The Baby Maker

April 3rd

2010-04-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tzfiGgjL2g
He made friends at the park today.

Top 10 New Moves

2010-04-03T05:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks for Draidan. He has figured out quite a few new moves which include:
1. The Duck And Cover- I don't know why but he will hunch down like an artillery strike has just been called in and run across the room.

2. The Twinkle Toes- He has started to walk around the house on his tippy-toes laughing away to himself.

3. The Spin Doctor- Admittedly, I know exactly where this comes from. I use to hold him tight to my chest and spin in a circle because it would make him laugh. Now he is completely addicted to it and will often throw a tantrum if I don't spin by either holding on to his hands or ankles. As this wears us out pretty fast, we just let him whine and throw a fit. So he has now taken to spinning around the room by himself. Which is pretty comical to walk.

4. The Break N' Enter- He can now open doors. Nothing good will come of this new found knowledge.

5. The High Five- Still needs work.

6. The Kiss Good night- Only when he is in the mood.

7. The Slap and Tickle- I tickle him/ He slaps me.

8. The Running Man- He has found his speed.

9. The Security Override- He has figured out how to open the child proof locks on cupboards.

10. The Arm- My mother will back me up on this. Draidan can throw like nobody's business. Unfortunately, it is usually at inopportune times. For example on the plane, when he grabbed my cub and threw it about 7 rows back in one foul swoop.

Shakey

2010-03-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

So as most of you have heard now, we had a big earthquake in Tainan this morning. A little after eight, Jenny and I took Draidan to the park. We were almost there when she suddenly grabbed my arm and said, "Earthquake." I didn't feel anything at first and assumed that the garage door next to us was moving up to let a car out. Turns out, it was the earthquake causing it, too. The trees started to sway and even cars stopped. (You usually don't feel quakes in a car.)
Everyone came pouring outside and then about a minute later it stopped. We went back to our walk and didn't think much else about it. We have earthquakes relatively often and they are usually nothing for concern.

When we arrived back however, the first thing I noticed was pieces of concrete laying on the sidewalk outside our building and steps broken off. I said to Jenny, "I am scared to see what our place is going to look like." We walked into the lobby and saw huge plate glass windows totally shattered and the gardens roped off because pieces of the building had fallen off. Then, we got to the elevators, which were all offline and the marble around one of them had fallen off and shattered. Luckily, we live on the third floor, so we didn't have a climb ahead of us. It would suck to be living on the 20th floor!
As I opened the door I was greeted with a new sight. Tons of sand and piece of concrete. "This is going to be bad," I said. I stepped in and was speechless. Our walls pretty much shattered. A lot of the breaks are about 4-6 centimeters deep and pretty much every room had been messed up badly. Drai's room was the only one not damaged. It even shot the nails out of some of the boards on the ceiling. I figure we are looking at about $10000 to $15000 CDN in damage. We called the insurance company and they said our earthquake insurance only covers us if our house collapses or is unlivable. (Anyone got some dynamite?)
Our poor cat was so traumatized that he was standing on the balcony for three hours crying. He wouldn't come inside and if we brought him in, he would run back out again. Thank god we weren't home because it would have been really scary to have been inside will all the walls blowing out. We found out just now that in the last 12 hours there have been 204 aftershocks. We only felt four of them. The cat is probably way more aware of them though which is why he has not wanted to come in. The house itself didn't take too long to clean up. It was done in about an hour but who knows how long it will be until we can fix everything. Essentially our whole house has to be re-concreted, painted and roofed. It might be cheaper to fly an uncle out here to do it! Anybody? Anybody?
Draidan walked around the house for about 10 minutes pointing at the walls with Jenny's shoe and grumbling angrily to himself. It was pretty funny. He sounded really pissed off.

Compared to some of the people in this building, we got off lucky. One family's wall fell down and they now share an apartment with another family. The side of another fell right off.

The damage around our area has been minimal. Out of the 100 or so students I taught today, not one of them had damage to their house, which makes me question how well our place is built.

There was some major damage around Tainan and Kaoshiung though. A freeway pretty much collapsed. All the railways have been shut down from mid-Island south. A few houses collapsed and the university near hear flooded. A huge textile factory went up in flames when a gas line ruptured too.

I guess we are safe and that is all that matters. It gave me a kick in the ass to fix the place, sell it and get the hell out of dodge.

Don't worry about us though. We are fine.
Especially me. Super fine actually. I seem to just keep getting better looking with age...

Scares of the Year

2010-02-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

Tiger Tiger

2010-02-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Year of the Tiger!
We are kicking of the Chinese New Year by losing our cat, BaoBao. About two weeks ago, Teak tore the screen window out on our balcony. He could then walk out on the tiny ledge of our apartment. BaoBao, who just turned three had never even jumped up on anything higher than a sofa until Drai started walking. Now she gets up there to avoid him. She too, started climbing out on the ledge a week ago, which worried me as she is not as agile as Teak is. Actually, a St.Bernard is probably more agile than she is.

Bao Bao is cute but not bright at all. Actually, she is pretty dumb but I totally adore her as she always wants to be pet and never really does anything bad like Teak. She is a purebred Persian and like a second child to Jenny. So we woke up yesterday and didn't see her but didn't think anything of it because she always sleeps in the morning. Around 11:30 Jenny asked if I had seen her. I said I hadn't and she assumed she must be sleeping in Drai's room. We didn't want to wake him to go check.

When he did get up, we found she wasn't there, so she must have climbed out on the ledge during the night and fallen. There are two stray cats that live in the garden below, so I am pretty sure they would have chased her out of the area. So we have now been spending our spare time wondering the neighborhoods looking for her. Her name means, "Baby" in Chinese. I think all the neighbors think I am a horrible father because they always see me walking with Drai every morning. Now they just see me walking by myself, looking under cars and next to hedges shouting for my baby. They are probably thinking, "Stupid foreigner lost his baby."

So anyways, it is a little ironic that year of the tiger starts by losing our cat.
We do get a week off next week which will be sweet. The weather is amazing right now. (Like August in Canada.) We aren't going anywhere special which is a bit of a drag but we are heading to Hong Kong in March, so that will be good. I wish I had just decided to spend the extra money and go to the Philippines again. I love that place. Flights are triple the price at this time of year though.

We can't wait to see my mom and Jim. And we are also going to meet Lindsay, Kyle and the kids in Hong Kong. I think it will be fun for Drai to have kids to play with for a few days.

I haven't been blogging much because my computer sucks and keeps crashing. I want to buy a Mac but feel guilty spending that much on a computer. On the other hand, I didn't go to Philippines so perhaps I deserve a new computer? Right?!!!

Anyways, all is good here and I will talk to you soon,
love,
Us.
This is Drai at the park today.

Happy Birthday!

2010-01-12T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well this time last year Jenny and I were going through hell and she was pretty much sure he was never coming out. We were waiting anxiously and in Jenny's case - painfully to see our son for the first time and hear what his voice would sound like.

What a difference a year makes. Turns out our son sounds like a bear. He has taken to walking around the house growling like a hungry grizzly. He is happy as can be but for some reason has taken to growling. I don't know where he even picked this up, as he never watches TV and hasn't been around any dogs...or bears.

Our buddy Mike constantly shows up with gifts noisier than the last one. Psychotic cellphones, maracas, baby pianos and a drum set. I am a little worried to see what he is going to show up with today. Drai of course loves anything that makes lots of noise and is in seventh heaven as each new gift is introduced. Papa sent him a dog that you pull around as it barks. He has already figured out how to swing said barking dog around the room with the prowess and battle cunning of a knight. We will probably be in the market for a new TV quite quickly. Thanks Papa. My dad has been picking out some really cool babies clothes lately too. We are impressed.

Drai has gone down for his nap and then we are going to take him out for lunch and to pick up some party supplies for his birthday party this weekend. It will pretty much be an adult party because most of the students we know have tests next week and the kids his own age bore him. He is definitely more happy hanging out with the kids that are about a year older than him and when you see them play together, you would never guess he was a year younger. We are going to have some party games though which will center around him. I think it will be pretty funny. He really likes all of our friends and they spoil him rotten so he will have a good time. I will post videos of it next week.

He went in for his check up last week and his height is average for his age but he is a kilogram less than the average one year old. The doctor wasn't concerned though because she works in our building and knows he has been on the go non-stop for the last five months. We walk past her clinic daily. Last week, he actually walked over two city blocks and was completely furious when I put him into the stroller to walk down the busy street. Drai is insanely stubborn. Which is definitely going to be trouble when he is older.

We constantly find spatulas and spoons in our bedroom. So, we put these childproof seals on the kitchen drawers to keep him out of them. He was not impressed when he found we had stopped him from doing one of his favorite hobbies. Ie. Open the kitchen drawers and throw everything on the floor. So last night, while I was at work, Jenny said she was watching him try to figure out how to get in. He couldn't. Which really pissed him off. So after some bear growling and closer inspection, he finally just grabbed onto the drawer put all his weight behind it and pulled as hard as he could until he tore the entire childproof lock off. He then went happily back to work destroying the kitchen. I can't say enough how freakishly strong this kid is.

So yea, one year and one destroyed house later, we have our little bundle of joy who as I have said before is the human equivalent to the Flintstones' Bam Bam. He is a happy, smart and healthy little boy and deeply loved. A year ago, we were waiting to meet him. Today we sit here wondering how we had ever lived without him.

Happy First Birthday Draidan!

Birthday Pics

2009-12-31T19:14:00.001-08:00

Pimp My Ride With Baby Drai

2009-12-28T05:11:00.000-08:00

The music isn't what I chose but Youtube won't let you use any music with your videos anymore due to copyright problems.

Slightly Excited

2009-12-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas Pics

2009-12-26T03:51:00.000-08:00

Some Videos For Grandpa

2009-12-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

These videos are uploaded from my iPhone, so the quality isn't amazing.

His big Christmas gift.

He loves rearranging furniture.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

I haven’t talked to most of you in ages so I wanted to be a responsible adult and send out some Christmas cards this year. Alas, I didn't, so now you get to read about it on my blog.
2009 has been a roller coaster with the addition of Draidan to the family in January. He has made our lives a lot better but also a lot more tiring. We were hoping he would have turned out to be the quiet, reserved, unobtrusive child that I was but now we are starting to worry he is going to turn out like his mother. Drai started walking at 7 months and there has never been a dull moment since. He runs about chasing the cats, rearranging our furniture and opening anything that can be and often can’t be. He is freakishly strong for a baby his age and was able to do a chin up on the table by 8 months. He also can push around furniture that easily ways over double his own body weight. He is a lot like Bam Bam from the Flintstones actually. I might be worried that he has too much testosterone coursing through his veins if it were not for his favorite toys: A comb, a vacuum cleaner and a mop. Although, he now seems to be using the mop more as a ninja weapon. He is pretty damn funny though and quite popular with everyone in the neighborhood. I take him to the park almost every day and the grandmother’s taking care of their grandchildren are always shocked at how a baby his age can climb ladders, scale ledges and negotiate different obstacles. The only ones not impressed are the older children- as Draidan leaves a trail of drool everywhere he goes. Drool on the steps, drool on the rope ladders, drool on the slides… kids just aren’t diggin’ the saliva gym. It’s quite embarrassing when I hear the little girls shouting to their grandmothers that they don’t want to play on the jungle gym because the foreign baby drooled all over it. (Yea, they call him the "Foreign Baby')

We are really excited to have our first Christmas together. I bought him a Ferrari that he sits in and I can steer him about via remote control. It is awesome! It even has a sub woofer sound system built into the dash board and LED headlights. I am sure he will score tons of chicks with his new ride and it gives me a good excuse to play with remote control cars again! It’s times like these that I am glad I have a son. Girl toys are so lame!
Teaching is still going well The staff at my school are awesome and like a second family to me here. I still take any chance I can to torment my students and play practical jokes on them constantly. They are getting pretty good at doing them themselves. They used to be horrible at it because if I was setting someone up, the others would all stand around in a circle, staring at the intended victim, snickering as they waited for the joke to happen. (Which would of course always tip the individual off.) Taiwanese don’t play jokes on each other, so it is quite strange to them. Even the grade ones are now on program and will look away from the victim and pretend they are working when they come into the room. I scared the living daylights out of an adult class a few months ago as well. We were talking about ghosts. (Taiwanese are deathly afraid of ghosts.) I have a watch with a really interesting face plate that almost looks like a crystal ball. It throws off the light in different directions and for some reason gives off a blue glow as the light bounces off of it. I said to them, “Do you guys want to see something scary.” They all said, “Yes.” Then, I took off my watch, placed it on the table in front of them and said, “They say the crystal in these watches can capture the faces of ghosts nearby every time the second hand reaches the 13.” They were confused but then I pointed to the 13 second mark and told them to stare closely at it. “When the second hand hits it, you will briefly see a face. Now just watch…” The second hand was at about the 30 second mark, so we all stood around watching the seconds tick by. I could tell they were starting to get mesmerized by the way the light was shining off of the crystal. With ten seconds to go, the room was totally silent and you could feel the anxiety in the room. One woman was peeking through her fingers and all of them began to lean in a little closer uncomfortably. As the second hand touched the 13 mark, I threw my arms into the air and let out a horrible screech. Every person in the room leaped back screaming, some clutching their hearts. Two men actually ran half way across the room and the alpha male in the class actually pushed one of the women out of the way to escape the ghost watch. I of course, was in tears laughing at their reaction as I put my watch back on. All of them were looking at me wild eyed and then one woman asked me, “So… it really has ghost?” Which made me laugh harder. “No,” I replied. “ I made that part up.” Which got all of them laughing along with me except for the alpha male who was still shaking and wild eyed. They then began giving him the gears for throwing the women to the ghost. I don’t think teachers could do that in Canada.
Jenny is doing well, she is teaching out of our house a couple of hours a day and works in a trade company in the mornings twice a week. If I am not home when she is teaching, we have a nanny come in. Draidan really likes the nanny and she is studying pediatric nursing at university, so she is perfect for us.
Other than that, not much is new. We have had an amazing winter so far. It was 25 degrees yesterday and we have been averaging about 26 for the last two months. It is supposed to get colder later this week though. The mountains are even going to get snow apparently.
Anyways, we wish we were there to celebrate Christmas and ring in the new year with all of you. We hope 2010 proves to be an even better year than 2009 for you.
Much Love,
Danny, Jenny and Draidan

November 28th

2009-11-29T06:23:00.001-08:00

Sandstorm

2009-11-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

China's newest expert to wreak havoc on the health of the world at large...sand. Their deforestation and damming have caused vast areas to turn into deserts. We now reap the benefits with literally clouds of sand blowing across the city. I have honestly never seen anything like it. I washed my scooter yesterday under perfect weather. Today, I walked out of the university after teaching a class for an hour and it was covered in a film of dust. When I came out of my school tonight, it looked like I had taken my scooter off-roading. There is probably about a hundred meter visibility right now.
Jonathon even had to go home because he went swimming in it and figures he sucked in too much of it from breathing hard.
He was having chest pains and couldn't take deep breaths.
Stupid China.

