Chickpea

Natural View Restaurant in Miao Li

2012-01-16T14:42:00.000+08:00

This trip actually occurred two weekends ago. Thomas had to go to his company's end-of-the-year party, so we joined with our neighbors to go to Miao Li County and enjoy some fresh air. It helped that their son is Maya's best friend, and the boy who she says she's going to marry :)

The restaurant food was typical, but as you'll see below, the view most definitely was not. I didn't take very many pics because I was too busy enjoying some warm, sunny weather with the kids, but the ones I did snap show how beautiful this place is.

This is the large grassy area outside of the restaurant. That's not the restaurant in the back, I think it's a rental hall. Yes, I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant, oops!

Laurence, the boy who Maya loves :)

Hanna making her way up the slope to ring the bell in the chapel.

Still going...

The charming little outdoor chapel, complete with gorgeous blue sky. I planned it that way.

Maya trying to ring the bell...

...and then running away when the bell sounds and the chain comes swinging back at her!

Me, too!!!

Hanna had a great time with Lou during this trip. He played ball with her and climbed around the grassy slopes with her. That's him following her in the pic below.

Hanna was fascinated with this stone. She just kept staring at it because...

...it was a speaker!

Why, Mama? Why? Why is there music coming from that stone?

Towards the end of the afternoon, we started getting the "I'm sleepy. Leave me alone." look.

The things moms do for a great picture. Vicky was trying to get them both to jump up at the same time. I think she's still there waiting!

DON'T TELL THOMAS!!!

Was that good timing, or what? Maybe I could teach poor Vicky.

I have no idea why, but Hanna kept wanting to balance on this rock. She just about fell on her head doing it, but it was silly fun :)

Gingerbread Chinese New Year Houses?

2012-01-13T20:35:00.001+08:00

Yes. Yes. I know. Gingerbread Chinese New Year Houses??? Well, we had been planning to make the houses with the kids for a loooooong time, but each week someone was always sick. Well, finally, we were all feeling well, and since Chinese New Year is coming up, we decided to make them cover both cultures.

The cookies were made by me. The icing was provided by Jessica. And Vicky got all of the decorations and made the mini chun lian.

I didn't get so many pictures because I was trying to help two kids, but I think you get the idea. Lots of sugar + lots of kids = happy times :) And tired mamas....

Hanna just wanted to play with the icing. She was fascinated with the way it came out of the bag when she squeezed it. Oh, and it tasted good, too.

Maya decorating her gingerbread girl. It even had licorice pigtails.

Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze.

Our neighbor, Ning Ning joined us, too. She didn't want to leave at the end of the night :)

Yo Tzi wasn't really into decorating. He just wanted to cook something. How lucky his future wife will be!

Stop to take a break and mmmmmm....

That's a lot of squeezin'!

Maya's house.

Chun Lian.

Mmmmmm....

Don't even *think* about coming between me and my candy!

The finished products. From left: Neo Neo's, Maya's, and Juju's.

Closeup of Neo Neo's house.

Closeup of Maya's house.

Closeup of Juju's house. You know, 5A.

Another angle of Neo Neo's house.

Another angle of Maya's house.

Another angle of Juju's house.

And the all-around view of Maya's house. Sorry I couldn't do the cool Matrix-like 360 :)

Really old, but cute!

2012-01-12T11:52:00.004+08:00

I just realized that I uploaded these pics over a year ago, and never published them. Aren't they cute? They chronicle one trip to the playground when Hanna decided it would be a good idea to pick up and chew a stick.

Just look at those CHEEKS!

Picture Dump

2012-01-12T01:37:00.002+08:00

Warning! I've been extremely lazy and haven't blogged in awhile, so I'm just going to dump a lot of pictures here for you to view...AND NOT DESCRIBE THEM!!! Hahahaha! Feel free to comment below and suggest labels :)

Hopefully this will inspire me to update this post and add some comments at a later date :)

I will comment here, though. Poor Maya got sick Christmas Eve night/Christmas Day morning and was up until 3am :( So you see very few smiles from her on Christmas morning. Poor girl.

It's hard to see, but Santa ate most of his biscotti and chocolate marshmallow cookies. A busy man needs to stop and eat, too :)

My first attempt at real strawberry shortcakes. Maya loves the doll, so I thought I'd show her what a REAL shortcake was.

Our front door decorated for Christmas.

Maya thought up and made all of these herself, including the kung-fu Santa! So cute! (the other two are a reindeer and an Xmas tree)

My only contribution was the Santa face made from the shape of my hand. Next are Maya's Christmas tree and blue snowman.

The snowman has a back story. Originally, he had nothing on top of his head. When Maya showed him to me this way, I said, "Don't you think his head will be cold?" thinking he was missing a black hat. She came back a few minutes later with his newly added HAIR! I did my best to stifle my laughter and praise her :)

Another snowman, this time brown, and a candy cane.

I printed this out for the girls to color. I had no idea Maya was already so good at staying in the lines. And I like the colors she chose. Oh, and at the bottom left that reads, "Hape Crmis". She sounded it out herself :)

All of our friends traced their hands and signed their names to them. Then we cut them out and stuck them on our door to form a friendship Christmas tree. The star was drawn by Maya and cut out by Mom. I really don't want to take this one down!

This tree got some presents under it.

Maya surprised me one day and drew this. It's the Earth with the sun on one side and the moon on the other. Notice where the sun is shining, it's light on the Earth, and on the other side it's dark??? And all the stars out in the galaxy. I LOVE this drawing!!!

Hanna made the green one :) You'll have to ask her what it is.

Hanna made this one, too. She pointed to it and said, "Doggie." Wow! Not bad for just 2 years old, eh?

Chinese New Year is January 23rd this year. Here we are making Chuen Lian at our house to ward off the Year Beast.

As Promised

2011-12-20T22:53:00.003+08:00

So here are the original photos taken at the Regent Hotel last Sunday. The lady who took our picture didn't even give us a countdown; she just aimed and shot. So I'm still speaking to Maya trying to convince her to join us, and Hanna is just trying to avoid Santa. Classic, huh? One for the ages :)

Santa was nice to Hanna. He said 'Hi!', gave her a piece of candy, and offered to hold her, but she balked (at him, not the candy).

