The kids, the kids the kids. That's almost all of what my posts are these days, hah.
The kids are adorable, and spunky, and full of personality. Strong, strong personalities... The boys turned 15 months last Sunday (wow) and are getting more active and rambunctious by the day. It's so rare and difficult to get a good picture of the kids - I was ecstatic that this happened a couple of weekends ago.
We went to a playdate mid-March where they had a blow up bouncy castle on the roof. Clearly the kids were totally into it.
Al and Teo won't remember this period in their lives, but it's undeniable that they were born into an unprecedented time of disruption, challenge and uncertainty, and I can't help but wonder how much of an impact the pandemic will have on their life trajectories. I'm not sure how much Lola will remember, but if I had to bet given her mental acuity, I would assume that some of this experience will remain with her. As it is, so much of her vocabulary reflects her love of the macabre, with references to vaccinations, pandemics, viruses, quarantines and the like. I wonder how much of the pandemic has or is shaping her personality.
The boys were both diagnosed with an underbite relatively recently (this year), which caused me a lot of
concern and anxiety and upset. Due to some poorly conveyed words by
one of their dentists, I felt very guilty and spent a lot of time
thinking that their underbite was caused by our putting them into
bouncers and feeding them their bottles that way. I still don't feel
remotely good about it, and while there was absolutely nothing we could
have done to prevent it (the catch 22 being that you don't know it's an
under bite until the teeth start coming in, and when the teeth have come
in it's too late to do anything) it is what it is and there is nothing
that can be done until they are at least three or four years old, it was
something that just hit me like a ton of bricks.
Michael and I were talking about this the other night, and he was very worried about the effects of the pandemic on the kids. I, on the other hand, am completely worried about how we will mess them up, despite our best efforts not to.
Al and Teo have both taken upwards of five or seven steps independently now, though still wobbly and uncertain. They both can stand and squat unaided, and walk pretty comfortably and quickly while holding on to a wall/shelf or walker or if someone is giving them support either through a hand or a grip on the back of the shirt. Al in particular is super proud of himself every time he wobbles up into a stand, or wobbles down into a squat. His whole face splits into a wide grin and he wears a look of utter accomplishment. Al favors the walker a bit more, pushing it about and only getting upset when he gets jammed up against a wall or a shelf (hasn't figured out turning yet). Teo, on the other hand, much prefers walking with someone holding both his hands, and is a speed demon when he's aided. He is much more reluctant to go it on his own, though, probably because he can move so quickly when someone is holding him. Teo also loves, loves loves steps.
Generally, Teo moves incredibly fast, and is impulsive. He throws himself down slides, rolls and thrashes around while shrieking enthusiastically, jumps up and down frenetically, crawls at lightning speed, eats by shoving huge bites of food into his mouth. As a result, Teo has a bunch of bumps and bruises and scratches (including when he slammed the door of the toy kitchen he was playing in onto his own finger), and nowadays scarcely does a day go by without some report of an accident, while Al, the more cautious one, tends to be more scar-free. Unfortunately, Teo is also way more sensitive to mosquito bites and has more reactive skin, so he, poor guy, often looks the worse for the wear. Last week it was three big red itchy bites on his forehead, followed by, of all things, hives.
You really just have to show Teo or Al how to do things one or two times and they get it. They know how to turn on the light on their sister's legos, how to hit the doorbell, how the light switches turn the lights on and off, how to scooter (seated), you get the idea.
Al loves the balcony garden and will clamor at any chance to be out
there. You can't slide the balcony door open around Al without him
going nuts trying to get out there. And he sometimes will go right up
to the crack and pound on the door, shouting to be let out. The big guy
loves just sitting out there, touching the various leaves and flowers
and poking around. Speaking of big, Al is insanely strong. We
can't get over how strong he is - he has a grip that crushes and won't
let go. It's so hard to wrest something out of his hands! This has
caused a lot of issues among the other two kids because neither Lola nor
Teo can stand up to him. And of our three kids, Al is the one who most
loves to mosey over and jump into the middle of whatever it is the others are
doing, causing untold disruption to others but totally being indifferent
about it. Previously Al was just super sweet and didn't fight or
attack, but he's since picked up some bad habits and in recent days has
shown signs of steamrolling his siblings to get what he wants. He has
started showing signs of biting also!
