Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

Cayen is finally knowing his ABC .. He can say A for Apple, B for Boy, C for Cat, D for Dog and after much prompting E for Egg. This took many days of training .. But I notice his Hokkien flair is much better . That day when I answered " ah ber " (not yet) to my mum , he repeated "ah ber" immediately. And today , when I said "Mai Bei" (don't climb) , he said "bei" immediately. And when my mum says "ai jiak" (want to eat?) , he will repeat exactly as well. Lastly, nowadays he will say "Mai mai" (no no) every time he want to say no ... This is one of the upsides of living with grandparents - flair in dialect. The very hyper baby ...

Last day in Taipei City and we packed our luggage and headed towards Beitou , the nearest hotspring area. Was excited to reach the relatively new Forte Beitou Hot Spring resort as my legs were killing me and I was looking forward to the private steam room and hot spring bathtub in our room (all under 200sgd!) and it didn't disappoint (except for the slow drainage at the sink). I think it's an awesome family hangout place as a couple can take turns to enjoy the hot spring while tending to the baby. It's also very relaxing as compared to Taipei city as there's loads of nature .. I like the cot too , at least before Cayen successfully managed to open the gate to my horror. While the door was not properly secured at the bottom, I witnessed how Cayen figured out how to undo the top. While I was impressed , I was also equally horrified. He really was a great meddler... Before lunch, we went to the local day market that was selling lots of fruits and vegetables. ...

"We're going to the zoo zoo zoo ... how about you you you?"  The weather was finally looking better this morning so we made our way to Asia's largest zoo - the Taipei zoo  . While the facilities are not as high tech as Singapore but the zoo had everything it needed, from Pandas to Giraffes, Leopards and elephants. It was big but could be conquered in under 3 hours and the weather was absolutely lovely. What was the most memorable was the  Siamang  who was howling away , apparently to mark their territory. It was also quite scary as we were afraid it would jump out at us after it started swinging wildly. Next, we went to the Huaxi Street Night Market  (used to be famous for snake eating) to eat what was supposed to be the best 滷肉飯 ever .. "Ah1 Yi4 Lu3 Rou4 Fan4" , Eel noodles and this special fish called Si1 Mu4 Yu2. Cayen enjoyed the  滷肉飯 thoroughly , in fact he stole some fatty meats right under my nose when I was not looking. Tsk ...

Started the day with a sumptuous breakfast in the hotel with Taiwanese fare, from porridge to bread and noodles, there's something for everyone. We went to 天母，to look for da's mother's mother (ah Ma). And then we went to 阳明山 to check out the Sakura there as it was a bit warmer last week so quite a few trees bloomed. The ride there was quite nerve wrecking as we turned up the wrong hill / mountain where it was super steep and was a one way road, before finding the right way up. It was rather nice weather initially as the weather is quite misty on the mountain and it was very cooling. Unfortunately it started to drizzle so we had to finish our walk in a hurry, Thereafter, we went to eat some 野菜 nearby to eat the 麻油鸡， 土鸡，五更肠旺，fried mushroom ... It was quite an interesting experience as it's my first time doing that in Taiwan.  Thereafter , we made our way to fisherman's wharf. Once again, we couldn't find the way there and as we tried to go into this r...

Started the day with a slight mishap as I had brought all my favourite credit cards, except the one used to make one of my air ticket purchase. This caused a 15min delay at the check in counter, and I singlehandedly caused a traffic jam. The only silver lining was that I managed to get the last stray seat together with the other three bassinet seats. Arrived to our hotel at Charming City hotel and was rather surprised at the state of the hotel . It was a rather rushed booking so I simply checked out the Agoda rating for that area and I was under the impression it's some kind of boutique hotel that's got high reviews. Was very shocked to see that it's not. Design is very 80s , and quite far from boutique . Room is clean but very basic but I noted that Cayen liked the playpen /bed. I could hear the sound of pipes at night.  Had dinner at 無老鍋, which had 養身湯底..which is supposedly very healthy and tasty .. I gave Cayen some rice with those soup and he wolfed ...