Ivo HK airport

Ivo on the airport express train on the way to the airport and in the food court playing on the excellent simulated cockpits and at the gate.

Ivo HK wrap-up

These were taken on the Kowloon side of the HK harbor.

There was a dancing water laser light show in one direction and the awesome HK skyline in the other.

one week back

We've been back a week. It's been a kind of tough week because my sister's been in the hospital. Not cheerful. "Deeply tragic" - my sister Nicky called it... So I'm not gonna write about it here cuz I just want people to see cute Ivo and smile when they see this page. I'm thinking of starting another blog to just have a place to write about my sister - I don't know why I want to have a blog instead of just a journal... I've kept journals my whole life though - and maybe the appeal of the blog is that there is a super tiny chance that someone will help you!!!

Maybe.

I cried most of the day I found out that Patty was in the hospital. I tried to find solace on the internet. I don't really know what I thought I'd find - what could possibly be there. But most 'problems' I have I can check the internet. Basil's not growing, heat rash, how to cook chicken, lyrics to a song, visa applications, general information. I know I can't fix liver failure, esophageal varices. I know I can't stop death. I know I can't make her life happy. But I just sort of instinctively was looking for answers online. So I think that's all I'm gonna say about it here.

Ivo at Hong Kong airport departure gate 64

Ivo at Hong Kong airport departure gate 64

Watch the video

Ivo had a great time running around the airport

Ivo on bus #6 to Stanley Market

It's a double decker bus and we sat right on top in the front! We did a little shopping and ate fish and chips. Here's a link to Stanley Market.

Ivo on the Star Ferry

Ivo took the ferry 3x. He was slow to warm up to it - mostly cuz of no-nap.

Ivo at the Empire Hotel in Hong Kong

Ivo at the Empire Hotel in Hong Kong

Watch the video

Ryan says that I shouldn't post this cuz of Ivo being naked - but it's soooo cute.  He alternates from looking out the window 16 stories up to talking to his Papa who's in the shower.

Anyway - this may not stay up for long!!!

As with all videos here - give it like 5 or 10 minutes to download...

Ivo en route

Mentioned before that Ivo likes trucks and buses... He seems to like all things vehicular and/or transport related. He likes airplanes helicopters - he indicates both of these by circle-ing his index finger in the air and making a whirring/tk,tk,tk sound.

So we wanted him to get the most out of the buses, airplanes, trains and ferries he'd encounter on our visa run. He mostly really enjoyed it. I'm not sure he understood he was on an airplane though...

The picture of the bus broken down on the side of the highway is our first bus. It was included with the package deal. We had to meet it at 4:45am just to wait at a subsequent pickup-station for an hour while the overbooking problem was sorted. The irony is that the people who got off the bus and waited for the next one got to the airport long before we did! We had to wait roadside in the un-ac'd heat til another bus was able to pick us up. It was silly. There was a stink of overheating for a half hour before the driver pulled over. This is a good example of a differences between Taiwan and Hong Kong. I have to try to remember more - but my brain is acting all 5am-y.

Ivo actually liked the airplaned food!

Ivo: legal resident

Visibly shaken - even aged...
Just back from HK, Ivo offers a Modernist interpretation of his recent ordeal...

He has 14 days to apply for his ARC - let's hope he's learned to respect protocol, paperwork and beauracracies just enough not to get tripped up by them in the future.

Ivo: Illegal Alien

In Taiwan, this is what an illegal alien looks like...

So watch out! This guy had been illegally residing in Taiwan since his visa expired in February! The nerve, the cheek, the gall! He neglected to attend to his paperwork and Taiwan extends no leniency to the pre-literate. So a-visa-running he did go!

UrbanBaby at NYMagazine.com

NY Magazine has a cover article this week about mothers in NYC - as gleaned thru the online community called UrbanBaby. It's intersesting - non-treacle-y and bonus!!! - sort of styled as a front in the invisible class war. I learned the terms “sanctimommy” - a self-righteous mom and “Über-boober” - a sanctimommy obsessed with breast-feeding.

The only message boards I've ever been to are at forumosa.com, ivillage and babycentre. Forumosa - mostly for legal stuff regarding living in Taiwan. The other 2 for preg and baby stuff. Except for a couple comments that were not well-received at the beginning of Ivo's gestation, I've been a lurker. Either satisfied to find the info I wanted or more often sickened by the strange 2D online manifestations of women, individually and as a community, with whom I thought I'd have a little more in common.

Typical message boards feature women who start reckoning the age of their embryo before their period is late - in terms of days not weeks, these same people profess to already be showing at 2 weeks preg - going with the idea that their "muscles are shot" by former pregnancies. There is other magical thinking; terms like baby glue (to prevent miscarriage, represented by + signs), and counters featuring cartoon angels morbidly marking the days since a previous -usually super early miscarriage... Everyone is REALLY supportive - I don't even know what that means. Supporting others' undiagnosed untreated delusions, neuroses and fetishes? Providing a safe place for people to air their opinions without challenge?

