Changes...

A month ago yesterday, we met Christian for the first time. I can't believe how fast time flies, and yet it seems as though we've had him forever (cliched but true)! We're still learning and adjusting to each other - mostly Jeff and I figuring Christian out. I think Christian realizes that he's the absolute center of the household, and he mostly likes it.

In the month we've had him, Christian has definitely gone through some changes. He's gaining weight (which is a good thing) and becoming a lot more interactive and grabby (which is also a good thing, unless it's my hair). He also went through an extremely short yet memorable phase where he stuck his lower lip out to hilarious effect (hereafter referred to as "The Lip").

It's amazing how an almost 7-month old child can look like an old man. This picture really doesn't capture the full effect of The Lip. However, you should imagine something along the lines of this:

Now, he's currently discovered how to stick out his tongue and blow raspberries. It's also very cute, but a bit more liquidy than The Lip.

We also got him a new and even bigger command center to overstimulate him even more. See the dilated eyes, the blank stare? That's how you know that your command center is doing its job.
Christian also got a great new sippy cup! He's too young to drink from it yet, but wanted to 'try it out'.

He promised me that he knew when to quit...

But I know better now. Just wait until there's actual LIQUID in the cup!

We're still working on our sitting (aka The Thing That Christian Hates The Most In The World, Except For Having His Face Wiped, Getting Shots, And Getting His Fingernails Cut). He's becoming very diabolical in his attempts to avoid sitting. Most of the time, he simply locks his legs at the waist so I can't bend him into a sitting position. However, he now has a second weapon in his anti-sitting arsenal: if I manage to get him into an initial sitting position (bottom on floor), he arches his back, crosses his ankles, and uses his arms to leverage himself off the floor (I'm holding his hands of course to get him to sit). It looks as though he's doing some sort of bizarre yoga move.

Today while distracted by the television, he actually sat for a little bit with his hands on his knees, not on the floor! Of course, by the time I grabbed the camera it reverted back to a normal, garden-variety sit.

And his head slowly sinks towards the floor over time, Titanic-like, while I mercilessly take pictures of him.

"You going to help me here, or just sit there and take pictures?"

But it's not all work - we do have lots of fun as well and he's a very happy baby most of the time.

So, in conclusion, it's been a crazy, wonderful month!

Look what I can do!

I can hold myself up in a sitting position!

Well, for a little bit...

This is actually pretty huge. Back in the old days (two weeks ago), if you placed Christian in a sitting position he would immediately keel over, head first. Now, he can actually hold himself up for various amounts of time (ranging from a couple of seconds to almost half a minute). Granted, he reminds me of those Olympic weightlifters with the amount of effort he's putting out (you can see the concentration on his face), but we're so proud of him!

And on an unrelated note, I have new respect for (a) professional children's photographers, and (b) the TWCA workers who send the monthly updates of the children. Believe it or not, Christian has this super cute smile that he uses all of the time. But the second you whip the camera out, he's looking the other way or the smile has morphed into something else. Here are a couple of my favorite outtakes:

Fierce!

????

And now, a note from Christian...

Dear blog community,

Thank you all for following my story. I am resigning myself to the fact that I am stuck with these amateurs permanently.

See all of my band-aids? I had my first doctor's visit today and not only did they perform a TB test, but they also took blood - THREE times (I also have a band-aid on my left hand) because the needle kept on falling out. They said it was because I was so squirmy, but can you blame me? It hurt! I was VERY unhappy. I hated it even more than the times my parents try and clean my nose.

However, I am mostly a happy kid. I like to play, look at everything, snuggle, take baths, and smile and I'm getting stronger every day. See how well I can hold my head up? In Taiwan, I was only able to hold it up a little bit before pooping out.

And speaking of poop, I've even made my daddy change my dirty diapers. And they were doozies! Ha!

But I'm so cute that he forgives me. It's all part of my master plan to take over the world.

This is my command center. I'm working very hard on my plan for world domination...

As soon as I learn to feed myself, that is.

Take care,
Christian

We made it home!

After two long plane rides with a four hour layover and a two hour drive, we made it home! Christian was perfect on the 11 hour flight from Taipei to San Francisco - he slept almost the entire way.

