春天到了 Spring is here!

天氣漸漸暖和起來, 趁著我上週到西雅圖面試不在家, 爸爸偷偷帶小肉包去買了這套小椅子加安全帽, 帶著小肉包出去騎車兜風了. 雖然我不是很贊成小肉包這麼小就跟著爸爸去騎車, 不過小肉包戴安全帽的樣子還真的很可愛, 而且跟爸爸一起照相的時候感覺好小一隻喔! (實在是爸爸太大隻了啦!)
It's getting warmer here in New York, so daddy took Hasan to buy his bike equipment when I went to Seattle last week. I didn't like the idea of taking Hasan out for biking when he's still young, but Hasan looks so cute in his helmet. Hasan looks so tiny when taking pictures with daddy......



爸爸帶小肉包到公園去騎車, 把小肉包放在花叢中, 小肉包跟花照相看起來還挺浪漫的呢! 不過爸爸說, 剛把小肉包放到花叢中的時候, 還看得到四五朵花, 一邊照相, 他就一邊摘花, 照到最後剩下一朵花了, 真是破壞王啊!
Daddy took Hasan to bike in the park and took some pictures with Hasan and flowers. It looks like Hasan really enjoyed sitting in flowers! But daddy told me that there were 4 or 5 flowers before he put Hasan down. The more pictures he took, the less flowers there were. At the end there was only 1 flower left. Hasan basically destroyed everything!

長尾巴囉 Hasan is 1 year old!

禮拜五是小肉包一歲生日, 我們替他在隔天辦了一個生日派對, 請了一些爸爸媽媽的朋友來. 我們替小肉包穿上在淡水買的小皇服, 小肉包看起來好可愛! 當然我們也邀請了一些小朋友, 有兄妹檔兩歲半的安東尼和四月初也剛滿一歲的蘇菲亞, 還有十八個月的傑夫, 以及八個月的比迪.
Friday was Hasan's one year birthday. We had a birthday party for him on Saturday, inviting some of daddy and mommy's friends. We put Hasan in his emperor outfit and he looked so cute in it! Of course we also invited some of Hasan's little friends. We had brother-and-sister - 2.5 year old Anthony and 13 month old Sophia, 18-month-old Jeff, and 8-month-old Vidith.

當晚派對的重點是在唱生日快樂歌之後. Vivien 阿姨買了一個蛋糕給小肉包, 我們把小肉包放在高椅子上, 所有的人都圍著他, 一開始他看起來好像很惶恐, 不知道發生什麼事了.
Aunt Vivien bought a cake for Hasan. We put Hasan in his high chair and prepared to cut the cake. Hasan didn't really know what's going on in the beginning because he was the only one sitting there and everybody was standing around him.



後來大家唱起生日快樂歌, 蘇菲亞也獻上一個香吻, 小肉包好不開心啊!
Then everyone was sining happy birthday to him, and Sophia gave him a sweet kiss. Hasan was so happy!



但是這還不是重點. 爸爸下午親手坐了一個巧克力蛋糕, 外面塗上滿滿的巧克力糖霜, 說是黎巴嫩的傳統, 要給長尾巴的小朋友自己吃一整個蛋糕. 我剛看到時都快瘋了, 小肉包長到這麼大, 我都還沒有給他吃過什麼甜食, 現在一下子要給他吃一個蛋糕, 而且還是自己吃, 大家可以想想看是什麼樣子 - 兩隻手還不夠用, 恨不得把頭整個埋到蛋糕裡!
But this was not it. Daddy made a chocolate cake for Hasan with a thick layer of chocolate frosting all over the cake. He told me that this is a Lebanese tradition - to give the birthday boy a whole cake and let him finish it by himself. I almost went crazy because up to this point I didn't really feed Hasan any sweets. But this time daddy gave him a whole cake! You can imagine how happy he was - not only he used his both hands to dig in, he even wanted to put his head in the cake!







最後當然也有抓周的活動. 小肉包選了半天, 抓了他最心愛的寶劍. 根據解釋, 寶劍是說他會身強體壯, 而且會成為傑出的運動員喔! 爸爸聽了希望他成為貝克漢第二, 媽媽我希望是老虎伍茲第二啦! 高爾夫的運動生涯當然比足球長久, 而且也不容易有運動傷害嘛!
We also played this game called "dra-dro." It's a traditional Chinese game that people lay out a bounch of stuffs in front of their kids when they turn 1. And depend on which item they grab, it will predict their future. Hasan spent a little time in front of everything, and he picked up his sword at last. It means that he will be very strong and healthy when he grows up, and he will be a very good athlete. Daddy immediate wanted Hasan to be Beckham, and I wanted him to be Tiger Woods. Golf has a longer career life with less injury, doesn't it?

