Fall in Taiwan

I had to post these to combat all the fall pictures and comments from back home. We found these HUGE leaves at the park, and so we brought them home to draw on. (I tried to teach her leaf rubbings, but she liked darwing on them with markers instead)

It's sort of fall here. The temperature is down to about 26 instead of 36. All the trees are still green; leaves fall all year and are replaced all year. They actually have city workers who go around every morning and sweep up the leaves from the streets. IIts easy to see how leaves of that size could cause lots of problems if left to accumulate. Anyway, Happy Fall!

10/10

Happy Birthday, Taiwan!

-Diner for brunch
-Sand park for the afternoon
-Nap!
-Fruit ice with the Wu's and some flag pictures. Enjoy!

Thanks for the pics, Andy!

Talk Talk Talk

I wish I had the video camera handy during some of our conversations today. She is really taking off with this talking business. Tonight before bed she was going on and on, I'll try to summarize:

Daddy go airplane visit CANADA!!! Daddy visit come, Gemma hug, give Gemma hug, K. Bownen come visit Gemma Canada, airplane, come, Bownen, ok.

And on and on. She says Bowen like Bow-nen, so I spelled it like that. She is talking lots about Daddy and the airplane because that's where daddy went, she added the Canada part by herself, and Daddy this and that and see Daddy Ok, see Dadddy, Daddy see Gemma airplane, Ok. She totally stole the phone from me to talk to Mikala; "Gemma have it, no Mommy talk, Gemma talk, Hi Auntie Kala, JUMP bed, doing? " It was so funny. She is also doing the "What's that?" now, to everything, and amazing me with her words. Like today she heard a loud bang and asked me what it was and I said "I don't know, Gemma, it's a ..." and I tried to think of a word she knew, and she filled it in all on her own; "Noise!" I didn't know she knew 'noise'. She is chiming in with the TV songs and her DVDs, counting...In English she does one two three over and over, in Chinese she does seven eight nine over and over.

Another 'trick' she pulled out of nowhere today; she was giving me a hard time; didn't want to bath and get dressed, etc, so when we were finally done she was standing on her dresser (change table, where I was pulling her pants up; she wasn't just standing on her dresser) she plugged her ears with her fingers and said "No Mommy!" and pretended she couldn't hear me. It was SOO funny, I have no idea where she got that from. Anyway, she is acting like a real turkey just in time for Thanksgiving.

Family Date

Chris left today for Hawaii (for work, not play, so don't get so excited!) so we had a family date yesterday, taking Gemma to a children's museum downtown (Thanks Heather for the tip). It was really fun, so many activities and all interactive, hands on stuff. There was a firetruck, digger, and motorcycles to climb on, dress up stuff and a theatre, painting, coloring, blocks of all shapes and sizes. We were there for about an hour and a half and she ran all over, trying everything for 10 seconds then moving on. Activities that lasted long were the firetruck and the painting. Short activities were dress up and some blocks. She's not into dress up yet, but we managed one awesome picture. I really liked the real grocery store, where you could actually take items off the shelf, put them in your basket, take them to the checkout and ring them out. The till would beep and ring, and give a total at the end, opening the money drawer and everything. Very fun.

Boing Boing...Bunny!

We saw a poster in the post office of a lady wearing bunny ears, so when we got home we had to make some.




She kept saying bunny ears, and then today she added the boing boing part. Her talking is so amazing; she is answering why questions and using sound words and adjectives. Like yesterday Adrienne came over, biking in the rain. When she got here she asked Gemma, "What's wrong with my pants?" and Gemma says, "Wet!" Adrienne then asked, "Why are they wet?" and Gemma goes, "Raining!"

Peopled Out

Our girl hit her people limit this weekend.

Poor Chris was supposed to come, and watch her for half days. (They had babysitting for half of the day) but he was feeling so rough and hardly been out of bed by that point we thought it better he stay home and recover rather than make the trip with us. So Gemma spent the whole day in childcare with people she didn't really know (except lunch hour with me). Friday she handled very well, but today she cried and cried until one of her regular babysitters from home showed up and took her away. In the afternoon they watched a movie so she was ok, but just clung on the lap of the sitter until I got there. The rest of the time even with me was hard, too, because everyone there is a friend and wanted to say Hi to her, and touch her hair, and be really friendly to her, and she just is not into that. Everyone was very understanding when I explained to them why she says 'No Touch!' and hides from that, so that was fortunate. I did my best to protect her and spent the whole evening Friday night and the whole bus ride home being very attentive to her and giving her lots of personal attention. I am happy she has boundaries and that she knows to say 'No' and stand up for herself.

Tonight we had a party to stop by at, and I just held her tight and tried to keep everyone away. She did warm up at the end; I think respecting her space allowed to get comfortable first and then she could come out a bit. She put on a great show for a friend's video camera, hopefully it will be up on facebook soon.

Parents need to protect their kids, on so many levels. This would be a great sentence starter for an essay. Our biggest challenge here is protecting Gemma's personal space. This picture is from our weekend at GreenBay; a picture of people taking a picture of Gemma.

