I realized that I haven’t written just about Jack in a while — with all the excitement over Baby Surprise, the Taiwan trip and our house hunt, Jack hasn’t starred in my entries like he did a few months ago. So, here goes!

Sibling Preparedness Update: A little while ago, I posted my sibling preparedness plan for Jack. We’ve been working diligently on paci weaning. I’m pleased to say that Jack has been paci-free during the daytime for a week. I had intended to throw the pacis all away and not even give them to him during naptime or bedtime, but frankly, I was too chicken to toss them in the garbage. Besides, I wonder about the effect that constant whining would have on Jack’s baby brother (just kidding, although supposedly he can hear in utero now). I reconsidered my original plan, and decided that with all the changes to come in his little life — transitioning to the big boy bed, (hopefully) moving into a house, potty training, and oh yeah, giving up his status as an only child — I would let him hang on to his naptime and bedtime paci habit for as long as he wants (flash to Jack asking his wife to clip his paci onto his PJs on his wedding night … can you imagine the mother-in-law horror stories Jack’s wife would tell about me if that were the case?). He’s growing up so fast that if there’s one thing that he holds on to from his babyhood, then so be it. Besides, none of those oh-so-helpful paci-comment-offering people see him while he’s sleeping. So it’s been seven days now, and Jack no longer asks for it in the daytime or in the car. Yay!

Next, we’re going to resume our potty training efforts with more vigor. Jack is showing more signs of readiness. Lately, he’s been saying, “Ew” and grabbing his crotch every time he goes poop or is about to. He also gets impatient when he’s dirty. Yesterday, I was on the phone when he said “ew,” and I figured I’d wait until I hung up a few minutes later to change him. He was only wearing a T-shirt and his diaper at the time. After I hung up, I went over and touched his butt to see if there was a pile of poop in his diaper, or if he was just bluffing. To my surprise, my left hand touched a bare bottom smeared with poop! Oh, gosh, it was gross. Jack just laughed and said, “Oh, no! Ew!” and ran away. Ew, indeed, buddy. I looked to my left, and there it was: a hastily discarded diaper. I had no idea he knew how to take those off. From now on, it’s pants on all the time!

After we get going again on potty training will come the bed transition. One thing at a time, I figure.

Cuteness Overload: Lately, Jack has been doing so many cute things. He had a verbal explosion while he was in Taiwan, and now he says “Mama, bao-bao” (requesting a hug from Mommy) about 1,000 times a day. He also likes to identify objects he knows, and his favorite request is “more,” especially when his sippy cup is already half full. The boy likes his cups to be at least 3/4 full at all times. Jack also bursts into dance whenever the Hot Dog song (from the end of each Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode) comes on. And, he’s into kissing. Yesterday he picked up two Hot Wheels, turned them so that their front bumpers touched each other, and made a kissing noise. Then he demanded that Johnny and I each kiss the Hot Wheels. Speaking of Hot Wheels, they’re Jack’s new favorite toy. Over the weekend, Johnny made a ramp for them by propping an open book on a toy. Jack was delighted. Not to be one-upped, yesterday I made a system of roads using masking tape for Jack’s cars. Jack vroom-vroomed his cars along the roads (blatantly disregarding all traffic rules, by the way), but soon ran into his room and searched for five whole minutes (not kidding) for the exact book that Johnny had used for the ramp. He then handed the book to me and said, “Vroom,” thereby requesting that I set up Daddy’s ramp. When I did, he squealed with delight and proceeded to push his little cars down the ramp for half an hour. Oh, well, I tried! Johnny gloated and said that well, he does make toys for a living.

