31 and Counting

SuperMimi!

2010-03-23T17:32:00.004+08:00

The adventures of SuperMimi as she battles the evil King Koopa and his son Duck in an effort to rescue her friends Mario, Luigi, Baby Yoshi, Mama Yoshi, and Dug.

Mimi and Dug

2010-02-11T17:12:00.003+08:00

This is Mimi and Dug. For those of you who don’t know Dug he is the talking dog that was in the Pixar movie ‘Up’ this past summer. Dug is also Mimi’s favorite toy ever since she got it for Christmas. She sleeps with Dug, talks to Dug, and takes him almost everywhere she goes.

Since Christmas I have watch ‘Up’ at least 20 times and watch ‘Dug’s Big Adventure’ (the short animated movie that came with the Blu-Ray), at least 30 times. Watching ‘Up’ with Mimi doesn’t mean watching it from beginning to end, usually it consists of watching the part when Dug first appeared, then skipping to the end where Dug and Carl goes to save Kevin and Russell. I enjoyed ‘Up’ the first couple times I saw it, and to be able to keep Mimi interested for such a long time is really a testament of what a great movie it is for kids, however I really mean it when I say I would be very happy if I don’t see that movie again for a really long time.

Family Pictures - Year 3

2010-01-21T15:22:00.004+08:00

Every year Annie and I make a point to take a picture of Mimi once a year just to keep track of our growth together as a family. We usually do it around Mimi’s birthday however because this year we were moving to our new place, we didn’t get around to it until last month. Also because of our new place, we elected to go to a slightly cheaper studio. The results…well Mimi came out still cute but just not very…Mimi like. They dressed Mimi up and also did her hair to a more cutesy style. However if you know Mimi…she is kind of a tomboy and I am just not use to seeing her like this. But overall the pictures are fine and we can say this is kind of what we looked like in December of 2009. However…probably will not going back to that studio again.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T16:46:00.002+08:00

So I wrote on my Facebook status ‘Christmas in Asia is…business as usual…sigh’, that kind of sums up my Christmas this year. For the second time since I was 6, my Christmas was spent working, 3 hours total of commuting, and suffering from the bewildered looks of my coworkers when I wish them Merry Christmas. Sadly Christmas is just another day here in Taiwan, celebrated only by shopping malls and restaurants in order to try to generate more revenue for the year end. Some people do take it off, usually Christians or people looking for excuse to take a day off. The big holiday in China and Taiwan of course is Chinese New Years which this year comes in the 3rd week of February. So it would be a little strange celebrating 2 big holidays so close to each other especially since Christmas is so revolved around Christianity. However…it is a little strange going about it like it is just another day.

So yesterday on Christmas Eve in order to put a little of the Christmas spirit into our lives, Annie and I did fork out the money to eat a ‘Christmas Dinner’ at one of the better restaurants here in Hsinchu. The place was decorated nicely with Christmas trees, candles, and balloons. They even had a choir singing Christmas carols in English and Chinese to everyone. Mimi got a chance to meet Santa for the second time in her life, of course this was the first Chinese Santa she met and he wasn’t that fat…kinda slim actually for a Santa. I think Mimi was a little freaked out as you can see from the picture. Anyways though Christmas is what it is here in Taiwan…Annie, Mimi, and I with everyone a happy and safe holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

Little Reo

2009-12-24T15:11:00.004+08:00

I just recently came back from a business trip to San Jose. During the end of my visit I stayed over at my friend Matt’s place and had the opportunity to see his 7 week old baby boy for the first time. I bought Reo a Mickey Mouse plush doll which is as big as he is right now.

Seeing little Reo made me remember how small, cute, and vulnerable Mimi use to be. Of course later I remember the nights after waking up at 2am and 6am to baby’s crying.

Nai-Wan Trip

2009-12-14T14:19:00.008+08:00

Yesterday the weather was unreasonably good, 80 degrees, cool and sunny. Since it was the last weekend my parents will be here before going back to U.S. on Tuesday we decide to go to Nai-Wan which is a touristy place up in the mountains near Hsinchu. Of course we weren’t the only people to take advantage of the good weather, apparently millions of Taiwan people had the same idea. Besides the masses of people, it was a good time with lots of good food. Mimi had a blast since she to go fish and play on the trampoline for her first time. We thought she would be scared but she was excited and like any little kid…fearless. Mimi keep talking about it all throughout the night and asking when we can go back. It’s a good first memory for her. Check out the photos and the video...

People Mountain People Sea...

Will Never See in America...

Famous Nai-Wan Hanging Bridge

Mimi on the Trampoline

The Famous Nai-Wan Pork Sausages

Mimi Fishing

Video...

Hualian 2009

2009-12-08T17:22:00.004+08:00

Finally got my Hualian pictures up in my picture gallery. This Thanksgiving my family including my parents and sister went to Hualian for a small vacation. Hualian is a small city on the eastern side of Taiwan. Because the east side of Taiwan is mountainous, it has stayed relatively untouched by industry and is considered a must see tourist spot.

Here are some highlights….

6:00 am – rise and shine Mimi!

At the Beach

Mimi at the Entrance to the National Park

Walking along the Canyon

At the hanging bridge

King Kong Mountain

Thanksgiving Chicken

The Famous Hualian Spring Onion Pancakes

The Famous Hualian Pig’s Lard used to fry the Spring Onion Pancakes

Star Sign Weddings

2009-12-01T13:44:00.003+08:00

Weddings in the Asian culture are very different then western weddings. I think you can write a whole book on the ceremonies, traditions, and small details which needs to follow. From gifts, number of cars to pick up the bride, who to give red envelops too…everything has some sort of meaning which people still follow even though they may not fully understand it.

One of the traditions is that when picking out a wedding date, you don’t just pick the most convenient time or when your place to hold the ceremony is available. The main factor in selecting a wedding date depends on the star signs. Everyday there is a whole systems of factors in which the Chinese fortune tellers knows if it is a lucky day or a bad day. So if you want to get married and are selecting a date, you will look at which days is considered a lucky day…then you can see if your ceremony place or restaurant is available on that day.

The star signs not only apply to weddings, but they also influence in a smaller scale to moving to new house, traveling, and even when you should hold funerals. So for example in the Lunar calendar, the 7th month is called the ghost month in which the spirits are more closer to the real world. During this month, you are not suppose to get married or move to a new place. So during ghost month wedding halls are all pretty empty.

Last Sunday Nov 29th was a very lucky day for weddings. That day, Annie and I went up to Taipei to attend Annie’s classmates wedding. My parents and sister went to TaiChong to attend my cousin’s wedding. Annie’s parents took Mimi to attend their daughter-in-law’s brother’s wedding. So on the same day our family attended 3 different weddings. I want to wish congratulations to Lyon and Isabella, my cousin Vivian and Steve, and to the people whose wedding my daughter attended.

I don’t know if star sign weddings have any real meaning or not. It is very inconvenient in a lot of ways because on lucky days everyone wants to hold their wedding so wedding halls or restaurants have to be fought over. Also no one really understands how the days are selected and why they are luckier then others. But then I guess that is why you call it a tradition.

Mimi versus The Stinky Tofu

2009-11-25T09:34:00.002+08:00

For those of you that have been to Taiwan you will know what Stinky Tofu is. For those of you who have never been to Taiwan, you might have heard of it and if you have smelled it…you would never forget it. Stinky Tofu is a very Taiwanese delicacy involving tofu that is usually fried or steamed. How it’s made…well I don’t really know but there are stories usually involving some type of ammonia and fermentation. The reason it is called Stinky Tofu is that it gives out a very distinctive odor, when very strong it literally smells like a dog s**t, a big pile of fresh hot dog s**t. It’s not my favorite…I can usually man up to eat the fried ones but the steamed…no way. The steamed ones smell is about twice as strong and the texture…let’s just say I have never eaten dog s**t, but I can imagine that it tastes exactly like that.

So we took my sister to the night market and we decide to try to have some stinky tofu. It was Mimi’s first and well she put up a brave front. Here is the video…

32 and Counting….

2009-11-23T15:00:00.005+08:00

Ok…I’m not dead…my previous camera is dead, but I am not. My previous camera fell victim to a deadly destructive force called Mimi which, in turn, lapsed into a long blog rest by yours truly. I know, sad excuse but it is an excuse. I could have bought a new camera however my money has been going to other things recently. I could have used Annie’s SLR however I hate lugging around that thing. Also the SLR has a million functions but one of them is not recording videos which I think is very strange.

However there are no more excuses now, my sister just gave me a new camera for Christmas because she was sick and tired of asking how Mimi is doing and my only reply is that she is doing good. So here is a quick update on me and my family, and while there has been many good moments which unfortunately passed this last 2 years…well I hope to capture the next couple…or at least until Mimi strikes again on my new camera.

32 and counting…and keeping my weight down…

Mimi…more grown up but as silly and cute as ever

New house…first house…beautiful house…

Mom and Daughter…

New York Uncle, Auntie, and Mimi's Fish Eggs!

2008-12-03T17:15:00.005+08:00

Annie, Mimi, and I had a chance to have dinner with my New York uncle and auntie last Friday. Unfortunately they were not back in Taiwan for fun but for some sad personal reasons. However it was nice to see them and try to give them a break and a smile from an otherwise what I would think is a tough trip. We went to San-Jin and Mimi had a great time eating her favorite Fish Roe Sushi (yuck!). Mimi loves her fish eggs, she can eat 4 pieces in one setting.

Sun Moon Lake

2008-11-26T20:27:00.006+08:00

Last Friday was my company trip. Taiwan companies have a benefit in which the company pays for a trip for all employees to attend. Some are a grand lavish trip outside of Taiwan, others can be a simple hike or dinner. We were lucky this year and though we didn’t have a luxurious trip to Bally or Palau, we did get to go to Sun Moon Lake which to me is probably the most beautiful place in Taiwan. Mimi unfortunately didn’t get to go this trip because she got sick. Since we already paid for some of the trip Annie and I still went while Mimi stayed at her grandma’s in Hsinchu.

Sun Moon Lake was beautiful as usual and it was really nice to get away and relax a little bit. Also my co-workers are pretty cool over all and it is good to spend some fun times together instead of always stressing over customer issues or sales orders. We had some team building activities and the food overall was pretty good. Annie and I got a chance to see the Lalu Hotel which is one of the most expensive and luxurious hotels in Taiwan. Now I have seen many many hotels in this world and I have to say even I was very impressed by the Lalu Hotel. I would definitely recommend it for the people who can afford to pay $500 USD a night:-).

