Lola at Nearly 22 Months

Here are some pictures of Lola recently! 

 

Here is a picture of her playing with her baby dolls before we moved:

 

 We went back to our old building for a pool party that they threw for the residents and kids.  They do such a good job there.

 






















She is as precocious and talkative as she has ever been.  It's hard to believe she will be nearly 2 soon.

She understands the concept of a birthday now - I think she generally gets the idea that it's a special day, you get to sing the happy birthday song, and there is cake.  I have been asking her what she wants for her birthday whenever I get a chance.  So far she has told me she wants balloons and a strawberry cake.  I'm still trying to decide a good theme for her birthday party.

She has lately been asking to go to America (to see the muffin man), Macau (on a boat), Hong Kong (even though I keep telling her she already IS in Hong Kong), and, just yesterday, Causeway Bay (this is where her play club, Maggie & Rose, is located).

Since our move to the new place, she has started riding mini buses.  Sometimes the wait is long, and yesterday she told Jovie that she wants to buy a big bus because she wants to go on the big bus.  When Jovie asked her if she had money, she said yes.  And when Jovie asked her where her money was, Lola replied, "in my handbag."  This girl never fails to amuse us with her responses!

Lola's playgroups schedule has changed a bit since we moved to our new place, but I think so far she is really enjoying it.  She attends Fairchild Academy twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), MyGym on Tuesdays, Baby Buddies on Wednesdays, and Baumhaus (music) on Thursdays.  All of these classes are scheduled for the morning, after which she comes home for a nap and lunch.  Then in the afternoons, she either goes to the library, or to the playground, or to Maggie and Rose.  We haven't yet sent her to the American Club yet, but maybe we will once or twice in the afternoons to mix it up.  In sum, she is a pretty busy camper.

It's been busy here because I have been working on her school applications.  We just tackled arguably the hardest one - it took me probably over 10 hours to compile the pictures, fill out the application, and write, review and edit the personal statements.  Like I told my parents, it felt like a college application, even though it was just for pre-nursery.  We have 3 more to go, and then we will have submitted to 5 pre schools.  Then we wait to be summoned for the interview/assessments, which usually take place in a group setting in early next year.  I think that's enough to try for now, and if she doesn't get into any of them then we will have a good cry apply for a few others that have less of a demand.

I have also been busy searching (I mean really spending hours upon hours upon hours) for an appropriate big kid bed and furnishings for Lola's room.  She has shown no interest in climbing out of her crib, though that's probably due in part to her always wearing a sleeping blanket.  But we're thinking it may be time to give her a little more space as she likes to nestle right up to the crib bars when sleeping.  It's hard to buy furniture here and it's tricky to find the right size bed and bed sheets given nothing is standard here - there are American sizes, European sizes, Ikea sizes... I finally settled on a white bed that is the standard width of a full size bed but shorter, which can eventually be extended to a full size twin.  Because the mattress size is a bit square and odd, I had to go get custom sheets made.  Thankfully we are a hop and a skip away from Wan Chai where there are tons of easily accessible fabric stores that can make things very easily.  I got her a set in light pink to try... now we just have to be brave and put everything together.

I'm really excited to put together a new room for her, with more big kid things like a little arm chair, a rug, and some pretty wall hangings.  It's a lot to think about though and I haven't yet decided on a color scheme.  More to come!

Some Thoughts on Gestational Diabetes

It's been about a week and a half since I went to meet with a dietician and nutritionist to learn how to manage having gestational diabetes.  It's been a bit of a science lesson but, more so than anything, an education in food and how what we eat gets translated into nutrients for the body.  I generally understood the concept that with diabetes, you aren't able to regulate your sugar intake because your ability to produce the right amount of insulin is affected, and as a result you had to be careful about eating sugar and carbs.

But I didn't really understand why a glycemic diet would help with managing sugar, and definitely didn't realize that there was a difference between starchy vegetables and non-starchy vegetables.  And I see the results in my blood pricks, also - white rice and rice noodles makes my blood sugar remain high for longer, protein and veggies keep it very low, if I have fruit too soon after my meal or along with my meal it raises my blood sugar.  Exercising or moving around after a meal makes a huge difference.

GD is an increased risk with twins because certain pregnancy hormones impair the action of insulin in your cells as it works to transport glucose from your bloodstream to your cells. With double (or at least a significantly increased!) amount of pregnancy hormones, my body is unable to handle it.  The standard measurement here in Hong Kong after an OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test) is a post-test reading higher than 8.5 mmol/L, and I failed it because I got a reading of 8.7 mmol/L.