Battling Boredom: For every minute that Jack is cute, there is at least one corresponding minute (perhaps even two corresponding minutes) where he’s acting up out of boredom. It is hard to keep an energetic toddler occupied for seven hours straight, folks! So, based on a recommendation from one of my mommy forum friends, I got a great book called The Toddler’s Busy Book (see “currently reading” below for a link if you’re interested). It’s filled with 365 ideas for simple and fun activities to do with your 1.5- to 3-year-old child. The book is organized into different categories, like rainy day play, activities for the car, for the waiting room, for outside, for when you’re running errands, etc. It also gives suggestions on how to organize different boxes for your child (like a kitchen box that you can give your toddler when you need some time to cook and he wants to “help”) and a list of things that are nice to keep handy as impromptu toys — I will be rinsing out a lot more yogurt containers and keeping a lot more plastic lids around, I tell you! The masking tape roads for the cars was one of the ideas in the book. Some of the ideas are a little hare-brained, in my opinion (like “Fun With Kleenex” — let your child pull out a Kleenex one by one from the box because the fun is “well worth the price” of a box of tissues. Well, sure, maybe one box, but if your child is anything like mine, after he’s done this once, he will want to pull every tissue out of every box of Kleenex for the rest of his life, and you’re asking for tantrums galore), and others are just a bit too crafty or involved for a mommy with two left hands, like me. But, overall, it is a great book filled with some good ideas. I’m going to be assembling a few boxes of cheap stuff that’s found around the house (or usually recycled) to pull out when we’re bored, for impromptu games. I think this will especially come in handy when I’m nursing the new baby in a few months, and Jack is whining for my attention.

OK, wow, now I’ve written a novel. I hope everyone’s doing well! Thanks for reading, if you’ve made it this far!

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone! I’ve been running around like a chicken with her head cut off since my return from Taiwan. The flight was uneventful, and Jack and I had a wonderful reunion with Johnny. Since our return, I’ve been working (on both work work stuff and Jack’s sibling preparedness plan), enjoying time with Johnny and looking at houses. Oh, yes, and I’ve been gestating.

Today was the big anatomy ultrasound. Although we already know Baby Surprise is a boy, I was still really excited to see him again. And, it was so awesome! The ultrasound technician was super nice, and when Johnny was running late to meet me, she took her other patient first, so that he could be there for the whole thing. She spent a long time, probably 15 minutes, going over everything with us, and the pictures were super clear. All the news was great: Baby Surprise is doing very well, measuring about three or four days ahead given his measurements. He’s head down for now — I know that means nothing because I’m only almost 21 weeks, but the thing is, Jack was never head down at any point, on any ultrasound, so I’m already encouraged (dare I hope that this baby will be head-down for delivery?). His heartbeat is 149 beats per minute, and the technician said that he had a “beautiful” heart, with all four chambers and symmetrical blood flow. We also saw his brain, his beautiful spine, all 10 fingers and 10 toes, and his full belly and bladder. We also saw his tongue sticking out, and saw him drinking that yummy amniotic fluid. It was really so, so neat. With Jack, my old OB had a really outdated ultrasound machine, so we didn’t see nearly as much detail.

Here’s a cute profile shot!

Baby was definitely not shy about his gender. The following profile shot shows his legs open, with his wee-wee sticking straight up! And, you can also see the curlicue of his umbilical cord.

I’m a boy! See, really!

I have much more to write about, but I better get to making dinner. More later!

Since it’s already Saturday here, I can say that I’m 20 weeks pregnant today! That means Baby Surprise is now halfway done baking. Seriously, how is this pregnancy half over already? With Jack, it seemed to take forever to get to 20 weeks. I was counting the seconds until he was born. I have a feeling Baby Surprise will be born before I know it, since I’m so busy already with Jack, work, home-buying, etc.

Here’s the requisite 20-week belly pic. Because of how my arm is placed, I look much wider than I actually am!

Yup, thar be a baby in there

I can feel his kicks from the outside now, which is amazing. Friday, we go in for the anatomy scan. I can’t wait to see my new little man again.

In other exciting news, my mom, Jack and I are flying back to Los Angeles tonight. I’m so grateful to my parents for funding our trip here. It has been a wonderful experience for both me and Jack. On the other hand, I’m eager to get back to Johnny and, as a friend put it, attack my world! Can’t wait to see Johnny, June and Charles (June and Charles will be there to pick up my mom) at the airport. Thanks to the time difference, I leave Saturday night and also arrive Saturday night. Once I arrive, it’s time to get important business squared away and get ready for my little family to grow again. Wish us luck on the flight!