Almost Better

Went back to the doctor (again) this morning. He asked first thing, "So you were admitted to the hospital?" and I was glad to report NO. She is much better, he is very happy with her today, said the cough will get better in a few days and the danger is over. Unfortunately we got more awful medicine. Sigh. I gave it to her twice in the night, which still leaves two day time doses. So that stinks. She was still pretty blah today, but I think too the three days of rain and being stuck inside are getting to her. We've been watching too much TV! (Or is there such a thing as too much TV when you are sick and the weather stinks?)

Gemma not so sick!

Although the medicine tasted like poison, it must be good because she hardly coughed at all last night, thus saving herself a trip to the hospital. Every five hours was torture though; me holding her and pinning her arms, trying to get my finger between her teeth so she couldn't spit it out, trying to somehow get most of the 2ml down her throat and then as quickly as possible using the facecloth to wipe her tongue and teeth. (It's amazing how much 2 mililitres is when you are trying to force it down the throat of a toddler.) She wouldn't drink or eat anything after because everything tastes so bad after that toxic waste in your mouth, but after a few minutes she got over it an carried on. The night time ones were the best, because she is so tired and groggy she can hardly fight and just drifts back off to sleep. My clothes for the day are covered in spots of it, her pyjamas stained...BUT she is better and that is what is the main thing. We'll go for a checkup tomorrow or Tuesday and make sure all is well. (PLease, God, don't let him give us more of that stuff).

It makes my heart just ache for parents of children with something really awful, like cancer. I can't imagine having to send her off in a hospital for chemo, painful to receive and the sickness that goes with it, and side effects, and how long that goes on for. This was only two days, not two months or two years as I'm sure some poor little people suffer for.

Her cough is like a real cough now, not barky. She ate today, too.

In this experience I've spent more nighttime hours awake with her than I have in a long time. She is the cutest sleep mumbler, because her vocabulary is so small and she still speaks only in two or three word phrases, so while she's sleeping she'll just utter single words: cookie, truck, ok, light, etc... Just so random and it that little night voice. It was so cute. Just now she was drifting off to sleep and an ambulance went by and she said, "garbage." Any truck that sings is a garbage truck, something we're working on, but it was so precious.

Also precious, I brought home a kids singalong DVD of Christian classics sung by totally cheesy kids in elastic waistband brightly colored and patterned outfits, bobbing their heads back and forth and moving their mouths so wide (and not with the music) they look ridiculous to anyone over the age of... Well, all the adults thought it was silly. But Gemma LOVES it. And tonight she was in the bath and it was playing in the background, and all of a sudden she starts yelling "No No NO" and I was like 'what the?' but then Chris drew my attention to what the song playing was: This little light of mine. and you know the part Hide it under a bushel? "NO" , well thats what she was yelling. It was so cute. She can also say the "You come down!" part of Zaccheus, pointing up, and Clap your hands, stomp feet and say amen for If you're happy and you know it.

We love to sing!

And when she was sick...

she was very very sick!

So my daughter has once again sprung a major illness with little warning.

She's been eating poorly all week. (That was the warning. Not a very good one, because every meal is a prolonged combination of begging, waiting, and trickery already). Then on Friday she was really lethargic and mopey. Check her temp: 39. (uhh, about 102.) Great, I thought, we all remember what happened last time her temp was 39. So we tried to be calm and unparanoid, gave her tylenol and tried to ride it out. By the evening she had this barking cough, and was very lethargic. Temp 39.4. More tylenol, but it doesn't help much. So at 9am we went to the doctor. We found a new doctor very close to our house, a pediatrician who speaks English. So that was a bonus. We were the first ones there so there was no wait. He asked the usual questions, and I told him about the septicemia what she had in the summer and then he got really concerned. He looked at her throat and right away could see she had very bad tonsilits. This is how he explained it to be; her upper airway has tonsilitis, her mid airway has laryngitis, so we need to try and stop it from going into her lower airway, which would be pnemonia. Then I was chastised for not getting her her pnemonia vaccine (which we were supposed to do after the summer thing but haven't yet. She has every vaccination in the book except that one and that is the only one she apparently needs) Then he said it was very 'lousy' that we didn't bring her in sooner, because the infection is pretty bad. She is just a happy kid. She never complains, she never fusses or acts sick. But from now on as soon as she goes on a hunger strike I will take her temperature. She is obviously not eating because her throat is sore, not to be a pain in my butt. Anyway, he said if her temp and cough get any worse she'll have to be admitted to the hospital, but for now go home and try this medicine. He gave us a concoction that tastes worse than poison (imagine the flavour of fishermen's friends with twice the strength of Buckley's. It's that bad.) So in the afternoon, her fever went away right away, but her cough got worse. It was so hoarse, and then she would have a coughing fit where it sounded like she couldn't get her breath back; she would wheeze and wheeze and it would last for several minutes. So we went back to his office, and he said her laryngitis is very bad; thats what making the weird sounds when she coughs, and it could get worse, and if it does we definitely have to go to the hospital right away. He filled out a pre-admittence form to take home, mixed a new concoction for her to take with something in it to make her larynyx relax more, and home we went. PRAISE THE LORD she slept really well and didn't cough hardly at all. Hopefully today she keeps getting better today.

