Bubbles!

Today, my mom and I made a bubble blower out of a plastic water bottle that was cut in half, a rubber band, and a wash cloth. We made some amazing bubbles! Thank you Auntie Julie for the wonderful idea!

Typhoon Day!

Typhoon Phoenix came through Taiwan on Sunday night and brought lots of wind and rain. As a result, everyone got the day off on Monday. It was like a snow day in Seattle. Not much happened but everyone got a day off to play. I spent the day visiting my cousin Ryan. We went for a walk at a very posh shopping center called Breeze Centre. Then we all went to my Ahma's house and had a slumber party. On the way to Ahma's house, Ryan was crying because he was tired, so I sang ABC's and other Chinese songs and Ryan fell asleep!

My New Tutu

My mom made me a tutu today!

Typhoons!

We have had two typhoons in the past week. In Taipei, that basically means lots and lots of rain for a day or two. Both typhoons happened to have come during the weekend, which spoils things a bit for us but really only a little bit. We still had very full weekends as usual.

This morning, my parents took me to a pumpkin festival and flower farms tour. It was put together by the Danshui (the town where we live) Agricultural Association. We had a lot of fun! Then, in the evening, we went out for fresh seafood (something Danshui is famous for!) with an Ayi we met at the Peace Festival.

My New Cousin!!

Today I got to meet my new cousin Ryan. He is two months old and very chubby. It was fun to try to make him laugh. I call him "didi", which means "little brother" in Chinese. I can also say "ayi" and "yidiu", which mean "aunt" and "uncle" in Taiwanese. My pronunciation isn't great, so I end up saying "yiniu" and crinkle up my nose.

Seven O'Clock

This morning when I woke up, I heard my dad said, "I wonder what time it is?" I then went to get the alarm clock and brought it to him and said, "Seven o'clock." It actually was the right time!

Cute Things I've Said Lately

The other day, my dad was reading a crocodile book to me. There was a picture of a crocodile swimming in a river. I pointed to the picture and said in Chinese, "The crocodile is taking a bath!"

I can now count to 20 in Chinese and English. I leave out a few numbers in English, but it is still impressive to my parents.

I can now say "I ate dinner and now I'm full" in Taiwanese.

I like pretend play a lot now. I often feed my baby dolls or teddy bears bottles of milk or take them to the potty. I'll tell my baby dolls to "close your eyes and go to sleep," something my parents say to me a lot.

I also like to dress up now. I have some princess dresses and play scarves my mom got for me. My favorite are the princess shoes. I like to say "Princess Anja!" when I am walking around in my princess outfit.

New Dress

I have a new dress that my mom knitted for me. It took about three months to make. It turned out to be a little big but I'll grow into it. I call it a "blanket dress."

Little Translator

I can now translate words from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. I surprised my parents the other day when my dad asked me how to say "pink" in Chinese. My mom thought I wouldn't know what that meant but I said very clearly, "fenhongse". Now my dad likes to ask me to translate words to English and Chinese and I keep surprising him because I translate perfectly each time.

Another Weekend

On Saturday, we went to Taipei's historic Fort San Domingo and saw a concert. The band was called Mr. Green and Highway 9 and they were pretty good. I liked clapping to their music. We even won a CD for knowing one of the band members! While at the concert, my mom met a tourist from France. His name was Louis and he was very nice. We invited him to have dinner with us at a riverfront cafe in Danshui and the adults just talked and talked until way past my bed time. This was Louis' first trip to Taiwan and he was really impressed with how beautiful the island was. We liked hearing that....

On Sunday, we went swimming at a swimming pool with my uncle and aunt then had homemade noodle soup for lunch. My aunt is going to have a baby in one month so this means I will have another cousin to play with soon!

My Weekend

This weekend, I went to my Ahma's house and spent the night. I played with Ahma's cat and a foster kitten and my Ahma showed me off to all her friends. Then, I got my first big haircut. It was hard to sit still but I did it and I can now say "haircut" in Chinese!

Graduation Day

Tonight was my graduation day performance for my daycare. The older kids graduated, but my class got to do a performance. It was in a big auditorium full of all the kids' parents. We sang a song about a little mouse, played tambourines and maracas, and danced. My class was the youngest class to perform, and I am much younger than anyone else in my class, so I was by far the youngest performer there! But I still sang most of the song, and I played the instruments, and once I even spun around all by myself! My parents were really proud of me. The cutest part might have been when I started trying to adjust the mouse costume I was wearing. It was itchy!

Grampa! Uncle Ian! Auntie Magda!

My grandfather and my Uncle Ian and Auntie Magda came to Taiwan to visit us! For two weeks I got to go to lots of new places with them, like the Shida night market, the cable car to the Maokong teahouse area, and the Yeliou geological park where I got to wade in the water surrounded by strangely shaped rocks and even weirder sand bugs. One night I went with my dad and uncle to Guandu Temple, and I got scared of one of the stone lions until my uncle went and talked to it and told me that it wanted to say hi. So then I waved to it. With so many places to go, I got to go to bed late almost every night!

I've also started to really want to be in charge of what is going on. Sometimes I would look around and not see someone, so I would get very concerned and say "Grampa!" or "Uncle Ian!" until I saw where they were. Another time, I sang a song and after I finished everyone clapped except my dad. So I said "Baba, clap your hands!" Pretty soon I'll be planning entire trips!