Craig Turns 1 (Alternative Title: Craig's Evil Dad)

It was Craig's first birthday on Saturday! The only difference to the previous two Saturdays was that he was in TGI Fridays at lunchtime instead of dinner time. He started by looking at the view while eating the food his Mum had cooked for him.


He even turned to look at the camera when his Dad asked him to.


The very young and ridiculously cheerful waitress gave Craig a balloon on a string.


He tried to pull it down to where he could play with it but his arms were a lot shorter than the string. So, he turned around to look for help.


Craig's Mum kindly pulled the balloon down to face-level but all Craig wanted to do was try to taste it!


Craig then made a long speech on a topic that, sadly, is still unknown.


Then, two special lunch guests arrived with an excellent present for Craig. A toy mobile phone that can speak in Japanese!! They also gave him some very cool looking dungarees but there's no picture of them.....


Naturally, Craig posed for a picture with Yamin. She's the girlfriend of Craig's Dad's co-worker Sam. That's Sam's arm in the left of the picture.


Craig had helped a lot with the adult food during the meal. His Mum reckons Craig ate more fish than she did.


Craig played quite happily with Sam as well. Sam was pretty good at making Craig giggle.


Fortunately, no pictures exist of Craig's evil father feeding him a sugar-coated doughnut!!!! Later that afternoon, poor Craig couldn't sleep when it became nap-time and was more than a little bit exciteable all afternoon after lunch and into the evening.

Early in the evening, Craig and his Mum and Dad went up to his grandparents house on the hill in Neihu. There was another birthday present for him there. It was very difficult to unwrap.


But, since it looked like a toy and because it was in the house where Craig's cousin Soit-Jade is the only child, she assumed it must belong to her!


It didn't matter much to Craig. He was happy playing with some plastic blocks.


Then Craig's Great Aunt from the Second Floor arrived with another present!!! It was a big day for presents.


Soit-Jade gave the toy a test run.


But it was clearly meant for someone smaller so she left it for Craig to have fun with. In the background is Craig's Granddad who had just come out of hospital that afternoon. He was probably reading about living with diabetes while Craig played with his new toy.


Then it was time for the birthday cake. Everyone gathered on one side of the big dining table with Craig and the cake on the other. Craig became a bit concerned about everyone staring at him.


But Mum was right beside him.


And his Grandma came over to help with singing Happy Birthday. That seemed to cheer Craig up quite a lot.


After the candle was blown out by Craig's Mum, Craig was given a close-up look at the cake.


And, his Great Aunt from the Second Floor let him taste a tiny bit. (It really was a tiny bit. Craig's Mum was keeping a close eye on what Craig was eating. Not surprising after the doughnut debacle in the afternoon.)


While everyone was eating their cake, Soit-Jade was doing some very unusual dancing in front of the TV. She was watching an extremely strange American children's show and she'd even learned some of the words.


On the way down the mountain in Great Aunt from the Second Floor's car, Craig fell asleep. After the sugar-effect from the doughnut wore off, he slept for 13 hours with no trouble at all. At 5:30am the next morning, when Craig's Dad was going out to a fun run, Craig looked like a little angel. It's such a shame he has such an evil father, isn't it?

Craig and his family all hope that his Granddad will get well soon.

Craig in His Cot at 1:00am

This video is from August when Craig went through a period of not wanting to sleep at night. His Dad made the video as evidence to show him when he grows up. :> It was actually a little after 1am and he continued talking, shouting (and singing and dancing) until around 2am no matter what his parents did.

Craig Dancing in a High Chair

Falling Asleep in His High Chair

Imagine having a father so mean that he would video a moment like this when you were a defenceless baby! Poor Craig.

Slow Service at a Fast Food Outlet

Once upon a time going to McDonalds meant receiving food that was not always delicious nor good for you but you knew that your order would always come quickly. However, McDonalds in Taiwan have changed that. They have some of the slowest service of any "fast food" stores anywhere.

On Monday morning, Craig and his parents went for a morning walk. They finished up at McDonalds just because it had a place to sit. Unfortunately, it was bit smelly inside. We couldn't really tell what the smell was exactly. It could have been a mixture of disinfectant and children's sweat but whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant. Luckily, there were seats outdoors.

Craig's Mum cleaned up the store high chair for her boy.


Then she drank her Sprite while Craig enjoyed the sun.


Soon Craig was bored. So, his Dad cleaned up the coffee creamer sachet/thingy and let Craig chew on that.


He enjoyed that quite a lot.