Mimi’s Idols

2008-11-24T16:50:00.003+08:00

Last week was a big week for Mimi, she got a chance to see 2 of her idols, Eric the Tiger and YoYo Man. On Friday we took Mimi to see a play put on by the Eric the Tiger company. The play was cute and it was a first in which I took Mimi to one of these things. It was basically lots of people in big fluffy costumes including Eric the Tiger. I didn’t really get what was going on but the story involved lots of singing and dancing and eventually everyone becoming friends in the end. Unfortunately they did not allow pictures. Mimi has a great time and sat and watched it no problem. She wanted to shake Eric’s hand so she kept on asking him to come down from the stage. Unfortunately Eric did not come out after the play and take pictures…most likely because he would have been killed being stormed over by an army of kids.

The next day though we were lucky enough to be at a YoYo event at the Miramir Mall during our Special Day. Mimi got to play on the YoYo computer games and meet Big Brother Banana and YoYo Man(which is a guy in a big fluffy yellow costume). There was also lots of singing and dancing. This time though Mimi got a chance to shake hands with YoYo Man. After the show she went up to him and shook his hand then ran back to me laughing.

Overall it was fun for Mimi and ok for me. I have a feeling that there will be many more dancing and singing people in bright colored fluffy costumes in my future.

Uncle Bill

2008-11-19T16:46:00.004+08:00

Had a chance to meet up with Bill when he was in Taiwan for business last Sunday. I have known Bill since 1999 when I first joined HP. We have been co-workers, housemates, ex-coworkers, ex-housemates, then co-workers again when he hooked me up with Pixelworks. He recently got married and is planning on starting a family next year. The last time he saw Mimi she was only crawling and can’t really speak much. She also won’t let strangers hold her back then. In fact these were the pictures he took that time.

This time I treat Bill to hotpot in Taipei and Mimi had a chance to talk with Uncle Bill and was willing to take a picture with Uncle Bill. I also let Mimi take some pictures of Bill and me.

The next time I will see Bill it will be in Las Vegas at Computex. He promised me a steak dinner so at least I will get that from Las Vegas.

Heartbreak Mornings

2008-11-12T14:15:00.003+08:00

Mimi usually wakes up anywhere between 9am to 10:00 am depending on what times she goes to bed. On weekdays I try my best to get out the door to work before she wakes up. Most of the time I succeed, sometimes I do not. The reason I do this is because if I am still at home when Mimi wakes up…things get complicated.

I think with any parenting system there is 1 parent who is more the enforcer while the other is more the fun parent. Maybe there is a system in which it is more balanced however it turns out with Annie and I we fit into that role. Annie definitely is the enforcer and the sterner parent while I am the fun and sometimes take advantage of parent. Therefore Mimi likes spending time with me because well…I let her do just about anything she wants and never say no.

So in mornings if Mimi wakes up and sees me dressed in work clothes, she starts crying and tell me don’t go to work and stay and play with Mei-Mei. She will grab my shirt and tell me to change and want me to hold her and basically not let go. It usually takes me an extra 20 minutes to get out the door if she wakes up. I usually have to steel my heart up before finally walking out that door. This morning I was cleaning my camera when she woke up and happened to record it. Poor baby...

Mimi's Halloween Video

2008-11-04T18:44:00.002+08:00

So life’s recently has gotten tough, rough, hard, busy…basically I haven’t had as much free time as I did before. Well, I didn’t have THAT much free time before however now I have no free time at all. That is why my postings has gotten sparse as of late and that the videos of Mimi’s Halloween party has been sitting on my desktop for about a week just waiting for me to edit and upload. Well I still don’t have free time however I am right now pretending to do work at my office while typing this posting and hoping my manager doesn’t stop by for a chat.

Seems like a lot of people had some pretty rough times of late. Several friends, family, and even I have been adjusting or going through some difficult situations at work and home. I think at times like this you must remember who your love ones are and know that it is okay to reach out for help or have others help you, after all if we don’t have each other what do we have.

Anyways enough of the boring, mushy, stuff. Here is what everyone has been waiting for…well everyone meaning basically my sister and parents…Mimi’s Halloween video.

Mimi the Adorable Witch

2008-10-27T18:34:00.005+08:00

Yesterday Gymboree had a Halloween party for the kids and thanks to Barbara, Mimi had the cutest and most special costume there. Mimi wore an adorable witch costume sent all the way from U.S. by her aunt. At first Mimi was a little afraid to wear it because she has this scared but strange fascination with witches. However we keep on telling her that she will look so cute in the outfit and she will be the cutest girl there and everyone will come up and tell her how cute she was. Having the possibility of praise being lavished upon her Mimi quickly overcame her fears and done her witches outfit and yes she was the cutest girl there.

Her cousin Yankee came up and Barbara got him a pirate’s outfit. The party turned out pretty well for a kid’s party. Music, dancing, things to climb on and hit, cupcakes and candy, I guess when you are a kid what else can you ask for. Best of all Mimi had a great time and it was her taste of Halloween, she liked the candy part a lot. That night when I was telling getting her to bed and recapping to her “Today’s” story, she said she wants to wear the witches dress again. I won’t be surprised to come home tonight and see her in it.

I have several videos I need to edit together which I will post up later this week.

Mimi’s Year 2 Pictures

2008-10-20T14:54:00.003+08:00

One of the things that I want to make into a tradition is to have these studio pictures of Mimi and our family about once a year. So about 2 months ago when Barbara and my mom was here in Taiwan we went to the studio to get Mimi’s year 2 pictures. We finally got it back last week and overall we are quite happy with how the pictures turned out. They did a great job photoshopping my bags under my eyes out. Here are some of the samples, you can check out the full pictures in my pbase gallery.

The not so great Turkey

2008-10-15T17:19:00.001+08:00

So contrary to the public opinion of how great Turkey is, I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it that much. Yes I admit it that in terms of historical significance and beauty Turkey has all that. Some of the rubbles that you see houses built around are from biblical times. Even ancient stories we grew up with like ‘Troy’ are places in Turkey.

So the reason my trip was not so good is that is more external reasons. One is that I was on a business trip so of course of the 4 days I was there 3 were primary spent at customer labs where we slaved away from morning to late night. I was in a city called Manisa which is about 1 hour drive from Izmir. So I wasn’t in Izmir which is Turkey’s second largest city and house the Trojan Horse from the movie ‘Troy’ in which has Brad Pitt’s sweat in it. Manisa is a little…very little city which seems like there is also very little in terms of restaurants or places to see or even open past 9PM at night. So the 3 days I was there it was customers, hotel, and eat at the hotel restaurant (repeat 3 times).

Turkish food is…ok. It is basically spiced meat, cheese, and bread. It is definitely good meat, cheese, and bread but nevertheless just different combinations of meat, cheese, and bread. The kebabs were good.

On the fourth day I had the day off and I had time to look around. So I flew to Istanbul and went to the famous Blue Mosque area. That area is a must see for tourist because it has the Blue Mosque as well as the Aya Sophia museum and the Palace all within walking distance. Now before I went to Turkey I have read that you must be careful of con artists, pick pockets, and thefts. Since I have been in ShenZhen before I kind of know what to expect and was on the lookout. However I think because I was one of the few single persons there I was a prime target for these people to come up and try to become ‘friends’ with me to get me to buy some of their crap or sucker you into their crap store. So instead of peacefully enjoying the scenery, I was constantly fending off people coming up to me and saying ‘hey were are you from’ or ‘this way to see…’. After an hour I got sick of it and left. I did get this video of the inside of the Blue Mosque. It's not that great because it was on my phone camera but you can get an idea of what it is like inside.

Lastly my very last bad impression of Turkey accumulated when at Istanbul I put my Blackberry in my luggage and at Taiwan when I opened up my suitcase I discovered my Blackberry case still there but my Blackberry gone. Since my luggage did not leave me from the hotel to the airport, the only place it could have gotten taken is during the security check.

Oh well, I think I have another chance to go back again. I am sure that if I was with friends and family or on a tour I would have a better time. But as of right now I am glad to be back home.

Mimi's Lullaby - updated

2008-10-14T22:29:00.002+08:00

Finally got the Michael Guang mv on-line. Check it out below and compare to Mimi's singing!

Mimi’s Lullaby

2008-10-09T03:50:00.011+08:00

As I said before, recently I have had success in putting Mimi to bed for her afternoon nap. Part of the reason is that she is growing up and can be reasoned with. Another part is because of Mimi’s lullaby. There is a Chinese song, one of the few that I know how to sing to, which Mimi likes a lot. It’s called 童話 (Storybook) by Michael Guang and is actually one of my favorite Chinese song. Anyways I just started singing it 1 day and it really calmed Mimi down to go to bed. Then one day, Mimi started singing it with me. It’s not perfect and the her melody is off, but most of the words are there. So to let you guys know how well Mimi sings it, I had to figure out how to embed the MP3 into this blog posting, it is why it took a bit longer for this posting then usual. Here is the MP3 of the original song and then here is the video of Mimi singing it. Even though Michael Guang sings better, I personally think the cuteness factor Mimi brings makes the song all the more worth listening.

Mimi and Daddy’s Special Day

2008-10-01T17:25:00.003+08:00

Recently on Saturdays I have been spending the time taking care of Mimi just by myself. Annie has class or appointments with friends so it’s just Mimi and me for most of the day. I call it ‘Mei-Mei and Ba-ba’s Special Day’ (it’s really cute when Mimi says it). I actually don’t mind looking after Mimi by myself. Overall she is pretty easy to take care of. The hardest part is eating and getting her to sleep, however recently I have been having successes that those departments lately.

So last Saturday was a bit rainy but Mimi was really excited because she get to wear her new raincoat for the first time. Doesn’t she look cute in it!

I first took Mimi to Gymboree for music class. It was fun but I think she liked Play more then music. Mimi was really good though, she participated even though I think she thought it was a bit boring (as evidence in this picture:-)). The other kids were running around but Mimi sat fairly still and listened to the teacher and the activities.

After Gymboree we went to Miramir Mall to eat Mimi’s favorite food, chicken nuggets and fries. We try not to let her eat too much, maybe only once every 2 weeks, however I consider this a special circumstance since it is Mei-Mei and Ba-Ba’s Special Day. See how much she enjoys it!

After lunch I took her to Tom’s World which is like a children’s arcade. It has a lot of the kids rides and games which require throwing and spending a lot of tokens. It’s a bit expensive but Mimi likes it there.

By then I definitely need some coffee to keep on going so we stop by Starbucks in which Mimi would order what she calls her ‘Starbucks Baby’ drink (short warm fresh milk with ½ foam and caramel syrup).

