A Start

This week, as I gave Baby G a bath, she turned to me with a pained look on her face and said, "Pee pee!" Normally when this happens, I ask if she wants to sit on the potty. She often says yes, so I hold her over the potty. And wait. Nothing comes out though, and she goes back to the tub.

Except this time. When she actually peed. In the potty.

It was a surprise to both of us, I think, but we both broke out in big smiles. There were high fives and woo hoos all around.

I think I owe the Montessouri school an apology. They have insisted that she wear big girl pants to school so she can "feel when she wets and become self aware." I thought she was too young. I thought they were wrong. But we brought six pairs of big girl pants to school anyway, dutifully washing all of them every night. Yet despite my disdain, progress seems to have been made. Perhaps it was me who was wrong.

I don't think this means she is ready to ditch the diapers just yet. But it certainly is a big step.

Flower Washcloth

Flower washcloth from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick. Made with cotton chenille from the stash on 4.0 mm double pointed needles. A very quick and easy project. I made most of this on a high-speed train ride to and from Tainan this week.

I need to knit only from stash for a while. My stash is so large that it probably will take me a loooong while to make a noticeable dent. Buying more yarn when I have a cupboard full is silly, methinks.

Biking

We went for a little bike ride in downtown Taipei today. As we loaded the bikes in the van at the start of our outing, Gioia burst into frustrated tears. She could SEE the bike but couldn't HAVE the bike. Toddlers are not very good with delayed gratification, apparently.

There is a long river which cuts through the center of Taipei, bifurcating North from South. We rode along the bank for about an hour or so. It was very post-industrial and surprisingly peaceful. Gioia had a ball. Right up until she fell asleep, that is.

Biking with my sweeties and friends followed by excellent Indian food in Tianmu. Very nice. More pictures from today are here.

Busted

Chris came home on Wednesday after a quick business trip to Japan. I worked late Thursday night, so he got to give Baby G a bath and put her to bed. As he was putting on her diaper and PJs, she said "no sleepy."

No sleepy, huh? Well, whatcha want to do then?

"Kah Toon"

Cartoons? You aren't allowed to watch TV, Gioia. So who let you watch cartoons?

"Mommy"

Yeah. Busted.

Visit to the Park

Gioia, Frankie and I walked to a little park yesterday. Even though we live in downtown Taipei, we still have a great number of parks to choose from. Some are big, like the Sun Yat Sen Memorial hall on our street, and some are small neighborhood parks, like this one. The jungle gym and accessories are excellent at this particular park.

You can see from the collage above that Gioia was quite good at the rocking horse. You know the kind: a wooden horse stuck into the ground with a big bouncy spring. She rocked back and forth, almost violently. I think (hope) she was having fun. She didn't want to leave, which perhaps means that it was a good park visit. More pictures are available here.

It has been a rough couple of days. Gioia has been sick again with a little fever, a hacking cough and a constantly dripping nose. On top of that, though, she is getting quite defiant. Throwing little tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Being rude to people we interact with, like refusing to say thank you and screaming BU YAO when the guards at our apartment wave hello. I know this is normal, that toddlers can be difficult as they develop their own sense of self and identity. And I know it is a cliche for me to be exasperated. Tonight after her bath, Gioia gave me a hug and said, "Mommy, no time out." Hmmm. This is going to be tough.

Pizza

I really dislike the pizza here. I used to tolerate it, but my stomach has been less forgiving lately (since the chicken toe episode). We finally decided to try making our own pizza.

We used this dough recipe, primarily because it was a quick rising version. I originally wanted to do this one, but realized I had no patience for a two hour rising period after arriving home from work both late and cranky.

It was excellent. A great first effort. It took only thirty minutes or so, just about the same time as ordering one. Much better tasting too. I see more pizza experiments in our futures.

Be Mine

A valentine from my Valentine. Surprise flowers that arrived at work. Made me feel very loved.

Gotta Walk Da Baby

This is one of her new favorite hobbies. Walkin' da baby doll. The littlest baby is the one which has captured her attention. She does not seem to want to walk the bigger ones, the ones which actually fit in the stroller.

Baby sleepy, she says. Sleepy.

