Closing on Two Years

Still the baby
Sam, letting us know he's ready for a nap
Enjoying his jumping practice
An enthusiastic leap

Samuel is approaching two. Today is a Friday, although not much like the day he was born two years ago. The sun is out in Taipei. I’ve been watching a “five colored bird” out the window and finishing up afternoon projects.

I thought it would be a good time to share Sam’s development. Today he is an exuberant toddler. He has a toddler’s delight, a toddler’s will. He is still a mostly happy child, only veering into anger when he is hungry or tired. He was seriously irking his mother this morning. Emily woke with him—because of him—and after breakfast he refused all of her planning. He says “no” especially to the diaper change, which is especially annoying to Emily. Through my sleeping I heard interjections of “you stink,” “just let me change your diaper,” and “you can’t go out unless your diaper is changed.” Unfortunately, Sam has some serious toddler jujitsu and Emily never did change his diaper. (I tagged in around 8 and forced the diaper change.)

It turns out that Sam was just sleepy again, and even fell asleep [see above pictures]. This is part of his new schedule, where he wakes between 5:45 and 7, often turns mean around 8 and sometimes takes a short nap. At 9 he gets to school, where he usually naps for 1.5-2 hours (we get daily reports from the teachers). Sometime after 3:30 he heads home for the day. We get another 4 hours or so with him, usually including dinner (sometimes more grazing than sitting down to eat) and a bath.

He’s found some new ways to exert his will in the last weeks. He sometimes “bye-bye’s” people, sweetly smiling all the time. It’s his way of say, “I’m happy now—you go away.” He doesn’t do it so often, but we’re still not sure how to react. He also sometimes says “no” to Emily when she tries to read to him or to sing to him at bedtime.

His words are growing. Often if we say something once now he can repeat it, and he’s getting harder words like “butterfly.” In Chinese his teacher says he understands a lot and I think he’s getting more words there also. If I had to guess, I’d say Sam can say around 20-30 words in English and about 10 in Mandarin. We’ve heard that doing two languages can initially slow some language growth, but is good for kids in the long run.

He is a sweet child most of the time. He likes to play. He’s very ticklish, especially if I hold him on my head or if Emily tickles him with her hair. His jumping has improved (the pictures of him jumping are from around a month ago) and he’s really accelerating on his running, chasing, and climbing.

For Sam’s birthday we’re planning a zoo trip tomorrow, a new tricycle, and a homemade cake. We’ve been wanting to go to the zoo for a while, so I’m pretty excited about that. Two years—it’s pretty exciting to have a two year old on our hands. More pictures to follow…

23 Months / 6 Months

Two milestones crept past us during the Chinese New Year / Break / Valentine's Day holidays, namely, Sam's 23 month birthday and six months in Taiwan (meaning I've clocked 18 months total and Emily's passed a year, if you count our last trip).

I'm feeling decidedly more settled. I think the mechanics of moving here were more daunting than I had at first expected. If I reflect on our time, here are some of the things we've done:

Packed and shipped many boxes

Crossed the world

Unpacked those boxes

Enrolled in language school

Acquired the things that made summer better (fridge and AC)

Acquired the things that made fall/winter better (dehumidifiers, heater, etc.)

Acquired all of the things we didn't know we'd need (trash cans, etc., etc.) and a lot of pesky furniture

Significantly improved Chinese language ability

Fought back mold (on-going)

Found a church (in addition to older church)

Sam in day care

Sam happily chattering in Sam-ese, English, and some Chinese

Emily understanding most everything in Mandarin, Jonathan started on Taiwanese

Emily with full draft proposal

And paper accepted at international conference

Jonathan with submitted religions chapter

Wrote lots of newsletters

Picked small fight over (future) language evaluation with some faculty

Lost gracefully but have some more clarity

Applied for and received international health insurance

Doctored up, with dentist next on the list

Bugged many people, over and over again, to figure out what we are supposed to be doing here

Shed excess responsibilities like a molting snake

Bought a bunch of other stuff to cope with the changing seasons

Started attending faculty meeting and worship

Read some fine books

Started but didn't finish too many big projects

Skyped with family

Found out where all sorts of things are (like the Wednesday pie truck, the furniture stores, the car registration center)

Bunkered for 9 days of cold rain during the New Year

Celebrated six months with a fine Korean lunch

That is my short list of what we have accomplished. Sometimes I feel like I am still waiting to settle. I think we are slowly finding our balance and figuring out how to make the most of things. Today I was extremely grateful for child care, which is sooooo expensive back home but is free (for us, for now) here, and pretty reasonable (for us) in the long term. I still have a lot of frustrations: the language barrier, being The Young Teacher, looking so different from every one around me, being on the edge of my old world. Nonetheless, these disorientations have been good for us, and I think they will be a big help in the long run.