I would usually get Mimi a small toy at the toy store, that day I got her a Hello Kitty toaster set. It comes with a plastic toaster oven and plastic toast with plastic strawberry jam. Mimi likes it a lot. We went home and played tea party for a couple hours before I held her to sleep. She usually sleeps for about 1 and half hours before waking up. We then just play and rest until Annie calls to tell us where to meet her for dinner. That is how a typical ‘Mei-Mei and Ba-Ba’s Special Day’ goes. The most important thing is Mimi has a lot of fun and it gives us a chance to spend some father and daughter time together. Because before you know it, Mimi will be busy growing up, life will get harder, and these Special Days will be treasured memories.

Growing Up

2008-09-25T15:19:00.004+08:00

Annie and I took Mimi to get a haircut on Tuesday. She has been needing it for a while but we have been putting it off because taking Mimi to a kids haircut place is kind of a challenge. Mimi’s last haircut was 6 months ago and when we took her then every time the hair stylist gets near Mimi starts crying a lot, kind of like whenever she goes to see a doctor. This time however we talked to Mimi beforehand saying that we are going to take her to get a hair cut, and she shouldn’t cry, it doesn’t hurt, and she needs to be brave, and afterwards we will go to the mall and play. Mimi said ‘ok, mei-mei won’t cry’ and exactly like she said she didn’t cry. She sat perfectly still and was very good. The hair stylist said that that’s when you know a child is growing up, when you can talk and reason out their fears. Anyways we were all very proud of Mimi and we took her to McDonalds to have her favorite chicken nuggets and fries even though we forbid her to eat too much of it. Here are some pictures of Mimi getting her haircut from before to afterwards.

Unladylike

2008-09-23T17:58:00.003+08:00

Mimi is a very funny girl. She loves to laugh and play. She also loves to joke around and do things to get a reaction from you. Some of the things which we initial laugh with her at we wish we can go back in time and correct her from the very beginning. For example, Mimi tends to sit on the sofa and chair in a very…let’s just say unladylike…manner. In the beginning we fake shock and try to correct her sitting habits and she will then revert back to her original position and laugh because we will fake shock again. Now it has become a game to her to provoke us even though now since she is older we really REALLY want her to be a little more ladylike. There are a couple of these games that she plays which I cannot share pictures of. Of course Mimi never listens to me when I tell her to stop. However this last time I have decided that I will get revenge on her. I have recorded her during 2 of her such ‘games’. One which I cannot show but my sister have already seen and has agreed is very gross (but cute). The other is this one. I told Annie that I will show them at Mimi’s wedding years from now just to get revenge for the hell she put me through at times:-).

In Sickness and In Health

2008-09-19T17:26:00.003+08:00

Mimi caught a little cold today. Yesterday she kept on saying she was really tired and this morning she slept until 11:30 am and woke up crying because her nose a little clogged up and her throat hurts. Annie just took her to the clinic and the doctor said Mimi is fine and just needs rest and fluids. Mimi cried a lot when she saw the doctor…poor baby. It wasn’t a really scared crying but just one of those in which she knows she has to go see the doctor but won’t like it. She still knew her manners and said bye-bye to the doctor when leaving all the while crying out loud.

I think one of the hardest things for me, being a first time parent, is when your child is sick. Mimi, thank god, is a relatively healthy child. There were only a couple times in her life in which she got really sick. The first time was in Singapore when she got the Roseola virus (baby measles). That was really strange one, her fever spiked to about 102 degrees however she acted perfectly healthy. She was still eating and drinking milk and playing like normal. The fever took about 2 days to break and when over she got these splotches over her face and body.

The second was just this year February in Taipei during the winter. Mimi got a really high fever of 104 and it took 3 days for it to break. The big problem was that Mimi hates drinking medicine and it took a lot of coxing in order for her to swallow it. That time I barely got any sleep the 2 nights, constantly worrying and checking to make sure her fever doesn’t run too high. Mimi cried a lot, was unhappy and uncomfortable, and cried big time when seeing the doctor. I don’t really understand why Mimi is scared of doctors so much, she loves playing doctor, pretend giving and taking shots, and feeding me and Annie our vitamin pills.

In the end, everything turned out ok. These are just one of those things we all need to go through when raising a child. I still worried a lot when Mimi gets sick even though I know that it will be ok. It’s that helpless feeling you get when you see your child suffering and there is very little you can do but wait. The only good aspect is that getting sick is just a natural part of building up the body’s immune system.

Taking Classes

2008-09-16T18:04:00.003+08:00

The whole last week, Mimi and Annie were at Hsinchu because Annie’s mom was on a business trip so they needed to help look after the house and store. Me, having to work, was stuck in Taipei by myself. So how did I spend my time? Calling Annie and Mimi a lot and playing video games. Yeah I got pretty good a Soul Caliber 4 last week. And I was planning to update my blog last week but I couldn’t figure out what to write because…well all I was doing is calling Annie and Mimi and playing video games. Now that Annie and Mimi are back things are getting back to normal and my video game playing has moved back to the 1 hour after Mimi falls asleep and when I need to go to bed.

So lately, besides Gymboree, we have been trying to teach Mimi some things individually at home instead of letting her run wild. About every day Annie and Minnie will take turns to do some fun activities in English, Chinese, or art. Most times Mimi is quite attentive and takes to the classes real well. Sometimes she is naughty and restless at learning but you know kids are like that.

Mimi’s favorites are the art classes. She gets to draw, cut, glue things together. Mimi can draw circles and for some reason the art teacher said drawing circles at her age is really good. I tend to think it isn’t anything special because Mimi’s circles aren’t exactly perfectly round however Yankee, Mimi’s cousin, can’t draw circles yet so there must be something to it.

After Mimi is done with a drawing we put it up in her room. Right now there are only a couple drawings so far but the wall will get pretty full soon.

Fatty Liver...Fatty Body

2008-09-08T15:37:00.003+08:00

Taiwan has this pretty cool health benefit in which companies pays for a detailed health exam for their employees once a year. They allow their employees to take time off to complete the examination which usually takes around half a day. My examination was last Friday. Up to the examination I was feeling quite good. I lost a total of 33 pounds this half year and even though my body fat is still high I was on the way out of the obese category.

So I went and did the examination. It was pretty through in which they X-rayed several parts of your body and check your eyes, cardiovascular system, and did blood tests. The worst thing they did was make you drink this nasty nasty stuff which makes your stomach bloated with gas while they check your intestines. It wasn’t too bad and they do provide lunch while you wait for the results.

So I went into the doc’s office to review the results and the first thing he pulled out was a picture of this.

With a circle at the bottom right picture, the one which looks like the shadow of the Incredible Hulk. I think the picture is a bit too excessive, I mean, come on…I weigh 165 pounds I know I am not quite ‘standard weight’ yet but I know many many people who are my height and around 200 pounds. I thought I should at least be like in the bottom middle or something. There should at least be 1 more category above me shouldn’t there? Sadly it is not so, therefore I am in the ‘worst’ category which the doctor pointed out and that I need to exercise more to get to my ideal weight of 136 (he said if I can get to 150 that will be good enough). Then he pointed out that I have fatty liver also which is another sign to say that I am still obese AND I am getting old because it affects older people more then kids.

Alas it seems that I am not quite there yet. Therefore I guess I have to keep on going and see how this body holds out on this diet. 33 pounds down…15 more to go I guess?

Happy Birthday to Annie!!!

2008-09-05T00:53:00.008+08:00

Today(9/5) is my dear Annie’s birthday, she will be ?? years old:-). This year planning for her birthday was a bit harder then usual. Usually I suck at giving gifts, so I compensate it by doing what I do best, eating good food. However this year since Annie and I are on this diet (165.11 pounds and dropping!), we are limited to basically eating things that don’t taste good, like lots of raw lettuce. So even though I know Annie would just be happy with anything, there is more pressure I put on myself because…well…you want to make the people you love happy on their special day.

When it comes to gifts, I don’t give clothes or jewelry, apparently I have no taste in fashion and accessory. So after raking my brain for a couple days I finally decide to fall back on my expertise…electronics, experience, and exploiting Mimi's cuteness.

For electronics I know that Annie has been complaining a lot about her cell phone which Mimi has gotten hold of several times and now it’s functionality is only half working. Also Annie and I have fought over the camera usage a couple times. So I decided to get her the newest LG Camera Phone, the KC550. It is a 5.0 Megapixel Camera which is also a 3.5G cell phone. I was really amazed by its functionality. Annie really liked it because it is pink.

For another gift I relied on my experience that spa treatments is always a gift women love even though it lasts only for that session. So I got Annie a session in Asiaworld which is apparently very famous. Annie liked that too, the session is tomorrow.

Lastly I have been preparing Mimi to sing happy birthday to Annie. Mimi knows the words well enough but requires some lessons in tone and melody. I managed to record yesterday afternoon session when we were practicing. Here is her singing happy birthday with a little bit of twinkle twinkle little star (in Chinese) as warmup.

Kiddy Gym

2008-09-01T14:19:00.004+08:00

As an attempt to foster social relationships with other people besides Mimi’s immediate family, and also a way to expel her excess energy, Annie and I have decided to start taking Mimi to a kiddy gymnasium once or twice a week. Mimi for being such an active kid is actually very shy with strangers. When she meets someone she doesn’t know she will hide behind my legs and peek out at them. It usually takes her about a day to warm up to you and 2 days to really wanting you to start playing with her. We think it is because she only interacts with the same people everyday…me, Annie, Minnie, and Annie’s family. The only kid she gets to play with is Yankee. So going to the kiddy gym will get her out more and get her to be around other kids.

Yesterday, in Hsinchu, we took Mimi to the gymnasium for the first time and she had a riot. There were many activities, many things to play with, and also had her favorites blowing bubbles and hand puppets. She had a really really good time. After it was done we told Mimi to go and thank the teacher and she did and when the teacher asked for a hug Mimi then hugged her which is something she never does with a person she just met. So tomorrow Mimi will go to the Taipei class, I won’t be there unfortunately but I am sure she will have fun without me.

Mimi Dance!

2008-08-27T17:16:00.004+08:00

A somewhat tiring aspect about raising a toddler is that they tend to have a lot of energy then you. This is of course not counting the preemie years when they are sleeping 15 hours a day. Mimi have been an active toddler for about 1 and a half year now and I don’t think there was one time in these 1.5 years that I thought ‘Boy I wish Mimi would play more with me!’. Mimi will play and play and play till you are ready to collapse and you have to find that hidden reserve of strength and creativity to pass Mimi off to the next person to play and play and play. That is why there is at least 2 of us to take care of Mimi at all times and not 1 person is left with her for a period of more then 4 hours.