It’s no secret: I’m a planner. Sure, my six years as a full-time project manager enhanced my planning skills, but this goes way back. I remember that one time, when I was in high school, June and I decided to see a movie together. Hours before the movie was supposed to start, I started plotting out exactly when we should leave the house, working backwards from how long it would take to drive to the theater, park, get tickets and find good seats. June turned to me and snapped, “God, Bev! Going to a movie is supposed to be fun!” My reply was, and still would be, that it wouldn’t be fun if we ended up getting there after the movie began, or if we ended up in the very first or last rows, now would it? (However, I should add that June is a great planner as well — she’s just less neurotic than I am, which is good.)

The fact is, planning calms me. Even if something doesn’t go according to plan, the fact that there was a plan that began “correctly” makes it easier to come up with a, well, plan to get things back on track. So you can imagine how much Baby Surprise threw me for a loop, initially. By the way, I would like to reiterate that unplanned does not equal unwanted in any way. Baby Surprise was/is very much wanted — we’ve always wanted a second child, and he is an extremely welcome addition to the family, in every bit the way Jack is. However, Jack went very much according to plan: From the time that the positive test came back, I plotted how to decorate his room, what baby gear I would need, and all that good stuff. Now that our family is expanding again, that inner planner is dying to take over — my nesting instinct is even stronger this time. I always envisioned that when I became pregnant ith my second child, I would be in a situation where I could just take care of the “warm fuzzies,” such as nursery decor, organizing Jack’s infant clothes and gear for his sibling and making meals to freeze in advance. But, now I’m dealing with the “cold realities” of mortgage applications, house hunting and moving. The fact that all this has to happen before the warm fuzzies keeps me up at night, especially when I consider that my pregnancy will be halfway over this Saturday. HALFWAY OVER, and I don’t know yet where I’m going to live when it’s all the way over!

I do want to say, before I get to the point of this entry, that I’m not really complaining. In this economy, Johnny and I are extremely lucky. We have 1.5 well-paying jobs (the half a job is mine  … ahh, if only being a mom entailed a paycheck!); two well-running, relatively recently-made cars that, thanks to the generosity of both sets of parents, don’t require monthly payments; the knowledge that we can get a mortgage in the amount we need; and family members who provide us with emotional support and childcare help when we most need it. So, most of the time I’m very grateful and know that I’m not in a place to complain … but I do stress.

So, after all this has been said, the point is that I’ve found a way to plan that does not involve houses, nursery decor or plans for Jack’s big boy room. That, folks, is to come up with a Sibling Preparedness Plan for Jack. In order to prepare him (and myself) for his brother’s arrival, we’re going to begin with a multi-pronged attack (perhaps a friendlier word would be “approach”):

1. Goodbye, paci. In a way, I love the paci. It’s an off button when Jack is fussy, especially in public places, and a great aide for getting him off to sleep on his own. But, I get so many negative comments about it, and I admit that sometimes it makes me a lazy mother. It’s easy to give it to him and get on with my own business. I hate seeing him grab it willy-nilly throughout the day. Plus, I just don’t want to deal with washing and storing two kids’ worth of pacis. (Yes, I will be using pacis with Surprise, if he likes them. The good outweighs the bad, in my opinion.) As with most other baby-related transitions, my preferred technique is cold turkey (and Jack seems to take to that approach well, as was the case with the end of swaddling and the end of bottles). A few days after our return to Taiwan — yikes, that would be next week — I am throwing out all of our pacis. OK, I’m going to keep one buried in a drawer somewhere. Sorry in advance, neighbors, but I don’t think the transition will take long. One thing I will miss is the recent behavior Jack’s developed of handing me or my mom his paci occasionally and requesting, “shi shi,” which means “wash wash” in Chinese. He’ll stand there and watch you wash his paci, then hold out his hand and ask for it back. Cute, but soon to be no more.

