Family Vacation to Japan over Chinese New Year

We spent Chinese New Year this year in Kyushuu, Japan.  Steve's parents met us over there, and we spent a week travelling around the southern most island of Japan (mostly by train and bus).  We travelled around on our own and not with a tour, which meant it was more expensive and had to rely on my so-so Japanese.  But it also meant that we had more time to do some exploring in each of the four towns/cities we visited.  

It snowed on our second day there, enough snow so that Tyler got to experience making his first snowball and do some tobogganing.  I haven't seen snow in four years, so it was a real treat for me too.  Kurogawa and Yufuin are towns famous for their hotsprings so we spent quite a lot of time soaking in their mineral baths.  Some of them were outdoors so you can actually look up and see the stars.

We had a wonderful time-- Steve said that this was probably one of the vacations in a long time where he was a bit sad to leave.  

On not such a positive note, Tyler developed a cold towards the end of the trip.  When we took him to the pediatrician back home, she said he had developed a ear infection-- I really hope the antibiotics will do the trick this time.  Otherwise we will need to reinsert the tubes all over again!!  Wish us luck...

 

Christmas Party

Every year the group of Moms, we call "coffee morning" get together and celebrate Christmas with our families.  It's become a bit of tradition really.  The past two years it's been held at at hotel, but this year we opted to do potluck at our friend Sarah's house.   To be honest, there was a lot of running around the week before and organizing involved, but it was all worth it.  We had a feast of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mulled wine, plus plenty of christmas baking-- all home made!

Also part of the tradition is the appearance of Santa Claus, which is definitely the highlight for Tyler.  We had a last minute "personnel" change, which caused a bit of scrambling at the end to find the costume, and a willing Santa. In the end, we had a wonderful Santa, who "ho ho ho'd" and handed out gifts to the delight of all the kids.

At the beginning of the week, Tyler wrote a letter to Santa with the help of mom of course. When I asked what he wanted to say, I thought his response was very sweet... "I want to say Happy New Year Santa..."  Well, mom explained that Santa needed some help with picking the right gift for him, so we did add "I would like an Ultraman Seven."  And lo and behold, that was the gift Tyler received... After unwrapping the present, Tyler pointed out a price tag (which Mom forgot to remove) "Look, Santa got this from Sogo!"  Hope he hasn't put two and two together.  =P

Had some bad luck and all my pictures from the Christmas party were erased... so here's a link to Sarah's Christmas Party pictures.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarah.buerkle/CoffeeMorningAndXmasParty2008?authkey=LmO3DW_ecCQ&feat=email#

Out Come the Ear Tubes

Tomorrow morning, Tyler is scheduled for doctor's appointment to take out the tubes in his ear.  The tubes in the right ear came out on it's own but the ear drum needs a little help to heal.  The left one is still in and no sign of it coming out.  Unfortunately Tyler won't let the Doctor reach in their with his tweezers to grab them, so Tyler needs to go under again....  Basically go through the same process more than a year ago when he had the procedure.  To make this as untraumatic as possible, we haven't told him he'll be going into the surgical room.

But today we had a wonderful day spent doing some Christmas baking at our friend's Sarah's house.  Making sugar cookies and gingerbread men.  The moms had as much fun as the kiddos decorating the Gingerbread Men and Women.  The cookies are for the Christmas party on Saturday (yup this Saturday.  A bit early, but necessary given everyone's travel plans).  Really looking forward to the event.  Being in Taiwan, you're not bombarded with the Christmas Carols playing in the stores, and Christmas decorations in store windows, or even having Thanksgiving Holiday to remind you that Christmas is around the corner.  So you really need to create your own little Christmas winter wonderland.

Here's a link to more pictures from cookie baking...

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarah.buerkle/CookieMaking?authkey=9Rw-GIqGaqc&feat=email#

Car Troubles

Over the weekend on the way to meet Grandpa for dinner in Taipei, we were hit on the highway by an unknown object.  It was pretty dark (around 7pm) and it came from the side, so to this time we still don't know what hit us.  Luckily we're ok, but our new car was dented pretty badly headlights + side panel+ bumper.   Tyler was sleeping so he didn't really experience it.  For insurance purposes, we went to the police station to file a report which took forever.  It was almost 2am by the time we stepped into the house.  Add this to my car batteries dying, and towed to the pound earlier last week, this is car incident #3.  Like my friend Sarah advised, it's time to go "bai bai" at the temple to try to ward off any more bad luck.

Election Day at the Beach

It was a beautiful day for the beach.  And to help us remember this momentous election day, we wrote the name of the new U.S. president in the sand.
Here's Karen and I working on our masterpiece.

Good Prognosis for Byrdie

Today we drove to the Taipei University Veterinary Hospital to get Byrdie checked out.  We had an appointment to see their Central Nervous System specialist, but luck would have it the doctor was in a meeting and they couldn't contact me since they had our old phone number in their records.  Anyhow, we saw a generalist which I wasn't too happy about, but what can you do... we've already made the 1 hour trip from Hsinchu.  

After checking her over, the Vet said that given how she is recovering from the stroke it's definitely not due to a tumor, but a blockage of some sort.  And recurrence is unlikely in the near term.  We ran some tests to rule out certain causes, so I do feel better having taken her to Taipei.  Byrdie is also a lot more energetic compared to the weekend, and is wagging her tail again.  She's not 100% yet, but she's getting better.

Byrdie isn't feeling well...

I noticed two days ago that Byrdie was definitely not herself.  Her tail was down, and she was eating out of one side of her food bowl.  She was also favoring one side, her left side, which means she always turned left, sometimes circling an area.  She also seemed disoriented, not wagging her tail or coming when her name was called.  Yesterday, I took her to the Vet and he said that these were symptoms having to do with the nervous system.  Her symptoms aren't so bad, he said.  Besides prescribing some vitamin B and steroids for if the symptoms got worse, there wasn't specifically anything he could do.  He recommended going to Taipei to run some tests.

Basically, I think Byrdie had a stroke and I suspect she can't see out of her right eye. It's hard to say what the cause was until we run the tests when I take her next week.  It could be anything from heart disease, fat deposits, to old age. Based on internet reading, dogs recover from strokes faster than humans.  And I'm hopeful that since her symptoms aren't so bad, that she still can walk around on her own, that she'll recover soon.