It has been a hectic week here, which explains the long lag between posts.
Work was thankfully and remarkably quiet, but in the span of this week we went to do the handover at our new apartment (unsuccessfully because we were horrified by how they did nothing to prepare the apartment for move-in) and endured an inspection from our current landlord, I had two client lunches, two doctors' appointments, and a new member orientation for the American Club, and also a meeting with my confinement nanny and an appointment to sign up our new second helper. I did not feel at all like it was Labor Day weekend (hope the Americans got to enjoy the long weekend)!
Oh yeah, I also started Lola's pre-nursery and kindergarten applications! I plan to apply to four or five (one is completed) and the one I am currently working on is, I kid you not, almost as involved as a college application. They want paragraph essays and personal statements about the child, the routines of the family that facilitate learning, the parent's philosophy toward education, and a description of the child's special interests, hobbies and personalities. This is in addition to requesting the applicant's entire history of playgroup and school history. Um, this is the application for children who will be just turning 3... in a year from now.
But enough about that boring stuff. On to the hilarious anecdotes that transpired from Miss Lola this week!
Strategies for Not Sleeping
In her never-ending quest to avoid sleep, Lola has come up with a new ingenious solution - after she has been tucked into bed and told it's bedtime, she says she has to go to the potty. She knows that we are desperate to allow her to sit on the potty at any time, and this was a surefire way for us to unzip her sleeping blanket and let her out of hercage crib/room. I fell for this trick on Sunday when she tried three times - the first time, I checked her diaper and then put her back in bed; the second time, she was so insistent I pulled her out and let her sit on the potty, only for her to pop up immediately and say, "Oh! Read the tiger book!" at which point I immediately whisked her back to bed; and the third time, I was not being fooled again but Michael, unaware of the previous two tries, came in and tried to rescue her. Lola tried to pull the trick again later this week with Jovie, who was unaware of Lola's previous attempts. This time, however, Lola learned from her previous mistake and, rather than popping up to play, continued to sit on the potty, but then cajoled Jovie to read her books, let her play with her dolls, and maybe even watch a video? while she remained seated...
Bathing the Baby
Lola has decided that she really enjoys covering her baby doll in its blanket - she does a very good job of swaddling and tucking her in. This week she came up with the idea of overturning her little step stool so that it forms a shallow bucket - and plopping her baby in it to give the baby a bath. She scrubs the baby's hair very carefully, and also "rinses" the baby thoroughly. While doing this, she says to Jovie, "Do you see how I do this?" and then also admonishes the baby, "Why don't you listen?"
Do You Understand?
The best event of the week was probably when Lola and Michael were flipping through pictures on my blog together. Lola loves looking at pictures from my blog, and she often requests to see pictures of her sliding, or swimming, or in Macau. Yes - some time this past month she has picked up that she "wants to ride a boat to Macau," and "fly on a plane to the U.S." So they were looking at pictures of a swimming pool, followed by pictures of a cable car. And Lola was saying she wanted to go swimming, but Michael was confused because he had already scrolled to a picture of the cable car. So when he kept asking Lola to clarify, she kept emphasizing the swimming pool and swimming. The next day, looking at the same pictures again, when Michael stopped at the picture of the swimming pool again, Lola said excitedly, "Lola wants to go swimming!" Then she stopped, turned around, look at Michael squarely in the eye, and said slowly and clearly, "Do you understand?"
A Conversation with Mommy
I also had a very rewarding and informative conversation with Lola this week. Lola has gotten to the point where we can ask her how her day went, which teacher she saw, what she did, what she liked and didn't like. Lola tried out a new music class on Wednesday afternoon this week and told me, when I came home, that she "did NOT like the teacher." When I asked why, she said she "did NOT like the music class." When I asked why, she said "because mommy wasn't there," to which I said, "Oh well would you like for mommy to go with you next time?" to which she responded despondently, "but mommy has to work." Well, I felt very bad about how sad she sounded when she said that, but I couldn't really fault her logic. Thankfully, she did also tell me that she liked the big slide there (as part of a big indoor treehouse).
