Proof of Mobility

As I've reported Ander is on the move. I am glad I snugged him up as much as possible while I could because he is way too busy these days to be bothered with such idleness. Even when he is strapped securely into his high chair while the rest of us whirl around him going about our day, you can see it in his eyes that he is sitting there solving the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap. That or plotting his escape a la Basil of the Great Mouse Detective.

Quick Story: I recently tried to trick him into eating my freshly pureed green beans by giving him bites of his favorite sweet potatoes in between. That worked for about 3 bites until he started straining to see over the edge of his chair to check which food I was putting on his spoon. Seeing he was on to me I reverted to several bites of sweet potatoes before slipping him another bite of greens- as he realized what I'd done he just burst into tears! I felt SO bad! Of course I ditched the beans at that point and stuffed him full of sweet potatoes. Teaching him to "eat his feelings" young you know.

In an effort to share some proof of mobility I video'd him ejecting himself from his car seat like he does the instant the bottom buckle unsnaps. It's about half of the time his arm will get stuck like it does here, and though I helped him it normally doesn't take him very long to escape on his own. But to to expedite the process, I helped okay?

This short video you will probably have to watch twice. Why? Well, you'll realize at the end that you got distracted and missed what I told you to watch for, which is Ander pulling himself up and standing around like it ain't no thang.

It's also a video that proves my life is a lot like the people who say they have "voices in their head" except the voices all over in my life are decidedly out of my head, making me literally out of my mind- (aka: the Jensen Insanity Theory, solved in 2006, proved daily. No monetary reward has ever been given.)

Anyway, enjoy.

Rant Canceled. I'm Too Tired.

Kohen literally refuses to wait for Ander to get bigger so he can play with him. I would rescue Ander more often except that he pretty much loves it.

The Fount of all Sass, both cute and naughty.

This is how I found Ander after a drive-by-dress-up from his brother.

Needless to say, there will never be Gak in the house again. In case you're wondering it took 45 minutes and quite a bit of Goo Gone to fix this debacle. And I still have no clear answer as to how Kennedy got the gunk in her hair in the first place.

After all of the random pictures I have here I was planning on writing a whole rant on how our kids have turned into Holy Terrors in the last few weeks, but I find my resolve slipping away with the minutes until my bedtime. Suffice it to say that Nathan and I have both found our selves saying shouting things at our children that we distinctly remember our parents saying to us in impotent frustration.

In an effort not to be a total Debbie Downer I won't begin to list all of the recent offenses, there are too many to list anyway. But it kinda gets me down when my job right now is being a mother, and it's obvious I'm sucking at it. Sorry, I shouldn't write the "S" word, we don't say that at our house. And I suppose somebody should be following the rules. Anyway, don't cry for me Argentina, it's just one of those days, weeks, months.

Papa John, Pixie and Justin Visit

At the beginning of April my parents and brother were able to come and visit us here in Taiwan. Due to Kohen's low tolerance for anticipation, we kept it a surprise until the morning my mom and brother walked in. We had a great time, though never enough time for exploring and enjoying Taiwan.

My dad arrived for the last week and Justin was able to take them down to Taichung and show them around where he taught on his mission and meet some of the people that he had written home about. We took my dad for his first massage EVER, a foot massage, and had a really nice time. It's always fun to have someone with you who speaks Chinese. Nathan does more than alright but Justin gets pretty much everything so we laughed and joked with the guys working on our feet.

Otherwise we played with the children and snuggled Ander to pieces. It was all just over too fast. Only solution is for them to come back soon!!!

One Man Band

If the whole modeling thing doesn't pan out, it looks like Kohen could have an illustrious career as a street performer...

Maybe he should have a Plan C... just in case.

The Moat is Moot

As you can see the Taiwan worker guys have been *SUPER* hard at work on the moat mess at our front porch. The pile of white bags next to the guy leaning against the truck are all full of our porch guts so I guess that's proof that they've done something. After the guys poured cement in the moat I looked out the window to find they were casually laying some random bathroom tile down, like that'd be fine. Apparently our Bob the Builder moonlights as Martha Stewarts Taiwanese stepsister- the miserly one with zero sense of color palatte.

A flurry of calls ensued - Me to Nathan- Nathan to Realtor- Realtor to Landlord- Landlord to Lazy Workers- The Lazy Workers (coined such by our Landlord and the only PG name of many he gave them) started swearing and pulling up the conspicuous tiles, smoking like chimneys all the while. They packed up and left and it was gloriously quiet for a few days. *bird chirp*

Then one tranquil afternoon the (!!!!!!)jack(!!!!!!!)hammering(!!!!!!) started(!!!!!!)again (!!!!!!)and(!!!!!!)waxed(!!!!!!)annoying(!!!!!!) Apparently we were getting new tile on our whole front porch rather than 10% of it. Great.
Having so much noise and mess hasn't gone unnoticed by our children. ^This is Ander's impression of the Lazy Porch Workers.

And this is Ander showing those fools how it's done! I give you: The face of motivation- no translation required. This kid is rolling, sitting, crawling, and just plain showing off by pulling himself up (albeit wobbily) on anything he can get his hands on. At the rate he's going he might figure out how to finish the porch before the other guys do.

And I Do My Little Turn on the Catwalk

So the modeling that the kids have been doing a little of has finally paid off in the form of the catalogs we've started to receive. Especially this one from Why and 1/2 where Kohen showed up on the cover :) I don't care who you are, if your child is on the cover of anything -minus maybe an America's Most Wanted poster- you're gonna be beaming with pride. Don't worry though, it's the really humble kind of pride, where I only take full credit for having created such amazing creatures, their inner light, trilling laughter- huh? what's that? God and Nathan?..... Fine. they may have been involved as well.

This particular brand of clothes are bright and bold and kind of eclectic. They are also pricey in my opinion, I'm not willing to pay $30 ish for a t-shirt. But the clothes are mostly cute and made well. This is the only company where the shoots are more than 2 or 3 hours. They take you on location and feed you lunch and your children work off and on all day. It's a long day but the children don't seem to really mind and the company is very professional. And of course you have the really nice catalog :) - there's that humble pride again......

Anyway, for a limited time some of the pictures from Why and 1/2 will be on their website if you would like to take a gander at something other than the picture of a picture you will find below.

Click here for the Why and 1/2 website

It often takes a good 20 seconds to load, fyi. You can just click around on the Chinese characters to find the pics or I will briefly explain where they are: When the site first comes up you'll see a cartoon bear. On the bottom of the page there are chinese characters separated by stars. Click on the second one. A list of ten chinese characters will come up. Choose the second one down that says Mini and then chinese. Aly is in this one. The 5th, 6th and 8th ones down have lot's of Kennedy and Kohen.

My Very Own Mote

Apparently though we didn't feel the earthquake a few weeks ago, our home did. Consequently we had water bubbling up from under the house, aaaand that's not good.

So after two days of NONSTOP jackhammering right outside our front door we had our very own mote going on that would fill up with water. Every princesses dream come true so what do I have to complain about, right?

There have been lot's of workers scurrying about and I have no idea what is going on but that is typical. I think I've gathered that it was a broken pipe??? Perhaps we should should look into a bridge for our newly minted mote.