New Shoes from Popo!

The Spectator

Daddy’s triathlon was today, and Kaeden was such a trooper! We woke him up at 5:30am and dragged him out into the freezing cold darkness. The original plan was to just drop Kris off and come home, but we stopped to watch him start the race and Kaeden liked it so much that we kept watching the entire thing!
He must have felt like HE ran the triathlon, cause he came home and downed a ton of food! (see video on dropshots under November 29, 2009)
  Kaeden made friends with this little girl (amongst many other friends he made today!)

Back at home…
 

First High Chair!

Kris and I went out for a VERY Delicious supper tonight. (Yes, it deserved a capital D!) And Kaeden sat in a high chair for the very first time. He had a blast!

See the November 28 video on dropshots to watch him blab away at the restaurant!

A Very Busy Day

Today was a busy day in the life of Kaeden.
During his morning nap, we put him in the crib. Today was the day he learned to stand up by pulling himself up with the bars. He was thrilled!

We then went downtown and toured parts of Kaohsiung we had never seen and went for afternoon tea.
After that, the Chois called us to go take photos with them in the sunflower fields because our neighbourhood is having a Flower Festival!
Then, we went out for supper with the Michaels to a place called Timothy’s (where I told the waitress that Tim was named Tim, with which we ended up getting free desserts).
And Kaeden ate sweet potatoes for the first time!
   

Kaeden in Chiayi

We went to visit our friend, Christina’s, place today!

Almost American Thanksgiving

One of the parents at school delivered a fully-cooked turkey to us today from the Grand Hai-Lai Hotel! It was HUGE and so yummy. It was almost as big as Kaeden and probably heavier.

Sippy Cup

Kaeden had his first taste of water today – from a sippy cup which he held by himself!
He also decided that today was the day he was going to try to stand all day, so he proceeded to go from piece after piece of furniture to use a prop to stand against.
Last night, we went to the Wardles cause Kaeden wouldn’t sleep and Kris wasn’t feeling well. So their 10-year-old daughter entertained him by doing ballet leaps. Kaeden almost stopped breathing cause he was laughing so hard. Here’s a video of her coming by tonight to do the same thing.

Busy Monday

Kaeden started off his day with his new food: PEAS! It started off poorly, but he’s an eater and polished them off quickly.

We then went downtown, and went for a stroll in the Baby Bjorn. Many shopkeepers came out to tell me how cute and “bai” (white) he was. Thanks, I think. He’s been doing this new trick in the car:

We came home, and he’s started to explore outside of his living room boundaries by crawling underneath the play excersaucer-thingy.

Then we had a visitor – one of my former student’s moms came over to see Kaeden. We had a good time visiting and he loved playing with her!

I also took a video of his two new teeth!! We discovered them some time last week, but they’re still itsy bitsy:

It’s been a busy, busy day!!

Another Sunday

Kaeden’s crawling like a madman. He just won’t stop. I don’t know where he’s getting his energy. We can’t contain him and we can’t get him to stop pulling himself to a stand and then collapsing a minute later onto our cement floors. God has sure made him tough!
We even tried bringing out his playpen cause that’s what they’re for, right? But the only way we could contain him was by putting him here:

Today, he ate a big bowl of rice cereal for breakfast, and then he had bananas and carrots for lunch.  He’s going to be a big guy!

MAK BBQ

Our school had a Family BBQ day yesterday, where all the students and their families came out to spend the day playing sports and other fun games, and of course, in true Chinese fashion, eating!
Kaeden was mellow, taking in all the sights and sounds.
He also found our TV table – with all my shells lined up on the edge. And he proceeded to pull them off, one by one!

Kaeden holding 4-month-old Miley's hand.

This boy knows how to chill - hanging in his tub!

He's an active one...

Here's Kaeden wearing his "My Grandma Loves Me" PJs - it's finally cool enough to wear them!!


It's Friday! Kaeden has a lot of energy. He has now discovered that the TV stand is a fun toy. He also likes wires a lot and despite our attempts to hide them, he manages to hurt himself by trying to squeeze his head between the desk and couch to get at these wires.

So now he has a cut beside his eye, and I have found foam to wrap around the edge of the desk so it hopefully won't happen again.

He's also taken to using the childproofing foam pieces as something to gnaw on. Mmm... chemically plastic-y goodness!

Eww… carrots!

He had carrots – were they his favourite thus far? You tell me.



He also had got his first of two doses of the H1N1 vaccine. Yes, we did it. (And no, the dislike of carrots had no link to getting a shot.)

A Nice, Calm Day

Kaeden & I went for a brisk walk today at I-Shou University with Janice. It was a full body workout in that the place is built on hills, and there were stairs everywhere, which meant we also had to carry Kaeden in his stroller.

We then had a salad and coffee at E-Coffee while Kaeden watched the cod swim around him.

It was a really relaxing day!

