Since this is the first time that we are taking both Cadi and Cody on a long trip together, we didn't know what to expect.
Cadi and Cody both loved the airport. It's got so much room for them to run around and so many things to see. For the plane rides, even though Cadi has experienced it once, but she she was only a couple months old back then and we weren't sure how she would handle it this time. Fortunately, Cadi and Cody handled it pretty well. In fact, Cadi didn't cry at all on the plane; I was definitely surprised by that. Cody gave us a little bit more trouble but that was mostly due to us restraining him from running on the plane, lying on the floor and kicking the back of other passengers' seats. There's the difference between a boy and a girl.
After we landed at Taiwan, since my parents weren't staying at the same place as we were, Cadi and Cody were left with just Joy and myself. Because our arrival time was pretty late, the originally plan was to call taxi to take us to Taipei. But Joy's friend, 林燕芳, her husband and son, made a surprise appearance. (Thank you guys so much.)
When we arrived at Joy's parents' place, as expected, Cadi and Cody went into defensive mode. For the next two weeks, Cadi pretty much will only stick to her mommy and as a result, I had to take Cody.
The weather of Taiwan's April felt warm and humid to me and it got warmer and more humid the further south we went. I'm glad it wasn't the hottest month in Taiwan and I was able to have 75% of my appetite intact. However, since I was the one taking care of Cody, it meant I could not have eaten as much as I could have without the children. :)
At this time, I would like to thank a couple more of Joy's friends. First up, 李俊宏 and his wife. They drove us around the town to have lots and lots of good eats...several times throughout the two weeks. Without them, our taste buds would have suffered greatly. Second, 吳美鈴 and her husband 顏永文 for arranging and taking us on a two day sight-seeing road trip of Kaohsiung. While we were still in NY, when Joy told me that we would be going to Kaohsiung to sight-seeing, I was like "What? Where can we go and what can we do in Kaohsiung for two days?" Well, that road trip turned out to be a very good one. Since I grew up in Kaohsiung, the Kaohsiung as I know it has definitely changed a lot. Ever since I came to NY 20+ years ago, I've never really gone back to visit Kaohsiung (other than the "Love River"), so I should have expected it.
Another road trip we took this time was to Tainan. We were planning to go somewhere else previously but Joy's mom thought it would be a good idea to visit Joy's grandparent in Tainan, that's how this came about. Joy's brother was the one who drove us there and back to Taipei. He took a couple days off from his work in China and went back to Taiwan to see us. Thank you, Ray.
Because my parents take care of Cadi in NY, so Cadi's pretty good with them. However, when we visited my grandparent's (mother's side) house in Kaohsiung and met up with my mom, Cadi would still cling to Joy and would cry/scream if my mom tried to do certain things with her such as giving Cadi a bath. However, when we got to my parent's house at Pingtung the next day along with my mom, Cadi became at ease once again with my parents. So I'm not sure what happened to Cadi when we were at Kaohsiung.
So, did Cadi ever open up herself to Joy's parents or sister? She did, on the day prior to the one we leave Taiwan, to Joy's mom and sister. That was only an illusion though. After only a couple hours of sleep that night and being waken up to go to the airport early in the morning, Cadi seemed to have forgotten all about it the next day.
Cadi's almost 3 and before the trip, Joy was thinking of potty train Cadi this year when summer arrives. After we come back to NY, a couple of days later, Cadi became 90% potty trained all of a sudden pretty much on her own. And as of 5/28/2012, Cadi is mostly without diapers except at night when she sleeps and when we are going out. She doesn't speak English yet but we are hoping to start teaching her soon. Not really sure what's the best way though.
And for Cody, he's going to be 2 in four more months. I believe he has finally got his drooling under control. He still doesn't speak too much and still can't seem to speak two different Chinese words together. He really likes to follow his sister around nowadays. Wherever Cadi goes, Cody wants to go too. And if you don't let him, he'll start complain by crying.
Since my Nikon D70 was already broken before we went back to Taiwan, the only camera that we have left is the Canon S95 point-and-shoot and that's what I used for the entire trip. At times, I really missed having a DSLR as it was very difficult to capture low-light and action photos using the point-and-shoot.
When we were near Tainan, we stopped by a bird watching place by chance. And next to the main road is a ditch with lots of small crabs. Here, Joy's father is looking for one to show Cadi and Cody. And yes, he did catch one.
At the "Salt Mountain", the place was selling lots of food with salt added. Egg, coffe, popsicle, etc. We let Cadi have a popsicle all on her own since it was so hot in Tainan.
Cadi helping Cody wiping ice-cream off his face.
Joy's grandpa had a store selling Chinese herbal medicines. Now it's Joy's cousin that runs it from day to day. When Joy's cousin took out dried goji berries to put in medicine packs, Cadi and Cody tried them and liked them immediately. When Joy's father heard about it, he got a bag full of the dried goji and gave to the grandchildren as snacks.
Garlics. I'm guessing this is the stage before they are sold on the market?
The room that we slept at while in Joy's parents' house. The children and Joy sleep on the mattress and I sleep on the wooden bed surface. The sacrifice a father makes. :)
My first time at this night market called Snake Alley (華西街夜市). If you know the Taiwanese film, Monga, this is one of the many places that the film took place. It's certainly different than other night markets because it's got a few expensive full restaurants.
As I mentioned, Cadi would not let most people hug her during this trip, this is one of those rare exceptions.
Joy's friend took us to this place that only sells pork sausages (shown in the photo) and one type of noodle. When we got there, I think there were only 4 pork sausages left. We bought them all. They were good...but I'm not sure how good if compared to other places.
I think some one promised Cadi to buy her an umbrella and Cadi would not stop asking about it until she actually got one. She picked out a yellow SpongeBob.
We went to Taoyuan for a day and stayed at Joy's friend's house. This was around 6 am, and we were preparing to take Taiwan high speed rail to go to Kaohsiung.
The boy behind us is the son of Joy's friends. While his parents are next to us, he liked tagging along with our family instead. On the high speed rail, he constantly wanted to sit with us and you'll notice that he showed up in quite a few of our family photos. So, naturally, we called him our "older son".
When his parents told him to sit down next to them, he wasn't too happy about it.
I like this photo. The wall says Kaohsiung Museum of Labor but that's only for that building. I don't remember the name of that area but it was a nice location. Seemed to have to lots of interesting stuff to look at and lots of photo opportunities.
Unlike Cadi, Cody weren't as resistent to letting strangers hug him. It was a good thing because that meant I get to relax a bit.
Everyone on the Kaohsiung trip except Cody and I. I was holding the passed out Cody in my arms when I took this photo.
And another early am photo taken in the hotel in Kaohsiung. We didn't come back to our room until close to 11pm the night before. :)
This seemingly simple food is really tasty (at least to me). it was from Pingtung.
Got to see Han, Ophelia and their new born daughter. Can you tell that they are a family from this photo?
When the children were still rather afraid of their grandpa after a couple of few days, grandpa decided to use his secret weapon, balloons. They worked wonders.
Cody willing to let his grandma giving him a bath.
And Cody strike a happy pose after the bath.
Not sure what got into Cadi. On the night before we leave Taiwan, this is what Cadi did to feed her aunt.