A compliment to NHI, the Taiwanese National Health Insurance department. In Canada to have Gemma diagnosed with tonislitis two weeks after we were at the hospital cost 80$, an hour wait, no medicine, no phone call confirming her throat swab, nothing. Yesterday, for 15$, she got two exams, an ultrasound sort of scan, two personal prescriptions made just for her, the doctors cell phone number, and a filled out form for the hospital just in case. I am not criticising Canada's health care; her illness was much more serious this time and required more. I was just happy with the service we got. That's what happens when you get millions of people contributing to a national plan all in tiny geographic space. It would be like if everyone in Canada contributed their tax dollars alloted for health care into the southern half of Saskatchewan.

Anyway, it is typhooning outside so pray Gemma gets better because the only thing open today will be hospitals. And forgive my typing. Yes, it sucks. I know.

Gemma at the Beach

She had a blast! She loved the sand, water, and all her friends there. It was so awesome to have such a fun place to play all weekend. Pictures highlight a little DDR, some motorcycle racing, and even ice cream!
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Clean!

One of Gemma's new hobbies that is making mommy's life easier! Just pull a chair up to the sink and she is happy for an hour! And I get the dishes done.

The Latest Purchase

I found this awesome street pretty close to our house with abut 6 big baby stores, so that was great. Why was I looking at baby stores? There was something very specific on my list today; a potty!

And we found one. It wasn't easy, only two stores had ones we liked. Lots of potties have like handles on them, like a bike, but I thought that is silly. And she can't get on it by herself. It was funny because that was the one we tried first, and then when we saw a regular one she tried to sit on it backwards. It was really cute. Anyway... We've got a potty. My plan so far? Buy a bag of chips ad tape them on the wall above the potty. Everytime she uses it she gets a chip. At this point even if we can get her pooping on it that will be a good start. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I checked out a really outstanding daycare today. It was big, spacious, clean, fun, caring staff, excellent 'curriculum'...Unfortunately the price was quite outstanding as well. The problem for us is that we only want her to go half days, afternoons, but at the places we've been so far have naps for like 2 hours in the afternoon. A) She never naps for 2 hours, and B) Why pay for her to have naps at a super nice place? Also, you pay for the lunch program even if you are there are not. This place is also pretty fancy in that you have to buy the regulation sleeping bag, uniform, shoes, and her textbooks every semester. The good thing is that the afternoons are the Chinese programming. (They teach English in the morning. This means the teachers all speak some English, and they have foreigners on staff) She had a ball the whole time we were there, and the staff was great with her, playing with her and entertaining her. The 'baby' class, which she would be in, also only has 2 students currently which is nice. The classroom was very 2 year old friendly; age appropriate crafts and activities, and even the textbooks are very age appropriate. Learning animals and numbers, etc... I really liked it, but we'll have to check out a few more places first.

Ha ha, I should tell you what it is called: Chocolate International Day Care Center.

on the charts

So we've been doing this careful eating thing for a month now. We never did go as far as adding cream or butter to everything, but we have added pediasure to her daily diet. We've been spending a LONG time at meals, playing all sorts of stupid games to make her finish her meal. Example; eat this and Mommy will throw the ball at you. Then you can throw it at mommy! I wish the advice "Don't force kids to eat; when they are hungry they will" was true with Gemma; if we did not insist she eat she would hardly eat at all. The world is way to fun to be stuck in a high chair. This has taken lots of patience for Chris and I as we are both wolf it down kind of people. We've eliminated almost all sugary snacks in between meals, like cookies. This helps her eat more at meal times.

The result? Well, not much. She is 10kg (22lbs). This puts her at about the 7th percentile. So at least she is on the chart. However, I am happy because after all this research and time and focus, I at least know that she is eating enough and getting all her daily nutrional requirements. I can't do more than that. She is healthy, developmentally on track, and very active. So go Gemma!

Gemma's fort

She was sitting on the couch and created this mini fort for herself.

Gemma at Friday's

Gemma had a great time at Fridays. Mostly she played with Hector, our manager's son. He is obsessed with Gemma, all summer our manager said that whenever they were at school Hector would ask if Gemma was coming.

Waiting patiently...


Gemma and Hector sharing a HUGE sundae (it was for the table, but they got first dibs). This was the only crying in the whole night; she was eating on her own and all of sudden started sobbing; "Cold!! Mama COLD!"

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Hanging around with Hector


This was the best! They would hug, then Hector would lean back, like he was picking her up. So Gemma would throw her legs around him and they would both laugh and laugh.

Gemma and Great Grandpa McKenzie

Here are some pics of Gemma with her Great Grandpa McKenzie. One is of this summer, playing patty-cake at the home. The other is of 6 month Gemma amazing Grandpa with her ability to...drool on empty thread spools strung together. He loved his grandbabies and great grand babies.

G'up!

So this is how Gemma woke Chris up two days ago:

"Chris! Chris, G'up!!"

(G'up is how Gemma says get up)

Ha ha!

Chris!

So we were having supper last night, the three of us, and Chris let out this enormous belch. I quickly admonished him, "Chris!" and Gemma immediately looked at him and said, "Chris!". We both sort of froze, wanting to laugh so bad but to not encourage her. It was so funny. I suspect we won't have that problem with 'Nevada'.