2. Goodbye, crib. After the paci has been well-eliminated, we’re getting guard rails for the full-size bed in Jack’s room and moving him in the big boy bed. This will be months before Surprise is born. When we move into our house this spring, the crib will go in the nursery, and Jack’s room will not contain any of his current furniture, except his big boy bed. I’m tempted to get him big boy sheets, but he doesn’t know the difference right now, and I’ve decided to wait until we get the house and decide on a paint color for the walls of Jack’s room. Plus at that time, we can get him a new dresser, so we might as well save all the big boy transitions for then, rather than put big boy bedding in a room adorned with cute little frogs and dragonflies.

3. Introducing patience. Ahh, patience. It’s something Jack does not have and probably will not have for several years. But, at least, I’m going to gradually get him used to waiting a few minutes for something he wants. I’m very lucky in that I’m going to have my mom helping me out full-time for the first year of Surprise’s life, but I’m sure there will be times when Jack needs to wait for something (and even if not, I want him to get used to this). However, as Jack’s mother doesn’t have much patience herself, this might be a skill that’s learned by both the toddler and the adult.

4. Hello, toilet. We’ll continue with the potty training efforts. Alas, after much success with consistently pooping on the toilet, Jack has regressed. He no longer wants to even sit on the toilet. It doesn’t surprise me that this happened in Taiwan, but the weird thing is that he pooped well here for the first week, then decided he didn’t want to. I’m hoping it’s temporary. Otherwise I’m going to have to send him off to his prom with his toilet ring in hand, haha.

5. Lots of quality time with Mommy and Daddy. This is most important of all. We do tell Jack that a baby is coming, but the truth is that he’s too young to really understand, so we’re going to focus on just continuing to have fun with him and give him as much undivided love and attention as we can before Surprise joins us. That will be absolutely wonderful, but I also treasure this alone time with Jack, time that I’ll never get back. I really can’t get over the fact that my little baby boy is going to be a big brother soon.

So that’s my five-pronged plan! I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted on my progress. Wish us luck!

Yesterday, Uncle Scott took me, my mom and Jack to Window on China, an amusement park in Taoyuan that hosts the second-largest collection of miniature structures in the world. The park’s Chinese name, translated literally, is “Little People Kingdom,” which I suppose wouldn’t be a very politically correct English name , but is a more apt description of the park. I love miniatures, and this park has really detailed, life-like miniature replicas of famous places in Taiwan and China, as well as some landmarks from Europe and Egypt. There’s also a midway area with rides and games (including a giant water slide/roller coaster that looked like so much fun … alas, pregnant women are not allowed to ride on such rambunctious attractions), and, best of all (for a geek like me), there was a new Doraemon exhibit! I grew up reading comic books about Doraemon, a robotic cat from the 22nd century who is sent to the present day by his owner to protect the owner’s bumbling great-great-uncle, who is a fourth-grader at the time. It’s hard to explain, but I was hooked on these comics.

Anyway, I’m not sure who had the better time at Window on China, Jack or I. He oooh’d, ahh’d, wow’d and whee’d at everything, and spent lots of time running around. Jack also enjoyed his first train ride at an amusement park. Here are some pictures:

Jack looking down at a mini train station. Those are bonsai trees!

The train station looks pretty normal-sized, but look at the people in the far left corner of the picture — each structure was no taller than mid-calf!

Uncle Scott shows Jack the high-speed bullet train. It really moved on the track!

A little village in mini-China

Jack and I by some mini cargo ships. The little cargo containers were very realistic — they even had real company names printed on them. And, the loading docks really worked!

Jack, Uncle Scott and I by mini-Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

Mini Leaning Tower of Pisa! If you look really closely, there’s a miniature Doraemon on the second level from the top. I thought it was fun that park workers hid little Doraemon figures in almost every structure at the park to promote the new exhibit

Jack enjoying his first amusement park train ride

Me with some of my favorite Doraemon characters! These, oddly enough, were all larger than life. Go figure

My mom and I by the mini Great Wall of China (in the background)

These miniature people really moved!

