17 Nov Papa and Ivo in the garden 

Kevin and Kaia Nov 15 

Kevin and Kaia

Kevin and Kaia came to visit last week after work - they cabbed over. Kaia was not as excited about the whole thing as Ivo was. Kevin said that when she got home, she made a contented sighing sound which he took for relief!

toybox baby 

toybox with book 

climbed into the toybox with phone 

hello from tooth city

At least 4 teeth are coming in up top - maybe one from the bottom. It looks painful. Ivo says it's excrutiating. we are shui bu jiao - which is to say we aren't sleeping well. The lack of rest and erratic nursing seems to cuase blocked milk ducts which hurt and ache maybe the way ivo's gums do... but all in all, he's in a good mood about everything.

right now he's screeching while Ryan walks him around the living room - it's happy screeching. He sort of looking for his voice. He sings when he's about to fall asleep and he dances when he hears music. He chatters away. If we ask him a question like; "do you want to go downstairs?" "do you want to go for a walk?" He says "da!" very 4th tone emphatically. He also waves - but doesn't vocalize - bye bye. And he's gotten pretty good at it. He doesn't always do it when appropriate - depends on his mood - but it seems to me that when he's ready to leave a place, he starts to wave bye bye.

standing before dinner 16 nov 

napping nov 15 - notice temperature difference 

nb boy napping november 17 

winter here?

ivo is nursing. we're listening to wnyc.org - the brian leher show from veterans' day. we skipped the veteran/soldier poetry... we've moved on to the story about people leaving nyc - it's based on an article in nytimes about people leaving CA for kansas city... taking paycuts but improving quality of life... a disabled vet called in to say that both he and his wife both have good jobs and can't afford to buy a house/apt even w the gi loan - it caps out at 300,000 US$... you can't buy anything in nyc for that - you might be able to get a studio for that - w a 600/month maintenance fee... and the sadness of never being able to buy a home where your family is...

it's crazy... but they're referring to ny-ers who move to places like philadelphia, allentown, albany, charlotte... as expats! i love it - the idea of a nyc hipster diaspora - of which i would count myself - of course! a ny-er who moved out of hell's kitchen to pittsburgh called in and said that maybe nyers should move out and improve these hinterland locals...

getting squeezed outa nyc - rents/property costs excrutiating - years ago I heard the statistic that 1/6 people in the US have lived or have family in Brooklyn - pretty awesome...and the whole idea of community - artistic, intellectual, spiritual, political ... writers, students, artists, musicians living among eachother - spawning and supporting bookshops, theaters, galleries etc and how pregnant and exciting that sort of place can be...but how all the old hip/sexy spots are way too expensive for true punk art... how authentic could it be? and that outside the village- east or west, even outside williamsburg, outside the cools spots in paris, london, berlin, sanfrancisco... to places people can afford but don't think of as cool stimulating breading grounds for the creative mind; like cleveland... places poor people can afford to live a life where they have space and 5 hot minutes to BE creative... Taichung is like that... all the bands that came outa Moncton/Halifax... but you have to be able to find a job

garbage truck is coming

Ivo's asleep on the couch next to me - which is why there is now punctuation and capitalization happening.

but the real reason that i'm listening to this show is the update on the trial in dover, PA on "intelligent design" being taught in the pubic schools - still working on becoming a science missionary. my friend bob said there should be a book a la the whole books for idiots craze like physics for dummies, philosophy for dummies called "dummies for scientists" - i like the idea - a handbook for rational thinkers with tips on how to relate to those who eschew logic.

ok ivo's up!

weather report

It has been humid and hot later in the year than ever in our experience here! Into the 30's celsius during the days. Ugh! Shorts and t-shirts still - tho jeans aren't out of the question when yr gonna get dirty! Ivo is sitting with his friend Adriaan who is 2 weeks younger than Ivo.
Here are some pics from brunch and the greenway by the science museum taken 13 November, my mom's bday!
Ivo's started to eat Cheerios - he loves them! He can wave bye-bye, and we think he's saying "ball" and "mama" on purpose and in context. He understands when we say "give it to Papa" "give it to Mama" - and usually he does it:) He loves shiny helium balloons - he saw a vendor from half a block away this weekend and started squealing! Then he picked out a Winnie the Pooh balloon.

halloween pics

The top pic is Ryan w Ivo at my school's party. It was craziness and not really baby friendly. They had to stand the whole time.

The other 2 are at Nate and Jessie's in Chang Hua - one in costume the other out. We're thinking about getting a rocking horse like that for Ivo's bday.

His finger in mouth has been pretty constantly how he deals with teething. That and a few fingers and also using his tongue as a cushion b/w his gums. He's had a 3rd tooth break thru - it left of the center top 2 teeth spot - but at least 2 more are in the works.

update

Ivo was a bumblebee for Halloween. He went to 2 parties. That Saturday - the 28th - evening, we were all in Chang Hua for Nate's 40th bday and kids' party. It was great - they even had a haunted house and all the food looked like other things; fingers, spiders, even a kitty litter cake!

Earlier that day we temporarily adopted a street cat. It had been living on the roof of our neighbors' across the street for at leat 5 days. Meowing and crying all the while. We think that it may have been born up there and then abandoned. Anyway, finally he got to a place where our neighbor could reach him. He freed him to the street a couple doors down. More crying and he came back here, he was so tiny... we fed him and took him to the vet. The kitty was 4 weeks old and healthy - worm-free. After a few days, I got hives. Once I stopped interacting with the cat, the hives stopped too. But it was too heartbreaking not being able to give little kitty any love. Luckily a coworker of Ryan's took him in!

The next day, we found out that Karin had broken her knee that same Saturday night. She'd been playing baseball. She's had surgery to reconnect her knee cap pieces and seems to be healing really well. She can't get around very well tho - her cast is terribly heavy. So she's home for a while. She thinks Ivo will be walking befor she is;/

Ivo doesn't really like when I use the computer. But somehow he's ok with it now. Maybe he knows he should cut me some slack since he woke wide up at 3:30am and nothing I did got him to go back to sleep so we came downstairs. It's now 4:45! He just had a big poop - yet still seems wide awake.

I'm gonna post some pics:)