Carrefour

We went to Carrefour today and Kaeden enjoyed looking around. Otherwise, not much else happened...

Out of Whack

Kaeden went to bed at 8pm last night. Then he woke up at 11:30pm, 3:30am, and decided he was fully awake at 6:30am. He had another helping of bananas and played for awhile before taking a 2 hour nap, allowing me to make pulled pork AND homemade rolls! Then we headed to the Ullstroms to help them pack.
He snoozed a bit there, but is now sitting on my lap as I type this, contentedly sucking on his frozen foot teether.
And two days ago, Kris discovered that a tooth has most definitely poked through – I’m hoping that’s why he’s a bit cranky today.
We’ve also finally decided to get him the H1N1 vaccine, only to call the clinic today to find out there’s at least a three week wait. Oh well.
K really wants to type so I’m going to let punch a few words in.
qh 67iooooooguvh vmvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvy

Go, Bananas!

Kaeden had his first taste of bananas today. I’m not sure that it was a fair representation of them as they had been mashed and pureed, frozen and then heated (and were a nasty shade of brown). Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy them after the initial shock!

Date Night

Kaeden was without his mommy for most of the day today and was perfectly fine! Yay!!!
'                             Kaeden fell asleep in my arms.
I got to go out with Janice to do some Christmas shopping in the afternoon, and then the Wardles offered to watch Kaeden while we went out for our FIRST date since we’ve been back to Taiwan! It was wonderful. We love him, but it was nice to get out and even nicer to go for hotpot without a little curious grabby guy :).

6 months and 8 days

Kaeden had his third Hep B shot today. Brave little soldier that he was, he only let out a little whimper with his pitiful downturned lips. We then bought drinks to give to Daddy at school, and then Uncle Bill & Auntie Nancy took turns watching him at school while I helped Tiffany do some stuff.
He was so exhausted from his shot that he slept from 11:30am until after 3pm, although he woke up once for some food.
He had his rice cereal this morning, and was pretty pleased with himself as to how messy things got.
He’s also practicing how to stand! Sigh…

A Filled Social Calendar

Kaeden had quite the day today. I went to work for two parts of the day, so Kaeden stayed with Danielle, but he ended up having more company that just her.
In the morning, Henry L. came up to play. He’s 11 months old and apparently, was being chased around by Kaeden!
Then he played with Riley (age 4) later in the day. He just LOVES her!! We then got AJ (age 2) and went to the playground together. He almost made AJ mad because he kept trying to take AJ’s toys from him.
We then went downstairs and he was entertained by Virginia (age 10) and their giant stuffed hippo. Then off we went next door and he played with the Wardle coasters.
It was a big day for a little guy, but he was thrilled with all the entertainment!

Ai – ya!

Should we be proud?
We're not sure.

Kaeden was happily playing on the floor while I worked on the computer, when suddenly, I look over, and he has pulled himself to a FULL STAND using the couch.
He stood long enough for me to get a photo!
6 months and 6 days old - I thought they were only supposed to be learning to sit!
 

An Uneventful Day

Today was pretty calm. I worked for the morning, so Kaeden played at the Choi household and ended up falling asleep there. We then went to the breakfast shop, where I dropped off pairs of pants to be hemmed. Yep, my breakfast shop is also my tailors. I love Taiwan :).
Kaeden and I also went to the library today and later on we went to the bike shop and to the computer store.
I guess it wasn’t all that uneventful!
And now, the little man is definitely starting to attempt to pull himself to a stand. Sigh…

I’m a Foodie!

Kaeden had his first solids today! Rice Cereal with a dollop of breastmilk.... it looked awful, but somebody just loved it! He kept lunging and lunging for the food and ate the entire bowl of it. We'll be moving on to abalone and lobster soon :).
 
He also decided that Ducky needed a hug during his bath.

Hong Kong – Day 3

Kaeden had a terrific day in Hong Kong today! After a long night's sleep, we awoke and went back to the Barnstable house. We went shopping with Auntie Jocelyn and Rachel. Kaeden kept holding Rachel's hand in the taxi - it was very cute. Kaeden slept almost the entire time we were at the mall - typical male, eh?! They should make strollers for our husbands for when we go shopping! :)
Everywhere we went, everyone thought Kaeden was such a cutie. Luckily they did, cause he cried almost the entire time we were on the plane coming back to Kaohsiung. They gave us a bassinet, but the dude kept flipping over and peeking his head over the top to see what was happening. Several times, he almost climbed out of it! When we got to the baggage carousel, several people came up to me and asked if he was the baby that was crying the entire flight. But by then, he was calm and giving everyone his usual sweet smile, and winning their hearts. That's my boy!

For some reason, Kaeden decided to do this at Pacific Coffee, but I’ll take the second photo as his advanced cognitive ability to wave hello.
  

In the airplane bassinet. This lying down part lasted all of 5 minutes.