傑夫一把衝過去毫不猶豫的就抓了那隻蔥, 表示會聰明喔! 蘇菲亞則是抓了計算機, 以後數學會很棒, 有可能成為科學家喔!
Jeff immediately ran over and grabbed the green union. It means that he will be a very smart guy! (In Chinese, the pronunciation of green union sounds like "smart.") Sophia picked up the calculator, which means that she will be very good at math and will be a scientist!

大野狼旅社

復活節的週末我們三人和西湘伯父一家七口約好到尼加拉瀑布一遊. 他們由新新那提開去的距離大約和我們從紐約開去的距離差不多, 都非常遠!! 我請了禮拜五一天的假, 禮拜四一下班就趕緊出發. 沒想到東岸的天氣就從禮拜四開始轉壞, 開著開著竟然下起雪來, 車速慢不說, 想到花這麼久的時間開去加拿大, 竟然冷到無法出門觀景, 就覺得很嘔. 後來阿里又跟我說我們訂的大野狼旅社一晚要加幣三百五十元, 真的是快要抓狂了!

不過到了大野狼旅社之後, 才知道爲什麼西湘伯父要選這家旅館了. 西湘伯父是出了名的"孝子," 對子女真是好得不得了. 這家大野狼旅社專門就是設計給小朋友的, 一進門就有會動的大熊和大樹, 每天整點的時候還會講故事給小朋友聽. 禮拜六早上我們帶小肉包跟其他小朋友坐著一起聽故事, 小肉包也不知道聽懂了沒有, 竟然在前面的大姊姊故事講到一半的時候, 突然站起來並且大聲的鼓掌. 大姊姊受寵若驚, 彷彿找到了知音一樣. 可惜爸爸沒有注意到這段精采片段, 竟然把畫面跳到了小肉包的堂哥堂姊們身上.





旅館裡還有好大好大的室內水上樂園, 適合各種年齡層的小朋友. 小肉包最喜歡這個從地下冒出來的水柱, 他和爸爸還有忍堂哥玩得不亦樂乎. 另外懶人河也是小肉包的最愛, 我坐在泳圈上面抱著他飄啊飄的, 可以飄好久他都不嫌無聊.



我們在室內水上樂園足足待了兩個下午. 雖然外面風雪不斷, 這裡面可是溫暖得很呢! 其中有一度小肉包和爸爸失蹤了, 我找了半天, 發現爸爸竟然帶他排隊準備玩五層樓高的滑水道. 我看了簡直呆掉了! 趕快爬上去把小肉包給抱下來. 爸爸是以為他兒子已經十一歲了嗎? 他才十一個月大呢!

禮拜六早上我們短暫地離開旅館, 去尼加拉瀑布繞了一繞. 天氣真的很冷, 旁邊的樹枝都結冰了.












禮拜天早上旅館有撿蛋的活動. 小肉包當然是什麼都撿不到啦! (其實是根本就不曉得大家在幹麼.) 不過愛等堂哥和忍堂哥很大方的分給小肉包兩顆蛋. 後來我們帶他去和兔子照相, 不過我們小膽的小肉包被巨大的兔子嚇到了, 過了不久就哭了起來.

台灣之行第六章 - 初春的墾丁 Taiwan Trip Chapter Six - KenTing in the Early Spring

在南台灣最讚的汽車旅館過了一夜之後, 第二天一早我們就前往墾丁. 墾丁曾經是我大學時代百去不厭的度假勝地, 但這次距離上一次去墾丁卻已經至少有四, 五年了. 我們包了一輛車並請了司機載我們東跑西跑. 第一站是沿路上的大鵬灣風景區, 不過當天大鵬灣非常冷清, 基本上只有我們而已. 小肉包和阿姨坐了電動乳牛玩了一下.
The next morning we left early for Ken-Ting. Ken-Ting is the famous beach resort area in southern Taiwan. I used to love to go there every summer when I was in college, but it has been almost 4 or 5 years since my last visit. We paid for a driver to take us around. Our first stop was Da-Pang Bay. There were only few people there on that day. Hasan and Rebecca was riding the cow together just to kill time.