Word of the Day

Yesterday's new word was Mom-EE. Note the emphasis on the EE. Chris also got her to say fart, but it sounds a lot like this other four letter word that starts with f, so we won't be asking her to repeat that anytime soon. ;)

Last night we took her baby for a walk in its little stroller. She LOVES that stroller, it is hands down her favorite toy ever. (Thank you Kim and LInda and girls) We like to go outside and walk the baby. Down the elevator. Down the driveway. Down the street. On the weekend she had walked three city blocks with it until I finally made her turn around and come back. (She then had a tantrum; laying on her face on the sidewalk kind). Last night we took the baby to the park. It was so funny because she parked her little stroller right where I park the stroller, went down the slide once, and then wanted to leave. It was just so funny, we walked all the way to the park just to go down the slide once. We were about halfway home and then she decided she wanted to go back so we did. The baby went down the slide too. Gemma likes to go down the slide 'back' she calls it, actually, she lays down on her tummy and goes down feet first. I think she saw someone do that before. It's amazing what they will see once and remember. Like yesterday the babysitter said she was really insistent on having milk on her raisins. Well last week, I had put raisins in her cereal with the milk, and she must have remembered.

Gemma helping

Gemma was so cute yesterday! I was washing a few dishes and she wanted to "clean". So I put a chair up beside me and would give her the washed and rinsed dishes to put in the rack. It's amazing watching their little brains work. I put in one spoon the way I like them in the rack, handle down, eating part up. And she started to put one in the wrong way, saw what was already done, and switched it. She stacked all the bowls together nicely. She struggle to lift the big pot up, she's little too short yet, but it was so cute.

Then we were in her room listening to her 'songs' as she says (on her CD player). I have a wee sing tape and we LOVE it. I do the actions and she totally imitates me. Itsy Bitsy spider is her best one, she does it so well. It was just cute watching her try to do all the actions.

She spent the whole day with Daddy yesterday; 6am-6:30pm. I was away in meetings. Of course they did fine. Daddy painted her toes with nail polish. "toes..pritty!!"

Other vocab:

peeSA (pizza)
back (her back, and going backwards)
uhside dow (upside down)
money
toes
chin

The sicko recovers

So Thursday she threw up once and had diareah once. Friday she had diarreah 3 times, so I took her took the dr. again. He said as long as she is active and eating then not to worry yet, give the medicine a few more days. So that was good news. Today is Tuesday and only one diareah sonce the weekend, so I am assuming we are on doing ok.

Gemma is underweight. The dr. commented on this in April, just saying that her weight gain was really slow and we should watch it. It continued slow all through the spring and summer. I never really paid much attention to the growth chart thing a) because it was in Chiense so I didn't know what I was looking at, b) she seemed proportional; yes, she is light but she is short. Her face is still round, her belly stuck out like a pudgy baby belly, etc c) her development has been normal. She walks, plays, etc. So when we were in the doctor's office this week, after throwing up 7 times he said she is very underweight. So when I got home I looked her up online on the growth chart. She isn't even on the growth chart! Her height is in the 13th percentile, but her weight doens't even get onto the chart.

So I started doing some research on what to do. Obviously we don't want to fatten her up with just junk, but we want to ensure her daily requirements are being met. Especially with being sick so much lately; I want her to be as healthy as possible. Here are some things I learned

ok, I've been working on this post for three days and will never finish if I get started with that...moving on...

So what is our plan?
1) Keep better track of what she actually eats in a day
2) limit sugary snacks (which we mostly do, but more strictly) Sugar fills up without providing real calories. Also, too many snacks fill kids up and then they don't eat real meals properly.
3) adding new healthy foods to our diet. (ok, who am I kidding; HER diet) On the list to try is avocado, kidney beans, prunes, and cream. Yes, cream. I read that for underweight kids you should add cream, butter, or mayonnaise to whatever you can. I don't fully subscribe to that and will not be going crazy but adding a bit of butter to noodles or peas, or cream peas...we'll try it.
4) Pediasure. I bought a big can and will try to give her a glass a day.


Anyway, I hate being anal or over analytical and charting what she eats, etc, but we'll try for a few weeks and see what happens.

So as I said before, I've been working on this post for a few days so I can already give you a small update: She hates pediasure. Of course she does, it was like 20$ for the can. So instead of giving her a whole glass every day I am mixing 1 1/2 scoops with her milk. So in a day she is getting 3 scoops instead of five, but I can't figure out how else to give it to her covertly.
I also bought an avocado and mashed it up for her tonight for her chips (she loves nachos). Would she eat it? No, of course not. She had one bite.

UGGGGG!!!!!! How frustrating. Oh well. I am not going to make food a huge battle and give her all sorts of eating issues. We act very normal at meal times and don't force her too much. (More than we did before, because I've realized she quits eating before she is really full. If I insist on a few more bites she always puts them down easily.)

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Trip back to Taiwan

Here is a pic of Gemma cruisin' in the boat this summer. I will try to go backwards through the summer and give you some highlights through the next few weeks, but we'll start with the trip back to Taiwan.

