I started writing this post on Sunday night last weekend and didn't make it very far. Now that it's Friday, I guess it's time to provide a fuller recap!
We took it easy last weekend. It was so, so hot with highs of 89 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit with 90% humidity which makes doing anything (except sitting in a cold air conditioned room or in a pool) pretty difficult. And that is what we did, pretty much. I neglected to get any pictures of Lola in her adorable swimsuits, but we did go down to the pool on both Saturday and Sunday. She spent a full hour there on Saturday with me and Michael, wading around the baby pool, playing on the steps, even daring to put her chin in and get her mouth wet. Michael also carried her into the big pool a couple of times. She had a great time. On Sunday when we went down we saw three other "big" girls (3-4 year olds) playing. Lola now knows how to say "swimming" in Chinese and she likes it enough to ask for it in the mornings when we go out.
We now have a few morning rituals set up which are quite nice - I have been trying to get to bed before 11 pm, ideally even before 10:30 pm but that's not very realistic - so that I can wake up early and get a good hour to two hours of time with Lola in the morning before I leave for work. This week we went to the park on one day, a playroom on another, and we went shopping for fruits and groceries on yet another. I also spend some time sitting with her reading books and just chatting. Lola has so many thoughts and opinions! She is very busy.
Lola has taken to picking out her outfits every morning. We have a bunch of her dresses and outfits hanging in her wardrobe which she can see - and every morning she points to the dresses and decides which one she wants. She is very clear and decisive and usually cannot be swayed from the one that she wants. She is hilarious because she truly gets so excited by her beautiful clothes, she declares them "Lola's dresses" and "pretty!" When she particularly likes an outfit or accessory, she will walk to the mirror we have on the floor next to our balcony and admire it (it is like a floor length mirror for her but just a normal sized mirror otherwise). When our nanny tried to get Lola to change out of her beautiful dress to wear pants today (for better mobility in a playroom they were going to), Lola refused and insisted on wearing her original outfit.
Another morning ritual that has evolved is Lola talking to her nona and papa, and her ye ye and po po, every morning. It works well because it's usually right after our parents have eaten dinner. It has been wonderful for her to associate with them and speak to them nearly every day, and it's something she looks forward to doing every morning, sometimes before her breakfast, sometimes after. She gets super excited to show them everything - her bunny, monkey, pig, cars, books, ball, shoes, training potty, etc. etc. The only problem currently is that the conversations get a bit hurried at the end because Lola loses patience and wants to go outside to play. This morning, she frantically blew kisses at my mom and dad because she wanted to get off of facetime so she could, in her words, "chu qu wan!" which means "go out to play!"
In terms of evening rituals, we have not been so successful at getting Lola to sleep and sleep well. Everyone says you're supposed to set a clear routine for bedtime - but what do you do if your clear routine makes your child cry? Lola knows all of the signals for bedtime and dreads each one - brushing the teeth, grabbing the bunny, watching the window curtain come down, turning off the lights... I can't count the number of times she saw her wearable sleep blanket come out and she just started sobbing inconsolably. Lola fights sleep with all of her might. This month Lola learned how to express her distaste of sleep through some variation of, "please no sleep," "no sleep," and "Lola doesn't want to sleep," in English and Mandarin. You certainly cannot say that she doesn't know how to express herself very clearly and emphatically!
In order to get out of sleeping, Lola has concocted an elaborate evening ritual of fighting sleep which she has honed over time. Since she was really young, she has uttered this low moaning sound to try to keep herself awake. She also repeatedly tries to sit up or pull herself up to standing so that she does not fall asleep. Lately, she has this long, drawn out nearly-hour-long stream of consciousness recap of her day and thoughts which are, on the one hand, frustrating and tiring, but on the other hand, such an interesting insight into the workings of her fierce and precocious mind.
