homeward bound

We left Taipei on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning. The sun was blazing, the cicadas were calling, and we crammed all of our suitcases, carefully weighed to meet the 50 pound weight limit, into the back of a van. Binbin hadn't slept well the night before. Since Friday, he has been telling everyone that he is "going to take a plane to America to visit his grandparents 坐飛機去美國看爺爺和奶奶." He doesn't understand that you can't catch a plane in the same way that you can walk out to the street and catch a cab or a bus. Why did we have to wait until the day after tomorrow?

Binbin received more than the normal quota of hugs from his teachers and the staff at Elite's on Thursday and Friday. He was well loved, and we will all miss Zengzeng laoshi, Yiwen laoshi, Miss Shaun, and Eric Shushu as well as the little friends 小朋友: Buju, Qiqi, Weiwei, Pangpang, Chenyan, and Joshua. If Binbin was sad to go, his sadness was sweetened by a parting gift from Zengzeng laoshi and others...a set of oversize animal and vehicle stamps with three stamps pads in orange, green, and (his favorite) purple. He was all smiles bringing that gift home. And in the evening, he and our neighbor Jiaxuan purpled their fingers as they stamped up scrap paper with purple roosters and purple bicycles.

We will also miss Yigong and Yipo 姨公姨婆, who treated Binbin like their own grandson, visiting on the weekends and bragging about his new skills. We spent much of our last day together with them. We also got a last visit from Aron Shushu and Chelsea Ah-yi, who by now, are taking their summer holiday in their Canadian homeland.

We didn't get to say goodbye to many folks we saw day in and day out in our apartment building. Some of the old grannies would habitually tossle Binbin's hair and dole out stern pieces of childrearing advice in Taiwanese to us the strange, foreign trio. They're sure to notice that the little didi who looked like a little meimei, along with his parents, are no longer living in their neighborhood.

We are now in Rockford, Illinois visiting Yeye and Nainai. Though the jetlag hasn't been terrible, Binbin is a bit disoriented. But he is pleased as punch running around on the deck and lawn, which are for him a novelty, since such things simply don't exist in Taipei city. And, Binbin is discovering tne Tonka cars and trucks from Jack's childhood, which have been carefully stored in the basement awaiting him.

Pictures to come soon.

last days

Today (Monday) begins our last week in Taipei. Hard to believe how the last six months have crept and then sneaked and then leaped past us. Six months ago, Binbin's only consistent word in Chinese was "baba." Now, he's got the tones and the measure words all sorted out, and the observations and questions spill out. He's figured out how to pedal his trike; how to put on his shoes; how squat in the public toilets; the right way to go to Love to Shop and the right way to saunter home. We have begun to tell him about America 美國, and every now and then, he'll tell us that the car is going to America to go to work, 車車去美國去上班.

Yesterday, the good folks at Starbucks, falling to Doris ah-yi's lead, threw us a little good-bye party. Binbin was so excited, opening envelopes, then boxes, then playing with a bouquet of lollipops. He ran circles around Love to Shop, then ran back to Starbucks. He finally offered a few smiles for the camera. He reluctantly came home, with his box in hand. Then, at home, he discovered that the paper stuffing inside the box could be piled and thrown and tossed and re-piled. Let the after-party party begin!

East Asian menagerie

Binbin's case of mumps certainly threw us for a loop this past week, so we haven't been at our normal routine, including blogging. But, so long as he stays on track, he should be right as rain and back at Elite's tomorrow (Friday).

Before the mumps hit, another Elite's mother had brought some cute 可愛 balloons to school: cows, sheep, and pigs with little fold down legs just the right weight, so kids could pull the animals along by means of a leash. She offered to bring one for us...and so the next day, Binbin brought his new friend, Kitty, to play ball at Love to Shop.



He quickly noticed that Kitty did not have a mouth, so she could only smell the fragrance of food. He allowed her this pleasure at dinner time. Then, he realized that Kitty, being full of air, was quite resonant, and was thus good drumming material.



Tuesday was the official traditional holiday on which the annual dragon boat races are held, so we took a cab to the other side of the river to watch.




The teams worked hard in the 90 degree heat. We were quite impressed. Binbin thought the boats were all right, but his real love was for the large kettle drums, which provided the beats for the rowers' strokes.

豬臉病 - Lessons learned in a foreign land

Foreign countries seem to teach us many things about the world that we had not previously known. In this instance, we've learned that it is possible to contract a mostly extinct disease (in first world countries) despite prior immunization. More specifically, Binbin has been diagnosed with "pig face disease" or mumps, despite having been vaccinated at 18 months in the US. In the US there are about 300 cases/year according to the CDC, about 6/state. It's more common here, yet everyone young has supposedly been immunized as well. So, it's a mystery how he got it. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to be too under the weather. The main symptom is massive swelling of the face, his right side, and pain caused from the swelling. We're told it should pass on its own in a week and there is no treatment. He's under self-imposed quarantine and cannot go to school or hang out with other kids for a week. The Taiwanese government tracks the cases and will be contacting Binbin's school to find out whether there are other kids who contracted it as well. The source will probably remain unknown. We've also learned that immunization only works in about 70-80% of recipients, and 20% of those who contract mumps are asymptomatic. Ah, the good old diseases of the developing world.

The good side:


Pig face - otherwise known as the bad side:

but first you have to catch up

Lots of catching up to do. Taiko drumroll, please...




On the newlywed stage, Binbin gleefully runs around until the VIPs arrive.





Jean Tao and Nelson Wang (the newlyweds) beside their parents on June 9.



Ah-gong and Ah-po flew in from Suzhou to join in the merry family festivities. Here are a couple of more informal pics. At Love to Shop, riding on the mechanical fire truck with Ah-po.



At home, playing the drums with Ah-gong.

mutual admiration

We hadn't seen Jiaxuan in quite awhile, but she came over to play one evening. Here she is looking at, er, looking in one of Binbin's books.



Binbin's own favorite activity of late has been drumming. He sets up the tufted footstools, his own bamboo stool, two beanbag stuffed stools, and one bongo bucket...then pounds away with his empty Super Supau and Drink More Water bottles.



He also likes to check out his style as reflected in the TV.

new stuff

Here's a little bit on new stuff. Last weekend, we went up to Tianmu to visit Binbin's young aunts, Jean 小雲 and Sandy 小虹. He was a bit shy, but eventually shared his favorite new snack, dried mangos, with them. Jean and Nelson's upcoming wedding banquet (June 9) is bringing lots of relatives to town.




Later in the afternoon, we went over to the riverside park, which we haven't done in ages. Jack played "father emperor penguin" to our chick Binbin, while watching a young guy playing with a remote control car.