The photo and this cute paper frame, which folds in half to form a card, were only 100NT (about $3 USD). Lots of good memories made that day :)

Gettin' Ready for Xmas

2011-12-19T23:23:00.001+08:00

We received some cute red clothes for Christmas from Gma (thank you!!), so I thought we should take some pictures and show them off. Notice Maya is wearing neon green socks because 'they're Christmas colors'.

Little Hanna was taken with this red present ornament. She kept trying to unwrap it, which is really cute because big sister did the exact same thing when she was two :)

Hanna tried to put the present on like a sock. I have no idea why!

I just love taking pictures of little kids. You can never get them to do what you want, but the results are still cute.

This is my favorite. Those are the smiles of two sisters who really love each other :)

Maya wanted to hold Hanna, but Hanna wasn't really all about it.

We took a trip up to Taipei this past Sunday to visit the Regent Hotel. It's the only place I'm aware of in Taiwan that has pictures with Santa, and it has the added bonus of having the largest indoor Christmas tree in Taiwan. Here's the side entrance:

And, voila! The tree! Not bad, eh?

Santa and his sleigh were positioned at the foot of the tree, and there was a short line of people waiting for pictures. When Maya saw Santa she backed away and said, "I'm shy." I told her that I would be going with her and Hanna, and she could sit on the opposite side of Santa, but she wouldn't join us.

So, here's our very first picture with Santa:

Actually, this isn't the photo they took for us at the hotel. This is a picture Thomas took with our camera. And thank goodness because the picture they took is just, well...I'll post it later and you'll see.

Trust me this one is better.

The hotel had a shopping mall downstairs that had some nice decorations. Maya loved the train.

And I have no idea why these are displayed during Christmas time. My guess is that they are paper airplanes? The girls really liked them, especially since their outfits matched the color perfectly.

They thought it was so funny that they were 'camouflaged' and we couldn't see them.

Maya was trying to kiss Hanna, and Hanna just laughed and wiggled away.

Yes. The table is a pig. A black pig almost the same height as Hanna. And it's wearing mis-matched socks. Here she's turning around to check it out.

And walking away smiling about it.

Thomas took Hanna out shopping with him later that evening (I know. I can't believe it, either!), so I asked Maya if she'd like to take some more Christmas pictures. We had fun :)

I have about 7 pictures of her in this pose. She just thought it was so funny to put her hand up to her chin and say, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Mom busted out the jumbo container of mini candy canes. Maya was so excited she even made a candy cane angel in them :)

Hospital and party, not at the same time

2011-12-01T23:27:00.001+08:00

Here I am again. This time I had a really good reason for the time lag in posts. I was in the hospital. Nothing major, but that was 6 days of my life wasted away sitting in a hospital bed. Actually, I brought some crafting stuff with me, so I was able to keep my hands busy. And the iPad helped, too :) I'm home now and doing just fine, but trying hopelessly to catch up where I left off. *sigh*

So we had to cancel the big princess birthday party, and instead had an informal, intimate birthday gathering at our house on Wednesday, Maya's birthday. It was nice. I busted out the prince/princess cardboard crowns and stick-on jems and each child decorated one for him/herself. Then we sang happy birthday, blew out candles, and ate cake.

After the table was cleared, I let the girls open their gifts. Maya's favorite gifts were a pair of glittery pink shoes and a Tinkerbell doll. Once she figured out what she was supposed to do, Hanna just liked ripping the wrapping paper. V_E_R_Y slowly. This drove the older kids nuts because they were so curious about what was inside. So funny! Hanna's favorite gift was Maya's glittery pink shoes! Seriously! Hahaha! She insists they're hers. Well, little miss Han, just you wait until Christmas and see what Santa has in store for you...(I need to wait until then to give them to her because her feet aren't big enough yet! Doh!)

My friend Vicky took pictures of the event, and once I get them from her, I will post them. I will. I will. I will.

Oh, and in case you were wondering why Hanna was opening presents, too, Maya and Hanna's birthdays are just two days apart :) I am now the momma of a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old. How time flies!

It's been awhile

2011-10-10T23:30:00.002+08:00

Since I've posted anything. I know. I know.

But now that I'm getting out of the time sink that is Facebook, I'm hoping to do more blogging. We have lots of celebrations coming in the next few months, so here's to more fun family pictures and happy times :)

**********

A recent conversation with Maya included talking about what life was like before we had electric lights. She was surprised that you actually had to go to bed when it got dark outside because you couldn't see indoors.

She pondered this idea for awhile and then asked me, "Mama, what was life like without concrete? or clothes/fabric?"

My internal reaction was, "WOW! Way to expand on an concept, girl!!!" But I just discussed with her about people making clothes out of animal skins and houses out of trees. Awesome! I'm so proud!

Also, we took M&H out for lucnh the other day at 11th Street Restaurant. They are famous for their steamed dumplings. We couldn't feed them to Hanna fast enough. She kept asking for more "Duh-bees".

Easter Day

2011-04-25T22:04:00.015+08:00

Before the Easter Bunny arrived...

and after he left. When Maya saw this the next morning she responded with a big, "WOW!"

She found her stash after about 2 minutes of searching.

Wind-up musical doll that was supposed to be a Christmas present.

Hanna got one, too :)

This was her favorite thing in the basket (besides the basket itself). She's been taking it with her everywhere she goes. Big THANK YOU to Grandma :)

Maya loves the bug box. She's been carrying the bunny rabbit around in it all over the place. She's even thoughtful enough to put some plush carrots in with her, in case she gets hungry.

Which will get eaten first? Ears or legs?

Well, I accidentally erased that picture, but the answer was ears.

Gotta love the chocolate smile!

I hid the chocolate eggs my Mom sent me separately...and in all the excitement, I forgot about them. Maya found them about 10 minutes later and was soooooo thrilled! I told her they were from Grandma.

What better place to hide eggs than in the (play) kitchen?

Did I mention she was excited?

Just a bit?

Thank you, Grandma!

Hanna woke up about an hour later, and was a bit cranky.

Just a bit. Look at that FACE!

But then she began to realize that candy was involved...and the tears melted away.

And there was much rejoicing :)

What's this stringy stuff, Mama?

Better yet, what's this egg-shaped thing?

Let me inspect it further...

If I put it up against my belly, can I just absorb the chocolate by osmosis?