In one particularly difficult bedtime (the same day she went on a field trip to the beach with her playgroup and her whole routine was pushed by nearly 2 hours), as I sat in her room with her waiting for her to sleep, she asked about her dresses, requested to hear the Happy Birthday song, then immediately requested to hear Row Row Row Your Boat, flopped around repeatedly, laughed and said "funny!" and then kept pulling up her crib bumper to look at me and say, "peek-a-boo!" in a slow, drawn out voice, sat up, asked me to hold her, laid back down reluctantly, rolled over, shouted that she wanted to buy grapes, and bananas, and apples, and buy fish for mama, and bread for baba... then declared that tomorrow she would take the "el-e-va-tor" (enunciated very elaborately), a taxi, the BUSSSSS! and the subway, and that she wanted to "hua hua ti" (slide) and "qiu qian" (swing) and "you yong" (swim), then asked to hold my hand, then groaned as she held her bunny, then picked herself up again to lean against the crib and ask for me to hold her. Strewn in with all of that were long, long sentences of incomprehensible words that were spoken with such intent and purpose that I am sure they meant something, but I really did not know what Lola was saying in her own language.
I have been fighting a cold and sore throat for almost the entire month of May (since the first weekend) and it still hasn't gone away. Benadryl, zinc supplements and an asthma inhaler from my GP were only going so far. I listened to my mom (and my office receptionist - she fancies herself like my mom I guess) and went to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and asked for help. I got a big bag of little individual powder packets that I used to make an herbal drink, two times a day. I remain a skeptic of its efficacy as I still have a cough and my throat really hurts at night. While there, though, I also decided to give cupping a try. I have never done it before - frankly, I was always a bit turned off by the scary looking red and purple bruises that the hot glass cups leave on your body - but my curiosity was piqued and, well, this non-abating cold is making me desperate. The sensation is very curious - it really does feel like succubus are attached to your back for ten minutes. It does not hurt, per say, but there is a bit of a pinching sensation and I would describe it as mild discomfort. I felt good afterward but it was not as amazing as I had expected to feel. I'm not sure I will be doing it again.
I can't believe it's Friday again tomorrow - between work being busy and my trying to find time to do yoga, run errands, and still spend meaningful time with Lola, it's no wonder it's nearly June!
We took it easy last weekend. It was so, so hot with highs of 89 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit with 90% humidity which makes doing anything (except sitting in a cold air conditioned room or in a pool) pretty difficult. And that is what we did, pretty much. I neglected to get any pictures of Lola in her adorable swimsuits, but we did go down to the pool on both Saturday and Sunday. She spent a full hour there on Saturday with me and Michael, wading around the baby pool, playing on the steps, even daring to put her chin in and get her mouth wet. Michael also carried her into the big pool a couple of times. She had a great time. On Sunday when we went down we saw three other "big" girls (3-4 year olds) playing. Lola now knows how to say "swimming" in Chinese and she likes it enough to ask for it in the mornings when we go out.
We now have a few morning rituals set up which are quite nice - I have been trying to get to bed before 11 pm, ideally even before 10:30 pm but that's not very realistic - so that I can wake up early and get a good hour to two hours of time with Lola in the morning before I leave for work. This week we went to the park on one day, a playroom on another, and we went shopping for fruits and groceries on yet another. I also spend some time sitting with her reading books and just chatting. Lola has so many thoughts and opinions! She is very busy.
Lola has taken to picking out her outfits every morning. We have a bunch of her dresses and outfits hanging in her wardrobe which she can see - and every morning she points to the dresses and decides which one she wants. She is very clear and decisive and usually cannot be swayed from the one that she wants. She is hilarious because she truly gets so excited by her beautiful clothes, she declares them "Lola's dresses" and "pretty!" When she particularly likes an outfit or accessory, she will walk to the mirror we have on the floor next to our balcony and admire it (it is like a floor length mirror for her but just a normal sized mirror otherwise). When our nanny tried to get Lola to change out of her beautiful dress to wear pants today (for better mobility in a playroom they were going to), Lola refused and insisted on wearing her original outfit.
