Not Much Going On

In the weeks immediately after Chinese New Year Taipei was a very dull place to live. The weather was consistently cold, wet and dreary. Worse, everyone in the family got sick for almost two weeks. It was all very dull.

Fortunately, Craig got better just in time to have one football lesson.

The grass in the park was too muddy so the lesson took place on a bit of smooth concrete meant for rollerblading.

But all the kids had fun.

Meanwhile, Graham has left his baby days behind and become a proper toddler. He spends most of his days walking around causing trouble and just generally being cute. He's taken a liking to his Dad's old teddy bear, Bomba.

He really has become quite fond of Bomba.

Well, most of the time.

Being cute comes quite naturally to Graham, at the moment.

Craig and Graham's Cousin Ishan is visiting again.

Ishan brought lots of toys with him.

The boys have had to get rugged up to go outdoors.

The weather has really not been good.

There has been plenty of time spent playing indoors. Craig recently re-discovered some of his soft toys. He is particularly fond of the sugar glider.

And, Graham has been practising his acting skills. One thing he does is pretend that he's eating something sour even when the thing in his mouth is something sweet, like a lolly. It's really quite funny in person.


The other thing is he does is a football chant that was taught to him by his Dad! Graham's rhythm is a bit original but he deserves 10/10 for effort.

Chinese New Year and Beyond

Apart from the day trip to Hsinchu Craig and Graham have been stuck in rainy Taipei for the rest of Chinese New Year and beyond. They could often be found in front of the tiny DVD player. Before bed .......

and then after breakfast, if the weather was really bad.

As soon as the ground was dry the boys were taken outdoors to play.

But the boys still had to dress quite warmly.

Graham even went out for an after-dinner walk with Dad once. It was done in the hope that he would get tired enough to sleep early but things didn't really go to plan. Graham is good at playing some really lazy games.

Even when he went for a walk in the daytime, Graham's favourite thing to do is to sit down to drink Yakult.

But, he is getting better at negotiating his way around jungle gyms.

And when his tummy is full, he will happily walk for a while.

Climbing through this rope tunnel was too difficult though. He didn't get very far and had to turn to Mum for help.

Recently, Craig has developed the habit of running laps around any running track that he sees. He seems to quite like running. One day Graham did one lap while Craig did three. Then, when Dad turned on his video camera in the hope of recording them running together, Graham decided he'd had enough.

One nighttime walk took them through Sun Yat Sen Memorial where the main lantern for Taipei's Lantern Festival had been set up.

Quite a few people wanted to take a video of the lantern doing its performance with Taipei 101 in the background.

On one cold day, Craig went for a motorbike ride with Dad. Craig likes going places with Dad but it was pretty cold for a boy with no gloves.

On another rainy day, the boys went for a walk with Dad through an underground shopping mall. Graham had a great time playing with a public phone and kept talking into it for at least 15 minutes. Craig was very bored with that game long before Graham was finished.

Finally, one day the sun came out and the boys could play in different parks all day.

Not many photos were taken. Everyone was too busy having fun.

To Hsinchu

The only other slightly exciting thing Craig and Graham did during the long holiday was take a day trip to Hsinchu. Craig and Graham's Mum's friend Yating has three kids and they have lots of toys.

Yating's kids are also good about sharing.

The eldest girl is also good at taking care of smaller children like Graham.

There was a nice long walk through a university that looked more like a nature reserve.

Craig's Mum and Graham only did half the walk while Craig and his Dad pressed on. Craig had a go at taking a photo of Dad. The boy needs more practice........

It was a shame that Craig's photo taking wasn't up to the task because his Dad was standing in amongst a sea of white flowers. Luckily Craig stood still for a picture to be taken to record the moment.

Chinese New Year Begins

As usual the weather in Taipei for Chinese New Year was awful. Graham and his Dad often slept in together before having a late breakfast.

On New Year's Eve there was dinner downstairs with the relatives. That meant four little kids running around like mad things.

Craig was very mean to his Uncle Guapo. Craig threw all the pillows and bedclothes on a spare bed onto his uncle while laughing madly.

Fortunately, Uncle Guapo is very good about being abused in the name of fun.

Craig really had a good time.

The next night there was dinner plus more fun and games in the big house in the hills above Neihu.

While Graham played with his two cousins, Soit-Jade and Yu-chi, Craig was upstairs playing mini air hockey against Mum.

There was more of the fun with Uncle Guapo.

This time it was mostly jumping on the bed.

The adults also took over the mini air hockey.

Craig and Graham seemed to like having some new toys to play with.

Graham had plenty of fun with some over-sized blocks,

But the thing he liked the most was the little electric keyboard.

Despite the very cold weather, Graham didn't want to wear his socks. So, his tiny grey socks would keep showing up beside the keyboard or other strange places no matter how often his parents put them back on.

Craig liked the keyboard too but neither of the boys can play a tune yet.