Once a year, Craig and Graham's Mum has a reunion with her former university classmates. Last year there was an overnight stay at a place over on the east side of Taiwan and the year before there was a day trip to a place with lots of animals. Prior to this year's event, a new capsule was needed for Graham. The one Craig used when he was tiny had been passed on to needy parents.
Precise instructions on how to get to the place had been recieved by email. The email also said that the place had a large grassy area where children could run around.
After arriving at the place Craig settled down under careful watch from his Mum. Craig's stomach had been a bit upset during the drive but he recovered quickly and ate lunch in air-conditioned comfort.
After lunch, there was some fun and games chasing bubbles made from soapy water out in the hot, hot sun.
Craig was usually one step behind the girls because they were all bigger than him but he had a good time.
But, as usual, as soon as Craig's Dad turned on the video camera Craig started to lose interest.
Craig also kicked a ball around with his Dad for a while but it was very hot out in the sun. After the group had been unceremoniously kicked out of the air-conditioned restaurant they had taken up residence in an area with outdoor seating. Fortunately, one of the other dads had brought other games to play with. Craig never got the puzzle done but the daughter of the man that brought it had memorised where the pieces went and could do it in about 10 seconds.
Graham had trouble getting to sleep because of the heat.
And, then an afternoon thunderstorm arrived. It cooled things down but because of the rain everyone decided to go home early. Hopefully there'll be more fun next year.
Craig's kindergarten has provided more photos of the little man of the house. (An example is included below.) Craig's Dad thinks Craig is growing up very quickly.
The latest photos are all from the past 6 months. The kindy previously provided photos from the months before that (example below) when Craig was still a new student at Uncle Jason's American School. The first batch were mostly taken during Craig's PE classes. It's the type of kindergarten that attempts to provide a good education for the little-uns. There's plenty of activities.
There's only 164 pictures in the older album but the new one has 350!! Quite a lot, even for a boy as photogenic as Craig.
Graham has continued to have a relaxing life. His schedule is very full. Monday to Friday he hangs out with his Dad until 12:30ish and then he goes for a short walk up the street to a sitter. His Mum picks him up after she finishes work so he normally isn't away from his parents for more than six or maybe seven hours.
Graham is still drinking mother's milk and it seems to be doing him plenty of good. He's developing chubby little arms and legs but his chubby cheeks are the most obvious sign of weight gain. Recently, he has has some restless nights but slept a lot in the mornings to make up for it.
Craig has a slightly different schedule. He troops off to kindy at 8:20am and gets picked up by Great Aunt From the Fifth Floor at about 5pm. She very kindly feeds him, sometimes with the help of Craig's Taiwanese Grandma, and takes care of him until 6:30~7:00ish when his Mum gets home.
It's a long day away from his parents and during the week he doesn't see his Dad very much: just a few minutes before leaving in the morning and then about half an hour after Dad comes home from work.
So, Craig's Dad makes sure he spends plenty of time with Craig on the weekends. The recent hot weather has been perfect for Sunday mornings at the swimming pool. Craig and his Dad have lots of fun there. Last Saturday, Craig's Mum went out for dinner with her former computer programming classmates, leaving Craig's Dad to take the two boys to TGI Fridays for dinner. Craig was very well behaved while they were there, he can really be a joy to have around.
The picture above was taken a week earlier but it can serve nicely as a reference. Craig has recently become much braver when playing in the water.In the past he hated water on his face and would stop immediately whenever his face became wet and demand it be dried off. In just the past few weeks things have changed dramatically.
Last week, Craig and his Dad headed over to the pool on Sunday morning. After playing in the shallowest kiddies pool, Craig surprised his dad by saying he wanted to play on the big curly slide on the right of the picture. That was heaps of fun. Craig sat on Dad's lap and giggled all the way down. Then, as soon as they splashed down at the bottom Craig said he wanted to do it again. So, there was a lot of running upstairs and sliding down for the next 15 minutes.
Craig's Dad was saved by the swimming pool management closing the big curly slide and opening up the wide green slide. Craig prefers to slide down this one by himself. So, Craig's Dad stayed at the bottom to catch him.
It isn't very clear in the picture but the stairs for the slides are the same at the beginning. They then split left and right. Craig's Dad could see a huge smile on Craig's face as he walked up to the right instead of the left as he should have done. He was too far away for Craig's Dad to catch so Dad decided to wait at the bottom for Craig to come down but .... he didn't. The water had been turned off. So, Craig was stuck half way down. The lifeguards were alerted, the water turned back on for a few seconds and finally Craig came sliding down....... still smiling!!! That got a bad reaction from his Dad.
