Ivo at Taichung's Toys R Us

So I tried writing a quickie before taking Ivo to Toys R Us… It didn’t post. Boo hoo. So now, we’re back home. We went to the toy store today because it's the first day of Ryan back at work and Ivo doesn't like not hanging with his Papa. Yesterday Ryan drove Ivo and me to the gym saving us the walk in the excrutiating heat, Ivo was inconsolable when we got out of the car and Ryan didn't. Even though we thought he understood where we were going and that we'd see Papa at home after we played, he couldn't calm down. I let him buy some apple juice from the vending machine, which he usually gets quite excited about... but he just kept crying and muttering "baba!" We ended up walking home - in that self-same heat we'd gotten the ride to avoid - AND we didn't even have the stroller, so I had to carry all our stuff and Ivo. Anyway that's why we left for the toy store a few minutes before Ryan went to work...

We spent 3 hours at the toy store – well, probably the first half hour was in the drug store on the first floor where we got some vitamins, wipes and a 5 pack of huggies – cuz I forgot to bring diapers…

We then went up to Toys R… Ivo had a blast! He looked at and touched EVERYTHING! The Toys R Us here in Taiwan doesn’t hold a candle to those at home, but Ivo doesn’t know that! The store is divided into a girls’ side and a boys’ side. Usually we are able to cruise right thru the girls’ stuff – but today, Ivo was all over the toy kitchen, cash registers and push cart stuff. Also the pink and purple toy guitars were quite exciting.

Finally we got to the outdoor stuff – unisex, if you will. Ivo sat in each and every car. Unlike the upper west side Toys R Us in NYC – where I used to take my little charge, Noah, the cars in Taichung are chained to the wall, so kids can’t ride them around. Kinda sucks, but again, Ivo doesn’t know this. He sat in each and every car, multiple times… Then we went into the baby section and Ivo tried to fit into/onto all of the chained up baby cars. He got stuck in one. He seemed to understand when I told him that he’s a big boy and these cars are for babies… In any event, he wanted my help to untangle himself, so he acted like he knew what I was talking about!

The last stop was trucks where Ivo chose an excavator. It’s pretty big and was on sale (he may have had help choosing…).
When we left, it was pouring rain. That late afternoon tropical thunderstorm downpour… So we sat in McDonalds (I know – very very bad – and only because we were rained in, starving and thirsty and needed a new diaper… give me a break…). Rain tapered. We drove to the gym, Ivo fell asleep at the chung gang-hanKo intersection – so we came back home.