Montessori Update

Baby G has been going to Montessori for a few weeks now. This week she basically skipped into class, she was so happy to be there. She waves BYE MOM like a big girl and then turns away from me to get started with her day.

Chris got a call from the teacher yesterday to say that Gioia had passed the probation period and would now be allowed to stay an extra hour to have lunch. Apparently she is very well behaved. Her parents mess up more than she does (forgetting to bring a change of clothes, not having the right potty-training underwear). Gioia is rocking it while we stumble along, trying to catch up.

Gioia painted these two pieces at school last week. We love them. Not just because she made them. Truly. Because they are fabulous. We are going to frame these for our living room. I have always thought it was funny how parents I knew would proudly display their kiddo's art. Look how great it is! Yay. When it really was just a little scribble. Not special at all. Not art. But perhaps there is a little parent hormone that kicks in, and you think your kid's art REALLY IS brilliant. Perhaps.

Or maybe Gioia's art just is awesome.

Lantern Festival

Taipei is celebrating the lantern festival this week. Technically, the Lantern festival is supposed to be celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the new lunar year. I believe that would be Tuesday Monday, but practically speaking, the party has already started. We are just down the street from a big display at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Last night, we went for some ice cream and a stroll through the lights. I forgot the camera, so we will just have to make do with a picture of the souvenir Ox lamp (above) that now resides at our house.


Chris came back from a business trip to Japan yesterday, and we have had a nice little relaxed weekend. Gioia is really growing up. Not really a baby anymore. She still likes some of her old board books, but she is staring to bring us longer and more complicated books to read, like The Little Engine that Could. She actually sat through Peter Pan this evening. Granted it was a simplified Disney version. But still. It was not a ten second book.

Such a big girl.

More Diapers

The bread and butter of our cloth diapering system is a hemp fleece pre-fold, which we use with various waterproof covers. I originally purchased a bunch of Polar Babies pre-folds. They worked really well. It is a good, basic system. The hemp fleece is super soft (at least for a while) and is naturally anti-bacterial.

However, we have a German washing machine which has a special wash cycle for diapers (super sanitary). We also live in a downtown apartment with no room for clotheslines. The extra hot water combined with the stress from the dryer means that the fleece pre-folds don't last forever. I bought 36 originally, and we are just now coming to the end of the last ones. They lasted a year, which I guess is not too bad. It is time for some more diapers. I think it will be a while before Gioia figures out how to use her new little Japanese potty, so our stock needs to be replenished. Instead of ordering new pre-made ones, I decided to try to sew them myself. Pretty simple, actually. The hardest part was sourcing the fabric.

I ordered 10 meters of fleece, which yielded 19 Super Deluxe size diapers (23" x 15" unwashed). It also generated a ton of leftover scraps, which I am super excited to use for making dry wipes (more baby gifts - so many friends with babies!).

The Polar Babies Super Deluxe diapers are US$10 each (if you buy at least 12). If I estimate US$50 in shipping costs, then the per diaper cost would be US$12.63. My DIY per diaper price was US$6.47 (with shipping), a little over half of the 'store bought' price. Of course, that cost figure does not include sewing machine and serger depreciation costs,* but only a true geek would talk about capital costs on her blog. Oh. Wait...

Total estimated savings for 19 diapers: US$117. Not bad. I will try to post a tutorial later this week.

*Besides, those are sunk costs. A marginal costs analysis is more appropriate, right?

Blankie

It seems like forever since I made anything 'round here. But friends keep making babies, so sew I must. This is a ribbon blankie for a new baby girl born to our friends in England this past weekend.

The blanket is not really very girly, but since we met her parents in Beijing, I thought red would be appropriate. I also used materials from the stash, which is always good. It is about 18" square, made from two pieces of fleece with little ribbon tags lining the edges. They say that babies like these kinds of blankets a lot. When we first met her, Gioia often loved the tags on her stuffies almost more than the object itself. This little blanket was pretty simple to make. I loosely followed this tutorial.

Poor little Gioia has been quite sick lately. A little fever and a hoarse throat means that she can't go to Montessouri school for a few days. She is a trouper though. Despite being cranky and a little prone to tears, she still seems energetic and talkative. In the past month, she seems to have had a little language explosion - forming more and more short sentences, both in English and Chinese. Crazy.