We had a nap in the afternoon, and I prepared for the Easter Party. It started downstairs in the lobby with an egg hunt. 80 eggs. 5 big kids, 2 little ones. 5 minutes. Done. It was loads of fun to watch them scramble for those eggs!

Then we played the Candy Hop. The kids formed two lines. Wearing bunny ears and a cotton tail, they had to hop with a pillow between legs along a small straight course. When they returned, they got a small chocolate bunny as a prize. Seeing them wearing those costumes was just the cutest thing.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me during this time, but I'm sure I'll receive some pics from friends later and upload them then.

Next it was upstairs to my house for a small craft and making Easter eggs. Again, more pics later. Sorry! I was busy!

And I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to all the parents who helped herd the little ones who couldn't dye eggs.

I think Yo Tzi had fun. Actually, I KNOW he had fun because there was food involved! Haha! What a cutie :) He's two months older than Hanna.

It was bound to happen. Hanna got a hold of a foil-covered chocolate egg and her little fingers went to town, showcasing her awesome fine motor skills. She sat patiently for about ten minutes...

Examining.

Picking.

Trying out other eggs.

Until she finally opened the egg. I was so proud of her concentration, I gave her a little bite of the chocolate. She was beaming....although, in hindsight I think that was just a sugar rush :)

Hanna giving Mama a kiss. A Hershey Kiss, that is :)

Hey, I'll take what I can get!

The work space.

Li Wen and her adorable daughter, Ke Xuen.

After the party, I thought some cute sister bunny pics were in order. Here goes...

Maya purposely put the bunny ears like this. She insisted it was cuter this way. That girl really has her own sense of style!

Ready, Set...

2011-04-23T23:56:00.004+08:00

'Go!' will be in the morning, when the girls awaken and the hunt for Easter baskets is on. I just finished prepping their booty and thought I'd post it for you to see. Lots of yummy candy was given to us by Grandma (BIG thank you!!!) as well as the paints, markers, coloring books and bunnies. Their baskets are from Taiwan. Hanna's is a traditional woven basket (really hard to find over here!), and Maya's is a 'pet box'. Maya's been really into insects lately, so I thought that I could incorporate that into her Easter experience; I'm sure she'll be thrilled!

Anywho, it's off to bed for this tired Momma. We'll post more pics of Easter morning and the party/egg hunt later. Good night!

Maya's pet box basket.

Hanna's basket.

Carefully hidden.

In a frequently visited place.

The cupboards with the kids' books in them!

Peek-a-boo.

She'll find you.

In her favorite corner to hide in.

Hanna Uses a Cup

2011-04-12T22:37:00.004+08:00

Hanna's been pointing at my cup now for the past few weeks, and I've been stalling a bit on letting her use one by herself. I've helped her drink a few sips here and there from an adult cup, but I hadn't let her handle one by herself...until today. And it went a little something like this:

First, hold the cup up against your face. Do not tilt head back. Just sit there and hope that the almond milk gets into your mouth :)

After swallowing a little bit, reach into the cup...

swish your fingers around inside and...

start FINGER PAINTING!!! Yay!!!

After all that painting you feel thirsty again, so indulge yourself with another gulp...

and reach inside...

FINGER PAINTING again!!! Yippee!!!

All that work makes you thirsty again, so...

Can you guess what happened next? :)

Hi and Kisses from Hanna 15 months old

2011-03-21T23:18:00.004+08:00

My Little Actress

2011-03-21T23:02:00.003+08:00

I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree, eh? The line I hear a lot is, "Mama, take a picture of me doing..." Here she is having a picnic in the living room, and making silly faces for the camera.

Recently Maya loves to play dress-up. I created a costume box for her in the toy room a few months ago, and I add fun things to it as I find them. Here she's posing with her ballerina tiara. And her favorite little dance partner :)

Lately...

2011-03-21T22:47:00.007+08:00

Here we are trying to get a picture of all the girls together...or should I say 'goobers' together? They were being so silly I had a hard time holding onto the camera. And Hanna is always trying to grab it away from me anyway, so here's the play-by-play of me trying to get a good pic. Enjoy!

Now, if that isn't the face of mischief, I don't know what is...

This one is sweet.

So is this. Their smiles just make my heart sing :)

GOOBERS!!!

Just Speechless

2011-03-11T23:57:00.000+08:00

My heart goes out to the people of Japan.

Chinese New Year Stuff

2011-03-08T23:38:00.008+08:00

So this is the Year of the Rabbit. And we juuuust so happen to have the adorable rabbit sweatshirt hoodie for Hanna. It used to be her cousin's...6 years ago! Of course when we went to visit my father-in-law for Chinese New Year, I just *had* to put it on her. Isn't she cute?

I really like this picture because I think it captures the essence of a four-year-old. I can see all you moms out there nodding your heads!

Doesn't Thomas look just like his Dad?

And nothing like his brother?

Hanna really took to my brother-in-law. I think she could sense that he's gonna be a daddy again, soon :) Or it could be that she just prefers slightly chubby men ;) Seriously, though, she really does; Maya was the same way when she was little.

Thomas may look like his Dad, but he'd never be caught dead doing this:

My father-in-law is an awesome cook. I have much to learn from him.

And here is my niece and sister-in-law. That baby boy bump is due very soon. I'm so excited; I can't wait to be an aunt again!!!

Maya doing what she loves best.

Earlier we made chun lian. They are red strips of paper with auspicious phrases written on them; you post them around the entrances to your house to ward off the "Year Beast". The story says he wakes up only once a year to eat (people), but he'll stay away from your house if you post chun lian around your door because he is afraid of the color red.

First I painted the characters on my paper, and Maya copied me. Then we added some glitter glue and shiny bows. The results are really cute.

Showing off her chun lian. For those of you who read Chinese, can you tell what they say?

The one on the left is mine; the right is hers. Not bad for four-years old. Chinese is a hard language to write.

Hanna wanted to display some of them, too.

By the way, I just wanted to explain the one of the left because it's pretty funny. This one is supposed to say "Da Jia Gong Xi". But "Xi" is a really hard character to write. So I substituted a smiley face because it has the same sound, "Xi". You can see Maya's smiley face at the bottom, with a huge open mouth with spots inside. When I asked her what the spots were, she said, "He's eating cookies!" Hahahaha!

