Burl's First Food - That He Likes

That's more like it. After the oat-maple teething biscuit, Burl tried a little mashed avocado. He did not hate it but it wasn't as good as the biscuit. He accepted 3 or 4 bites of avocado before closing up shop. Super happy. Today was the first time Burl's had a cookie-crust! His shirt, right ear, fingers and cheeks were all maple-y, splattered with a little sickly green avocado... First time he's had to change cuz off his food. And he wasn't even THAT messy. I expected so much worse so much sooner. Must reassess how I seem to think of Burl as a big guy, big eater and so forth. He's pretty neat, clean and abstemious.

Burl is so happy almost all the time, it's just wonderful to be with him. Last night Ryan was talking about how we needed Burl in our family. Burl the optimist, the smiler, the positive light.

Ivo's game version 1.0:


You de cow! You the penguin!
(No,)* You de penguin! You the car!
You de car! You the car!
You de truck! You the bicycle!


Ivo's game version 2.0:

You SUCH a BITCH!** You no such a bitch. I no say such a bitch.
You such a BOOOO! You're such a BOOOO!
You such a BABY! You're such a BABY!
You such a building! You're such a Papa!
You such a cookie! You're such a doctor!
No! Don't SAY dat!

Game Over

*No is optional - from both parties

**Still caught in the powerful wake of Family Guy, Ivo knows he's not supposed to say "such a bitch" but sometimes, I guess, he can't halp himself. He always immediately corrects himself.

Typhoon Wipha and Fever

Tuesday:



The typhoon is coming! But not to us... All counties north of Taichung have closed govt offices and schools but Taichung and areas to the south are OPEN.

That's right! BURL SWEEPS THE FLOOR!

Well, it's raining and windy here. Since it's Tuesday, the boys and I have no school anyway. As long as mood, health and weather permit we will be doing some grocery shopping.





Ivo's got a fever. It started yesterday evening. The school called both Ryan and me but neither of us heard the phone; my phone has been dropped and drooled on too much to make sounds, Ryan was probably on the road when his phone rang. Anyway, kids are allowed at school while they are sick but NOT if they have fevers. I think Ivo is teething but I'm gonna take him to the dr this morning - when the motrin wears off - because he's still coughing some. Ivo's appetite is good and he's eating well, so it doesn't seem like his throat hurts but he still refuses to drink much except apple juice.





As far as the coughing goes, the air is thick with particulate matter. I parked for an hour on Da Duen yesterday and when I returned to the car it was coated in a very visible layer of dust.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Wednesday Morning:



Went to dr... steam and sucked Ivo's nose. No more fever. Lungs sound normal. Cough due to post nasal drip. We are planning on going to school.



Ivo watching Superman while holding his Superman doll and a toy airplane. Some confusion over Jimmy Olsen's name, "I like Jimmy Also."

Ivo n Burl Monday Morning 8am

Ivo's a natural! He can strum and sing. We like to play Old MacDonald. Ivo chooses the animals.

"You just put the guitar down, like me"

The red ring rattle is consistently Burl's very favorite thing. Burl is drippy drooly. Last night he was congested and really couldn't nurse throughout the night. I leaned him in a sitting position which seemed to help. I'm a little surprised he woke up in the 7's with the poor sleep. He hasn't nursed this morning cuz all attempts were quickly frustrated and result in biting.

Ivo woke up crying with tooth pain at 1am - we gave him motrin. Magic.

Ivo's telling Ryan I will no go a school. But D-man will be there. Don't you wanna play with D-man? Yep. I will go a school laater.

Where Papa? I will call him again.

It's been a big day. People are TIRED. People are nursing. People are watching Superman.

Ivo, Burl and I went to see Alison and Tessa today. We played in the park, practiced pedaling, drank tea and then went up to Alison's house. Alison got Ivo a 2-tiered pin-wheel, which he's calling a windmill. Nice. Nice breeze today. Still HOT.

We got home around 4. While we were out Ryan handled repairmen, the leak and the light that's pulling the wires out of the wall. Yay! We are all fixed up.

Ivo had a bath and his semi-regular-bi-weekly hair wash. There were SCEEEEEAAAAMS. Nights before Ivo goes to school, I sometimes wonder how we might appear to other people. Ivo hates hair washing and we hate making him scream. We are illiterate foreigners who eat weird food, smell funny and send breast milk (ick!) to school. I don't really care what anyone thinks as long as social services isn't brought into the picture. That is seriously unlikely here... and mostly Ivo's hair washes and baths occur the night before school (formerly the baby sitter) because it's a good time marker, "What! It's been a week???" But I do want to call as little negative attention as possible to us. I'm sure everyone does this to some extent, like straightening up before the maid arrives or flossing before a dentist checkup. Last week, I forgot the kids' communication books and Karin said, "Oh, you're that family." So now I'm all focused on this... this whatever it is, this fear that discernable slip ups are obvious signs of real trouble, the tip of a massive ice berg, and I'm ruining my babies.