The diet that has been suggested to me is tricky because it involves a lot of well-timed meals with snacks interspersed throughout the day.  Because I am carrying twins, I also tend to get hungry faster and need slightly more calories.  It's been a really tough balance when I'm busy at work, especially days when I am testing my blood sugar levels, because I really have to keep an eye on the time.

Basically, I test my urine for ketones the first thing in the morning when I wake up - this is to indicate to me if I'm eating too little carbs.  Apparently one can go too far the other way with restricting carbs and that's also not good.  I often forget this step because it's Lola's habit to rouse me out of bed and drag me in a stupor into the living room to play with her first thing in the morning.

I then test my blood sugar level, dutifully record it, and then eat breakfast.  I usually have an omelette, or else savory oatmeal (paired with anchovies and sardines), and maybe a slice of cheese or two.

Two hours after breakfast, I test my blood again, and then have a snack.  I am encouraged to have a small piece of fruit, dairy (yogurt) and some protein (nuts, peanut butter on wheat bread).

Then for lunch I usually try to have a salad with a power protein, like quinoa, lentils, chickpeas or salmon.  I'll mix up the salad with steamed broccoli/cauliflower/beetroot/brussels sprouts, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots.  Two hours after my lunch, I once again test my blood.

Mid-afternoon, usually around 3 or 4, I aim to have another snack.  Then usually by the time I get home for dinner around 7, I am already hungry again.  Dinner tends to be brown rice paired with fish, stir fried beef and veggies, and another green vegetable.  Last night it was steak, potatoes and broccoli.  Tonight it was a whole fried tilapia with ginger and tomatoes, stir fried beef with yellow and red peppers, and sweet potato leaves stir fried with shrimp paste, over a small bed of brown rice.
 Two hours after dinner, I test my blood again.

And then I'm supposed to test my blood one last time, before I have a bedtime snack and go to bed, but sometimes I'm really not hungry and other times my day has gone on for so long that by this point I just need to go to sleep.  But the bedtime snack is supposed to be along the lines of dairy and fruit, and maybe a small serving of carbs.

I have tested my blood roughly every other day since I got the kit and I don't think there has been one time that I have managed to test 7 full times and at exactly the right times.  I have become somewhat inured to the brief pinprick of pain that the blood pricker exerts on my finger, so that's an improvement.  I have also gotten much better at squeezing the right sized droplet of blood out of my finger (much harder than you'd think) and timing it right so that I don't waste my strips (I think the first two days I wasted two or three needles and at least 5 or 6 strips).  I also know now which of my fingers are more tender (more easily pierce-able) and that the sides of the fingers tend to produce better results.   

The biggest challenges for me have been around ensuring I have good food on hand when I suddenly get an uncontrollable case of hunger, and making sure I eat fast enough so that I can get a good reading 2 hours after my meal.  Because I test my blood sugar from 2 hours of when I commence eating, if I stretch my meal out over an hour to an hour and a half, I get higher readings.

It felt really horrible when I first found out about this, and I am still not happy about it, but it feels a little more manageable now than when I first found out. I am at a slightly higher risk for type 2 diabetes post-pregnancy, but hopefully if I keep myself on a strict diet and manage it well I will return to being able to process sugar properly after the twins are born.

I still have moments of panic where I am not certain if I should eat something or having to check myself from eating too much of something that's supposedly "healthy" but too high in sugar (like a lot of grapes all at once).  The nice thing has been that I am still able to have fruit and some carbs - I don't know what I would do if I had to cut all of that out of my diet as well!

I really, really long for a chocolate chip cookie though, or a fresh croissant, or heck, even unlimited amounts of bread - and it seems particularly cruel that for this pregnancy I have more of a hankering for fresh orange juice and frozen yogurt.  Today I happened to walk by a bakery that was giving off such delicious smells of butter, sugar and cake that it should have been illegal.

But hopefully soon...

A Bittersweet Farewell

I went back to our previous apartment for the walk through and to hand back our keys and make sure everything passed inspection on Monday. 

What really got to me was how much I was and am already nostalgic for this place.  I didn't realize I would love this apartment as much as I did.  It certainly had its faults, it wasn't perfect, but it was such a sweet community and the location and the neighborhood simply cannot be beat.  It's funny now to think that when we moved in 3 years ago we thought it would be enough space - in fact, it felt like an abundance of space!  I guess with one baby it was perfectly fine, especially by Hong Kong standards.  But with Michael's work ramping up so much and being so demanding, requiring full use of one of the rooms as a home office, the place got small fast.  And then with the pending new arrivals... it was just not doable.