And this is kind of random, but I just wanted to post this before I forgot. I was totally shocked to see this on Maya's school paper:

Those blue pen marks are Maya trying to write her Chinese name, which is really challenging. The first character is scratchy, but she pretty much nailed the second character. She did this just from looking at a sticker with her name on it. Way to go, Maya!!!

Maya's Tang Yuan

2011-03-08T23:20:00.003+08:00

Maya made tang yuan with her class again this year. Tang yuan are sweet sticky rice flour balls that are usually filled with pureed peanuts or black seasame. Maya's had red bean paste inside. She was so excited about making them herself, and she kept begging me to make them for her. Well, finally one evening I decided we should have them for snack, and she was thrilled. Here's the booty, still frozen:

Quick comparison to gauge the size. That's my finger, not hers.

You, my dears, are about to be eaten! Yum!!

See what I made?

Heatin' up the water. Exciting stuff, I know.

Once it's boiling, pop those bad boys on in. Let 'em dance around for a few minutes.

Testing for doneness. They should be sticky on the outside and gooey in the middle.

Scoop 'em out.

Place them in your favorite color bowl.

Smile for the camera :)

And smile again nicely for Grandma and Grandpa.

Take one bite and then say that you don't like them, can you please have some crackers for snack. @#*%*(&@#^)@*&#)@!!!!!!

Lantern Festival

2011-02-17T22:55:00.006+08:00

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I forgot to bring our camera, so these pics were taken with my cell phone. Here's the entrance to the park. That's Thomas holding Maya on his shoulders. He came home early today so we all could go. So sweet :)

Checkin' out the lanterns.

Probably the most well-documented rabbit lantern in all of Hsinchu County. Everyone tries to take a picture with it, but it's next to impossible with all the people there. I just raised my camera and crossed my fingers :)

Maya *was* smiling and facing me when I pushed the button to take this picture, but then she saw the toys for sale, and her attention was diverted. I have no idea why.

This is what we did while Baba and Maya went off to look at the lanterns. Hanna crawled around on the ground...

sat down by the edge of the grass...

and started picking up leaves, small branches and other assorted goodies...

It's what she's best at :) A few made it in the mouth. Oh, well.

Cutie :)

Gimme that!

Look at that lantern, Mom!

Year of the Rabbit!

It's really hard to get two wiggle-butts to sit and take a picture. Gotta get 'em at the end of the day, when they're too tired to move...

Saved my favorite pic for last. Gotta love those faces!

Was It The Food...

2011-02-15T23:23:00.003+08:00

or the company that was so uninteresting? Hanna fell asleep in the middle of dinner tonight. Maya and I were talking and Jhen Yu was there, too. I guess it was a combination of exhaustion (she hadn't slept for 7 hours) and boredom because I wasn't feeding her fast enough. Poor baby!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T23:59:00.008+08:00

She told me, "Look, Mama! The candy is open already!"

Amazing, isn't it?

Ohio Trip - Part 2 - In the Right Order

2011-01-16T21:05:00.018+08:00

We had this freaky warm weather for about two days in December. It was 60F and sunny. In this photo you can see the clouds moving in in the late afternoon. It was welcome relief from the white stuff.

Hanna adores my Dad's shoes. She'll sit and play with them or put toys in them. But her favorite thing by far is to slip them on and bounce up and down in them. While she's bouncing, she'll give us a glance to make sure she had an audience and smile and giggle. So silly!

Maya got this ball from my Aunt Rosie; actually, it's some sort of polyhedron because the surface isn't smooth (this is important later). There is pink glitter and little LEDs inside, and when you bounce it off a hard surface they are activated and shimmer brightly. The angular surface enhances the effect and it's quite beautiful.

Pick me UP!!!

Tickle, tickle, tickle, Grandpa! Hanna has learned how much fun it is to tickle Grandpa's toes. She'll try and be sly and tickle them as she passes by. Then she'll look back and grin and giggle at him. Silly girl! Here she's recruited her sister:

The Poof.

Onion Head.

Call it what you will, but this hairdo is just cute.

My Mom just loves this look.

She has asked Hanna to my this face so often, that now, when Hanna looks at my mom, she'll automatically make this face:

Just like big sister, Hanna loves books. Good girl!

Maya is a good example for her little sister. Once we return to Taiwan, I plan on teaching her to read in earnest with some phonics lessons. What an exciting time in her life! I'm so happy to have the opportunity to open the door to literacy for my child!

Pretty girl.

You know already, but I just thought I'd remind you :)

These girls really love each other. I'm glad to report that, so far, they are best friends.

Walkin' in a winter wonderland...

This tree used to be shorter than me.

Who's that in the window?

Hangin' with my baby girl.

Zonked!

Can you believe it?!? All four of us in a picture together?

Hanna loves to sit in Maya's booster seat...usually fully clothed.

Here's that silly face again.

The I'm-wearing-my-diaper-on-my-head trick. I think every baby has a pic like this somewhere.

Once again enjoying sissy's booster seat. Don't worry, Hanna. It will be yours soon enough.

What We've Been Up To...in Reverse Order

2010-12-25T11:57:00.006+08:00

The total eclipse on December 21st. It was 2:30AM. Maya and I both saw it. So cool.
The Beachler Family Christmas Tree circa 2010.

Christmas Eve. The girls all wore pink pajamas.

At the mall goofing around. Maya likes to pretend this turtle has super powers. According to her, it also has an on/off switch.

Hanna digs climbing into and out of the cars.

The sisters took a little ride together. Must be 18 months or older to drive.

My daughter, the ham.

We discovered that Maya is unusually flexible. She can touch her toes to her head, no problem.

See the picture below this one first.

Spaghetti and meatballs a la Hanna. Not to be outdone, Maya wanted her picture taken, too.

Snow! Snow! Snow! Maya was so thrilled to be able to play in the snow. She made a snow angel, a snowman and got pulled by mom around the yard.

This was really cute. One evening, Hanna sat down on Maya's bathroom stool and got really silly. My mom would say, "I'm tellin' ya!" and push out/down her uplifted arm. Hanna thought this was the funniest thing, and after many giggles, started mimicking my mom. Her are pics of her standing up and raising her arm, and then sitting down and putting her arm down at her side after my mom said, "I'm tellin' ya!"

Getting silly on the kitchen floor.

Snowy backyard.

Grandpa's little helper. She wants to help him *eat* it, not peel it.