In talking today, we decided part of what has helped is that Sam is just so chipper. Today he went to school. He happily went off with his teacher when I dropped him. He played with pebbles afterwards as I waited for Emily. He greeted his old friend, the seminary accountant, at dinner, and walked all of the way up the hill and home with us without help. He giggled with Emily, took a long bath, and went to bed quickly. He's just such a fine baby, and while I'm sure he would have made a go of it in the garden state, here is a little rock star of a toddler, and we're very glad to be in a place where lots of people love him and look out for him.

For us individually and as a couple the bigger challenge is probably to be okay with the limitations of our life, and to realize that every place, every job, every way of being is on some level unsatisfactory. I think there is a natural longing which we cannot meet ourselves. I'll probably always fight the "grass is greener" impulse, even as I live somewhere that is as green as any place I've known. It's a big world...

Rainy Days

Asleep

Dance machine

Up for New Year's

I forgot to say that on New Year's Sam actually had gone down early and then woke up before midnight, so we were able to watch some TV and hang out together. He's pretty entertaining to us. Today he said the word "dance" (or "jump," tiao) about a million times. He jumped in bed, he jumped on the couch, he jumped at a restaurant tonight. He's probably seen kids at school who can really jump, and is working towards that. Right now, he can't jump from a standing position, but it's got to be in his near future.

He's a kinetic kid, happily dancing, running, climbing around the house. Combined with a stronger will (see last post) this can get frustrating. Still, it's kind of fun to have a kid who's so mobile. Today he was also doing little sprints in the house. Emily would count to three in Chinese--he can just say the first word yi--and then he would take off, yelling "go, go, go." This must also be something learned at school.

We're still trying to puzzle out why he uses certain words in certain languages. For instance, he used to say both "fish" and "jump" in English, after a fashion. But now he tends to prefer to say these in Chinese. I don't really know why. His English vocab is bigger, including words like hot and cold and up and please. But when he thanks people he always says "xie xie," which, come to think of it, may be easier to say than the more difficult "th" sound.

I wish I could say I was feeling a bit more motivated today, but I'm still not doing great on that front. I got up with Sam early this morning, around 6, and then napped with him later. I've done some of my own reading this week, and Alexander McCall Smith novel, and the autobiography of a Taiwanese church leader, but otherwise it's been slow in terms of work. Next week I'll be into a full run as one semester of language ends and as classes at the seminary start. It should be an interesting week.

New Year

This year is the Year of the Tiger, and we're in the midst of a full week off (from language school, preschool, seminary, etc.). It's nice to have the break, although I've felt seriously unmotivated academically for several months now. It may be that without Christmas to recharge I just never really recharged. So here is hoping that our batteries will be back to full by the weekend.

For us, it is hard to get on a new schedule--to move from full speed to full stop. Sam is becoming a true toddler, and so he is starting to become insistent about things which drive us nuts. For example: not wanting to bathe, not wanting to sit in his chair for meals, wanting to watch TV when we don't want to, etc. Standard toddler stuff. But it's a bit of an adjustment for us to deal with it 14 hours a day, rather than 6 or 8. We're missing the kind, patient eyes that have been watching him for much of the day, Monday through Friday. I love nursery school.

The upside is that we are getting a lot of togetherness time. We took two long walks together on Sunday, played with the neighborhood kids today, saw a bunch of Presbyterians for New Year on Saturday and are getting a lot of time at home. Last night I read perhaps 10 books to Sam, since he was slow to fall asleep (having seriously exasperated his mother, who first tried to put him to bed). Today I gave up on him, and Emily put him to sleep at lunch time. He's now three hours into a serious nap. It's nice to be able to trade off.

There are small dashes of grace sprinkled throughout all of this forced togetherness. Last night Sam went to his bath willingly, and played for a long time with ducks, dinosaurs, scoopers, and bath books (he has a new book with animals in Chinese and English). I've also enjoyed wandering around campus with him. I think the neighbors tired him out today, which was quite fun for all of us. On days like today, Sam is my exercise equipment.

The sun is setting on this rainy Taipei day. It's jacket cold and misty, but there's the promise of more fun in the days ahead. We'd had hopes of a shopping trip tonight, but aren't quite sure whether it will work. I'll try to write another post or two this week and perhaps post more photos on-line.

22 months

Sam with spiky hair and yellow rubber dinosaur

Sam's 22nd month came this last week. This month he had another stomach virus/cold combo that took him out of day care for close to a week, but otherwise it was a delightful month. He has about a half dozen Chinese phrases now ("thank you," "what," ball, car, jump, open) and his English list grows, now incorporating some opposites (hot/cold, up/down). He danced during the music after church last week and is still the golden boy of his daycare. He gets a lot of attention, which is probably a good thing for a toddler.

