City Mice Now

On our first day in Taipei I was walking through the subway with Ellie in the Ergo pack and I told her that we were city mice now so we needed to be cool. Of course some may argue that the very act of talking to my not-fully-verbal 18 month old in the middle of a crowded subway is not cool. Especially if you happen to not notice the backpack and think I’m just…talking.

But that doesn’t matter, because Ellie’s response was to start singing “Deep and Wide” (her version goes like this: Deeee…Whyyyyy…) and I decided to join right in. In the middle of a crowded subway. I felt better, though, when a group of girls on the opposite escalator started screaming and giggling, “Oh! Look at the foreign baby! So cute!”. Cool is a sliding scale, you know.

We certainly feel like we’re in a real city now. I have to say, it’s fun. Taichung had all the city pollution without the city conveniences including, but not limited to, a Starbucks and Subway just around the corner. Don’t worry, we still have our country mouse hearts though. (Just so you know, that’s a Jason quote.)

And, in the two weeks since we’ve moved here Ellie has made a few notable additions to her vocabulary (which is probably up to around 100 words by now) that will also serve to give you a little glimpse of our daily life. They are:

car
truck (and she can tell the difference between the two in toy and real life form)
train
bus
yellow (as in taxis)
road
bike
scooter
rain
play (a request to go to the playground)