Taiwan Day 5: Slowing Down

Day 5

I think we were all feeling a bit tired from rushing around and trying to do as much as possible in the past few days, so on this day (New Year's Day!), we kept it low key and didn't try to cram in a bunch of activities. 

We stayed close to home and went shopping at Miramar.

And later that night we had dinner with my uncle and his family near 101, and we got Laduree macarons.

That's all.

First (Professional) Haircut

Mars is 11 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days old.

Today, we took him to get his first professional haircut. I cut his hair the first two times and was not so happy with the outcome so this time, we decided to go to a professional.

Here is the before:

His haircutter was super nice and really quick. She definitely knew how to get the job done without upsetting him.

He did pretty well until the end when I stepped away to take this picture. He is in mid-shriek.

The whole thing lasted about 8.5 minutes and here is the after picture: 

Super cute and ready for his first birthday party coming up!

Some notes on Mars talking:

 1. He has been saying, "mama" a lot more. Usually when I'm not around and he's looking for me, he'll say, "mama". 

2. This week, he's been saying, "diko, diko, diko" when we tickle him and say, "tickle, tickle, tickle".

3. He's also been saying different variations of that word with, "dika", or "taka". 

4. Today, he was pointing at Porkchop and saying, "woo woo!", a Chinese baby word for dog.

...and I gotta go now because he just spit up on my neck! 

11 months, 1 week, and 2 days old

Mars is 11 months, 1 week, and 2 days old.

His hair is getting out of control, but I don't have it in me to get it cut again. I trimmed the front the other day, but for now, that's as far as I'll go!

These past couple of days have been rough for Mars because he's teething. His bottom two teeth surprised us when they came in because they didn't affect him at all. This time, however, is a different story. He's been a lot more clingy and gets upset easily. The other day, he pushed his toy off the table and that made him really sad. He even made that super cute pouty face. Last night, he woke up every 30 minutes to an hour and just scream-cried. During a play-date today, he got freaked out by a Kermit the Frog puppet that bit his finger. I feel so bad for him and just want him to get better soon. Poor baby. 

Taiwan Days 3 & 4

Day 3
I don't have many interesting pictures from this day, but I do have a funny story. The morning started out with some leg cramps because I fell asleep in a sitting position while nursing the night before. We went out anyway because we had lunch reservations at 欣葉 (Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet) with my dad and his brothers. My leg felt  ok, but gradually got worse after lunch while we were heading over to 士林 (ShiLin night market area) to search for these bags we've been seeing around the city.

After shopping around, we decided to stop by 肥前屋 for dinner (Hizen-Ya, best unagi rice in the city), and by this time I was limping and could only walk very slowly. After dinner, I could barely walk. My leg felt all nerve-y every time I tried to move it, so to make our commute easier, we took a taxi to the MRT line that our house was on to avoid transfers. However, even at the MRT station, I could not walk.

Then, J spotted a wheelchair and we asked the service desk if we could use it. Turns out, they are SUPER accommodating to people with needs over in Taipei (more on this and breastfeeding in a later post). A guy wheeled me to the MRT train where a lady was waiting for me. She made room for me on the very crowded train and when it was time to get off, another man was waiting at my destination to push me to the exit closest to our house. Everyone was so helpful, and it was the biggest relief ever! My crazy leg! Then, J helped me limp home slowly while my sister carried Mars, and we stayed home for the rest of the night.

The End!

Day 4
New Year's Eve started out with lunch at 永康街 (YongKang Street) where they have famous beef noodle soup restaurants. I'm used to going to this one called 永康牛肉麵 (Beef Noodle Master), so that's where I took my family.

By the way, Mars HATES the MRT. I dunno why!? I love it!

Side dishes at lunch:

Half-tendon, half-beef noodle soup:

After lunch, we headed over to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. I love going here because when I was little, we took family portraits here, so it's super nostalgic to me. I was extra excited to take some photos of our family now, and some photos of Arden with Mars.

It was a really beautiful day and the kids had a lot of fun crawling around. Mars especially enjoyed it because he was starting to get sick of being carried around in the Ergo all day, everyday.

I love this picture of them on the grass! Good thing we snapped it, because right after, a guard came up to us and told us to stay off the grass...

Arden had a lot of fun feeding the fish. It was super cute when she said, "Let's come back here again, I like it here".

Afterwards, we went to 師大 (ShiDa night market area) to get me some glasses and contacts ($40US for new prescription glasses, no exam needed!). Then, we headed over to 科技大樓 (Technology Building area), which is the closest MRT station to where I used to live! We picked up some 肉圓 (BaWan) and stinky tofu soup togo and headed home.