Anyways, at least my baby is still cute.

In the Garden

2009-10-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

Crazy Month

2009-10-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long wait between blogs but October has been crazy thus far. Draidan had a really rough weekend. He started getting a fever on the Wednesday, so we took him to the doctor and she ran some tests and found he had a urinary tract infection. So they put him on some meds and he seemed to recover quickly but then on Friday night was starting not to feel well again. Jenny had arranged for me to get my belated father's day present Saturday night, which was a tattoo of Draidan's name over my heart.
(The typhoon killed our original father's day plan.) But we didn't want to take him to the tattoo shop how he was, so I went with Andrew instead, who kept my mind off the pain quite nicely.
When Drai woke up Sunday morning, he was not himself at all. He was lethargic, quiet and running a really high fever. We took him to a different clinic and they said to take him to the hospital immediately. Which we did. They ran a ton of tests and hooked him up to an IV right away. Which was a horrible thing to experience. We were in a pediatrics ward room with three beds and thankfully there was no one in there with us. So it was at least fairly quiet except for the kids screaming outside. It was a very long day but at about 11:30 Drai finally fell asleep. At 12:00 am we got new roommates who were absolutely awful. They burst in the door turned on the lights and started talking super loudly. This woke up Draidan who began screaming. Their son was also screaming. After about an hour, we finally got Drai to relax and go back to sleep, only to have him woken up by their loud cellphone rings every thirty minutes for the rest of the night. If they weren't talking loudly on their cellphone, the couple was arguing. Or rather, the husband was trash talking his wife. So none of us slept at all the first night. Literally. The next day was much of the same but a single room opened up and we paid extra to move into that one. It was a lot nicer but Draidan was so worn out and over tired that he was just miserable. He is so active, so to have him sit in a crib hooked up to needles in his arm was making him literally go insane. He was smashing his head against the crib, yowling away, slamming his wrapped up IV arm into the metal sides of the crib and screaming so much that he couldn't even breath. When we would try to feed him, he would throw up and twice he threw up on his IV arm, which they then had to redo to keep it sterile. (Which meant poking him again.) So he went another 16 hours with no sleep and finally I had had enough. He was trying to tear the needles out and biting at them. So I called the nurse in and explained that if we don't take the IV out, he is not going to sleep and he isn't going to get better without some rest. She argued about with me, so I told her to get the head nurse. She came in and did pretty much the same. She didn't want to do it either because they would then need to give him a shot every 4 hours. I said that was fine though because Drai only cries for one minute with a shot. (A hell of a lot better than 36 hours of IV crying) They still wouldn't do it but said they would ask the doctor. Ten minutes later, he tore the whole thing out and his hand started bleeding all over. So we ran out to get the nurse again and she finally took the IV out.
It was so cute afterward because they left and he held his hand up to me to show me. So I gave it a kiss and then he showed his mom. He then gave his hand back to me and started to smile. Then he started clapping and was out cold 20 minutes later.
So we finally got about 6 hours sleep that night. My school was awesome and gave me two days off to stay at the hospital with him. On Tuesday morning, they told us they would let him go home in the afternoon.

Since he has been home he has still been pretty quiet but sleeping a lot. Last night he slept almost 12 hours, which he has never done before. And he is out cold again 3 hours after getting up. He seems to be getting back to his normal self though. He is smiling and breaking things again. The little jerk managed to break our digital TV remote and two AC remotes in one month, which cost us almost $100 to buy new ones for. (The cheap ones don't work for the fancy appliances we have.)

Austin Powers aka. Mini Me

2009-09-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

We have been having a busy couple weeks since Drai learned how to walk. He started doing it about a week before he turned 8 months. He then pretty much mastered it a week later and has since then kept us on the run constantly. No longer can we plop him in a chair or put him in a Jolly Jumper. He isn't having any of that. He just tears off at high speeds until his legs can't go any faster and then belly flops. This doesn't deter him though and he is up in seconds to do it all over again.

Beds are no obstacle for him now. He can climb in and out as he pleases. Which makes it all the more easy to slap my face or body slam me when I am trying to take a nap. It's pretty fun for the most part though. I took him to the park yesterday and got him up on the jungle gym for the first time. He found that quite fun but was already finding the more dangerous ways to play on things. Why sit on this when I can stand? Why go down this when I can climb up? He's definitely related to me.
Doh!

As most of you know from Facebook, I also gave him a haircut. Things started going awry almost immediately. Trying to cut an eight month old's hair wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. He kept moving his head to see what the buzzing sound was and I kept accidentally shearing off more than I wanted to. (We had decided to cut it because he was always really hot and sweats like crazy.) Finally, one side was so messed up that we thought, "Let's shave it into a Fauxhawk for fun." That was going well until the battery died on the clippers. So half-shaved we had to wait for the battery to recharge. That night, we got back to work but I forgot to adjust the setting on the razor and ended up bucking a huge patch right off. Long story short, he ended up with a real mohawk.
My mom was pissed when she saw it. She was ready to cry. I thought he looks bad ass. After her comments, I was terrified to hear what my father would say when he saw it. Much to our surprise, it didn't seem to phase him at all. So he has officially become the cool grandparent. Actually, everyone here really likes it. When I walk into a 7-11 they all call him the "cool baby."

I surprised Jenny with a new bike a couple of weeks ago, so she has been taking him around on that lately. I roller blade next to them and Drai seems to love it. When he gets in new situations though, he looks really intense. Not scared but totally taking everything in. We go to this market once a week which is just insane. Even for me it often sensory overload. Drai just sits on the bike checking everything out. People come up to him and tell him in Chinese that he is cute and he gives them the most hilarious dismissive facial expressions. I have never seen a baby make adults feel so stupid. They make all these cute clicking sounds and noises at him and he just rolls his eyes, cocks one eyebrow and tries to see what is going on behind them. Or he will look at me with a look on his face like, "Who the hell is this clown?"

If he knows who you are though, he is all smiles and hugs. These pictures are of him wearing an outfit that the neighbor gave us. Apparently he thinks I am British.

Bang Bang Clang

2009-09-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Kittens!

2009-09-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

The quality isn't very good on this video. I was experimenting with a different output format.

Swimming with Uncle Mike

2009-09-06T08:08:00.001-07:00

Drai's New Ride

2009-08-28T08:38:00.001-07:00

Cruising for chicks.

Drai's First Concert

2009-08-23T05:18:00.001-07:00

We took Drai to his first rock concert at the high school today. The main reason we went is his new nanny was singing at it but her set was pushed back two and a half hours and we finally ended up leaving before she performed. A couple of the bands were quite good actually. One in particular was doing Santana covers almost perfectly.

These pictures are from him rockin' out...

And the bottom two are from when I took my eyes off of him for 2 minutes. He found Jenny's markers and decided to do some impromptu artwork on his face and the floor.

August

2009-08-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

There isn't much new to report around here. Drai is doing very well. He is starting to stand up on his own a lot and can now climb up on the bed. He moves incredibly fast. We went out for dinner last night with Mike and his girlfriend Sandy. I had just finished commenting on how fast Drai's hands were. Then another guy showed up that I hadn't seen in about a year. After about two minutes of watching Drai grabbing things, he said, "My God that kid has fast hands." So perhaps he is destined to be a goalie. Or a card shark.

He has now mastered saying, "Mama" and started saying "Dada" today. He also can say the cats name, "Bao Bao."

Everyone told me I would be amazed how fast babies grow up but I didn't really understand until now.

Taiwan is still recovering from the typhoon. About 6-600 people died in it. Most were buried under mud slides. The majority of the people that died lived within two hours of here. It is pretty sad. Especially watching the news and seeing their president lie constantly about it. I was watching him give English interviews on Reuters and CNN and saying one thing; then turning around and saying something completely different to the Taiwanese media. For example, he said on English TV on the Saturday that they didn't need outside help and could handle it. But then, when everyone died, he asked for outside help. He then blamed his underlings for not bringing in outside help earlier and told the Taiwanese media he didn't know they had turned down the outside help. (Even though, it was he that did so.)Then, he told the Western media that he would take full responsibility as he was president. Then, the next day all the guys under him tailored their resignations but he did nothing. It's very frustrating to watch. All politicians lie but this guy really needs to start getting busted on it. Taiwan needs a Jon Stewart equivalent to expose the punk.

We lost our awesome nanny. She needs a full time job to help her family, so we had to find another one quickly as she only gave us a one week notice. I think one of my students is going to do it. Which will hopefully work out well. She doesn't know much about babies but we can teach her and Jenny is always just in the next room teaching when the nanny will be taking care of Drai. She is a hottie too, so Drai will be happy. I can't hire any ugly nannies. That would be child abuse right?

Typhoon Madness

2009-08-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

The worst storm in 50 years. That is what they are saying. It was hands down the biggest I have seen. Two weeks ago, they were reporting that Taiwan would have to start rationing water because all of the reservoirs were reaching critical levels. (We haven't had much rain this year.) After 12 hours, all the reservoirs were overflowing. It rained for 48 more hours after that. The hotel next to the one were staying at in TaiDong fell into the river. You can see that here.

Our house was fine. We didn't leak at all but our neighbor was gone for the weekend and his balcony drain got plugged, so his whole apartment filled up. The elevators in our building stopped working, too. Thankfully, we live on the 3rd floor and not the 20th. The worst thing for us is that all the city's water supplies have been tainted. So we now will not have running water for at least three days. It has only been 24 hours and I am already itchin' for a shower. I usually have two a day and wash my hands obsessively. You don't realize how much you use water until you don't have any.
Dishes. Toilets. Brushing your teeth. Washing your hands. Showering. Cleaning. Laundry. Come Thursday, I am going to be going mad.
Thankfully, I have it much better than a lot of the people in this city. While driving to work today, many areas looked like a war zone. Soldiers were out helping people move all of their furniture out into the street to be taken away. Many of them had water two meters high on their first floors. My physiotherapist said he came downstairs to find his fridge and washing machine floating on their sides. His scooter and car are ruined. 1000s of pigs and cows drown in the floods. Which need to be cleaned up quickly to ward off disease. Actually, today I asked my junior high students if they had seen that on the news. They said they had. I then told them how I had gone there today and found that if you sharpened a stick really well, you could walk around and poke the dead carcasses with the stick. They all kind of nodded but didn't question why I would do that. So I then acted the next bit out while saying, "You can also just stab them over and over with the stick like this... but it smells bad." Total silence. I then started laughing and went on with the lesson.

There were pictures in the newspaper today of hands sticking out of the mud on riverbanks. It is pretty awful. I couldn't imagine being the people trying to clean their homes after that. I said to Jenny, I would just want to move.

Almost every area we visited on our 4 day holiday last week are destroyed. Every place we visited was the worst hit. We are so lucky we drove home when we did. I couldn't imagine being caught in that.

Anyways, I am going to go sit with my stinky wife now. And maybe poke her with a sharp stick.

Cutey

2009-08-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Back Home

2009-08-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well we made it. Thank God we didn't decide to stay another day at the hotel, which is what I wanted to do. Jenny said that we really had to leave before it hit. We were going to take the long way back but we found out there was a faster, more dangerous but more beautiful road directly through the mountains. I chose that one!

It was awesome. The road was usually about the size of one and a half lanes or smaller and it winded it's way slowly up to the very top of the mountains. Every corner gave us another breath taking view of a valley or mountain top. When we reached the top, which is apparently the highest part of the highway in Taiwan, we were literally above the clouds. Then, the winds from the impending typhoon started pushing the clouds into the valley, which looked amazing as it silently seeped into the gorge. The air was perfect and it was probably about 25 degrees. We then started noticing that the clouds were getting heavier really fast and actually starting to surround us. It was kind of like horror movie fog. If I walked twenty feet from Jenny, I would disappear. We hopped back in the car and started heading back down the mountain but became completely engulfed in the cloud. I literally could only see a car length in front of me. Thankfully, there was hardly anyone on the road. We passed one area that looked more like the Swiss Alps than Taiwan but we couldn't stop because we literally couldn't see anything.
Long story short, we got back to Tainan it one piece. We turned on the TV and were surprised to see that the typhoon had been upgraded to a Super Typhoon and the whole island was to be shut down. I am so happy we aren't on the road today. The winds are insane. Some of the strongest I have seen in Taiwan. Signs are going flying by on the road. I went out to get some tea and was literally being pushed down the sidewalk. I stood on marble and the wind slid me along on it without moving. I wish I had a waterproof camera. I kept trying to take pictures but the rain is traveling at a horizontal angle, so even under cover, I get blasted.
The whole building is rumbling.

