Scheduling by the Calendar... and Pics of the Kids, Because What Else!

I spent nearly an hour color coding my calendar one night last week... and I'm only a little bit embarrassed to admit it.  I can't decide if I'm more embarrassed that I spent so long color coding, or if I'm more embarrassed that I had not color coded before this?!  My calendar organizing skills were so woefully inadequate.  But now they are pretty amazing.  I have two colors (dusty pink for personal and bright teal for work) which dominate because, well, I am the default option and there is a LOT of scheduling and reminders to calendar.  Next are the helpers and driver (bluish gray), who also dominate because I record their schedules and days off and it's a lot to track. The next most prominent color is lavender (Lola) because purple is her favorite color, followed by the boys who are green because, well I like green and a pop of lime never fails to lift the spirits, or so I've found, followed finally by Michael who is a cobalt blue because blue is his favorite color.  The twins are one color for now but I am sure at some point in my distant but also very near future they will have their own separate schedules as well.  Heaven. help. us.

When doing this, and really in the past four months, I could not help but recall one of my colleagues remarking only half jokingly that she lived and died by her calendar.  It's so true.  If the thing is not on my calendar, I am not going to remember it.  It's happened more than once now and I've learned I need to respect the calendar.  Gone are the days when I only had to look linearly at conflicts - now conflicts abound all over my calendar because it covers so many people's schedules.  Disrespect the calendar by promising to meet up for lunch/squeeze in an appointment/commit to a trial class and you will feel the pain/shock/humiliation/hit to your pocketbook when you inevitably overbook or double book. 

Otherwise, these past two weeks have been a pretty happy, busy but contented period in our lives.  I've been working from home more this past week due to the increased number of Covid cases in Hong Kong (though it's all relative, with our cases reported numbering in the double digits) and the increase in upper respiratory tract infections in kindergartens.  Kindergartens were closed starting the 16th, and over the weekend the government just announced closures of Primary schools grades 1 through 3.

The kids continue to be so amazing, so cute, and so dynamic as they grow and change every, single, day.

Before Lola's school closures this week, she had the flu vaccine at school (administered for free through the HK government) on Friday, which she had been preparing for it for weeks on end with her teachers.  She was very, very brave, barely cried, and other than some complaining about her arm from time to time, was such a champ.

Last weekend our friends rented a lovely beach house in Shek O and invited us over to hang out and go to the beach.  To my surprise, Lola loved the beach and readily embraced the ocean and the sand.  She is turning into such an enthusiastic and spirited, spunky little girl, always up for new adventures and experiences.  How fun!  She kept squealing and running away from the water, but then dragging me into it (I was foolhardy and in less than a couple of attempts managed to waterlog my shoes, socks and tights).  She also loved digging with shovels and dumping sand into buckets (at one point she amassed four) and watching the water fill up her sinkhole.  I love watching her energy, enthusiasm, and generally just her big brain at work.

       

 

Al and Teo had a good time also, although they stayed in the house.  My friends have two dogs and I was happy that the kids got some exposure to pets.  I can't wait to bring the boys to the beach again so that they get to experience the sand and surf.

I had a moment one of these weeknights when I just couldn't sleep with the thought of how much I loved my kids.  They are all so unbearably sweet and adorable but also so finicky and grumpy and weird in their own ways.  I've been told many times, and particularly of late, that they all look a lot alike.  I mean, obviously Al and Teo, but these comments have been coming from those who have known or seen Lola from when she was a baby.  I see it - I guess they all have the big eyes, the same little button nose, the similar cupid bow lips.  The main difference is that Lola was more petite, and she had more (and darker) hair, and the boys drool 100% more.

The boys are so curious and interested in the world around them - always drawn to touching and grabbing everything around them.  They love hair (ouch) and, as usual, everything goes in the mouth.  They love to chew on hard objects like wood, hard plastic and metal (which makes me cringe).  They are wearing 2 year old clothing (polos and jackets especially) and it never ceases to boggle my mind that they are so big.  We are nearing their 11 months' mark and I cannot be more flabbergasted at how slowly/quickly the time has flown.  Al and Teo will soon be one!  Lola is turning three in barely 2 weeks!  Heck, some days I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I have three kids.  I was telling a girlfriend last night, I feel like my life has completed a 180 degree shift in the last 5 years, when at this time five years ago I had just gotten married. Talk about warp speed, whiplash-inducing changes.

