December 30th, 2007

Well, things are a little calmer here... Calvin's back to his usual self after a terrible case of bronchitis, the kids are doing well, Gosia's sick though, and I had a high fever last night after being sick the whole last week. Calvin's sitting on my lap as I type this, listening with me to Aretha Franklin and pulling off his socks....

I have more pictures from this week to put up, so I hope (as I always do) to get them up day by day this week...

December 27, 2007

Hello all,

just a quick post while I have a little break between classes... We're all still pretty sick, on and off for all of us. Calvin's eating a little better...

Not to much, just keeping things up to date.

December-25th-2007 Christmas day

Some pictures from our Christmas morning...

Gosia had to take Calvin to the doctors, than to the hospital after presents... She just called, she's on her way home and he has bronchitis... it's so easy for him to get sick sometimes, and it takes a lot out of him when he does. But the morning was great. Eli and Rhiannon hung out, playing with their stuff, watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Kittens wandering around. Well, I must be back to things, more when I come home from work, I hope!

December 25th, 2007, 1:00am

I wish you a happy Christ mas...

I'm wrapping gifts, still, listening to Elvis' 1972 Christmas album.

Today was a work day, tomorrow will be a work day... My school has two weeks off, but my boss' sister's school needed a full time sub over Christmas vacation, so things have balanced out. I enjoy the chance to do sub work -- takes me out of my element, I get to meet some new kids.

The kids got some cool stuffs -- Rhiannon got a Veterinarian Barbie (I kept telling her the past few weeks that she was going to get Diarrhea Barbie, Upset Stomach Barbie, Lactose Intolerance Barbie, or Runny Nose Barbie, which she didn't like one bit, though in the end, she did warm up to Wet the Bed Barbie...), and whenever she found one of her gifts, we told her it was for Ethyl Merman. It drove her mad when she found a beading kit and we just kept telling her it was for the cats. Eli got transformers and robots. He loves this stuff. It's cheap here, so he got a bunch of it... This year we decided to get the kids toys they wanted and not toys that we wanted them to have. Big difference!

They got to open one each tonight... Gosia gave them the "perfect" gifts first so they know they got that. Then they can open the gifts that have the Grammar book and pencil set inside with a clear mind.

So Rhiannon went to sleep with her Veterinarian with animal accessories, and Eli went to bed with his Transformer. He asked me, "but Daddy, why does it come with a gun?" so of course I told him, it's a high powered water shooter, so he can put out fires from far away, and he was happy about that.... :)

So, tomorrow, a little into Midnight Mass for NYC I'll be headed off to teach!

Gosia and the kids went to Midnight Mass here tonight, which was at 9:30 because everybody has to get up early for work tomorrow...

Well, I hope to put some pictures up tomorrow! I love you all and happy Christ mas!

December 24th, 2007

Well, it's the 4th Sunday of Advent -- here are some post-dinner pictures of Calvin with his Advent present, a tambourine that he can chew on and make noise with... and two pictures of Eli with the kitten home he made our rapidly growing strays.

Things are going nicely towards Christmas. I managed to continue my personal Christmas tradition of wandering aimlessly around the day before Christmas Eve, letting the roads lead me to interesting, unexpected presents. I used to do it on Broadway and down through Canal Street, through the shops and outdoor kiosks, but today I did it on my scooter. Hitting small toy stores, the only semi-English book store in the city, Caves... the art store, a craft store. It seems like there's a store for everything in Taiwan, many owned by a family and run out of the ground floor of their home.


























































Anyway, below are the pictures of our adorable, loving children. Calvin seemed to be enjoying it so much that he started biting Eli, and then Eli started laughing, so he did it some more.... and that's our kids in a nutshell!

December 20th, 2007

Here are some pictures of Calvin exercising on his big red ball. It helps his balance, sense of gravity, etc...

In a few weeks we're finally going to get him his own high chair. He's getting too big to eat in Gosia's lap-- it's become uncomfortable and frustrating for the both of them...

We're getting it through the hospital, -- there's no picture of it I can find or scan from the catalog because it's being made custom to what Calvin needs. He'll have more independence and it'll help him with his balance and sitting upright.

Wednesday, December 18th

These are pictures from our Gaudete Sunday dominoes game...

That afternoon we rescued a litter of kittens that had been abandoned in the balcony of the empty house adjacent to ours. They probably belong to this weird stray that wanders our area, and they'd been wailing for two days before we figured out what and where they were.

So I climbed over and found them (four of them - three black and white, one grey with white stripes), took them to a local vet -- they were very, very hungry -- and then home. They're about two weeks old, so we're feeding them kitten milk with a syringe. Next week we can start them on baby food.

We don't know what we're going to do with them... they're black and white which is supposed to be bad luck here, so we might not find anyone to adopt them. We'll burn that bridge when we come to it... for now, our other cats, especially Ethyl Merman, the great dame of the household, are disgusted... Rhiannon has learned to feed them very well, and Eli just likes having animals around.

One of the pictures below is the bunch of them attacking our dominoes game.

Well, I haven't been posting like I wanted this week, and I hope that as we get into the week before Christmas I'll have a little more time... BUT the reasons for not posting have been valid. Three of my four classes have been gearing up for their pre-Christmas break English tests, so I've been stressed about that... they all did well, so yay there.

PLUS I've been getting some dental work done.. root canal.

And last Sunday while I was cooking I doused my left hand with cooking oil. I ended up going to the hospital after the whole hand blistered up. The doctors said I got deep second degree burns and only now am I getting back any real use of the hand. I got a steroid injection for it and everything!

So, hopefully this week will go a little more smoothly in the run up to Christmas! Calvin's pretty sick right now. A cold + throwing up due to mucus, etc...

Movie below! More reading to Calvin (and the antics of Eli and Rhiannon + kittens).. Gosia tried to get him to show off his sitting, but he wasn't in the mood. We now have out whole living room tiled in foam squares!

December 8th, 2007

Here's a movie of Calvin reading with Gosia for the weekend! She's reading him his animal book and making the animal noises, which he loves. He comes off the incline floor now and creeps without pattern for a few feet now. A movie of that tomorrow.

...working...

I've been trying to upload new movies all day, but it's not letting me...

more when i can!

December 4th 2007

Here are three pictures of Rhiannon and her strawberry plant. Also, below, is a movie I took of us at dinnertime...

December 1st, 2007

Here are some pictures of Gosia doing sitting and prone position exercises with Calvin. The first ones slowly stretch his leg muscles. The other provides weight bearing and balance.

Calvin's braces

Gosia's been working with Calvin on his braces, to help his feet a little, a little each day and at physical therapy in the hospital. He does the walking motions, but his center of gravity is still off.

We're getting him back on the Incline Floor now after at least three weeks off to his illness and he's doing great.

It only takes his 20 - 30 seconds to get down it now, where it used to take at least a minute or two.

he's vomiting much less, but he's still teething. Gosia's started feeding him solid foods again, which he takes a lot better than the liquid diet.