Our trip started good. She slept great at Kala's, woke her to put her in the car at 3:45am, and had an uneventful drive in. Customs was busy but we were there early enough so it was no problem. (Calgary airport is EXTREMELY busy on those flights to LA, SanFran, etc. Not enough customs agents working and a tonne of flights al leaving at the same time) As we were standing to board the plane, right at the plane's door, she threw up. What a great way to start the day I thought, drat. Wrapped up her sweater, got on the plane. with a half hour left on that flight she threw up again. This time no salvaging the outfit. Stripped her down to her diaper, went to the bathroom and got as cleaned up as we could. I didn't have any extra clothes on hand because all oversized carry on had to be gate checked and put under the plane, so as soon as we were off the plane we got our bag and got her dressed again. Had a major cleanup in the real bathroom at the airport, rinsed the yucky clothes, etc, and waited around for our next flight. We had chicken noodle soup for lunch, trying to think of what would be healthy yet not hard on her stomach and she ate ok. Got on the next plane.

Well, those 12 hour flights just get longer and longer and longer. She slept a lot, which was good. I saved her some dinner, because I figured she would need to eat and she had just the carrots. After that she threw up 4 more times. She didn't even seem upset. She was acting normal. She would jut look at me weird, cough, and then blah. No crying or anything. By the time we landed she was in her last outfit. One more time and she would have had to wear her jacket and leg warmers off the plane! And, for good measure, she threw up in the car on the way home. Fortunately I was prepared and the beautiful car Chris had hired for us was spared (unlike the airplane pillows and blankets...)

She seemed ok at home, asking for milk, etc, and I cooked her some plain pasta. She had diareah twice. (can't spell it, sorry) Then at 8am she had the HUGEST puke I've ever seen (sensitive readers stop NOW). It was like a fountain. First it covered our Poang chair. Then she opened her mouth and more came out, all over her body and feet, till she was standing in a pool. It was very very very disgusting. Fortunately I had my loving husband home to assist me, so we got everything cleaned up. Since it had now been almost 48 hours without holding anything down it was off to the doctor for us.

He didn't have too much to say. He asked if she had had any recent illness and typed frantically as I relayed the last month for him. With all the visiting, other kids, hospital visit, traveling.... it was hard to pinpoint what the exact problem could be. He gave us lots of medicine and said to come back if she still can't eat later, or if she gets a fever. When you only weigh 20 lbs not eating for 2 days is a bit of a problem.

We bought some baby cereal, as Dr. recommended, and she has eaten a bit. Had some oatmeal this morning, and soda crackers, so my fingers are crossed. One runny diaper last night, but thats it, so hopefully she is on the mend. We so badly want to go visit Elias and Andy and Audrey but am too scared to contaminate with whatever bug she's got .

Now that we are back I will update frequently. Welcome back, loving readers!

Playing with Dora stickers on the plane.

Anyone recognize this famous person? Hint: Canadian music. Put your guess in the comments.

Hi Ty! Nice to meet you!

Whoa! Big doggie!

Welcome to Canada!

We made it back safe and sound. Gemma was a great traveller, praise the Lord, and everything went smoothly. She slept a lot, played and colored a lot and enjoyed yummy snacks.

So far we've seen my sister and bro-in-law, and my nephew Ty. They met us at the airport in Calgary for dinner and some play time. We landed in Saskatoon at 11:30ish, saw Baba and Grandma and Grandpa, played at Baba's until 1:30am and then Gemma slept until 3:30 this afternoon. She conked out in the car on the way home from a friends house now (about 8:40) so hopefully this will be her bedtime and not just a nap. Ha, we'll see. We were at Shelen and Mat's place, checked out the Flames room and played with Ian and Kaitlyn.

Gemma is looking for playdates, we'll begin making our rounds here this week as we want to see as many of you as possible. Call us at Brenda's!

Funny New Word

OK, Gemma's funniest new word is... K. It is so funny how she has begun to talk like we talk. Like I'll say, Ok, put your shoes on, and she says, "K". Or, Let's go to Auntie and Uncles house. "K" She says it all the time and it is really hilarious. She just loves to be a part of things.

Last night we went to a friend's birthday party, and she had to bring her toolbox and sunscreen. I think Chris got a picture of us leaving, we'll see.

Big Girl Bed

So Gemma has transitioned into big girl bed with no trouble. The legs aren't put on so it is very close to the floor. She really likes it, actually, she likes to go into her room and sit on it, read there, pretend its sleep time. And at night she doesn't even want to be rocked in the rocking chair; she wants to lay in her bed. She has slept through the entire since she's been in it. well, last night she woke up crying, but I just went in and sat beside her, patted her for a minute and she went back to sleep.

And before you think its amazing that she stays in her bed, I lay with her until she is almost asleep. And she has a late bedtime; by the time we put her in bed she is pooped and wants to sleep:)

More doctor visits...

We had the most frustrating day, good thing I had Gemma to keep me calm!