I will really, really miss this place.  I hope Lola gets to look at these pictures and know that she had a really wonderful first 21 months of her life here.  She knew this neighborhood so well - she knew all the spots to buy food and fruit, all the playgrounds and parks nearby, the entrances to various stores, the tram stops, the buses, the MTR, the coffee shop with the biscotti with mommy, the Starbucks with the spicy water with daddy...it is a very bittersweet farewell.

View from the living room looking directly down

View from Lola's room.  She would always point to the slides, and sometimes also the swimming pool, while she got her diaper changed before bed.

The view looking straight out over the park from our balcony

Catching Up

So a lot has happened before and after the big momentous move last Thursday, and this post will be dedicated to filling in the gaps.

The previous Tuesday, Lola went to a trial class at MyGym, a children's gym and fitness center located in Coda Plaza.  It's a huge, sprawling space of just soft play, with trampolines, basketball hoops, swings, slides, balance beam equipment, and all kinds of similar things that are meant to challenge her balance and build up her core strength while letting her explore and play and learn.  She loved it!  I thought she might, after her phenomenal response in the U.S., but this cemented it.  Something about the huge, open space really appealed to her.  They also do a Montessori-style gymnastics free play, basically letting the kids wander to whatever equipment appeals.  This. is. Lola's. dream.  She is obsessed with the trampoline, the basketball hoop, and the big bouncy balls.  I signed her up for a trial class but I think it was decided within minutes of her arrival at the place that we would be signing her up for a bunch of sessions.

I also had grand plans to attend an IMS orientation session to learn more about the Montessori school philosophy, but completely failed to make it.  I also had great ambitions to go to a parent-teacher cocktail party at her Baby Buddies playgroup in Causeway Bay after work - and completely failed to make that also.  Heck, all of last week I was failing left and right on every single one of my calendared events.  Try as I might, I also didn't make it to one yoga class.

I don't even know what I did on Wednesday - truly that time has been lost.

Thursday was move day as previously documented.

Friday was busy at work but I came home early because it was Mid-Autumn Festival!  We were also kept pretty busy trying to play scavenger hunt trying to locate things around the apartment.  Getting ready to to go in to work on Friday morning was... interesting.  Sadly we were too tired to go to Victoria Park to check out the lantern festival.  But maybe it was good to skip also, because I heard there were some protest-related activities.

Saturday was when we really started in earnest introducing Lola to our new second helper, Lovilyn, "Lyn" for short.  As to be expected, it has been a process.  Lola is not the type to just accept what you tell her, and she is very suspicious of new people, which is a healthy "stranger danger" instinct.  But we went back to our old apartment for one last hurrah in the pool in the morning, then to the Happy Valley racecourse to explore in the afternoon.

And Lola enjoyed a very nice bath with her new "Auntie" afterward, so I think it's progressing well.  

We also put together a little car (these pictures were taken in the midst of the process) for Lola which she can now drive around.  Unfortunately, she hasn't quite figured out how to go forward in it yet, only backward.  A lot of Saturday was spent with Lola crying in frustration because she didn't want to put her feet on the ground to walk the car, but also couldn't understand why the car wouldn't just move.  I think she liked it better without wheels, honestly!

 

 On Sunday, I took Lola to the American Club to play and enjoy the pool.  It was a bit of an ordeal, truth be told, and we ended up not staying for very long (::hangs head in defeat::).  But it was a beautiful day and getting to see glimpses of the south side on the ride there and back, with the dramatic green cliffs, the beautiful sparkling blue water, and all of the little sailboats, big junkboats and ostentatious yachts puttering around under the bright sun, never ceases to get my heart speeding up.  This is  very beautiful place.  Plus the pool at the Club was very pretty, and it felt (for the two minutes I got to sit back and relax) like a resort.
This week has been... an exercise in patience.  I feel like I am really struggling with a lot of things and I don't have an effective way to calm down and tell myself to chill out.  I am such a doer and a pleaser (all good things in my profession) but I don't know how to stop or say no or let things slide or let things go.  I also keep freaking myself out with images of what my life will be like once the twins arrive and I just don't know how it will all be managed.  And that's WITH so much help at hand so I know it all comes across as a bit petulant.

But every day I just face what feels like an insurmountable list of demands and tasks, and why do all tasks take so long to do?  I was up until past midnight the other night just ordering groceries and new furniture that we need.  And up until nearly midnight the night before figuring out how I want to organize stuff in the new apartment.

