My Son's Show Night

This evening my son called me when I was still in the office. He asked me to go home earlier because he and his sister has a show to perform. Later on he called again to remind me to drink water and go to the bathroom at 7:30pm because when the show begins at 8pm I will not have time to do so.

I arrived home to discover that it was not just a small event. It was huge. He prepared a theater in the study with seats all lined up, a small stage made by building blocks which he can stand on, and all gadgets he needs in his programs. He even prepared tickets for each one, with hand-writing Chinese characters he probably asked my mom to write for him to look when he drew.


He asked me and my daughter to sit on the seats and began to perform. The show includes lighting, magic, and drawing on a canvas, with many different lighting and tools. He was thoughtful enough to invite audiences to go on stage to assist his performance. In one of the program he asked his sister to stand in a circle, then quickly took her to another room to hide while asking the audience to close their eyes so that when the audience open their eyes a few seconds later the assistant was disappeared. :) It was really a great show. I enjoyed a lot!

I was inspired by his program, so we went to the room to play with the flashlight and camera to draw in the air. This night was the best night ever.

彎腳怪獸

兒子最近扮演一種他想像出來的怪獸，叫彎腳怪獸。牠是依據特徵命名的，牙齒又長又尖，彎腳比最大的蜥腳類恐龍還大，是二疊紀最兇猛的肉食性動物。分類上屬於二疊紀的麗齒獸類（他畫了一張樹狀圖，麗齒獸類有麗齒獸跟彎腳怪獸兩種，同時期還有甲龍類的盾甲龍）。後來這怪獸越來越誇張，有半個地球大，是從外太空別的星球來的，地球上只有一隻住在地底下，原來的星球上還有幾千隻同伴，這段我想是受了變形金剛的影響）。牠有堅硬的背甲，上面有尖刺，頭部也有骨甲保護，腹部也有，所以不像甲龍腹部有弱點。可是牠的骨頭是跟鳥類一樣有空洞的，所以很輕可以跑很快。脖子不長，短短的，頭中等，不算大也不太小。腿要台灣2300萬人抱起來那麼大隻，大約等於喜馬拉雅山的寬度...

Growing up

DSC03253, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Summer now speaks well enough to communicate her thoughts. She respond to audio a lot better than images, complete opposite to her brother.

Andersen Married

Congratulations to Anderson and Yuvien! Andersen is my cousin, who grew up with me until he was six. We used to met every year when we were students. Gradually as we grew older, our lives went separate ways and rarely see each other again. Nevertheless, I'm so happy to attend his wedding this July. Wish you a happy new life!

Happy Birthday

DSC01959, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Yoshi is three years old today. It feels like a long time already but also so fast. Sometimes I forget that he is just a "baby" if you consider someone younger than three years old. In these three years he physically grew up to almost 100 cm tall, learned to speaks fluent Mandarin and some English and Taiwanese, can count to 29 (and then need to ask which "ten" comes next), and likes reading, singing and playing a lot of games he invented. He also like to help on houseworks. Happy birthday, son!

Little Helper

New Year Trip

This Chinese New Year holidays we had a family trip to my home town Kaohsiung. It is strange to call it a trip because we need to go there every year on the Chinese New Year to see my father and grandparents. However, since my two brother-in-laws all need to go to southern Taiwan because they both married Southern Taiwanese girls, my mother-in-law will be left in Tamshui alone so we need to hurry back on the second day of the new year in the past. This year we managed to make some changes. My brother-in-law drove his mom to meet us in Kaohsiung on his way to Ping Dong, and then we can spend a few more days in Kaohsiung. My son and daughter finally have a chance to know my home town. Sully went with us the whole time.

Before and After

The screen saver of my notebook showed the photo above and then the bottom one accidentally. It was a great combination of "before and after" scenario. The first photo was taken when Allie was 37-week pregnant, and the second one was taken when Summer was 3 months old.

Yoshi the Driver

Summer Day 8

She opens her eyes looking around, and happily licking her wrapping cloth. When it comes to appetite, this baby girl is much better than her older brother. Her best record is 70 cc a meal so far. My son better be careful otherwise he might be bullied by his sister soon.