So active Mimi likes to run, jump, and dance! I don’t think I have actually ever seen Mimi walk slowly. Active Mimi also has a very bad habit of jumping on the bed like a trampoline. Despite several bruises and crying sessions from hitting the wall or tumbling off onto the floor, she still does it because apparently it is very fun. Lastly, I have to say Mimi is quite the dancer. She has learned several dances from watching her favorite programs. Here is a list so far of her dances

Dora – ‘We did it!’ song at every episode end
Pocoyo – Pocoyo dance
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – ‘Hot Dog’ dance in end of each episode
Shaun the Sheep – the intro song
Pingu – The Pingu dance from the intro

The Pingu dance has been the most recent dance which Mimi learned. My sister was actually the one that taught her it. It is short but very cute. Here is what the original Pingu clip looks like and Mimi dancing it looks like (along with other performance art).

A Thousand Pictures

2008-08-20T13:11:00.004+08:00

My sister left last night to fly back to San Francisco. She was here for a little over 2 weeks. While she was here she feasted on Taiwan’s fine cuisines, went on trip to Cambodia, and took a thousand pictures of Mimi (I am in a total of 4 of them). From Mimi playing, Mimi eating, Mimi taking a bath…Mimi’s life was pretty well documented while Barbara was here. Here are some of the pictures Barbara took. Mimi had a great time posing and playing with her Aunt Barbara. She was very happy these 2 weeks because so many people were around to play with her. I am sure that she will be asking about her aunt tonight.

The Typical Taiwan Guy

2008-08-15T16:23:00.001+08:00

On Wednesday morning when I step on the weight scale I was feeling quite proud of the result. I logged in at 78.6 kg which is 173 pounds. That means I lost total of 26 pounds or 12 kg. So I was feeling quite good going into the nutritionist appointment Annie scheduled for me that afternoon.

I went to the nutritionist, weighed myself and went in to talk to her. She asked me the usual what is my goal and I say about maybe around 160 pounds which is about 73 kg. She said that is good goal. So out of curiosity I asked her what is the ideal weight for a person like me. So she took out her calculator and basically did this calculation.

For a typical Taiwan Man –
(Height in centimeters – 80 ) * 70%

So for me it would be
(168cm – 80) * 70% = 61.6 kg = 136 pounds

136 pound!!!! I think the last time I was 136 pounds was like 16. I think if I actually weigh 136 pounds again I will be half dead. Well, I guess I am not the typical guy in Taiwan. For me if I can get to the 160-165 range I think I will be happy. Just 13 more pounds to go!

Feast for the Ages

2008-08-14T00:18:00.006+08:00

When Barbara decided to come to Taiwan to visit us, she told me that of all the good restaurants and good food in Taipei, there are 2 restaurants which she has to eat at during her visit, the Korean Barbeque Restaurant and Mitsui, the premier Japanese restaurants in Taiwan. And at Mitsui, we have to go with our cousin Wai because she knows the people there and can get the special dishes with the best ingredients. Well tonight Barbara’s wish came true and we went to Mitsui (or San-Jin in Chinese) with our cousin and I have to say even I was pretty impressed. Mitsui is always good but having someone who knows how to order or can get the specialty dishes makes a world of difference. Got to say this is the first time in quite a while I ate this much and this good. By the way the crabs on the left, it’s fresh, it's alive, and it's called Hokkiaddo Hairy Crabs. Check back next Monday for 'Feast for the Ages' part 2!

Hey Dad! See what is waiting for you when you come in January!

Back to Singapore...again

2008-08-11T18:25:00.007+08:00

Annie and I just got back from Singapore last night and still a little bit on the tired side today. It was a good trip overall (minus work of course). We got a chance to walk around Singapore and see the places we saw a long time ago, this time we were prepared with a camera. Annie spent most of the day when I was working with Sophia at Orchard Road. At night I was able to meet up with them for dinner with KC and An-An. An-An is only a little more then 1 month older then Mimi but they are so different in personalities. It will be interesting to see how they interact the next time they get together.

So Annie and I found a way to prove to Mimi that she once lived in Singapore. We had a chance to visit Allan and Linda who ran the maid agency downstairs from our old apartment complex. On their wall are several pictures and one of those pictures was this one of Jennifer was Mimi’s nanny for 3 months before we moved back to Taiwan. Allan has kept that picture up for over 1 year now. So maybe, just maybe years from now we can take Mimi to Singapore for vacation, take her to Allan’s office and show her that very same picture to her. Of course she might not believe it is her…

Dinner and a Show!

2008-08-03T20:03:00.004+08:00

Eating with Mimi is always an event…literally. It is probably the hardest thing about raising Mimi besides getting her to sleep…getting her to sit still and eat. It’s tiring, frustrating, and taxes your concentration, creativity, and will power. The problem isn’t that Mimi doesn’t want to eat, it’s that she wants to play while eating. If there is no playing…there is no eating. There is a cheat in which we can put her in front of the TV and feed her but that is not something we want to enforce on her for the future. Therefore lunch and dinner involves some sort of play or show which keeps her occupied and get her to sit still and eat.

For example…the picture above is a cake and Mimi and I are pretending that it is her birthday cake and she is blowing out the candles. Another example is the clip below, it’s the show from yesterday when Annie, mom, and I went out to lunch. It’s a only 1 minute clip but it’s gives you an idea of what is going on….for 1 and a half hours (and that is only lunch)!

Whirlwind Vacations

2008-07-31T16:45:00.002+08:00

I don’t mind traveling. In fact I am pretty sure the every year at Pixelworks I logged in over 100K miles in air travel. The only travels I don’t really like are the ones which are rushed. Unfortunately when you are talking about worldwide businesses you can’t escape from the last minute emergencies which require multiple people flying to different destinations with heavy equipment the next day.

It turns out I will be heading back to Singapore again next week for business. My sister will be coming into Taiwan for 2 weeks on Sunday so will only have 1 day to hang out before taking off on Tuesday. But it is ok because she and my mom are going to Cambodia on Thursday. This frees Annie up to come join me in Singapore on Thursday also. So it will be like a mini-vacation. We will get to see our good friends there and also check out some of the new sights in Singapore. I actually prepared a surprise for Annie this time. I booked Saturday night at Singapore Fullerton Hotel. When we were living in Singapore we loved that hotel and I promised her to take stay there someday. I won’t tell Annie about it so this is a surprise and also it is a test to see if Annie actually reads my blog:-).

As for Mimi, she will be going back to Hsinchu with Minnie. When Mimi was younger, the first time Annie and I took a vacation she had a rough time. She was still on breast milk and used to sleeping with mommy and daddy. However now that she is older can play by herself and sleep in her own bed she will be ok. She will have Yankee there to play with and also Minnie takes good care of her. It will be a good break for her from being stuck at home all day.

Potty Training

2008-07-28T23:14:00.002+08:00

I have no idea what happened, but last Friday Mimi just decided to be potty trained. We went from sometimes she will go bathroom if we happen to have a chance to put her on the toilet, too her telling us when she pee or poops beforehand and we will put her on and she does her business. It is very strange, it’s like she just decide it is time. So ever since Friday, she has done business #2 in the toilet and also most of #1. So now during the day we put her in training underwear instead of diapers. At night we still use diapers and also whenever we take Mimi out of the house.

The are still times when she pees and it’s too late and it ends up on the floor. Usually that happens if she is preoccupied watching TV. She will be so into what she is watching that she will forget to tell us if she needs to go until it is too late. But that only happens like once a day, most of the time she is quite good at telling us.

So my theory on the sudden potty training is it is because Mimi likes to flush the toilet. A couple days before Friday she insisted on her flushing the toilet after Annie and I (yes I know it is a bit gross!). Mimi will flush the toilet and say ‘Niao Niao Bye Bye’ which means ‘pee bye bye’ in Chinese. Then all of the sudden on Friday she started going to the bathroom and getting to flush the toilet for herself. It’s too much of a coincidence. Whatever the reason, I am just glad toilet training is happening because now I can save a lot more money!

Typhoon Day!

2008-07-27T19:37:00.001+08:00

Yeah first typhoon day of the year tomorrow! All Taiwan has come to a standstill while we wait until the typhoon crosses over. No classes and no work. Depending on how long it last…even the malls will close. The only thing that stays open is the ever-prevalent 7-11s. Even hotels operate at a minimum (no restaurants or stores open inside). Hopefully the worst blows over in the morning then the mall opens and business goes back to usual…except for no classes and the normal work is still cancelled.

So what is my family doing for Typhoon Day? Tomorrow we are hoping to see Wall-E…if the theaters are open. Mimi…well, everyday is a Typhoon Day for her now especially since it is too hot to go outside in the summer. So the only strange thing she will notice is way daddy is at home and not at work.

Strange News

2008-07-25T15:39:00.000+08:00

If you ever watch TV news in Taiwan, you will notice something really strange going on…all the time! For some reason there is always something weird going on with Taiwan life. From violent food fights in the Taiwan political arena to constant protests about something and anything, there is always something interesting to watch on Taiwan News Channels. My friends from Singapore told me they like to watch the Taiwan News because it’s like a big drama.

Currently the biggest news in Taiwan is the owner of FoxCon, one of the richest man in Taiwan and 60 something years old, just got married to a 30 year old hottie. This won’t be that strange except that his previous wife recently died this last 3 months from cancer and he professed his undying love for her at her funeral. Then proceeded to chase after numerous girls including the Asia supermodel Lin Chi-Ling.

Interesting enough, news about Taiwan rarely makes to the states though. Usually the only news is about the political situation between China and Taiwan…and earthquakes. However if non-political and non-earthquake news makes it to the states, then it is usually the very very strange ones. For example a recent one was about a Vietnamese woman who came to Taiwan to search for her Taiwan father who she never ever met. The woman took at job as a housekeeper in Taiwan taking care of this old man. While she was working she would spend time searching for her father. Then couple years later when she was about to go back home and give up, she had a picture of her mom and dad out when the old man came in and saw the picture. It turns out the old guy was her actual dad and she has been taking care of him for 2 years without knowing. Strange isn’t it? Like something straight out of a TV drama.

However my all time favorite of Taiwan news which made it to the states has to be this one which happened 4 years ago. It’s weird, it’s strange, and freaking hilarious. Just read it and laugh.

Photographer in Training

2008-07-24T13:42:00.004+08:00

This is a picture of my mom. So what is so special about this picture? Well Mimi took it with my digital camera. She didn’t have any help either. She turned it on, pointed and click. The technique is not too bad too except she puts the camera up to her face and uses the little looking glass instead of the LCD screen. Of course most pictures end up like this one.

