where you could steer a sail boat.

And a small blocks area where we spent a good 30 minutes at.

I'd say you could easily spend about 2-3 hours at this place. There's just so much to see.

R.O.C. Armed Forces Museum

This is pretty close to Ximending and we rushed through everything in 45 minutes. I'd say allow yourself about twice that amount if you are interested in military and gun stuff. We saw about 3/4 of the exhibits. This place was free.

Night Markets 

Strollers at a night market will be tough to maneuver, especially in Taipei. However, if you go to night markets in kaoshiung, they are much wider and spaced out. Then, you can bring a stroller. 

There's just so much to see, smell and taste at the night market. Pretty much sensory overload. Mommy and Daddy let us pick out whatever looked yummy to us (regardless of its nutritional value). Just beware if you have peanut allergies like me, because it seems like almost everything can be contaminated or had peanuts as an ingredient. (Even the grilled corn) 

We loved the fishing activity. Mommy didn't let us take the fish home, though.

Stinky tofu is actually not too bad.

 Themed Restaurants
We went to the Modern toilet restaurant one day for lunch. It was so cool!  The food was nothing to write home about, but it wasn't bad. We got to sit on decorated potties and the real potty in the bathroom had water that sprays your butt! It was a silly day.

 For dessert, you get chocolate ice cream.

Fruits 

Taiwan has the most amazing assortment of fruits year round. When you go, just stop by one of the fruit stands and pick up something that looks good. I, Hannah really loved dragon fruit. 

 I love this fruit. It's like eating ice cream.

I, Hannah also discovered that I like sushi. We were walking along the street and I told mommy that "I want to try that!" 

Here's a brief note from mommy:
With nap schedules and transit times, this should be a good list of things for families with young children. There are more places like baby boss and taipei 101, but there are several blogs that write about those. These are just a few of the more off-the-beaten track things to do. Feel free to message below with questions about transportation or any of that sort. I hope this was helpful.

Taking little ones on international travel is not the most convenient thing to do, but you really provide them with such a rich experience. The food, culture, everything...is simply irreplaceable.