It was New Year's Eve, but we were way too tired to even stay up for the amazing Taipei 101 fireworks on TV. I think we were all in bed by 10pm. It's ok though, we got to see them multiple times on other people's cell phones.

Taiwan Day 2: Hualien

Day 2

On our second day back, we took an entire day trip down to 花蓮 (Hualien), the town my parents are from, and the town where we used to visit our grandparents in when we were younger. I spent a lot of my childhood here and I haven't been back since visiting my late grandfather in 2009. 

The train ride was around 3 hours and Mars slept most of the way:

The first thing we did when we got there was eat a home-cooked lunch at my great aunt's house. This meal pretty much sums up my childhood meals perfectly. The fried fish is the same fish my paternal grandfather used to buy and it was cooked in the same way as well. The garlic sprouts sauce is also a specialty that we'd always have when eating with my dad's side of the family. And of course, putting newspaper down on the table is something that we'd always do as well. This wasn't the entire meal, I dunno why I didn't snap a photo after all the dishes were on the table:

After lunch, the adults (aka my mom, sister, and grandaunt) chatted while the kids (J, Arden, Mars, and I) took a walk outside.

Later, we all went for a walk into to town, but not before stopping by my grandparents' old neighborhood.

And here I am in front of the gates of my old pre-school! It looks like a castle (you can see it in the background)!

Then, we decided to stop by my grandparents' house, which was recently sold to the neighboring egg processing company. It was really sad to see them doing renovations to it, and pretty much tearing everything out to build an office. From the front, we could see empty shells of where we used to sit in the living room to watch tv, or the dining room where my grandma kept her sewing machine.

After this, we walked toward the "downtown" area, stopping by at the houses of different relatives to say hi (this town is really tiny). While downtown, we ate some fried pork noodles and shopped around. Then it was time to head back to Taipei on the train and we didn't get home until around 11pm. 

Taiwan Day 1

We arrived in Taipei on Saturday, December 27th in the late afternoon. By the time we got to my Aunt's house, it was already dinner time. For dinner we got 薑母鴨 to go and ate it at home. It's a ginger duck soup base that you can use for hotpot and is only available during the winter months. The broth is made of duck pieces seared with hot oil and ginger, and then boiled in rice wine saturated with Chinese herbs, roots, and berries:

Day 1

Our first morning, and every morning afterwards, we'd get Taiwanese breakfast at different breakfast places around my aunt's neighborhood. 

This is a popular chain, 永和豆漿 where we went most of the time. The first day, we went crazy and got enough food for a dozen people but it was helpful for us to try everything and to figure out what we wanted to eat in the following days:

This is a vegetable garden across from where we were staying:

Later that day, we had lunch with my two uncles and aunt from my dad's side of the family. We ate at a traditional Taiwanese food restaurant and sat around and chatted at their house afterwards. Later that night, we had dinner at Addiction Aquatic Development (which is a giant fresh fish and seafood market) with my maternal uncle's family and had an enormous Hokkaido snow crab that was super delicious. So delicious that I can never eat crab again in my life and be satisfied. You know that feeling you get when you spend all this time cracking crab legs and all you get is a small amount of meat out that leaves you pretty unsatisfied? Well, not this crab. This crab leg was the length of my entire arm and the meat came out so easily that I actually got full off of one leg. To say that it was amazing is probably not enough but it truly was amazing. 

(All photos shot on Fuji Superia 200 film)

11 months and 2 days old

Film: Fujicolor Natura 1600 

Mars is 11 months and 2 days old.

It's been a while since I posted one of these weekly updates. Mars has grown so much already since the last one. Lately, he has been making a lot of new sounds like, "deeka deeka dika" and just now, he was saying, "maaaaa maaaaa maaaa maaa" really slowly to make bubbles on his lips. He got a kick out of the latter and cracked himself up :)

He's also been able to clap and shake his head for a while, but in the past few weeks, he's also been doing the, "more please" sign. Only on occasion will he do his signs on command, but when he does, he knows, "clap" in Chinese and English!

I started shooting with 35mm film again! I've always loved shooting with film, and yesterday, when I got my first three rolls processed, I got all giddy and excited to pop the CD into my computer to see what I've captured. Just like old times!

The pictures above were taken in December with an expensive film that I've tried to experiment with numerous times, but have never quite been able to master. I still have a few rolls of this stuff left but I've given up and don't think I'll be using it anymore. It's supposed to be best for night shots, but even with a fast camera, those photos don't come out very well either :( Please excuse the grain!