Nap time today with Chase:

Chase wanted to brush his teeth, I said ok since I thought it is fine to delay a bit for a good habit... then after reading a book and getting tucked in, he looks up to me and said 'Thank Jesus.'

This is the first time he has initiated praying before bedtime (we usually do prayers before nighttime and meals, not nap time) :)

So I start our prayers as usual and then asked him, what would you like to thank Jesus for?

He said "Volcano," with a smile.

So I thanked Jesus for volcanoes, and asked if there was anything else he would like to thank Jesus for...

"T-Rex!" He said with another smile :)

So we thanked Jesus for T-Rexes, and I asked again if there was anything else he would like to thank Jesus for...

and he said "mmm....Dinosaurs." Nodding his head.

So we thanked Jesus for all the wonderful Dinosaurs he created that are so interesting to learn about. And then I asked again, if he would like to thank Jesus for anything else...

"umm.... Books" pointing to the Curious George book we had just read.

Thats my boy! Loving the books :) So we thanked Jesus for fun books to read, and all the words and letters and pictures inside that make books what they are. And as we closed the prayer he said a very tired, but very emphatic sounding, 'Amen!'

I stroked his hair and sang the song I have been singing to him since he was born, and we blew kisses at each other until I turned the corner and couldn't see him anymore.

My heart is so full with love for my boy :)

The last 24 hours in Taipei

Monday was a whirlwind of shopping, packing and trying to squeeze every last thing we wanted to do.

After making sure we were as packed as possible, and the kids were asleep, Jeff and I ventured out for one last night of exploring the night markets. This time we went to the Taipei Tourist Night Market, which I did not like as much as the other two night markets we had visited... but they did have some more touristy type things and weird things, like a huge albino boa constrictor in a cage (no pics allowed), and fresh ingredients for lots of restaurants... just sitting out there!Choose your meal... Fish, crustaceans.... and not shown are turtles and baby eels... yum!
The Lantern Festival decorations were still in full force... very cool
A temple or shrine (not sure which) had some really impressive fish and other lanterns.
We stepped inside ... WOW
BTW do you like Jeff's new 'Cookie' sweatshirt? It is a Cookie Monster sweatshirt from the more shopping oriented night market we visited a few days before.... I think it is cute my hubby likes fun stuff like that, 'cause I do... and I may or may not have got Cookie Monster and Wonder Woman shirts for myself ;)

In a fancier area of town we got 'French' crepes... I got a strawberry, chocolate and whipped cream one... SOOO GOOD! And Jeff got a weird Asian one that had ham, mayo and veggies... so, not French!

YUM!

Tuesday morning I was up at 4am, finishing packing and getting ready. We had a van pick us up at 6:30am and we got to the airport with time to sit and let Mrs. Tsai get those last hugs with the kids :) ... and for Jeff to get a Whopper... ick.
While waiting for our flight on the other side of security, just about 10 min before neededing to board, Chase ran off and Jeff followed him with Ami in his arms... not a minute later I hear a cry, my baby boy's cry and walk around the corner to see Jeff hunched over at the WRONG end of the walkway! I dropped my stuff with my parents and ran over. Chase's drawstring on his pants was caught in the moving walkway under the lip of the metal end... I saw a dollar coin sized patch of blood on the metal end where the teeth are... I stepped on the walkway and almost tripped myself since it was still going, jumped off and searched frantically for the "Stop" button, found it, and Jeff (who had been kneeling at the end, holding Chase up by the arm this whole time so he wouldn't get pulled down, and holding Ami in the other arm this whole time) was able to pull Chase and his drawstring off the belt. Chase's lip looked like it had been ripped open, which it probably had, and was gushing blood (at least that's what it looked like to me). It was already swelling to twice its size and I wasn't sure if he had nocked out any teeth, thats how bloody his mouth was.

I ran with him into the bathroom and started cleaning him up, there was a cleaning lady in there that was SO helpful bringing me paper towels and thicker toilet paper... I don't know if I ever thanked her, but Cleaning Lady, if you ever read this... THANK YOU, seriously, your help was invaluable. Chase fought me cleaning him up the entire time, screaming and crying... it must have hurt for anything to touch that open wound :( But once I could see that it was only his lip that was cut open, no teeth missing, no cut on his tongue... I reminded myself that face wounds always bleed the worst, and prayed hard that he would be ok.. with no concussion.

This is making me almost sick just writing it down again... Chase was trying to go on the moving walkway like he did earlier, the right way, with Baba... but Jeff just couldn't stop him fast enough, and Chase didn't know that there was a 'wrong' way to get on the walkway :(

By the time I got around to taking a photo of his lip as we were leaving O'Hare, it looked like a pretty minor accident... 20 hours after the incident there was barely any swelling, no bruising on his face, and only three scabs.... geesh, very different from the 1/4 inch bleeding gap in his lip, the 3 times more swollen and jutting out lip, and the two smaller bleeding wounds that looked as if his upper lip had been pierced through by the metal walkway teeth. He refused to let me put ice on the wound during the first hour in the airport and then on the plane flight. I was only able to get to ice it for about 5 min in flight to Tokyo with a constant stream of tick tac bribes. Every time he would smile or pout for the first few hours he would re-open it and cry :( Not fun to deal with during travel, that's for sure. At least he is way better now.

