Happy New Year!

HAPPY 2009 EVERYONE!
We had a pretty lame New Years Eve but we have a good excuse. Apparently, Jenny wasn't up for going out and dancing until 5 in the morning. What kind of 9 month pregnant woman doesn't want to go out and get her freak on?
Actually, I wasn't the least bit interested in going out either. Teaching until 9:30 pm kind of wore me out.
So instead, the three of us and Bao Bao sat in bed and watched the fireworks go off on Taipei 101 at midnight. Teak was being anti-social and sleeping in the living room.

Anyways, I hope you have a great 2009!

Check Up

We had another check up today. The baby is fine but starting to get quite big for Jenny's small frame. She wants to give birth naturally but the doctor is kind of hinting that it might be a bad idea. His estimated weight today is 7.27lbs. The doctor was very surprised that he had grown so much in a week. (Must have been the Christmas turkey.)If we have him this week, it shouldn't be much of a problem as he is perfectly positioned and has a very strong heart beat. However,if he decides to hold on until the due date, which is January 7th, she might need a C-Section. The weight is an estimate though, so maybe he isn't as big as the doctor thinks he is. The Taiwanese are pretty damn good at math though, so I would bet the doctor is damn close in her estimation.

Jenny is doing well though. Her feet are starting to resemble those of Fred Flintstone's but I have resisted the urge to burst out, "Yabba Dabba Dooo!" when she walks into the room. She can't see her feet, so we will just pretend that they do not look like they could power a car with stone wheels and a brontosaurus in the backseat.

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope this finds you all well and/or drunk. We had a great Xmas which was a welcome surprise because I thought it was going to be a pretty quiet one. We ended up scrounging together a last minute Christmas party at our place though and we had a lot of fun. I got an Elmo Live toy for Christmas. Jenny saw me watching a video of him on the internet and laughing my ass off so she bought one for me. It is going to be so fun to buy toys again. They are getting cooler and cooler every year. The cats aren't too impressed with Elmo but he is definitely a party pleaser. (Which I will get to later.) A package of freshly baked cookies from my mom arrived in the afternoon and after a workout, I got to cooking. I have a whole new respect for those of you that have been cooking us turkey dinners for the last 30 years. That is damn time consuming. But again the booze helped.


Later on, Terry, Tricia and two new friends from Madison named Eric and Sara joined us. They just moved in upstairs. So it is great to have a couple of cool people in our building. Terry was hysterical as usual and later one of my best friends here named Mike joined us. He has been living in Kaoshiung for the last couple of years but has moved back to Tainan. So we are spending a lot of time together again. You might remember hearing about him ages ago. He is the one that took me in as a total stranger when I first arrived in Taiwan. He taught me how to ride a scooter and sold me my first motorcycle. He is the only guy I know that likes babies as much as I do and has been very helpful in keeping me calm. He even went out and bought us a really expensive Baby Snuggly which is totally perfect. I felt guilty though as it cost a fortune.




I am definitely starting to feel the nerves now. Jenny, however, is a rock and says she isn't worried at all. I wish I could be as chill as her. I told her a couple of months ago to take off her rings before her hands started to swell too much. She took off her engagement and wedding rings but left one ring on. Long story short, her hands became so swollen yesterday that we couldn't get it off no matter what we tried. She finally went to a jeweler today and had to have it cut off. Luckily it was just silver. They said that they probably wouldn't have been able to cut off the platinum wedding bands. Anyways, I digress...
Dinner was great and mom's cookies proves a big hit as did Elmo. After dinner everyone sat around listening to him tell stories and jokes. Then, we forgot about him and got back to our conversations. A few minutes later I was telling everyone a story, while Elmo sat quietly next to my chair. Just as I was getting to the punchline, Elmo stood up through back his head and let out a loud yawn which brought the house down. It was perfect comedic timing on his part and slightly creepy.


So Christmas turned out to be as perfect as it could be on the other side of the world. We wish we were there with all of you but will be soon. Along with our boy.
Happy Holidays and be careful on those snowy roads!
Lot'sa Love!

PS If you click on Elmo at the top right of my blog, you can see him in action.

Christmas Party

A Quickie

Not too much new to report in this neck of the woods. Baby is good. Jenny is good. I am good. Life is good. We were thinking we wouldn't have any presents under the tree this year and then a massive box showed up from my dad and Sue stuffed with gifts. So now the tree looks awesome.
I have been recruited to be Santa Claus at our school's Christmas party this year. Jonathon usually does it but he is flying home for Christmas. I think about 150 kids have signed up to come and they always bring their little brothers and sisters. So I probably won't be able to walk by Christmas day. December 20th is going to kill me. I will play Santa from 9:00 am to 12:00 and then drive across the city and teach from 12:30 to 8:30. Santa will need a lotta whiskey come 9pm.

We had an ultrasound two weeks ago and everything looks great. The baby is gaining weight at a perfect rate and his heart beat is really strong. His estimated weight was about 6.2 pounds. The damn doctor keeps expressing how big our baby's head is. So much for bedside manners. Poor Jenny has enough to worry about without a doctor telling her that her son has a huge melon every visit. Accordingly, we have decided to name him, "Head." Jenny can't think of any good Chinese names for him. It is tradition in Taiwan that fortune-tellers name the baby. They look at his time of birth, his weight, the astrological alignment, what the turtle shell says and a bunch of other ridiculous things and then give the baby a name which will bring him the best luck throughout his life. It seems more like how an Ewok would name a baby. I am dead set against this as Taiwanese fortune tellers are just a bunch of jokers that can't get a real job and spend half their time terrifying their customers with tales of hauntings, coming misfortune and impending doom. All of which result in them burning more ghost money to appease the spiteful spirits. So I have told my students that if one of them can find us the name we will use- I will buy them a cool present. Alas, I have taught them for quite some time and they have picked up on my sense of humor. Thus, most of the names so far are quite odd and/or twisted.

I have begun teaching my students a lot more about global warming and moral responsibility in regards to saving the Earth. It is quite depressing to see the kids outside their homes burning toxic ghost money weekly. Last week was so bad that I could not even see their school from 4 blocks away. (Which was actually the worst I have ever seen it in six years.) This is partly due to the winds bringing over all the smoke from China.

In one class, a student said, "Most people don't actually believe that the ghost money goes to ghosts but we do it just in case." So I told him that it was maybe time the Taiwanese tell the ghosts to go get a job. They thought that was pretty funny and then one student said, "But not all the money we burn is for ghosts- some goes to the Gods." To which I exclaimed, "Why would a God need money? They are a God!" They thought about this for a few seconds and started laughing hysterically. Maybe there is hope for them yet.

Anyways, that is all for now but I will post some pics of the Christmas party tomorrow.