Sunny Saturday Morning

We've had a lot of rain and gray skies lately.  Kevin and I took advantage of a sunny Saturday morning this past weekend to go out for coffee and breakfast and then walk to the flower market near our apartment.  We had so much fun introducing Ruby to one of our favorite places in Taipei!
   

Ruby's first time to the flower market!

                                         

Ruby draws quite the crowd.  Lots of people stopped to say, "Hao ke ai," which means so cute!  

It sure is nice to be able to hang bags from the stroller and wheel home the heavy potted flowers, rather than lug them home.  Ruby was pleased with our purchases! 

We strolled through Da'An Park on the way home with Ruby and our new flower plants.  You can't tell from this picture, but there were a lot of people at the park walking, jogging, practicing soccer, playing with their dogs, doing tai chi, and just enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. 

Here are our new plants on our balcony.  We got a purple plant that is called a paper flower.  It's supposed to bloom 4 times per year, so we're looking forward to that!  We also got a bright orange begonia.  I wish we would have gotten 2 or three more begonias in different colors.  They're so bright and cheery outside our window. 

What a great weekend!  Ah, now I need to get back to the housework and grading! 

Catching Up

Maternity leave is over.  Never has 8 weeks gone so quickly.  Ever.  I've been back to work for 9 days now.  There's about 47 school days left.  Yes, I just counted.  I may be a little off because there may be a day off that I missed, and I don't think I counted Olympic Day, which is counted as a school day, but it's a Saturday.  

I'm loving my students.  They are very sweet.  Many of them performed or helped put on an excellent production of Henry and Ramona this past weekend and it was so fun to watch them perform!  

4 new students started in my class while I was on leave.  Another one started today.  Not only do I feel like I'm a completely different person with a completely different life now that I'm a mom, my class has grown and changed so much in 8 weeks.  

Over the past few days, I've been struggling to find the energy to catch up.  Mostly with grading and other work-related stuff.  But also with cleaning, laundry, and errands in general that multiply and never end.  Oh yeah, and sleep.  I feel ever-so-behind in all of these areas, and find myself just trying to do what I can and let go of what I don't get done, and not let it stress me out.  It will all get done somehow. 

6 Weeks of Ruby!

Today Ruby is 6 weeks old.  We just cannot believe how quickly she stole our hearts and took over our lives!  She is truly a blessing and we're loving watching her grow up so fast!  I was going to upload a short video, but I can't get it to work.  So instead, here are a couple pictures from today. 

6 weeks old! 

Buckled in and ready to go! 

See ya later!