However overall Mimi isn’t too bad. She is really really funny though. During my picture she pointed, adjust her position several times, squat down, stand up, then she said ‘BaBa Yeah!’ meaning she wants me to say yeah and pose for her:-)….just like a real professional. It was very cute.

Hualian Vacation

2008-07-21T13:43:00.003+08:00

Last week was fun but incredibly tiring for me. After getting back from Singapore late Wednesday night, Thursday Annie, Mimi, my mom, an I moved ourselves to Hsinchu. Then early Friday we all left with Annie’s family for Hualian. Hualian lies in Eastern Taiwan which happens to be the beautiful side of Taiwan. The west side of Taiwan is pretty industrialized while the east side is mainly resorts and beautiful scenery. It is my first time there and it was very beautiful. We stayed at the Promised Land Resort the first night and FarGlory Hotel the second night. Both were very nice and plush. You can check the pictures in my picture gallery.

Overall it was nice but also very tiring taking care of Mimi. Mimi is getting pretty big now and with her personality she doesn’t let anyone hold her except for me and Annie and Annie cannot hold her for very long. That plus the getting up early everyday made Annie and I just really tired. Next time we go on these trips we will bring the stroller for Mimi. Mimi doesn’t like to sit in strollers for very long, which is why we haven’t used it in forever. However for these long trips even a 5 minutes rest is significant.

During the trip I video this clip of Mimi drinking soup. It’s really funny because the soup actually isn’t very hot but she learned from previous behavior to blow the soup to cool it down then drink it. I have to say Mimi’s coordination is getting pretty good. My mom commented also that it’s amazing how much complete sentences Mimi can say. It looks like our little girl is growing up.

Back In Singapore

2008-07-14T18:06:00.003+08:00

A long time ago, Mimi lived in Singapore for about 6 months. Well it was a long time ago for Mimi but only just over 1 year for Annie and me. I am currently back in Singapore for a business trip and yesterday I walked over to our old apartment. I really enjoyed my time in Singapore, I felt more relaxed here then I ever did in the big busy city of Taipei. Of course there is the downside such as there is nothing much to do in Singapore and it’s a hell of an expensive city to live in. It’s only been 1 year since we left so nothing has really changed and it made me think about the things that happened when Annie, Mimi, and I have stayed there.

The time Annie and I spent in Singapore were marked with many significant stages in Mimi’s life which I will always remember. It was in Singapore when Mimi first started standing by herself. It was also where Mimi first started crawling. There was also the time when she has gotten very sick and had to get her blood drawn for testing…I will never forget that. The strange thing is that Mimi will never remember living here in Singapore. If we never have a chance to come here again, she might never realize she was a Singapore resident for a while. Another thing is that there are no pictures of Mimi with a significant Singapore landmark like the Merlion so there is nothing we can show Mimi to let her know she was here before. So very strange that the first years of a child life is so important to the parents and they will never remember it at all.

Definitely A Lin

2008-07-10T14:40:00.005+08:00

I have heard that babies tend to look alike with the no hair, chubby cheeks, short arms and big head. However ever since Mimi was born everyone says she is a copy of me and definitely my daughter. I look at Mimi and for sure her nose, cheeks, eyes, and eyebrows are from me. The mouth is more from Annie I believe. Overall I have to say Mimi is definitely a Lin. Here is a picture of Mimi when she was a baby and also right now.

Now look at a picture of my sister and I when we were young

Mimi as a baby looks quite a bit like when I was a baby and now Mimi being a little girl looks quite a bit like Barbara. People say as baby girls grow up, they start looking more and more like their mother. This might be true and won’t be a bad at all. However it is still nice to know that there is always a part of me and the Lin family that will go on to the next generation.

Girly Girl

2008-07-08T16:41:00.001+08:00

I have a feeling that Mimi will be quite the girly girl when she grows up. She is constantly trying on her mother’s things and her favorite toys include a cooking set, make up kit, and dolls. Plus whenever she gets new clothes she likes to wear it immediately and prance and twirl around for everyone to see. She will model and pose for us, smile and laugh when we ask her, it’s very very cute. Here is a picture of her wearing her mother’s sunglasses striking a pose.

Mimi’s Uncle

2008-07-04T17:02:00.000+08:00

While the English term ‘uncle’ is generic and can be apply to all your mother’s and father’s brothers. For Mimi right now there is only 1 uncle and that is Uncle Adam. Adam is a fellow co-worker and friend who recently lived in Taiwan for these last 6 months. Last Monday he moved back to Portland but not until after helping Mimi and I release the Mimi’s bird (He loved that bird, he spent 3 very drunken nights with it). When Mimi sees Adam she would say ‘Uncle’ in English. Mimi is also rather shy with strangers and takes quite a while for her to let you hold her. If a stranger tried to hold her she starts crying very loud. However Mimi seems to like her uncle because after only a couple she lets him hold her. Alas uncle has left the island and moved back to the land of good beer, nice weather, and cheap gold. Mimi won’t be able to see uncle until maybe sometime in September. I wonder if she will remember her uncle then.

Mimi's Bird - Good-bye and Good Luck

2008-07-02T12:55:00.004+08:00

Last Saturday Mimi, Minnie, my friend Adam, and I released Mimi’s bird back out to the wild…well as wild as Taipei City can be. We took it back to the park behind our house were we first found it and released it. It was a bit scared and didn’t seem to want to go that bad. Also it had trouble flying since it didn’t have much room to practice while in our apartment. After a few wobbly attempts at flying I was thinking about bringing it back home for another week, however on the way back it flew up to the side of a building out of our reach. I hope it was a sign that the bird wanted its freedom. I have checked around the neighborhood these last few days and haven’t been able to find it. I hope it is ok in its new home wherever that may be.

The Generic 'Mimi is Cutest Baby In The World!!' Posting 2

2008-06-30T12:09:00.004+08:00

Here is another installment of ‘Mimi is Cutest Baby In The World!!’. These pictures were taken by Annie after Mimi’s cover model shot with the new bag. You can see how much Mimi is growing up now, more like a little girl instead of a baby. I might have to change this posting title soon to ‘Mimi is Cutest Girl in The World!!’. You can check out the full pictures in my picture log page.

Annie's Cover Model

2008-06-30T11:55:00.004+08:00

As many of you know Annie is very much into quilting and stitching. She recently finished a bag which took her only 1 day to do and, even from my unprofessional eyes, I have to say is quite impressive. So since Annie puts all her projects onto her blog, no one is cuter to be cover model for her projects then of course Mimi.

Hot Updates!

2008-06-27T15:29:00.004+08:00

It is hot hot hot right now in Taiwan. The temperature is only around 90 degrees however with the humidity the heat index listed Taipei around 138 degrees! This heat makes it tough to take care of the average active 2 year old. During the day they are shut in in an air conditioned apartment with few physical activities and they have a small window of maybe 1 hour and a half between dusk and night in which it is cool enough to go out. So since life has become more boring I will give a few updates on other aspects of my life

1. Diet Update – Since I started my diet I have lost 15 pounds. I feel better, more fit, and confident. However the last week my weight loss has slowed down (only 1 pound) so maybe I need to do something to push though the plateau such as exercise more.

2. Bird Update – The bird is doing very well. It’s standing and moving around good and kind of flying. We have decided that it is probably time to release it. We will do so sometime this weekend.

3. Today is my sister’s birthday Happy Birthday Barbara!!! Your gift will be ready when you come over sometime this summer.

4. My mom will be coming over and visiting us for a while, yeah!!! I have to get plane tickets, I think she will be here in middle July and stay through August.

5. I have had my counter for 10 days and so far it is up to 518 hits. That is average 100 a day. Granted I say maybe 50 of those hits are me and my sister, getting another 50 hits from friends, family , and strangers are pretty cool.

Thats about it, not as interesting as my Mimi posts however just wanted you to know that there are other things revolving around Mimi that is my life.

Pants On!!!

2008-06-25T14:22:00.002+08:00

I always tell Annie that if there is one part of Mimi’s personality I am very proud of it’s that Mimi likes to learn and do things by herself. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating because she is trying to accomplish something which is beyond her motor controls right now, such as changing her own diapers. Also she gets really mad if you try to help her or do the action for her. However I figure that of the numerous things a person can accomplish in this world, weather they fail or succeed as long as they have the wiliness to do it, it will be the first steps to achieving your dreams.

So this video is of Mimi learning to put on her pants for the first time. This is about the last 30 seconds of her 5 minute learning experience with a tantrum in between because we wanted to help her. In the end she learned how to do it and now she always wants to put on her pants herself. I know that learning to put on pants is a far cry from say achieving the Nobel Piece Prize, however if she keeps this up maybe she will learn how to accomplish those great things in the end.

A Baby Sense of Modesty

2008-06-23T13:03:00.002+08:00

One thing about raising a baby is that you always are looking and preparing for their next stage of development. When should they are talking, crawling, talking, etc…. For Mimi it is time for her to start potty training. Every morning we put her on the toilet and sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn’t. Usually she tells us when she is doing her business but only when she has already started. I heard that some kids get trained as early as 1 year and a half; of course some gets trained as late as 4. I am not really worried when Mimi gets potty trained though, I figure in the end we all figure it out. What is very interesting about Mimi is that for about ½ a year now she picked up this strange sense of modesty when she is doing business number two. She doesn’t want anyone around, doesn’t want anyone to see her, hold her or be around her vicinity. She usually finds a corner or goes to a room where no one else is and does it (however it is never the bathroom!). I am not sure where or when she decided that pooping is a private and personal matter but it’s really cute when you stumble on her while she is doing it. She will quietly tell you to go away and leave her alone. Watch this video and see…for those of you who don’t understand Chinese when Mimi says “Ba-Ba Jou Kai” it translate to ‘Daddy Go Away”.

Still Perfect!

2008-06-20T16:20:00.002+08:00

When we take Mimi back to Hsinchu to see her grandma and grandpa, they always say that Mimi is a cute but too chubby. This is mainly because they compare her to her cousin Yankee who has a diet of junk food and formula milk so therefore is super skinny and majorly hyper active (kid is out of control at times!). Therefore to remove all their worries and doubts I have put upon myself to find out what how Mimi and Yankee’s weight and growth developments are by looking it up on the growth index. Here are the current statistics

Mimi –
Gender - Female
Age – 2 year and 1 month
Height – 86 cm or 33.85 inches
Weight – 12.8 kg or 28.219 pounds

Yankee –
Gender – Male
Age – 1 year and 11 months
Height – 87 cm or 34.25 inches
Weight – 10.8 kg or 23.81 pounds

Using the growth calculator, here are the results

Mimi –
Weight is 65th percentile
Height is 35th percentile

Yankee –
Weight is 7th percentile
Height is 51st percentile

So there it is…Yankee is 7th percentile in terms of weight, which is 7 percentage points from declared staving!!! So therefore…thoroughly proven…Mimi is still perfect.

