Janae and I spent New Years on Kaohsiung going to the new "Dream Mall." Yes, that is the actual name. Yes, the mall is quite dreamy. The place was packed with people for the free New Years concert and it took us a long time riding home on Janae's little scooter (called motorcycles in Taiwan even though it's only 50cc). It was nice to be stationed at her parent's place, meet up with friends, and eat lots of good food with her extended family!

Taidong is one of Mom's favorite places on earth. It's a beautiful place uniquely situated between the pacific ocean and the Central mountain range where both are easily accessible. It's home to 7 of the 14-15 aboriginal races in Taiwan, one of which gave birth to Taiwanese baseball in the village of Hongye.

Mom traveled to Taidong in her early 20's to teach at a middle school and fell in love with the small fishing town. Her aunt lived there with their five boys and her uncle, always wanting a girl, welcomed her with open arms. Her uncle was a fisherman and his sons too. One of them runs the family fishing supply store there and hosted us during our stay. He summed up Taidong best when speaking of the schools there. They're not top ranked schools and may not teach all the test taking tricks and tactics at other schools, but they teach kids how to be happy. They do a fantastic job of that! Mom's aunt and all her sons are of the happiest people I know. They're easing going people who are always smiling and joking around.

The beauty of Hualian lies in Taroko Gorge. Granite canyons laced with greenery only Taiwan can produce. Our vacation style turned very relaxing and we ended up taking our time - much more than the guide planned on us taking at each spot. I guess this is why we had a private guide and not a tour group so we could talk, enjoy time together as a family, and catch up!

One of the sites in Hualian worth a specific mention was Water Curtain Cave, part of Baiyang trail that we hiked.

Our first vacation out of Singapore was to Taiwan for Christmas and New Years. Janae left at the beginning of December to be with her parents and I joined her two weeks later for Christmas and New Years. Mom, Mary and Debbie were going to Taiwan as well - I was excited to be able to see everyone again!

This would also be the first time Verene sees her great grandmother, great uncles and aunts as well.

As Halloween is primarily an American holiday now despite its Celtic roots, trick-or-treating in Singapore is essentially occurs in a neighborhood around the Singaproe American School, SAS. The event, as it truly is an event, has an organized planning committee from the American school. The streets are closed off to traffic with police patrolling the street entrances, a temporary taxi stand emerges outside the American school with long queues of kids and parents being dropped off and leaving. The streets are packed of Westerners and some locals as well. Official halloween banners span the street as well as corporate booths promoting their ex-pat related businesses. Disney set a booth there selling tickets to their latest Singapore show!

About half of our church group live nearby the school as its convenient for their school age kids. We were invited by one of these families to join them for our first Singaporean Halloween. We joined them with another family from Belgium and Holland. It was their first Halloween ever. There were kids everywhere and Verene, dressed as a ladybug, loved being around and "playing" with them. She's just starting to be aware of other kids now and learning how to interact with them.

First steps on Halloween ... scary

The first ever F1 night race was held in Singapore! In preparation for the event, many promotions were held around Singapore and I caught one of them with the FHM girls! The mock F1 car was surprisingly small. The nose of the car is made for a driver's legs and was an uncomfortably tight fit. Fortunately I had good company to consul me in my pain.

The novel idea of 200mph+ race at night seemed great to see but tickets were sold out fairly quickly with only unreasonable tickets >$2,500 a pop left when I started seriously looking into the event. A French restaurant that my co-worker frequents often comped him with a pair of complete 3 night grand stand passes - the kind with actual seats and not the cheap walk around ones. He was kind enough to part one night to me and another coworker on the team. He kept the night of the qualifying and actual race for himself and gave us official practice night tickets.

We're finally reunited in Singapore! Our house and both cars sold in the US without too much more difficulty. I do have to say it's a huge stress reliever to be here in Singapore and not have to worry about a home in in another country. I don't know how else to describe how good it feels to be together again but to say families are meant to be together. I'm so used to having Janae by my side in everything I do and not having that was like being apart from a good friend. Of course I missed Verene terribly but thanks to Janae's efforts I missed out on as little as possible.