So reading about urbanbaby was refreshing...Since you have pretty thorough anonymity - if you want it - on the web, why the restraint?

Ivo's up. We're gonna water the garden and go to the gym.

ivo's 1st donut pt 2

More pics...

ivo's 1st donut

Ivo ate his first doughnut on Sunday 16 July. He sat on a bench on Li Ming Road close to Qiao Ma Bus Haven, eating the chocolate off the top of his doughnut and poiting at buses.

Very fun!

Ivo at Mitsukoshi

Ivo at Mitsukoshi

Watch the video

Today - Bastille Day - 2006!

 Ivo says "bus" whenever he sees a bus and also "wow" whenever he sees something cool, like a bus.

typhoon bilis

Same same. Bastille Day from Mitsukoshi...

typhoon bilis

Typhoon Bilis as seen from the 13th floor of Mitsukoshi, Taichung Taiwan

ivo spends bastille day at mitsukoshi

We are in the midst of a fairly mild-for-taichung typhoon named, Bilis. Because of the rain, Ryan Ivo and I spent hours playing at Mitsukoshi. It was mostly fun - the best part was after we fed Ivo and went up to the 13th floor to run around and look out at the city.

Ivo's mood has been kinda delicate, turn-on-a-dime mopey-manic. I guess he's teething and often constipated... frustrated that he can only be understood to say; bus, ball, mama, papa, wow, meiyo, buyao, no-no-no. He's not always able to tell us what he wants and not always granted it even when he does get his point across. Things like being held in front of the open freezer, games involving throwing food and all sorts of physical incursions upon other people are often not granted the time and space he'd like to devote. This can frustrate a guy.

He bit me mercilessly the other day - and pulled his clenched teeth off leaving broken skin. What if he bites my nipple off? As a joke, even. Do we go to the ER and have it reattatched? Well, if that happens - he's cut off for sure. Otherwise, I feel so ambivalent. I think nursing is so good for him - and for every book/expert/nosey-ned or -nelly who says he's too old, I can find one who says two-years should be standard. So, this belief/position combined with my fear of failing and laziness/exhaustion make breastfeeding endure even though he's got teeth and a sense of humor... He's a heavy night time feeder - during the day he can take it or leave it. He can fall asleep without nursing or a bottle.

Oh yea, his pediatrician thinks he shouldn't breastfeed anymore! He told me this during Ivo's 18-month innoculation. It's not like Ivo doesn't eat food - he does.

ivo says ow!

There are a few things that we won't - or we think we won't- be sorry to see Ivo grow out of... One of those things is hitting people on the head - the other is throwing things at peoples' heads. He is strong and is aim is dead-on. He may be ambidextrous. Yes, we hold out great hopes for his major league prospects...We are just a little tired of flinching and embarrassed when he hits kids...

It's not so much the exuberance-based hug-em smash-em whack-em that we mind. That is understandable and rather than seeming evil - seems sweet. It is instead the surprise bashing and the cat-and-mouse teasing he does. He'll hold a block, book, plastic rhino behind his head - poised to launch - and giggles thinking it's funny when we tell him "don't throw - give it to mama..." He gets a kick out of the whole process - then he sneak-attacks - even though you kinda knew it was coming all along.

We've tried various ways of trying to talk him out of this... Mostly he laughs at us. But he has come to understand and embrace "ow!". He says it when he understands that someone has pain. He says it when he has hurt himself. He says it when he sees a small cut, scracth, mosquito bite, rip in fabric, or anything slightly amiss. He doesn't seem to get that some of these ows are avoidable - are generated by his little guns...

He's super awesome even though he doesn't understand the thin line between pleasure and pain, love and hate, fill in the blank...

Ivo and dylan

Ivo and dylan

Watch the video

Ivo has long reminded me of bam bam from the flintstones...

bao bao

bao bao is hug!!!

warning: high center of gravity

Ivo: you have a very high center of gravity, little guy. It's located in yr head, which has yr brain in it. So- take it easy - you need yr head and you need yr brain. I get it that yr gonna have bumps bruises and discolored lumps... but that's all I can accept.

If I have to chop up or dismantle every fixture or piece of furniture in this house, I will. You can't color on the outside of the tub from the inside - you will fall out because yr big head is a lot heavier than yr little belly and bum!!!! Don't do that. Also, don't launch yrself off the back of the computer chair.

Thank you.

Pics to follow... won't load now...

Ivo can say...

I think I mentioned that Ivo says, "ball" - I hope I did. Cuz now he says, "baseball". But here's the cute part-+-++-+
63-*+
(symbols and no.'s courtesy of Ivo) The cute part is that he pronounces it, "ball-ball". He says it when he sees ball-ball on tv and when he wears a ball-ball shirt.