An Adventure to Tsim Sha Tsui
Tired of all of the incessant rain, and knowing Lola was bored of her usual stomping grounds, I suggested one morning that we go on a new adventure, and take the tram to ifc mall instead. But when we got there, most of the stores were still closed and Lola still seemed bored, so I suggested we go ride the gondola or take the Star Ferry. The gondola looked very hot and also did not appear to be in operation, so that's how we ended up taking the Star Ferry on a random Tuesday morning! It ended up being a very rewarding trip because there happened to be a whole Baby Shark display at Harbor City - all the characters were present and many of the sharks and sea creatures had a rocking seat inside, so it was interactive. Lola's favorite was the green grandpa shark, which she recognized by his mustache, probably followed by the little yellow baby shark, followed by the blue daddy shark. After she had enough of that, we went back on to the boat and I bought her a bubble wand in the shape of a sword. Apparently after they came back that day, Lola reported to Michael that she "went on a boat!" and "saw Grandpa shark!" and "went to buy bubbles!"
She Likes BOTH!
Michael likes to pose all kinds of hypotheticals to Lola, often asking her what food/color/activity is her favorite, or what she likes better between two things. After Lola's mid-week boat adventure, Michael asked her, "what do you like better, boat or tram?" to which Lola, in typical enthusiastic fashion, declared without hesitation, "Tram!" Then Michael asked her, "what do you like better, tram or bus?!" to which Lola paused for a long time, thinking about it, then declared very emphatically, "BOTH!"
Mama and Baby Pet Turtles
I came home today to discover we have new pet turtles! Our nanny took Lola to the pet store today. I had suggested that Lola could go to the pool in the afternoon but it turns out that Lola insisted she did not want to swim - she wanted to pick out a pet turtle. Lily had apparently promised Lola at yesterday's bath time that she would take her, and Lola had not forgotten the promise. So the two embarked to some store that Lily knew about, and came back with not one, but two turtles. One is significantly bigger than the other, and I expressed some concern at how the two of them will get along coexisting in a tank. So far they seem okay, except the little one looks like it is nearly drowning itself trying to climb the walls, and the big one occasionally gets annoyed at being used as a stepping stone and will try to use its weight to smother the little one... when Lola sees that she gets upset. Turns out she actually reached into the tank and pulled the big one off of the little one to stop them from fighting! She was fearless. However, on the choice of two differing in size, Jovie told me that Lola picked them out herself, and she specifically picked out a big one and a little one because she said it was "a mama and a baby!" How cute is that?
Work was thankfully and remarkably quiet, but in the span of this week we went to do the handover at our new apartment (unsuccessfully because we were horrified by how they did nothing to prepare the apartment for move-in) and endured an inspection from our current landlord, I had two client lunches, two doctors' appointments, and a new member orientation for the American Club, and also a meeting with my confinement nanny and an appointment to sign up our new second helper. I did not feel at all like it was Labor Day weekend (hope the Americans got to enjoy the long weekend)!
Oh yeah, I also started Lola's pre-nursery and kindergarten applications! I plan to apply to four or five (one is completed) and the one I am currently working on is, I kid you not, almost as involved as a college application. They want paragraph essays and personal statements about the child, the routines of the family that facilitate learning, the parent's philosophy toward education, and a description of the child's special interests, hobbies and personalities. This is in addition to requesting the applicant's entire history of playgroup and school history. Um, this is the application for children who will be just turning 3... in a year from now.
But enough about that boring stuff. On to the hilarious anecdotes that transpired from Miss Lola this week!
Strategies for Not Sleeping
In her never-ending quest to avoid sleep, Lola has come up with a new ingenious solution - after she has been tucked into bed and told it's bedtime, she says she has to go to the potty. She knows that we are desperate to allow her to sit on the potty at any time, and this was a surefire way for us to unzip her sleeping blanket and let her out of her
Bathing the Baby
Lola has decided that she really enjoys covering her baby doll in its blanket - she does a very good job of swaddling and tucking her in. This week she came up with the idea of overturning her little step stool so that it forms a shallow bucket - and plopping her baby in it to give the baby a bath. She scrubs the baby's hair very carefully, and also "rinses" the baby thoroughly. While doing this, she says to Jovie, "Do you see how I do this?" and then also admonishes the baby, "Why don't you listen?"
