DD Answers Yes and No!

Finally, life is getting a little bit easier with DD. She's now able to indicate 'yes' by nodding and 'no' by shaking her head. This takes a bit of the guesswork out of figuring out what she wants when she fusses. I would say her accuracy is about 90%. I always ask her whether she wants a particular food (by showing it to her) or whether she wants to pee or poop and she'll nod or shake her head in response. She also indicates her need to use the potty by crawling towards it.

Here's a totally fun video of DD answering my questions. :P Dunno about her accuracy answering the questions though!! Haha!

Typhoon Fong-Wong

Typhoon Fung-Wong (meaning "Phoenix" in Chinese) is our second typhoon this month. The first was Kalmaegi, which did not affect Taipei very much, but devastated Taichung, leaving 20 people dead and 6 missing.

Fung-Wong arrived on Taiwan's east coast just before 7am on Monday, 28 July, before exiting the west coast at about 2.30pm. We experienced winds of up to 140km/h and very heavy rains. Public offices and schools were closed that day, so DH had a day off. Although Fung-Wong was much stronger than Kalmaegi, the casualties from Fung-Wong (2 people dead and 6 injured) were relatively fewer due to precautionary measures taken by the Taiwan government.

We were quite prepared ourselves. We had our non-battery operated torchlights and emergency radio, which were part of our emergency equipment from Denver when we were preparing for snowstorms. We boiled a few pots of drinking water just in case the water supply got cut off and also filled DD's baby bathtub with water. DH went out and got us more bread to supplement our other foodstuff in the pantry. Thankfully, we didn't have to use any of our emergency supplies. The kids had a bad night though, because the loud howling winds and heavy rains kept them awake. April to October is typhoon season here in Taiwan, although July apparently has the most typhoons and storms are most frequent from July to October. Well, hopefully, we wouldn't see anymore typhoons before we leave Taiwan in October this year!

Here is a video taken from our living room window. You can actually see the windows rattling from the strong winds. Rain water had also seeped collected along the window sills. The heavy rains, no doubt, left our windows spotlessly clean!

DD Pic After Nap

This is how DD looks after a nap - "fishnet face"! Hehehe. She has taken to occasionally sleeping face down in her sarong cradle.

Go Potty!

This is going to be one of my favorite pictures of all time!

Men being men, DH and my dad both asked why I needed to get another potty for DD - can't she just share DS's potty? Well, THIS is why! DS still loves his potty very much and uses it all the time for pees and poops (although we've been trying to wean him onto the big toilet for poops, but we're now wondering if that's the right thing to do because DS ends up playing with stuff in the toilet and I end up having to clean up the mess and wash his hands afterwards. Oh, not forgetting the wads of clean toilet paper gone to waste because DS wants to "wipe" himself after the deed - regardless of whether he has done it or not!). Anyhow, there have been countless times DS and DD have to go potty at the same time. So thankfully, we have TWO potties! :)

Estes Park Part 4 - DS Snow-Scraping Video

As I mentioned earlier, on our 3rd and last day in Estes Park, we got a pleasant surprise - heavy snowfall! DS had a ball of a time helping DH to scrap snow off the car.

Estes Park Part 3 - Rocky Mountain National Park

These pictures below do no justice to the beautiful scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park. Really, the camera cannot capture how beautiful it was. We saw snow-capped mountain ranges, mountain ranges of different shades of brown and green, pine trees and bare land. Truly, truly, breathtaking.

Here we are, feeling right on top of the world.


The drive through Rocky Mountain National Park was awesome. The most beautiful scenery ever. Miles and miles of mountain ranges and wide open spaces. Just beautiful. We'll love to go back to Colorado again.

Estes Park Part 2 - River Video

Bearing in mind that it was less than 5 deg C, DS was very keen to have a dip in Fall River, which ran right in front of our cabin in River Stone Resort. After much persuasion, Grandpa obliged to what would probably be the coldest dip in water for the both of them. After that really quick trip down into the river, Grandpa said that walking barefooted on the rocks was like walking on ice. And the water, needless to say, was freezing cold!