Today after lunch, my mom, Jack and I met up with my good friend Emily at Sogo. Emily and I go all the way back to middle school, and she’s actually my birthday buddy — we have the same birthday, down to the year. We haven’t seen each other in two years, so I was really excited to see her and have her meet Jack. Actually, last time we saw each other, I think I was also five months pregnant. Deja vu!

Even Jack is happy about our reunion! My mom, me and Emily

Finally, I have to share the picture below with you all. Jack saw my dad lounging on the chaise part of his couch the other day. The very next day, Jack climbed up on the chaise portion, stacked the pillows behind his head to his liking, and then leaned back on it. He watched almost a whole episode of Mickey Mouse playhouse this way, occasionally waving his hand lazily in the air. He even had his legs crossed at one point. It was too funny.

Getting the hang of being a lazy man already!

I have more thoughts to share about Jack and my newly formed Sibling Preparedness Plan for him, but this entry is long enough already, so I’ll save those thoughts for tomorrow. Good night!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, Jack ended up on the evening news last night! A reporter and cameraman were at Wulai, where we went with Uncle Scott yesterday, to do a travel feature. The reporter ended up interviewing Uncle Scott, who was holding Jack at the time. We missed the first clip of the night, which showed the entire interview with Uncle Scott. But, we did manage to catch the 9:40 p.m. clip, which was way shorter, but did still show Jack. He’s 21 seconds into the video, and only appears for a couple of seconds (so you can stop watching after that). Here it is!

Many thanks to Jody for teaching me how to embed a YouTube video!

My Valentine’s Day is almost over, but it’s only a bit after 4 a.m. in Los Angeles, so, Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

Today marks the eleventh Valentine’s Day together for me and Johnny. It’s also the first one where we’re not in the same place!  Before I left Los Angeles, I hid a Valentine’s Day surprise for Johnny (I won’t reveal what it is right now — nothing big — in case Johnny makes it here before finding it), but I was secretly a little afraid that Johnny would forget Valentine’s Day this year, especially since I’m 16 hours ahead in Taipei. We don’t usually make a big to-do of Valentine’s Day — just a special dinner at home and a card exchange, no gifts — but I was still hoping for an acknowledgement. Silly girl that I am, I didn’t want to mention Valentine’s Day to Johnny, in case he only remembered because I reminded him.  Of course, I needn’t have worried. Early this morning, this arrived for me from Johnny:

Valentine’s Day bouquet

It was a huge bouquet of 24 dark pink and light pink roses, wrapped in gauze and this really pretty corrugated paper, and tied with a pink feather boa. There are also little strands of pearly beads lacing through the flowers! I was so surprised. I wondered how Johnny had managed to get me flowers in Taipei. Turns out, long before Valentine’s Day, he had emailed my mom and asked for her help in ordering flowers for me. He included the text for a note, which was correctly typed on the card. Although my heart hurts at thinking about the overinflated cost of roses on Valentine’s Day, I was very, very touched! And as usual, Johnny has outdone me. I’m afraid my surprise looks rather pale by comparison. Johnny also made a video letter for me, and made sure I had no lack of emails from him today.  The flowers are nice, but the most important thing is that Johnny always shows me how much he cares, regardless of the occasion. Happy 11th Valentine’s Day, sweetie! I look forward to our forever of Valentine’s Days together.

Besides fawning over my flowers, I also went on an outing today. Uncle Scott came over, and we all went to Wulai with Daniel and Alisa. Wulai is in the mountains, and despite my getting slightly carsick on the winding roads (don’t worry, no vomit), and Alisa’s sudden pollen allergy outbreak, we still had a good time admiring the cherry blossoms and ooh-ing at the waterfall.

Waterfalls at Wulai

Daniel, me (and my bump, hee hee), Jack and Uncle Scott, and Alisa

I was very nervous about this picture!

