A Big Day Out

Craig was going to go out with his Dad on Saturday and because they going to travel by car and Craig has outgrown his old car seat he was asked to try out his new (second-hand) seat on Friday night. They were going down to Taichung to visit one of Craig's Dad's co-workers, Christine, who had an operation recently.


The seat looked good and safe plus Craig seemed quite happy in it as well.



So, bright and early Saturday morning, Craig and his Dad waited beside the road to be picked up by Dad's co-worker Grace.


After he was strapped in to the seat in the car, Craig seemed to like the fact that he could see outside. The old seat was too low for that.


Craig's Dad's co-worker Kang-kang (her English name is Joy but no-one uses it) brought a big camera. Craig was her first subject.

From Kang-kang's point of view, the photo looked like this.

Not long later, they were both asleep as the car sped down the freeway.

And, they were still asleep more than an hour later when the car was nearing its destination just north of Taichung.


But, they both woke up as soon as the car stopped. And, Craig had plenty of energy now. He had a good time playing with his Dad's co-worker Sam.


Lunch was served at Christine's house. There was plenty of food.

Craig ate sitting in his pram. Christine and her family look like happy people.

Craig ate a lot of fish and egg before becoming a bit bored. His shoe made a handy toy.


After lunch everyone went upstairs where Craig got to meet some other kids.


They were good fun to play with and they had some toys that Craig liked as well.


Cristine's father and uncle had built a small clay oven in a field that they own where they planned to do some Taiwan-style cooking for the guests from the city.


Craig spent most of his time just hanging out with his Dad.


Craig even received a brief hug from Christine.


The clay oven was burning away nicely while everyone had fun doing other stuff.


Craig played the drums on some plastic stools with Kang-kang.


The bigger kids began preparing for a yam wrapping competition.


Yams, aluminium foil and kids! All the necessary ingredients for some fun.

The kids were so fast with round one that a second round had to be organised.


After a couple of rounds the yams were all wrapped so, Grace began using the tablecloth to torture Sam. The kids seemed to like it.

And Grace had a good time with it, too. She's like that in the office as well.....

Craig was hanging out not far away.

And, the other kids came over to say hello.

But maybe he didn't like the extra attention or maybe he thought they would do to him what Grace had been doing to Sam.

Soon, they were distracted by Christine's Dad covering the foil-wrapped yams with mud. Apparently it helps to cook them evenly.

After that bit of fun, Craig's Dad took Craig out into the field again and put him down next to a wheelbarrow full of wood for the fire.


Kang-kang got up close to take Craig's picture. If you think that Craig's Dad took a lot of pictures that day you should see all the photos she took.


He must have liked the game because he stood there playing with the grass for about 30 minutes.


This is Craig expounding on one of his favourite topics. It's just a little unfortunate that he speaks a language all his own and that no-one can understand what he says because he can talk for quite a long time now.


Craig then decided to crawl towards his Dad because he wanted to be picked up but his cruel father kept walking backwards away from him!!!

Despite the obvious difficulty, Craig kept his head down and continued crawling.

He covered about 15 metres across the rice stubble left in the paddy.

This picture gives you an idea of the battle that the tiny boy was up against.

Eventually, his Dad stood still and Craig could grab onto him.

Meanwhile, the other four kids took time out for a drink.

Then they took turns playing with Sam. They all seemed to like him.

Craig had a turn sitting on the lap of Sam "King of Kids".

Then the oldest of the other kids wanted to show that she could hold a boy as big as Craig.

Meanwhile, Sam "King of Kids" Ellis couldn't get away from his fan club.

Christine was concerned that the little girls weren't being polite to the guest but they didn't care!

They just continued sitting on Sam.

Grace was shown how to eat the yams.

Craig had a brief sit on Christine's lap. But he's a bit heavy for someone who is still recovering from an operation so he didn't sit there very long.

Craig hadn't had an afternoon nap as he normally would. So, by late afternoon he was very, very tired and didn't want to go back into the field. He preferred to sit in his pram and play with the other kids' toys.

Then it was time to leave. The girls came over to say goodbye to Craig and one girl even shook hands.


Within two minutes of the car beginning the journey back to Taipei Craig was deep asleep. Kang-kang pretended to be asleep for this photo. Craig's Dad doesn't know why!

After having a really good sleep in the car, Craig didn't want to go to sleep when he got home! So, he and his parents went out for a hot chocolate and some cake. He eventually fell asleep a little after 2am. It had been a very big day.