BLAH!

2008-06-19T14:15:00.002+08:00

Mimi the last 2 days when she woke up the first thing she said was that she wants to watch BLAH! So what is BLAH!? Watch this video and you will find out.

Blog Battles

2008-06-17T15:36:00.002+08:00

Annie has her own blog; you can get to it by following my links list. It is in Chinese and it is mostly about her hobbies cooking, baking, stitching, and quilting. When Annie bakes something she usually takes a picture of it and puts it up, the same also when she finishes a quilting project. Well on any particular day Annie will get around 150-250 people visiting her site. They will leave comments and ask questions about how beautiful her finished projects are and also how to make certain things. Annie’s friend Lynn who is quite good with quilting gets about 1000 hits on her site a day!

Annie is quite proud of her 150-250 hits per day average and flaunts it to me periodically. She says my site, this blog is quite boring and that no one would want to read it besides family. I guess to her it’s like a blog battle on who gets read more. She was quite distraught when I told her that probably 100 of her hit are from me.

The fact that probably no one reads this blog is ok with me, however I am very curious on how many people actually read this blog. The only person who ever left a comment has been my sister, and besides her, my parents, and a few friends…I am not sure who else would take their interest in reading some random writings of random events of a random family. I probably get like 2 hits a day and 1 of them is me. However curiosity has gotten hold of me and I have added this little ‘Free Counter’ (as proudly advertised by the free counter website I got it from) at the bottom of this blog. Maybe I am an internet phenomenon and didn’t know it…HAHAHA!!!

Mimi, Banana, and Strawberry

2008-06-13T17:31:00.004+08:00

When Annie and I were dating she told me that she would like to have 3 children, 2 girls and 1 boy. In fact she had already picked out nicknames for her children which are Mimi, Banana, and Strawberry (guess which one is the boy’s). Well after the joy of an 18 hour labor and her having to shove a bowling ball through an apple sized hole, Annie’s desire for having 3 children dwindled to 1.

Recently though, everybody from my friends, family, strangers from the streets, overly friendly taxi drivers, have commented 2 things to Annie and I, that Mimi is very cute and when is baby number 2 coming. My feeling and response in the past has been this. With Mimi I really feel like I hit the jackpot. She is perfect in everyway and I can’t imagine the love I have for her be duplicated or shared with any other baby. Therefore, since lighting doesn’t strike twice in the same place, I have always said Annie and I probably will not have Banana or Strawberry.

However, as Mimi grows up, we have seen how happy being with our children makes her feel. One of Mimi’s playmates is her cousin Yankee. Yankee is younger then Mimi by just 2 months and they both love playing together. You can see how excited Mimi is when seeing Yankee for the first time when she returns to her grandma’s house in Hsinchu.

Seeing Mimi’s interaction with other children, plus the fact that time dulls the memory of labor, has definitely softened Annie and my stance on just having Mimi. This doesn’t mean of course Banana or Strawberry will be coming anytime soon, however it does mean we will not rule out ever having them. After all…when we ask Mimi if she wants a little brother or sister…she always says yes.

Un-Naturalization Process

2008-06-11T16:17:00.002+08:00

Annie left last night for U.S. to fulfill part 133 of step 356 in the manual called the United States Naturalization Process. It's quite an understatement when people say it is harder to become a U.S. citizen nowadays. In total I believe I have spent at least $30,000 USD in travel and application fees to get this far, and supposedly Annie has the easy route in becoming a U.S. citizen by marrying an already U.S. citizen and having an already U.S. citizen child. Unfortunately we did not compute how my ex-pat stay overseas would impact this process. From what I have learned so far is that if this is a normal situation in which I lived in U.S. and Annie and Mimi is living in U.S. it would not be too bad. However anything out of the ordinary such as the person applying for the Naturalization is living outside the U.S…..things get hard and complicated. In these situations no one understands the laws fully and there is no document or manual to tell you what to do. Luckily I think Annie and I are near the end of this process which we started 3 years ago. She left yesterday for biometric fingerprinting (her second) and will be back to Taiwan Saturday morning. She will spend a little of 44 hours in Boise and about that much in planes and airports. The next step will be the citizen interview/test which we will get an appointment after the fingerprinting. If Annie passes the test then she will finally get an unconditional green card which allows her to travel back and forth from America freely.

On the way to the airport I bet Annie $100 NT that Annie’s mom would cry even though she will only be gone 4 days total. Then I bet $50 NT that Annie would cry. Then $10 that Mimi would cry. Annie owes me $160 now.

Mimi cried a lot when Annie left. She said ‘Mama, mama’ over and over. It was very heart breaking.

Mimi and her Pet

2008-06-04T13:39:00.003+08:00

Here is a video of Mimi and her pet bird. We don’t' really let her play with the bird since it is still small and can be easily hurt accidently. Plus it’s a bird…you can’t really play with it. Mimi and Minnie are going to take the bird in its nest to the park today. They are hoping that it will meet its mother and be able to tell her that she is ok....

Home for a While

2008-06-03T12:47:00.004+08:00

It looks like Mimi’s bird will be staying with us for a while. It had an incident with an evil evil kid last Friday (not Mimi) which when I think about it still makes me boiling mad. Needless to say it wasn’t an accident and now the bird who was starting to hop around Friday morning cannot walk. To move it uses its beak and butt to scoot itself around. It’s pretty sad to watch. We took it to the vet on Sunday and luckily the wings are still fine however one of the leg is hurt and the bird can’t use it. It is still eating well so it is a good sign that it will recover. An interesting thing though is that the doctor said that birds do have a sense of cleanliness and they try not to poop inside their nests. This poses a problem for us because since it can’t walk, that means we have to take it out of its nest for it to poop periodically. This reminds me of my friends with dogs, in which during the day they have to go back home and let the dog out to do it’s business however I never heard anybody doing the same thing for a bird. Well since Mimi's bird will be here for a while it is probably time to pick out a name. So far 'Latte' and 'Decaf' has been rejected...

Mimi's Bird - Update

2008-05-29T10:27:00.002+08:00

The baby bird is still alive and kicking. Woke me up around 7:00 am this morning with it's chirping. Mimi fed it cherries and banana yesterday and it's droppings are all red. I hope bird's stomach is ok with a fruit diet. Today will go search for cage and possibly bird feed. Won't name the bird until we are sure it will be ok.

Mimi's....bird

2008-05-29T00:10:00.004+08:00

Mimi went to the park this morning and brought home a bird. The bird is still a baby and 2 other big birds were biting it and pushed it off it's tree. It looks like the left leg and the left wing is hurt or broken. Mimi was the first to find it and insisted on Minnie bringing it back. I'm not really sure what to do with it. It can barely walk and it can't fly and if put back to the park the wild dogs and cats will eat it for sure. Also I know it will break Mimi's heart if we just leave it be. When she woke up from her afternoon nap today the first thing she went was to find the baby bird under the chair where it was standing before. She didn't know that we put it in our front door area and thought the bird was gone. She then ran around the apartment crying and looking for it and won't stop crying until we showed her where it is at. I guess we will try to feed it and get it well. I hope it will live. I don't think I am ready to explain to Mimi about life and death.

Nightly Battles

2008-05-27T14:39:00.004+08:00

Every night Annie, Minnie, and I pit our wit, patience, and strength of will versus Mimi. This is because every night it a battle to get her to go to bed. After she goes to bed it is also a battle to keep her asleep.

Mimi’s sleeping hours is 11:30 pm to 9:30 am which happens to be to be very close to Annie and mine sleeping hours. This is because unless Mimi knows that we have turned off all the lights and that everyone is actually in bed, she will have someone she can keep playing with. After lights out Mimi then tries every trick she can think of to get us to turn the lights back on. This includes running around, jumping and climbing on things, peeing, pooping, wanting nana, wanting nana again, bring her toys back into the room, trying to read a book, pretending to sleep on the floor, etc… When we finally have her convinced it is time for bed, then she decides who she wants to sleep with, either with Annie and me, or with Minnie. This involves a long process of going back and forth between the rooms bringing her pillow and blanket here and there. After all this and the fact she is dead tired, she will pick a room, lie down, and finally go to sleep within 5 minutes.

Sleeping is another battle. In Minnie's room it is ok because Mimi has a big bed for herself. When Mimi is sleeping with Annie and I, it becomes much more problematic. Mimi is a light sleeper, and she also tosses and turns all over the bed. Therefore when she tosses and turns and hits either me or Annie, she will wake up and start crying. So to keep her asleep Annie and I have to position ourselves so that Mimi occupies the maximum area of the bed. Therefore we end up sleeping like this where normally I would be at the bottom edge of the bed…

There are other configurations but usually it is Annie and I sleep in an L shape occupying 2 edges of the bed and the rest of the bed goes to Mimi. Someday Mimi will sleep by herself and will get her own bed, until then all we can do is keep up our strengths and hope that this little girl won’t make 3 grown adults go crazy.

Traumatic Band-Aid Experience

2008-05-26T13:19:00.002+08:00

Mimi actually likes to watch these videos I have of her. Every time I am on my computer she will come up to me and say ‘Watch Mimi’. Then I open up the folder with her videos and she selects the thumbnails of the videos she likes to watch. Her recent favorite is this one which is her first experience of us trying to put a band-aid on her. Mimi about 2 weeks ago had a mosquito bite and she kept scratching it until the skin broke. So in order to decrease the risk of infection we decide to put a band-aid on the wound. I guess for her it was quite a traumatizing experience as you will see. Luckily she got over it and is able to laugh about it now. When she watches this video she would say ‘Mimi likes to cry’ and when I ask her if putting on a band-aid hurts she smiles and say ‘no hurt’.

Diet Update - Curiosity and Malnutrition

2008-05-22T00:02:00.002+08:00

I am not sure if I really like this diet. I think it has results however it’s more like losing weight due to malnutrition then actual losing weight in a healthy fashion. Also I think this diet is tailored for all the soft Taiwan guys in which weighing 120 pounds is considered already overweight. It isn’t for the average 200 pound American overweight guy. Right now I think my system is in shock because my hands are shaking, however it could also be due to the vast amounts of black coffee I have been injusting. 3 days though doesn’t seem enough. Right now my curiosity of seeing how far I can take this is outweighing my bodily urges to drown myself in a McDonalds Big Mac. So we will see how it goes….