Cherry blossoms

Oh, and a funny thing happened as we were leaving Wulai. There was a reporter and camera man there from a major TV station, getting some man-on-the-street interviews from the crowds of tourists. It’s cherry blossom season, so they were filming a feature story. We were walking back down a trail, and Uncle Scott was holding Jack’s hand as we got to the base of the trail. The reporter asked Uncle Scott if she could interview him, and asked him what he thought of the cherry blossoms, how he liked his trip today, what brought him out there, etc. Jack became curious about the microphone and camera, so Uncle Scott picked him up, and luckily, Jack didn’t start crying or protesting. He was just happy to look into the camera! At the end of the interview, Jack said bye-bye and waved. The reporter and camera man commented that Jack was very cute. About an hour ago, Uncle Scott called to say that the entire clip — including Jack waving bye-bye at the end — made it on TV! They repeat the news segments sometimes, and the next news broadcast is at 8:30 p.m. (in eight minutes). I’m going to try to catch it and record it on my camera’s video function. Imagine … Jack’s first TV appearance.

I also have a few pictures to share from yesterday. My mom and I took Jack to a huge park in Neihu, where my parents’ condo is. Jack had a ton of fun running around.

The way this photo is taken, doesn’t it kind of look like I’m a celebrity, hanging out with my kid? Haha. I’m wearing one of my new maternity shirts! And Jack’s shirt says “I get my muscles from my dad.” Double haha.

My mom and Jack by the lake at the park

Jack and I

The beautiful lake

That’s it from me for now! I hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day.

We’re taking so many pictures here that I have to do up a new post every few days, so as not to overload you all at once! Here’s what we’ve been up to in the last 48 hours or so.

Yesterday, we had lunch with some longtime family friends — Wenny, Jenny, and their mom, “Aunt” Alice. Wenny is about 1.5 years younger than I am, and Jenny is June’s age. We used to all play together when we lived in Palos Verdes together. I hadn’t seen Wenny since almost 10 years ago, and Jenny … I don’t even remember the last time I saw her! It was great to see them all again, and to have them meet Jack.

Me, Jenny, Jack, Wenny, my mom and Aunt Alice

All we need is June to complete this childhood friends photo!

Jack was in quite the good mood after lunch

Today, we went to Daan Forest Park with Uncle Scott. It is a huge park (for Taipei, at least). It reminded me a bit of Central Park — much smaller, but with the same kind of feel. We went there primarily so Jack could run around unfettered. He had a great time, and gave Uncle Scott quite a workout!

Jack led Uncle Scott on a wild goose chase around these flower beds

Climbing a tree

Jack reminds me so much of Johnny in this picture! Johnny has a childhood photo where he’s peeking out from a tree, too

Speaking of the little one, two more random girls took his picture today. One of them kinda bugged me, though. She was clearly taking pictures of Jack, probably using the zoom on her camera, and kept following him around as he toddled around some trees, but never asked me if she could take his photo.

After the park, we walked to Ice Monster, known for its delicious shaved ice. Johnny and I went there in 2005 and enjoyed a huge plate of shaved ice topped with fresh fruit, condensed milk and a scoop of mango sorbet. Today, I had the same thing all by myself! Jack helped out a bit.

I heart Ice Monster’s fresh fruit shaved ice

My mom got the version topped with sweet beans and condensed milk.

Also good, but I’m more of a fruit gal

And here I am, chowing down on my fruit shaved ice!

Now it’s time for me to watch TV and eat some pickled frozen sweet and sour mango slices!

Of course you do! First, here are some shots from Saturday’s outing to the Ilan Cultural Center (where Jack had his papparazzi moment):

Jack was fascinated with this statue

One of the shops sold these fancy puppets

My mom and I in front of some pretty display cases filled with tiny crystals

Daniel, Baby Surprise and I in front of a vintage mailbox

Drool … these were bowls of shaved ice, various sweet beans topped with condensed milk, and little cups of steaming hot tapioca that acted as a nice contrast to the ice

Jack and I with some lit-up deer

Lit-up peacock. Unfortunately, Jack was afraid of it

Jack kept petting this dog statue

Guess who’s behind this cow mask? Hee hee

Now, for pictures from yesterday’s shopping expedition (just me, my mom and Jack).