At the Taipei airport there is this oasis called the Hello Kitty nursery. Christian loved the bright colors on the walls and there were couches, a crib, padded changing tables, hot water, diapers, and wipes. It was amazing and we spent the majority of our time before our first flight there, with only an occasional gawker to bother us.

I love Hello Kitty!

However, once we reached San Francisco he started to get crabby - and who could blame him? After our wonderful experience with the nursery in Taipei, we tried to find a nursery room at the San Francisco airport. We did find a locked door for a room called 'nursery' that looked promising. However, once we got the code to enter the room we found that the SF airport defined 'nursery' as a dirty glorified bathroom with one toilet stall, a sink, and a fold down baby changing table that was at my shoulder's height. What a letdown! Needless to say, we didn't spend much time in there.

By the time we boarded our flight, he was on the edge and pretty much went over it the entire four hour flight. He cried and screamed during the red eye flight when most people were trying to sleep. I even hid out in the bathroom for a short while to muffle the screams. However, Jeff did most of the holding and so was the one stuck with trying to quiet and soothe an overtired baby, with only marginal success.

The drive from Cincinnati to Columbus was also interesting. Christian cried a little bit in his car seat, but then fell asleep. And this is where all of you experienced parents out there will smile: we tried to feed him since he hadn't eaten well that day. Well, waking him up proved to be the final straw for Christian, who began to hysterically cry and scream almost the entire way home. It was horrible!

Our little (slightly blurry) ray of sunshine, enjoying the ride home

By the time we got to our house, we were all on edge and so sick of traveling. And then we saw this in our front yard:
Isn't that amazingly beautiful? Our neighbors put it up for us! I can't tell you what a welcome sight this was for us. I am so touched by their thoughtfulness.

Anyway, we've been home for two days now and feeling much better, mostly due to my parents who are helping us out so much. Christian is also feeling better, although he has a cold.

Meeting Grandpa

Reading with Daddy

Looking cute

Being entertained

Showing off my hair

The final countdown...

In about three hours, we will drive to the airport for our trip back home. I can't believe that we've made it this far. While this has been an overwhelming and at times stressful trip, I can't begin to describe the incredible experiences that we have also had over the last few days. Taiwan is a beautiful country, and we have truly enjoyed our very small taste of Christian's home culture. I have to admit becoming a little emotional while strolling through the heat and noise of Jiufen, especially when seeing little boys or teenagers, thinking that Christian will soon be leaving his native home. We are so thankful for the gift that we have been given - the opportunity to raise this little boy - and for all the people who have helped us along the way.

And now onto practical matters. Remember Mrs. Elton from Emma, the one with all of the inner 'resources'? Well, not to knock Christian, but he doesn't have a lot of resources for amusing himself. Right now his hands and feet top the list, and don't get me wrong - I admire him because frankly, he gets a lot more mileage out of examining his hands and feet than I would. However, other than that he's not exactly self-sufficient. We also really think he's teething this time, which may be contributing to his Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde split personality. So, all things considered, we are lining up for a very interesting plane ride and trip home, and I wonder if the flight attendants could issue a blanket apology upfront to save time. Stay tuned to see how this all turns out!

Oh yeah, and for those of you who are just here for the pictures, here's a very short clip of Christian from yesterday:

An almost perfect baby and very bad parents!

As you can perhaps guess from the title of this post, Christian was incredibly good yesterday! Such a huge difference from yesterday - he seemed in such a better mood and we all had a great time.

Drooly but content

First, Mr. Yeh and Alex picked us up at 9am and we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, a truly impressive structure dedicated to the life of Taiwan's former ruler. This is where I wish I had paid more attention in high school history!


After looking through the museum and a brief tour of the grounds we went to the Handicraft Center, basically three floors of Taiwan tourist shopping. Being tourists, we bought some gifts for Christian before heading off to AIT to pick up his visa.

Next, we went to the Martyrs' Shrine, which (according to the Lonely Planet guide) "enshrines the dead of the wars fought on behalf of the ROC." We really went to see the changing of the guards:



Jeff was more impressed by the fact that they could wear full uniforms when it was so incredibly hot out. It really was like a furnace yesterday!

After that, they drove us to the Grand Hotel to take pictures and walk through the lobby.

