A Happy Belated Year of the Ox! And the First Half of February

My Blogger is broken.  I've tried to write this post about eight times now since February 11, no joke, and it refuses to save any drafts.  I've lost so many paragraphs of what I've written and rewritten that I don't have as much energy to launch into it anymore.  I hope this is not a foreshadowing of our upcoming year, or a not so subtle message from Blogger that I should just quit.  Anyway, February has been a simply lovely time for us and the kids.  

The weather has been amazing, full of sunshine and warmth, clear blue skies and beautiful days.  We have been quite constrained in what we have been able to do, as until February 18 all schools were closed, all restaurants shut by 6 pm, no bars, no beaches, no swimming pools, no movie theaters, etc.  However, we still managed to fit in quite a lot of fun activities for the kids, whether playing at home, in our garage, at the clubs, or in parks.  

A lot of activities were on hold for two weeks for the lunar new year holidays, but it was still fun to see the peach blossoms, the little orange trees, and to teach the kids all about the new year.  We also went to a few Chinese New Year parties/events.

Taking it from the top of the month, here is Lola checking out the urban garden at the American Club.

Lola has gotten quite comfortable with the slides, despite how big and how fast they go!  

She has a standing playdate with one of her classmates every Tuesday.  They usually go to Victoria Park to ride their bicycles, scooter, play, share toys, read books together, and picnic.

Lola, Al and Teo all love going to Stanley, where there are a lot of other kids running around, playing, and riding their scooters.  On one of the first days that she went there this month, Lola enjoyed not one, not two, but four slices of pizza!  Wowee.  Lola loves watching for party boats and fishermen's boats when she is there, also.  One time they got to access a little bit of the beach, which was a surprise and delight.

Meanwhile this is in contrast to what I understand my parents and many parts of the U.S. are dealing with:

My grandma celebrated her 94th birthday on February 3, and they celebrated at home with a big bowl of noodles (symbolizing longevity) and a red packet.  I'm so happy and grateful that my parents and grandmas are doing well.

I got the boys tricycles for them to ride around on.  Al likes it very much, Teo not so much at all.  However, they also have a mini scooter (with a seat) and while Al doesn't really know what to do with it, Teo immediately grasped the concept and was scootering away.

The boys continue to have Mandarin playgroups two times a week at home with teacher Sophie, and it has been awesome.  They are comfortable and familiar with her and will crawl to her for hugs and comfort.

But sometimes messy play makes them very upset. Incidentally, look at their bellies - how sweet are they?

I took advantage of some down time and went to a wine tasting at the American Club in town.  

One of my new routines with Lola has been to... go to my office on Saturday mornings.  She loves going with me to my office so much, and has so much fun clacking away on my computer/telephone/calculator, and drawing/stamping/paper clipping my legal pads, that I can't bring myself to deny her.  We have a whole routine, and she loves that I have my own office with a closet and shoes ("you forgot to bring them home Mommy!") and a pantry with spicy water (Pellegrino) and soybean milk.  I assure you the whole thing is super sweet.

When we finish up with our work, we walk over hand in hand to the American Club for our mommy and Lola lunch.  She orders the lemonade and the cheeseburger with fries, I order the salad with fruit or else a sandwich, and we sit and enjoy and have a conversation.  This kid, I tell you!

Right before Chinese New Year, the club had a special menu starting later that we couldn't wait for, so I took Lola to dim sum at Shanghai Garden in Exchange Square. It was very fancy, Lola tried chicken feet and loved everything, and we finished with mango sago tapioca dessert.

Meanwhile our trips to Maggie and Rose continue with the same frequency.  We are fixtures at this club.  The boys are really good at exploring the whole soft play area and now really enjoy sliding on the big yellow slide on their own.

I mentioned in the last post that Lola has started French classes on Wednesday afternoons.   Here she is on her walk from her class to find her brothers at Maggie and Rose, on the one day that it rained in Hong Kong, in like 4 months.  It's been the only rainy day since.  She will soon be adding another French class next week because her interest is high and her curiosity to be in school and learning unabated. 

To keep Lola occupied during the time off from Zoom, I sent her to sports camp every morning at Sun Yat Sen park.  It was a great way to burn off her energy.  The sunshine had her and the boys napping so well every day, and going to bed pretty easily at night also.  There is something so satisfying about little kids falling into the deep, heavy limbed slumber of the well-exercised.  On one of the days Lola even dismissed me from her room, saying, "You can go now mommy, I'm tired" and did not require me to sing to her, which was a jaw-dropping never before witnessed event in the entire saga of her life.

On the 13th, to coincide with Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, Lola and a few of her friends from school gathered to attend a small party at Maggie and Rose.  They did an amazing job and Lola cooked no bake cheesecake and glutinous rice rolls and made me a paper mache heart, all while Al and Teo crawled around to their heart's content.  Lol and I dressed in florals to match.  I had a ton of fun also.

We made a rather silly mistake on the afternoon of Sunday the 14th, which was to head to Tai Tam Reservoir for a walk with friends.  It was the absolute worst with traffic backed up for miles, tons of people walking all around, and just... a lot of stress.  Especially when we realized there was no place to park.  But it was still nice to be out and about. 

When we returned, Lola and I went to the car and hung out, listening to songs on the CD, bouncing around (with the shoes off, don't worry Michael), and she showed me how to honk the horn, turn on the windshield wipers, and eject the CDs.  She knows a lot about driving and operating a car, and we had a good time.

From Al, Lola and Teo, happy year of the Ox!