Taiwan’s Past and Future

2008-05-21T21:07:00.001+08:00

Yesterday marks the day in which Taiwan inaugurated its third presidential elect Ma Yin Jo. It might come as a surprise that Taiwan, as unstable as its relationship with China, is one of Asia’s freest societies. It is one of the few nations in Asia which can elect its own president and has vast freedoms of speech and press, so much so that it is actually hurtful to the image of Taiwan. You see on TV people screaming at each other, politicians throwing things at each other, and even saying very disrespectful and uncultured things to everyone and anyone including the president. However that is Taiwan, you take the good and the bad which comes with freedom. This freedom actually only started recently. Taiwan held its first presidential elections in 1996. In 2000 history was made when the ruling party KMT, who ruled Taiwan for over 50 years through its martial law period, was ousted for the pro-independence party DDP. This year the KMT regained the presidency with its softer stance on Taiwan/China relations.

My family was quite disappointed with the outcome of the election this year. Our family has a very negative history with the KMT government back in its martial rule period. Several things happen from back then which can never be forgiven. However the present is what it is and the Taiwan people has made its choice. The DDP party will need to grow and learn from this defeat. For KMT and President Ma, though the viewpoints are different everyone wants Taiwan and Taiwan people to be prosperous, I wish him luck.

The Battle of Weights

2008-05-19T23:43:00.001+08:00

It is very true that American portions are much bigger then Asia portions, for example take the American chain restaurant Burger King. If in Taiwan you order a Whopper, it only packs about ¾’s the whop compare to the American Whopper, and the BK Big Fish…not so big over here. Also in Asia there is a lot more emphasis on eating vegetables while in U.S. I can’t really think of a vegetable dish outside of salads…potatoes don’t count. Therefore you can see why Americans are easily more overweight on an average compare to Asia.

All my life it seems I have had a battle to maintain in ideal weight…well from ages 0-6 I think I was considered skinny, then I moved to U.S. and my skinny phase was over. I didn’t get back on the right track until around middle school when I was playing basketball and running a lot. College was really bad but after college I worked out obsessively and got my weight down until about 5 years ago when I came to Portland and started my job at Pixelworks. The new job required a lot of traveling and it is very hard to keep up a habit when you constantly have to adapt to travel situation and places. Since then I have to say I have put on weight and need to take off more then just a couple pounds.

So Annie has been pushing me to try this 3 day diet. Today was my first day and it has been….weird. Here is the menu for today

Breakfast –
1. 1 Toast with peanut butter
2. Half a grapefruit
3. 1 cup black coffee
Lunch –
1. 1 toast with tuna
2. 1 cup black coffee
Dinner –
1. 3 ounces of meat
2. 1 apple
3. 1 cup green beans
4. 1 cup grapes
5. 1 cup black coffee

If I happen to get hungry during the day I can drink as much black coffee or green tea as I want.

So this is my diet for the next 3 days. I have made it through the first day so far and feeling bit strange. When I get hungry I drink black coffee which suppresses the feeling and now I am totally high on caffeine mixed in with intermitten hunger and suger low. So we will see how this diet goes by end of Wednesday, I have a feeling the effectiveness will be minimal. I just hope that someday someone really brilliant will be able to make a real diet pill in which will allow you to lose weight however still eat everything and anything you want.

Mimi's Second Birthday 5/15/2008

2008-05-16T00:01:00.007+08:00

The Month of May seems to hold a lot of personal significance for me. It is the month in which Annie and I first got together as a couple, it is the month in which we got married, but most importantly...it is the month in which Mimi was born. This year we celebrated much more lower key then Mimi’s first birthday. For Mimi’s first birthday there was a huge party with buffet for 30 people and balloons. In the Chinese culture the first month and the first year is pretty important for the child. I guess in old China kids were having problems living to those points so it is marked traditionally with big celebrations (If you follow tradition you aren’t even suppose to name the child until after it’s first month!).

For Mimi’s second birthday I took half day off work and we took her to Sheraton Afternoon Buffet which is one of the best buffets in town. Annie’s mom and dad came up to celebrate it with us, Annie made a cake, and Barbara’s and my parent’s gift made it just in time. Overall I enjoyed this birthday more then last years. Last year was a party, but this year was for Mimi and us. The only thing that could have made it better was if my family was here also. Here is a message from Mimi to you Barbara, mom, dad. Enjoy!

Happy Happy Weekend!!!

2008-05-13T11:39:00.002+08:00

Sorry about the lateness of this post, I had the hardest time getting hold of a color scanner. However, persistence prevailed and I finally got what I need to update this blog.

This past weekend there were 2 happy occasions. The first is May 10th being Josh Peterson’s 31st birthday. Josh has been one of my best, and one of the first, friends I made when I moved to United States way back in 1984. We were both in the second grade and he wanted to be my friend because he thought I was a ninja and that I could teach him the secret ancient eastern martial arts. Since then we have been through grade school and high school, hiked the Grand Canyon, and he being best man for my wedding. I don’t know many people who can say they have friends since they were 6 years old. When people ask me how we stayed such good friends for so long, I have always replied that I don’t have many friends, but the ones I make are the best. Here is a picture of our second grade class. Josh is the one in front on very left with our teachers hand on his left shoulder. Guess who the ninja of the class was.

The second event was of course Mother’s Day on May 11, 2008. When I was young I didn’t really appreciate everything my mom did for my sister and I. Being young and stupid you kind of take everything for granted. It wasn’t until when I left home the first time for college that I start understanding, and it wasn’t until I had Mimi when I knew. From moving to U.S. to raising us up in Boise Idaho which was alien of a place back then as Mars, the time, effort, sacrifices my parents did for me and my sister cannot be described. I just hope that we turned out to be a son and daughter and they can be proud of and that Annie and I can raise Mimi as good as they did for me. This picture is one of the oldest pictures of mom, Barbara, and I. I think it must have been taken around 1981. Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!

Third Anniversary

2008-05-08T00:04:00.003+08:00

Annie recently was reading my blog and said 'hey how come it's all about Mimi and there is nothing about me in it?'. Well this is unfortunately true and in my defense I pointed out that there is very little about me in there also. It's not that there is nothing interesting about me or Annie, it's more that since Mimi came along...all of our pictures, home videos, time, basically our life centered on her. So my blog tend to reflect that, plus Mimi is just super photogenic. Something interesting to note is that Mimi's Chinese name is Xin-Yu which can be interpreted to mean 'center of the universe'.

However today, May 7th 2008, is the perfect day to talk about Annie and I because 3 years ago on this day we got married. To celebrate, Annie and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in Taipei...the Antoine Room in Sheraton Hotel. French food that I swear tasted better than anything I had when I was in France. Great food served in tiny portions through 7 courses.

So Annie a couple weeks before our anniversary digs up in the archives this video which I have not seen since...well May 7, 2005. This is the actual movie which was played in our intro during the wedding dinner. When I watched this video I get all red and plug my ears because it is extremely sappy, very corny, and utterly disgusting. However everything I said in here, to this day, is still completely true. I love Annie very much and I am an extremely lucky guy to have met and married her. Enjoy the video, and oh yeah...if you can't stand sappiness like me, try turning off the audio

Mimi - The Starbuck Poster Child

2008-05-05T15:27:00.007+08:00

So I own some shares of Starbucks stocks and yes I know Starbucks has this bad reputation as a big evil corporation which has it’s tentacles in everything. However...I know deep down you thought ‘Akeelah and the Bee’ was a entertaining good wholesome family movie and though it was drubbed ‘The Starbucks Movie’ because they provided the funding, there was not one sign of the coffee goddess symbol or a person downing a cup of joe in the whole movie. Plus you got to give the guys who started this company some credit for being smart and innovative because if someone came to me and said they were going to start a store which sells a commodity product at a premium price I would have just laughed and told them they were crazy.

It seems though that reputation sometimes precedes good financial planning because despite constantly outperforming its financial goals, the Seattle company’s stocks has been steadily declining and trading undervalue for over 1 year now. Therefore to stop the hurt of my profolio I think Starbucks should make Mimi their poster child.

It is my belief that when people start seeing pictures like these they will start associating Starbucks with Mimi’s attributes of cuteness, lovability, innocence, and her open joy of drinking a short, 1/3 foam, caramel topped, whole steamed milk from Starbucks. Yes this is a marketing plan which will definitely work. As for payment…well Mimi doesn’t ask for much, maybe free steamed milk and some of those mango cup pudding she really likes. Throwing a couple hundred grands to her poor college tuition saving parents would be nice though.....

Lin's Internal Family Accident Report: April 30, 2008

2008-05-02T11:41:00.006+08:00

On the night of April 30, 2008, while in the middle of the her usual hyper active jumping on the bed excercise, Micole A. Lin (aka Mimi) slipped off the end of the bed, fell forward and struck her forehead on the hard floor. The bed lies approximately 1 feet above the ground. Luckily there were no bleeding or severe injuries just some swelling in the forehead area. After a bout of tears which subsided when comforted by her mother Annie Hsu, Mimi's nanny Minnie immediately applied first aid in the form of a pack of ice to reduce the swelling. Attached is the physical evidence of the scene.

Witnesses include the victim's father Jim Lin who has the foresight to document this tragedy in a short but incredible cute video testimonial from the victim.

Apocalyptics Sign

2008-04-30T17:57:00.004+08:00

Growing up in Northwest U.S., the only thing that really gives me the creeps was spiders. That is until I moved to Taiwan. A little geography lesson to those unfamiliar with Taiwan, Taiwan has a subtropical climate with what feels like 200% humidity and average temperature of 90 in the summer and 75 in the winter. With 26 million people on this island producing waste and building vast infrastructure, Taiwan is the perfect home and breeding ground for the ever lasting, ever pervasive cockroach.

So why has the cockroach has replaced the spider on my list of most detested things, because Taiwan's cockroach are super fast, harder to kill, and are everywhere even though they usually the themselves well in the dark crevices of the earth and building. They are about the only thing that really creeps me out. That is way this morning on the way to work I had a mini 'end of days' episode which I will never forget.

Every once in a while in order to control the population of cockroaches in Taiwan, the Taiwan government would spray pesticides in the gutters and under the streets. Well they did that to the street in between my apartment and the bus stop. When they spray the pesticide, all the cockroaches come out of hiding and run wild. My god I thought I was in my own version of private hell. There were cockroaches EVERYWHERE. Half dead, dead and on their backs, crushed by cars or motorcycles, many still running around trying to find relief from whatever chemicals is killing their nervous system. It was a sight you don't ever want to see and one unlikely I will ever forget. This is definitely one of the things I won't miss when I leave Taiwan.

