Back in the Kong

As soon as we returned from Taiwan, we unpacked and rested a bit before heading out to Cyberport to enjoy the nice Hong Kong weather and the remainder of the weekend.  It was a beautiful day and I was very grateful we had another buffer day, Sunday, before returning to routine.

Lola revisited her rollerblades while Al and Teo biked like maniacs.

We were there for sunset and it was so beautiful!  If you ignored the construction that was taking place all around us, that is...

The kids were pretty tired though - keep in mind this is after we got up early and checked out of our hotel in Taipei, got to the airport, flew to Hong Kong... they had had a long day!  Al said to me in a very woebegone voice, " I am so tired.  I have no energy anymore!"  It cracked me up, both because he sounded so plaintive (even though he was fine) but also because he was just so cute when so pathetic.

On Sunday the kids played with some of the cool toys the boys got for their birthday.  What lucky children - a Mars base camp fashioned out of cardboard, a set of beautiful picture books about science and history, and a phenomenal smart globe that reads out all the countries, capitals and even sings national anthems, at the point of a pen.

On Sunday, our first full day out as a family in a month and a half, we took a leisurely stroll through the cemetary near our house (we have lived here for 4.5 years and this is the first time we walked through).  It was a beautiful day.  The clouds felt unreal and it was very peaceful, even as I rebelled at the thought of all this prime real estate being used for buried bones and decaying stones.  It was a strange/unique perspective to see our normal every day surroundings from a reverse standpoint.

After that walk we headed to the Happy Valley playground, where the kids basically got attacked by mosquitoes. There, Al amazed us with his skills when we were playing a memory game.  Basically you had to turn the tiles and try to match various traffic signals.  They quickly got the hang of it and it was no big deal, except when we started playing round two.  Rather than flip all the tiles over again, I just had all the kids move around to the other side of the game.  I didn't think much of it at the immediate moment, but as soon as we started playing I realized it would require the kids to realize that all of the positions of the tiles they had remembered previously would need to be flipped (mirror image) because they were now on the other side.  Just as I leaned in to note this point to Michael, Al before our eyes immediately selected the correct matching tile on the upper left (rather than upper right, which is where it would have been if you were still facing the game rather than behind it).  We stared at each other in shock and started laughing in pride and disbelief.  It sounds simple and it is subtle but that seems like some really advanced spatial reasoning for a 4 year old!