Another morning ritual that has evolved is Lola talking to her nona and papa, and her ye ye and po po, every morning. It works well because it's usually right after our parents have eaten dinner. It has been wonderful for her to associate with them and speak to them nearly every day, and it's something she looks forward to doing every morning, sometimes before her breakfast, sometimes after. She gets super excited to show them everything - her bunny, monkey, pig, cars, books, ball, shoes, training potty, etc. etc. The only problem currently is that the conversations get a bit hurried at the end because Lola loses patience and wants to go outside to play. This morning, she frantically blew kisses at my mom and dad because she wanted to get off of facetime so she could, in her words, "chu qu wan!" which means "go out to play!"
In terms of evening rituals, we have not been so successful at getting Lola to sleep and sleep well. Everyone says you're supposed to set a clear routine for bedtime - but what do you do if your clear routine makes your child cry? Lola knows all of the signals for bedtime and dreads each one - brushing the teeth, grabbing the bunny, watching the window curtain come down, turning off the lights... I can't count the number of times she saw her wearable sleep blanket come out and she just started sobbing inconsolably. Lola fights sleep with all of her might. This month Lola learned how to express her distaste of sleep through some variation of, "please no sleep," "no sleep," and "Lola doesn't want to sleep," in English and Mandarin. You certainly cannot say that she doesn't know how to express herself very clearly and emphatically!
In order to get out of sleeping, Lola has concocted an elaborate evening ritual of fighting sleep which she has honed over time. Since she was really young, she has uttered this low moaning sound to try to keep herself awake. She also repeatedly tries to sit up or pull herself up to standing so that she does not fall asleep. Lately, she has this long, drawn out nearly-hour-long stream of consciousness recap of her day and thoughts which are, on the one hand, frustrating and tiring, but on the other hand, such an interesting insight into the workings of her fierce and precocious mind.
In one particularly difficult bedtime (the same day she went on a field trip to the beach with her playgroup and her whole routine was pushed by nearly 2 hours), as I sat in her room with her waiting for her to sleep, she asked about her dresses, requested to hear the Happy Birthday song, then immediately requested to hear Row Row Row Your Boat, flopped around repeatedly, laughed and said "funny!" and then kept pulling up her crib bumper to look at me and say, "peek-a-boo!" in a slow, drawn out voice, sat up, asked me to hold her, laid back down reluctantly, rolled over, shouted that she wanted to buy grapes, and bananas, and apples, and buy fish for mama, and bread for baba... then declared that tomorrow she would take the "el-e-va-tor" (enunciated very elaborately), a taxi, the BUSSSSS! and the subway, and that she wanted to "hua hua ti" (slide) and "qiu qian" (swing) and "you yong" (swim), then asked to hold my hand, then groaned as she held her bunny, then picked herself up again to lean against the crib and ask for me to hold her. Strewn in with all of that were long, long sentences of incomprehensible words that were spoken with such intent and purpose that I am sure they meant something, but I really did not know what Lola was saying in her own language.
I have been fighting a cold and sore throat for almost the entire month of May (since the first weekend) and it still hasn't gone away. Benadryl, zinc supplements and an asthma inhaler from my GP were only going so far. I listened to my mom (and my office receptionist - she fancies herself like my mom I guess) and went to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and asked for help. I got a big bag of little individual powder packets that I used to make an herbal drink, two times a day. I remain a skeptic of its efficacy as I still have a cough and my throat really hurts at night. While there, though, I also decided to give cupping a try. I have never done it before - frankly, I was always a bit turned off by the scary looking red and purple bruises that the hot glass cups leave on your body - but my curiosity was piqued and, well, this non-abating cold is making me desperate. The sensation is very curious - it really does feel like succubus are attached to your back for ten minutes. It does not hurt, per say, but there is a bit of a pinching sensation and I would describe it as mild discomfort. I felt good afterward but it was not as amazing as I had expected to feel. I'm not sure I will be doing it again.
I can't believe it's Friday again tomorrow - between work being busy and my trying to find time to do yoga, run errands, and still spend meaningful time with Lola, it's no wonder it's nearly June!
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