These are some more pics of Toroko and the trip home.

Some Vids

2009-08-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Toroko

2009-08-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Toroko Gorge this evening. It is on the North East of Taiwan. I now fully understand why the Dutch called Taiwan, "Formosa" when they settled here. Formosa means "beautiful island." The whole trip up was absolutely incredible today. The majority of the drive featured desolate beaches with water shining every color of blue imaginable on one side and bamboo forested mountains on the other. Just when I thought the views couldn't get any better, we entered Toroko Gorge.

Toroko has the smallest, sketchiest, most stunning road I have ever driven on. The majority of the road is barely 1.5 car lanes big. The roads are cut through the marble and limestone cliffs. In the river bed below are massive bolders strewn about everywhere. On the otherside of the road is just a massive rock face. It looks exactly like the painted mountain schemes you always see in old Chinese paintings. Where waterfalls seem to drop forever and little pagodas sit perched on their ledges. A total dreamscape.

It took us 6 hours to get here because we stopped so many times to take pictures and look at the view. We haven't even seen half of it yet. We are staying at a great hotel in the middle of the gorge. It has an infiniti pool on the roof surrounded by the forest and on the bottom floor has a beautiful lap pool, sauna, work out room, bowling alley etc. I would have stayed here at least two days but we just turned on the TV and saw that the typhoon that was heading towards Hong Kong has switched paths and will probably nail where we are currently staying head on. So we now have to cut our trip short and race back through the mountain pass before it hits. I think it will be at least a 10 hour drive tomorrow. Not good for the back. These roads are the last place you want to be driving in a typhoon though. LAME! I am feeling good and really like it up here. Stupid typhoons. I guess I will just have to come back another time. Perhaps with YOU!

Kenting and TaiDong

2009-08-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry, we didn't blog earlier but we were having technical difficulties. We have finally made it up to Toroko Gorge in Hualien County, Taiwan. It is on the North East coast of Taiwan. Toroko is definitely incredible but I will get to it later. Day 1
We borrowed Jenny's cousin's car and drove out of Tainan early Sunday morning. I was dreading driving a car for the first time in Taiwan but once getting out of Tainan, it was quite easy. Except for the odd insane driver, it was quite easy and we managed to not get lost once. We headed down South to Kenting. I forgot how awesome Kenting is. It is only two hours south of Tainan but I never go. It looks like Hawaii but way cheaper. They have lots of great food and amazing beaches down the coast. The first day we stopped at the Kenting aquarium. I wasn't anticipating anything remotely good and figured it would consist mostly of half dead fish swimming slowly about in algae ridden pools. However, it turned out to be the best aquarium I have ever been, too. The whole thing was basically a series of glass tubes that winded their way deeper and deeper into this massive tank. So the fish were swimming above you, below you and next to you. At the bottom of the tank was a massive wreck, which served as home base for the biggest variety of fish I have ever seen. Reef sharks, rays, whale sharks, tuna, the entire cast of "Finding Nemo" and one huge one that was about the size of a Harley Motorcycle. I have no idea what it was. The slightly weird thing though was that as you leave the aquarium, you see all the beautiful fish you just spent hours taking photos of again. Except they are dead and being served in all the aquarium cafeterias. Humans are weird.

We then headed into Kenting, which unfortunately got nailed by a thunder storm. So we ended up spending most of the night in the hotel. The next morning, we were up early and ran across the street to the beach. This was Drai's first time on a sandy beach and he promptly scooped up a handfull of sand and ate it. This lead to one really angry baby. He was also pretty scared of the thunder the waves were making as they crashed on the beach. It was pretty deserted and the waves were massive. Actually, the waves were the biggest I have ever swam in. At least taller than me. It was hard to swim out past where they were breaking and I got tossed a good number of times but it was quite fun. I then swam back in after about an hour because Drai was just not getting into beach time. Just as I stood up to get out, a massive swell blind-sided me and put out my back. (Not impressed.) So figuring our trip would be ruined, I sulked into a massage therapy place. Luckily, they managed to get me back into decent shape. We then drove out to other beaches and checked out the places we normally couldn't if we had taken a bus down.
The next morning, I woke up with an ear infection. Or the beginnings of one. Again annoyed that I just can't seem to catch a break from some sort of ailment, I said, "Screw it. I am not having my vacation ruined by this crap." So we drove across the island to TaiDung. Which was about a three hour drive. It was a beautiful drive but a little sketchy, due to the very narrow road and odd insane tour bus driver. I found a witch doctor at a pharmacy in TaiDung who managed to give me some sort of cocktail which pretty much wiped out any pain from the ear infection. Our hotel there had a nice pool but that was about it. The meals there (which were included) were totally nasty. Even Jenny wouldn't eat it, and she eats everything. The continental breakfast the next morning was even worse. It was huge and there was literally not one thing I would eat at it except white rice. So we ended up having breakfast at 7-11 before heading to Toroko Gorge. Drai has been traveling really well and except for falling of the bed three times, he is doing well. He did manage to bruise his cheek on the last fall though as he hit his head on the coffee table on the way down. My son is retarded.

Bump on the Noggin'

2009-08-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Jenny beats him.

One Week Until Summer Holidays

2009-07-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Discovery

2009-07-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

<--- 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

2009-07-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Thump!

2009-07-12T02:58:00.000-07:00

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.

...

2009-07-07T21:28:00.001-07:00

Foot In the Mouth

2009-07-03T19:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-01T07:53:00.001-07:00

No Good will come from this achievement!

Back on the Rock Update

2009-06-28T05:17:00.000-07:00

Not too much new to report. Drai is starting to pull himself up on everything. And loving it. He can now crawl from our living room into the Japanese room. (Which is on a different level that the living room floor.) Every time he does pull himself up, he gets this cocky smile on his face and then laughs. Today, we were laying in bed and because of the heat, I didn't have a shirt on. He was standing triumphantly over me with his hands on my chest, smile stretched ear to ear as he had just pulled himself up to a standing position. He then lost his balance and fell backwards, taking a handful of chest hair with him. My god it hurt!

On Wednesday, Jenny brought him to my school to see the teachers. Jon was upstairs teaching and didn't know we were coming. So I took Draidan upstairs, placed him in front of the classroom door, knocked and hid around the corner. The class was a typical grade 3 class. Loud. Excited. Chaotic. Jon opened the door and the whole room went totally silent. Drai looked up at Jon and smiled and Jon just let out a "Huh?!" He hadn't see Drai in 4 months and didn't even know it was my baby. God, I wish I had a camera in that room to see the look on their faces when they saw the baby waiting at the door. I think some of them thought he had knocked.

He then showed everyone his dancing and jumping prowess. Much to the laughter of the kids. Draidan loves kids and isn't shy at all. I stood him on the desk in the front of class and he just began jumping up and down beaming at all the students.
He managed to tire out Zoya and Sharon's arms.

I have had a rough welcome back to Taiwan. The flight back finished off my back. And my knee started to seize up as well. Upon further inspection by my physiotherapist, I was told that my PCL in my knee is almost gone. So I am supposed to start wearing a brace to put off having to have it replaced. (Chalk another injury up to my list.) As some of you know, just before I left, a doctor noticed something strange on my pelvis while X-raying my lumbar. So he ordered a Bone Scan, which is when you get injected with a radioactive material and they scan your body. Similar to an MRI but this gives them a complete 3D visual of your skeleton. It then shows where bone injuries are. So I got my results last week and it turns out I have an "Active Bone Lesion" on my pelvis. The doctors are pretty confident that it is not cancerous but they ordered an MRI done to see what it is and how to remove it best. I am a little worried about that because I think it will involve cutting it out of the bone.
My big toe also stopped bending. WTF? Then, to top it all off, I have an infection in my bowels which has caused me endless grief and hospital visits but I think is better now.
I get my MRI results back next Tuesday. I am feeling good about it though. I think it will be fine.

Then, our lawsuit finally settled. Or so we thought. Long story short, a wealthy real estate guy sold us stolen property that didn't belong to him. It belonged to the strata council of our building. He owned most of the floor but not all of it. They never used that area, so he cut it into apartments. So for two years we have been in a class action suit over it with three other people who bought places on the floor. In the face of the evidence and witnesses which included, all four families involved in the lawsuit, two real estate companies, the strata council, building security and the police collaborating our story, the judge couldn't decide who was in the right. Moron. So she said we had to hire government architects to come in and measure the place and look at the blue prints etc. This cost us $3000 each for what literally took them 5 minutes to do. She would then base her decision on what they said. The architects took 5 months to give us our report but when they did we were totally delighted as they said he owed us about $10000 CDN more than we were sueing him for.
So finally the judge, with their report in her hand, finished the lawsuit. Her decision, not only does he not have to pay us a dime, but we have to pay him about $7000 of the money he lent us to buy the property he stole. Her reasoning... we are teachers and should have known better that to buy stolen property. Huh?! She said we should have reviewed the blue prints better before buying it.

She didn't even seem to think the fact that he switched all of his numerous properties into other people's names the day after he found out about the lawsuit was odd. She literally disregarded every piece of evidence given and sided with the crook.
I was furious and the first thing I said was, "She got bought out. He bribed her." To which Jenny replied, "That is what the neighbors and lawyers are saying too." I knew the judiciary and pretty much everything else in this place is corrupt but this just blew me away. So we are now deciding whether to appeal and take it to a hire court, which will cost even more money and time. I don't think I could handle paying this guy another cent though. It goes against every fiber in my body. So frustrating.

Oh well. At least I got a cute baby.

A Month of Firsts

2009-06-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Draidan had a busy month which included his...
- First time riding on a plane.
- First time meeting his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
- First time trying to steal papa’s whiskey.
- First time crawling.
- First time pulling himself up on things.
- First time climbing over things. (scary)
- First time sitting unsupported.
- First time eating solid food.
- First time standing up unsupported. (He was sitting in the middle of the living room and suddenly, much to my surprise, swung his feet under himself and stood straight up. He then promptly fell straight as a board onto the marble floor, which made a huge thump as his head whacked the floor. Much crying ensued and he hasn’t tried that again.)
- First time peeing on his cousin.
- First time bouncing in a jolly jumper. (Now a pro.)
- First time getting denied by a girl. (He tried to put the moves on Elicia’s gorgeous baby Delia, which consisted of grabbing her red hoodie and pulling her face towards his open drooling mouth. She wasn’t having it and pushed him away.) Ironically, this is the same move I used to try on her mother.

Denied!!

Babies are for Bouncing

2009-06-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

Canada Trip- A Short Retelling

2009-06-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well…what a trip. First off, let me apologize to those of you that I didn’t have time to see. I was so happy to see half of you anyways but wish we had longer to catch up. So many people… so little time. I was so jetlagged for the first half of the trip that I felt like I didn’t get a chance to really talk with most of you. I was kind of wandering around in a dream state. We were jetlagged and the baby was jetlagged. So when we would try to sleep, he would wake up and vice versa. Long story short, I didn’t do have the stuff I was planning to do.
Shawnigan Lake was great. We had beautiful weather and I actually beat my dad twice at crib which is next to impossible. I finally got to spend some time with my half sister Heather and her boys. I can’t remember their names. Zack and Little Tony I believe. Anyways, her and I are so much alike it is scary. Up until this trip, I had spent maybe a grand total of 8 hours with her my entire life. But we have so much in common. We even like the same whiskey. Clay flew out to meet us too which was awesome. As you probably saw below, I rewarded his love of family by tossing a snake on him whilst hung over.
We were so happy to have Aidan, Peter the Gay, dadd, James and Jennifer at Draidan’s Welcome to Canada party. Aidan flew out from Alberta on Friday to see us and within minutes had us laughing hysterically as he made inappropriate comments about our children. At one point looking at Sullivan, who was puttering by making his trademark “Mum mum mum mum” noise and saying, “What’s wrong with that freak?!” A couple of minutes later, he pointed out how Drai has a hairy forehead and drools too much. When he opened his luggage we were a little sad to see that he hadn’t packed any costumes or props. An odd thing for him but in true Aidan form, he later busted out a pair of the tightest short shorts a man could fit into and put them on. Then, after very little coaxing, ran over to the neighbor’s house, who he had only met briefly two years ago and danced provocatively outside her window. He then tossed her in the sprinkler when she came out, which wasn’t part of the plan but Darcee is hilarious and just rolled with it. Ahhh life is never boring when there is an Aidan about.
For those of you that didn’t hear… it was a great party. James, Jennifer and I started drinking at about 1 O’Clock and the day whizzed by as more and more relatives and friends showed up. I really adore my relatives. They are all total characters. Some almost cartoon like. About 40 people came and the weather was perfect. Around dusk, things apparently took a turn for the worse. I don’t remember any of it and only have some knowledge of the events due to the stories relayed to me from others and photos. Many of which I took myself but have no memory of doing. As my mom put it, I knew it was going to be trouble when James and you started following me around asking to let the chickens out. ‘Mom. Can we let the chickens out? Can we? How about now? Can we let out the chickens? There are no eagles. Can we let them out?’ You were like a couple of seven year olds.” Then, my mother’s evil neighbors, busted out the Absinthe. Not fake Absinthe. The real McCoy. Czech Republic 70% Worm Wood Absinthe. Chris and I had taken a shot of it the night before and now with about 12 hours of whiskey in me, James, Chris and I started downing more of it. James informed me that I also drank more of his because he couldn’t finish it. 20 minutes and almost half a bottle later, Chris is wearing a silver halter top and a toilet paper cozy on his head. I felt fine and eventually went to bed. I awoke around 5am shaking uncontrollably and vomiting. Long story short, James and I both had one of the worst hangovers of our lives. (Karma for the snake in Clay’s bed?) Mine lasted until about 8 O’clock at night. It sucked because my visit with Peter pretty much consisted of him sitting on the deck with me the next morning watching me tremble as I tried to eat a piece of toast. He would then comment on how nicely tanned my feet were or how I needed to trim my nails. Occasionally, we would see James walk slowly by like a zombie looking for more brains. I don’t know what it was about that Absinthe but literally every muscle in my body was tensed up and felt like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. Peter would just giggle and say, “Poor Danny.” I then left him to go puke up my piece of toast. Needless to say, no more hard alcohol was consumed for the remainder of the trip. Peter gave Drai a Dolce and Gabbana jacket that probably costs more than any jacket I even own. Gotta love the Peter. Poor James then had to drive 3 hours south to Victoria with that hangover. I almost felt sorrier for Jennifer having to drive him. That must have been a quiet trip back but I am SO happy they came.
So anyways, Sunday was a total write off. I did nothing and was then angry at myself for wasting a precious day of my vacation. My initial plan was to go get a new tattoo that day but it wasn’t in the cards. My “Norm 4 Eva” tattoo will just have to wait.
We got to see Nate in Vancouver before we left, too. The flight was long. Almost 13 hours. Draidan did well but got fussy a couple of times. He probably cried for a total of 45 minutes during the trip. Which isn’t too bad for a 5 month old. When we arrived in Taipei at around 3:30 am, we were sad to see that it was too early for the HSR (Bullet Train), so we were stuck waiting in the airport for another 3 hours. I hadn’t slept in almost two days and was exhausted. Luckily, I had bought those “No Jetlag” pills before I left, which helped me recover quickly. I love those things. The HSR back to Tainan was great. I love riding that train. It is so comfortable, quiet and fast. Well, quiet until Draidan decided he was fed up with traveling. It has been almost two days of non-stop transit and or waiting to transit. Luckily, we were almost home.
My back did alright. It is quite sore now though. I am back in physio and he says my progress has regressed a lot. So I am doing way less weight in traction.
I want to get back to the pool this week but it is hard because I am so crazy busy in the mornings and work all night. I will figure it out though.
Anyways, that is a really condensed version of our trip. I can’t sit long enough to give you a huge retelling.
Bye!