Do You Understand?
The best event of the week was probably when Lola and Michael were flipping through pictures on my blog together. Lola loves looking at pictures from my blog, and she often requests to see pictures of her sliding, or swimming, or in Macau. Yes - some time this past month she has picked up that she "wants to ride a boat to Macau," and "fly on a plane to the U.S." So they were looking at pictures of a swimming pool, followed by pictures of a cable car. And Lola was saying she wanted to go swimming, but Michael was confused because he had already scrolled to a picture of the cable car. So when he kept asking Lola to clarify, she kept emphasizing the swimming pool and swimming. The next day, looking at the same pictures again, when Michael stopped at the picture of the swimming pool again, Lola said excitedly, "Lola wants to go swimming!" Then she stopped, turned around, look at Michael squarely in the eye, and said slowly and clearly, "Do you understand?"
A Conversation with Mommy
I also had a very rewarding and informative conversation with Lola this week. Lola has gotten to the point where we can ask her how her day went, which teacher she saw, what she did, what she liked and didn't like. Lola tried out a new music class on Wednesday afternoon this week and told me, when I came home, that she "did NOT like the teacher." When I asked why, she said she "did NOT like the music class." When I asked why, she said "because mommy wasn't there," to which I said, "Oh well would you like for mommy to go with you next time?" to which she responded despondently, "but mommy has to work." Well, I felt very bad about how sad she sounded when she said that, but I couldn't really fault her logic. Thankfully, she did also tell me that she liked the big slide there (as part of a big indoor treehouse).
An Adventure to Tsim Sha Tsui
Tired of all of the incessant rain, and knowing Lola was bored of her usual stomping grounds, I suggested one morning that we go on a new adventure, and take the tram to ifc mall instead. But when we got there, most of the stores were still closed and Lola still seemed bored, so I suggested we go ride the gondola or take the Star Ferry. The gondola looked very hot and also did not appear to be in operation, so that's how we ended up taking the Star Ferry on a random Tuesday morning! It ended up being a very rewarding trip because there happened to be a whole Baby Shark display at Harbor City - all the characters were present and many of the sharks and sea creatures had a rocking seat inside, so it was interactive. Lola's favorite was the green grandpa shark, which she recognized by his mustache, probably followed by the little yellow baby shark, followed by the blue daddy shark. After she had enough of that, we went back on to the boat and I bought her a bubble wand in the shape of a sword. Apparently after they came back that day, Lola reported to Michael that she "went on a boat!" and "saw Grandpa shark!" and "went to buy bubbles!"
She Likes BOTH!
Michael likes to pose all kinds of hypotheticals to Lola, often asking her what food/color/activity is her favorite, or what she likes better between two things. After Lola's mid-week boat adventure, Michael asked her, "what do you like better, boat or tram?" to which Lola, in typical enthusiastic fashion, declared without hesitation, "Tram!" Then Michael asked her, "what do you like better, tram or bus?!" to which Lola paused for a long time, thinking about it, then declared very emphatically, "BOTH!"
Mama and Baby Pet Turtles
I came home today to discover we have new pet turtles! Our nanny took Lola to the pet store today. I had suggested that Lola could go to the pool in the afternoon but it turns out that Lola insisted she did not want to swim - she wanted to pick out a pet turtle. Lily had apparently promised Lola at yesterday's bath time that she would take her, and Lola had not forgotten the promise. So the two embarked to some store that Lily knew about, and came back with not one, but two turtles. One is significantly bigger than the other, and I expressed some concern at how the two of them will get along coexisting in a tank. So far they seem okay, except the little one looks like it is nearly drowning itself trying to climb the walls, and the big one occasionally gets annoyed at being used as a stepping stone and will try to use its weight to smother the little one... when Lola sees that she gets upset. Turns out she actually reached into the tank and pulled the big one off of the little one to stop them from fighting! She was fearless. However, on the choice of two differing in size, Jovie told me that Lola picked them out herself, and she specifically picked out a big one and a little one because she said it was "a mama and a baby!" How cute is that?
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