We rushed to the dr. afterschool for her last vaccination (for this year, anyway). The way the system is here, you show up, wait to see the dr., he checks the baby makes sure she is healthy enough to receive the vaccination, other health check stuff (height, weight, routine questions, etc...) prints you off a piece of paper which you then take down to the cashier, pay, then go back up and get the shot. So we wait to see the dr., go downstairs to pay and DOH! I am short like 125NT. (Less than 5 dollars!) I couldn't believe the vaccination was so much, it was like 2000NT. Anyway, I was super TO because its a 20 minutes MRT ride, wait to see the dr., just to find out we can't get the shot today anyway. So we go home. 2 hours down the tube. AND now I have to go back next Wednesday. Also, Gemma has developed a heart murmur. He noticed it last time and heard it again this time and so wants her to have an echocardiogram. Of course, the heart guy only works Thursdays. So now we will go next Wed. and Thursday. I had booked a babysitter for 5, well we were still at the hospital at 5 so I had to call Andy to go find the babysitter and tell her to wait for us at school (Chris was playing b-ball downstairs where there is no cell phone reception) and anyway, the day turned out OK. Gemma and I had fun together, she shared her cookies with the kids in the waiting room, and was just very cute. She was wearing her Laker's jersey and so people thought she was a boy.

She's learning a lot lately. Like Chris said she started doing some of the baby signs off of her baby einstein video, just from watching it. She said 'giraffe' when she saw a giraffe at the dr. office, and we haven't really practiced giraffe. She sees dogs and fish all over the place and points them out. She brings us lots of joy, that little one, and I can't wait for all of you to meet her!!

Also, she is hardly gaining weight, and the dr. is a bit concerned. She's gained like .2 kg since her last checkup, and only .2 the checkup before that. Any ideas for HEALTHY snacks? I don't want to just fatten her up with sugar and junk.

Gemma's Week

This week Gemma was awesome. She is so fun and she makes me smile so much.

She went to her Auntie's house so I could shop for the baby shower.

She said the words beep beep, baby, car, and more. Also bee-tz (nose).

She used a fork to feed herself (a little bit; this still needs considerable practice)

She learned to line dance. This was very cute. Forward step back step, side to side. It was really funny.

She took me to the waterpark for Mother's Day, and we had a blast (so we got to use those free tickets after all). We also went out to the park on Monday and had ice cream. Forgot to take a picture of us together though. Oopps.

Future shopaholic or race car driver?

Here's a video I took of Gemma a couple weeks ago. She did this of and on for probably an hour, it was super funny. She's so much fun these days as she gets more and more interested in the world around her. Every day she learns how to do something new and it just opens up a world of possibilities for her and Dad to play and interact.

Bummer

We got free tickets to the waterpark near our house for this weekend, and since tomorrow we have a friend's wedding party I was so pumped for a hot sunny day to take Gemma to the pool. And instead it's pouring rain. Drat. It is only 8am so maybe it will shape up.

In Gemma news she is really mimicking a lot this week. She still has her favorite words though, and uses them a lot. Ball. Fish. BuhBye! Xie Xie. GoGo! (dog in Chinese) She also has certain sounds that she uses a lot, for example 's'. You tell her, Gemma say please. And she goes 'sss'. Gemma, say yes. "Sss". She likes ss and shh the best. Her other cute almost word is up She says it sometimes but most often she just moves her mouth open and close, with this little popping sound.

Gemma's Baby

It's very cute how she plays with her 'baby'. She feeds it and gives it water, lays down with it at night. Until she gets bored with it and drops it on its head.

Music Festival

We were in Taichung all day Saturday for Music Festival and Gemma did very good. Thankfully Adrienne was there with the 9th graders and had time to watch her during my working hours, so that was perfect. She was not so good for my Friday night concert, though, and Daddy and herwatched Barney instead. Oh well.

There are also new park pictures up on flicker, in the April set. I'll post a few this week.

Ride your horsie!

This video is ok, she gets camera shy. But there are some good facial expressions at the end if you hang in there the whole way.

New Shoes!

Gemma has grown into her crocs (well, Dawgs actually, but same difference). Also found two pairs of sandals that fit now, so thats good. Ready for summer.

Cold!

So we are experimenting with things that are cold lately. She gets the different feeling of cold items and makes the surprised ooh! face when she touches cold things. Like yesterday we were playing with the cold milk cup right out of the fridge while she was eating her snack shirtless. She would put the cup right next to her bare chest and then pull it away and say oooh!. Then out it on my neck or arm, or belly. And so o and so on. It was pretty cute how she would hold it against herself for a few seconds, waiting for that tingle and then pull it away.

Today we went to Taichung to watch Seussical and well, lets just say if the 2 hour bus ride was any sort of foreshadowing for our long flight home, we are in big trouble.

And one more park pic, until we get some new ones off the camera. Biker chick checking her rear...

Bad Baby

So I got home at lunch and she had written on and in one of library books with pen. (My fault; I left both in easy access) The books she wrote on? "Don't make me count to three; a mother's guide to discipline." ha ha...

Animal Lover

Gemma loves animals. She doesn't know that many but the ones she does she points to all the time. Fish is her big one, 'cause she can say it. It's more of a f-sh sound, but when she goes into the science lab at school that's what she says. (cause there is a fish there). In her story books, who cares about the characters adn the plot, what matetrs is what animals are on the page. For example in her Bible Heroes book on the Adam page she first points to the fish, then the moneky, then the birds. Then the fish again for good measure. The its flip flip flip until we get the Joseph and the coat of many colours page. Why that page? Because standing beside Joseph is a puppy. And she points to it before the page is fully turned. I think its really cool how she she can find those animals in places she has never seen them before. Like we were walking home one day and she looks at the ground and says, fsh. So I look down and sure enough, imprinted on the metal man hole cover is fish. You can show her a book she has never seen before and she can find those animals. Last night at church she was pulling random books off the library shelf and she found one, I think it was the little mermaid, but there were so many fish on it she was in heaven. The picture above shows a mural painted on a wall near the park we like and she loves to go see the birds as much as she likes playing in the park. (She had great fun chasing a pigeon last weekend. He was just the right size and ability for her, too ;) And puppies and cats on the street, well she points and laughs.

