Mum's Birthday and a Nice Saturday Lunch

On a Friday in the not-too-distant past, Craig and Graham's Mum celebrated her birthday. That was very good news for Craig because he could have chocolate cake for dessert.

Graham doesn't get so excited about cake but he ate his share without complaint.

The next day the boys were invited for a nice buffet lunch with their Taiwanese Grandmother.

The boys were hungry and ate heaps. Aunty Jessie helped Craig get some ice cream.

There was a second helping of dessert for the boys to share.

Their Taiwanese Grandmother loves feeding children.

And the boys are only too happy to oblige.

After having plenty to eat Graham went to sit on Aunty Jessie's lap.

It is such a shame that the flash wasn't used for the next photo. It looks like it would have been a very happy photo if it wasn't so blurry.

The flash was turned on for the next one but the radiant smiles had disappeared. Still, Graham had a good time, and that's the main thing.

Graham Gets Out and About

Graham has had plenty of time to hang out with Dad recently. He's quite a curious boy, interested in all that is around him.

This fountain with jets squirting up caught his attention and he spent a happy 15 minutes just watching the water splash about.

But he's also a little man of action.

Even when he's the only kid in a park, he rarely stands still.

There's always something to do.

And he doesn't mind at all if Mum joins in the fun and games.

Football and Late Night Fun

Some photos on this blog are not here because they are newsworthy. A couple of Saturdays ago the family, once again, had brunch at LA Cafe prior to Craig's regular football lesson. There are plenty of photos of the boys at LA Cafe already on here but this one of Graham is probably one of the best, don't you think?

This photo is just to prove that Craig and Mum were there as well.

Craig had difficulty concentrating during the beginning of the warm-up of this particular lesson.

But started joining in and having fun soon after.

One of Craig's classmates called Smiley is always involved and is probably the class clown. He's a good kid.

On the way home Craig and Graham had some fun at a department store rooftop play area.

Graham and Craig both love slides and they both disdain the use of stairs. They prefer to go up and down the slide.

Going down together is a current favourite too.

On the following day, the boys were taken out for the day by Graham's former babysitter allowing the parents to go on a "date".

This very nice cafe is in Danshui. The view is lovely.

Later that night back at home Graham wasn't going to sleep early so he watched a video in bed for a while.

Even watching a movie can be an athletic event for little people.

On one evening, after dinner the boys were taken to Daan Forest Park. The play area has been expanded since the last time they were there. The number of jungle gyms and slides has increased enormously. Graham found one that he liked a lot.

He was soon joined by Craig.

They slid down together many times and there were smiles every time they reached the bottom.

And, every time there was a rush to go back to the top to do it again.

On one other evening the boys were back at the department store rooftop play area. It's not a million miles from Taipei 101.

This photo is a rather superb example of Craig's enormous tolerance of his little brother. Graham had a handful of Craig's hair for a good 10 seconds and Craig didn't fight back or retaliate. He simply waited for his parents to intervene on his behalf.

It's Not a Secret

Friday night the week before last was special because the boys had dinner downstairs on the second floor with their cousins Soit-Jade and Yu-chi.The first thing they did was play with Aunty Suprana's drums!

All four kids had heaps of fun.

Due to YouTube's ongoing technical problems, video link here.
It was all-action for a while.

Yu-chi played the drums very politely and didn't make us much noise as others.

Craig tried hard to keep a rhythm.

He concentrated quite hard at times.

But everyone had fun.






After the drums were put away Graham managed to lock himself in the front room. He could see everyone through a large interior window and wasn't at all interested in unlocking the door.

He was not traumatised in any way by the experience.

After dinner there was chocolate birthday cake!

Eating birthday cake is a very serious business for Craig.

It was Aunty Jessie's birthday. The only slight surprise was the number 42 on top of the cake when it arrived.

Aunty Jessie didn't mind having her age announced so publicly. Normally Aunty Jessie speaks Chinese to everyone but when Craig and Graham's Dad asked about the big numbers her response in English was simply, "It's not a secret."

Graham liked the cake quite a lot and wanted to say thank you. It should also be mentioned that Graham has recently spent a lot of time at home listening to a CD that features children's voicees singing Happy Birthday to You (in Chinese). So, Aunty Jessie can claim she is the first person to ever have Graham sing Happy Birthday for her.

There was still time for some more fun and games afterwards.

Graham seems to like getting into baskets.

Parks and Second Cousins

A weekend with beautiful weather has been something of a rare event in Taipei recently. Last weekend was an exception that allowed Craig and Graham to spend plenty of time outdoors. Graham really likes this tube. He can sit there happily talking to himself for quite a while sometimes.

Craig prefers to keep moving.

When he's not sitting in the tube Graham can often be seen sliding.

On this particular Saturday morning, when they moved on to a park with longer concrete slides, Craig insisted on sliding with Graham.

Graham managed to get away to do some rocking by himself.

After lunch the boys went downstairs to go shopping with their parents. However, at first, they didn't get far. Craig's Mum's Evil Cousin Who Lives On The Ground Floor (it's probably best that he remain nameless) gave Craig a big bag of chips. (Once again, Craig never uses the word "fries" to describe deep-fried fingers of potato.)

Craig was good about sharing the chips but there was too much for one little boy to eat.

Some bubble making equipment was purchased while shopping. Yes, small plastic bottles filled with soapy water can be described as "equipment".

Mum tried to show Graham that he would make more bubbles if he actually blew through the circular doohicky.

He worked quite hard.

But he definitely wanted the wind to do the blowing for him.

Meanwhile, Craig was trying to think up new ways to play on a jungle gym slide. As we all do from time to time.

Some of Craig and Graham's chip-sharing second cousins also came to the park. The two girls in the centre of this photo live upstairs and downstairs from the boys' home.

There was plenty of silly messing about.

Which is what an afternoon at the park is for really.

All the little second cousins and neighbors then moved on to the park with the big concrete slide.

And more silly messing about followed. It was all good clean fun.

The next day Craig and Graham went with their parents to a park that they'd never been to before, in Neihu.

Craig first showed off his hanging skills.

Then he demonstrated his ability to flip with the aid of a horizontal bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JWDuTrlphU&list=UURYg9qF7uHw-WK1DIDSlXwA&index=7&feature=plcp
He's pretty good at this now and can be a bit casual about it. Cool, huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVQVDJNcdMM&feature=share&list=UURYg9qF7uHw-WK1DIDSlXwA

Note: YouTube is having a technical problem and keeps embedding the wrong videos. I'm sure they'll fix it soon. Until then, the links to the appropriate videos are here instead. Alternatively, you could click here or here.