Oh my goodness! Say this to Hanna and this is the gesture she makes.

Oh What Fun It Is to Ride...

2010-12-23T21:33:00.002+08:00

Maya's first sled ride in the snow.

I got my daily exercise and then some. I ran around the house and then paused for a break, only to be greeted by choruses of "Again! Again! Again!" I think she likes the snow. Just a bit.

Maya and Hanna's Birthday Party

2010-11-29T22:42:00.016+08:00

First of all, BIG THANKS to my friend Vicky for taking all of these photos because they ROCK!

The party was on Sunday, November 21st in the evening in our building's lobby. Yes, we really needed that much space because I think every little kid within a 2 mile radius was at that party! Seriously, it was madness and it was GREAT! Here's the spread:

Yup. I baked and decorated 70+ cupcakes. Fun times :)

The balloons were provided by my friend LiWen, whose daughter's 3rd birthday was also celebrated that night. Aren't they beautiful? There was also an inflatable pool filled with balloons that was thoughtfully set-up by my friend Jessica; the kids LOVED IT! Thank you all so much for your help!

The fam. I can't believe my girls are 4 and 1. And Thomas is 41. Oh, wait...no. Ummm...how time flies! I love you all so much!

Thomas is trying to rally the troops to play a game. He's helping me translate the instructions. I think this was a great opportunity for his managerial skills to shine. Isn't he cute?

Dancing with the little ones.

I know you can't hear it, but there really was music playing. I promise.

Gettin' my Lady Gaga/Michael Jackson on. Gotta teach 'em young :)

Making an announcement.

This was so cute! We played "What time is it Mr. Wolf?" except we changed it to "Aunt Michele, kiss how many times?" so it would be less scary. When I turned around to chase them, I'd kiss all the little ones I could catch. It was a big success.

I'm gonna getcha!

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that each time I turned around, I was wearing some silly glasses. I think the parents liked this as much as the kids 8-)

Getting ready to sing to the birthday girls.

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!!

Happy birthday dear, Maya, Hanna and KeXuen!

Happy birthday to you!!!!

And now the best part for the little ones...time to dig in!

This is Maya's teacher, Miao Miao Lao Shi, and her husband and their six-month-old baby boy. Isn't he a cutie? (the baby, that is). He really loved Maya's Care Bear birthday balloons (the blue shiny one behind her shoulder), so I gave him one to take home.

The weather was fine, so I went out back and busted out the bubble machine; it was a HUGE hit. Just add bubble solution, press the power button and sit back and watch the smiles on the faces of all the little ones. Precious times.

Maya Baby. It's been four years since I became a momma, and I'm so thankful you're in my life. You've changed me in ways I never thought possible, and I love growing and learning with you. Happy Fourth Birthday to my sweet, loving, creative, dancing ballerina :) I love you.

My little honey, Hanna Rose. Happy First Birthday to my happy baby girl. I love you so much and it's been such a joy to watch you grow. I can't wait to see what wonderful things await us next year :)

BTW, that's her actual hat. Doesn't she look cute enough to eat...oh, wait...you really CAN eat her! Wow~what a great idea!

This is little KeXuen. Her birthday was the day of the party. She turned 3. Happy Birthday!!!

A moment with Momma and her Big Birthday Girl.

The Week in Hanna

2010-10-18T22:24:00.003+08:00

Flower Girl Video

2010-10-13T22:05:00.004+08:00

Here's the link to the flower girl video. It's on my Facebook page, so you'll need to log in. Hope you like it!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=434696453470&ref=mf

Flower Girl

2010-10-13T14:50:00.011+08:00

Maya was asked to be the flower girl at a wedding last weekend. I don't know who was more excited, her or me! Here's the big day in pictures. We'll start out with a pic of the girls. Don't we all look cute?

We arrived at the wedding late, and there was a big flurry of makeup, hair and picture-taking before the wedding actually began. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera into the dressing room, so I'm hoping the wedding photographer will share his pics of Maya with us. She was so cute while she was getting ready. Especially while they were applying the makeup. Anywho, let's get to the good stuff. Let me introduce to you...

....flower girl, Maya, and flower boy, Shawn! Could they be any cuter? Notice her LED sandals that light up at the heel. Cool stuff!

Cutey Hanna was there to cheer on her big sister. Oh, and cutey Baba, too :)

Table reserved for DuPont employees. See the candle behind the card? It's red on top, and green on the bottom? Yeah, well, there are LEDs inside the bottom part that make the white bottom change color every few seconds. How cool is that? I took one home!

Baba and his girls. He had a hard time getting them to sit still. Imagine that?

Flower girl posing in front of the entrance to the wedding hall.

Maya loves mirrors. Get her in front of one and she'll talk to herself for a half-an-hour. Seriously. With the addition of a beautiful princess gown and all the trimmings she couldn't take her eyes off of herself! Hahaha! Neither could we!

Just in front of the entrance to the hall there was a large display with the newlyweds' picture and flowers sitting atop stands with beads. Lights were shining up onto the picture. Well, it just so happened that they turned out the lights (for another wedding going on in the lobby), and I thought this would make a great picture. I told Maya, "Stand here, please and look down towards the light." Here's what I got:

"Okay. Now turn your head towards Mommy a bit and look at the lights." Ummmm....

"Good. Good. (snicker, snicker) How about you smile at Mommy?" That's my girl!

Hey, Hanna was there, too!

Flower girl trying to wrap a napkin around her neck like a cape.

The basket.

The basket plus the silly girl.

The wedding was in NeiHu, which is a posh suburb of Taipei City. Here you can see the Miramar mall with the ferris wheel in the background. Maya wanted to go on it, but the mall had already closed :(

These pics have nothing to do with the wedding. Just some photos I've taken over the past week or so. Enjoy!

Maya wrote her name for the very first time by herself. I didn't show her how to do it, or even ask her to do it. She just brought this paper up to me and showed me. My mouth almost hit the floor. She's growing up so fast!

I caught my two girls in my bedroom last week like this:

One getting dolled-up, and the other one taking notes. What girly girls I have!

Movie Update

2010-10-08T08:21:00.003+08:00

Just a quick note. For some reason, I cannot seem to upload videos that are more than 10 seconds long onto my blog. So, I posted Hanna's Crawling Competition on my Facebook page. Please click on the link to go watch it. You'll be glad you did :)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566838470#!/video/video.php?v=431668608470

Enjoy!!