It's ok now. When naked, wet Ivo came up to bed, he haltingly said "I sad." He's happy now, holding his superman doll, watching superman, occasionally singing da dada daaa! He just called Ryan on my cell phone, ostensibly to ask Papa to bring him his pinwheel/windmill, impressively he made lengthy appropriate nicenice small talk, hung up well and then commenced to push all sorts of buttons. Earlier this evening, he'd dialed Dale, telling me - and fully believing - he was calling Papa. So I asked him to please give me my phone, he said "Okaaay, just a miiinute" while still pushing buttons. A few moments later he handed it to me screen side up, saying "Der you go. All zeroes." The entire screeen was filled with zeroes. Keee-yute!

There's been a sea change: He's in Grammie Gail's room decompressing (cuz of yelling and orneriness), Ryan went in to check on him, "get out a he-re!" And he's back, "I no angwy anymore. I no fwustwated."

And he drank a good amount of water. Yay!

Weekend before Mid-Autumn Festival

Burl and I are downstairs playing. He has been checking out the big pink box of cars and trucks.

Yesterday we all drove downtown to the cake and cookie district at San Min Road to pick up Ryan's Mid Autumn gift from school. He got to choose from regular moon cakes - the traditional gift, grape seed oil (something we've chosen the last few years and of which we still have several bottles), or ice cream cake. Ryan wisely opted for the ice cream cake.

So we were waiting for the recycling truck - which never came because they are on some kinda pre-holiday holiday. Mid Autumn Festival is one of the big 3 holidays on the Chinese calendar - a harvest celebration. Anyway, the ice cream cake is not one cake but 6 beautifully packaged hand-sized cakes. How do they taste, these innovative little guys? Not great. Let's just say, there is no chocolate, no crunchy cookie layer, no cream even. Without those fundamental ingredients, there's still a chance (slim) that it would be ok. However, my main objection lies with the "cake" part which is made of tasteless, rubbery gelatinous rice. There is no ice cream, the rice surrounds a very nice sorbet; lychee, mango or honeydew. Chewy. I just can't get past the cake part - not my kinda comfort food.

The preferred textures of food in Asia pretty much encompass all the textures which I find revolting. Things that are gooey, chewy, intestiney or organ-like are the bomb here. Not for me. I was talking to an American who had lived in Japan and he said the same thing about textures adding that Japanese food has very little flavor (hence soy sauce, wasabi etc), it's all about texture, even though Japanese people talk about flavor all the time. Made me think of synesthesia! Maybe the obdurately chewy texture of raw squid tastes like Duke Ellington!

Burl "eating"

Here are some pics in which it looks like Burl's eating. The one where the spoon's almost at his lips is an optical illusion in which he's turning his head away.

Burl Still Does Not Dig On Food

It's been 2 weeks since Burl first started "solids." So far he's had apple sauce, banana sauce and rice cereal mixed with both water and mama milk. He'shad at least one meal every day since and he still doesn't like any of it. He turns his head and does all he can to avoid having the food in his mouth. He LOVES sitting in the high chair and being social - he even fake laughs - sounds like a guffaw - to get everybody laughing and engaged. Genius, ahem.

Anyway, I guess geniuses don't automatically wanna consume pablum. Duh.

Burl can "blow bubbles," like rasberries, on our arms and legs. Very funny. He's the happiest guy I've ever met - a delight, a joy, a sweet sweet boy.

Reproduction in the News

Both these articles are from Slate:

• How To Make More Babies: What can governments do to make fertility rates go up?


• Global Swarming: Is it time for Americans to start cutting our baby emissions?

The first was published 14 September and the 2nd is from 10 September.

The picture is Sleeping Beauty Burl from last night. The teacher said Burl didn't sleep at school. He was TIRED!

Some Stuff on the Streets that Don't Seem Right

This truck does not bear any official phone company logos. These guys don't appear to be phone company employees. Here they are plugging into a phone box on Chung Ming Road at 8:30am Tuesday.

MoMA???? This ad bills itself as the Museum of Modern Architecture. It's NOT a museum. It is either some kind of office building or condo. Brash bold and not afraid of thievery, the ad is superimposed of the very first image that comes up when you google Mondrian. I'm not sure that's legal.