But, Craig's Mum received a phone call from Auntie Bess! They talked for half an hour!! It was during this period that Craig's Dad went back upstairs to get a refill of his coffee. After waiting 10 minutes and watching three McDonalds get a total of zero customers served, he gave up and went back downstairs! Such is "fast food" service in Taiwan!!

If it's Saturday, Craig is in Fridays

Craig was back in TGI Fridays on Saturday night again this week. The good news was that this time he wasn't in a bad mood before leaving home for dinner.


He is now over the cold that he had for more a month and his appetite is much better. Craig's Mum fed him some food she had prepared for him.


But he soon became bored with that and began watching a crane that was parked just outside the window.


The crane caused him to lose interest in the food his mother had cooked especially for him!


Worse than that, Craig's Dad was too busy enjoying his Australian beer to offer any assistance. Being a mum is tough sometimes.


And, it's very easy to make a mistake.

Craig's Mum picked up a chicken wing and waved it in front of Craig's face while he looked out the window. All she wanted to do was stop him ignoring her and his food. She was successful at doing that but straight away Craig turned around and began to complain. He wanted that chicken bone and he wanted it now! He complained so loudly that two 30-something women who had been sitting nearby, staring at him and talking about how cute he was suddenly looked quite shocked at the noise. And, Craig's Dad didn't help by just sitting there and laughing.


Craig's Mum had to eat the meat off the bone first because it had some very spicy sauce that Craig probably wouldn't have liked much.


It was only after he had the bone in his tiny hand that the noise finally stopped.


A little while later, Craig's Dad had finally finished his beer. So, it became his job to feed Craig and allow Craig's Mum to eat in peace. Craig really enjoyed the fish.


Even when he went back to staring at the now crane-less view outside he didn't refuse anything that his Dad gave him. Craig's Mum reckons that Craig ate more fish than she did.


As usual, a full tummy means a happy Craig.


He even turned around and looked at the camera when asked to by his Mum.


Then, just before they left, a former student of Craig's Dad, Ellen showed up at the restaurant. It was a nice coincidence and a good excuse to take a picture.


Craig's Dad also took a picture of Ellen's husband Jim but he couldn't get a picture of their daughter Catherine because she was too shy and hid behind her dad.

Fridays Fixes the Blues

Craig has been suffering from a cold for several weeks now. It has not been a good time for him or his Mum. To make things worse, Craig's Dad has been extremely busy with work over the past few weeks. He had a special translation job that kept him busy even when he was at home.

Last Thursday was no different to many other days before except that Craig's Dad had finally handed in the big translation job the day before. That meant he could spend some time with Craig and Craig's Mum could have a tiny bit of rest.

When Craig woke up he was a bit lifeless because he hadn't slept well.


And, later on, when he was going out to dinner he still wasn't cheerful. Perhaps he knew that he was going to be taken to the doctor before dinner...... He doesn't like the doctor.


When they arrived at TGI Fridays for dinner, Craig's Mum tried to feed Craig some baby food but when he didn't just look at it with contempt, he spat it out! No-one was happy about that.


So, Craig's Mum just distracted Craig by playing music on her phone. Craig listened and looked at the view out the window.


Then, Craig's Mum started to feed him food from her plate. Chicken, spaghetti, egg. He began to eat it all quite happily.


Eating adult food changed Craig's mood completely. When his Mum picked up a customer satisfaction survey card and gave it to Craig he spent a few seconds thinking about what to do with it.


Not long later, Craig and his Mum were playing Craig's favorite game. He threw the survey card on the floor and Mum picked it up. Craig kept doing this for almost 20 minutes, giggling all the way.


After seeing Craig be unhappy all day, it was really good to see the change that Craig went through while he was playing with his Mum.


His Mum was still happy about the improvement in Craig's mood, even after Craig had calmed down from the game and gone back to playing with his Mum's phone.


So, two days later, Craig had been in a bad mood again during the afternoon when his parents decided to use the same trick again.

At first, Craig simply enjoyed the view.


He had a good time throwing a little packet of crayons on the floor for his Dad to pick up.


Dad played the game with Craig beacuse it was Dad's turn to sit next to him. When this photo was taken, more or less the same process had already been repeated. Craig had spat out baby food and then eaten loads of adult food. The only minor difference was that he chewed the hell out of a couple of chicken-wing bones while he was eating!


Craig also played with the piece of paper that had drawings for him to color-in with the crayons.


On the way out Craig made a new friend. He seems to like getting close to other babies when he's a few meters away but after he gets up close he's isn't always so keen to get to know them.

And, for some reason, the mother of the other baby thought Craig looked like a girl. Craig's parents disagree. We think he looks, and certainly acts, like a boy.