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12 Months

pat — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:00:11 +0000

It’s been a fantastic first year for Belle, and we’re have more and more fun with her every day. Enjoy the pics and vids of her birthday party and other adventures this month. Thanks to all the friends and family who made it special.

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Almost 5 months

pat — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:25:49 +0000

Time is flying. Belle still smiles all the time, assuming we maintain her routine and she gets enough sleep (she is like her mother in this regard). Pictures and videos from the last few weeks below.

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The Sad Face

pat — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:46:57 +0000

The picture below is blurry, because you only have one second to capture this face before the bawling starts. Even so, it’s my favorite expression. There are many smiley faces as well in the latest pics . . .

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Belle hasn’t really developed any awesome skills since my last post , though she continues to polish her existing stuff. She still doesn’t really know she has arms and legs attached, though she does flail them with a lot more force than she used to. She also will carry on a conversation of coos and gurgles if you parrot them back at her. Overall, she’s a very happy baby who’s growing fast at over 14 pounds (93rd percentile!).

Belle Week 3 and 4

pat — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:25:26 +0000

Belle had her one month checkup and is up to 4700g/10.5lbs – so the eating is going well. Cynthia claims she rolled over and I claim she smiled on demand. Neither of us co-witnessed these events so it’s just hearsay at this point.

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How was your sushi? Have a handwarmer

pat — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:01:19 +0000

Tales of Taiwan: I went to the sushi train for lunch today. After drinking my barley tea, eating my fill, and paying, they handed me this chemical handwarmer to take. My Chinese teacher says it a gift because it’s been so cold lately.

“Cold” means it’s been like 50.

We survived

pat — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:39:44 +0000

24 hours of wind and rain later, I think we’ve made it. It’s stopped raining enough for us to go to Subway for dinner. No damage or other problems to report, but it’s still blowing pretty hard.

For the first time in months, the air, dry and cool, feels quite nice.

It’s a typhoon

pat — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:53:37 +0000

From this forecast it’s pretty safe to say Typhoon Fanapi will be visiting us tomorrow. The rain conspired to cancel my bike ride today. Literally every time we walked out to put our shoes on, it started raining; an hour later when things had dried out and we suited up, rain again. After a few tries we gave up and went swimming instead.

Fanapi is currently Category 3 with 121 mph winds at the eye, but it looks like it will “only” be about half that in Taipei. Don’t worry, we’ve got our supplies stocked in our study high rise apartment and should be just fine. I’ll keep you posted . . .

It’s not a typhoon

pat — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:54:57 +0000

. . . but Invest 9 has popped up and started calling itself Tropical Storm Namtheun. This means a lot of rain; I returned from lunch with my head wet from water coming through overwhelmed seams in my umbrella. My pants were soaked from splashback and horizontal rain, and I hung my socks to dry at my desk. Cynthia’s planned shopping trip today was also foiled. Wunderground says it’s going to hang out for a while.

We also had an decent earthquake this afternoon to complete that Old Testament feel. Don’t worry, Cynthia jumped up and saved the TV from falling over.

July and August 2010

pat — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:43:28 +0000

Photo’s from the last couple months are up with captions by Cynthia. Michigan at the beginning, some Idaho, and our bike ride yesterday in Taipei.

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Bike ride

pat — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:23:35 +0000

The view from the bike trail.