Lola has been a pretty good participant in her Zoom classes this week.  We try to crush it all in the beginning of each morning Monday through Friday (an hour of English followed by an hour of Chinese, with breaks in each session and in between) so that she has time to go outside and play or do other things.  On one of the days this week she went on a playdate with her friend from school, followed by a picnic.  It was fantastic.  She came home flushed with excitement, grubby and sweaty and dirty, and just generally in great spirits. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also had sports with Minisports that afternoon (a multi-sport outdoor activity camp that is held in parks around Hong Kong) which led to her really expending a ton of energy and eating and sleeping well.  I like the venue they go to because it's a nice wide expanse of grass, a ton of little kids are there, it's close to our apartment, and Al and Teo can crawl around and play also.  Win win win.

Ah, this girl.  Here, on her way to the little playground near our apartment.

Other than sports, Lola still loves ballet, and has built up the courage to attend classes by herself/with her friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard not to find the boys so freaking adorable as well.  They are famous on our street - aunties up and down the block know and recognize Al and Teo.  Both of them have really blossomed and are just so open, adventurous, and happy and carefree.  Michael says they are two big happy dumplings, haha.  I think they have more depth of emotion than that, but compared to our moody, intriguing, multi-layered, deeply individualistic and strong-willed daughter, our sons are pretty straightforward and easy.  This grateful mama will take it.

Mani Pedis, Retail Therapy, Pilates, and My Post-Partum Bod

I have started getting manicures and pedicures again.  I stopped for a long, long year, but now that I've gone back I remember why I loved them so.  There is just something so lovely about sitting there getting your nails cleaned and clipped and shaped, with all the colors to choose from, and admiring your glossy colorful nails afterward... and that time to aimlessly scroll through your phone, or flip idly through gossip rags, or (more my life these days) respond to work emails while doing grocery shopping while paying off bills, that makes me feel very productive even while I'm getting pampered.  For my first manicure in probably nearly two years, I upgraded to the salt scrub and moisturizing paraffin wax to try to slough off my dry skin and treat my hands.  All the hand washing and alcohol sanitizing of this past year has been rough on my already-prone-to-dryness skin.

I went to run an errand a couple of weeks back and ended up buying a super comfortable floral dress at Zara.  Viscose, I am a huge fan.  I am also pleasantly surprised to discover that I am back at my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm not sure how that happened because I was really despairing over losing the remaining 5 or 6 pounds this summer, and I certainly have not stepped up my exercise regime, but I am fitting back into all of my old clothes (well, with some exceptions especially around the armpit and belly area).  It has been a nice surprise, which has inspired me to boldly venture back into my dusty wardrobe for sheath dresses and slacks that I hadn't touched in well over a year (I ballooned so quickly during my last pregnancy that the entirety of my wardrobe very quickly became inaccessible), and also started to shop for jeans and shorts and other waistband-specific clothing that I had previously culled from my closet.  I may have been a little too enthusiastic about my current physique though, because I splurged on a pair of Frame jeans that very well may have been a size too ambitious. Let's face it - the weight may be back to what it was, but my hips, rib cage, and belly are not what or where they used to be.

While the weight loss has been a positive and pleasant surprise, the diastasis recti I continue to struggle with has been a huge spot of denial that I am currently working up the courage and energy to address.  I just feel like I need a lot of mental energy in addition to physical energy to focus on this, and I don't have it in me to be shuttling in additional physical therapy appointments or doing the actual exercises on top of everything else.  Of course this item should be the priority over everything else, but of course it's also the one I most want to avoid.  

I am kind of addressing it by going to a post-natal pilates class on Fridays at a lovely, intimate studio on the south side, which, while time consuming and inconvenient, makes me really happy.  I'm not sure how much the pilates is helping or hurting (the tricky part about diastastis is that a lot of exercises are actually bad for it, because when done wrong is quite harmful, and there is a lot of conflicting advice, even among pilates instructors and supposed experts), but I do know to always be careful on my exhales and to focus on my pelvic floor.  Last Friday, I knew it was Friday, and I knew I had my usual class, but I just completely forgot to go.  I don't even know/cannot even explain what happened, but I looked up at 11 AM and realized I had just completely missed it.

I also freaked myself out, likely through over-thinking, in recent weeks about diabetes.  There had been a few instances where I had had dessert, maybe with a glass of wine, and then either crashed spectacularly, or else felt so nauseous, that I started to fear something else was at play.  Granted, each of the three or four times that I crashed was when I was working very late at night and pretty tired from an early morning start of about 6 am, so it was hard to tell what factor was driving what.  