爸爸看到路邊有人在吃檳榔, 好奇也想吃吃看. 不過顯然檳榔並不合他的胃口, 咬了兩口就吐掉了.
Daddy saw people chewing the famous "Taiwanese chewing gum" and wanted to try it himself too. Taiwanese chewing gum is some kind of fruit with stuffing in it which makes it very spicy when you chew on it. It works like caffeine that makes people excited and awake. However, daddy didn't really like the taste and he spit it out very quickly.

這就是檳榔.
This is a picture of the "Taiwanese chewing gum."



第二站是佳樂水. 剛到那兒的時候天氣突然轉陰, 後來又飄起毛毛雨, 我們本想說完了, 這次墾丁之旅無法去海邊玩水了, 沒想到過了一下下就又陽光普照起來了. 阿里對佳樂水的奇石怪岩非常嘆為觀止.
Next we stopped at Chia-Lo-Sui, which is known for all kinds of weird shaped rocks. When we first arrived, the weather became cloudy and then started to rain. But in a few minutes, the sun came out and became so warm. Ali was very amazed by all the rocks we saw.





接下來我們又去了鵝鸞鼻燈塔. 到了鵝鸞鼻的時候太陽又更烈了, 簡直就有點懶得給他爬上去, 不過既然都已經來了, 就帶阿里上去看看吧.
Then we went to the lighting house in the south most point of Taiwan. It became hotter and hotter and we almost didn't want to hike up to the lighting house.



到那兒才知道鵝鑾鼻現在名列台灣八景之一. 大家知道其他的七景是什麼嗎? 讓我想想.... (有一天晚上在家裡看電視的時候剛好看到介紹台灣八景) - 太魯閣, 日月潭, 台北 101, 故宮, 阿里山, 高雄愛河....剩下一個忘了.
And we learned that the south most point is one of Taiwan's 8 most famous tourist areas. Do you know what are the other 7? Let me think.... (I happened to see a TV show introducing the 8 most famous tourist areas) - Tai-Lu-Ge (the famous valley in east Taiwan), Sun Moon Lake, Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, Mt. Ali, the Love River.....and I forgot the last one.



最後我們終於到了凱薩 check in, 然後一家人到海邊去玩水. 雖然是三月初, 墾丁的天氣真的熱得可以游泳了. 當然我和妹妹沒有去游, 阿里自己一個人下水, 我們陪著小肉包在岸上玩沙. 沒想到一個大浪打過來, 我們家沒膽的小肉包竟然嚇哭了, 爸爸再要帶他去玩水他都不敢. 我們看他很無聊, 只好帶他回去旅館的游泳池泡水, 不過回到旅館的時候已經傍晚, 天氣開始有點涼了, 泡了一下下, 他就全身發冷, 只好回房間去了.
Finally we checked into the Caesar Palace Hotel and left for the beach. Although it's early March, the weather was so nice and warm that many people were already swimming. Ali went to the ocean by himself, and Rebecca and I stayed with Hasan on the beach playing with the sand. But Hasan got scared by a big wave and started crying. No matter how hard daddy tried to convince him just to put his feet in the ocean, he didn't want to do it at all. We thought that he would feel bored, so we decided to take him back to the hotel swimming pool. It got a little cold after sun set, and we didn't stay in the pool too long either.

晚餐是在墾丁的夜市解決. 這是這次回台後我第一次去逛夜市, 墾丁的夜市雖然規模沒有台北的大, 但是也讓我一飽口腹之欲, 很多想了很久的小吃終於在這裡吃到了. 美中不足的是阿里並不太享受夜市的食物, 可能不習慣吧. 唯一讓他想嘗試的竟然是在美國就可以吃到的 corn dog. 這傢伙跟我們說他這輩子還沒吃過 corn dog, 誇張吧!
We had dinner in the night market close to the hotel. It was my first time in this trip that we were in the night market, and I was so excited because I could finally eat something that I've dreamed of for a long long time. But Ali didn't seem to enjoy the night market too much. The only thing interested him was the corn dog vendor - the corn dog that we could have gotten in the US! He told us that he'd never tried a corn dog before in his almost 40-year life....can you believe it? So we got a corn dog for him!

賞櫻記 Cherry Blossom

上週末我們去華盛頓玩, 主要是去參加阿里表弟一家人的 baby shower, 也去看看張岩阿姨和 Peggi 兩家人以及她們的小朋友, 順便賞賞櫻花.
Last weekend we went to Washington D.C. to Ali's cousin's baby shower. We also took the chance to visit Yan and Peggi and their babies. And of course, we took the opportunity to watch the famous cherry blossom.

