This past Friday was another public holiday in Hong Kong (Dragon's
Boat festival) so we had a nice three day long weekend. I spent all day
with Lola on Friday and she is so dynamic, energetic and fast-moving
that taking care of her one on one is really demanding. She has so much
energy and enthusiasm for life and it really shines through in how much
she likes to go outside and see the world. By the time Michael got her
to sleep at around 7 pm, I felt like I had lived through multiple days
in just those 12 hours.
The day started when Lola woke up at 6:20 am and played by herself while Jovie made her breakfast. I woke up at 6:45 am and took over for the day, feeding Lola her oatmeal with red dates and apples while negotiating heavily with her to reduce the number of videos she can watch on my iPad. She has a rapid-fire request list at the ready, including "The Wheels on the Bus," "Baby Shark," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Moana," and more, which she throws out one after another.
7:20 am: Lola is done eating, pronouncing herself "all done". We call Nona and Papa to chat. Lola shows off her toys, her books, her bunny, sings a part of the ABC song, counts to ten in English and Chinese while playing on her abacaus.
7:35 am: I wrestle/cajole Lola to wash her hands and face and brush her teeth (brushing is a generous word for chewing the toothpaste off the brush and clamping her jaw shut on the toothbrush).
7:45 am: We have changed (Lola picks her outfit and says she wants to wear her hat and rainboots) and I barely have time to slip into something before we go out. With a little bag in tow, I take Lola out (sans stroller or carrier) to the little park right next to our apartment, between our neighborhood coffee shop and the entrance to the MTR. Thank goodness for Winston's. I make a beeline for it and order an avocado and fontina cheese bap (my favorite) and a flat white. As per our little tradition that has started recently, Lola gets the little almond and pistachio biscotti that comes with my coffee, which she likes to gnaw on.
8:00 am: We have ventured into the playground where Lola surveys the landscape, sits on the bench with me for all of 30 seconds before declaring she wants to come down, and trudges around generally observing the activity in the park around her. Thank goodness I have a little touted talent for gulping down super hot coffee. At this hour it is mostly the elderly who are walking, sitting and reading the newspaper, or doing some tai chi or stretching exercises. I ask for Lola's help to throw away my trash after I have wolfed down my breakfast and Lola immediately understands my request. She obediently helps me, walking on her own all the way to the large trash can and finding the opening (above her head) and dutifully tossing my trash.
8:10 am: Lola decides she does not want to play with the slides or any of the playground equipment, instead pulling me toward a wheelchair-friendly ramp that she wants to climb up. We go up and down a few times and then she declares herself done and wants the elevator. We leave the park and go to the entrance of the MTR station.
8:15 am: Despite my best efforts to convince Lola otherwise, she refuses to go with me into the elevator, but instead wants the escalators. I am a bit nervous because these escalators are fast and very long and steep. Carrying Lola in my arms while shouldering a tote bag while riding them make me apprehensive. I keep telling her to hold me tight and to be careful while we ride these "big, big" escalators. She clutches my neck and wraps her legs around me appropriately, like a little koala.
8:20 am - 9:00 am: We are in the MTR station, wandering around, riding the two travelators that they have, over and over again. Lola eats a plum. She keeps asking to go ride the bus, so I tell her we need to go home to get my Octopus (a travel card with which she is familiar).
9:15 am: We return to the apartment, I grab a soccer ball and a basketball, my wallet, some other items, and take Lola out again.
9:30 am: We go the park directly across our main door and Lola putters around on the slides, while adamantly refusing to get on the swings. She likes to talk about swings but hates swinging. We eventually make our way to the soccer and basketball courts where she proceeds to chase and kick her ball around. Another boy is there practicing his goal shots and, despite my best efforts to steer Lola to the empty basketball court, she wants to be on the soccer field where all the action is. I also chase her up and down the steps repeatedly.
10 am: Lola is not to be deterred from riding the bus. She is no longer interested in kicking the soccer ball around and keeps saying, "bus!" "bus!" and "tram!" "tram!" I realize I still forgot to pack my Octopus card and have to go upstairs with Lola again. I take the chance to slather her with sunblock, re-fill her water, grab anything else I think we might need.
10:15 am: We embark on the no. 7 bus. I had a vague idea that I would take her as far as the Belcher's (just a few stops) and then return. But as the bus wound its way across Pokfulam, I realized that the return route was not necessarily on the same street coming back. All of the stops were also out in the blazing hot sun with no shade. I can't risk getting off the bus to try to figure out my way back with Lola in this heat and with no carrier. I decide to ride with her to the terminus.