Al loves shouting "Daddy!"
very enthusiastically and clearly whenever Michael shows up. Al doesn't
say much, but he is very clear with the few words he does use. He just
started saying "ayi" last week, the Chinese word for "aunt". One of
the maintenance women in our buildings loves the twins and words may
fail to adequately capture how utterly delighted she was when he shouted
"ayi" upon seeing her.
Teo, on the other hand, doesn't really say any
words particularly clearly, although he can say daddy and mommy and dog,
but he has a stream of conscious gurgle that is very impressive for its
sheer creativity. He can chatter non-stop for 20-30 seconds at a time. Teo
is, for being as active and impulsive as he is, often a much quieter
baby. He is very happy to roll around in his crib with all of his
stuffed animals, and he clearly enjoys quiet time after his nap or in
the morning when he has just woken up. He used to be even more calm
and quiet (there are so many pictures of him just staring at the camera
with his eyes huge and wide) but now he does know to complain and scream
to get attention or get his way. He has grown quite attached to
George, his soft toy monkey, and will go pick up the monkey and hold him
tight when you ask him "where's George?"
Teo knows to reach his
hands out and cup them upwards when you say "catch," and he does the
most adorable (and perfect) Wheels on the Bus wheel roll (his little
arms roll together perfectly!) and windshield wipers. After only a
couple of times he does a really good Itsy Bitsy Spider, and he can open
and close his fingers really adroitly to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
He knows how to wash his hands, immediately rubbing them when his hands
are getting washed, and he is finally picking up where his eyes and nose
are.
This is when we went to Maggie and Rose Repulse Bay. The boys love the train tracks there. Lola loves the rocking horses.
Lola is just beyond in every way, and rarely does a day pass that we don't marvel at how brilliant and clever she is. She seriously can outnegotiate us. I've never been good arguing on my feet anyway, but she can really out-think all of us adults. It's remarkable. All of her expressions are also always spot on - she always knows to say exactly the right thing, or use the right phrase at the right time. And how about the fact that she has a spot-on imitation of every single person's accent? American English, English with a Filipinese accent, English with an Indonesian accent, Mandarin and, lately, Mandarin with an Indonesian accent as well! She continues to love French and is showing interest in Cantonese. And she can switch between each of them depending on her audience! This girl.
We got a family museum pass because it's basically worth it after two trips. Lola probably likes the history museum best, followed by the science museum.
Here she is doing her Zoom class very diligently. The Education Bureau just announced that the kids are going back to school full time after Easter.
I got my vaccine on the 23rd, at the Ap Lei Chau center. It was pretty
empty there, as you can see. The process was pretty orderly overall. I am and was and continue to be so grateful to modern science. If you had told me a year ago that we would be getting vaccinated for Covid before the end of first quarter 2021, I would have laughed in your face, so impossible and far-fetched did that sound.
I try to go out for some walks from time to time, but otherwise my exercise regime remains woefully inadequate. I can't really do yoga, running, or anything that strains my core, which is pretty much everything because the core is... well, your core. As you can see, while I am heavier than I should be (I blame the multiple full milk lattes, glasses of wine and lack of exercise) everything has pretty much shrunk down except for my belly, which I now hide behind high waisted leggings and loose tunics and tank tops. I went to see a surgeon about my diastasis but it's a pretty major surgery that requires a lot of recuperation, time, energy... as well as a good two months of not picking up my kids. So it probably isn't the right time for me to do anything about it, even if I were so inclined. It definitely wouldn't be for aesthetic reasons, as my body scars so poorly that I am not sure it's worth the trade off for an even larger, angrier, redder, and bumpier scar across my lower half. We shall see. For now I am trying to be careful of using my abs poorly in case I cause a serious issue, and otherwise just biding my time. While that is frustrating, it does tie in to the whole theme of the pandemic, which is essentially one of watching and waiting.
