"More Moon!"

I know a lot of tricks to delay my bedtime. One of them is to say I need to go potty. Another is to say I'm hungry or thirsty and when my parents bring me one beverage I tell them I want something else. My parents read me the same bedtime story every night. It's "Goodnight Moon". Now, I say, "More moon!" to request the story again and again to keep myself awake. I also make up little songs to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" when I feel sleepy but don't want to fall asleep. Basically, I like to stay up so I don't miss anything.

Big Weekend!

On Saturday, my parents took me to an indoor playspace for kids. It is in a posh Japanese department store called Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. I was kind of scared of all the big kids when we first got there but then I started to really have fun and didn't want to leave when it was time to go.

We then went to a German Bistro and bakery called Wendel's and had bratwurst. My kids meal came with Nuremberg sausages, mashed potatoes (which I didn't eat because I love rice and noodles), peas and carrots, and Gummy bears. I had a lot of fun eating the same sausages I had while on the train in Nuremberg. We then admired all the pastries at the bakery next door. Christmas season is here because we saw gingerbread cookies and chocolates and advent calendars. It was a fun trip to a little piece of Germany in Taipei.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Me and Santa's Girls

My dad and two Taiwanese celebrities

Me and Santa. He's actually the pastry chef at the Hyatt

We had a nice dinner. The turkey was not dry!

The Christmas trees

In front of Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world

My parents took me down to the Grand Hyatt for a full Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good! It was Chinese style since there was turkey and mashed potatoes but also a lot of Chinese food available. I ate lots of turkey with gravy and then a shrimp salad. I would pick out all the green onions and then eat all the shrimp. I then ate a big piece of pumpkin pie. We had some new friends join us for dinner. I liked playing with them because they were around the same age as me.

Before dinner, there was a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the lobby of the hotel. The program went on for too long because all these famous people kept going up on stage to give speeches before the tree was lit. My dad got to take pictures with some of the celebrities. They were impressed that he knew who they were. Then finally they lit the Christmas trees and just before Santa came out, they set off firecrackers that made me cry. A lot of other kids were crying as well. Santa came out with two Santa girls, not elves, and passed out candy to all the kids. We had to fight with the TV camera crew to get close to Santa. It was a very different Thanksgiving/Christmas experience.

P.S. My mom figured out how to make the portrait photos come out the right way. Thanks tech-savvy people!

Steak!

I have a new word today. It's "steak"! That's what we had for dinner tonight and I ate all the steaks off of my plate but I kept asking for more. "Steak!!!", I screamed. I ended up finishing half of my dad's steak.

Big weekend!

Where's the food?

Me and my Ahma

Me and my second cousins and aunt and uncle

I am taking a piece of candy from the tray

Me and the happy couple

I had a very big weekend. I went to my mom's cousin's wedding on Saturday night. It was held at a seafood restaurant and it was really good. Even though I was not the bride, I was the star of the event. Everyone took pictures of me and wanted to hold me or play with me. I loved all the attention. One of my great uncles tried to get my dad drunk. My dad got some attention too because he is American.

I spent the rest of the weekend at my Ahma's (grandmother) house. I can say so many things in Chinese now and that really impressed my Ahma. She took me to get a haircut last night. The haircut lady had to really negotiate with me for me to sit still and let her bring a pair of sharp scissors near my face. She played with me for a while then asked if she can make my hair look pretty. I nodded my head then sat very still for her. My Ahma and the haircut lady thought I was the smartest 19 month old they'd ever seen. They also said I was one tough cookie since I wouldn't let anyone touch me without explaining what was happening first.

Boo Hoo!

I had to get 2 shots yesterday. I got a flu shot and a Hepatitis B vaccination. It was really sad. My mom almost cried. When the nurse stuck a needle in my thigh, I started crying really hard and then I said, "Cry!" My mom got into an argument with the doctor because he said I needed to get a chicken pox vaccine but my mom said no so he told her she was not educated on vaccinations. We will be changing doctors now.

More shoes!

I now love to wear my mom's heeled shoes.

Costco

Last Friday, my parents took me to Costco to stock up on some of my favorite foods. It looked exactly the same as the Costco we used to go to in Seattle with a lot of the same things for sale. My mom thinks this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I can have my favorite cereals and crackers but bad because everywhere is starting to look the same. Here I am playing with a basketball at Costco.

Kindermusik!

On Saturday, my parents took me to a music class called Kindermusik. It was a lot of fun! We sang some of my favorite songs like "Wheels on the Bus" and "Ring Around the Rosie" and I got to meet some new friends.