Hanna's Crawling Competition

2010-10-03T22:59:00.014+08:00

The Date: Sunday, October 3rd

The Time: 3:00 pm

The Location: Gymboree, Jhubei City, Taiwan, R.O.C., Earth...well, okay, you get the picture.

The Event: The Gymboree Baby Crawling Competition (insert impressive John- Williams-like musical overture here)

The Arrival: My friend Jhen Yu accompanied Maya, Hanna and I to the competition. Many thanks to her because that place was PACKED!

The Registration: They took one look at me and immediately flipped to the page with my name on it. Of course, it was the only English name in the whole book, so that was a no-brainer for them!

The Crowd: Like I said, that place was PACKED! Jhubei has the highest birth rate in Taiwan right now, and that place was crawling with babies...okay, so that was a bad pun...I know, I know...

The Girls: Admist all the hustle and bustle, we were able to find a quiet corner to snap a quick pic of our family. I love my girls!

The Contestant: C19! C19! C19! We were actually supposed to be in the D group, but we got there early, so they let us join the C group. Here's my little honey warming up before the big race. Look at those guns...er, tree trunks.

The Arsenal: I knew the hardest part of the competition would be keeping her focused on the finish line. Since she sees me everyday, I didn't think my presence alone would do the trick, so I brought along some toys that are usually forbidden fruit. Worked like a charm! The camera was the one I was holding to take the movie of the race, and because it was shiny and pink, she really wanted to get it.

The Course: The Arsenal was employed to coerce The Contestant through this rough terrain. Hahaha! We were in Lane 3.

The Race: At the starting line, Jhen Yu had to hold Hanna back. She was squirming, wiggling and doing everything she could to escape and crawl on that cool-looking mat. Good girl!

The Results: Our time was 21.15 seconds. Goooooooo Hanna! I was so happy for her! I thought for sure she would just sit there, but she was number one in her heat! Overall, I think she was number 4 in the C group. So we just missed winning a prize. Oh, well. I wasn't there for the prizes anyway; I just wanted this wonderful memory to share with her when she gets older. Good job, little one :)

The Winner: No one was near the award podium, so we decided to snap a few shots. Maya and Hanna will always be #1 in our hearts :) What a fun day!

Note: I have tried 5 times now to upload the video of her crawling. I'm tired. I'll figure something out tomorrow. Good night :)

Do you think she likes the camera?

2010-09-30T20:49:00.004+08:00

These are for all of the family members who are currently very far away. Maya just wanted you to know she misses you....a lot :)

She'll Be Mad at Me Some Day

2010-08-19T12:10:00.001+08:00

I know she'll be mad at me some day for this, but I just couldn't resist posting these pics. She's so chubby and cute! Don't you just want to eat her up?

Phone Downloads - 8 mos old

2010-08-13T15:16:00.001+08:00

Here she is trying to eat the cord on my cell phone....while I'm using it to take a picture of her.

Taiwanese Father's Day Pics

2010-08-10T23:27:00.005+08:00

Taiwanese Father's Day was last Sunday. As a gift to Thomas, I took the girls to a photo shop and had our pictures taken. We wore matching colors, with pink on top and blue jean bottoms. It was 37 degrees C outside that day, and the boss didn't have the A/C or even a fan on in the studio. Thus, the pink cheeks you see are due to the heat, not embarrassment ;) I think they turned out really well, especially considering how difficult it is to wrangle kids AND get them to smile and look in (sort of) the right direction!

I love this girl!

Excuse me, Miss. Where are you going?

Hanna was really well behaved the whole time we were there. She kept looking in this direction, though, because the boss's chihuahua wouldn't stop barking. Eventually, they figured out that they should put the dog outside so Hanna would look at them, and not the dog.

Maya's Graduation

2010-08-05T09:36:00.012+08:00

Maya graduated from yo yo ban last Saturday. Mom and Dad of course were beaming and proud :) The ceremony was held at a local elementary school. Here's the stage:

Little sister was in attendance to cheer on her big sis :)

Baba had his fair share of baby time, too :)

Maya is the first in line. She's dressed as a little penguin. Don't ask me why. I think the only reason they choose these outfits was because of their cuteness factor. It had absolutely nothing to do with the performance. However, please feel free to insert a big 'awwwww' here ;)

This is our neighbor Tzi Huai. He, his twin sister and Neo Neo are in the same school as Maya, but a different class.

After their performance, Maya's class was escorted to the back of the auditorium so they could watch the rest of the classes perform.

Hey! I see you!

Maya with Mei Jun Lao Shi, one of her two teachers.

My sweet girl :) I just *love* that she let me doll her up for this day! We even painted her fingernails; left hand blue and right hand pink, as per her request.

Our neighbor Yi Jun and her youngest son, Tzi Bo. As you can see he was really enjoying the performance ;)

Neo Neo on his way to his seat after his performance.

This is the boss of Hope School. I always forget her name, but she's a really nice lady. The school is named after her daughter, who is also a student.

Baba with the baby. They both just woke up from a little nap.

After the show the kids were allowed to take home the balloons. It didn't take long for them all to disappear. Maya got a pretty pink and purple flower.

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for! The video recording of my adorable daughter doing the penguin dance...or, whatever it is they're all supposed to be doing ;) Let's just say I had a difficult time suppressing my laughter. Kids are so darn cute!

Well, I'm having some technical difficulties uploading this file right now, so look for it a bit later. Sorry!

Hanna at 6 months

2010-07-08T20:59:00.003+08:00

This is a list of milestones Hanna reached while she was 6 months old.

* sitting properly unassisted
* babbling with a consonant sound at the beginning of the 'word' (so far she's said "Baba and Dada" clearly, but not "Mama")
* reaching her arms up when she wants to be picked up (I love this one!)
* pushing up on all fours and rocking back and forth (this girl is ready to GO!)
* rotating 360 degrees on her belly
* eating solid foods...well, sort of :)

I know I've been lax on posting pics. I figure once we get back to Taiwan, I'll have a major 'posting party' and get it all done in one swoop. So if you're in the States and you still haven't seen us, you have a few more days before we're gone!!

Holiday Weekend

2010-06-03T00:32:00.016+08:00

Hanna had her first solid meal on Saturday, May 29th. She seemed happy to be sitting up high in the high chair and smiled at us as we prepared her meal.