10:40 am: We have taken the bus all the way to the end of the route and Lola has been sightseeing the whole time and shouting "bus!" periodically. By the time we get to Aberdeen, Lola is blinking slowly and yawning, a clear sign she is tired. At the fourth to last stop, I switch her around to face me and could feel her muscles slowly slacken as she snuggled into my neck. She dropped her metal toy bus by the second to last stop. I could tell she was dozing off just as we pulled into the last stop and everyone had to get off the bus. I continue cradling Lola while singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.
10:50 am: The driver takes his break and when he returns, everyone files onto the bus. Lola is sleeping peacefully at this point. Is there anything as sweet as a slumbering baby? We proceed to ride the bus all the way back to our stop in Sai Ying Pun. It's actually quite lovely, with Lola cuddled closely in my arms, our backpack supporting my (now aching) back, the a/c blowing nice and cold, and the bus moving steadily through the hills. I knew Lola would wake up as soon as we get off the bus, so I kept hoping the return trip would take longer.
11:30 am: But no such luck, by the time we got off the bus, about two blocks on the walk home Lola blinks awake and is immediately eager to play. That means Lola is only getting a 40 minute nap today, as I am pretty sure she will not nap this afternoon.
12:25 pm: We get home, washed hands, I changed Lola, Lola said hi to Michael, we all played around with Lola's toys and books. Michael unsuccessfully tries multiple times to get Lola to go to the potty. Then Lola and I go have lunch at Pizza Express downstairs next to our apartment building because I promised her pizza and noodles earlier.
1:00 pm: We ordered dough balls, a small pizza and angel hair pasta with anchovies and crab meat and lemon. Lola and I attack everything with relish. Lola loves carbs.
2:00 pm: We are done with our food, return home to change and play. Lola carries the box containing the leftover pizza and dough balls in her little hands all the way back home, and proudly knocks on the door to Michael's office to gift him with lunch. I have promised Lola that she can go to the pool and she is more than ready to hold me to the promise. In fact, after we finish lunch, she resists going toward our lobby and keeps requesting the pool. I have to reassure her that we are just going upstairs to change. Michael tries again to get Lola to sit on the potty, to no avail. To his dismay, she manages to pee right next to the potty without her diaper on - but nowhere near the potty itself.
2:30 pm: We get ready for the pool. Slathering sunblock on Lola requires quick hands and lots of distraction methods. Lola is in her head-to-toe fruit swim outfit (hat and body suit). With her green rainboots (which she insisted on wearing), Michael jokes that she looks ready to fight a chemical fire. Lola insists on walking down to the pool by herself and dragging her little toy wooden puppy with her.
3:15 pm: We are down at the pool. It has been unbelievably hot and humid in Hong Kong so the pool provides a nice respite. Lola throws all of her toys into the pool and insists that they all go "swimming." She is still a bit tentative of the big pool and prefers to stay in the baby pool. Suddenly, she startles and announces that she has to boo boo. Poor thing, it clearly takes her by surprise and she desperately does not want to leave the pool, fighting me urgently. I have to reassure her that I will take her right back, I am just cleaning her up.
3:30 pm: We are back down at the pool and Lola is as happy as a clam. Her friend who is about 6 months older has come down to the pool with the most awesome crocodile float, which Lola is immediately enamored with. Lola is very strong and manages to drag the float into the pool. She pets the head energetically but does not want to climb on top of it. Seeing her friend jump into the big pool with her dad, Lola is willing to try the big pool with me. We go for a nice dip and she actually really enjoys it, giggling maniacally. She has gotten so much more comfortable with the water. She also keeps counting the umbrellas by the pool and saying it's raining. I keep explaining that umbrellas can be for sun also, but so far that seems like a crazy concept to her.
4:00 pm: Lola's friend has come over for a pool playdate. He is about 2 months older than Lola and they have played together on and off since they were about 4 or 5 months old. They recognize each other and Lola even greets him with a big shout of his Chinese name. They both wade in and out of the baby pool not really doing much swimming but rather fighting over their rubber ducks. At one point, they give each other a spontaneous hug which is just adorable. They grin at each other and jump up and down and giggle.
5:00 pm: Lola and I are pruny and wrinkled at this point. I decide it's time to call it and we say goodbye to Lola's friend, his mom and his grandma. We head upstairs where Michael exclaimed at how long we were down at the pool. But it was a great day and Lola really enjoyed herself.