Our beautiful house may have finally sold! We finally received a contract from an interested couple to buy our home. It's only a contract but we are hopeful as the buyers seem serious and the agent representing them experienced and solid.

Last month has been a real estate disaster for Janae and I. After we didn't sell the house by ourselves, we hired a realtor to help finish the job when I left the country. Smooth talking agents were a plenty.

All of our friends were so generous to want to and actually follow through with little parties and farewells for us. Thanks to Betty for getting all our neighbors together, Leonards, Palmers, Van Horns, Hsu, and Cheng-yu for having people gather in your homes. I truly do miss all of you!

I regret not having a camera with me at every one of these occasions but have put up the ones I did get below.

Every time I see a little girl here in Singapore I can't help but think of Verene. I fixate my eyes on the girl and take in everything she does. I'm sure the parents have thought me some sick pedophile but I can't help missing my little girl. I think of all the stuff I get to see her do when I see her again - all the stuff I see the girls here do like holding Daddy's hand while walking, only stepping on certain color tiles through the subway, going up steps one at a time - always with the same foot forward, laughing and running around the playground, tired and falling half asleep on Daddy's shoulder, and so much more.

I miss all the little things she did before I left and all the new things I hear about ...

Don't you want to buy our beautiful home?

Moving is so hard. For people that move every couple years, I certainly hope it becomes easier each time. I certainly hope it's easier the next time I move. We have a house to sell in the worst housing market the US has seen. This is definitely what's most stressful.

I've left home for good - at least for the foreseable future. I'm sitting in business class on the way to San Francisco to visit Dad and Michelle prior to moving to Singapore. Preparing for the move has kept my emotions occupied that it has not really hit me all the people I'm leaving behind.

I already miss Verene dearly and it has only been a couple hours. It's not the time apart but rather the fact that I'm not going to see her for another six weeks or so. The same goes for Janae. This will be the longest I have been apart from both of them. Verene in the short 10 months she's been a part of our lives has me wrapped around her finger. I find it hard to believe my feelings for her run as deep as they do. It's the look she gives me when I walk away. Her eyes make me feel like I'm deserting her and her world will fall apart because I'm leaving her side, they tear up as she starts with her crying, and both arms extend toward me for me to pick her up. I just melt.

Everything leading up to me leaving for Singapore happened so very quickly...

In general Verene is a very happy baby. I'm sure her sleep habits have a bit to do with her being so happy. She goes to sleep at 7pm and doesn't wake until 6 or 7 for a feeding after which she goes back to sleep until 8 or 9 am. The best part of her sleep is she respects the morning. When Janae awakes, she usually finds Verene awake playing by herself in the crib making no noise! She does the same for me on Saturday when I sleep in! She knows to keep quiet until we get out of bed to get her.

My Tongue

Other Expressions

First time rolling over

Verene was besides herself the first time she rolled over on her own at about 4 months. She was on her back ready to take a nap and accidentally rolled over landing her face in her hands. Not knowing what happened she started to cry but quickly stopped as she fell asleep. When Janae rolled her over after her nap, Verene's face was marked with her hands.

Conversations with Panda

Things above my head

Of course, she's cutest when she's sleeping

"She's just looking at her hands" was the answer I got when I asked what Verene was doing one afternoon. I couldn't help but smile at the cute innocent gesture. Verene discovered her hands at about 3 months of age. It started as Janae said, simply holding them out and looking at them occasionally moving them about.

Being new to hand movements, it took little Verene a while before getting a handle on how to control them. The first thing she wanted to do was put them in her mouth, however, her lack of coordination made for quite the show at first. She would start with her hands in the air above her while laying on her back. Slowly she would move her hands closer to her face and hit herself in the cheek or other part of her face as she missed her mouth. On good attempts, she would miss her face completely.

Determination is the lesson learned as Verene eventually mastered the hand-in-mouth. Her favorite move became the combo - one hand in mouth the other extended to look at. - until she decided eating both hands was best. She's still on the eating both hands stage.

More pics of Verene's hands