Super Baby

2009-06-13T16:53:00.001-07:00

A Couple of Videos

2009-06-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

Baby Likes His Whiskey

2009-05-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

Uncle Clay and the Dastardly Snake

2009-05-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

While at my dad's house, we found that their garden was full of snakes. I was trying to entertain the nephews and get them less scared of them. Clay was hungover and sleeping in the trailer. So I decided to give him a surprise wake up.
Alas, I couldn't stop giggling long enough to get it under the covers with him before it woke up.

7 Days

2009-05-17T03:31:00.000-07:00

This is Draidan and his cousin, Shine.

Canada Trip

2009-05-16T02:49:00.001-07:00

Okay, so we now have a better idea of our itinerary. We are going to arrive in Vancouver late on May 23rd and head over to Shawnigan Lake and Victoria for the first 9 days. We will then head up to Comox for about a little over a week and then head back to Vancouver for a day before flying out on June 11th. If you want to come visit at one of my parent’s houses, just let me know. The best way to get a hold of me is via my email. dannyusher@gmail.com I don’t want to post their phone numbers on a public blog but can email them to you if you want.
If you are in Vancouver and want to hook up, let me know. We have to do some paperwork on Georgia Street and then are free to do anything. We don't have any plans.
We hope to see all of you!

Scaring Pinky

2009-05-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

The boy I scare is named Jeter but we have taken to calling him Pinky. Actually, everyone has taken to calling him Pinky now.
One day I asked him what color Emma's shirt was. He answered, "I am Pinky." Instead of, "It is pink."

The students started laughing. So he got angry because he didn't know why they were laughing. So I asked him again what color Emma's shirt was. This time he said it with more force because he was so angry, "I am PINKY!" And thus he destroyed his street cred forever.

It's funny because his older brother always tries to burn other students but always messes up his English and makes himself look like a fool. Last week, he was teasing a girl named Janet in his class about loving a boy named Donald. I was teaching them the sentence, "If you could do anything, what would you do and why?" It was his turn and he announced proudly, "If I could do anything, I would make love to Donald so Janet would be angry!"

There was an awkward moment of silence and then I said, "What?" And began laughing. I then translated it to Chinese which left the class in hysterics. He was so embarrassed and kept trying to explain what he meant to say but it was no use. There are only two boys in that class and he was left at the mercy of the grade 5 girls as they snickered away the rest of the hour. Every 10 minutes or so, I would hear one of the girls whisper "blah blah blah Adam make love with Donald." Then, they would all howl again.

He finally explained to me that he was trying to say "If I could do anything I would take away her love, Donald, so that that Janet would be angry."

Now a question for you. Drai has one patch of really long hair on the crown of his head. Should we cut it off to match the rest of his head or just leave it until we get to Canada?

May

2009-05-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to do a quick update to tell you what is going on. We are now planning on flying home on May 23rd. Hopefully, my back will be strong enough. We can't really wait any longer after that anyways or we lose our flights. I am still quite sore and my hands have started going numb again which means something is wrong in my cervical spine. (Upper back.) You know when you sleep on your arm and wake up with it all pins and needles? That is what the feeling is like but it happens every time I lay down. I am not getting treated for that yet but will most likely start that physio as well. I am a mess. My back is recovering but really slow. Actually, this is probably the longest it has taken to get better. Most likely do to the baby. Aka. twinkle toes. Who never wants to stop dancing on me. The boy is energetic!

He has two joys in life, jumping on daddy and nipples. The later, I can understand but he is incessant about bouncing. I finally just ended up buying a really overpriced Fisher-Price Rain Forest Bouncer. It was worth every penny though.

Draidan is doing really well. He is quick to smile and starting to add a belly laugh to his repertoire, which I have yet to catch on film. It is really funny when he does it. It doesn't sound like a baby laugh, which makes it even funnier. Mike was over tonight and pointed out how freaking fast he is growing. I think he is going to be taller than me. Our friends keep telling us that his mannerisms don't look like a baby. He has really "adult" looking facial expressions. I keep seeing babies his age and he does look way older than them...so hopefully he won't look like Don Knotts by the time he is 12.

May 2nd

2009-05-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Videos from April 24th

2009-04-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Getting Better

2009-04-22T18:27:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to do a quick update to let you know that physio is going well. I am starting to be able to stand and sit longer and the physio therapists say that I should be able to start swimming again next week. Then about a month later, I will be okay to fly. So we are aiming for the end of May.
They told me something interesting yesterday. Apparently, this injury was not caused from the time Lee slammed me on the back of the sofa. It is just a particularly bad case of Degenerative Disc Disease. It usually starts in people when they reach their late 50s or 60s but it can happen with people as young as me. Actually, the doctor thought I was a little too young to have this problem but the good news is that the disease tends to improve as you get older. The other issue I have is arthritis which adds to the problem. The traction is helping a lot though. I feel way better.

Drai is doing great. He is rolling around like a mad man and almost crawling. He started sleeping the whole night about a week ago, which is wonderful. Last night, we finally couldn't take it anymore and buzzed off the back of his head. He was growing a sweet mullet. Business up front- party in the back. My dad told me that I wasn't allowed to cut his hair because us Usher's have to cherish what hair we have. However, there was no way I could let my son crawl around with a hairstyle like that. Now, he looks way better. I also got him some Baby shades for when we take him for walks. We were worried he wouldn't like them but he seemed to not care at all. He is a really social baby and is always excited when other people are over. Grant came by to visit and had just bought a storm trooper helmet toy. He was playing his music for Draidan, who quickly let it be known that he wasn't impressed with Grant's taste in music.

Down and Out

2009-04-13T04:29:00.000-07:00

I am in a really bad head space tonight. After having a great day yesterday, I was tidying up and starting to pack for our trip next Monday. I have been working my ass off in the pool, stretching, walking a lot every day and avoiding anything that could possibly injure my back. I have been feeling awesome and was saying to Jenny two weeks ago that if I lost the two kilos I gained the last time I hurt my back, I would be in the best shape of my life. Then, at about 8'O clock last night I was cleaning the kitchen and completely destroyed my lower back.

I blew it out in the most ridiculous fashion. I was literally just emptying a small box of paper into our recycling bin when suddenly it felt like a knife was driven through my lower spine. This dropped me instantly. I caught myself on the table to stop from falling all the way down which might have made it worse and then I ended up on my back, where I had to lay for about an hour. How can pouring paper into a box destroy my back? It's kind of ironic as I was lecturing my students on Friday night about how important it is to recycle!

Jenny wanted to call the ambulance but I have played that game before and knew I would just end up getting an IV and an uncomfortable bed for the night while I waited for the spinal doctors to come the next morning.

I finally crawled to the bedroom and luckily had some Robaxacet that Gail had just sent me. I got in bed and there I stayed until this morning. I can't even take a shower or put on my shoes on my own. When I got to the back specialist today, I told her right away that we were flying out a week today. She kind of shook her head and said, "Well, let's take some X-rays and see." Hospitals here are really efficient. Chaotic but efficient. 30 minutes later I had my X-rays. She took one look at them, shook her head and said I have a compacted spine, sciatica, scoliosis and a small hernia. (I always have the hernia though.) My spine is totally twisted above my pelvis. She said that there was no way I would be able to travel with it like this and said the best case scenario would be a month from now. And that is only if I do physio every day for the next month and recover fast.

The muscles are spasming so much that the physio therapists won't even work on me. They said it will be three days before it is safe enough for them to start manual therapy. For now, I am just getting electric currents run through my spine. I am not supposed to work for three days and they gave me a huge injection to bring the swelling down. Then, sent me off with a huge bag of pills. (6 different kinds.) I absolutely hate lying around in bed. I don't watch TV and I can't get comfortable for long even when my back is okay. So three days of bed rest is anything but restful for me.
I have been writing this blog in 5 minute intervals throughout the day because I can't sit long.
So needless to say, I am really depressed. Today is Drai's 3 month birthday and I can't even pick him up. A year and a half ago, I was planning my move back to Canada. Then Jenny got pregnant, so I had to put off seeing my family. Now, for the last three months, I have been dying for my family to meet Draidan. It is so hard not having them be able to hold our baby. He has changed so much in the last three months. Even day to day. He will be like a different baby in another month and a half. He is babbling up a storm now and rolling around everywhere. It's really hard. I hate not being able to help Jenny with him and she has to help me do everything as well. She is awesome with everything as usual. She doesn't complain, stays calm and then tries to keep my mind off of everything.

So anyways, we will try and aim to get back (no pun intended)- to Canada by late May or early June. I am sorry I got everyone excited about us coming back and then pushed it back again.

Lot'sa love,
D

Two Weeks

2009-04-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I have been crazy busy in baby land. Jenny is working more and more which gives me less and less time to do things like blog. Drai seems to constantly love to be the center of attention and screams if he isn't. Must get that from his mother...

Baz has joined me in Daddyhood. Congrats Bazzins. For those of you that don't know or forgot, Baz is the Kiwi we adopted about 7 years ago. Baz is built like a hobbit and his girl is Asian, so their baby boy is SUPER little. But damn cute. He hasn't named him yet though. I keep pushing for Windthrup because that is what my father would like. He has such a knack for naming that father of mine.

Chances are, I am the only Danny you know.
Growing up everyone would always get confused when I would tell them my name.
"Derny?"
"No...Danny...with an 'A'"
"Oh, Darny. Darny?"
"No...Danny. With two n's and an a."
"Dannay?"
"Danny. One 'A'. No 'R,' No 'E.'
"Oh! Danny...such an interesting name? Where does it come from? Japanese?"
I would then always have to explain that it was my hippy father that had come up with it and as best we could tell, its origins were steeped in Hindu/Goa mythology. Yes... Danny such a strange, yet wonderful sounding moniker. Could you expect anything less from a man named Norm though?

Don't even get me started on my middle name. That combined with my avant garde first name would totally throw people for a loop. For those of you that don't know, my middle name is James.

So anyways. Baz has a baby and he hasn't named him. What's up with that? You got nine months to name a baby and you can't come up with one in time? Oh come on!

I just hope he doesn't name him Danny or I will be robbed of my originality. Speaking of which, if any of you bite my style and name your baby Draidan- I will loathe you. Moreover, I will have a Taiwanese fortune teller put a curse on your baby. I am not above cursing your babies.

In other news, our bathroom sink was leaking so Jenny called in a repair guy. He showed up with his a sidekick. How many guys does it take to fix a leaking sink? Apparently, more than two. I came home tonight and they had managed to tear the handle off the sink, cause the water pressure to run at a trickle and we now can't control the temperature of the water anywhere in the condo. It just goes from ice cold to scolding hot over and over again. Which will probably destroy our hot water heater.