5:15 pm: Lola takes a bath, washing out all of the chlorine and also warming up. She wants to keep playing in the bath and is very upset when we finally pull her out, protesting and wailing. Bathtime is usually when Lola sings her ABCs, counts, and dunks her various toys in the bath. Recently she has really liked giving "dou dou" ("little dot") a bath while she takes a bath. This time she was having so much fun because she was "getting mama" and "getting baba" with water from her little fish water squirter.
5:30pm: Lola sits down to dinner, a nice meal of salmon, roasted pumpkin and edamame. The salmon and pumpkin were cooked last night and the edamame just requires a quick steam. There is no time for me to prepare meals from scratch because Lola will not let me out of her sight, and our kitchen is too narrow to fit her highchair or playpen. Plus, I've learned how to try to make life easier on myself!
5:40 pm Michael insists that Lola wears her bib. Lately she has taken to tearing the bib off of her neck (or generally throwing a howling fit and yanking furiously at it until the bib is torn off or we acquiesce). Well, Lola has met her match in her daddy today, because neither one is willing to back down. After a screaming jag of about 10 minutes, where she tried to fling her whole body backwards in her high chair, Lola eventually calms down and eats her food. Being at the pool for so long must have given her a huge appetite because she eats well. I had to resort to distracting her with videos. Which is the lesser evil, I ask you? Dirty, stained clothes and increasing piles of laundry or more screen time? Sigh. Lola is very strong-willed. Michael and I often wonder where and how she has formed all of these incredibly strong and deep opinions.
6:20 pm: Lola is done with dinner. Now begins the toughest part - getting her to sleep. Because she naps so poorly during the day, we try to get her to sleep as early as possible. I convince Lola to brush her teeth while watching the Itsy Bitsy Spider video. She sees her sleep blanket and immediately sobs, "no sleep! no sleep!"
6:40 pm: I have wrestled her into her sleep blanket and have read her a bedtime story and am now trying to reason with her that mommy and Lola had so much fun today that she needs to rest in order to have fun again tomorrow. Lola inexplicably bites my shoulder, twice. I think she is doing this out of excitement and affection for what a good day she has had, but it was really painful and surprising and I shout loudly that she cannot bite me.
6:50 pm: Michael whisks Lola out of my hands and puts her into her crib and proceeds to sit with her until she falls asleep. I can hear lots of demands for songs and some wailing and crying.
7:20 pm: All falls silent and Michael comes out of Lola's room. She is asleep, and her day will begin anew on Saturday morning when she wakes up at 6 am.
The day started when Lola woke up at 6:20 am and played by herself while Jovie made her breakfast. I woke up at 6:45 am and took over for the day, feeding Lola her oatmeal with red dates and apples while negotiating heavily with her to reduce the number of videos she can watch on my iPad. She has a rapid-fire request list at the ready, including "The Wheels on the Bus," "Baby Shark," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Moana," and more, which she throws out one after another.
7:20 am: Lola is done eating, pronouncing herself "all done". We call Nona and Papa to chat. Lola shows off her toys, her books, her bunny, sings a part of the ABC song, counts to ten in English and Chinese while playing on her abacaus.
7:35 am: I wrestle/cajole Lola to wash her hands and face and brush her teeth (brushing is a generous word for chewing the toothpaste off the brush and clamping her jaw shut on the toothbrush).
7:45 am: We have changed (Lola picks her outfit and says she wants to wear her hat and rainboots) and I barely have time to slip into something before we go out. With a little bag in tow, I take Lola out (sans stroller or carrier) to the little park right next to our apartment, between our neighborhood coffee shop and the entrance to the MTR. Thank goodness for Winston's. I make a beeline for it and order an avocado and fontina cheese bap (my favorite) and a flat white. As per our little tradition that has started recently, Lola gets the little almond and pistachio biscotti that comes with my coffee, which she likes to gnaw on.
8:00 am: We have ventured into the playground where Lola surveys the landscape, sits on the bench with me for all of 30 seconds before declaring she wants to come down, and trudges around generally observing the activity in the park around her. Thank goodness I have a little touted talent for gulping down super hot coffee. At this hour it is mostly the elderly who are walking, sitting and reading the newspaper, or doing some tai chi or stretching exercises. I ask for Lola's help to throw away my trash after I have wolfed down my breakfast and Lola immediately understands my request. She obediently helps me, walking on her own all the way to the large trash can and finding the opening (above her head) and dutifully tossing my trash.
