Aunty Bess Comes to Stay

Craig's Aunty Bess arrived from the US last Saturday morning (Jan. 27) and the first thing she did was come to see Craig! She's going to be our house guest for a while.

Then it was downstairs to the 2nd floor for lunch.

While lunch was being eaten, Craig did what he does best. He slept in the room next door.

After lunch his Uncle Guapo and his Mum came to play.

Craig likes it when people look him in the eye and talk to him. That's when he's the happiest.

Craig Can Pull Faces

Craig is already well and truly able to express himself in the manner of most babies ie. crying, complaining etc. but he has recently developed the lower-lip stick-out "I'm not happy and might start to cry any second" look. He does it quite well.

This look can be used at any time, anywhere. He plays no favourites. and is very fair-minded. If he's not happy then he gives the look.

That's his Mum's hand in the picture, by the way.

Another Trip to Taipei 101

Craig's Mum and Dad were woken up by the ringing of his Mum's mobile phone on Saturday morning! It was Craig's Uncle Guapo calling to ask if they wanted to join him and his little family for another trip to Taipei 101. It sounded like a good idea.

As soon as they arrived upstairs where all the cafes are located, Craig's Dad took a picture. He was trying to show the full hight of the atrium roof on the mall. It really is very high; a bit too high to have people in front and the top of the roof in the background.

Uncle Guapo took a picture of Craig and his Mum and Dad for the blog.

Poor Craig had to put up with his Dad taking his picture while he was lying on a change table in the "Breastfeeding Room". There's no such thing as dignity for a baby.

Then it was time to sit down for breakfast at the same cafe as last time. Craig spent most of the time sleeping. It was a bit early for him.

Meanwhile, Craig's cousin, Jade was her usual lively self. She really doesn't like to sit still whenever she's awake.

After another pizza lunch on the second floor it was back home where Craig did some exercise.

Craig's parents don't give him a lot of training but the determined look on his face shows how hard he tries.

Craig's First Overnight Trip

Back in the days before Craig was born, his parents liked to take the occasional overnight trip on his Dad's days off. One good thing about Craig's Dad working for a TV news station is that he has irregular days off. At the moment he has Thursdays and Saturdays. That's good because many tourist hotels have discounts for people who stay during the week.

Craig had his first chance to experience his parents travel habits last Thursday. The little family went to a place called Danshui (Tamsui on some maps) that's frequented by hordes of tourists in the summer. It's located not far north of Taipei where the Tamsui River meets the ocean and can be reached by train (MRT is the name of Taipei's suburban train system). It has nice sunsets and is locally known for being a "romantic" place. But, it's winter in Taipei right now and the main line of shops that face the river hadn't bothered to open on the cool, rainy morning when Craig and his parents arrived.

Craig didn't bother to wake up while his parents had lunch.

The restaurant still had Christmas decorations up. White teddy bears are not a normal part of Christmas but it's an idea that has potential, don't you think?

The room at the hotel had a little balcony with a nice view.

But Craig was tired and cranky.



So, he and his mother took a nap.

It was quite a long nap.

They were still sleeping when sunset came. The lights on the far shore of the river looked nice even if there were thick clouds covering the sun.


After dinner, Craig's Dad carried the boy while they went for a walk.


They were quite lucky because it started to rain almost as soon as they got back to the hotel after their walk.

The next morning the weather hadn't improved a lot. It was raining lightly and looking back up river towards Taipei the fog was quite thick.


It only looked a little better when looking down river towards the sea.

Then, it was time to get on the MRT and go home. Craig did the sensible thing and slept all the way back.

Aussie T-shirts

Way back before Craig was born his Dad had the idea that it would be fun to have a set of family t-shirts. So, he went to his favourite t-shirt selling website, Remo General Store, and ordered a design that he'd had his eye on for some time.

The weather was nice and warm yesterday making it a perfect time to give them a first wearing and take some pictures. At first, he tried to take a picture while holding the camera himself but pieces of peoples' heads kept going missing.


Then, Craig's Aunty Suprana agreed to play at being the photographer but our pose was a bit off. We were leaning back to make Craig comfortable but it just didn't look good.

The next picture was no good because Craig's Dad was too slow to lean his head over. So, we had to try again.

