Torben got a stool for his birthday!

One day to go!!!

and then I am no longer technically a 'baby' - phew, that is a stupid title, I am not a baby. I am a toddler and have been a toddler for at least three months now, baby - stupid.

night out

We went to dinner with the people from the 'Biofuels' conference, Torben tagged along. Here is Tim and Torben waiting outside the restaurant and also Tim, Torben and Yun-Che in front of a temple close by the restaurant. Birthday is tommorrow and we still have no plans!

Hey look, I can feed myself!

Can you believe it, four days short of his one year birthday (wow are we getting excited) and Torben can now feed himself. Next thing you know he'll be running - oh wait, he can do that too. He is such an amazing little person. When he is not outside running around and eating dirt, his favorite thing to do right now is to turn the light switches on and off. We have a light on the bedside table and he will turn the light 'on' and 'off' and 'on' and 'off'... he thinks it is super fun. He has also been in the habit lately of getting out of bed at night climbing into bed with us and deciding that the middle of night is as good a time as any to see if the light switch still works.

Boring weekend

Picture of the day - Torben and the spatula. I haven't been great about taking Torben pictures this week. We've both been really busy playing catch up after last week's conference and lecturing and we had a very boring weekend. Tim worked on Saturday and I worked on Sunday. On Saturday while Tim was working though we did manage to make it to Wu's Gardens and Torben ate some dirt and pointed at some turtles. Next week - Ken and Marlene are coming into town and we are off to Hong Kong and Macau so I might not be updating much again next week. I'll see if I can update a bunch this week.

B-day celebration #1

We had a little pre-birthday celebration with Grandma Marilyn and Grandma Joan. We bought four different pieces of delicious cake. Torben didn't agree and spit each out immediately after each try. I found this to be particulary funny considering he seems very fond of eating dog poop or any other disgusting thing he can find on outside on the ground, but give him cake and you'd think we were poinsoning him! We'll have birthday celbration #2 when Tim's parents arrive next week. We'll give the cake a second taste test as well.

at the beach, cont.

It can't all be about Torben. Here is a nice picture of the sisters at the beach. The hotel we stayed at had a very lovely room with a nice porch with a table that we spent a lot of time at. It was a great weekend and a nice break from the city.

Kenting, what a great place

We went to Kenting with Grandma Marilyn and Grandma Joan. Everyone had fun. The monkey had lots of fun running around and eating sand.

Big feet ... little feet

animal contained

I debated whether to post this very pedestrian 'baby' picture on the blog but I just wanted to share that we recently bought Torben a baby seat for eating. He has turned into a wild animal. If there is food around, he will run around trying to grab it from you while eating and grab plates off the table. Marilyn inadvertently started calling him Tracker (their black lab, which is also very much 'food-oriented' but there is no mistake, Tracker is much better behaved than the monkey. Anyhow, here he is - contained, and hopefully more under control.

Longshan Temple – Taipei

One of the sights not to miss in Taipei is Longshan Temple which is the largest temple in Taiwan. It was quite wonderful. Torben per usual was a hit and attracted a crowd. He was gracious with the attention and signed a few autographs

Back home but with Grandmas!

We got back from Taipei and then relaxed for an evening of catching up in Tainan. Next day we went to ‘About Coffee’ then came home and Torben took a very long nap – maybe two hours. We took advantage of that and did laundry and unpacked and organized. After the nap we packed up and caught a taxi and hit Shin Kong Mitsutoshi which is where ‘Yu Kids Island” is. Grandma Marilyn and Grandma Joan took Torben in – as usual, he had a blast. Lots of running around and screaming.

Bali, Taiwan

After Taipei we headed a bit north to Beitou - an area known for it’s hot springs. We stayed at the SweetMe Hot Springs Resort for three nights and took day trips around the area. One day included a short boat trip across the Danshui river to the town of Bali.

Emporer Torben

National Palace Museum- Taipei

Torben got quickly bored with the Ming ceramics and the jade carvings so I took him outside to get a little air. Very quickly he was surrounded by the ‘Chinese paparazzi’. He graciously allowed an impromptu photo shoot on the grounds of the National Palace Museum. After the Museum we hopped into cabs, Tim, Torben and Kris into one and Dawn, Marilyn and Joan into another – we were all bound for Taipei 101. We had plenty of time to take a quick trip to the top and hit the food court. Who knew the taxis would drop us off at different places in the building and I suppose only really ignorant people would assume it would be easy to find each other amongst thousands and thousands of Taiwanese and Chinese tourist. To complicate matters Torben threw up all over himself and Tim in the cab ride over so was now naked aside from his diaper. Tim took Torben back to the hotel, and I stayed to try to find the second part of the group. We were fortunate to somehow reconnect amidst the crowds but no one got to the top of the tallest building in the world or the food court.

Back from China and on to Taipei

China was a blast. Dawn and I returned to a very sick Tim and Torben. it took a couple of days for the recovery and then we decided to spend the weekend in Taipei. We started the adventure with a bite to eat (buns stuffed with pork and dumplings - yum!) at some street vendors in Taipei.