The Boys Turn Seven Months!

The boys turn seven months today! 

Here they are, wide eyed and inquisitive, wearing clothes of their sister's that she only recently outgrew.  They are so chunky and adorable.  Their skin is so soft and smooth and cool, like silk and tofu (odd imagery I know but it's immediately what comes to my mind), and they smell so good, I find them irresistibly delectable.  Just perfect for taking a bite!  Or, really, a bunch of big kisses and raspberries.  Al always giggles when I blow raspberries in his neck.  Teo just shoots me the widest toothless grin.  They are so cute.

Over the weekend, they enjoyed some food, and then some art.  It went well.

Al here, pondering life in the midst of smacking out a symphony.  The boys both love music and the drums, rattlers and keyboards all draw their interest.

They begrudgingly tolerate each other when shoved into the same crib.  Here, Al is counting Teo's hairs, I guess!

But sometimes they don't need the crib and it's not quite as civilized as counting...

At seven months, they don't need nor want pacifiers, don't quite sleep through the night yet (but sometimes they manage to make it) and their teeth are starting to pop in.  Teo's has emerged first; we are still waiting for Al's.  They wake up just the happiest, chattiest and gurgliest babies.

Lola is indisputably the leader of this pack.

Happy seven months Al and Teo, we love you both so!

Quickie Update

I have started and stopped a few different blog posts this week, and they are currently all in various states of draft form and I don't feel like I can be bothered to really dive into some of the deep stuff now.  So this will be a quickie update instead of the best and most fun variety - pictures!  of the kids!  because, what else is there really, now?

Lola continues to love her little balcony garden, ha ha!  Here are two big string beans that she was SO excited to pluck off of her plant.  She immediately rushes to the bathroom to rinse them and then tries to eat them (only to realize that they taste terrible raw, and requests instead for them to be cooked and included in her lunch).

Our kitchen has been dripping and leaking and it's a mess and after umpteen messages and follow ups contractors have finally come in and ripped out the ceiling and we are waiting to see if it will leak again and ugh it just leaked again this morning and well it is a bit of an eyesore.  But at least we don't own this apartment.  It's at times like these that I really comfort myself - it's okay that we don't own the place we are living in and we are throwing wads and wads of money away on rent every month because Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to live - because how stressful would it be if we threw down for a $7m or $8m apartment and this happened?

Given the latest third wave, the kids have established a routine where they go out every afternoon - whether to the beach or park.  It varies day by day where they go, the lucky ducks.  Sometimes I join if I can.  The boys are constantly eating so they tend to view this period as snack time.  Hence we are always looking for places where they can picnic...here, various stages of unrest/eating.

 

 One of our helpers celebrated her birthday this month and we got the kids to sit together and enjoy.  Lola sang the birthday song by herself (at her insistence) to herself... we may need to do a better job of explaining the concept of birthdays.  But the cake was FANtastic, and I am not even a chocolate or hazelnut fan.

 

TEO

AL

 My loves! The boys are so happy.  They are really cheerful and so sweet, which is often (I hate to say it) a huge contrast to their 2.5-going-on-12.5 older sister. 

 

 Sometimes we take evening drives where Michael can join us as well.  We went to an oldie but a goodie, a lookout point off of Stubbs Road, this past weekend.

I may be biased, but Hong Kong is beautiful.  Just one of the most breathtaking skylines you can find.

  

 

  Look at the rolls on these guys as they wear their tanks proudly!  They're huge!

Teo has recently loved eating his feet - as you can see, nothing might be more delicious than his toes!  Well, actually, he loves food.  Both of the boys love food.  But clearly toes are a very close second.  I love how here he is so desirous of his foot that both hands are grabbing his calf with utmost urgency.  That flexibility is a thing of beauty.

 It's not all fun and games here though.  Sometimes there is crying.

 But not for long.  Never for long.  We are actually full of joy here.

 We can see Teo's bottom teeth coming in - they're starting to surface and you can see little white bits.  Al's are clearly coming in soon as he wants to gnaw and drool on anything available, however, no sightings yet.

Here the boys are playing ball.  They both managed to shoot the balls into the goal at the same time!  It was amazing.  Then Teo proceeded to make a few more mind-boggling goals (pushing/lobbing it at pretty amazing angles) while Al propped his chin on top of one of the balls and complained.

 All par for the course, exactly on point with their personality.  But let's just take a moment to appreciate the rolls on these chunky legs.  Delicious.  

 And then of course there's Lola.  She's been dealing with sharing her time with her brothers a bit better, though still not particularly well.  But when we can get her to be calm and I have time to hold her or keep her company, she really can relax.  And it's the sweetest.  I think my heart may have folded on itself a bit here when she slid on her sunglasses, leaned back on my lap, tucked her small hands onto her chest and looked up to enjoy.  So many of her mannerisms are so adult that they never cease to tickle me or take me by surprise.

 Here we are, enjoying our time under the trees in Cyberport.  It was frigging hot.  But we had our sunglasses and our mother-daughter floral print.  And snacks.  Always snacks.

Nestled.

 I leave you with this shot of the three under three, surprisingly coordinated in their outfits, at one of our favorite spots, Bowen Road Park.

Recent Summer Days

Our little garden on the balcony has been flourishing given the sunny summer weather - we have a handful of peanuts, a few string bean stalks, a squash vine, one stalk of ginger, and a small papaya tree.  Lola loves going to pick her vegetables whenever one appears ready.  The string beans have been the first to emerge and they have been very rewarding.

 

We managed to go to the science museum and enjoy dinner at the club one last time before the number of cases increased and everything got canceled or closed again.  I guess this is even more incentive to seize the day!  Michael and I were musing that the next time things opened up again, we will have to do more to take advantage of it - because we are now back to strict social distancing measures, with a potential fine for failure to wear a mask in public places, closed schools, no activities, a restaurant eat-in curfew of 6 pm, no swimming pools, no gyms and no playgrounds or soft play areas.

The science museum largely made Lola nervous, although at our cajoling she gamely gave some exhibits a try.  For my part, I learned a lot of stuff that I did not know (or remember, if I had ever learned it).  It was really fascinating. 

We learned about electricity and how to power a train and lightbulbs.

 We saw a hot air balloon take off and land.

 We saw different kinds of car engines work and Lola pressed a lot of buttons.

 We learned about viscosity and the speed of bubbles as they move through various liquids.

 We played with mind teasers in the form of blocks, sticks, pegs and puzzles.

 

Do you know how to create a square by moving only one block? 

Michael was able to solve all of these, and pretty quickly, while I struggled and stewed and got pretty frustrated.

One of the highlights of WFH this past week was our trips to the beach.  We went to a lovely, quiet beach on the south side which was delightfully not very crowded and, importantly, had shade.  The first time I went with just Lola, and the second time we went with Lola, Al and Teo all together.  It was the twins' first time at the beach!

 

 

 

 

It was a hot day but under the shade of the tree, with a bird chirping, the sun shining, and a light breeze blowing, it felt really lovely.