She also loves leaves.

Speaking of vaccinations...

... I just saw an ad for the pneumonia vaccine. It's in the Finding Nemo font and it says Finding Pneumo. Hee hee.

There was a small baby who swallowed a...

stone. Well, I thought she swallowed as tone. She was palying with one of those decorative glass pebbles, and then I hear this faint 'click click', the sound of stone on teeth and so I grabbed her face right away to get it from her and...nothing! Her mouth was empty. Her right hand was empty. Her left hand was empty. There was nothing on the floor. I checked her mouth again. Nothing! I thougth she must have swallowed it for sure, but I had no idea how she got it down so easily. A is-it-worth-a-trip-to-the-doctor debate began in my head (all the moms at church were like 'it will go through, don't worry', but I wasn't so convinced.) Anyway, later I was cleaning up around that area and pheww, found the stone on the floor against the chair leg. Yay, close call.

Made it!

A successful trip was made to the doctor yesterday!
1) I made it to the clinic when they were open to get her health card
2) we found the hospital where they do the immunizations.
3) we found the right floor in the hospital
4) the receptionist was VERY helpful and helped me with all the forms, and led me to the different rooms
5) The doctor was friendly and spoke English and did what I think to be a throrough checkup.
6) I didn't lose or forget anything
7) Gemma only cried a little bit

And she got tp have two shots (oh goody, right gemma;) MMR and the first of her Japanese Enciphilitis. We go back in two weeks for the second one of those.

Weight 8.6kg (almost 19 pounds)
Height 76cm (29")

The doctor said she hasn't gained much weight since her last checkup, but is still ok.

So she loves her belly button, and loves to find it when you ask. It's really cute then when she is wearing one piece pyjamas and you ask her "Where's your belly button?" because she pulls up on her jammies (of course they don't go because they are on her feet too) and tugs and pulls and feels trying to find it. Ways to tortue a 1 year old.

No park = cranky baby

Cranky day today, not sure what's up. No new teeth, no fever, no cough...Upset stomach? Possibly because it was pouring rain in the morning and so we didn't get to go to the park. The park has been a daily part of our routine. She missed her evening nap but then still played so nicely at church with her buddy Noah, so that was good. She fell asleep in the bike seat on the way home and so I just plopped her in the crib and its only 9:15. Yay for mommy time. Always lots to do.

Longshan Temple

A few pics of us at Longshan temple with the Hickeys and Chris. (Look at their blogs for more artsy ones; these are just Gemma specific) She is super into animals lately; her head is stuck through the bars looking at the fish. It was a busy day at the temple and she smelled like incense when we got home.

She isn't sick yet. Cross your fingers!

Oh, and we missed our dr. appointment again. We were already to go and then I realized I didn't have her health insurance card (like Sk Health Card - you need it to get anything done). So I searched high and low, but I knew I had it yesterday at that dr.s so I thought well, we'll trek out there and see if its there, but when I got to the MRT I remembered to check the clinics hours and sure enough, it was closed. So we went to the park instead. I know that more and more people are choosing against vaccinations now; maybe this is a sign. Yay for Andy, he called the drs office and yes they have it so tomorrow I will go pick it up and then next wed. Chris can take Gemma for the shot. Fourth times a charm.

Gemma Heart Chocolate

This is all we have for Easter photos, oops! It was a busy holiday as Daddy got ready to preach and as we both got ready for Tom's visit. I'm sort of worrying that Gemma (who am I kidding; all of us) is eating too much junk food and so the Easter Bunny just brought a kinder egg and one other treat for everyone. With the kinder egg one bite was enough; Gemma gobbled it up faster than Bugs eats carrots. And she is so smart, she recognizes the wrapper and so when Chris opened his today she saw it and darted over to him. I put all the rest of the treats away today because she sees them and wants them. I feel like we've had junkfood everyday for the last few weeks, and so it is time to cut back. (ha; I'm munching on nerds as I post this...this will be harder than I thought...)

What else is new? I wish I could remember stories, mostly I have just blurbs.

-Went to the dr. today; vaccination time. Actually, it was a few weeks ago but she had a cold so I waited and now I have a old so I want to go quickly before she gets it too and we have to wait again. We're on a bit of a time crunch because we need her to finish a series before we go home for summer. It was a bit of a saga, actually. We started buy going to the hospital across the street, but after waiting to register they said they don't do that there. So we went to the park instead. In the afternoon we tried her regular pediatrician with the irregular English (Did I tell you about the time he measured the 'circumstance' of her head?) and after waiting there for 25 minutes he said that if she got the measles one today she can't get the Japanese Enciphilitis one (she was supposed to go in January, too, but we missed that one). And since the measles one is more important he said to get that one. Except they didn't have any there that day. Doh! So then was like, uh, can you tell where to go? And so he gave me directions to the hospital in Yonghe, close to his office. But they are only open for vaccinations Wednesday afternoon. So hopefully third time's a charm tomorrow afternoon.
-She blew bubbles in the bath today. So cute :) She was also trying to catch the soap bubbles.
-Loving animals lately. She always points and laughs at dogs and cats we see on the street, and chases the birds at the park. She also loves the fish; there are some big koi ponds at a park near our house with hundreds of fish and we fed them today. Very cool.
-Teeth like crazy. Those four molars are all just through and I can already see the next ones coming up (I better write it down in the baby book)

More pictures tomorrow. We did some touring with Tom, and some other park pics.