Welcome Back and Bon Voyage

Alison and Tessa have just returned from Vancouver and Sho is leaving tomorrow for Beijing. We met at *buck's today before the boys went to school. By the way - before coming to Taiwan, I refused to patronize *bucks - I do here - because I need clean bathrooms with soap which are big enough for a stroller to fit in and coffee... That I go there all the time is NOT an endorsement. We live in the dirty urban tropics...

Anyway, Tessa is 6 weeks old and soooo cute. Ivo says "I like Tessa, she a nice baby. Such a cute baby."

Ivo-Man

I LOVE that Ivo wants to wear his cape all over the place. You gotta respect a guy like that. In these pics Ivo maintains that he's Robin and "dis is my yellow cape."

These pics are from yesterday at D-man's new house. "H for Heather." has been in Ivo's repertoire for months - but Ivo's taken a renewed interest in letters. He's got a set (we got one for Kaia too - come see us Kaia!!!!) on the chalkboard that Kaiababa made him. He spends 20 minutes at a time arranging them and saying which letter is which and, to the best of his knowledge, words that they begin. B for Burl, R for Ryan, S for Sandy, I for Ivo, V for Ivo... He can recognize his name on tags on his school stuff and even when he sees I's elsewhere. Superfun.

Ivo makes accurate analogies and has an excellent memory. Yesterday when we left D-man's he was sad, I asked if he wanted to go to Finga's and he started talking about the one-eyed shark they've got! He hasn't been there for months. I can't think of analogies right now but will write them down next time I hear one.

Today was Ivo and Burl's 6th day of school, the second day that Ivo didn't cry and actually said he wanted to go. It goes like this: he tells us/me I no will go a school today then I remind him that D-man will be there and he tells me I wanna go to Baby World. Ivo hasn't told us much more about what goes down at school but he's willing to talk about it- he doesn't run out of the room when asked about it anymore - and he seems to like it. Ryan says he's happy when/to be picked up.

Ivo - Cleveland Indians

A couple shots from July 15, 2005 when Ivo, Ryan and I were in Cleveland visiting my excellent family. Burl has been wearing that Indians' suit and he is exactly the same age as Ivo was in these pics (6-1/2 months). We always think Burl is so much bigger than Ivo - this should help us not to get carried away!

While looking through the pics from Cleveland, I was hoping I'd find one of Patty holding Ivo - but I can't - I know I have one. I don't have many/enough pics of her - and none that is really nice - every pic I have of Patty is from when she was already quite sick. I wish I had a nice one. She's been gone 3 months today. Nicky and I were talking the other day - talking about mourning Patty's death and life - and how we feel different now - like we'd write a different eulogy today than back in June. I feel different, I don't feel better.

Notes on a Thursday

Pics of beautiful Burl and Ivo at the science museum on tues.

This morning is remarkable because, unlike most days, Burl went back to sleep after waking up at 6:17am. The boys and I slept in til 8:30! Sleep is weird here. It's not awful - and everyone does sleep - pretty well too, it's just not sync'd up at all. Burl likes to fall asleep around 8:30p and wake up at 6:30a. Ivo likes to fall asleep around 10p and wake up around 9a. Also, Ivo doesn't usually nap. So I have been known to fall asleep before Ivo...

OK. Is it normal for a kid to not want to drink? Ivo only wants apple juice - he flat out refuses other liquids. Is it possible he's motivated - even partly - to refuse drinking because I think it's important? I suspect this might be happening... I don't know what I did wrong - he used to like water. I'm not worried, exactly, but I'm quite bothered. I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it. He's eating well.

Today we went to D-man's new house - he has a big courtyard with a fish pond that has a couple turtles, a jungle gym a big swimming pool and lots of space to run. Very nice.
It's been hotter this month, so far, than it was in August. Boo.

Ivo & Burl See the Dinosaur-roaws

This video is from yesterday

Burl Talking 11 September

He My Friend

While trying to position himself on the friendly frog's lap, Ivo's feet kept getting caught, causing Ivo to comment, "Dis impossible."

Things are good but we are soooo tired. Well, I am. Ivo's fighting sleep.

Yesterday Ivo cried about going to school. We'd spent the morning at C-4 playing with D-man. Ididn't knowwhat to do after I dropped the boys off - there were a couple hours before I had to be at school. I was rubbing my neck and thinking about going to my school and lying flat on the floor and other ways to relieve my aching back, when it occurred to me that I should go get a massage. Yay for Taiwan and no appointment necessary, affordable massages and all manner of body work! I felt all loopy, giddy, endorphined-up after. It was great.

Today Burl, Ivo and I went to the science museum and botanical garden. Fun. Yesterday and today both boys have been into musical instruments! More fun!

Ivo overheard:

It just me. It just me, Ivo Lawrence. Don't worry.

and I no scare you.