Storybook Parade

Here are some of the pictures of the storybook parade, and Baba's excellent costume she bought. It was very cute and she was such a good sport, parading around the classrooms and working the waddle. By the time Chris got her home at 9am she was wrecked!

On an outing with Daddy

Audrey's birthday

Last Sunday we went for lunch and icecream for Audrey's birthday. Gemma is a good eater when it comes to sweets.

On an outing with Daddy

The dance continued

There was a five layer cupcake tree, which Gemma thought was excellent! She also LOVED the entertainment, especially this lady. Gemma was so starstruck, she was memsmerized the entire act. She was up on the stage, stamping her feet, clapping her hands...It was too cute.

Dancing Queen!

Ceremony

OK, we're late with the pictures BUT Chris did put a bunch on flicker (go to the Gemma pics link on the right). Here are some ceremony pictures. It was at a beautiful seminary church up in the mountains. So green and lovely. You can try and match the captions to the photos.
-I had to bribe her to let me put the hair things in, and take the picture. She pulled them out right after.
-How 'princesses' sit on the bus.
-A total fluke picture that turned out great. I couldn't see at all, the sun was so bright but I clicked away and got this gem.
-Tree Hugger

wedding pics to follow

There were some awesome pictures taken at the wedding, and I will post them as soon as they are ready. (it was a late night!)

Panada

So we're learning lots of animals. Here's what she knows so far:
bear
mouse
horse
cow
duck
owl
bird
dinosaur
hippo
rhino
elephant
fish
dolphin
octopus
starfish
turtle
koala
panda


And some others but I can't remember...Anyway. She knew panda and she also knew Canada; we have Canada flag stickers on my bike. But now she has combined the two and instead of saying panda, she says panada. :)

Modelling (?)

No new pictures, so here's some from a few weeks ago... Should we send this to the agents?

The new obsession

We are entering a new era....the age of princess! I didn't think it would happen so soon. It all started with a Barbie movie on TV. After that every princess/fairy/pretty lady in nice clothes became Barbie. And somewhere that got changed to princess. Now she sees princesses everywhere.

I made the mistake of showing her bits from the Wizard of Oz. I thought she would like the singing, which she does, but she LOVES Glinda, the witch of the North. We've watched the beginning scenes, when Dorothy discovers she is in Oz until her and the Scarecrow depart, dozens of times because she is obsessed with it. Here is Gemma's dialogue:

Bubble, PRINCESS PRINCESS! Dorothy, dog. Funny kids! Singing. Funny kids.
Bad witch! Go away, bad witch, more singing (I told her that the witch would go away so we could sing more)
Bad witch go away! Princess. Dorothy.

Princess go away (sometimes tears) No princess! (to which I say "she has to go help more people, like Dorothy." and she says OK.

Man, dancing. (this is the scarecrow) Funny!

From this scene we skip all the way to the end, where the 'princess' helps Dorothy go home. And Gemma says "Dorothy home. See Auntie and Grandpa. (She thinks the uncle looks like a Grandpa.) And then she says, "More princess!" and we go back ad watch it again.

We watched it once and I hoped she'd forget, but she didn't. Then at the zoo I was singing the Follow the Yellow Brick Road song and she kept asking for it all day, then when we got home it must have clicked to her where she knew it from because she right away asked to go up and see her movies and asked for it.

We always read books at the end of the night, and she wants a princess book, and so is convinced Daddy is going to buy her a princess book on his trip. (Good luck Daddy ;) no worries if you don't!

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.