One Week Until Summer Holidays

Starting August 1st, we have 5 days off, so we are going to borrow Jenny's cousin's car and drive to the south of the island in Kenting. From there, we will work our way up the East Coast, almost all the way to the top. I have been living in Taiwan for over 6 years and despite it being the same size as Vancouver Island, have never seen the other side of the island. I keep hearing good things, so I am really looking forward to it. I think we will bring Jenny's laptop with us, so I will probably blog from the road.
Drai is doing well. As you can see in the video, he is quite mobile now. He somehow cut his forehead this morning. I think he fell against the wall but am not sure. He cried until I picked him up and then quickly forgot about it. It makes him look tougher. His new favorite toy is this big foam dice. He is most likely destined to become a gambler.
I want to try and find him a big Tonka dump truck. I think he will like it a lot. I am not sure if I will be able to track one down here or not. He has added new noises to his vocabulary including "Mum mum."

Videos for Grand Parents

Discovery

<--- Our friend Zoya and Drai last Sunday.




Find it. Smash it.

That is Drai's new hobby. If it is in reach. He will find it and throw it on the floor. I am neither disturbed or surprised by this. I knew it was only a matter of time and also knew that any 6 month old as mobile as Drai would be breaking stuff in no time. It is pretty funny actually. Basically, if he can reach something on any surface, he will grab it, inspect it, taste it and then usually toss it onto the floor. Precious things like whiskey he will avoid tossing. He will instead hold onto the booze with a death grip; challenging any fool willing to try and take it away.

He gets more mobile by the day. He now crawls from one room to another- leaving a trail of destruction behind him. Jenny was teaching a class of four today at our house. They are all about grade 2. Drai gets so excited when he sees other kids. I put him on the floor while I heated up some milk. He started laughing and then let out a scream startling the kids. When they all look at him, he laughs again and then starts crawling towards them with wreckless abandon. It is pretty damn funny.

The only thing that worries me is that he seems really attracted to whatever the naughty boys are doing. Why can't he find the calm/ tranquil/ quiet boys like his daddy entertaining?

I went out for lunch with some of my students and coworkers last Sunday. My student Sophia, who some of you will remember from old emails, organized the lunch. She is a legend in the making. Hands down in the top three coolest Taiwanese students I have met. She finally met Drai and despite declaiming earlier that she hated babies, seemed to have been won over by him. This is a picture of them. She wants to study abroad for her high school years and for some reason has somehow got sold on going to Texas. Who the hell wants to go to Texas?
We are trying to convince her to go somewhere more sane than Texas. Know anyone that wants an exchange student for a few years? It seems her only prerequisites are that the place not be too cold and have a good high school she can attend?

Picture This

Thump!

Do all children fall on their heads as much as my son? Seriously, the kid falls on his melon about 10 times a day. I am starting to worry that he will have brain damage like Jamie. He stabilizing himself with his arms. Alas, he has not mastered sitting down from a standing position. Draidan basically stands til he drops. He will stand for about 20 minutes and then just falls backwards like a ton of bricks. Which is followed by much howling. I would too if I hit my head that hard on marble. But if we try to sit him down before his legs get worn out, he gets angry and pulls himself back up. Jenny went out and bought a bunch of crash pads today for him but he seems to manage to avoid those when falling.
He continues to let out his high pitched squeals that make everyone in the vicinity cringe. It's pretty funny except when you are tired. I know he is just trying to talk but my God is it high. (And loud.) We were sitting in the doctor's office the other day and it was totally silent. He then let out a banshee scream that made everyone jump, then he smiled and went back to jumping like he was trying to stamp out a fire on my thigh. I think he is either channeling WWE's Rick Flare or perhaps displaying the onset of tourette's.

He has also started eating solids. We started him with squash this week. What a horrible thing to eat for the first time. I think the only thing worse that pureed squash would be peas. Oh how I loathe peas.

...

Foot In the Mouth

Draidan is already proving to be quite the Usher as he now regularly puts his foot in his mouth.
He is now into EVERYTHING. Which really entertains his papa. Who says it is karma for all the horrible things I put them through as a toddler. He seems to get faster daily. He will be on one side of the room playing with a box and 30 seconds later is climbing up on the chair. He took three headers off the bed yesterday. I have stopped consoling him as I think he was just trying to do it for attention. So now when he starts to cry, I laugh at him. As soon as I do this, he gives up and climbs back up to the bed. Or he will cry, stop, look to see if anyone is watching and then give up if we aren't.

Last night, Jenny was eating dinner in the living room. Drai was tearing around the place looking for things to destroy. The phone rang and she went into the next room to get it. When she came back in, he was standing next to the coffee table with a huge chicken leg hanging out of his mouth. He had this "Busted" expression on his face when his mom walked in.
Apparently, he is done with breast milk. So like most 5 and a half month old babies do, he is moving straight to the fried chicken.

No Good

No Good will come from this achievement!