The poor boy cried a bit after his Dad told him off and he needed a big long hug. He had been so pleased with himself at the end of the long slide that it was a bit of a shock for him when Dad was angry. Fortunately, the telling off had the intended effect. When Craig's Dad asked if he wanted to go on the green slide he brightened up and said, "Yes." He also walked up the correct set of stairs and slid down to be caught by his Dad several times. It was lots of fun for both of them.
Meanwhile, Graham continues to be a happy baby. He is growing very well and has developed very chubby cheeks.
He never seems to cry for no reason and recently has slept for hours almost every morning when he's at home with his Dad. It's been a good start to life.
Last weekend the weather was about as hot as it needs to be for no one to be in any doubt that it was summer. Craig and Graham's Dad issued an invitation to Uncle Amitha and Cousin Ishan to go to the local swimming pool at Yucheng Park.
Aunty Bess seemed to assume that she was also invited. So, she came along too. But, since she didn't have any swimwear it was just the four boys in the pool.
The first thing to be done was pose for some photos at the side nearest to where Aunty Bess could stand. Unfortunately, Craig and Ishan weren't always interested in the camera.
Then the intrepid paddlers moved back to where Craig could play on the slide. The pool management slides the frilly plastic stuff overhead whenever the sun becomes strong so it's pretty much impossible to get sunburned.
This picture also gives an idea of the little 4-foot deep "river" that runs around the kids pool. (That's it in the foreground.) Just one weekend earlier, Craig's Dad managed to get Craig to go in the river wearing his fabulous floating swimming suit and floaties (water wings for our North American friends). Because of the flotation equipment, Craig's feet miss the bottom of the "river" by about a foot but he had a great time in there just floating along with the current. It's been really good to see him gain some confidence about going in the water and not caring so much if a tiny bit of water splashes onto his face.
Craig really loves this slide and can play on it for ages.
Aunty Bess took a long video of the fun and games.
She took a shorter video of Ishan and Amitha as well.
The boys were having so much fun that Aunty Bess went off and bought a new swimsuit so that she could join in!!! Then, she was in the pool and Uncle Amitha had the camera.
Craig still wasn't interested in the camera. You can see him in the background going up the stairs to play on the slide for the 998th time.
Uncle Amitha takes photos at a rate of about 1,000 per minute. The subjects didn't have to pose for long before there was plenty of pictures. Thankfully, Craig joined in to provide a change in the scenery.
Ishan was very good at taking off his swimming cap. It had to be put back on every few minutes.
Craig distracted Ishan by giving him a big, wet kiss.
Craig was quite determined to be very friendly.
Ishan had no trouble falling asleep on to the MRT during the return trip.
The trip home was interrupted by a stop for coffee and waffles at a cafe next to the MRT station. The table immediately behind Craig was filled with young women who seemed to be taking his photo on their mobile phones every few minutes. Craig preferred to concentrate on his waffle.
Just before they left the cafe, Uncle Amitha attempted to give Craig some practice at carrying Cousin Ishan on his shoulders.
Craig never actually took the weight on his shoulders but he didn't run away either. He seemed to think it was fun game.
After one last attempt, it was finally time to head home to see if Craig and Graham's Mum had fixed her computer.
Craig is still one of the youngest students at his kindergarten but his presence was required at the (ahem) graduation ceremony on Saturday morning. The stage was huge compared to the tiny people on it and the auditorium equally big. Craig seemed a bit intimidated by the whole thing.
The kindergarten has three classes: small, medium and large if translated literally from Chinese. Craig is in the small class that contains the youngest children at Uncle Jason's American School.
Their dancing was very cute. For their first number, Craig's class wore their sports uniforms.
But, for their second song, special costumes had been made..... very special.
And, for a third number there was yet another costume.
After the performance Craig posed for a photo with his teacher Amy. She's been teaching at Uncle Jason's for three years but this was her last day of work. She's going back to Canada to pursue further studies. That's a big deal for Craig because he liked Amy quite a lot.
All the way through the performance Craig's eyes were watering, probably because of the stage lights. Craig's Dad thinks he did very well to keep singing and dancing despite his difficulties.
Craig's Mum provided plenty of hugs and attention afterwards as well.
.jpg)
Precise instructions on how to get to the place had been recieved by email. The email also said that the place had a large grassy area where children could run around.
After arriving at the place Craig settled down under careful watch from his Mum. Craig's stomach had been a bit upset during the drive but he recovered quickly and ate lunch in air-conditioned comfort.
After lunch, there was some fun and games chasing bubbles made from soapy water out in the hot, hot sun.
Craig was usually one step behind the girls because they were all bigger than him but he had a good time.
But, as usual, as soon as Craig's Dad turned on the video camera Craig started to lose interest.
Graham had trouble getting to sleep because of the heat.
And, then an afternoon thunderstorm arrived. It cooled things down but because of the rain everyone decided to go home early. Hopefully there'll be more fun next year.