I went to see the endocrinologist last week to better understand my risk of type 2 diabetes and whether I could be prediabetic.  I got this cool/crazy sensor stuck to my arm which helps me track my blood sugar simply by scanning my phone next to it.  The sensor works for 14 days and helps you easily track your sugar levels.  I wish I could have used this during pregnancy and avoided all of the pinpricks!!  Unfortunately there are some chemicals in the sensor that make it inadvisable for pregnant women.  It has been largely reassuring to have the sensor - it seems my blood sugar is always within normal range and actually the times I felt nauseous were when my blood sugar was too low.  I go back in two weeks to better understand this data and to test if I have a "fatty liver," which is apparently one of the main warning signs.

It's All A Blur

 This year has all been a blur!  I can't believe we're nearly in mid-November now.  I think I finally caught up on our October pictures and happenings.  

Not too much has been happening in November, other than lots of beautiful weather, a lot of time spent hanging out in parks and at the race course, flu vaccinations for every member in our household, a lot of video submissions for both Lola and her brothers for school in lieu of in-person assessments, and oh yeah a cold that has been making the rounds in our household, sparing no one, this past week.  

The Education Bureau in Hong Kong just announced yesterday kindergarten school closures for 2 weeks given the recent uptick in Covid cases and the respiratory infection that has been spreading in kindergartens and we met the news with a mixture of resignation and disbelief.  It's all starting anew again... what a tedious cycle. Mainly I think the start and stop and go of this year has really messed with Lola's equilibrium.  She likes routine and certainty and the fluctuations in her school schedule plus the unpredictability of my work routine exacerbate her anxiety.  

Despite this setback and how disappointing and how frustrating it feels each and every time it happens, I do think the fact that the EB and the HK government generally tries to react earlier rather than later each time there is any outbreak, makes it possible for the situation to be what it is in Hong Kong.  When things are open and Covid restrictions are relaxed, other than wearing masks and filling in health declaration forms, I think people  generally behave and live life as if things are normal, without a looming specter or threat of infection. 

Lola and I made chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to transition from October to November and she was very proud.  She also loved the cookies and ate 2 in one go.  The generous, fat Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips were a big hit.

The boys are doing great, growing teeth every day, drooling a ton, and generally chattering away and showing great curiosity of the world around them.  They are still pretty mild mannered and easy, although they show a hot streak of temper once in a while (especially given they have not been feeling well, and just had a bunch of vaccinations).  The trouble with twins is that when they are not feeling well, it feels like you have an entire house of chaos because they kind of build off of each other, and their fussiness gets amplified by at least two- if not four-fold. 

But then when you can tease them into a good humor (which is also not hard to do with these boys) it is the sweetest thing.  Their gurgles and giggles emanate and echo through our apartment (as I'm sure Michael can most readily attest to, having to try to sleep through the zoo that is our household) and they are so easily entertained and pleased.

Al tends to reach out for me less, while Teo is the one who will often crawl to me or clamor to be held by me while saying "mama".  We refer to Teo as the sentimental or sensitive one.  Teo is much stronger at crawling and shifting from sitting to belly position back to sitting and can pretty much get himself to wherever he wants to go.  He also likes to pull himself up now, exhibiting signs of trying to stand in his crib. Teo tends to be the one that gets really loud and rambunctious when he is happy, screaming at the top of his lungs and swinging himself like a crazy person in his rocker.  He also has an open mouthed, unabashed, freewheeling loud chortle that is infectious.  When he gets mad or frustrated he cries while rocking himself back and forth and sometimes grabbing his head.

Al is still scared to do the shift between sitting and crawling and, while he clearly wants to, will just get stuck with his legs under him while he shouts/cries until someone rescues him.  Al loves reading and books.  More often than not he is the one sitting there calmly, flipping pages, staring at the pictures and gently patting the images.  He can keep himself entertained for a long time like that.  He is very strong and also likes to pull himself up, trying to stand in his crib, but he is generally less mobile and sturdier (and heavier) than Teo.  Al will sometimes let loose with a loud scream or a bunch of laughter, but he tends to be more moderately giggly and smiley compared to his brother.  We have discovered he is ticklish and it is the funniest thing to do his massages and exercises while he just giggles uncontrollably.  When Al gets mad or frustrated he tends to scream really loudly, throw himself backwards and flail up his arms, or else bite himself.

While the boys still need to work on improving their crawl and getting up on all fours (they are both stuck in the army-crawl) they have noticeably improved in their sitting.  They are also talking a lot, mostly gurgling and noise as they try to mimic speech, but they can clearly say "jie jie," "da da" and "ba ba" and "ma ma," though with the last one it really is only Teo that says it.