And this isn't even really important life stuff, like reviewing my escrow statement or checking our term life insurance coverage or coming up with a smart plan to better invest our money or opening that new bank account I've been meaning to do for weeks now or applying to Lola's schools or making sure things are in good shape for our extended tax filings in October.  And this is with one kid - how is it possible to keep track of all of this stuff with 3 under 3? 

Our New Home

Holy jeepers, it has been a long time since I last blogged.  A lot has happened in the 8 (8?!) days since my last post.

Last Thursday was the big move.  I stayed home from work to oversee everything, and honestly, it was still a shitshow.  There were all kinds of things that we needed that we forgot to take out before the movers swarmed in like locusts and packed everything up.

I went to the new apartment early to try to get the utilities set up.  But I forgot to bring the modem, so we had to make a separate trip.  Then my laptop freaked out and wouldn't type.  Then I realized I forgot a water bottle and had not so much as a chair to sit on while I worked in the empty space and waited for the various utility representatives to cycle through.  Then after lunch the movers showed up and the place looked out of control - boxes everywhere, wheels rolling over the floors, a few scratches here and there, tape remnants all over the place.

The movers also "unpacked" our stuff by basically tossing things into drawers and onto shelves willy nilly.  I am sympathetic though - it's really the only way they can do a move in about 8 hours.  And at least they reassembled everything, including our bookshelf, bed, and Lola's crib.  But that aside, things were dire for a while - when I could not locate one clean pair of underwear and had no shorts.  All of this is probably to say, I really don't want to move again.

Here are the movers getting ready to attack our old place - cardboard, boxes, tape, all lining the hallway.

 Moving men in frenzied action!

Here are pictures of our new place - as it looked before movers came!

Here is the view from the balcony.

This is the view from the dining room/ looking out onto the balcony.

This is the view of the living room looking toward Michael's office.

Another view from the living room.  We look out onto the Happy Valley racecourse.

This is the kitchen - you can't see, but there is a HUGE stainless steel double door fridge and freezer that I have never seen in Hong Kong.  Pretty awesome.

This is the view looking out onto the living area from Michael's office.

This is the master bathroom - lots of jacuzzi jets

This is (a corner of) the master bedroom.

This is Lola's room.  Her closets are the only ones that have automatic doors!  Fancy.

This is Lola's bathroom (and will also be used by the twins), and is generally the guest bathroom.

This is a view of buildings across and farther down the street, taken from the twins' future bedroom.

This is the view from Lola's room, looking directly down.  She thinks the fountain across the street, which lights up at night, is a swimming pool.

 

One of the amazing things about the new place is the ample amount of built in wardrobes and closets.  It's pretty rare in Hong Kong. The ceilings are also pretty high, which really lends to the brightness and airiness of the space.

 Michael's office also has an en-suite bathroom, which is very nice.  We joke that with the closets, the view and the bathroom, all he needs is a little basket of snacks, a coffee machine, and he really does not have to emerge from there if he doesn't want to!  This is the view from his office looking out.

Here is where the memories of the pristine space captured in the pictures above start to fade... boxes everywhere!!  In all fairness though, we are slowly getting there.

Michael unequivocally loves this apartment.  Lola loves it also, but probably not as much as her dad.  I will sometimes catch him just starting out the window at night, marveling at the view.  And the view from his office is great also.  It also doesn't hurt that the windows in this apartment are phenomenal.  I don't think I have ever lived in a place with such huge, nearly floor to ceiling windows, that just wrap all the way around.

The view from my bedroom window at night. The moon was very big and bright because I caught it over Mid-Autumn Festival.

 I love the apartment as well - it is very luxurious and clearly a lot more space than where we were previously living.  But for me the big problem has been location - it's a one lane road up and down the steep hill and it takes SO long to get around compared to where we were before.  Yesterday, it took me a whopping HOUR to get home due to a wrong turn by my Uber driver and some crazy, crazy traffic.  I think it took us 45 minutes to go 900 meters.  I'm not sure what happened there but it was one of the more frustrating experiences.  I thought part of the reason we were paying an arm and a leg to live here was for convenience to my work.  It looks like I sorely misjudged the traffic situation. 

I miss the location and convenience of our old place keenly.  Plus it was such an amazing community with such great staff that we were so sad to leave...

Here are some pictures of Lola exploring her new home immediately after the move, by zooming around the space in her new red sports car.  Her reaction to the move was so sweet and adorable - she was so enthusiastic when she arrived to the new place after her afternoon playgroup.  We had already introduced her to "her new home" and had talked about it quite a bit.  She immediately scampered around and clapped her hands and squealed in delight.  This girl - I cannot get over how much personality she has and how she COMPREHENDS everything.