I am going to get in trouble from the Taiwanese friends reading this but they know it is true. Don't buy things made in Taiwan. They will break or fall apart quickly. To illustrate my point- about six months ago, I had to buy a new scooter. I went to a Yamaha shop and the guy had two scooters. They were the same color, same year, same make, same engine etc. The only difference was the price. Which was almost $500 CDN. I asked, "Why is this one $57000 and this one $72000?" The guy really answered, "This one is made in Taiwan and this one is made in Japan." I am not making that up. That is exactly what he said.
Also, never get a Taiwanese plumber to fix your sink. They will screw s**t up!

TWO WEEKS! Two weeks and I will be home. I mean seriously, can you even contain your excitement? It's like Christmas in April.

Mean Streets

2009-03-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Big news! I am now a legal driver in Taiwan. I have been driving without a license for six years and probably never would have done it if I didn’t have Draidan. I got an international license which would probably work but you never know here. What really got me thinking I should do it was about a month ago when a drunk driver drove his scooter into the back of my co-workers car as she was pulling out of a parking space. He was okay, which was amazing as the back of her little car was destroyed. But, despite being way over the legal limit, the police were almost siding with him because he was shouting louder. (That is how traffic accidents tend to be resolved in Taiwan- whoever screams the loudest and makes the other person feel the most scared is in the right.) He was actually going to sue her for crashing into her drunk. All of this made me realize that despite driving better than 95% of the people on the road here, I was leaving myself open for a low blow by some drunk Taiwanese redneck. Then, coincidentally, two weeks later, one of my students told me that she was going to go take her driving test. I told her I was thinking of doing it and she offered to help me do everything involved in getting one. So this afternoon, I met her and her mother at the driving center and began the process. She was quite scared, which made me a little bit calmer. I wasn’t worried about the actual driving portion of the test but the written had me worried. The Taiwanese driving manual is what originally stopped me from applying for my license. It is filled with about 50 pages of the worst Chinglish one could imagine. Half the rules make no sense whatsoever. For example and I quote, “Naivee of car functions is not related with riding safety.” “In accident rescue, riders should not bargain responsibilities and take moral responsibilities to save the injured in order to prevent from damage increase.” Or one of my favorites, “Riding on the sidewalk should be fined and recorded with 1 violation point.” What country has to put in their manual that driving on the sidewalk is wrong. Let alone, only give the violator one point on their license for doing so?
Moving on...Cindy was awesome and babysat me well in the scary Taiwanese government building and delivered me to the testing room on time. I guy from Equador was also taking the test and was as confused as me.
It mostly consisted of multiple choice questions. Alas, I answered the questions too fast and froze their computer. So the clerk moved me to a different computer and asked me to slow down. She said, “You have 45 minutes to write the test. No hurry.” But the test literally took 10 minutes at the most. The worst part was that the computer test made less sense than the driving manual. Long story short, I passed with a score of 92% and was now ready to do my “road test.” I had already watched my student, Cindy, do the road test an hour earlier which she passed with flying colors. Congratulations Cindy! The test literally consists of driving in a straight line for seven seconds and then driving around a semi-circle and stopping twice. During the 7 second portion, if you touch the little sensors on either side of you- you fail. I will post a video to prove just how easy it is. A trained chimpanzee can get a driver’s license in Taiwan. (Which accounts for how insane the roads are here.) They had a place to practice the test and I was able to do about 20 seconds in the 7 second portion part of the test. (Which you get two chances to do) So I thought it would be stupidly easy. Then, I did it. I lined up and the people in front of me kept failing, which started to worry me. Then, just as I was about to go, the guy doing the tests asked if I understood how the test works. I said, “I do.” Then, he stopped me and took everyone waiting for their turn around the course to see what to do. I just wanted to get it over with. Apparently, I didn’t stand out enough before- I guess I had to have the instructor give all of them a tutorial before my turn to really make them focus on the course. So after he finished, about 30 people waiting on these bleachers behind me started intently watching. So what do I do? Totally choke! Just as I pulled out, my U-lock started to slip off. Worried that it would fall on the censor, I kicked it over, which through off my balance and resulted in me putting my foot down, which is not allowed. I didn't even drive 2 seconds. LAME! Totally pissed, I quickly went back and did it again. This time successfully but still feeling embarrassed for not doing it easily the first time. The guy from Equador did the same thing which made me feel a little better.
So anyways, Cindy and I now have Taiwanese driver's licenses. Beware!

Look Whose Canadian

2009-03-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

We got his passport yesterday, so Mr. Draidan Soul Usher is now officially Canadian.

Tea

2009-03-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

We went for another monster walk today and I managed to get really dark. I didn't put on sunscreen as it was a little cloudy when I left. 5 minutes after leaving though, the sun came out and I think I am almost burnt. While sitting in the park drinking a bottle, a few women stopped to see Drai and chat. The three women turned into eight and soon I literally had 12 people standing around cooing at him. I wanted to take a picture because I figured all of you would think I was exaggerating but I thought they might think it was weird if I started taking pictures of them. Moreover, I didn't want to pull out my camera and have a bunch of people start passing him around posing. I don't like strangers touching my baby. It was actually a little uncomfortable having that many people questioning me in Chinese about my baby.
I then brought him home and Jenny took him out to Anping to see her family. This was his first time going to his grandparents house. Jenny's family essentially lives on the biggest tourist attraction in Tainan. It is the first street really built in the city and is swamped by tourists every weekend. So much in fact, that they can't even park their scooters or cars in their garage because they won't be able to get them out. The street is filled with tons of food and souvenir stores. Jenny's mom took him down the street and showed him off to every vendor. All of whom say he doesn't look Taiwanese at all. He wasn't fussy all day and stayed awake for about 5 hours happily being passed around from person to person. I didn't go as I hate crowds and going their on a weekend is a serious test of my patience.
When Jenny took him to her parents house, I went to the pool to get a much needed swim in.
When they got home, I did my weekly photo shoot with Drai. This time utilizing the enormous teapot Jenny's sister gave her. Seriously, what was she thinking? I know it is the thought that counts, but I don't think she really put much thought into it. It's like the time my dad gave me $20 to go watch wrestling and I bought him his Christmas present with his change. A calendar celebrating each month with a photo of a half naked man wearing spandex. (The gift that keeps on giving.) I am pretty sure Mr.September was his favorite.

This teapot is enormous! A teapot of mythical proportions. A teapot to end all teapots. Bask in the glory that is our teapot.
I guess it can always be used as a war cub to bludgeon a robber with. Ah well, it gave me some pretty funny pictures.

Mmmmmm tea.
I added the photos to shutterfly.

For Heather

2009-03-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

To appease Aunty Heather, here is a photo of Draidan wearing a necktie. Apparently, the newborn with a gun photo wasn't a hit. You guys are such Negative Nellies. But seriously, he needs to start building some serious street cred now to avoid any bully situations in the future.

I know at least two of you reading this blog are pregnant. Let me give you a piece of advice- don't teach your baby to roll over or stand at two months old! Bad idea. Now, that I taught him how to roll over, he tries to do it constantly, which makes you stress out more because if your baby is lying on his stomach, there is a bigger chance of him getting S.I.D.S. (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.) Moreover, it makes them way more maneuverable when you are trying to change them, feed them etc. Now, that he has learned this trick, it's all he wants to do. We have a special pillow for babies that stops them from being able to roll over- which REALLY pisses him off. How do babies react when they can't get what they want- scream.
So my coaching has landed me in the dog pound with mommy. Hopefully, she doesn't find out that I taught him how to shoot Jagermeister or I will really be in trouble.

Jenny brought him to my school on Wednesday and he showed everyone how he can stand and dance. He has to lean to stand up but he can balance pretty well for his age. We got his Taiwanese passport today and his Canadian one should arrive by April 4th. I didn't have my first passport until I was 16. He will have two passports before he is 3 months old! Fast becoming an international man of mystery.
One month and he will be in Canada! The weeks are all a blur right now. That will come faster than I will be ready for it.

Cops and Robbers

2009-03-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

Draidan learned how to flip himself over from his belly to his back tonight. Which is pretty impressive considering he is only two months and three days old. I managed to get one of them on film. He has become quite the chatter, as well. I will add videos to the shutterfly tomorrow morning.
Oh and yes, he is now packing heat.

Walk Hard

2009-03-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday. So Jenny was gone all morning at work. Draidan woke up and was really grumpy. I have figured out that the best thing for both of us is when he gets in this mood is to just bust out the stroller and take him for a long walk. He calmed down instantly and I ended up walking for almost three hours. At this rate, I should have a nice tan by the time I get back to Canada. Or...look like a tomato. One of the two. We stopped by a big supermarket and picked up a few things. He woke up just once to smile at the Duracel Spokes Model who was cooing over him and then passed out again.

One of the biggest problems about going anywhere on the street in Taiwan is the taxis. I have been to 11 countries in Asia and with the exception of Japan,the cab drivers are annoying in all of them. Taiwan cab drivers are especially annoying though. They take annoying to whole new levels of annoyingness. Yes, I know that is not a word, but this is my blog and I am rolling with it. When they aren't weaving in and out of traffic like lunatics, running red lights, pushing scooters off the road and driving the wrong way up the street, they can usually be found parking their taxi in a place that blocks the rest of the road. They also have the really bad habit of honking at anyone they see walking. But they don't just honk, that would be too polite. Instead,they drive up quietly behind you and then honk the horn loudly just as they approach you. Which scares the hell out of you, not to mention the baby you are pushing. I don't know why they can't figure out that if people want a ride, we will stop and wave at them. To make matters worse, the practice of tricking out their horn has caught on. Thus, the horn belches out some high-pitched abrasive sound that only seems right on an Arizona freeway.

Taiwan is starting to become a more developed nation though. Even in the 6 years I have been here, the difference is amazing. When I got to Taiwan, there was about four western restaurants in Tainan. Now, they are everywhere. The public transportation gets more efficient and greener every year. I just read that their high speed rail is on time 99.5% of the time and Taipei's subway system is rated number one in the world. They just banned cigarettes from all public places, too. The only annoying thing is they made a special allowance for pubs and nightclubs to still be able to smoke. Which were always the worst places for it in the first place. All the nightclubs are owned by gangsters, who pay off the government officials, who then structure the laws to benefit their "investors." The biggest thing holding the country back is the government corruption.

Alas, the party running the country now are quickly selling out Taiwan to China. The new president Ma is a sheep in wolf's clothing and because his party owns 85% of the media outlets in Taiwan- the people are completely oblivious to it. If they actually did their homework on the guy, they would see that not only was his fancy Ivy League schooling in the US paid for by the KMT but he also worked as a spy for them during his time in America. The guy used to sell out the Taiwanese academics studying in the US to the KMT government. Who would then bar them from coming back to Taiwan. He would attend anti-Taiwan rallies and always preached unification with China. And now he is president. He immediately lynched the last president with trumped up charges and now they are giving him one of the most unfair trials in Taiwan's history. When a Chinese diplomat came to Taiwan for talks, many Taiwanese took to the streets to wave Taiwanese flags as the motorcade drove by. The police were ordered to take away their flags and even arrested some of them. Could you imagine how angry Canadians would be if we had our flags torn out of our hands because they might offend a Chinese dignitary? This is one of the best things about all the kids learning English here. They will start to be able to go online and see the truth about what is happening in their country.

Oh, baby wants to play... enough politics.

Just the Pics

2009-03-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

You can see the whole set on my Shutterfly page.

Almost Canadian

2009-03-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

I went up to Taipei again on Friday morning and finished the application for Drai's citizenship and also applied for his Canadian passport. So if everything goes as planned, he will be officially Canadian by April 4th. That will be a relief. It will be so nice to not have to deal with anymore government bureaucracy for awhile. He then will have two passports and dual citizenship which is pretty cool.

Last Sunday, we went over to Terry's house for our monthly "boy's morning out" which is essentially us just watching the UFC fights and drinking baileys. We aren't the wild men we once were. I was really worried that Draidan would be fussy and scream the whole time. Terry always says he doesn't like babies and the UFC fights are his favorite morning of the month, so I terrified it would be destroyed if Screamy McScreamerson decided to come out. So at 10am, I got Drai dressed, tossed him in the stroller and walked to Terry's place. He only whined for about a minute and then I realized he was too hot and took the blanket off. Once in Terry's living room, the child hating Terry took Drai like a seasoned pro and began talking away to him happily. Drai adores him and kept grinning away at everything Terry said. For a guy that says he doesn't like babies, he sure seems to be good with them. Drai was awesome and we made it through almost the entire three hours of fights with him sitting happily beside us. We then decided to push our luck and try and take him out to a restaurant for lunch. He slept the whole way through and was completely zonked out for the 40 minute walk back home as well.
He is starting to cry a lot less and baby talk a lot more. It is nice because he is starting to be able to entertain himself too. I need to buy him a new mobile. I got an expensive Fisher Price one and it stopped turning after about a week. We pretty much have no downtime whatsoever. When Jenny is working, I am taking care of Drai and vice versa. I have had to give up learning Chinese as I am just too tired and any spare time I do have, I need to put into physio for my back. (Which is getting sore from carrying him around all the time.)
We have bought our plane tickets and will be flying into Vancouver on April 20th. We arrive late though, so will have to spend one night there. The stupid travel agent booked us sitting in different aisles and rows for the way there. We are flying with China Airlines, which I swore I would never do again after going to Hawaii but it is on the new Airbus and almost $700 cheaper. So I am going to try one more time. I am totally dreading that flight though. I don't think we will spend much time in Victoria this time because with a baby in tow, it will be hard to stay anywhere. So you guys are going to have to come visit me at my parents house. Doooo it! Dooo it!

Want Photos?

2009-03-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

I have started using Shutterfly.
Blogspot is archaic in how it lets you upload photos. So if you want to see all the photos I am taking of the monkey- go to...

www.draidansoulusher.shutterfly.com
I will keep adding video footage too.

