Our Summer weekend

Amy on her way to school

On our way to the shops (doing the Taiwan photo pose)

Amy and I have been on holiday since June 30. I have 2 months of leave for the summer, so I am keeping Amy at home for the whole holiday too. We have 3 weeks in Taiwan and then we leave for SA. We should be there for about 5 weeks.

We are having a very relaxing holiday so far. It would be great if Wikus was also on leave with us, but unfortunately he still has to work, We miss you Pappa.

We had a great weekend!! On Saturday we went to Xiao Wulai Scenic Resort in Lalashan Mountain with Shaun and Yayun. There is a river, where you can swim and then benches all around where you can sit. We had a yummy sosatie braai. It is really beautiful there, all around you it's green, there is a waterfall, river etc.. We left just in time, because as we got into the car it started pouring with rain.


Sunday we went for a drive to Sinfong, to take a look at a beach there. Amy had a ball playing on the sand, lying in the sand, eating in the sand. If there is one sound that I can't handle it's sand crunched between teeth.
After the beach we went to the swimming pool in Sinfong and had a lovely swim. There are 2 kiddies pools with slides in and Amy just loves it there. We had lunch at a friend's house afterwards and then went back to the pool. We finished our weekend with pizza (yum) and a DVD.

Lots of love us 4

11 week 4 day scan

Well I was at the Gynae today, and as you can see I am 11 weeks and 4 days along. Baby is definitely looking like a baby now and not a blob!! Baby was very active during the scan, very reassuring to see the movements and heartbeat.

My due date is 21 December. I had a full antenatal check today, blood pressure, weight and height. I must say according to the dr's scale, I am at least 2 kg's lower than I know I am and 2 cm taller!! hehehe

I also had to have the first lot of blood tests, Ouch!! Dr said they are testing for HIV, syphillis and I don't exactly know what else.

I promise to post about our long weekend away in Hualien, we are just having a very long week this week. We have to work Saturday to make up for the long weekend last week, and my Grade 6's are writing their final exams so I am pretty busy.

Lots of love

Dragon Boat Festival

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar holiday, occurring on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.

The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating Zongzi (rice dumplings).

The celebration's is a time for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year. It is done so by different practices such as hanging healthy herbs on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions, and displaying portraits of evil's nemesis, Chung Kuei. If one manages to stand an egg on it's end at exactly 12:00 noon, the following year will be a lucky one.

Our Lovely weekend at Fulong

On Friday Wikus decided we should go to Fulong Beach for the weekend. Friday night after school we went and did some shopping for the weekend and then packed up most of our stuff.

Saturday morning Wikus woke up at 5am and we decided to get up and get ready. We managed to get everything done and were able to leave at 6:30. We were lucky that the freeway wasn't busy and we got to Fulong in 2 hours. We drove along the coast and I must say that I had forgotten how beautiful that part of Taiwan is (The North Eastern area)

We arrived at Longman Campsite and quickly put the tent up. We decided to head off to the beach. After a while on the beach it just got too hot so we decided to head back to the camp. They have a swimming pool there so we went for another swim. Later the afternoon I tried to get Amy to nap a while but she wasn't having any of it...I ended up having a little nap though, while she and Wikus went for a walk. She slept a while in the car though when we took another drive along the coast.

Saturday night Wikus braaied us a few steaks and "braai broodjies". The campsite was quite busy on Saturday evening and there was a really nice atmosphere. Kids running around and playing, people cooking food and chatting. When we arrived we still joked with each other saying that they put us at the end of the camp away from the few people that were there. We didn't realise that by Saturday night the camp was almost full!!

We ended up next to a couple with a 3 year old boy. The father is from Belgium, and the mother is Taiwanese. Amy and Xavier spent most of Sunday morning playing together. It was too cute!!

The Taiwanese really take their camping seriously. No roughing it for them. Each campsite has electricity and the people really make use of it. We saw kids playing games on their laptops, people watching DVD's during supper, fans, hairdryers, lamps, etc.. You name it they had it!

Sunday morning Wikus made me a lovely breakfast for Mother's day! Bacon, eggs toast!! I was really spoilt!

After breakfast we went to meet up with Etienne and Brigitte, they have a place in Fulong. We had an early lunch of pancakes and Boerewors!!!

