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