Wiggly Piglet and Bouncy Tigger's Playpen

Poor Marcus is really sick with fever as high as 104 overnight. He’s got severe runny nose and cough. We had lunch plan with Ted’s uncle but Marcus and I couldn’t go. I took him to see pediatrician instead. Because of the CNY holiday, most clinics were closed. Luckily, we were able to get an appointment at the hospital nearby. The pediatrician checked him out and swabbed his throat because of recent outbreak of influenza B virus. He’s got sinusitis with pretty severe sore throat and runny nose. He was given Augmentin for five days along with antihistamine and suppository for fever. Luckily the throat swab was negative for influenza B. Hopefully he will recover before our return flight on Saturday.

While giving her a bath tonight, I asked Mckayla what was her favorite part of our trip do far. Her answer was when Uncle Ajay comes over to visit. Then, the second part is when she sleeps with Jackie. After her bath, she went to uncle Ajay if he was spending the night. He told her that he was going home but invited her over to his place. She declined his offer and told him she’s sleeping with Jackie for one more night. Then, she went to Jackie and wanted to know why she can’t sleep in her room tomorrow. We told her great-aunt Pony was coming back from the Philippines along with Uncle Jeff, Auntie Jenni, and Uncle Kris. Her response was, “what about my dog in the Philippines?”.

Marcus is sick with cough, runny nose, and fever the past two days. To make things worse, he’s also been teething. He hasn’t eaten much the last two days. Finally, when I was flossing his teeth tonight, I was able to check his teething status. Half of the bottom left second is out. And the bottom right one is almost there, too. I couldn’t check the upper ones. Hopefully, we will be done with this last set soon!

Both kids are making themselves comfortable in Taiwan. They go between my parents’ and grandma’s apartments on their own with a little help. They are right next door to each other and the doors are not locked during the day. When she wants to eat apple, she goes to the maids and asks them to cut them for her. Then, when they’re done eating, both kids take their empty dishes and hand them over to the maids to wash. Yesterday, Mckayla woke up herself (she slept with Jackie). She left the room and went to hang out with great-grandma in the living room until grandma came to get her. The only danger is the stairs. The two units are connected via a smaller apartment upstairs. Both kids like going up there own there own which is quite dangerous. Marcus has been sleeping in our bed. He’s been sleeping in after we all got up. When he wakes up, he climbs out the bed himself, clutching his dogs in each arm, opens the bedroom door himself, then comes out to look for us.

We were walking on the street the other day. Ted pointed at the sign that read “love”. He asked Mckayla to say the letters. After she spelled out the word, Ted asked her to say the word. At first, she said she doesn’t know. Then, Ted asked her to make the sounds of each letter. Before they even finished, she shout out “love”. Maybe this is her first step to reading, not just a random guess.
Marcus is sick with cough and runny nose. He’d been cranky. Rejecting everyone, including me and Jackie. He’s back to being daddy’s boy. But when grandparents, uncle, and auntie were handing out red envelopes, he happily accepts them after greeting “gong xi” and “happy new year”. Ted was telling Jackie that Mckayla doesn’t really understand the concept of red envelopes. But he was so wrong! After getting her first envelope, she ran over to tell me she’s going to buy Jasmine costume for her fifth birthday. I told her she should save the money and use them wisely, like buying books. She rejected my idea and told me she’s got plenty books but doesn’t have any Jasmine costumes.

We have an ancestor shrine upstairs at my parents’ house in Taiwan. We started the CNY celebration with praying and offerings to ancestors yesterday. We told Mckayla about her great-grandpa and she should tell him that she’s back to visit her. Today, she took Marcus upstairs to pray. Here was her conversation with great-grandpa. “I’m Mckayla, do you remember me? Here’s Marcus. Marcus say hi. We came back to see you but you went to people heaven. Can you say hi to Fluffy and MeiMei in doggie heaven? Bye!”.

It’s been raining outside and most shops are closed today. We hung out at home in the morning until kids decided to wake up Jackie. Marcus wanted to go wake her up and play with her. Ted and I were heading out to the store to do some shopping, but Marcus decided to stay home with Jackie. It was nice to have just one kid with us especially that we were walking in the rain. We shopped for a bit until we got a text from Jackie that Marcus was looking for Ted. He left first while Mckayla and I stayed to try on the clothes. When we got home, Marcus was still happily playing with Jackie. We ate lunch at home then took a nice long nap. The CNY eve celebration started shortly. Then we had our dinner at home. Both kids been having great appetite. They ate a bunch of food and played with great-uncle Hong Wen and Uncle Ajay until Marcus got tired. He wanted to sleep. After he went to bed, Mckayla was allowed to stay up a bit. Then, it was time for her to go to sleep too. She complained for a bit then told me she was having lots of fun in Taiwan. I reminded her she needs to rest so she could have energy to play tomorrow. The celebration continues today until midnight. Hopefully we won’t get too much firework noise tonight.

We only brought the single travel stroller this trip. Our goal was to encourage Mckayla to walk more on her own. It worked so far. At the airport, both kids took turns sitting in it. We made it Marcus’ stroller so Mckayla has to get Marcus’ agreement to use it. Few days ago, we went to the zoo without stroller and both kids did lots of walking. At one point, Margaret offered LJ’s stroller to Mckayla but she declined and walked her way back to the car. We went out a few times with stroller for Marcus and Mckayla did most of the walking herself. Tonight, we walked to dinner. It was about twenty minutes there but forty minute back (slower because my grandma walked with us). Marcus was held by Jackie half of the time and walked the other half with Andre. Mckayla walked the entire way with my mom. Both kids were fighting to help greatgrandma into the elevator once we got back to the building. Hopefully we will completely graduate from the stroller soon.

Mckayla adores Jackie. She loves hanging out with her and calls her the favorite auntie (Margaret yi-ma is also her favorite). She’s been sleeping with Jackie since the third night here. Jackie also conquered Marcus. So far, she’s the only adult Marcus voluntarily asks to hold him. We were walking to lunch today after our visit to Leo’s Play Land. While Ted was holding him, Marcus turned around and asked for Jackie. He leaped into her arms before Ted could hand him over. After lunch, we were telling Mckayla about her nap. She happily agreed to sleep in Jackie’s room. Then, Marcus chimed in and asked to sleep with Jackie too.