Hurry up and feed me, already! I said, "I'm HUNGRY!"

Grandma had the honor of feeding her.

Hanna grabbed onto the spoon and shoved it in/towards her mouth. The only problem was she wouldn't let go!

Grandpa posing with Hanna upon our arrival at the Amherst Memorial Day Celebration. We stood at the five corners, just across from the bandstand. Although it was sunny and hot, we were in the shade of the lawyer's office and had a cool breeze blowing from around the corner of the building. We had a wonderful view of the parade and the memorial service. AND, because we were at the end of the parade line, we got LOTS of candy. Maya was the only little kid around, so she cleaned up. Once she figured out that waving, smiling, and cheering at the parade floats would get her candy, she really started enjoying herself :)

Ain't that America?

Hanging out in the stroller.

Chubby baby alert!

Nice car, Officer!

The memorial service being performed on the bandstand downtown.

The 2010 Amherst Marching Comets. I think they look really smart in their black uniforms.

Watch out for the exhaust!

Look, Mom!

She showed me this piece of candy and announced that it was hard candy, so she wasn't allowed to eat it. She was sorting her candy into 'hard' and 'soft' piles, so she knew which ones were for her and which ones to give to Grandpa.

Running and picking up the candy. Ka-CHING!

That little boy standing up and waving is Maya's friend, Grant. His baseball team is called the Florida Marlins. His grandpa and grandma live across the street from my folks. I saw him a few days after the parade and he said, "Sorry. I ran out of candy!"

Maya wanted to hold her little sister. She's such a good big sister.

Here's Hanna enjoying her first meal with Grandma. She's eating oatmeal, but I think she's more interested in chewing on the spoon :)

This video is for all of my Taiwanese friends who have never seen an American ice cream truck. It really does look and sound a lot like the Taiwanese garbage trucks!

Summer Stuff

2010-05-28T08:46:00.007+08:00

Kaboom! We went for a walk at Lakeview Park on a balmy summer evening. Maya got to sit on the cannon. I told her say, "Boom!" Then I told her to say, "Cheese!" So she said, "Cheeeeeese!.....BOOM!"

Here she is on the anchor. She's still crying a bit from falling and scraping her already-scraped knee. Poor girl. When we got home she fell asleep and Mommy had first-aid duty. She's fine now :)

Here we are at the rose garden. Maya was so excited to see the blooming roses. Every time she found one she bent down to smell it. There are hundreds of roses in this garden...let's just say they kept her busy for awhile :)

Patriotic Grandpa!

Even Grandpa joined in the fun!

Mama and Hanna at K-Cream Korner.

Hey, your ice cream is smiling at you! It did not last long.

Me with my girls.

Look at the selection! And I can't eat ice cream! Torture!!!!

The new K-Cream Korner.

Showing off the new head band. Oh, and the baby, too ;)

Maya loves painting at Grandma's house.

Alright, alright, Grandma! That's enough already!

How do you like my hairdo?

Since We've Been Gone...

2010-05-20T22:38:00.022+08:00

Well, we've been here just over two weeks now and it's finally starting to get warm and sunny. The first week we all spent being sick/having hay fever, which was no fun. But it was rainy and cold outside, so it really didn't matter. But now, we're all recovered and able to enjoy the great outdoors! Here are some pics of what we've been up to:

Yesterday our neighbor Jim invited us to join his family for a bbq. He made the most divine, tender, gooey, fat-free* baby back ribs I've ever tasted! In addition there were a bunch of scrumptious veggies. After eating all that, you had to roll me back home. Maya and I contributed the smores. She stacked all of the ingredients up, and Mama wrapped them in Al foil to be grilled/baked for dessert. Yummy! * yeah, right!

Thomas came home Saturday afternoon and spent one full day with us. Lucky guy got to enjoy the bbq, too. Maya and Hanna were quite happy to see him again. Oh, and me, too!! Oh, and btw, on the way to pick up Thomas from the airport, Hanna cut her first tooth! May 22nd. Five-and-a-half months old.

My mom saw this adorable sun hat at Kmart, and we just HAD to get it for Hanna. Doesn't she look precious?

Sitting on Grandma's lawn chair on the front porch.

Hey, guys! Check out my new trike! It's my favorite color: pink! Grandma bought it for me (big surprise) and I love riding it outside when the weather is fine, and downstairs in the basement when it's rainy.

Aunt Minnie came to visit last week and everyone was really excited to see her, especially Maya, who laughed every time we'd compare her name to Minnie Mouse. We all went for a walk down the metropark path to the playground. Maya rode her trike the whole way there and most of the way home. Good job! Along the way Aunt Minnie picked some purple wildflowers for Maya, and when we got home she stuck them in the dirt in my Dad's flowerbed...would you believe they're starting to grow?

Hanna just adores my Dad. I think she loves listening to his deep voice. And I'm sure she likes snuggling with his big belly :) He can always make her smile with just the sound of his voice.

Maya wanted to draw with some of her new twistable crayons. She decided to draw pictures of all of her friends in Ohio. From the top left clockwise we have: Grant, Maggie, Corrin, Maya and David. Originally she had just drawn her friends, but she thought that she should be included, as well.

Some of these strawberries are as big as my (Michele's) fist! Yikes!

Sporting the wind-blown hair look with Aunt Pam. She and Uncle Bob stopped by after a trip out on their boat.

That tooth is really buggin' me!

Maya is an excellent big sister. Sometimes she's a bit over-zealous, but she really cares about Hanna. She loves entertaining her and will dance, sing and play with Hanna every day. Here they are in Grandma's living room.

Look at those cheeks!!! They just cry out for kisses and gentle pinches :)

Grandpa surprised Maya with her very own doll house. He built it during the wintertime from a kit. I think he did an excellent job. So does Maya. She likes to play with the dolls and furniture.

Since we don't usually celebrate Easter in Taiwan, I had asked my mom earlier in the year if she could fix up some Easter baskets for the girls to find during our trip home. So, the Easter bunny came to Grandma's house and left baskets for Hanna and Maya. First, Maya had to find some plastic eggs hidden around the house. Silly girl was more excited to see the jelly beans inside them than the money! Then we told her she had to find the Easter baskets. Much screaming and running around like a crazy person ensued. Hanna was happy just swatting at the colorful wrapping paper :)

Some bunny loves Grandma!

