Jersey or Bust!

Hey all! We only have a few hours left in Taiwan! In less than 24 hours Trevor will be an American citizen!!! Yipee!

Al and I made a quick run to a Sogo, which is a HUGE department store. Kinda like a Neiman Marcus. Only nicer. WAY nicer. The elevator had 11 floors and 3 basement floors, although I don't know if all of them have merchandise on them. We got there when the store opened and the doors were open, but roped off. At 11am , the officers quickly took down the ropes and let every one in. There were workers lining the way in bowing at the customers as they entered. It was like getting the royal treatment! In the third basement was a supermarket. Very cool. The bottom two basement floors also had a lot of restaurants on them and I wish we had found the Sogo sooner so we could have eaten there. It seems to happen a lot, you find really cool stuff right before you have to get on the plane. Oh well, I'm sure we will be back some day!

We met another couple who adoped through our agency, Heather and Jeremy, and their little girl, Ellie. They are from Ohio. They were super nice and it was good to talk to someone who has gone through the same process. Ellie was six months old and very cute and very tiny. She slept through most of lunch and Trevor squirmed, but we went to Mr. Lai's, so he watched Trevor for a little bit so we got a chance to eat. Their blog is http://jeremy-n-heather.blogspot.com/ if you want to check them out.

Anyway - here are some pictures from today. I want everyone to notice T-Rex's shirt which says "property of mom forever"!

We can't wait to get home to see you guys and introduce you to Trevor! And we can't wait to see Grendel either. We haven't written a lot about her, but we miss that bucket of fuzz and hope that she will like her new baby brother!



































































Ps- For those of you who follow my fantasy team, I won this week, despite Plax's touchdown. However Tony Romo broke his pinkie and will be out for the next four weeks. (Whimp, real men play football with broken pinkies, quarterback or not!) Maybe Jake Delhome will have four big weeks. Anyway - it was a good fantasy season while it lasted!

Last Full Day

Well, today wasn't too big. We finished up some shopping in the morning and then we went to the Taipei Botanical Gardens. Trevor was pretty good through it all, but he doesn't like to sit still for too long, which is going to be really fun during our 30 hour trip home! When he starts to get squirmy he arches his back and it feels like he is trying to jump backwards out of your arms. Maybe he'll be an Olympic diver. He has the backwards dive movement down.

Al and I tried to go to a restaurant in the hotel tonight and we found out the reason why parents don't go to restaurants with their little ones often. Especially nicer ones... Trevor was grabbing at everything. I gave him some noodles, which he really liked and looked cute eating. We didn't take any pictures, however, because we felt like we were causing enough of a scene as it was. Grandmom and Grandpop came in and rescued us towards the end so we could finish in peace. Which was most appreciated.

We leave tomorrow night! And while, in some ways, we are sad to leave, we are very excited to be get home and start the new normal!

Chrissy, the last picture is for you! May the Giants win tonight (as long as it isn't Plax who wins it for them!) The travesty of my situation is that we have a HUGE flat screen, HD TV staring at me in our hotel room and it doesn't get football!! Sigh.

This Post is for Jill

If we lived in Taipei, this is where we would meet every week. 5 stories and there is a Tiffany's, but no Macy's.








































The Ice Coffee I got at the really cool Thai restaurant. I'm not showing you this to torture you, but I liked the presentation. No one else appreciated it. This is when I usually turn to you.




















You look like the fourth picture. He He. (I actually think about you every time I see this sign on the elevators in the subway.)
















And, although there is no Macy's, there is still Martha Stewart. I wonder if she is 150 years old here too...

Another Busy Day

OK, it is really weird to be setting up my fantasy football line up on Sunday NIGHT. (For those of you who are interested, I won last week's game, but I think I'm going to get clobbered this week.) This is the second Sunday in a row I'm going with out football. It's been two whole weeks since I've seen a game and it will probably be one more before I catch my next game. I am definitely going through withdraw, but Trevor is worth it. I can't wait until he's home and I can start teaching him the joys of football. Football...