8:10 am: Lola decides she does not want to play with the slides or any of the playground equipment, instead pulling me toward a wheelchair-friendly ramp that she wants to climb up. We go up and down a few times and then she declares herself done and wants the elevator. We leave the park and go to the entrance of the MTR station.
8:15 am: Despite my best efforts to convince Lola otherwise, she refuses to go with me into the elevator, but instead wants the escalators. I am a bit nervous because these escalators are fast and very long and steep. Carrying Lola in my arms while shouldering a tote bag while riding them make me apprehensive. I keep telling her to hold me tight and to be careful while we ride these "big, big" escalators. She clutches my neck and wraps her legs around me appropriately, like a little koala.
8:20 am - 9:00 am: We are in the MTR station, wandering around, riding the two travelators that they have, over and over again. Lola eats a plum. She keeps asking to go ride the bus, so I tell her we need to go home to get my Octopus (a travel card with which she is familiar).
9:15 am: We return to the apartment, I grab a soccer ball and a basketball, my wallet, some other items, and take Lola out again.
9:30 am: We go the park directly across our main door and Lola putters around on the slides, while adamantly refusing to get on the swings. She likes to talk about swings but hates swinging. We eventually make our way to the soccer and basketball courts where she proceeds to chase and kick her ball around. Another boy is there practicing his goal shots and, despite my best efforts to steer Lola to the empty basketball court, she wants to be on the soccer field where all the action is. I also chase her up and down the steps repeatedly.
10 am: Lola is not to be deterred from riding the bus. She is no longer interested in kicking the soccer ball around and keeps saying, "bus!" "bus!" and "tram!" "tram!" I realize I still forgot to pack my Octopus card and have to go upstairs with Lola again. I take the chance to slather her with sunblock, re-fill her water, grab anything else I think we might need.
10:15 am: We embark on the no. 7 bus. I had a vague idea that I would take her as far as the Belcher's (just a few stops) and then return. But as the bus wound its way across Pokfulam, I realized that the return route was not necessarily on the same street coming back. All of the stops were also out in the blazing hot sun with no shade. I can't risk getting off the bus to try to figure out my way back with Lola in this heat and with no carrier. I decide to ride with her to the terminus.
10:40 am: We have taken the bus all the way to the end of the route and Lola has been sightseeing the whole time and shouting "bus!" periodically. By the time we get to Aberdeen, Lola is blinking slowly and yawning, a clear sign she is tired. At the fourth to last stop, I switch her around to face me and could feel her muscles slowly slacken as she snuggled into my neck. She dropped her metal toy bus by the second to last stop. I could tell she was dozing off just as we pulled into the last stop and everyone had to get off the bus. I continue cradling Lola while singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.
10:50 am: The driver takes his break and when he returns, everyone files onto the bus. Lola is sleeping peacefully at this point. Is there anything as sweet as a slumbering baby? We proceed to ride the bus all the way back to our stop in Sai Ying Pun. It's actually quite lovely, with Lola cuddled closely in my arms, our backpack supporting my (now aching) back, the a/c blowing nice and cold, and the bus moving steadily through the hills. I knew Lola would wake up as soon as we get off the bus, so I kept hoping the return trip would take longer.
11:30 am: But no such luck, by the time we got off the bus, about two blocks on the walk home Lola blinks awake and is immediately eager to play. That means Lola is only getting a 40 minute nap today, as I am pretty sure she will not nap this afternoon.
12:25 pm: We get home, washed hands, I changed Lola, Lola said hi to Michael, we all played around with Lola's toys and books. Michael unsuccessfully tries multiple times to get Lola to go to the potty. Then Lola and I go have lunch at Pizza Express downstairs next to our apartment building because I promised her pizza and noodles earlier.
1:00 pm: We ordered dough balls, a small pizza and angel hair pasta with anchovies and crab meat and lemon. Lola and I attack everything with relish. Lola loves carbs.
2:00 pm: We are done with our food, return home to change and play. Lola carries the box containing the leftover pizza and dough balls in her little hands all the way back home, and proudly knocks on the door to Michael's office to gift him with lunch. I have promised Lola that she can go to the pool and she is more than ready to hold me to the promise. In fact, after we finish lunch, she resists going toward our lobby and keeps requesting the pool. I have to reassure her that we are just going upstairs to change. Michael tries again to get Lola to sit on the potty, to no avail. To his dismay, she manages to pee right next to the potty without her diaper on - but nowhere near the potty itself.