The damage 20 hours later at O'Hare...

Seeing the kid today you would never have known he had anything happen to his mouth. No scars or anything... thank you Jesus!

So that was the eventful wrap up to a very eventful trip... it took us a full two weeks to recover from Jet-lag with the kids. I had heard Jet-lag is worse flying East... they were right.

Now we are starting to fall back into our pattern here in Chicago... thank goodness.

In other news, we will probably be closing on our new house March 25th! YAY!

Visiting Cousins, Cool Foods & Our Last Dinner Out

Finally on Saturday February 12th we met up with Jeff's cousin Sophia, her husband Rex and their two boys! We had met her younger sister Tiffany the previous weekend, stayed at her parents house in Kaohsiung and she had loaned us a stroller (because we forgot to bring one!), if that gives you any context as to why I was really looking forward to meeting her in person!

We decided to meet up and go to a children's library a little outside of Taipei but still considered within the city limits. This area is known especially for its mineral springs... Walking out of the metro station we encountered this cool water fountain/sculpture... the water raised and lowered at what seemed to be a random patter, this pic was taken when the water was spraying fairly high. There was a really cool park on our way to the library, with bridges, cool trees, and work out equipment :)

Sophia's husband Rex crossing a bridge...

Dad and Chase on the bridge, with this cool tree that was spanning the low wall.

Mom and Mrs. Tsai took their shoes of to get a foot massage walking on the pebbled walk way... in the background you can see some of the workout equipment that was scattered in stations throughout the park... in another area there were 'elliptical' type machines - all human powered with English and Chinese instructions as to how to use it and what muscles it will target... very cool!

Jeff... typical

Mom by another cool tree

We got some lunch before going to the library... I got sushi :) I *heart* Sushi YUMMY!

Unfortunately I never got pictures by the library... the grounds were very cool, and the basement was geared just for smaller kids, Chase loved it but was starting to get very squirrelly since it was about an hour past normal nap time... we had to leave after only about a half hour because I was afraid we would have a meltdown. Chase ended up falling asleep on my back in the Ergo on the train ride home, and then continued to sleep after I put him in bed at the apartment. It was a fun and full morning with family! :)

Later that night we met up with Sophia and her family again at Pizza Hut... as well as another of Mr. Tsai's brothers (I can't remember his name at the moment, I will have to check on this with Jeff). and any American who has not visited an Asian Pizza Hut wouldn't understand... these places are NICE and with great service, seriously. They have a fantastic salad bar and pizza buffet, with western things and Asian specific things like Lychee Jello and Kimchi barbeque chicken pizza. I really wanted to take a photo of that, but felt very silly as we were the only westerners in the place and keeping Chase in check was very difficult that meal... he didn't want pizza that night :( He did like the Lychee Jello though. *Sigh*

After the kids were down for the night, Jeff and I ran out to a smaller nightmarket which had more clothing and shoe places than food... which was the opposite of the first night market we visited.
Just thought I would post this photo... I guess Solvil et Titus is a Swiss watch company, who knew? I think it is fun to see my maiden name in Taiwan, of all places!

Sunday Jeff and I went to quite a few department stores just down the street from us, lots of walking, but we found lots of fun things for the kids :) I mean, who else will have a "Dough-doh" food court set that has dumpling and sushi molds? I mean that is COOL, right? Well, at least I am psyched about it, even if the kids don't care.

Sunday night we met up with Mrs. Tsai's brother and his family at a very nice Hot Pot restaurant down the street from the apartment.

Chase did great! We made sure he ate dinner before going out for dinner this time, that way he wasn't hungry and then presented with food that he didn't care to try... it worked great!

My mom and I got the vegetarian ... a whole tier of veggies, different tofus and lots of mushrooms (which, as a person who steers clear of any type of fungus, this was not my thing, but there were some cool looking ones... I just gave them all to my mom :) )

Mom and our separated hot pot, you can see all the dishes, sauces and things that were continually being brought... wow, just wow... so glad I got to try hot pot before we left! I didn't get a photo of the dessert, but it was great! A small (for an American like me) piece of fabulous chocolate cake, and two bruleed banana slices.... I HAVE to try doing this at home, it was incredible... like sugared banana chips with fresh bananas :) YUM! Even Chase ate a bruleed banana, and liked it!
Back at the apartment, I started photographing everything I had been wanting to photograph but been putting off until later... since there was only one day left I had to do it!

Jim Beam Whiskey with Chinese writing :)
Peanut butter and Jelly :)
Gum!
Ami holding her bottle and trying to feed herself... she did OK at it until it got low, and then needed help getting the final ounce or so... what a GOOD baby to drink from a bottle! So glad, since Chase wouldn't take one until he was almost 9 months old (that meant no going out for dates, or basically any type of leaving my baby for 9 months! geesh that was a long time!).
(almost) the end.

One last day to wrap up and then (FINALLY) I will have covered our trip to Taiwan! This is really mostly for me to look back on when I can't remember things, but thanks to all you who have been reading and tolerating my long winded-ness ;)