Anyway - today was another long and busy day! We went to the Jade Market in the morning. There were actually three markets there. A handy craft market, a flower market (you never saw so many orchids in one place at a time!) and the jade market. Then, this afternoon, we hopped the subway and went to Taipei 101. It was pretty neat. The elevators are the fastest in the world. It took less than a minute to go up 80-some floors. There were really great views of the city and the mountains. We ate dinner at a really cool Thai/Chinese fusion type place called the Chrystal Spoon. Trevor was very good through out the whole adventure, even in the crowded elevators. (Better than Mom with the elevators...I hate elevators)

Trevor awake at the jade market.
















Taipei 101




















We thought for a moment we were in Philadelphia!
















Trevor at the top of Taipei 101




















Cool Thai restaurant with really good food.
















Trevor sleeping in cool Thai restaurant with really good food. (Which means that we got to eat together and in peace!)

Cute Video of Trevor

Trevor's Sleeping Habits

Hey Everyone!! Sorry we didn't post last night. Yesterday wasn't particularly busy, it was just kind of long and we don't have a whole lot of new pictures, but I'll post what we got starting with...

This is what Trevor looks like when he sleeps through the night:
















Which he has done for the last two nights!! YES!!! Now, he doesn't go down until after 11, but hey, it's several hours of uninterrupted sleep, which is AWESOME. I don't know how we are going to change that, Trevor seems to sleep when he wants to, but we are going to have to change it some how. Maybe when we start getting him up at 5am to go to day care...

Anyway - yesterday our guide from the agency took us shopping in this neat little place that sold traditional Taiwanese items. We haven't been buying a lot of stuff here because most of what we see on the street and in markets, we can get in Chinatown and while carting things through NYC and home on the NJT is a pain, it is a lot easier than carting it half way around the world. We tried to get some stuff for Trevor to give to him as he gets older. We'd like to get him 18 gifts to give him up to his 18th birthday. But we'll see if we get that many. Trevor was, of course awake and squirmy through this trip because we were around a lot of breakable tea sets and statuettes and vases.

After that we came back and hung out at the hotel for a little while and then mom and dad took him on another subway ride to the largest night market in Taipei. It was really cool, but way too crowded. Allan and I both thought the same thing when we got there, "Wow! This is like the Jersey Shore on steroids!" There was a place with boardwalk type games and a large place to buy food and a section that had little souvenirs. I wish it wasn't so crowded because we would have explored more and maybe tried to get something to eat, but it was really hard to get the stroller through or to stop with out getting run over. we ended up getting some shaved ice on the recommendation of some of my students and it was really good. Kinda like Rita's but different. Seeing as this was the busiest place we have been to so far and there was nothing to break, Trevor slept through it.

Today our guide is taking us to the jade market, which Janet and I are really excited about. Then this afternoon we are going to try to go see Taipei 101. Hopefully he'll sleep through the jade market and stay awake for Taipei 101, but knowing him it will be the other way around.

I'll try to post again tonight so Trevor's adoring fans don't have to wait so long, but it will depend on when T-Rex goes to sleep!

Bars with Babysitters

Everyone in our hotel loves Trevor. The maids all coo over him. The women in the executive lounge ask about him and come to see him when ever we go down. Random people in the elevator tell us how cute he is... But nothing compares to this next story.

OK, so we decided to have dinner in the bar area of our hotel. (Now, I know that sounds bad, taking a baby to a bar, but it really isn't a bar like place, more like a really nice restaurant with comfortable seating.) They didn't have a high chair, so the manager, Mr. Lai put two leather chairs together and filled it with pillows for Trevor to lie in. Then he gave Trevor a cookie, which Trevor loved. In fact, every one of the staff who came to our table gave T-rex a lot of attention. Mr. Lai especially. He played with him while we ate and when Trevor began to get fussy, he held him and put him to sleep. He had a magic touch. He got Trevor to sleep and he stayed that way even when Mr. Lai took a phone call. He was even able to transfer Trevor from his arms into the "crib" with out him waking up - a maneuver that never quite works out for mom and dad. We took detailed notes and really wanted to see if he would come up to our room at about 9:00 every night to put Trevor to sleep for us. We have been trying Mr. Lai's strategies for about a half an hour and none of them work as well for us. Maybe with practice... But at least we were able to eat in peace with out Trevor grabbing at our food and squirming in our laps...

Anyway - I guess you had to be there. Enjoy the pictures!