2:30 pm: We get ready for the pool. Slathering sunblock on Lola requires quick hands and lots of distraction methods. Lola is in her head-to-toe fruit swim outfit (hat and body suit). With her green rainboots (which she insisted on wearing), Michael jokes that she looks ready to fight a chemical fire. Lola insists on walking down to the pool by herself and dragging her little toy wooden puppy with her.
3:15 pm: We are down at the pool. It has been unbelievably hot and humid in Hong Kong so the pool provides a nice respite. Lola throws all of her toys into the pool and insists that they all go "swimming." She is still a bit tentative of the big pool and prefers to stay in the baby pool. Suddenly, she startles and announces that she has to boo boo. Poor thing, it clearly takes her by surprise and she desperately does not want to leave the pool, fighting me urgently. I have to reassure her that I will take her right back, I am just cleaning her up.
3:30 pm: We are back down at the pool and Lola is as happy as a clam. Her friend who is about 6 months older has come down to the pool with the most awesome crocodile float, which Lola is immediately enamored with. Lola is very strong and manages to drag the float into the pool. She pets the head energetically but does not want to climb on top of it. Seeing her friend jump into the big pool with her dad, Lola is willing to try the big pool with me. We go for a nice dip and she actually really enjoys it, giggling maniacally. She has gotten so much more comfortable with the water. She also keeps counting the umbrellas by the pool and saying it's raining. I keep explaining that umbrellas can be for sun also, but so far that seems like a crazy concept to her.
4:00 pm: Lola's friend has come over for a pool playdate. He is about 2 months older than Lola and they have played together on and off since they were about 4 or 5 months old. They recognize each other and Lola even greets him with a big shout of his Chinese name. They both wade in and out of the baby pool not really doing much swimming but rather fighting over their rubber ducks. At one point, they give each other a spontaneous hug which is just adorable. They grin at each other and jump up and down and giggle.
5:00 pm: Lola and I are pruny and wrinkled at this point. I decide it's time to call it and we say goodbye to Lola's friend, his mom and his grandma. We head upstairs where Michael exclaimed at how long we were down at the pool. But it was a great day and Lola really enjoyed herself.
5:15 pm: Lola takes a bath, washing out all of the chlorine and also warming up. She wants to keep playing in the bath and is very upset when we finally pull her out, protesting and wailing. Bathtime is usually when Lola sings her ABCs, counts, and dunks her various toys in the bath. Recently she has really liked giving "dou dou" ("little dot") a bath while she takes a bath. This time she was having so much fun because she was "getting mama" and "getting baba" with water from her little fish water squirter.
5:30pm: Lola sits down to dinner, a nice meal of salmon, roasted pumpkin and edamame. The salmon and pumpkin were cooked last night and the edamame just requires a quick steam. There is no time for me to prepare meals from scratch because Lola will not let me out of her sight, and our kitchen is too narrow to fit her highchair or playpen. Plus, I've learned how to try to make life easier on myself!
5:40 pm Michael insists that Lola wears her bib. Lately she has taken to tearing the bib off of her neck (or generally throwing a howling fit and yanking furiously at it until the bib is torn off or we acquiesce). Well, Lola has met her match in her daddy today, because neither one is willing to back down. After a screaming jag of about 10 minutes, where she tried to fling her whole body backwards in her high chair, Lola eventually calms down and eats her food. Being at the pool for so long must have given her a huge appetite because she eats well. I had to resort to distracting her with videos. Which is the lesser evil, I ask you? Dirty, stained clothes and increasing piles of laundry or more screen time? Sigh. Lola is very strong-willed. Michael and I often wonder where and how she has formed all of these incredibly strong and deep opinions.
6:20 pm: Lola is done with dinner. Now begins the toughest part - getting her to sleep. Because she naps so poorly during the day, we try to get her to sleep as early as possible. I convince Lola to brush her teeth while watching the Itsy Bitsy Spider video. She sees her sleep blanket and immediately sobs, "no sleep! no sleep!"
6:40 pm: I have wrestled her into her sleep blanket and have read her a bedtime story and am now trying to reason with her that mommy and Lola had so much fun today that she needs to rest in order to have fun again tomorrow. Lola inexplicably bites my shoulder, twice. I think she is doing this out of excitement and affection for what a good day she has had, but it was really painful and surprising and I shout loudly that she cannot bite me.
6:50 pm: Michael whisks Lola out of my hands and puts her into her crib and proceeds to sit with her until she falls asleep. I can hear lots of demands for songs and some wailing and crying.
7:20 pm: All falls silent and Michael comes out of Lola's room. She is asleep, and her day will begin anew on Saturday morning when she wakes up at 6 am.
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