Bouts of Insomnia, Michael's Birthday, More Pictures

I've been so frustrated a couple of times this week where I am so tired during the morning and then when I am finally able to go to sleep at 8 pm at night, I am wide awake.  This happened a couple of nights this week, one time when I could not fall asleep until after midnight and another time when, try as I might, I could not fall asleep after waking up to pump. 

There have been a lot of changes in our household in the past six months, and it's taking me some time to adjust.  I think both Michael and I also feel a lot of stress - as parents of very young children, living through a year of protests and Covid 19 in Hong Kong, feeling quite cooped up having not traveled in a while, trying to juggle high demand jobs - it makes me feel like we are treading water.  Or maybe it's more accurate to describe it as if I had one breath of air before I had to swim the length of an Olympic sized pool, and I'm currently underwater swimming blindly toward the end hoping we get a breather soon.  But what's also weird is that nothing is really wrong or amiss - everyone is happy and healthy, my parents are here helping and cooking up a storm for me every day, I am not working and still have at least a month and a half of leave to enjoy...

This week we celebrated Michael's birthday with a chocolate pecan pie and presents from me (a book of all of my blog posts from 2018 - it turned out to be 460 pages - I guess I write a lot and include a lot of pictures!) and my parents (a bright blue Nautica fish print short sleeved shirt).  

Lola made a card and sang happy birthday to Michael as well as declaring, "I love you Daddy" which made him SO happy.

Here are pictures of Lola out and about - she has a lot of fun at home now that my parents are here, and she spends a lot of her day reading books, playing, teaching us ballet moves and otherwise conversing.  She has discovered  Zumba also - we had a really fun dance workout in front of my iPad last night!  "Look how flexible I am!" is a common refrain heard around these parts.

Here, cuddling her bunnies post-nap. Lola is still a pretty terrible sleeper, but it has improved over time.  Now she takes about 30 minutes on average to fall asleep, usually by 8 pm, and wakes up anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 am.  This morning she gifted us with a rare 7 am wake up which felt like the ultimate luxury.  Her naps run about 1.5 to 2 hours now.

Goofing around - kid's got a sense of humor.  She cracked herself up the other day in the bathtub by telling Michael, "Daddy I'm just joking with you!"

 

Lola has learned how to do lollipop turns, the giraffe walk and the lion walk.  She is really good at the giraffe walk and always makes sure her giraffe eats a lot of leaves!
 

Here are some pictures from the art class we went to at a friend's house - where Lola absolutely refused to touch any art supplies.  Instead, she played with the dog and fed the turtle, aptly named Messy.

 

 

 

Here are some pictures from when she went to a sports playgroup.  Once again, not at all into sports.  But she has taken to wearing her ballet tutu outside on all occasions.  I don't mind, given how much that tutu cost!  Lola has also been growing a lot recently, so I'm happy for her to wear all her pretty clothes before they become too small!  She has gotten heavier and grown a centimeter since her last checkup two months ago. 

 

 

 

Her school continues to be shut, but they have started doing a voluntary playground meetup at Victoria Park on Friday mornings.  Everyone wears face masks and totes antibacterial hand gel.

 

When she plays on her own, she goes without face masks but then we make sure her hands are constantly cleaned.

 

Now onto the boys - this is a picture from when my parents first got here - the twins have grown so much in the two weeks since they've been here!