Learning Taiwanese

Here I am playing at a park near my great uncle's house.

Today I went to my great uncle's house. I can now say great uncle in Taiwanese. I can also say auntie, grandmother, and cat in Taiwanese.

More Shoes!

I love pretend play now. Today, I put on my mom's high heeled shoes and walked all over the house admiring myself. I also love to play with my baby dolls now. I can put them to bed and say "Night night" and feed them food and give them a bath. I think I will soon need some dress up clothes to continue my pretend play development.

Happy 19th Month Birthday to Me!

Today I turned 19 months old. My parents decided to record all the words I said today since I've been a real chatterbox. Of course, I know a lot more words than is listed below but this is just a sample of things I said today from when I woke up in the morning until I went to bed in the evening.

1. please 2. off 3. poo poo 4. dance 5. raining
6. potty 7. eat 8. all done 9. shoe 10. xi shou (wash hands)
11. bao bao (hold me) 12. down 13. book 14. sit 15. pen
16. xie xie (thank you) 17. banana 18. baby 19. more 20. sauce
21. milk 22. rice 23. eisho (grunt) 24. no no 25. yay!
26. crocs (I want my crocs) 27. tight 28. out 29. wei? (hello?) 30. bye bye
31. mama 32. jie jie (older sister) 33. all gone 34. yuk! 35. shu shu (comb hair)
36. bath 37. wet 38. ca ca (wipe) 39. hop hop hop 40. jacket
41. zou ba (let’s go) 42. okay 43. feet 44. apple sauce 45. ma (horse)
46. row row (to request row boat song) 47. pi gu (butt) 48. watch 49. clock 50. sock
51. xi zao (bath) 52. stuck 53. yi fu (clothes) 54. ku ku (pants) 55. help
56. mao mi (kitty) 57. kitty 58. go go (doggy) 59. yang (sheep) 60. grape
61. pu tao (grape) 62. xi gua (watermelon) 63. mel mel (watermelon) 64. di di (younger brother) 65. je li (here)
66. peach 67. bebes (berries) 68. back (put it back) 69. che che (car) 70. bubble
71. quack quack 72. fan qie (tomato) 73. bowl 74. fork 75. cheese
76. doodle (noodle) 77. hat 78. egg 79. mien mien 80. yo yo
81. she (snake) 82. turtle 83. cookie 84. mei mei (little sister) 85. pai pai shou (clap hands)
86. corn 87. hu die (butterflies) 88. bee 89. flies 90. bzzzz
91. eyes 92. nose 93. bizi (nose) 94. zui ba (mouth) 95. teeth
96. jiao (feet) 97. tummy 98. du zi (tummy) 99. lai (come) 100. bear
101. niu (cow) 102. whee! 103. slide 104. go go go 105. yao yao (rock rock)
106. mao (cat) 107. cracker 108. I want cracker 109. spoon 110. wa wa (sock)
111. cluck cluck 112. niao niao (pee pee) 113. pee pee 114. go 115. glasses
116. baba (dad) 117. er duo (ear) 118. ear 119. hello 120. ball
121. pants 122. pocket 123. meow 124. shirt 125. blanket (geget)
126. open 127. hot 128. Anja 129. up 130. backpack
131. I went night night 132. good girl 133. bread 134. potty potty 135. tiao tiao (jump)
136. roar (when asked what a lion says) 137. xia yu (raining) 138. fish 139. yu (fish) 140. rock (when requesting rockaby baby song)
141. chou chou (stinky) 142. tong tong (hurt) 143. what? 144. TV (Itzy) 145. Itsy (for Itsy Bitsy Spider)
146. beep 147. jump 148. ribbit 149. jiu jiu (uncle) 150. ahma (grandmother in Taiwanese)
151. ahtai (great grandmother in Hakka) 152. ahpo (grandmother in Hakka) 153. mian bao (bread) 154. hua hua (drawing) 155. pictures
156. wawau (water) 157. happy 158. upstairs 159. Sherie 160. Kobuk
161. Emma 162. Sho sho (stroller) 163. buckle 164. di di (younger brother) 165. Da wei (that way)
166. two 167. three 168. five 169. six 170. yeah
171. up bababa (for up above the world so high) 172. aboo (for peekaboo) 173. brush 174. juice 175. brrrr (for cold)
176. yogurt 177. achoo! 178. uh-oh 179. box 180. ouch! 181. diaper 182. toot!