Both boys eat really well and love to drink water, though they also like to play with the water a lot - often slurping it up and spitting it back out.  Of the two, Al tends to like to spit and play with this saliva by blowing raspberries, and also to play with water bottles.  Teo meanwhile loves playing with tags and zippers.

The boys also have this funny but exasperating tendency to drift toward each other when playing, but then want to fight with each other over every toy, or get jealous if the other one is being treated differently. Al tends to be the bully when it comes to toys, and is not afraid to chomp down on the toy with his teeth to claim it.  Sometimes Teo fights back though.  They handle each other quite roughly, climbing over each other, kicking each other, grabbing the other's head... I am a bit scared of what this portends once the boys are mobile, stronger and more vocal...

Lola had a playdate with a friend from school the other Friday and they seemed to really enjoy themselves at Maggie and Rose.  It was supposed to be at Sun Yat Sen park but the weather did not cooperate.

Lola also made a neighborhood friend, a 5 year old boy, and they play together on weekend mornings in the little playground near our apartment.

Lola went to try a ballroom dancing class the other week, and the brothers were there watching.  They love watching their sister.  I still can't get over the fact that their first words were "jie jie," or older sister. 

The playgroup at our house is going very well.  Interest continues to grow and I find myself playing a playgroup administrator as I manage schedules, sickness cancellations, and adding more kids and classes.  The teacher is great with her songs, toys, crafts projects, messy play ideas, and of course, her Mandarin instruction!  Here the boys are playing with some water - perhaps their favorite thing.  What's not pictured here is Teo constantly pushing the other boy's hands out of the water bucket...

Lola is still taking music classes at Baumhaus and now we have taken to bringing Al and Teo there to play in the space while she does her classes.  Starting next year Lola will stop doing the classes and instead Al and Teo will commence.  So far they seem to love the playroom and all the wooden toys and puzzles they have there.  I like Baumhaus because it is a well lit, sunny place of organized chaos with good toys and books where the kids get to interact with a wide variety of kids ranging from babies to toddlers - not easy to find and not to be taken for granted in this Covid world.

Happy Halloween, A Week Late

We had a really lovely Halloween.  I had planned a really great group costume for the kids, except sources and supply chains were not as reliable or as speedy as I had hoped and I had left things too late and was too busy to be able to truly do a great job at what I wanted.  Maybe next year.

 We started out with one very unhappy (very hot) astronaut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some really great mesh "armor" and some plastic plate "shields" as well as red velvet capes, but the boys were having none of it. Any of it.  So we had two small but mighty and very minimally accessorized knights, and an opinionated and very excited Elsa.  

I guess it still kind of themed, along the lines of castle/princess/medieval-ish?  I wasn't sure if there would be much of a Halloween celebration this year, what with Covid, but it turns out we live in a wonderful little community.  In no other city could I imagine these little pockets of community like this, especially the one in Happy Valley, where smack dab in the middle of the most urban city scene you could imagine, loads of fully dressed up families and kids and parents are traipsing around from store front to store front, picking up candy.  Lola and I bumped into the famous dinosaur prowling the streets!

I took Lola trick or treating and we got candy from a grocery store, Chinese herbalist shop, a pet store, a bakery, a restaurant... what generosity of spirit and kindness from these stores, especially given what a tough financial environment this year has been, and the sheer number of people that were going through!  It really touched me.  We went to the playground with the kids first, and then meandered to the race course where we saw lots of people dressed up and having fun.

 

 

 

The whole scene had a very deep impact on Lola as well, in several ways.  Not only is she now convinced that ALL of these stores are candy stores (she remarked to me afterward, wide eyed, "I had no idea there were SO MANY candy shops there!") but she declared she LOVES Halloween.  She also had one of the most epic and crazy meltdowns that night, probably a combination of the highs from the processed sugar she never gets + the excitement of such a fun and vivid experience + the tiredness from walking around the neighborhood but also not getting to sleep until waaaay too late.  Ah, Halloween.

It made me happy though to see how much she was enjoying it.  What intense pleasure and joy, what sweetness and innocence, there was in her discovery.  In retrospect, despite the screaming and sobbing meltdown that occurred later that night, the contented sigh that Lola gave when she plopped herself down on our mat and declared "I'm so happy!" after getting her first bag of candy on the playground alone was enough to make me think that it was all worth it.

A week later and while I was putting Lola to bed and we were chatting, she piped up with the fact that she loved Halloween, probably more than her birthday, and more than Christmas.  Hmmm.  I think that this may just be an example of a recent experience overshadowing a long faded memory, as throughout the year she has been asking impatiently why she has to wait so long for her birthday, and why is her birthday so far away?  Good thing that special occasion is coming up soon!