Mr. Yeh then drove us to Jiufen as an unexpected bonus. There, we toured this incredible town with beautiful views, narrow streets and open markets. Mr. Yeh gave us the guided tour and constantly pointed us to food to try out. We sampled many types of candies and sweets, a crepe-like roll-up with ice cream and some kind of green herb inside, and the infamous stinky tofu (deep fried, so it didn't have the overpowering smell with spicy cabbage - very good), among other things.
We went back to the hotel after this for a break, and then at 8pm they picked us up again, ostensibly to pick up a scroll at Snake Alley. However, Mr. Yeh also wanted to give us some special treats as well. So, first we drove partially up Cisingshan mountain in Yangmingshan National Park to see a spectacular view of Taipei at night along with about 500 other young couples. Mr. Yeh confirmed that young men take their dates here to impress them. Hopefully, the romantic mood was not destroyed by the clumsy American tourists and baby. :-)

This picture cannot even begin to capture the beauty of the Taipei skyline at night.

Next, he drove us briefly around Beitou to smell the hot springs (very sulfuric) and to see the hot steam jetting in the air. Since we wanted to get back to the hotel in time for Christian's last bottle, we then drove over to Snake Alley where we did get a couple of scrolls from the famous 'scroll guy' and strolled briefly around the market. Unfortunately, my camera battery died at this point so no pictures.

We then went back to the hotel and to bed. We were tired after such a busy day!

Oh, and the title of this post? Christian was almost perfect from the moment he woke up. He slept well, ate like a champ, was very cheery and smiley, and handled this busy schedule incredibly well. Unfortunately, his otherwise impeccable record was marred at the very end, when we were trying to put him to bed. Jeff was holding him and then he suddenly started screaming bloody murder and was inconsolable for a long time (please, please don't do this on the plane!). He finally went to bed after much crying and sniffling, but we are again very tired. However, we are so proud of our little guy for doing such a great job for so long, and we jokingly call him our 'little ray of sunshine' when he's screaming. However, I'm stressed out thinking about how he's going to handle the trip home. Batten down the hatches and buy ear plugs!

And as for the 'very bad parents' part? Well, yesterday I did the following:

• Allowed Christian to nap lying down, fed him, and changed his diaper all in a moving car.
  
• Went out sightseeing with him at night. I felt like a 'bad mom' for having him up and about at 10pm, but honestly the market had so many games for children, it was obvious that kids are used to staying up late. However, I do believe Christian was the only baby out that late.
• In addition, I had to shield his eyes from the occasional adult store. Ack, I'm sorry, Christian!
  

Today is our final day of sightseeing and then our flight for the US leaves at 11:30pm. Based on last night's screaming before bedtime performance, I really hope that our flight isn't too traumatic. But trauma or not, we'll soon be home!

Welcome to parenthood!

Sorry for the lack of pictures yesterday. We went to AIT to apply for Christian's visa; everything went relatively well. However, poor Christian was not a happy camper because we had to wake him up at 8am (his 'normal' schedule is to go to bed at midnight, wake up for a bottle around 6am, and then sleep until 1pm). We decided to cancel our sightseeing with Mr. Yeh and Alex and go back to the room to try and get him to nap (and let us nap as well - I think I got about 3 hours of sleep the last two nights).

Once back at the room, things went rapidly downhill. I think the combination of lack of sleep plus strange and incompetent people was just too much for him, and he spent the majority of time either upset or really upset - to the point where he was not eating. We found that the only way to calm him down was to walk outside carrying him; unfortunately, as a long term strategy, this has some obvious disadvantages for us. Finally, towards the evening, we managed to get him to nap and eat, and that helped a bit. He went down at his usual bed time (around 11:30pm), and he's still sleeping at 4:30am. We hope he can get more sleep today!

We are slowly learning to help him (sometimes he looks at us like, "You dummies! Why aren't you doing XXX?"), and I'm hoping that today will be a better day. We've already gotten more sleep last night than in the previous days, so that's a good sign. We have some sightseeing planned with Mr. Yeh today again, and we pick up his visa.

Anyway, here are some pictures we took of him when he was not crying. It's hard to believe someone so cute can get so loud! :-)