The view from their house

We decided to drive home after our visit, and came back to Hsinchu in the early afternoon. Tired but very happy after a lovely time.

Lots of love

Amy

My baby is getting so big now!! She is sooo independent and wants to do everything herself.

She is only wearing nappies when she sleeps at night, and often wakes up with a dry nappy but I'm not ready to stop the night nappies just yet. She doesn't have accidents at school anymore, and she doesn't even sleep her afternoon nap in a nappy! The school really helped so much with the potty training.

She is also sleeping in her big bed at night! She sleeps very well, but some nights I have to sit with her until she falls asleep, because otherwise she gets out of bed and plays!! Although I must admit most nights I lie down with her and end up falling asleep myself.


Amy is saying many Chinese words now, her favorite being "bu yao" which means "don't want". I know she speaks a lot of Chinese at school, she even has these Chinese flashcards and then they teach her at school to recognise them. At home she still mixes her languages a lot but I know it will come right eventually. She can count in English from 1-5 and in Chinese from 1-10 (except 7 and 9, she always forgets 7 and 9)

Her big love is still music. She still sings "Twinkle twinkle" and "I love you" and then she has also started singing some Chinese songs from school. Too cute!!

Amy still likes Barney, she really enjoys "In the night garden" and then her favorites at the moment are Dora and Diego, she watches these in Chinese. (they are originally in English and Spanish but we get it on TV dubbed in Chinese with a bit of English: so that Mama can also understand) Most of the TV she watches is in Chinese, we even get Chinese Spongebob!!!

Amy's favorite thing to do at the moment is swim! We joined a swimming pool for a month and have been going everyday. There is an indoor swimming pool and then a few smaller pools, and jacuzzis, whirpools etc... She absolutely loves the water. We bought her a pair of armbands and she is very happy to be able to "swim" on her own.

Amy waiting for her armbands to be pumped up

Amy all ready to go swimming!!

I hope you are all well. Lots of love

The Garden

Last weekend we decided to fix up our garden. Wikus and I were up bright and early on Saturday morning and started pulling out weeds, and loosening the soil. While we were busy trying to do that we realised that the huge palm tree in the middle of the garden has roots that spread along the ground all around the garden. So as we are trying to loosen the soil we have to deal with all these roots.

The Garden before

The tree

Wikus started chopping some of them away to give us some space to work, and while he was busy we discussed the idea of possibly getting rid of the tree, as there were big spots on the bark that were dead. Our very nosy neighbours came outside and managed to convince Wikus that the tree needed to go. They promised to bring us the right tools later that day. We decided then to go and buy some flowers, soil, pots and grass.

The "Loot"

Wikus and the neighbours ended up spending the whole afternoon getting the tree out, which was not as "dead" as we had thought, and also a lot heavier. They then also had the big job of trying to chop the tree into pieces to be able to move it. What a mission!!!

Our "Lawn"

Well we got it all done, it took a lot longer than we expected but we did it. We planted the grass on Saturday but only got around to doing the rest on Sunday. It looks good though and we are happy with our work.

The Garden after

Lots of love from a warm Taiwan

Braais and bicycles

Last weekend we had some warmer weather again. Saturday morning we went shopping and I bought a new camera!! Saturday afternoon we had a quiet braai and then on Sunday we rented a bicycle to cycle along the "17 km of Splendid Coastline"

There is a bicycle path the whole way along the coast in Hsinchu and there are shops along the way where you can rent bicycles and take a ride. We rented a big bicycle that we could both sit on and pedal, with a small seat at the back for Amy. It looked really cute, but was NOT a good idea. The seats were very uncomfortable and the bike itself was very heavy!! We didn't ride too far, then decided to stop for ice cream and to give Amy a chance to play. After the ice cream the weather get colder, so we just rode back and gave the bike back. Amy was so tired when we got home she went straight to bed and passed out for 3 and half hours!! Next time we will try the tandem bikes with the baby seat!

I hope you are all enjoying the Long weekend for Easter. It's business as usual here! No Easter eggs or hot cross buns anywhere to be seen.

Bye for now
xxxx

Amy looking at the fish in the supermarket. She loves the fish tanks

This is the big bike we rented...this was in the beginning before we started riding

Amy and ChiChi the little boy who lives in our street