Play Place Palace

Yo Yo Kids

One of the first places we discovered when we moved here was this awesome play area in a ritzy Japanese mall named Mitsokoshi.  It is called Yo Yo kids and is full of unique play areas that I have never seen in the states.  I was sad that we wouldn't be near it anymore when we left for our permanent housing in an area much further away.  To my and especially Elli's delight, there was another similar type play place in the best version of a "Walmart" type store that Taiwan has to offer.  It does cost $3 US to play so we only do it for a special treat, but Elli loves it!!  I took a couple videos of the two places and a little of the girls.  

              As a tangent- Our helper Alile is in the second video (she is not the Taiwanese woman who took Sienna from me in the first one, although she was nice too.  Taiwanese women and men love to hold Sienna and play with Elli, and some of the time I let them.  :)  Alile (pronounced Ah-lay-lee) comes twice during the week in the morning and 8 hours on Saturday and is so great with the girls.  She watches them for me on Thursday mornings so I can go to my Chinese class and on Tuesday so I can go and do a few things that are really difficult to do with kids here in Taipei.  She mostly cooks and cleans on Saturdays or watches the girls after they are asleep so Todd and I can go out.  Since we have no car, and we live far from most people, getting a teen babysitter from our ward is almost impossible!  Elli has adjusted pretty well to Alile although when Alile and I are both around she often spurns Alile and says "No" to her about a million times.  Multiple timeouts are not uncommon during those times, although she is getting better.  Alile says Elli behaves really well when I am not around, which is really good, but frustrates me that she can't be like that when I am there!  Nevertheless, Alile makes our lives here a lot easier than it would have been, especially since Todd has been really busy with work.   I am very grateful.