But he is a toddler. He had several nights this month where he wanted to nurse all night long, and he occasionally throws fits now. So far they're all passing, but I know that things will get more challenging. I'm sure like many parents, we're starting to think about some of the next big stages: weaning, moving him out of our bed, getting rid of the binky, diaper training. On the other hand, there's no hurry on these things, especially since he seems like a basically happy kid.

It's hard to believe that a quarter of his life has been spent in Taiwan, and yet he is developing some Taiwanese tastes. He gladly eats little fish and squid. This last week we made tilapia, and he enthusiastically ate the left overs for several nights. It's not always easy to predict what he will like, but fish ("ish," as he calls it) is usually a favorite.

He's in a pro-bath phase. He has five dinosaurs, a duck, a bath book (about "Thumper" the rabbit), a scooper, a ball, and a floating plastic globe with a whale inside. His routine is to throw these into the tub and then get inside himself. He likes to line the rubber dinosaurs and duck up on the book, and sometimes gets upset if they fall off. There is a sense of order that is developing in there, and a desire for things to be done correctly.

He draws some also. It wasn't so long ago that the hand could barely put the crayon to paper.

I'm very grateful for him. I'm not always the best at adapting, and I know that I haven't always been good at working on relationships with seminary staff. So it helps to have this enthusiastic kid who smiles, waves, blows air kisses, and thanks enthusiastically. He builds a lot of goodwill. And I think this place is good for him also. He will have a lot of aunties and uncles.

21 months, a 2nd Christmas, a New Year Approaching

It's been a good month for us. We've seen our fourth month come and go, spent a Christmas in Taipei, and wrapped up some work, with much more remaining.

I always struggle with the work load at this time of year. I finished one paper based on a lecture, delivered a sermon, and have much of another paper done. I've had other things crop up--grading papers for a student who never finished them last semester. We've tried to stay on top of newsletters and the like for back in the States. But it's hard to stay on top of it. In brighter news, Emily now has a dissertation committee and a paper she proposed was accepted for a conference in the summer.

Sam's enjoyed a great month. He often says "xie xie" (thank you) with great gusto. He smiles and giggles, he kisses and hugs, he's developing a little jog, and he's just a lot of fun. He sleeps fairly well. We're not sure when weaning will happen, and he's still on the binky, but all things being equal, we can't complain. For Christmas, he got a variety of presents: clothes, toys (beloved cars, ducks, puppets, a push teddy on a tricycle, Rupert the Bear DVDSs, the movie "Up," etc.). He can't really open presents yet, and is not speaking as much as we would like, but actually he communicates a fair amount and is very expressive. We're hoping that the next six months will bring some more fluency, mainly in English, but also in Mandarin.

Our overall attitude is fairly good. There are several crunch times living abroad. One at the first month, another about three months in, etc. So far we are feeling pretty upbeat about Taipei. The weather in winter is colder than we remember, but we can always enjoy walking around during the daytime, which is pretty nice. This is just a very beautiful place, and we enjoy the food, the kindness of people, the work we have to do. It helps that in another month and a half we'll get a Chinese New Year's break. I only had Friday off and there's been a crush of work this last week.

We both skyped a lot with family. I feel caught up on the goings on back home. Dad retires at the end of this week, which is a big step. Emily's little brother finishes high school this year. Cousin seems pretty happy with DC life and has gotten into a new program. Everyone seemed to be getting a long well. We miss home, but it was nice to have a break from long car trips through the midwest. We really don't miss that.

I'll get more Sam pictures up soon. He's very cute lately. He wakes up ready to go. He has entirely reoriented our lives, but happily so. Here's wishing you all (you few?) a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

20 months and going strong...

We actually passed the 20 month milestone without much excitement, but it's been some nice weeks.

Our main excitement was our retreat/day off / meeting in a week ago. It was a lot of fun and we were both fairly cranky in coming back. It was just really nice to have a few days all together, with no cooking or cleaning, in places that were new to us. The Nantou pictures are up, and I will try to do Taizhong this week.

Sam is really a charmer. We stopped by the Taizhong library and he made friends, we went to the park and he made friends, we walked through the hotel lounge... He's a very charming guy. His newest trick is kiss-blowing, which he does whenever saying goodbye. Whenever we go to dinner at the cafeteria, he talks someone into playing with him. He enjoys turning the lights on and off, walking up and down ramps, and playing the piano. If you try to play with him, he will move your hands away.

He stills says "car" a lot and seems to be adding other words, especially "go!" We've heard "yellow" at least once and we think he's said some Chinese words: xie[xie] (thanks), kai (open), etc. His Chinese teacher wrote that he allowed her to feed him this week, which made her ecstatic ("this is progress!") but just made us giggle. I know Sam's behavior is often culturally transgressive (eating with your hands, crawling on the floor, etc.), and yet he is such a happy kid.

I know I need to get back into the blogging groove. Hopefully I'll do so here soon...