Peter and Ava . com

We will be holding Christina’s first birthday this Sunday.

Date: 21st May, 2007

Time: 12:00 (midday)

Venue: Our house in Taipei ( http://peterandava.com/contact/ for details)

Call if you get lost or want directions.

Well, we are down in Tainan for the week, over the Chinese New Year, we’ve been busy seeing family and just hanging out, so actually not all that busy. Christina, being the first baby in this generation has been on the receiving end of a few red envelopes, which traditionally contain some money, which will help with her spending habits when she goes to South Africa.

It will be a busy two weeks back at work before heading off to South Africa as I have quite a few deadlines to meet, which absolutely have to be done before leaving.

Christina has been sick since the beginning of last week, with a bit of a fever and runny tummy. Quite a few restless nights have left Ava quite tired, but Christina is feeling better now, which means Ava is getting her sleep again too. I missed most of this as they were back in Tainan for the week before the holiday, while I went to back to Taipei to work for the week. 

Now, in Tainan again… 

Tonight we went to a restaurant, and I decided to test out my skills in paying for the meal, which is quite a big deal here. Let me explain…

It is usually known who will pay for a meal out, but you need to make a bit of a scene and try to pay for the meal anyway. You usually go to the counter and start insisting that you pay for the meal, but then the other person counters, saying you can pay for it this time, you respond by telling how they paid for it last time, and so on and so forth, until the end is reached, and in our case, Ava’s dad ended up paying for it anyway.

So, I’ll see those of you in South Africa (or those who will be going there) in a few weeks.

Pretty much everything has been planned for our trip back to South Africa.

We’ll be heading back in March next year for 3 weeks. James and Michelle’s wedding is on the 20th of March so we wanted to be there for that. It’s also the first time that Granny and Grandpa will get to see their new grandchildren.

Here’s our timetable…

Departure
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
Taipei to Hong Kong
CX451 - TPE 20:00 - HKG 21:45
Hong Kong to Johannesburg
CX749 - HKG 23:45 - JNB 06:35+1

Visit Chris in Johannesburg for the day and night.

Monday, March 12th, 2007
Johannesburg to Durban
SA543 - JNB 10:10 - DUR 11:20

Return
Saturday, March 31st, 2007
Durban to Johannesburg
SA542 - DUR 9:40 - JNB 10:50
Johnnesburg to Hong Kong
CX748 - JNB 12:50 - HKG 07:55+1
Hong Kong to Taipei
CX450 - HKG 10:10+1 - TPE 11:55+1

That’s it for the moment, but in the meantime I would like any suggestions as to what you think we should do as tourists. We will have a little more time than we did last time, so we can probably get out and about and go see some sights.

Anyone got any particular ideas about this, I’m still thinking about it and deciding what our itinery should be. If we don’t have one I could see us going to the Pavilion (local shopping mall) a few too many times.

Hope everyone’s well and for those who are in Durban, see you in March.

2006 11 22 - Christina rolling around on her mat 1.flv

2006 11 22 - Christina rolling around on her mat 2.flv

Well, Christina is well on her way to becoming a crawler. She looks like she is going to pounce and sways back and forth on her legs. In fact, I’m a little bit slow on updating these posts, so she has actually got even closer and I will update on those soon.

2006 11 19 - Christina starting to lift her bum to crawl.flv

Christina is on her way to crawling. She is starting to lift her bum in the air and already props herself up on her hands to get a good look at the world around. You can see her lifting her bum a little in this video.
She also started having mashed up ride this week. She has taken quite well to that and the weekend just past was the first time I had a chance to feed her.

I’ve upgraded my site so that you can now watch the videos on the website without downloading them. I’ve added a lot of videos and also put a lot more pictures onto the photo album.

You can go ahead and check them out if you like, but that’s all from me for now.

Christina gets really excited when she gets put in her chair and the little toys are hung up above her. Ava tried to get her reactions, but being camera shy she became quite normal as soon as the camera came out.

2006 11 03 - Christina playing on her chair.flv

Ava’s mom manages to get a great reaction out of Christina most of the time. She was calling Christina from across the room and Christina gave off bubbly gurgles and little sounds.

2006 10 28 - Grandma making Christina laugh.flv

Well they went off to Tainan for the week and she took these little videos of Christina messing around on the floor and her little mat.

2006 10 19 - Christina trying to drink her water.flv

2006 10 19 - Christina messing around on her bear playmat.flv

We decided that we would try to give Christina something a little more solid to eat. We mashed up some rice and gave it to her.

2006 10 13 - Christina eating some rice 1.flv

2006 10 13 - Christina eating some rice 2.flv