The One Word Wonder

We were looking at a picture book yesterday and I right after I said 'puppy' she echoed perfectly, 'Puppy!'. It was so clear and immediate Chris spun around and I froze. Of course when we tried to get her to say it again she wouldn't say anything. It's like the time she said cupcake around her first birthday. Audrey and I were decorating cupcakes , not paying much attention to her, and she just walked past the table and said as clear as day, 'cupcake'. And she's never said it again. She is much more cooperative at completeing verbal requests such as:
Give me five
Give mommy a hug/kiss
Give this to daddy/mommy/Auntie, etc...
Where's your bellybutton/eyes/nose/mouth
Spin around (thats new as of yesterday)

She was very helpful this week, helping me make the cake and then by napping while I was making meatballs.

All four molars have come up in the last 2 weeks, it's a sea of white inside her mouth. She's woken up a few times crying in the night, I think that may have been why. She went right back to sleep after some Tylenol.

I haven't put too much thought into Easter for her... I guess I better find some eggs and hide them, dig the baskets out of the closet.

I don't care what my teachers say...

I'm gonna be a supermodel!

Chris and I decided that it was time for Gemma to start contributing to the family economy, so we put her to work..Ok just kidding, it wasn't really like that at all. We sent in a picture like 4 months ago and they finally called us, totally last minute; they called Friday afternoon to see if she could work Saturday morning. It was a nice short gig, three costumes for a Halloween catalogue. It took one hour start to finish, and was pretty fun. Although she didn't crack a smile the whole time. Doh! Of course, she smiled the whole rest of the day.

Another mom was there but her daughter was older, and she said that these pictures aren't even for this years Halloween, but for 2009 or 10. They take the pictures before they send the items for manufacturing, so when they are mass produced Gemma's picture could be the one on the front of the package. Maybe. Anyway, enjoy :)

How to get Mommy and Daddy's attention

1) Pick u a book and carry it over to me. I'm a sucker for reading my girl a story, I think reading is so important.

2) Grab the remote control. We're pretty strict about not playing with the remote control, so if we are not giving her enough attention or if we are careless enough to leave it at her level she grabs it and looks around triumphantly, waiting for us to come and get it form her. Well, today Chris was sitting in his office and I was out. It got quiet out in the living room so he looked out, and right in his line of vision was Gemma, sitting on the couch, waving the remote above her head laughing at him. Firstly, how did she get on the couch? And so funny that she knows how to get us. We're so well trained, aren't we?

Spicy!

We were at Subway yesterday for dinner, and Gemma was sitting on my lap as I was eating my sub. All of a sudden my firneds sitting across from me said "AHH! Take it out of her mouth!" She had picked a jalepeno off the paper and put it in her mouth. I got it out pretty quickly, wiped her tongue off with a napkin and gave some drink. Not before she let out a surprised 'AhhhHHH!' though. Yikes!

TCK

A TCK expert comes every year to meet with kids, teachers, and classes, and do a workshop with the seniors at the highschool in Taichung. I took teh opportunity to talk to her about our ownlittel TCk and asked what are the most important things that we should know about raising a TCK. (Do we have any TCKs in the audience?)

First of all, What is a TCK you may be asking? The acronym refers to Third Culture Kid, and the definition "refers to someone who [as a child] has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture".[1] So it is the mix of the parent's culture, and the culture they actually live in. You can see why this comes into play in a missionary school, where most of our kids are TCKs. I'll skip the other info about TCK profiles, etc, and skip to the advice we got.

1) Take advantage of all the opportunities presetned in the host culture. (Which is good advice for kids in any culture, I think) Travel. Study language. It is very unique to live in a different coutnry and kids should be taught the value of other cultures.
2) Be deliberate in relationship building. TCKs have relational roots, not geographic roots, so be deliberate in building relationships with important people. Send pictures, write letters and send gifts, web chat. Kids can still bond with grandparents and cousins, etc, from overseas. It has to go both ways: A grandparent will never forget they have a grandchild, but a grandchild will forget they have a grandparent.
3) Tell stories. You know, the remember the time we did this, or went there, etc.. A kid at home will hear the stories from uncles and aunts whenever the family gets together, but the TCK parent needs to fill that role.

I am happy that we were doing the things she suggested already. We phone and chat with people regularly, we've sent packages, we've recieved packages. Gemma has a photoalbum with her family people in it and framed pictures of her friends in her room. Of course we want Gemma to feel close to all her family and friends. I know my grandma says this is impossible: "She'll never be close to her cousins like you kids were" (dare I ask if any of you beleive that?) but I think it is possible.