In front of Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest building)

Soon, my mom and I were hungry from all that walking, so we stopped for a snack … two sinful ice cream snacks! Seriously, I’ve been afraid to get on a scale here, because I’m sure I’ve gained a gazillion pounds. I’m not sure Johnny will recognize me when he comes to get me at the airport in 11 days. “Who is this pregnant whale walking toward me?” Oh, well — can’t not eat when you’re in Taiwan!

Our first snack: An ultra-creamy ice cream cone, with a croissant affixed to one side of the ice cream! It had a sweet glaze on it, and was so flaky and yummy with the vanilla soft serve

Our second snack: An indulgent three-flavor Haagen-Dazs sundae in a waffle bowl. Jack loved to chew off bits of the waffle part!

After our snacks, we walked out to where there was a dancing water fountain, the kind that spouts out from the ground. Jack was so enthralled with it. If my mom hadn’t been holding him back, he would have rushed into the water!

Jack kept saying, “WOW!” and “WHOA!” and “WHEE!”

Look how excited he is!

Jack eagerly anticipates the water, which was making its way around in a circle around the plaza

Today, we went to lunch, then more walking around, with Uncle Scott. We were meandering around in an underground mall when Jack saw some balloons and requested that Uncle Scott lift him up to balloon-eye level.

Whee, balloons!

Jack was also fascinated with looking out the window when we were on the 11th floor of Sogo.

The cars are so small!

Just having some good old conversation on this here windowsill

Finally, I have a video to share with you. It’s from when Jack and I were chatting with Johnny via webcam a couple of days ago. Nothing excites Jack more than seeing his beloved Baba on the computer screen. In fact, every morning, he points to my computer and says, “Baba, Baba” while doing his excited dance. He cries when a video of or call with Johnny ends. Here he’s playing peek-a-boo with Johnny, but he’s too excited to remember that his hands go over his eyes, not his mouth! Oh, please ignore my bad hair — this was pre-shower for me!

That’s all! I hope everyone’s having a great week. My mom, Jack and I have 11 more days in Taiwan, then we’re flying back to California.

I had an extremely vain “proud mommy” moment today that I have to share with you all!

Uncle Scott and Daniel came over this afternoon and took my mom, Jack and I to the Ilan Cultural Center. Johnny and I had actually been there (with his parents) when we went on a train tour in Taiwan in the fall of 2005. At that time, the center was really new, so there weren’t a lot of people there. Today, the parking lot was full, and people were milling about, checking out all the little stores, performers and eateries. (I’ll post pictures soon.) Jack had a great time running around.

At one point, he was out of his stroller, and I was holding his hand as we made our way through the crowds. A group of Taiwanese girls, who looked to be in college, was walking toward us. Suddenly they stopped, pointed in Jack’s direction and squealed, “Oh, my God! He’s so cute!” They stopped when they got to us, and asked me politely if they could take their picture with Jack, and if he was mixed. Some moms might be creeped out, but I was delighted that someone thought my son was cute enough to want to take a random picture with him, so I said sure, and that yes, he was mixed. Jack was happy with the girls, who were fawning over him, until they crowded around him to take a picture. Then he shook his head, said no, and started to cry. The girls backed off, we said bye, and Jack was all happy again, waving and saying bye-bye. The girls asked me if they could take a picture of Jack instead, and I said OK, so they snapped a few pictures of him while he was all happy.

After they left, I asked Daniel if this was a common thing here, and he replied that some girls liked to take pictures of cute kids just for fun. Sometimes they’ll post the pictures on their blogs. Again, I suppose that might be kind of creepy, but it’s not like they’re weird old men … I think it’s kind of cute that they like to snap pictures of adorable children. It would be neat to see Jack’s picture somewhere. I mean, it’s not like I don’t post tons of pictures of him on my public blog — everyone else might as well join in.  I’d be more concerned if Jack were at an age where he’s easily recognizable, or where he’s in school by himself all day and more easily snatched away.

So that was my proud moment of the day. I wonder if Jack will get any more papparazzi requests while he’s here?