Left and Right

2008-04-29T11:52:00.005+08:00

Annie and I went back to Hsinchu for the weekend and we were stuck watching and taking care Mimi and Yankee. Needlessly to say it was a very long weekend. I equate a task like this with being forced to watch an episode of the old sitcom 'Full House' over and over again, the kids are cute but outside of that everything else is mind numbing and brain dead. After more then 3 hours you just want to bang your head against the wall just too feel something. The problem of course is that we cannot just turn off the TV or open a book because unlike real life, this TV has tendency to blow up or destroy things if you don't pay attention.

To pass the day we take the kids out on their cute little bikes to the park or the nearby marketplace. The marketplace has a lot of food, cheap trinkets from China which are probably deadly to children, and also games kids can play. One of the games Mimi likes is to throw these golf balls and try to hit these targets on this table for points. Mimi's strength in throwing is very good but her accuracy needs much work. During this game I noticed that Mimi used a lot of her left hand to throw the balls. Then once in a while she would switch to her right and throw the ball.

So Mimi is almost 2 years old and I don’t really know if she is left or right handed. Annie thinks she is left handed but cannot be for sure. I have seen Mimi use a spoon and hold a pencil with the left hand and right hand. Right now it seems to me like she uses whichever hand is most convenient to the object she is trying to grab. Therefore is the object happens to be on her left side she uses her left hand, and if it happens to be near her right she uses her right hand. Either way it will be fine, being left handed in this world is a little harder I expect. However 10% of the population is left handed and they seem to live pretty well. Of course it could be that Mimi hasn’t made up her mind on weather to be left or right handed and is trying all options to see which one is the better. From Mimi I would expect nothing less.

Baby Smarts

2008-04-25T23:58:00.004+08:00

My Aunt and Uncle from Omaha came to Taiwan for vacation and me, Annie, and Mimi had dinner with them 2 nights ago at a Beijing Restaurant at the Westin Hotel. We had to special order the Beijing duck in advance and it was very very good. One of the best thing about eating Beijing Duck is that like chicken the best part is the skin, well Beijing Duck basically 80% of it is just skin. So health-wise it is bad for you but it tastes oh so good.

This is the first time my uncle has met Mimi so we were doing the usual introductions in which we had Mimi perform a lot of the cute things we taught her to do for the pleasure of the adults she meets, Mimi's monkey expression has always been a hit wherever she goes:-).

Mimi is at the age where she talks quite a bit in actual language. During the dinner my aunt commented that Mimi understands a lot and is really smart. Of course as a father I automatically agreed because to me Mimi constantly amazes me with what she knows and what she can do. To me she is the smartest child in the world, but of course I am obviously furiously biased towards her. However if I look objectively at Mimi and compare her to other kids I have met, here are the things I noticed about her.

Mimi understands a lot more then the usual child. Her ability to mimic and to demonstrate words through movement is incredible and her understanding vocabulary is just amazing. However her pronunciation and speaking is just so so. Actually I think this is more me, Annie's, and also Minnie's fault since in our household we speak 3 versions of Chinese and 3 versions of English. Annie's Chinese is of course excellent, Minnie's Chinese has very good vocabulary however heavily accented, and me...well I just speak like a 3rd grader. This tends to confuse Mimi and so her pronunciation turns out to be not quite standard. However despite the confusion she can say a lot of words already and she can effectively communicate with us even though I swear at times she looks at us like we are complete idiots.

So as a project I am going to list the words that Mimi can say by age 2. The words might not be exactly the right pronunciation however it must have a direct meaning. I will continue the list, for I am sure I will not be able to remember it all at once, until 3 weeks from now 5/15 which happens to be Mimi's 2nd birthday. This way I will always remember this many years from now.

First Mimi Video Posted!!

2008-04-23T07:47:00.004+08:00

Yeah got my first Mimi video up!!! I had to down convert it though because the original was 500 MB, so the quality will not be as good as the original. I don't know what blogger does either when uploading because it does it's own processing. But it should be watchable and you should be able to see Mimi. Video is in Chinese though so practice up!

Cute Angels Biker Club!!

2008-04-21T16:49:00.002+08:00

Wanted - recruits for the newly created Cute Angels Biker Gang. Must have cute personality, cute sense of fashion, and overall just be very cute. Must own multi-colored tricycle with squeaky horn or some type of noise maker, smiley faces and green dinosaurs are optional but a definite plus.

As co-gang leader Yankee Hsu quotes and is depicted in this picture "We are looking to be the number one cutest biker gang in the world and no one can stop us!" He puts his index finger up in the air to show that 'yes' he does know what the number "1" means.

Rides include tours of fabulous Hsinchu Park and Zoo starting between the hours of 10 and 11 am and return in time for lunch and nap time. Please bring own Na-Na.

Hot Spring Hotel and Spa

2008-04-21T15:40:00.006+08:00

Last week Annie and I went to one of the Hot Spring Hotels in which Taiwan is famous for. There are several up in the mountains and since Taiwan is on a major geological thermal fault or something like that (Josh should know what the term is), most of them feature hot springs in which customers can relax while being away from the city. Annie and I went to one close to Taipei in Ging-San (Gold Mountain). It was Japanese themed and featured in-room hot spring as were a 5 outdoor springs with good scenery. They provided dinner and breakfast and also spa treatment. It was pretty nice overall, the hot springs and spa was good, dinner was ok. Also since it was trying to follow the whole Japanese style, there wasn't any bed and you actually sleep on the floor. Annie didn't have any problems sleeping but I would have preferred a real bed. However I would say the fault is more in my soft western body instead if the hotels.

So for spa Annie choose a oil massage with something in which they wrapped her in aluminum foil then bathed her in some gunk which is suppose to make her skin all bright and shiny. For me I would have preferred they gave my portion to Annie since I am not a big fan of massages, however since this was not an option I went with the Cupping Massage. Now I have seen the pamphlets they are always all so soothing in which they tell about how the cupping therapy will 'releases rigid soft tissue; drain excess fluids and toxins; loosen adhesions and lift connective tissue; and bring blood flow to stagnant skin and muscles', they show nice and relaxing pictures like this

This is all front to cover us what you have to go through to achieve all the nice things you get out of this therapy. It is painful and the only relaxation I had was when it was all over and they pain has stopped. If they use just cups then I think it would be ok, however they also use these long suction things which they run up and down your back which just kills you. Here is what my back looked up right after
I wonder how popular this massage would be if they put pictures like this in their pamphlets?

The Generic 'Mimi is Cutest Baby In The World!!' Posting

2008-04-18T14:08:00.004+08:00

My sister said I should post the pictures of Mimi when we took her to the garden the other day because is she sooooooo cute. I said 'I know but what can I write about it except that she is really cute'. So this is the generic 'Mimi is Cutest Baby In The World' posting, I imagine there will be many of these in the future. Nothing really to say except that Mimi was in the garden downstairs in our condo building, we had the camera, we took the pictures, and Mimi proved to me again she is the cutest baby in the world!!!:-)

Baby Dreams

2008-04-17T10:09:00.002+08:00

Around 7 am this morning Mimi started crying in her sleep and she said out loud, really loud, 'AH-YI!!! FISH, BUY, FISH!!!'. After a couple pats and reassuring sounds she promptly fell back to sleep. Apparently yesterday afternoon Mimi's Nanny Mini (Mimi calls her Ah-Yi which means aunt in Chinese) took Mimi to the market to buy fish for her to eat. So Mimi seems to be having a nightmare about that trip. I don't know what she was dreaming about, maybe Ah-Yi didn't want to buy her a fish that she wants or something but it seemed pretty traumatic the way she was crying.

It's funny what baby dreams at times. Their life right now must be an endless amount of learning, eating, sleeping, playing, diaper changing, and discoveries. Seems like a great life to me. I remember sometimes while Mimi is sleeping she would start laughing and smiling, other times she would wake up crying. Maybe she was dreaming about no more Na-Na (baby milk in Chinese), or maybe her playmate Yankee was picking on her, or in last night's case...Ah-Yi wasn't buying her the fish she wanted. Whatever it is, it is probably best to try to keep the baby happy when going to sleep, better chances for the good dreams.

Mimi's New Ride

2008-04-17T01:20:00.003+08:00

Introducing the first Mimi Mobile! It's lightweight, hot pink, and has an elephant in the front. Large storage basket in the back for all your diaper and bottle needs, actual rubber tires, and an array of loud happy music which are designed to put a smile on children's faces and a grimance on others.

Straight from South Africa

2008-04-16T00:52:00.004+08:00

This one is for you Barbara. It's finally summer in Taiwan and it finally fits Mimi. Thanks, doesn't she look cute in it!

Decade Number 4

2008-04-15T13:52:00.008+08:00

So I just realize while talking to a friend that I am starting my 4th decade of life. So at 30 maybe you have some argument saying that it is the end of your 3rd decade instead of the start of your 4th, however at 31 you are definately starting on your 4th decade.

My 3rd decade was a good decade overall, graduated from college, joined the working mass (still deciding if that is a good point or bad point), got married, Mimi was born. Still have my health and hair even though it is not as in good of shape as it was in the beginning of the 3rd decade.

In celebration of the start of my 4th decade Annie took me to a really really good Sukiyaki restaurant in Taipei. All you can eat for 90 minutes and the food and meat is really really good (have I mentioned it was really really good?). When we got home Annie baked a Opera Cake for me too. So overall not a bad start to decade number 4.

First Entry!!!!

2008-04-14T13:07:00.004+08:00

Yeah!!! Finally got this blog site up and running. Been talking about it for quite some time but always put off creating a blog since it seems like quite a bit of work. However I figure today IS my birthday (4/14) and I AM 31, that this would be as good of a time to start as any.

Since this is the first entry I was thinking maybe I should introduce myself, however most likely if you are reading this you know me already and you are just wondering what I am going to write. Well the answer to that is 'I don't know'. All I know is that this site probably will have a lot of picture of my cute daughter...and that is about it for now. Maybe I will talk about how my other parts of my life are once in a while but I don't know. However there are a couple things I know I won't be talking about in this blog, I call these 'things I can't stand from reading other peoples blogs that I swear I will never do in my blog'. They are

1. NO WHINING, NO COMPLAINING - like all people I get unhappy at times and I wish for things which I can't have. Overall though I think I am pretty lucky in life especially in face of all the other happenings in the world. So I promise I will try not to whine or complain about life and if you catch me doing it, please feel free to tell me to 'SUCK IT UP"
2. No Philosophical Musings - OK...I realize in this world there are lots of people more deeper then me, however I just don't get it when people can see a leaf blow by during their walk to work that morning and associate it with the ambiguities and randomness of life. So no musings on this site, sorry everyone I am just not that smart.

OK that's it for the first entry. Now I will attempt to figure out how to post cute pictures and movies of Mimi (you kind of see what 80% of this site will be of:-))