Yoshi Play and bumps his head

New Year

Just returned to work from 9-day New Year vacation. Allie and I took one extra day off, so it was ten days for us. We went 300 km south to Kaohsiung for family reunion, a must-do but not always pleasant tradition. My grandfather and grandmother, now in their eighties, are not the kind of people you want to spent your holiday with. Actually, there were two small argues and one big fight when we were there. It may be the last time I follow this tradition to ruin my holidays.

After Kaohsiung, we then went back north to Tamshui and stayed with Allie's family. Yoshi had a good time there because there was more space for him to run, and there were many toys to play while his cousin was away.

When we finally returned to Taipei, Yoshi fell asleep right after dinner time--very very early for him compared to his usual schedule. He became very shy to strangers in the vacation--maybe there were too many new people and new places to him. That summarized the vacation, if not with the surprise that came on Sunday.

One o'clock in Sunday morning, Yoshi got a fever which reached 39 degrees. I was not too worried because he seemed still as energetic as usual. My mom "strongly suggested" that we took him to a nearby clinic on Sunday morning, so we did. On the way home, he began to said that his belly aches. In the evening he had diarrhea. At sunrise time of Monday, the fever raised to 40 degrees and he shivered badly. So, we took him to ER. The resident on duty was an interesting one. He finishes his diagnosis very quickly but spent a lot of time teaching me the reason of fevers and signs should be alerted. I guess he had saw too many cases far worse then Yoshi so in this case there was no need to go to ER. He also knows that such thing will happen again and again as Yoshi grows up, so he tried to prepare me for that.

Yoshi's fever now lasts two to three hours at 40 degrees, and the peak repeats every five to six hours. This is only the second day in the progress, still several days to go before he recovers from this virus infection and develops new immunity for it.

Yoshi packing

We had a family trip to I-Lan last weekend. Last Friday night when Allie was packing, my son was also busy packing his own luggage in the next room.

Yoshi Running at Daan Park

We took Yoshi to Daan Park today. He loves running on the big, green field of grass, and was curious to watch squirrels climbing up and down on the trees. We went to the flower market afterwards, but he was too tired and fell asleep.

L'IDIOT

We celebrated mom's birthday at L'Idiot. Food was delicious, service was good, and Yoshi was happy.

More Yoshi Videos

Posted two new videos today. It is really fun to watch him in action, compared to static photos. Many people suggested us to buy a DV to record moments of babies, but I don't see much good video coming from them. Sometimes great moments come so suddently and you just don't have time to go to the drawer and take out the DV. On the other hand, mobile phone is much more convenient, but the quality is relatively poor.

Daan Forest Park

Took my son to Daan Park last Sunday. We were to go on Saturday, but it rained heavily that afternoon. Yoshi loves playing on big, green grass fields, but it's hard to find one for him in Taipei city. The Daan Forest Park is 15 minute drive from home, with lots of space for him to run. The down-side is that, despite the name "forest park", it has actually very scarce trees and thus EXTREMELY HOT! So, we escaped to nearby Yong Kang street for delicious Vietnamese lunch, and then head to Miramar to meet his uncle and cousins. It was an exhausting but happy Sunday. Selected pictures and track can be found here or visit my flickr.

Video of Yoshi Playing

Recorded this with my cell phone couple days ago. My son was playing by himself, talking, and having fun. I picked up my phone and recorded for 90 seconds before he tried to grab my phone. The most interesting part is that he pushed the bar again and agin to swing the hook over so that he could reach his hats. There are so many funny moments but too little chances to record them. I think that's why people don't agree when parents say their children are clever or lovely, because they do not have the chance to observe these moments.

GPS Logger Test Drive

This Saturday we went to stay at Tamshui with Allie's family. On the way I tested my GPS Logger. I uploaded my track and a few photos at jmap.cc. Check it out here!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to my son! He's now officially one year old. It's hard to believe that a year passed so quickly. Thank our families and friends who celebrated his birthday on different occasions. Thank those who visited him and sent him many gifts in the past year. Thank my mom for taking good care of him. Thank my wife for bringing him to the world. Thank himself for growing up healthily and exploring the world bravely.