Dear friends took us to Haagen Dazs for Evans Birthday celebration. What a great idea and great place, we all had fun. More pics to come and more celebrations on Saturday where the big party is happening for both Evan and Maya. Stay tuned...

Evan started school on Monday and the school sent us pictures of his first 2 days there. On day one he hardly had the time to say goodbye to me when I dropped him off and on day 3 it's still that way. The poor guy had been missing his buddies back home a lot so he's very happy to go and play with all the kids every day. It's a fully Chinese speaking school so he should be able to translate for us very soon ;-)

More Taipei adventures

A few weeks ago friends took us out to the Taipei Zoo. It was a beautiful sunny day and although we as parents aren't too keen on Zoo's, this one was very nice. Apparently the same designers made the Zoo in San Diego and that one has been the most impressive we have ever seen. You could see that this one was made with a similar view in mind. It was a great day with great company. Maya especially couldn't take her eyes off the elephants.



The next day Evan "needed" to be a lion and this is how we went out all day with people being impressed with his face paint and his scary roar.



Then Christmas came and Evan and Maya had a blast. Evans new bike has been a big hit. He hardly lets go of it anymore...







At the end of every day it's bathtime. Since our house here doesn't have a bathtub we had to get one and the two get very cozy in it. A feast every night...

Arriving in Taiwan

What does a family of four look like after flying 14 hours to their new home in Asia? How much luggage do they bring?



Miraculously, the kinderen traveled liked the veterans they are. We (the parents) were pretty well prepared with games, toys, food and what not, but I've got to give it up to the kids. They didn't drive me to drinking, not yet at least...

I won't kid you, the first week was hard. It rained all week and we met the challenge of life in the big city. Now, as far as city's go, Taipei feels very soft, friendly, and welcoming. Still it is a city and navigating a double stroller up and down stairs, through the rain, through the crowds, and in and out of elevators is no joke. Don't get me started on the misery of apartment hunting.

We survived the first week and the sun came out. This past week has been about getting to know our new landscape and enjoying the charm, cafe's and other advantages of urban life. The kids seem unfased by the move. In fact they seem to love the stimulation around them, and certainly all of the attention. About 90% of the people in the streets take a double look at them, especially when they see the stroller with "another one" in the back.

It looks like we have found an apartment and we should be able to sign the lease and move in next week. The location is ideal, only 2 blocks from the Da-an Park (Taipei's version of Central Park). And it has a huge playground.







We call this one "Maya joins the Taliban"


Many of you know that Taipei is home to the World's (formerly) Tallest Building, Taipei 101. It is huge, towering way high above everything else. Given it is so big, you can see it from anywhere in the city which is handy when lost because you can use it to mark where you are. Anyway, one of our jokes during the apartment hunt was when the agent would point out, "look! a 101 view!" Again, seeing that everywhere in the city has a "101 view" this is not always that impressive. Anyhoo, today we made our first pilgrimage down to 101 and took the worlds fastest elevator up to the 89th floor observation deck. A clear day for us to survey our new home!





In the Basement of the 101 building is a huge food court where we decided to have lunch before heading home. That was quite the experience, ploughing ourselves with the stroller through the masses trying to find something vegetarian to eat that would suit our and Evans pallet. We had Indian (!). Afterwards Evan decided it would be fun to run off and play hide and seek so we lost him for a few minutes that were filled with anxiety. Daddy found him wearing a Santa Hat while hanging out with a Taiwanese girl. That scare gave us plenty of reason to head down to our favorite Gelato place and this is where Maya was sleeping soundly and we sweetened our day away with Gelato.

;

Our "Going Away" party hosted by two wonderful ladies. Lots of very sweet people, old friends, fellow yogi's and many kids were honoring us with coming to say our bye byes. There were fresh dosa's made in our backyard, a snack table for the snackish and a delish chocolate cake with champagne to top it all off. We felt so blessed to see our community get together and will miss all of them dearly.

You Said it, brotha!

Meeting With Masters

The family and I just returned from a four day retreat with the great yogi Richard Freeman. I am always humbled by Richards ability to convey such esoteric philosophical systems such as Vedanta in a practical and humorous way.

It occurred to my over the weekend that in the last 2 weeks, we have been able to spend a little time with some of the real heavy weights in modern yoga. This trip to see Sri Richard along with our recent travel to Encinitas where we sat at the feet of Sri Tim Miller and members of the Jois family as well as many other notable yogis has left us rich in experience.

Although my son will not remember his meeting with Sri K Pattabhi Jois two years ago, I will be a proud yogi dad to remind him of that blessed encounter. In fact, the odds are that my kids will have little interest in yoga seeing that we always tend to push away from the path of the parents....

Oh well, at least I can share with them this little video that we were in at the opening of Jois Yoga in Encinitas.

Maya peeking through

Evan has been more interested in Maya lately so when I heard them both squealing with delight I found them interacting nicely. Evan had put his hat on Maya.....

How we survived 8 hours in the car with 2 babies

Amazing! That's how I would describe the performance by my kids. We were able to leave Palo Alto at 10am and arrive at our hotel in Encinitas by 6pm. Really amazing!

Here's how we did it:

First, we have been telling the kids for the past week that we were going to make a big trip. That helped us all to mentally prepare for the big journey. Ironically enough, a 5 minute drive across town is met with the constant mantra of "I want to get out!"

We do know that the kids understand almost everything that we say (even if sometimes they don't want to...) and that when we clue them in to the "plan" then things go a lot smoother. This includes mundane plans of "We are leaving for the market in 5 minutes." I suppose that they feel included in the decision and have a sense of power in that.

The second key factor to survive the drive was having mamma sit in the back with the little ones. Heleen planned for the journey with activities and games, books, beloved toys, and a goody bag with new toys. Additionally, a steady stream of snacks kept appetites balanced.

We only watched a DVD once and for only an hour or so, maybe two episodes of Go Diego Go. Evan was not really interested. Again, I think the fun of having mom in the back to play with made all the difference.

We stopped twice on the way. Once to refuel and a quick latte, that was about 4 hours into the trip and once after the stop and go traffic of LA, about 6 hours in. The last stop was initiated by a very hungry 6 month old that needed her mamma-fix. So, 45 minutes in Orange County on a grassy knoll outside of the In and Out Burger (only fries with mayonnaise for us) and we were on our way!

I hope that this story of survival will not be registered as over confidence because I am quite aware that we will have the drive back....and going home is never quite as exciting!

Say a prayer for us

Long Car Ride with 2 babies...

We've made a (somewhat) last minute decision to travel down to Encinitas from the Bay Area with our 2.5 year old and 6 month old. We feel bad about locking the kids down for a 7 plus hour car ride, but we want to take the trip. After Googling "Long Car Ride with baby" I've not really come across any great new ideas as to how we might occupy the kiddies.

One suggestion is to drive when the kids are sleeping. The big problem is that the 2 year old doesn't sleep in the car. The other problem is that if we were to drive at night, then I would...

We're planning on sing-along-cd's and even children's books on cd = John Henry narrated by Denzel Washington, etc and a marathon of DVD's. We've picked up some new toys that will act as surprises along the way...Hmm, what else? We'll plan to stop and stretch our legs quite a bit. Of course the makes the trip even longer...Oh boy.

We've been telling the babies about the trip. That helps in getting them excited about the adventure. "We're going to the beach!" "We're going to see a panda!"

One funny side note is that with the popularity of Go Diego Go in our house it makes going to San Diego even more exciting. Now we hear Go San Diego Go.

We'll let you know how it turns out!

playing on the old blog

a new look- whatdya think?