The Podcast - Episode 6 - Chinese New Year

The latest video podcast. The title speaks for itself.

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Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan - Part 8

T'was the Morning of the Night before Christmas

In the morning of the night before Christmas we woke up with a fright. I was changing Ryan's diaper and he was just looking at me. Now, normally it would be quite pleasant to have your son looking quite adoringly directly into your eyes, but on on this occasion I knew something was wrong. Every other morning when I change his diaper, he gets cranky. He kicks and screams, jerks his arms around, and alternates between changing red and light purple. I called Anting over to the crib to get her expert opinion. Although we had just been on the road with my parents for a few days, there had been no major incidents and no one had been sick. Anting came over and performed the "lift up arm and drop it test". Ryan failed miserably; his arm flopped onto the crib like a warm sausage link. We both knew something was wrong at that point, but decided that maybe he was just tired and needed to wake up a bit. We also took his temperature and found him to be cooler than normal. We waited 5 minutes. His situation did not improve so we started packing for a hospital visit.

It was early in the morning and we were looking forward to heading back to sleep for a few hours after feeding Ryan. Going to the hospital was going to put a damper on that. We were very tired, worried, and now feeling immeasurable pains of guilt. Prior to heading off with my parents for our short trip around Taiwan, every Taiwanese person who knew of our plans told us not to go. If we were to go, we shouldn't take the baby. Chief among our advisers was Anting's mom, who is a wonderful source of "information" on how to raise a baby. In addition to worrying about Ryan's well-being, I had to face the prospect that the person who says you can't whistle lest evil spirits will be attracted, who tells me I shouldn't drink ice water, even when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside, and who maintains that babies can't be outside when its dark, or they'll get possessed, was right.

We arrived at the hospital tired, worried, and feeling guilty. Fortunately, we walked right in and Ryan was examined and had blood test right away. The emergency ward was quite busy so we had to wait for Ryan's test results. The weather was a little cold (and there are no indoor heating systems) so we wrapped him in a blanket and began the long wait for results. Ryan lay limply on my shoulder the whole time and had not even reacted when he was stuck with a needle for the blood test.

Finally the tests came back and it was determined that he had a urinary tract infection. He had to be admitted to the hospital for further tests and to treat the infection. Ryan was admitted to the newborn's ward and hooked up to an IV. For the next week he was in hospital and we visited during the posted hours. It was quite sad to have him back in the hospital as he had already spent more time than normal in the hospital after his birth and then was re-admitted after his first weekend out. It also meant that he missed his first Christmas at home. Fortunately they found that his UTI was not of the chronic type and cleared up after a few days of medicine.

Not being the types to let a loved-one's hospitalization get in the way of our celebrations, we carried on as normal, as you can see below:

Oh Christmas Tree

Opening Presents

The Buffet at The Grand Formosa Regent
(Cheaper on Christmas Day!)



Group Shot

In Front of the Giant Tree Outside the Restaurant




Group Shot

Having More Fun with our Little Buddy

For the folks back at home, here are some recent pictures of our cute little buddy. Ryan is learning some good new tricks like grabbing things, trying to talk, and crying for an hour at the top of his lungs when we want to go to sleep. While he is having some health issues, he seems to be developing normally and is a happy baby. The doctors have finally figured out why he had jaundice for so long--he has hypothyroidism and is now on medication. The medication should also ensure that he develops normally. There are still several tests to perform, but ever since he's been on the meds, his colour and energy levels have improved. We hope March is the start of the end of extended hospital stays.

Feb 1, 2007

Feb 4, 2007

Crying Cousins - Feb 5, 2007

Feb 7, 2007

Feb 7, 2007

Feb 8, 2007

Feb 16, 2007

Feb 16, 2007

Feb 21, 2007

Mar 1, 2007

Mar 2, 2007

Mar 3, 2007

Mar 4, 2007

Mar 4, 2007

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan - Part 7

Day 7 - December 23, 2006

Taroko Gorge

Welcome back to our series documenting my parents' trip to Taiwan. No, they have not been here all this time, but are safely back in Gibsons--it has just taken me this long to get these things posted. A few more parts to post and then I will consolidate the whole trip into a giant post. Please also note that more pictures of our adventure can be seen on our flickr site.

