12 Month Checkup

Today I took Caysen to the pediatrician for his first visit here in the states. I just love his pediatrician!! And as usual, he was really showing off and trying to impress.

His stats:

13.8 lbs

25 inches

Nope, he's not on the charts, but he's gaining weight and the pediatrician said he is well proportioned, so as long as he contiues to grow steadily, there's no need to worry :)

The poor guy had to get three shots and then we went to the lab to get lots and lots of blood drawn. He cried harder than I've ever seen him cry and it broke my heart. Luckily, he totally blamed the nurses and not me ;)

We got a referral for a physical therapist so hopefully we'll get that going in the next week or so. In the meantime, I'm just continuing to work with him doing what I can and I see improvement every day!

And because we were on our way home from Taiwan on his birthday, I never posted a "what you're up to" blog for Caysen at 12 months. So here's what you've been up to Mr Caysen:

-You can sit up easily using your hands to brace yourself.
-You love it when we lift you up over our heads like an airplane.
-You have started bearing weight on your legs when we hold you up.
-You like your swing and your bouncy seat, but you prefer to play on the floor most often.
-You are pretty attached to Mama and you think your Daddy is pretty great too :)
-You LOVE yogurt!! I think you have a sweet tooth; you turn up your nose at green-beans, but you go crazy for pears!
-You still don't sleep through the night, but you are down to one night-time feeding.
-You know how to throw a back-arching fit! One of these days we'll work on that ;)
-You sleep from about 7:30 pm to 8:00 am and you take two naps during the day.
-You still have the most incredible smile of any baby that ever lived; it melts us every time!!!

Yum, Yum, Yum!

I'm still working on posts about our time in Taiwan, but I'm going to skip ahead for tonight to show off these adorable pictures of Caysen trying cereal and yogurt :) :)

We have to be pretty animated to keep his interest, but he really seems to like it!

One of these days he'll grow into his high chair, for now it's helping him work on his sitting up skills ;)

This last picture is just funny because you can see that Zoey has already figured out where to hang out when it's meal time:

Caysen's Birthday in Taipei

Caysen's Pre-Birthday in Kaohsiung!

Happy Birthday to You!!

What a blessing it was that Lance and I both got to be with Caysen on his first birthday. We didn't know if it would work out, so we were really happy when we got our decree and knew we would all be together as a family before August 19th.

On Caysen's actual birthday, we toured Taipei during the day and had a little birthday celebration at Chili's that night. They even sang him happy birthday, videos to come.

Before we left Kaohsiung, Hatchers, Muirs, and Campbells got together to give Caysen a proper 1st birthday party (just a few days early). I wasn't sure how he would do with the cake since he hadn't really tried many solids at that point; silly me, who doesn't like frosting??

Next up, Caysen's Happy Birthday videos!!!

Day 2 in Taipei

We started day 2 in Taipei eating lunch here:

They have really yummy wontons!!

Then we rode the very clean subway:
To this market:

And this River:
And Lance ate this:
Then we got back on the subway:
And walked over this street:

To see this, Taipei 101:

Until the building in Dubais is finished, this is the tallest building in the world:

We saw this:
They snuggled:

And played:

After all of this, day two was still not over. What I didn't mention is that day 2 was August 19th, Caysen's birthday. A separate post is coming about Caysen's birthday celebration(s)...

Cheng Kai Shek Memorial Hall

On our first day in Taipei, we decided to explore Cheng Kai Shek Memorial Hall. The architecture is amazing; so ornate!

We got to watch the changing of the guards, interesting:



It reminded me a lot of the Washington Mall in DC (National Monument, Lincoln Memorial, etc). As Lance pointed out, even on the other side of the world, things are so different, yet so the same.

Bead Shop

On our last day in Kaohsiung, we visited an aboriginal bead shop. It was a downpoor when we got there, so we were all pretty soaked. This is one of my favorite pictures from Taiwan:

It was really interesting to watch them make the beads!

I got a necklace with beads that represent Lances, mine, and Caysen's birth months :)

We got ready to leave, and neither one of the cars would start. I thought for a minute that we might have to live in the bead shop. Ashleigh was saying prayers in the back seat asking God to let the cars start, and it worked because one of the cars just started working. We used the one car that was working to jump-start the other car and we were able to get down the mountain and back to our hotel.

Kenting (Kending)

We got to take Caysen on his first (I think) beach trip :)

The water was a little too rough for him, so he wasn't too into it; he's more of a swimming pool kinda guy.

We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. I didn't know I liked Thai food, but it was really good!

Holly & Regan

Jason, Kate, & Mia ;)

After dinner, we got to check out the night market. There were SO many people, but it was fun to look around and experience the culture.

We stayed at a hotel called the Foremost. We changed the name to the FarWorst. We were all able to laugh about it, but we were ready to get to a different hotel after one night!

There was a mosquito net that was supposed to go around the bed, but I'm pretty sure they put it up in the 50's and hadn't washed it since then, so Lance and I did some remodeling...

It had been a long and exhausting day and we were both beat; but when Lance turned the light off, we were both confused as to why it still looked like daylight in our room.

It only took us a second to realize that this window faced the lobby which stayed lit up (very lit up) at all times. Luckily, I closed the curtains and then it was more like dusk in our room instead of high noon ;)

Other interesting things about the Farworst, I mean Foremost:

The only towels to dry off with were hand towels, really.

There was a bit of an aunt problem.

The way I see it, we wouldn't be able to look back and laugh if we hadn't stayed at the Foremost. It was all part of the experience ;)

Must Stay Awake!

When Lance got to Taiwan, he had been awake for most of the past 36 hours so he. was. tired. My goal was to keep him awake as long as possible so he would get adjusted to the 14 hour time difference!

There was a mall within walking distance of our hotel, so that's where we headed.

First order of business, food! We tried a Japanese place, it was really good!

Then we played a few games at the arcade. Lance and I were playing a knuckle-biter (not really) game of air-hockey and I got so into it (again, not really), I accidentally left my camera on the table.
Luckily, the people who worked in the arcade found it and flagged me down the next time they saw me and gave it back :)

We went back to the hotel and Lance couldn't fight it any more. He went to sleep pretty early, but he was able to sleep all night and woke up feeling good!