Photos

2009-03-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is the toque grandma knitted him. Alas, it is now 32 degrees. So he will have to wait until Canada to wear it.

Odd Melon

2009-03-05T07:51:00.001-08:00

I didn’t think people were really reading this blog. So I wasn’t writing much. I need instant gratification or I stop doing things. However, since I see at least 6 of you are reading this… I shall continue.
The headache with Drai’s visa and citizenship continues. Not really due to the Canadian Trade Office. More to do with the Taiwanese customer service. When we checked the pictures sizes after returning from Taipei- sure enough they were not the size we asked for. So we went back to the developer and told them to reprint them in the size we asked. We know we gave her the right size because we actually handed her a print out of what the photo needed including a diagram. They printed new ones and I went to pick them up today. I brought them home, Jenny measured them and they are still wrong. Meanwhile, the hospital where Drai was born keeps giving us birth certificates with errors. I took Drai to the hospital with me on Monday morning and asked with bad Chinese for the birth certificate. They told me to wait a moment as the doctor needed to sign the certificate. So we waited patiently for the doctor to sign it. (She was delivering twins.) After almost an hour, Drai started getting fed up. He is okay as long as there is someone to talk to or he is moving but he doesn’t handle waiting very well. Sadly, he seems to have inherited my patience. Finally, a nurse came out of the delivery room, handed me an envelope and said, “Baby so cute!” And rushed off. So I then walked Drai back home and gave the envelope to Jenny. She took one look at it and said, “They didn’t put the name of the hospital or their address on it.” She was totally right. So she called up the hospital and they blamed me! They said, “We asked your husband to check it over before we gave it to the doctor. She is very busy. We shouldn’t be wasting her time.”
So this totally pissed me off as I didn’t even see the envelope until it was handed to me by the nurse. So then Jenny went back and showed them what they did wrong and again I somehow got blamed for their mistake. Long story short, we are not going to be able to get all his travel documents ready for when we originally thought. So we have had to push back the date of the Canada trip until April 20th. It can’t come soon enough. We need some grandma, grandpa, aunt time to let us catch a breath.
Last night, I was so tired that I fell asleep using the wrong pillow. Sounds trivial enough but I woke up this morning and literally couldn’t get out of bed. It feels like I have a knife stuck under my left shoulder blade. The weird thing is I never have back pain there. I tried to go to the physio- clinic that I used to go to but they couldn’t see me until 3:30, which is when my first class starts. I can’t really afford to take time off, so I ended up going and buying a tennis ball and trying to use it to loosen up my back by rolling against it on the wall. (It didn’t work.) Even the Robaxacet wasn’t touching it. I am dangerously close to running out too. That was the only thing that helped me get through the day. And to make matters worse, Drai is going through a phase where I need to hug him and walk around with him constantly or he will scream. I can’t hug him and stand still. I need to hug him and walk. As the temperature and humidity starts to increase, I am starting to get worried. Moreover, carrying him constantly when my back hurts so bad is not helping matters. We need a break!
This Sunday, I am going to take him over to Terry’s house to watch the UFC . We always get up early and watch them live together. The time difference causes them to show on Sunday morning here. Hopefully, he will be on his best behavior or we won’t be invited back.
I am also starting to worry about Drai’s head. He freaks out if I put him on his stomach. He absolutely despises being on his tummy. I read in the books that he needs supervised tummy time to gain important skills like crawling. Perhaps, he plans to skip the crawling and move straight into the windmill and other downrock break dance moves but I am worried that time is of the essence here. The back of his head looks flat to me. And he always has his head turned to the left, so his head is lopsided. (He could end up like Zoolander and Gunner and only be able to turn one way.) I hope this will change as he gets older. I don’t want to be the parent of the lopsided-head kid that screams every time he lays on his stomach. Now I know how James’ parents must have felt. Does he still do that Jennifer?

So Drai, if you are reading this 18 years from now- it’s your own damn fault that you have a weird shaped melon.

Times A Flyin'

2009-03-01T04:29:00.001-08:00

We had a very busy week. First, we had to get Drai’s passport photos taken. What a nightmare! Do you know how hard it is to get a 7 week old baby to hold his head up and look straight into a camera with his mouth closed? And the photo can’t have the parent propping up the head. Not fun but a necessity as we wanted to apply for his Canadian citizenship last Friday. So after about 20 minutes of snapping photos, the clerk was sure she had at least one that would pass.

Drai then had to get his tuberculosis shot on Thursday, which I was really worried about because it often leaves really bad scars. All Taiwanese people have a scar from it and some of them look awful. He was really tough and only cried for about 30 seconds and then moved onto better things like checking out he nurses. His arm looks good so far, so I think he will have a pretty minimum mark from it. Then, Friday morning we had to take him up to Taipei to apply for his Canadian citizenship card. We took the new HSR (High Speed Rail) from Tainan to Taipei. It is basically the Taiwanese equivalent of the Japanese bullet train. I had low expectations but was absolutely blown away by the service, appearance and trip with them. Everyone spoke English, the buildings were nicely designed and easy to navigate and the train was really comfortable. Best of all, a trip that used to take at least 6 hours (if you managed to miss traffic) now takes an hour and a half. We got from Tainan to downtown Taipei in 90 minutes. And the station attaches to Taipei’s mass transit system, so you can hop on a sky train and pretty much go anywhere you would want to in the city. Drai was awesome and slept the entire way there. He woke up upon arrival and as we were on a tight timeline, I decided to feed him in the back of a taxi. Bad idea. We rushed into the Canadian trade office, which thankfully wasn’t busy and then slid into a private room to begin the paperwork. Drai began screaming super loud as soon as we entered the little room with the liaison. I didn’t know why until he projectile vomited all over Jenny, the chair and the floor. (Much to the horror of the liaison.) I had never seen him throw up like that before and assume it was probably due to the combination of dealing with the Canadian government and riding in a Taiwanese cab. Alas, the photos were not good enough for their standards and the birth certificate didn’t say his gender, so they couldn’t finish the application. The woman in the office was really helpful though and is holding it for me and letting me mail the new photos and new birth certificate to her. I just need to do it in a week. Hopefully, the hospital won’t be slow typing up a new one. I then need to try and get up there again with plane tickets and then they will give me an emergency Canadian passport, which will cut down the process of getting him one by about 1 year. It is amazing how slow the Canadian government is to do things like this. I think I am a fifth generation Canadian but my son has a harder time getting granted his citizenship than someone smuggled into the country by the Chinese Triads. Pretty frustrating.

It was then back onto the train, back to Tainan and then back to work. When I was at work, Drai had to get yet another shot which apparently will prevent ear infections and colds. It was a $100 shot, so hopefully it works. I was plagued by ear infections as an infant, so if it spares Drai the agony of it- money well spent.
Sunday is my only day off and Jenny works all morning, so terrified that I would have a repeat of last Sunday where he screamed for three hours, I decided to feed him, throw him in the stroller and take him for a walk. One block turning into two blocks, three into four and before I knew it, I had spent 3 hours walking about Tainan with the little fellah. He didn’t make a peep the whole trip, so I just kept walking. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about sunscreen and now have a rather sunburned face. The weeks are going by so fast now. I don’t seem to have enough time in the day to do half the things I want to. Before I know it, he will be 18 and stealing my whiskey.

A Few More For Good Measure

2009-02-22T06:18:00.000-08:00

Screamy McScreamerson

2009-02-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

We had a good week with Draidan. He was sleeping well and pretty much up for anything all week. So I decided to run a solo mission across the city to Andrew's house last night. I wanted Jenny to have a baby-free evening to recharge. He was in fine spirits until about one minute after Jenny left to go shopping. He then started wailing. After feeding, him changing him, feeding him again and burping him countless times, I decided to just make a run for it and take him to Andrew's anyways. He fell asleep immediately in the cab but upon arriving- started to get quite fussy again. Drai adores women though and luckily Sammi was there. As soon as he saw her, he calmed down and started cooing away to her. But eventually she had to get back to the thesis she was writing and he got angry again. He finally fell asleep on the cab ride back.

Then this morning was a nightmare. Jenny left for a few hours to teach a class. Again, the second she left, he awoke from his slumber and began howling. This time, with no women around to appease the beast, he carried on for almost the entire 3 hours. Only taking a break to eat a little and for a jaunt to the 7-11. (Which of course had women in it, so he was on his best behavior.) Even when he was eating he constantly was kicking and trying to stand up. (Yea, he is already trying to stand. And actually can for a little while if you lean him against something.)He isn't just crying- the noise that comes out of the little guys sounds like a sheep that has just been hit by napalm. It's horrible and I feel so helpless when he is doing it. I don't mind dirty diapers, puke, baths etc. but the screaming destroys me. I don't know how Lindsay and Kyle made it through that first year with Luke. After three hours of crying- I was almost ready to head off to the hospital for a vasectomy.

Finally, Jenny came home and he fell fast asleep. (Little jerk.) We then took him out for his first trip to the park in his new stroller. There were two women along for the trip, thus his insatiable need for the female persuasion was appeased - he didn't make a peep the entire afternoon. We are trying to get him used to being around lots of people and traveling about, so we dragged him to the exact opposite side of the city again tonight to have dinner with Uncle Mike. He was great the whole trip and he even let us make him a new outfit. I am terrified that he will be horrible on the flight to Canada. I am really dreading that flight. But perhaps with a couple more months of traveling in Taiwanese taxis he will not even bat an eye at air travel. A taxi ride in Taiwan is probably more turbulent than any flight would be. Moreover, there should be some cute stewardesses hanging about to keep him on his best behavior. We just can't fly KLM.
Their flight attendants are like mythical monsters! It's like being served by a shaved wookie. But I digress...

Baby Shower

2009-02-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

Well, last Sunday was Draidan's baby shower and everything went very well. We had a good turn out and he was awesome. Drai is proving to be quite the social butterfly and really liked being passed around from friend to friend. After about three hours, he finally started to get a little fussy, so I tried to put him down for a nap but he didn't want to be away from everyone else and would cry when I would put him in the crib. So I dragged his vibrating chair into the living room with all the noisy adults and he went out like a light. We have been purposely trying to keep his nap times noisy so that he will be able to sleep through traveling and function in noisy environments well. I wake up at the slightest noise and don't want him to be a light sleeper. As it sucks.
We did his first doctor's check-up and shots. He has gained over a kilogram and grown 6cm in a month. He is starting to lose most of his hair and it seems to be growing back in much lighter. Some of it is even blond. Drai is also starting to babble and coo a lot. Which is really freaking cute.
He's already managed to do a push up as well. Which I didn't think one month-old babies were supposed to be able to do. I have a feeling he is going to be crawling about destroying the place in no time.

In other news, the weather is getting really freaking hot. Too hot for February. Last Thursday, it was 29 degrees at 9:00pm. It is supposed to get cold a get this week but I am skeptical.

Adventures in Baby Raising

2009-02-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

Everything is going well here. Draidan is growing like a weed and things are starting to fall into routine day by day. Jenny started teaching privates again this week at our house. The only problem is that when she is teaching- is Drai's party time. So she was finding it impossible to teach and take care of him at the same time. She wanted to find a nanny to come and watch him while she was teaching. I wanted to support her with this but don't trust most Taiwanese in regards to my child, as most of what they say is completely different than everything I have read about children. Luckily, my good friend Nick's wife, Julie, who we have known for ages just lost her job due to their being no work for her company. She is an awesome mother and parents her daughter exactly how I want Draidan raised. So we offered her the gig and she accepted. So that is one less thing to worry about. Her daughter is very well behaved, incredibly social and really creative. I was so worried we would end up getting a nanny that plops our kid in front of the TV and then goes off to read gossip magazines.

Maybe some of you professional baby caregivers can chime in on some advice we have gotten lately. I think they are wrong but several Taiwanese moms have recommended the following.

1. Clean Drai's tongue. Do you do that? I can't find anything in the books about cleaning baby's tongues. But they say you need to do it every day.

2. Giving him water. I have read the opposite which said that you shouldn't give a baby water. But, they told us that if you give him 40cc of water, it is okay. I told them I read differently and they changed their answer to 20cc. When I showed them the paragraph that said not to give them water, they changed their answer to just a few drops.

What are your thoughts on this?

He is starting to smile a lot more now which is fun. We are having a baby shower for him this Sunday. I think we will have quite a house full as it seems there are at least 20 people coming.

Oh and we finally decided on his Chinese name. Which was actually one of the good fortune names, that was recommended by the fortune teller. It was really hard because Jenny's last name - Sang, is very rare. Not many people have it here. Sang is a kind of tree in Asia. So a lot of the names sounded weird with her surname- which we need to use for Taiwanese documents. Jenny narrowed the names down to three. Two of which I couldn't pronounce at all. So we went with "Sang Kai-Wei." It sounds like "sung- kye (like rye)- way" It means something like powerful, honest one.

Apparently, it is an uncommon name which makes me happy. Anyway, that's all for now folks.

3 Weeks Old

2009-02-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

A Pound of Dirt

2009-02-05T19:35:00.001-08:00

We took Draidan into the doctor yesterday because he was getting baby acne and red splotches all over his face. The doctor says he is fine but has really sensitive skin. So we can't use any soaps or creams on him. So hopefully we don't become the parents of the stinky kid. He has gained a kilogram in three weeks and now has a triple chin. Which keeps getting rashes because puke manages to get hidden in his fat folds. Jenny is doing well but has a bit of the baby blues. She gets pretty lonely during the day when I am at work. Mike came over again yesterday to keep her company. I told Mike, I will lend him Drai for a day so that he can go pick up women. I have discovered that Drai is a chick magnet. I can't get out of the 7-11 with him without being surrounded by cooing women. So you single guys, go knock up a girl, borrow the baby and get some women.