Baby shower 在阿里二表哥家的後院舉行. 二表哥有三個小孩, 老大塔瑪拉是個聰明的小孩, 老二珍娜很甜, 老三馬力克則是家族裡備受寵愛的唯一的男孩. (阿里三個表哥的小孩中, 只有瑪立克一個男的.) 大表哥有四個女兒, 三女兒莉蒂亞和才七個月大的小女兒娜妲也來了. 其中塔馬拉最喜歡小肉包, 一直帶著小肉包溜滑梯, 還學了兩句中文: "摸摸肚子" 和 "搖搖頭," 一直要小肉包表演給她看. 後來還開著玩具車載小肉包到處跑.
Baby shower was in the back yard of Ali's cousin's. Ali's second cousin has three kids - the oldest daughter Tamara is very smart, the second daughter Jana is very sweet, and the youngest son Malek is the only son of Ali's three cousins and hence the most loved. Ali's first cousin has four daughters, and the third daughter Lydia and the youngest daughter Nada were also there. Tamara loved Hasan so much, and she took Hasan to the slide and helped him out the whole time. She also learned two Chinese phrase "touch your stomach" and "shake your head" so that Hasan would do those for her. She even drove Hasan around the back yard in that Barbie jeep.





只不過玩具車是芭比娃娃的, 好像缺少了一點男子氣概......
But it's a "Barbie" jeep. For some reason it doesn't look "man."

第二天我們到張岩阿姨家拜訪. 小肉包還在媽咪肚子裡的時候就去過張岩阿姨家, 不過這次是第一次見到丹丹姊姊, Peggi 阿姨也帶彥君哥哥一起來了. 三個小孩子在一起, 其實根本就是各玩各的, 不過後來丹丹和小肉包有一起合作蓋房子. (其實都是丹丹姊姊在蓋, 小肉包根本就是在旁邊搞破壞!) 彥君哥哥則是自己在一旁玩得很開心, 笑得合不攏嘴的.
The next day we went to Yan's place. Hasan went to Yan's place when he was still in mommy's tummy, but this was the first time that Hasan formally met Dan Dan. Peggi and Kenneth also brought Yan-Chun to Yan's. We hoped the three kids would play together, but they actually played with their own thing individually. Later on, Hasan started to build a castle with Dan Dan. (Well....actually Dan Dan was the one building it, and Hasan was just doing the destruction.) Yan-Chun was always playing on his own, from the beginning to the end, happily.



丹丹姊姊很厲害喔! 才十八個月大就會認四五十個中文字了, 還會從一數到十喔! 她表演給我們看時, 我們都很驚訝的拍手叫好, 結果我們小肉包也很大方的用力鼓掌起來了, 真是個會敲邊鼓的小朋友啊! 爸爸看到丹丹這麼厲害, 跟我說回家也要開始訓練小肉包認字. 小肉包如果聽到爸爸這麼說, 還會鼓掌鼓得那麼用力嗎?
Dan Dan was very smart that she could already recognize almost 50 Chinese characters. She could also count from 1 to 10. When we asked her to read for us and count for us, everyone was surprised that she was doing so well and we clapped. As a result, Hasan started clapping and cheering for Dan Dan. Daddy told me that he wanted me to start training Hasan when we went home. If Hasan heard daddy, would he still be cheering so loudly?

離開前我們想給三個小朋友合照一張, 但是玩的時候明明好好的, 一到要照相的時候就誰也不合作了, 躲得躲叫得叫的, 彥君更是早就不知道溜到哪了......
We wanted to take a group picture before we left, but the three kids didn't want to cooperate at all. This was taking when Hasan was screaming and Dan Dan wanted to run away. As for Yan-Chun, he was already gone long time back!

離開張岩阿姨家到了市中心, 想要下車賞賞櫻花, 但是繞了大半個鐘頭都找不到停車位, 只好雙排停車, 趕快下車照了個到此一遊就走了. 小肉包本來再車上睡得好好的, 硬是被老爸挖醒來照相, 真倒楣.

We went to the mall after leaving Yan's place. It was so crowded that we couldn't find a parking space after circling around for 30 minutes. So we double parked and went down for 5 seconds and took a picture. Hasan was sleeping in the car, but daddy insisted that we woke him up to take a picture with the famous cherry blossom. Poor Hasan......