It's A Boy

Well… once again my father is right, as he will no doubt be telling you the next time you see him. We are having a baby boy and are really excited about it. The last couple of weeks, Jenny had started referring to the baby as him and while out for dinner with Andrew last week, she said she was pretty sure it was going to be a boy. I sometimes hear her in the next room talking to her belly and telling him to wake up. The ultra-sound this morning proved our instincts right as my baby boy’s junk popped up on the LCD screen very clearly.



The blood work, heart rate, internal organs etc. all look very healthy and Jenny has gained three kilograms in the last four weeks. She wears it well. So we now get to start decorating the nursery which is really exciting. Christmas time in Canada is going to be insane with this many baby boys running around!

Take A Hike

Sorry for the lack of updates lately but I didn’t want to post more blogs without pictures. Speaking of which, this website BLOGGER sucks for photo options. It took me two hours to try and organize photos on here and it just wasn't happening. It either moves my text into weird places or puts all the photos at the top or bottom. So you are stuck with it looking ghetto until someone tells me a better way to do it. I got my camera back from the shop yesterday, so it’s game on. As you can see Jenny’s belly is growing fast and she looks great. I will try to get a better photo of it tomorrow, she is too tired tonight. She hasn’t been sick once during the whole pregnancy and the only real complaint I have heard from her is that her feet hurt after work- which is to be expected. She has cut down the hours she teaches and quit her kindergarten job because it is too hard to constantly be squatting, bending over and chasing twenty 5 year-olds around. They are also constantly sick which worried us. We don’t want them passing something on to her.
The baby is kicking up a storm and we are pretty sure he or she is party ninja. We are heading to the doctor’s office tomorrow morning to find out if it is a boy or girl and are both very excited. We bought the crib this week and it was delivered yesterday. Every time I walk past it, a wave of excitement and happiness runs through me. We are trying to figure out how to decorate the nursery. Any theme ideas? I am thinking "Blade Runner" meets "Snoopy."



I am doing pretty well. It is ghost month right now though. The Taiwanese believe all the ghosts in hell get to come out for one month of the year to party. (Seriously.) To keep the ghosts from hurting them, they avoid swimming, whistling at night, placing their shoes together and a ton of other strange things. Alas, to further protect themselves from the sinister ghouls of the netherworld, they burn truck loads of their toxic ghost money. This has once again given me bronchitis and a sore throat. So when Andrew asked if Jenny and I wanted to go for a hike with him and his girlfriend Sammy in Tainan County- we were all in. Sammy has a car which makes it easier to get out of the city. I can’t drive long on the bikes because my back gets too sore. I realized today I need to get out of the city more and check out the rest of Taiwan. It has been a stupidly long time since I got out of the neon jungle and had honestly forgotten how beautiful Taiwan was.
After about 45 minutes of driving, we were up in the mountains, parked the car and armed with a bottle of whiskey started walking up a jungle path to what we were told was a swimming hole and waterfall. I was a little worried about Jenny hiking at almost 6 months pregnant but she plowed on without complaint and just waved away my concerns. We eventually got to a nice spot at the bottom of a ravine. A small creek winded its way through the slate walls and thick tropical foliage climbed up both sides. The rest of the way would require both hands and feet to navigate. Jenny was happy to just rest by the creek. So Sammy, Andrew and I scaled the river bank another 15 minutes and got to a beautiful waterfall and a small little lagoon cut into the rock. It was a little piece of paradise and would have been even better if I hadn’t left the whiskey back with Jenny. Andrew and I dived in and found that you could actually sit behind the waterfall. After cooling off, we headed back down to Jenny.



Speaking of swimming, the kids go back to school tomorrow, which means I can finally start swimming at the pool again! I am very excited to get back into shape. Before summer vacation started, I was in the best shape of my life but haven’t been able to swim laps the last three months because the pool is so crowded.

Jerk Baby

We went to the clinic today to finally find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We have been putting off buying anything or decorating the nursery until we know the sex. Alas, our baby, who is apparently really stubborn and/or conservative refused to show us his/her private parts. It kept moving but every time it did, it would place a different body party in the way. After about 3 minutes of trying to coax the baby to move its foot, leg and hand and out of the way, the doctor finally gave up. So it will be yet another month before we can find out.
The baby is obviously taking after Jenny already though as I will pretty much show my genitalia to anyone. (And am totally not stubborn!)

Back From Boracay

This is not really a baby related post but I got back from Boracay late last night and thought I would post about it. The island is my new favorite place. Hands down the nicest beaches, reefs and people I have met in the 13 countries I have wandered through.
Unfortunately, I got sick my second to last day there and spent my final days throwing up in my hotel room and didn't get to do half the things I wanted to. I have the worst stomach!

Our first evening there, we were sitting on the roof top bar of a hotel as the sun was setting and I started seeing dozens of huge eagles flying across the sky. Then, the bartender pointed at them and said, "Batman." Then I realized they were not eagles but the giant fruit bats. They were unbelievably big. Like flying dogs. Or the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. (Which terrify my mother.) My camera couldn't get any decent photos of them though as it was too dark.

We rented a sail boat for the day and went snorkeling off of some of the reefs and caves by Boracay. I have never seen so many colorful fish in my life. We were literally being swarmed in them. Every fish you have ever seen in an aquarium and many you haven't were schooling inside and out of the reefs and lava formed caves. I could have spent days just diving down and watching all the life. At one point, I asked Peter if he had seen the Moonfish. He hadn't, so I told him to look down and I would draw it out. So he excitedly stared on wide-eyed in anticipation. Once I got to the bottom I whipped out my ass and gave him a lovely bird's eye view of the majestic Moonfish. He began choking and thrashing about. Now anytime I bring up the Moonfish he complains that he can't get that sight out of his mind.

As Peter is a DJ, we spent a lot of time playing at the beach bars and made a ton of new friends. The Filipino people are incredibly warm, outgoing and charming. We spent just about every night listening to good music and dancing in the sand under the stars.

Coming home was hell however. I was still really sick and because they had just opened the new airport in Manila the day before, half of it was not working. Our plane was delayed 4 hours and there still was no restaurants or shops in the place. So we spent a total of seven hours in the place with only a hot dog and coffee stand for nourishment. Both of which are not what you want to be consuming when you are deathly ill. I got so sick on the plane that the stewardesses gave me medicine to bring down the fever. I am amazed I made it through quarantine. I was so hungry, sick and tired when we finally got back to Kaoshiung, that I just paid a cab $60 to drive me to Tainan. Anyways, it was great to come home to Jenny, the baby belly and the two cats. She still is not very big. We are going for another check up tomorrow and should find out if it is a boy or a girl. So tune in shortly for an update.

Or maybe I won't tell you. Then it will be a surprise.