Sharp-dressed flower boy

Ivo may not know he was the flower boy - but he sure knew something was up! He loved his fancy shirt and bowtie. He kept checking himself out in the mirror and making faces. He didn't end up carrying his basket for most of the procession, but he did walk where he was supposed to go!

A band called the soilers played and Ivo n Jade (flower girl) loved the drums. He also lovd the balloons and the whole scene!

Rainy Wednesday Round-up

Pictures from AJ and Sian's wedding. 23 April


Did I mention that Ivo says "hot"? His version involves fanning his chest briefly, a shocked look and sounds sort of like, "haaaa!"

He chats and sings and really seems to have an amazing sense of rhythm.

He loves to eat yogurt, pineapple, rice, noodles and sweet potatoes.

Yesterday, we got the 69Across keyboard - Ivo loves it!

Amnesty International: the US ranks only behind China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in carrying out state executions. 94 percent of the estimated 2100 executions worldwide took place in those four countries alone.

Hu Jintao is in Washington. His visit is not considered an official state visit by the US - but is by China. I wonder why the semantics - and how a 21 gun salute and full military welcome and review don't constitute official.

I saw a bit of CNN - how I wish we had BBC instead - CNN SUCKS - All the coverage was about Hu's visit and Nepal - but nothing on the ongoing shake-up/change-up in the Bush administration - resignations etc.

I hope we don't get hoodwinked into starting a war in Iran.

MMR vaccination pt 2

And life goes on - Ivo has to go back for the 2nd dose of his MMR vaccination. It is admninistered at 15 months here.

In other Ivo-news,

+he makes funny faces on purpose and to make us laugh. You can tell him to show someone a face and he usually will.

+if he wants you to get up and go do something for Pete's sake, he pulls on the sleeve of your shirt and tries to drag you!

+he love kids and tries to hug them - works well with bigger ones, not so well with smaller ones.

+he loves to read books and has developed a keen interest in reading books without pictures.

+he still says "wow" and has added "what dat?" as well as "yi er yi er" which is Chinese "1, 2, 1, 2"

+he loves to sing

+he just woke up!

A bit about Melissa's visit

So much is and has been happening! We haven't had much time to post.

Where is the account of Rock n Roll weekend pt 2? -
good question. Coming soon with stories of beach and friends.

The night before Phil and Genevieve went back to Japan and then home to Anacortes, a surprise visitor showed up - Melissa! It's been almost 3 years since she left Taiwan and 69Across for Toronto and an M.Ed.

She stayed through the 2nd weekend of Spring Scream Dog and left Tuesday, 17 April - also for Japan and then home to T-town.

Ivo LOVES her!

Ivo's first ice-cream of his own

Ivo's first ice-cream of his own

Watch the video

We went to hot-pot with Melissa and Sho. It was Melissa's last night in town - Sunday 16 April.

Ivo plays kazoo - he's gonna be a flower boy!

The first picture is Ivo with the basket that Sian made. He is gonna be a flower boy at Sian and AJ's wedding whiv=ch is this Sunday, April 23rd. Very Exciting! Can Ivo walk and throw stuff? Yes Yes Yes!!!! Bret and Hannah's daughter is gonna be the flower girl. Also - Taiwanese weddings have both flower girl and boy so that the couple will bear both girl and boy. That's what I'm told - I'm not sure if there's anything sinister beneath the seemingly balanced plan - I'm choosing to think not.

The other pic is Ivo playing the kazoo - he can do it! He's so awesome!

Ivo loves the beach!

Even though it doesn't look like it!

progress report: rock n roll weekend pt 1

Ivo and I went to Taipei to meet Phil and Genevieve at the airport on Thursday night - 30 March. We went up to Taipei, stayed in a hotel and then spent the next day sight seeing. Weather was great and so super fun. Ivo had a blast.

We went to the National Palace Museum - which had a lot of renovations going on - sothe grounds were mostly closed. But on our way out - we found a beautiful garden with paths and ponds. Then we walked to the MRT - which I think took about an hour and on the way stopped at a temple. Phil is an excellent map reader, getter-arounder, he was able to navigate the MRT system without a hitch.