Finally we managed to get a picture that didn't look too bad, even if Craig still wasn't enormously happy about being asked to sit up.

He looked more comfortable in his t-shirt when he was lying down.

The sizes were about right but what hadn't been foreseen was that Craig would grow so quickly. He'll still be able to wear his t-shirt for a few weeks but probably not much longer than that. Soon his Dad will have to spend more money to make the boy look like he's part of the team. Sigh.......

Craig's Dummy

One day, when Craig is much older he wil probably think that his Dad was a bit strange for putting up pictures like this but hopefully he won't care. So far, Craig has shown no inclination towards sucking on a dummy. Every time his parents have tried to put one in his mouth he spits it out and cries just to let them know he's not going to tolerate anything like that.

However, he is just like many babies. He likes to suck on things. It calms him down if he's upset.


Craig's Dad tried to get Craig to suck on the tip of his little finger once when Craig was crying. It worked. Craig sucked and calmed down quickly. But now there's no better way to calm him down or put him to sleep. If he's tired but can't go to sleep, a little finger-sucking will do the trick. It's a good and a bad thing.

Taipei 101

Last Saturday morning Craig's Uncle Guapo (that what he said his name is) was kind enough to give Craig and his Mum and Dad a lift over to Taipei 101. It's the tallest building in the world. Right next to it is a shopping mall. That's where we went. The first thing on the agenda was breakfast. There's some nice coffee shops under a very high atrium on the top of the mall. It's a nice spot.

The number 16 on the little triangle thing on the table means that we had ordered something that hadn't been delivered to our table yet. That was cake for Uncle Guapo's daughter/Craig's cousin. She's a very energetic girl. It was hard to get another picture of her because she didn't stand still. She's sitting on her mum's lap.

We only stayed a couple of hours and then it was time for lunch back in the apartment that is one floor down from ours. Craig's cousin played on the floor with her mum, Yu-fang.

And her dad, Uncle Guapo, helped take care of Craig.

The person who lives in the apartment is Craig's Mum's aunt. She likes Craig and Craig seems to share the feeling. In the background are Craig's Aunty Suprana and Craig's Taiwanese Grandad. They were comparing mobile phones.

And, just before it was time to go home, Craig posed for a picture with his Mum. It was quite a busy morning.

Computer Troubles

Apologies from Craig's Dad to anyone who has visited the blog recently. Some computer troubles have limited our ability to upload pictures but a fix is on the way.

Look out for new updates within the nex two days. (Jan. 16, 17 2007)

Big Strong Craig

Craig's Mum is like many modern mothers. She reads books about how to take care of her beautiful baby boy. One of the books she has told her that it's a good idea to put the baby face down for at least a few minutes every day to help him strengthen his neck muscles.

His first few attempts weren't quite what his Mum was hoping to achieve.

But, he quickly became better at moving his nose away from the sofa directly below him.

And, after a few days, Craig's Dad reckons that he's been making progress. It's still a long way until he'll be a big strong lad but he's headed in the right direction.

He looks quite determined in these two pictures, don't you think?

He's a Happy Chappy

One of the very good things about Craig is that he seems to have a sunny disposition. Recently, he has become quite good at making happy sounds. Like most babies eye contact when made up close makes Craig happy.




One possible reason for Craig being such a happy baby could be that he gets plenty of sleep. And, when his Mum is teaching in the front room, where better to rest than on Dad's chest. The only danger is that Mum might take a picture when she finishes teaching.

Craig's New Year's Eve

On the morning of New Year's Eve, Craig ate at home but his parents took advantage of some unexpected beautiful weather to have brunch outdoors at Starbucks.


At night, they went to Craig's great-Aunt and great-Uncle's place by MRT. It was Craig's first trip on a train, so we took a picture.


Craig's Taiwanese Grandad likes to hold Craig. It was another good chance to take a picture.

Just before midnight we went up to the rooftop to see the fireworks show on Taipei 101.

As soon as the fireworks were finished a birthday cake was brought out for one of the son's of a cousin of Craig's Mum.

In typical Taiwanese fashion, the very minute that the cake was eaten, the party finished. Within five minutes everyone left and went home. Craig fell asleep in his pram while his parents walked home. It had been a very busy day.