We spent the night in Hualian after our mountain highway driving adventure. In the morning we had another hotel buffet breakfast and then made our way to Taroko Gorge. I had never been there before and was looking forward to seeing it. It sure did not disappoint. The area is probably one of the most beautiful areas in Taiwan. Running along a stretch of about 16 Kilometers, the mountain views, clean air, and luxurious resort was somewhat reminiscent of Banff. We spent several hours looking around, taking pictures, and eating at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel. If you ever come to Taiwan, this has to be on the top of the list for must see places.

After spending most of the afternoon at the Gorge, we were finally at the end of our road trip and started making our way back to Taoyuan. The government had just recently finished building a massive series of tunnels that cut about 2 hours off the drive time from Ilan to Taipei. We got to experience driving for about 30 minutes through a mountain.

When we arrived home, we went to one of our favourite restaurants in Taoyuan and barbecued our own delicious meals.

View from the Hotel in Hualian

Small Town on the way to the Gorge

Christmas at the Formosa Regent

Outside the Hotel Resort

Entrance way to Mountain Temple

Enjoying the View on Taiwan's East Coast

Driving through the new Tunnel

Enjoying some Barbeque

The Podcast - Episode 5 - New Year's Boat Cruise

Just in time for Chinese New Year, here is a podcast about the other New Year. We went with some friends to Danshui, hopped on a boat, had a barbeque, and sailed to a point where we could watch the fireworks on Taipei 101 at midnight.

Fortunately for all involved, no narration.

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Smile of the Day

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Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 6

Day 6 - December 22, 2007

Meinong

We had stayed the night in an Evergreen Hotel and woke up to a very nice all you could eat buffet breakfast. All you can eat breakfast is not very appetizing if it is Taiwan style, but if it is American Style, it is quite good. Fortunately for all concerned, our's was a combo. The best of both worlds: Anting could have her intestine and seaweed congee and we could have some eggs and toast.

Our plan was to drive to Meinong, the famous place for hand-made paper umbrellas. Although the umbrellas there are made from wood and paper, they have a thick lacquer on them and they can actually be used. So,not only are they decorative, but also useful. After an hour or so drive, we arrived at Meinong, but could not see any umbrella makers. We did, however, find a nice lake with a pagoda, where Ryan had his lunch and we enjoyed the scenery. After Ryan's lunch we followed some tourist signs to a Hakka people centre, where Ryan managed to have the biggest puke we have seen to date. The Hakka Centre was also pretty boring so we left it quite quickly on our quest to find some umbrella makers. After driving through town back and forth, we got hungry and had some lunch. Finally, down the road we found the most famous umbrella shop and stopped in. It was quite nice, but perhaps not worth coming all the way down south for.

Moonscape on the Way to Meinong

So tell us how you like the food?

Stopping for Ryan's Lunch

The Lake Pagoda

Scenes around the Pagoda

BillBoard in Meinong

Making an Umbrella

The Umbrella Store

Mountain Highway

We had a decision to make. We were in the lower middle part of Taiwan, but on the west side. Our next major destination was in the North East. How to get there? If we drove south down to the nearly the southern tip, we could then drive north along the East side, but this would take quite a bit of time. Our other option was to go straight (on a winding road) through the mountains, but this involved some risk. We did not know if the road was very good and had heard that it was closed in the winter. In the spirit of living dangerously, we chose the latter and headed off towards the east coast. Three hours later, after driving about 80 kms we started regretting our decision. The road wound its way through the mountains. In many places it was only one lane and in many other places it was under construction, leaving an open cliff only a few feet away from our tires. Things got more interesting when we lost visibility due to a very thick mountain fog. Then it got dark and foggy. We pressed on and finally started seeing the mileage signs for the town at the end of the mountain road. Another couple of hours and we finally made it out the other end, but then had another 2 hours of driving to get to Hualian, our destination for the night. As such, we found a restaurant nearby, had some dinner, and then continued on our journey. We were all happy to arrive in Hualian in one piece.

Interesting foothills

Mountain Highway

Temple on the Mountain

Above the Clouds

After that drive, we'll eat anything!