Three trains each way to the zoo stop where we caught a cab to Maokong - atop a mountain with a view of Taipei 101 and lush forest.

Then we trained back to the Wall where Phil n Genvieve sound checked. There were about 50 people waiting on line - even before doors opened.

Ivo n I drove home - only took 2 hrs 15 min. Today Ryan, Ivo n I are all going to Kenting!!! Yay!!!

More soon.

Ivo likes to play with water

Ivo likes to play with water

Watch the video

this is a reposting because it didn't cross post

ivo likes to giggle

ivo likes to giggle

Watch the video

ivo likes imported chips

ivo likes imported chips

Watch the video

bad luck with blip.tv

I've tried to post a video of ivo for the last couple of days and it just won't go up - so I'm gonna use my limited time to post pics instead,

it's raining - ivo n i ran to the store to get a little yogurt drink - we're making yogurt and didn't have enuf starter. ivo's never had yakult - he was all happy and excited to have his own little bottle n straw. when we got home, he poured it all over me!

he still cant quite use a straw - but all other indications are: genius!

mostly pictures

Wow! Ivo is 15 months old! Yay!
He's got 7 teeth with 3 on their way in various positions of gum-breakthru.
March has been mostly warm with a couple cool days.
Here are pics from cooler days.

Yay - the video went up!

Not until the second try however. But it went up fast! Toward the end, when Ivo touches the doggie and it starts singing Pat-a-cake, he puts down his toy and starts doing the "roll it and roll it" hand gestures. After that he's so happy, he does one of his new-ish things which is looking up as much as possible til he tips over!

laughing Ivo Pat-a-cake

laughing Ivo Pat-a-cake

Watch the video

On our way to Soho street

It is a sunny day - more distressingly, it is a humid day. Feels like summer coming. Ivo, Ryan and I are getting ready to walk over to Fubar - there's a Taiwan league baseball game on tv - and being played to a packed house in TaiChung City. Ivo and I will probably wander over to Tea Street for some window shopping and helium balloon buying.

Yay.

Am posting a video of Ivo:)

Ivo and friends at the park. Ivo and papa reading at home and eating at Mitsukoshi.

6:56am

It's light and the boys are sleeping...
coffee is on the horizon
I've been gathering the final bits of info for my paper
Regarding the online student center - they're gonna let me know! I hope they do one - but still I think I'll make a blog for it.

Paper's half done - Ivo went to the babysitter on Tuesday for 5 hours and I went to Starbucks with the laptop. It was the first time I'd ever done either of those things: leave Ivo to do something not-work (even though it was school) and use a laptop in public! kinda fun. I felt strange but liked it. maybe important. NOw I don't think I'll be able to go into a Starbucks without my opwn computer - it's all about the laptop!

Ivo and I are going to Heather and Dylan's this am.

new pursuits

I am pursuing an MA online thru SUNY at Stony Brook. I've always thought well of Stony Brook - especially the radio station - I had a boyfriend who was a dj/student. The station's motto at the time was, "Your first station of the '90's". That's how long ago that was - 1990.

Anyway, it's cool - I love being a student and in a lot of ways, I think participating in a totally online program is like being a pioneer - trailblazing and other forefront metaphores. There are caveats - I wouldn't have wanted to do an undergrad online - that's where I learned how to be a student and had academia modeled to me.

At more than US$400/credit, I expect a lot. There are a number of administrative things that have been and continue to be glitchy for me as an overseas student - but those seem like issues to be worked out together... happy to be on the team and so forth - as long as I can have access to book lists/syllabi in time to get my books here... a struggle each and every semester! But I'm promised each time, they're working on it.

The program offers no online student center - the only place I, a strictly online student, have access to other students is on the class blackboards. While each class has a "water-cooler" area - it is all under the purview of the professor and only available during the semester. So, it's not a place where I can ask other students about their best/worst classes, professors, or what they plan to do with their degrees... Had there been one, I wouldn't be in the class I'm in now!

So I'm gonna create one! It'll be an experiment too - I'll employ the tools of blogging I've been reading about, how to get hits, show up on search engines - and I'll email all the stoodents I can.