Noel asks: " do you know where I was?"
"inside the high speed 'choo choo train' in Taiwan.......zoooooom"
" mommy thought we should spoil ourselves, business class too!"
"...but when I asked mommy let's go ride the train again....she handed me this.....choo choo train lunchbox .....well, for a 4- year-old.... not a bad deal! Sold!"
Beautiful and sunny day, so far, we are having a very nice and mild June weather.
"Hey Noel, wanna go ride your bike?" I asked.
"SURE!" a cheerful answer from the little girl.
But there is only one problem.... did I say ride a "bike?"
Not even close!
At 4 years old, Noel is still riding a ......baby tricycle, and she is okay with it, no desire or motivation to "upgrade" herself into a "big girl bike."
I am starting to get a bit embarrassed following along with her around the neighborhood.
My dear child, just like me, not athletic at all. Auntie Junny, we need your help!!!
My sister, Junny, is the big time athlete in the family. One of the plans that was not accomplished while we were in Taiwan, is having Junny teach Noel how to swim - a private and professional swimming coach, we could not have asked for a better one....but, well, next time.
Noel: " Mommy, don't worry, look at me, I am not your little athlete, but this.... I can do!"
...is really not too bad.When I was younger, I used to think being ordinary is a bad thing, it's sad, it's just, too.....ordinary.
Last night, I was about to write a post about Noel's illness and the hospital stay in Taiwan, but realized that I am just not quite ready yet. I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night, the memory of my little girl being so sick, so helpless and so far away from her own doctor and home, left me with chills all over.
Soon, I will be ready to write about it.
For now, I am glad to report that Noel is back to her normal self, in every way. She is as sweet as you can imagine, eats her "All American food" (and please.... no Taiwanese milk!) and from time to time, drives me completely bananas.
We have been living a very simple life since we came back, simple, and ordinary....and really, it's not too bad. Here is a picture of Noel, just playing, happily in her room; a simply and ordinary photo, but it's my Noel!
Ask any Taiwanese who live outside of the island the question: " what are you looking forward to the most when visiting home?" You will definitely get the answer : "FOOD..... I am going to eat and drink like there is no tomorrow.... and yeah, see my family too."
That used to be me.
But now I am taking with me a 3-year-old who is allergic to peanuts, visiting a country that peanuts are used commonly in foods; and even more troublesome - a country where people just don't know and will not get the idea of peanut allergy.
I was extremely confident that I can manage that in spite of the difficulty, Noel loves milk and yogurt, and they are good sources of many nutritions, so pack up some mac and cheese and cereals, we would be in good shape!
This particular post is about Noel's diets in Taiwan, so we will skip many details and move on along......in short, Noel and I are probably the only people from America visiting Taiwan for over two weeks and lost the totally of 6 pounds together (Noel 2 pounds and me - 4 pounds!)
My little princess simply refused to eat since day 1. It turned out that she's sick (details? wait for the later post.) But days later, she still would not eat or drink (milk.) Guess what she lived on when she was in Taiwan? Water, she drank plenty of that, chips and cookies I brought from the US, some apples and jelly on the breads.
We were able to find bakeries that is peanut free for Noel.... and really, children's taste buds will not lie, the breads are sooooooo yummy. Seriously, American bread, Italian bread, even French bread? Stand aside, you cannot even compare. But really, a sick child cannot live on bread alone. How about some milk?
Noel took a sip of the milk, and handed it over :"no."
"Why?" I was upset, worried and exhausted from taking care of her.
"Because they taste different....."
Need I say more? Again, a child's taste bud will not lie!
My poor mother would not give up. She went to countless stores and brought at least 10 different brands of milk for Noel to try. Nothing works. Noel's stubborn about her milk.
So here you have the short and stress-free version of her diet in Taiwan. But in reality, there is a reason I lost more weights than she did. I was worried, super worried. How could a little body handle a month of jelly bread and water? And with her allergy, we could not take any chances of letting her try new and "weird" food. The only solution is to call the airline, we are coming home early.
Needless to say, we are now drinking gallons of milk and eating like we had been starved for decades. Is there a way to ship milk oversea next time?
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Noel
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
We were not supposed to be singing the English version this year, the plan was to celebrate Noel's 4-year-old birthday in Taiwan; and of course, sing the Mandarin Happy Birthday song.
There is a Chinese saying goes something like....." you can plan all you want, but in the end, the heaven above does the planning...." Ouch, what an awful translation, but you get the gist. Well, our trip to Taiwan was eventful, in short, we had to cut the trip short and I had 2 days to prepare for Noel's birthday.....honestly, there was a moment I kinda wanta "skip" it, God knows how exhausted I was and definitely not in the mood for a party. But my sweet daughter remembers her 3-year-old birthday party so well, she talks about her Thomas cake, the birthday hat, her friends and presents, I don't have the heart to ignore this special day.
So I made my second cake -DON"T LAUGH (especially you Junny!) Yes, yes, I stuck the dinos on the cake, thanks to Mattel! Noel was really concerned at first, she worried that we are eating her dinosaurs, ha, cute! If you think of this cake as a product of an exhausted mom who just got off a 20+ hours airplane rides, you will find it more lovely!
The size of the party is not even close to what we had last year, just a couple of friends, our famous babysitter Jenni (and her baby in the belly!) and Noel's dear friend Grace. But we surely had a great time!
Cheers, my big girl! I cannot believe you are 4 years old.... mommy loves you; and don't hate me for the cake when you grow up!!!
Noel wants a magnify glass for the longest time, she plays with mine in the studio but I so worried that she would drop and break it. So when we saw this kiddo magnify glass in the store, it did not take much for me to buy it.
We are ready for our trip to Taiwan. I asked Noel tonight : " hey, do you want to go to Taiwan?"
Noel :" it has blue floor."
Mom:"?"
Noel continues: " ...and gold fish, lots gold fish."
Mom: " Noel, do you not want to go to Taiwan now? What are you talking about?"
Noel: "Taiwan has blue floor."
Mom was completely lost!
Noel keeps going : "...and the goldfish are in the fish tanks, there are so many of them....so many so many fish tanks."
WAIT A SECOND!
noooooo, she cannot be serious. This is two years ago, we were having dinner with cAthy ad Clyde, because of the jet lag, Noel was super fussy, the only solution for the adults to get some food into the stomach, was taking turn entertaining the little princess. And the aquarium next door (not the kind of aquarium like Shedd !) became the hot spot.
"The BLUE floor." Not quite, but fair enough because of the lighting reflected on it, especially for a 2-year-old. Wait, she was not even two yet at that time!
And again, here is one of my old time favorite photo of Noel!
This is the picture from May 2007, Noel was not yet two.
We just returned from Taiwan, and she was wearing a shirt my mom got for her, I remember how much she adores that yellow shirt!
This morning as I was changing her clothes, she asked : " mama, may I wear my yellow shirt?"
Being bothered by some many "stupid, non sense people" all morning, I was keeping my answer short and sweet, just in case my temper flares up (ah, just like Noel's eczema!) : " Noel, no, you do not have any yellow shirt."
"I do, and it has a baby riding a tricycle on it too...."
I guess kids really do have good memory - because they do not have to deal with "stupid people" on the daily basis!!!
I miss Taiwan.......
I miss that funny laughing Buddha in my room.....
.....and the fun ride on the scooter with great uncle, riders out there, don't forget your helmets!
.... is it me? slides are more fun in Taiwan......
Cathy's got another post for Noel...what a good God-mommy. Yeah, this is also her masterpiece...poor baby, she was okay, just looking for mom.