The cats, who I thought would totally freak out over the baby have been awesome and I think they are more friendly now than they were before. BaoBao never let anyone pet her and would hide under the bed in our room when people came over. Last night, she slept next to Mike and let him pet her for an hour. For those of you that don't know, BaoBao is Jenny's aunt.
I also just read in the newspaper that having pets in the house actually builds the immune system of children. That was good to read because half of the Taiwanese guests that come over tell us we shouldn't have cats around the baby. The article also said that eating dirt is actually good for kids. Which is something my papa Barry used to always say. I guess all the worms in dirt actually help your body immunize itself against future infections.

I was videoing Drai today and managed to capture his first baby babble on film. That is good news as I just read in the "What to Expect in the First Year" book, that babies who babble vowel sounds in the first month tend to be good at language later on in life. A few months from now he will most likely have a bigger vocabulary than Uncle Clay.

Everything else is going well. I have learned that a baby boy is always cocked (pardon the pun) and loaded when changing his diapers. He gets me almost every time and usually manages to pee all over his shirt when I am changing him too. Then he gets this satisfied grin on his face like he is messing with me on purpose. Yesterday, he did it four times.

And Nana finally got to see Drai on Skype today but she didn't have a camera yet. When Papa gets back from Mexico, we will get him on there, too.

I-Ching

2009-02-01T02:49:00.000-08:00

Naming babies in Taiwan is quite an ordeal. The Taiwanese government insists that all babies have a Chinese name. But, you can't make up a Chinese name. It has to be an established name. Which, I guess is why everyone pretty much has the same names here. To help in the naming process, Taiwanese often go to fortune tellers to read the baby's I-Ching. Which is based on an oracle that forms a philosophy and divination based on the child's birth date, birth minute, lunar schedule etc.

Jenny's family went and got Drai's I-Ching done for him to help Jenny come up with a suitable and lucky Chinese name. She still hasn't decided yet. But his I-Ching was interesting. The fortune teller didn't know he was a mixer and didn't see a picture of him. They told us the following based on his numerology:
Personality:
Outgoing, talkative, loves to socialize, charming, hot-tempered (must get that from his mom,)bad tempered, sharp-tongued, independent, intelligent, stubborn (must get that from his mom,)likes to help others but doesn't like asking for help. Sharp, funny demeanor. Loyal and generous to family and friends.
Talents:
Business, farming, excellent style, verbal jousting, memorizing, womanizing, managing money (The fortune teller reiterated three times that he will be very good with women.)
Luck:
Not much
Body:
Big mouth, thick eyebrows and he needs to be careful with his arms and legs because they could be hurt easily. It says he will have a long and healthy life, though.

Kind of fun to read all of that. I think Jenny is worried about the "natural born lady-killer" tag. (Her words, not mine.) I, on the other hand think that is the best part! Lock up your daughters!

Year of the Ox

2009-01-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.
I have a week off for the New Years, which has proven a lifesaver as Drai has decided that sleeping at night is forbidden. He sleeps all day and hardly makes a peep but as soon as we go to bed, he begins screaming and crying. Not fun. We can't figure it out. You can't wake him up to save your life during the afternoon. He is like a totally different baby at night. Hopefully, he will grow out of it soon.
My friend, Grant escaped from China to Taiwan for a month of normalcy. Which is saying a lot when someone thinks Taiwan is normal. Or as he calls it- Middle Earth. (As in Lord of the Rings.) His stories about the place are so over the top that one is inclined to think he is making it up. He is aware of this though, so records video and wav. file proof of the madness. I really don't know why he doesn't leave there. It sounds absolutely horrible. Apparently, the racism there has gotten worse and worse in the last year as well. Partly, due to the financial crisis. Which they blame on the US. He said the people are just awful to him there but warm up a little when he tells them he is Canadian. (But not much.) A warm up act for him had the club chanting in Chinese, "We don't like the foreigners! We love Chinese! Go home foreigner! We love Chinese" Not realizing that Grant speaks some Chinese and understood what they were saying. Then, while DJing, the Chinese men in the crowd all stood on the dance floor throwing imaginary darts at him and giving him all these strange hand signals. Again, he got it on video to prove it. He had some REALLY horrible stories but they aren't really fitting for a baby blog. Sure you want to move there Lindsay?
So his girlfriend, Karen and him escaped to Taiwan for a month for a breather. It was really good to see them and they loved Drai right away.
Jenny's sister has come over a few times but it usually results in me being frustrated and/or angry. She brought 5 people over with her the other day- three of whom were children. (And one of which was sick.) They quickly ran about destroying the place, jumping on our sofa, chasing the cats etc. Meanwhile, in the bedroom their mothers set about basically telling me that everything we were doing with the baby was wrong. And mocking everything from back because it is more comfortable.) Draidan never cries when I burp him but he was screaming bloody murder as they showed me all of their tips. What really pissed me off is that most Taiwanese men won't do anything to help the children. Let alone, clean the house, do the laundry, bathe the baby, take out the trash, take out the recycling, cook etc. And yet they are giving me a hard time about all of it. I then had to go change Drai's diaper. When I opened the nursery, all the kids came running in, shouting, picking up all his toys and hitting each other with them. One started patting Drai's balls while I was trying to change him and another started bouncing one of the cat's dirty toys off his forehead. That put me over the edge and I shouted at the kids to get out. I then stormed into our bedroom and told Jenny to tell their moms to control their children. I can never seem to get into her family's good books as they continually put me in awkward situations that leave me looking like the bad guy.
I miss my family.

First Smile

2009-01-22T18:10:00.001-08:00

We got to see his first smile yesterday, which he continued to display for about an hour before finally passing out on my pillow. Uncle Mike came over again yesterday to take care of him and Jenny while I was at work. I honestly don't know what we would have done without him. He has been absolutely amazing and supportive.

Obama Baby

2009-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

We just got back from the hospital with Drai for a check-up. He is doing great and has gained 300 grams in 5 days. The doctor gave him a clean bill of health and said he sees nothing to be worried about.

Drai and I stayed up until 1:30am to watch Obama's inauguration. Actually, he slept through most of it but things were looking good and I was planning to get a photo of him with Obama swearing in. Alas, the minister from the Saddle Back Church did his sermon and totally pissed off Draidan. Who began crying and screaming. So I changed his diaper and took him to go get some booby action. Apparently,one week old babies have no interest in the change coming to America. Especially when there are free boobies in the other room.

We just finished bath time and he is now starting to like it. He babbles away and today was amazed to discover his hands. Oh how delicious hands are.

1 Week Old

2009-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

Draidan is totally taking after his cousin Sullivan and is a super chill baby. He only cries when he is either hungry or needs a changing. As soon as he eats or gets a fresh diaper, he just becomes totally silent and looks around at everything or locks eyes with us. He is sleeping much more at night and just wakes up to feed about every 2.5 to 3 hours but falls right back asleep again.
I gave him his first bath yesterday which had him throw his first tantrum but mostly because daddy didn't know what he was doing. I wasn't wearing a shirt and when I pulled him out of the tub and held him next to me, he tried to get a mouth full of my nipple, which Jenny thought was hysterical. My boss, Zoya, told me to try putting a cloth over him while bathing so he doesn't feel as exposed. I tried that this morning while Jenny was sleeping and we managed to have bath time without a single tear shed.

I had to go back to work full time yesterday but my friend Mike is off for Chinese New Year, so he came to the house all day to help Jenny with Drai. When I got home at 9:45, he had mopped the floors and cooked us dinner. I asked how the baby was and he replied, "Your baby is sooooo GOOD." He is quite impressed with how easygoing Drai is. It is nice to have another friend that likes babies as much as I do. I think he misses his sister's kids back home.

He is coming by again today to help out. He is officially a legend in my books.

Pics for the Grandmas and Grandpas

2009-01-17T19:26:00.001-08:00

You can't really tell in the pictures but his eyes are actually a really dark gray right now. Hopefully they will stay like that but they probably won't.

Sleep All Day - Party All Night

2009-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

We didn't get much sleep last night. Drai seemed to be hungry every 30 minutes and flat out refused to sleep in his crib. So we put him in bed with us, where Jenny could nurse him whenever he started to fuss. Then at 9am, he fell asleep and has been out for two and a half hours now. Hopefully, that will continue for a bit because we need naps.
He is very alert and spends most of his time just looking us in the eye as we talk to him. The cats came and checked him out yesterday while I had him on the sofa. At first, I thought they would freak out, but instead they gave him a very careful sniff and walked off. So that was relief. That is all I need is two cats acting out their jealous rage on our house. But they seem quite chill. Bao Bao is a little angry that she was not allowed to sleep with us last night but oh well...
Here are some photos from yesterday.

Home at Last

2009-01-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

The doctor called us last night and Draidan has completely recovered. They told us that we could bring him home today. So we went there as soon as we woke up this morning. They gave gave him a bath for us and wrapped him up for the ride home. Drai managed to scratch his face during the bath but that seems to be his only major war wound. He slept all the way through the discharge which took quite a long time and didn't make a peep the whole way home. We sat him down in the nursery and he breastfed for about a half an hour and still didn't open an eye. He is now sound asleep where he belongs.
Thank you for all the love and support from everyone. It has helped us so much. Looking at that picture, you would never believe that I just went through the week of hell hey?

One home one to go.

2009-01-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

Jenny was released from the hospital about a half hour ago. My boss came and drove us home. She got a much deserved shower and we are heading out the door to go spend some time with Draidan. We started off the morning with good news. The doctor stopped by our hospital and told us that Drai was taken off oxygen last night and is breathing on his own. He is stable, getting stronger quickly and will most likely be able to come home with us on Sunday or Monday.
They are giving us a lot more time with him now and the nurses in the pediatric ward are great. They all adore him and are giving him lots of love. They are also teaching Jenny the baby basics.
Thank you for all the love and support. I have a ton of you that I need to call but am still running around non-stop. I will call this afternoon.
With Jenny home, things feels a little more normal and safe.
And Draidan Soul has lived up to his namesake and will join us soon.

I am going to keep adding videos and photos to Facebook because none of the other sites seem to be letting me add video.

Love you,
Danny and Jenny

A Bad Night

2009-01-14T23:43:00.001-08:00

I have about 20 minutes until I need to get back to the hospital. So I thought I would fill the rest of you in on what is going on. Last night, I took a sleeping pill the doctor gave me so that I could try and get a full night sleep on the sofa. I nodded off at about 12:30 and then we were woken up by the phone ringing at 1:30. They told us that we needed to come downstairs right away and get in an ambulance with Draidan because they had to transfer him to a big hospital due to problems with his breathing and heart rate. So in a total groggy stupor, I tried to help Jenny who could still hardly walk, get dressed and get downstairs where we were met with paramedics and Draidan in an oxygen center. This was the first time Jenny had been able to see him since birth but he was under glass and she couldn't touch him. They then rushed us to the hospital and disappeared with him, while getting Jenny to fill out what seemed like hours of paperwork.
They let us see him for a few minutes and she got to touch him for the first time since the birth but then we were told we had to leave. He was not going to be able to eat for the next 12 hours because of the tests he would have to undergo during the night and morning.

We went back this morning and he was a lot weaker than yesterday. He wasn't making eye contact anymore and was really fussy. Probably due to all the wires he was attached to. They let Jenny try breast feeding for the first time. Which has been really important for her. She has been adamant about breast feeding and felt horrible that she hadn't been able to feed her son yet. He took to it right away and was super hungry. After about a half hour, he fell fast asleep in her arms but as soon as the nurses took him away he started screaming. It was totally horrible. They said, his tests have all come out normal and we now have to wait for a cardiologist to run some tests. They won't tell us when we can have him and Jenny has to stay in the other hospital. So I have been running between home and each hospital. The other one is on the other side of the city which just adds to the stress. I hated being just upstairs from him. Having him on the other side of the city is killing me.

I have to go back and get Jenny now. She is going to try and feed him again. Then, we won't get to see him again until the next day. For some reason, we aren't allowed to see our son more than twice a day.
He seems like he is getting weaker instead of stronger.

I took some pics though. Love you guys.

The Name

2009-01-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Hello.
Sorry, no new pictures yet. I am still sleep deprived and forgot the camera at the hospital.

Jenny is doing way better and they will let her start nursing tomorrow. She still hasn't gotten to hold Draidan yet because of the fever. She ended up getting a bad infection which is one of the many reasons she went into shock so badly during the labour. She is eating a lot now and way more alert. I told her we can keep her in the hospital for a week but she wants to get home to her cats and own bed by Friday. She says she will be fine.

As for the super star...
I start crying just thinking about him. I am way more emotional than Jenny! Draidan is getting cuter by the hour as his head recovers from that insane delivery. I finally got to see his whole head about an hour ago.(He has been wrapped up in towels when I have been feeding him.) He is starting to look a little more westerner. Before he had a very round Chinese face but he is starting to look more like a western baby. The hospital is very protective of the babies. They won't let anyone touch them except for the parents. You have to approach to sets of doors, pass a video test to be buzzed in, present your ID and only then will they go get your baby for you. They then have a nice sitting area where everyone can nurse their babies. I fed him four times today. Three of which went great. The third one, he was too tired and just kept falling asleep. We are trying to train him for breast feeding, so I haven't been using a bottle. Which is tricky because... again, I have no instruction at all. I am not even sure if I am burping him properly or not. I just kind of watch what the other mothers are doing and copy them. It seems to be working. He is way bigger than all the other babies. It is quite funny actually. I asked one father next to me if his baby was born today and he said, "No. Sunday." In Chinese. Drai was almost twice the size of the other baby. Again, poor Jenny.