Maya has taken an interest in my piano. I am thrilled! I've been showing her some simple things about a piano: the 2-3-2-3 pattern of the black keys, the names of the keys and how to find C. No pressure, of course. Just for fun and when she wants to. Lately, she's enjoyed 'playing songs' for Hanna...and Hanna *loves* it!

I'm fairly sure this is not what Grandpa had in mind when he bought these golf clubs...

Grandma doing what she does best...

Before we left

2010-05-20T19:44:00.004+08:00

These pics were taken before we left for our trip to the States. I didn't have the chance to post them sooner, so here goes!

Here are my giggly girls rolling around on Maya's sheep bed. I just love this pic because the blur captures the silliness of the moment. They were playing together so nicely. Maya was talking to Hanna and Hanna was responsive to all of Maya's antics. Fun times :)

The weather was fine this day, so I decided to dress us all up pretty...me included. The only problem was how to take a picture. I asked Jhen Yu to help me, but, kids being wiggly kids, well...you know how that goes. Here's the best effort:

Maya drew me this picture of our family, and I just LOVE it. The top left blue face is Hanna with a clip in her hair, the purple face below that is me, the yellow face above that is Baba. We are all happy. Down in the bottom left corner are Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa is wearing glasses, bald, and he's hiding behind an ice cream cone (that I drew with a dashed line and she traced in). Grandma has hair and glasses. Both of them are sad because Maya isn't in the US with them. I love the details (whether a color or facial feature) she added to each of the faces to make each one special for that person :)

Got Chub?

2010-05-12T18:35:00.003+08:00

Pucker Up!

2010-04-12T22:48:00.002+08:00

Hanna has really started feeling the pain of teething. If she's awake, her hands are in her mouth. And if your finger is within range, it's fair game. She's also started sucking on her lips. In this video, she's trying to suck on her lips, and the resulting face is absolutely precious! Enjoy!

Easter Party!

2010-04-05T14:36:00.011+08:00

Now that Maya is older, I just couldn't resist inviting some of her friends over for an Easter Party to color Easter eggs, have an egg hunt and play around. We had seven moms, two babies, and seven little busy bodies running around the house, and I think everyone had a good time.

In preparation for the party, I made some cute little marshmallow 'cupcakes' on a stick. These were to be the 'treasure' for the egg hunt. Big thanks to Vicky and Neo Neo for doing most of the work ;)

Here's the work station:

And the yummy results:

In addition, I made each child a mini Easter basket party favor. I discovered these adorable baskets at a DIY shop in Hsinchu; at about 80 cents each, I just couldn't resist! For the girls, I filled them with some pink paper grass, home-made wrapped chocolates and M&Ms. Then I wrapped them up in some purple cellophane that I had kept from the States and tied them up with pink ribbon. I don't have a good picture of the boys' baskets, but they were all brown with green grass, home-made mint chocolates and M&Ms inside.

We met downstairs and had an 'egg hunt'. Earlier, I had posted lots of colored-paper eggs all over the lobby. We told the kids to find as many 'eggs' as they could, and there was one special egg they had to look for, too. It was the Golden Egg! The Golden Egg would reveal a special surprise for all the children. The kids were quite thrilled about this, and happily ran around the lobby collecting eggs. Right after they started, I reached into my stroller and pulled out the Golden Egg; I stuck it on Hanna's back and waited for someone to notice. And who should notice it first? Maya! She was excited to find it on her little sister's back. The Golden Egg said: Happy Easter! You're so neat! Now go to M Floor for a special treat!

So upstairs we went...and found the marshmallow cupcakes!

Lots of happy campers enjoying their marshmallows :)

Next, it was up to the house for some Easter egg coloring; I had prepared 4 hard-boiled eggs for each child. We had crayons, markers and stickers on hand to make every egg a unique creation.

And what was the first thing Maya did with her egg? Smash it on the table! Then she cried and got upset :P Silly girl! Don't worry...we gave her a new one!

And here they are:

Once the coloring was over, it was almost time to go home. So I asked the kids to form a line behind me. We then placed our hands up on our heads like bunny ears and hopped to the spare bedroom, where each child received an Easter basket party favor.

Do you know how hard it is to get this many kids to sit together AND sit still for a picture?!?!

Happy Easter 2010!!!

Tomb Sweeping 2010

2010-03-31T23:36:00.003+08:00

April 5th is Tomb Sweeping Day in Taiwan. It's a holiday where you and your family go to worship your ancestors and clean up/maintain the family tomb. Our family does not have a tomb, so we go to the public mausoleum and pray to the urns. Well, this year Hanna and I could not go to the building because Hanna is too young. So Maya and Daddy went with the rest of the family.

We all went back to my aunt's house for lunch afterward. She's an excellent cook, and I was remiss in not taking a picture of the two TONS of delicious food she prepared for us. I did, however, finally get some pics of the family all together. Here we go!

Aviation Museum

2010-03-31T08:53:00.006+08:00

Maya's preschool hosted a field trip to an aviation museum near the Taoyuan airport last Saturday. The weather was warm, breezy and sunny; perfect for a one-day trip! Here are some pics from the day:

Mom's are allowed to be goofy, too!

At first Maya was interested in the model airplane displays. She even found a plane that was being flown by Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck dolls! Leave it to my girl!

There were more model airplanes than I've ever seen in one location. My dad would be jealous!

As I said, at first Maya was interested in the displays...that interest quickly waned and this was the result. Yes. That's my daughter crawling under the airplane wing. *sigh*

Maya standing in front of a display showing the uniforms currently being used by pilots in Taiwan. She liked the orange one.

Me, Sleepy Baby and Chiang Kai Shek :)

Here we are standing in front of a helicopter. Notice Hanna is the only one looking at the camera. Once you have kids, good pictures become a thing of the past :)

I just love the quote on this poster. In case you can't read it, it says, "When my brother and I built and flew the first man-carrying flying machine, we thought that we were introducing into the world an invention which would make further wars practically impossible." Orville Wright (1917) Sadly, we're still waiting for that day.

This is Maya's favorite preschool teacher. Her name is Miao Miao. She's six months pregnant with a baby boy. I have no idea how she finds the energy to work with 10 two-to-three-year-olds every day and be so happy. God bless her!

Astronaut Maya reporting for duty!