Trip South ~ Family Time Part One

1. Tuesday was Tomb Sweeping Day, we drove down to Ding Zhou on Wednesday. It takes three hours to get to the place where Steve's mum comes from. We came down to clean up Baba's tomb and to make steps to have his ashes moved to a different place, to Bai He - the place of his and Steve's birth. I say we, though the girls and I don't get involved in the details or activity. Tilly got the flu the day before and was a bit out of it yesterday. The weather was lovely and those there met Evie for the first time. Bai He is pronouced Buy her, but don't be fooled by my spelling of the pronunciation. It's a pretty little town and the name means White River. It is the famous hometown of the lotus flower. The trip we took between Ding Zhou and Bai He (about half an hour) was lovely. Green and lush. beautiful schools, old traditional style housing.
2. Steve's uncle, his mother's eldest brother, making us tea. He rode in on his scooter just after we arrived and came straight in and put on a 'cuppa'. He's a lovely man.
3. Steve's older sisters and Evie. Evie was really lapping it up. In all the 'ki li ka la' of the Taiwanese language being thrown around, she was not fazed by it one bit. She almost looked at them like she knew what it was all about.
4. Steve's second sister Pei Qi, don't get to see her much. She's a doll.
5. Mum, her first real chance to be with Evie. Mum lives here in the South and we don't travel much down here. Though she did come up to see her after she was born.
6. Mum's brothers run a cherry tomato farm. Yum, considering they are well expensive in Taiwan, we are lucky to always have a big bag to bring home.
7. Ding Zhou, Mum's hometown. It's small and most Taiwanese here in Taipei that I tell about it don't even know it. (But that's coz they're just city slickers......)
8. Big Sis getting geared up to clean up Dad's tomb.
9. Need a broom for the sweeping?
10. How about this one? Any better? If you've never been to Taiwan and you have no idea about it, you would never believe the way things are done here. Convenience is ultra and in the extreme. This woman and her husband came back and forth a good five minutes with tomb sweeping goods to show my sis in laws, just for them to spend a couple of bucks on a broom and a sickle shaped knife to cut the grass. And that's ok, because that's how it's done here, and life rolls by smoothly.
11. Bai He, the place Dad's ashes will be moved to. This is a funeral hall as such. This picture is outside the funeral hall, I asked them what it was but didn't get a clear answer as they didn't really know either. Ha. All these things I view from the car with the girls. Steve's family are incredibly gracious about not expecting us to participate, on any level. I am supposed to as he is the 'eldest son' (even though his sisters are older) and therefore the head of the family. My responsibilities would be great indeed. Yet, I have none and they accept that. That might sound strange, though this whole thing is steeped in centuries old, confusing tradition and being an outsider so to speak and a Christian, they do not ask me or the girls to do any of those things.

Early this morning

Unashamedly my form of bliss......

Two little girls happily at play.

Kids these days... (tisk tisk)

In a desperate attempt to quieten a fussy baby and get out the door and somewhere on time and leave behind a tidy house, I put Evie in the middle of the bed with the Ipod while I flurried. She is actually watching Alphablocks, as in really watching it. One other time I put her in the rocker in front of the TV and let her watch, oh dear.... Baby Einstein for a whole 15 minutes. I was completely mortified. This is coming from a mother who used to ask people to turn the TV off when Tilly was this age and older.... Tisk tisk for thinking I needed to get myself into a flurry in order to have my house straight before I leave (though changing this side of my nature seems difficult for me....), tisk tisk for letting my 7 month old at the technology, tisk tisk for probably being too uptight.....

Story time

Story time in this household is a super important part of the day, at least to Tilly. I have also started telling stories to her without books, old fables such as The Three Little Pigs, or Little Red Riding Hood. That came about after Daddy read those stories to her from her Fable story book which is completely in Chinese. She sits glued to wherever she happens to be, watching me tell the story. All those years teaching English as a foreign language to children - I can be quite animated........ She is desperate for books and stories every day. This evening we read through all the Pamela Allen story books we have here. Black Dog is about a girl who has a pet dog and they live in a house together. She becomes preoccupied with the fantasy that a beautiful blue bird is flying through the woods one winter and is so preoccupied that she neglects herself and Black Dog in hopes of catching a glimpse of the imaginary bird. It tells of Black Dog's quest to win her back and bring her back into reality, which he does - though not without hurting himself in the process. She realises her deep love of Black Dog in the end..... But I digress.... Just at the first page Tilly asked why Christina and Black Dog didn't live with her mummy and daddy. I told her Christina was old enough to live by herself and take care of herself and Black Dog, using myself and her Nan & Pop as an example. I rightly or wrongly further explained that one day Tilly will also be grown up and won't live with mummy and daddy anymore. To which was the reply: 'No, no mummy. I won't be growing up.' And that for now is that.

Simply irresistible

A little truth..

The truth be told, I don't always 'get' my little girl. She is sometimes eccentric and often a little nutty. I am often left in a daze at the things (and ideas) that come out of her mouth, and sometimes she gives me a headache. Let me be more truthful - I'm sometimes a raving lunatic at some of the antics... She does not delight in following others and often likes to break the rules. Her favourite teacher is the one I thought she would like the least (strict, no nonsense, a little scary and not very outwardly nuturing so to speak - she is the headmistress of the church's kindi and is actually an excellent teacher) Today she played with her friend Sarah at our house all afternoon and after they left she complained of being uncomfortable and was pulling at her pants. She proceeded to pull five pairs of knickers off, but still had four more on. A couple of days ago I asked (which I rarely do) what she wanted to eat for dinner and she said 'chooks feet'. (A yum cha delicacy). The picture below is of her play with her doll house and her playmobil figures. She said, 'Look mum, this mummy is a monkey, she's swinging. And she said it was ok for the baby to sit in the high chair and eat her dinner up on the roof.' She played there by herself (Evie and me close by of course) for over an hour and came up with the monkey mum. But what I love most about my little girl is her sweet devotion to her little sister. I've been watching closely their interaction and have been a little wary and somewhat skeptical to say the least, wondering when the bubble will burst and sibling rivalry will come crashing down all around me. However I have to say up until now, Tilly has been an interested, caring, loving and (relatively) gentle older sister. She wasn't quite ready to get out of bed one morning last week and asked could I put Evie in bed beside her so they could read together. Evie generally wakes earlier than Tills and I bring her into the living room to play on the floor while we wait for Tills to rise. Evie niggles and fusses until big sis is up and then is content and happy to have her there until her morning nap time.

They bathe together, in a sense. And Tilly can make her little sis cackle with delight. If she's fussing she'll say things like, 'She needs a feed mum.' 'She's tired mum.' I could write forever of the interaction that happens daily here. However, I won't. But I will say, Thank you Lord for the delight that these two little souls bring into this house! We are truly blessed indeed.

Sisters taking care of each other.

Evie did this this morning. Sitting up like she'd been doing it for a while. She hasn't however.

I found the fully fuctional little people house at St. Vinnies (op shop) for AUD$1!!! No actual little people to put inside it, but the play mobil works just as well. The girls love it.

I must mention that when I was watching Tilly's play, I saw her designated play mobil 'daddy' on the bed. I pointed out the laundry and asked her wouldn't it be a good idea if Daddy got up and did the washing? She put him back on the bed and said, Nope - Daddy's asleep - mummy can do it.... Hmmmmm.

Looking good girls....!!!

Ummm.... feeling a bit out of control mama..... (it ended in tears)

Big sis - what a doll.

Cutie bums.