He doesn't cry at all and I am hoping he takes after his cousin Sullivan. He just kind of looks around or locks eyes with me as I sing to him. I realized I have forgotten all the standard lullabies. I think I even butchered "Rock A Bye Baby." Perhaps it is the sleep deprivation. However, he seems to like Cold Play and U2 songs. (They popped into my head.) And when I gently stroke his eye brows, he goes out like a light.

I am so totally in love.

So the name... many people keep asking me through Facebook why I chose this name. As Eden guessed, the "aidan" comes from my stupid ass best friend who happens to be one of the most intelligent, caring and talented people I know. (When he is in the mood.) Aidan is also a total asshole like the rest of us, Ushers. I don't think he even knows that my son is named after him yet.. The "Dr" was because I wanted him to have a different name than everyone else. I have never met a Draidan. And actually I dreamt the name a few months ago. I woke up and told Jenny that I had a dream about me holding our baby and I was calling him Draidan." He is a mixer baby. So he needs a mixed name. I liked how Draidan sounded.

My mother then pointed out today that if you spell it out it means "Dr. Aidan" Which I hadn't thought of before but makes me like it even more because it is funny.

My mom also told me that my Aunty Pat loved the first name but the second name scared her because she thought it meant something would take him away from me. But it is the exact opposite reason that we named him this. That soul fought through those 36 hours of labour with his mom. His soul breathed life back into his blue, lifeless body as those nurses did CPR on him. It was his soul that brought him into this world and healed my own. So thus... the name...

Draidan Soul Usher.

Draidan Soul Usher

2009-01-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

Now, I would like to introduce you to my real son. I promise this one is for real and not a photo of a Japanese girl like the last one.

Draidan Soul Usher, was born at 10:20pm on January 13th. He was 49.5 cm long and 3.35 kilograms. Although, he came into the world on a scary note, he is now doing fine and I just finished feeding him. Jenny still hasn't been able to spend anytime with him or try feeding him as she went into shock from the blood loss and developed a high fever.

She was amazing. I can't believe how strong she is. We had no coaches at all. In the entire 35 hours before they rushed her into the operating room, we only had a nurse with us for maybe an hour in total. Jenny knows nothing about giving birth. I know nothing about giving birth and I couldn't communicate her needs to the nurses. Or when I would they would come in, tell her to keep pushing and leave. Total nightmare. I can't believe how horrible that was. I have still only had about 6 hours sleep in 3 days. That delivery was about 10 times as bad as the worst case scenario I had in my head. For the last 4 hours we could see the top of Draidan's head about 2 inches in but he was just too big for Jenny's little frame. Finally, we insisted that the doctor take her to the operating room, so they called the doctor and it was much worse that she was anticipating too. Long story, short they had two nurses standing on stools pushing down as hard as they could over and over again, while the doctor used a suction machine to pull his head out. This went on for about a half hour. Jenny was almost silent because she was in so much pain and kept going in and out of consciousness. Finally, they got him out but he was totally blue and limp. They had to start doing CPR on him and Jenny started convulsing and shaking as she went into shock before passing completely out. I almost broke down watching my baby lifeless to my left and Jenny shaking to my right. The doctor ran to the phone to call someone else in and I could see the panic in all their eyes. Just as she picked up the phone, the greatest sound I have ever heard came from under the nurses- Draidan's quiet murmur. Things are still a blur but the nurses brought him back and as they sucked out the fluids his murmur turned to the wail I was expecting to hear when he came out. Music to my ears.

Then after about 5 minutes with Jenny and I, they sent him off to get cleaned up. I didn't realize how bad Jenny was until he left. She was coming in and out of consciousness and couldn't stop shaking for about 6 hours. It was terrifying to see her like that. Her eyes kept rolling back in her head and then she would shake tremendously all over. Draiden stayed in the nursery the whole night, as we tried to get Jenny better. She is stable now and was eating when I left to come home, feed the cats and change clothes. She is still really weak and will probably need to spend longer in the hospital than first anticipated as the bleeding is still quite severe.

There aren't many photos yet and for some reason youtube isn't letting me upload any of the video of him. So for now -just a few pics. I need to get back to the hospital.
I will try to add more tomorrow.

Love you,
Danny

Super Quick Update

2009-01-12T02:21:00.001-08:00

Jenny is in the hospital. She is fine but we have so far been there almost 8 hours. I just came home to get some muscle relaxants for my back. Which chose today to pop out. Probably from sitting so long in the clinic. Both of us are good but I think I am in for a long night. I can't see Head making an appearance in the next 6 hours. But hopefully he does.
Then we could at least get transferred into a private room. The place we are in now is like an ER ward.

Love you and will call when he comes out!

My Son

2009-01-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I didn’t call any of you but it happened in such a rush that the most important thing to do was get Jenny to the hospital as soon as possible. The books said that a mother’s water breaking before they get to the hospital usually only really happens in the movies. Jenny would beg to differ. Hers broke while standing in-line with a till full of groceries. I was at work when I got the call and left my students in complete shock as I quickly muttered something like, “My wife! Have baby now! I gotta go! Uhhh… read something! Chinese teacher will come soon. Bye!”

I don’t have much time to get into all the details now but promise I will later. I want to get back to the hospital. I just came home to change clothes and take a quick shower. It is really early in the morning now, too. So I will call you later but here is a photo of the newest addition to our family- Smithson Barry Usher. The cutest freaking baby on the planet! Sorry this is so rushed but I haven’t slept in ages and have drank far too much red bull.

Just kidding. Jenny is still pregnant and I have no idea whose baby this is. He is a cute little fella though. Am I right? Or am I right? I mean gosh...what a cute baby. The stuff dreams are made of. Boy, did I ever have you going with that whole "birth of my son" stuff hey? Love you!
Danny
PS I hope my son is as cute as this baby because I mean- wow...that's one cute baby.

Nothin' Nada

2009-01-07T17:32:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update. There have been no changes whatsoever. Jenny still feels fine and hasn't had a single contraction. She is starting to get really frustrated though. We can't imagine how Jamie went so long past her due date. In Chinese culture, they always think the boy will be born early. For 3 months all of her family and friends have been telling her that she would deliver in late December. Even the doctor had said that it looked like he was ready to come out two weeks ago. She took this week completely off and is now bored stupid. She has been climbing the stairs to the 20th floor and walking on the running machine for 30 minutes a day but no signs from Head that he is ready to come out.

Fashionably late?

2009-01-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

We just got back from the weekly check-up with the obstetrician and Head continues to flourish in the womb. His ultra-sound was looking great. He has still managed to block his face with his hand for over 10 visits now. Actually pretty much since he has had hands- he has been hiding his face. (Hopefully, it is not to hide his horns.)

The doctor decided to do a stress test on him because he has officially hit the 40 week mark. So Jenny had to lay down with a machine wrapped around her belly monitoring his heart and any contractions for about a half hour. They said a healthy baby's heart should stay between 100 and 180 BPM. His was a steady 140 for thirty minutes. You could set your watch to his heart beat. Sadly for Jenny, there wasn't a single contraction. She REALLY wants him out now. She walked with Mike and I to the grocery store last night and is still getting around fine but I think she is done with the whole pregnancy thing.

Last night I heard her talking in the bedroom to someone, so I walked in to see who it was. She was sitting on the bed, staring at her belly and trying to convince the baby that it was time to come out. She is getting really excited and is surprisingly unworried about the delivery. I really wish I could be as calm about things as the Zen-like Jenny.

So I will try to let you know when labor starts. The doctor said that if he hasn't come by the end of week 41, it might be time to induce. Jenny couldn't agree more.

2 Months to Nine Months

2009-01-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T18:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-19T21:05:00.001-08:00

A Quickie

2008-12-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

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.

Cold Front- Hooray

2008-11-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

Everything here is going great. All of Jenny's tests came back with positive results and she, nor the baby seem to be at any risk of diabetes. She is very healthy and looks great. Two different friends both commented last week that if you are standing behind her, she doesn't look pregnant whatsoever. This of course scored extra browny points for the Canadians. And they weren't exaggerating. Her belly is huge from the side but if she is waddling at you head on, she looks the same as she always has. She has a week and a half left of work and then will take a break for the next four to six months. She will still teach some private classes at our house but she won't be teaching at the school. I am quite happy that she did decide to take time off because we have enough money with my income and SO many students are sick right now. I am worried that they will pass it on to her.
One of my junior high classes last week looked like they had all been consumed by the plague. There were 18 kids in the class and only one wasn't sick. So the first thing I did the next morning was go get a flu shot. I am sure it will be $8 well spent.
Our weather finally cooled off and is now glorious. It is 27 degrees today, which sounds hot but it is quite chilly when you spent the last 6 months in 34- 36 degree weather. At night it is dropping down to about 20 degrees. We finally unplugged the air-conditioners which will save us some coin. I forgot how beautiful the Taiwan winters were.

The nursery is almost finished. I still need to blow up big-sized pictures for the walls but other than that, we are done. The countdown now begins for my son to enter this world. 48 days and counting...

I am so excited to look into his eyes, feel him squeeze my finger and hear his voice. Although the voice novelty will probably wear off quickly.

It's A New Day

2008-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

The world seems a little less scary to bring a baby into this week.
This song makes me happy.

Some might think we are naive to believe so much in a politician but there really isn't anything wrong with a little hope now and then now is there?

S M R T ?

2008-11-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

Well first of all- OBAMA!!! OBAMA!! We can finally not be embarrassed to live next to the American people and the world seems like a less scary place to bring my son into. But enough about the election. Let's move on to the real story.

Yea... I am not so smart. This will come as a huge surprise to most of you but it is true. Take this week for example...

I decided that instead of painting the nursery, I would have photos of stuffed animals blown up to huge proportions and mounted on pieces of wood. This would cost a fortune in Canada but it is quite cheap to do in Taiwan. So after scouring the internet for hours looking for suitable pictures, I realized that the only images big enough to do this with- cost a fortune to download. So I asked my mother the photographer to take some photos of stuffed animals she had lying around the house. She came through, put them on a CD, mailed them to Taiwan and we chose three to use. I carefully measured the size of the walls that I wanted to cover and upon writing down my desired dimensions, we hopped on my scooter and drove around to several print shops before finally finding one that could do what I wanted. Which was to have the photos blown up to 60 by 40 sized prints and mounted on boards which we could then cover the walls with. I was a little worried that the photos taken; even with a professional quality camera may not have a high enough megapixel resolution for what I wanted to do. We gave them the CD with the images on them and they assured us that it would be no problem to do so without losing picture quality. Things were coming along nicely. As ol' Hannibal from the A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together." They then offered us an astoundingly cheap price to do so. I was shocked, excited and a little bewildered at how much lower the price was in Taiwan compared to Canada.

A day later they called to say my wall hangings were ready; which impressed me even more. I asked Jenny to ask them if they could deliver them because I didn’t want to try and drive with these massive pictures on a scooter in Taiwan traffic. She didn’t have their number to do so as neither of us had picked up their business card. So I decided to double her there and then have her take a taxi back with the pictures. We were both concerned that they might have been too big to even fit into a taxi as they would not be bendable.

Upon arriving we were shocked as the clerk presented our purchase to us. Have you figured out where this is going?
They are metric in Taiwan! We are metric in Canada. I have been using the metric system since grade 3. Why the hell would I measure the wall in inches? Now then... if you will excuse me, I am off to go get a 3 dollar haircut.

Halloween

2008-11-01T20:38:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween everybody. I hope you are all well. We are doing well. We had a bit of a scare this week with the pregnancy. Jenny’s family has a history of diabetes and the doctor called to say that there were some issues with Jenny’s last blood test. So we rushed in to get checked out and apparently she is borderline diabetic. It is strange because she never really eats anything that causes diabetes. Regardless, we now have to get checked up more often and she has to really monitor her eating in order to avoid any major complications. I am sure she and the baby will be fine though. He is still break dancing in her belly non-stop. Definitely an active little guy.
My school didn’t have a Halloween party this year. I think because the economy is getting worse so they can’t afford to do big parties anymore but I decided to celebrate nonetheless. The Taiwanese are incredibly scared of ghosts and probably about 75% of them not only believe in the deathly ghouls but also believe that ghosts will try to hurt them whenever possible. Enter Danny with his newest monster mask and his Canon Powershot. I began bursting into classrooms of unsuspecting children, howling while recording their reactions. Man can Taiwanese kids scream. You can see one of the videos on my Facebook. I scared Jonathon and another Teacher Steven really bad, too. I generally don’t stick around after scaring Jonathon as he told me about a year ago, after a particularly good string of frightening encounters -that he would punch me in the head the next time I scared him. Thankfully, I think Halloween tricks are accepted by him, as I was not pummeled. He has a new class, which is in the Facebook video. They are all Grade 1s and 2s and new to the school. They don’t know me and have no idea about my antics. My own students are fairly hard to scare now. So the fresh blood of Jonathon’s students was a welcome treat for my Halloween. Before I left on Friday night, I used a mop, the mask and a few other things lying around to make a scarecrow in the bathroom. So whoever was the first to walk into the bathroom Saturday morning would come face to face with a monster. I look forward to hearing who that scared. Most likely our secretary.
The weeks are flying by like crazy right now. I will have a son in no-time at all. The pics below are stills I took from the videos of the terrified kids.

Photos of Scared Kids

2008-11-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Children tend to move in erractic motions when confronted by ghouls. Thus the blurry photos.