Busy Month

 Argh, it's been a busy month and hence the complete lack of posts.  What with some stuff for my parents that I was helping on, not one but two typhoons, one of our helper aunties being pretty seriously sick, both boys getting sick with very high fevers, my never-ending (painful, inconvenient and expensive) dental work, client development and associate events and a lot of actual work work generally, I haven't found much time to blog (or remember that I've not been blogging). 

A lot to catch up on since the beginning of the month.  This one flew by and I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that it's four days until Halloween.

In rough chronological order:

Al and Teo went to a speech therapist at the beginning of the month to see if anything could be done to combat their underbite, strengthen their jaws, lips or tongue, and generally just help them reduce drooling and speak more clearly.  I'm not too concerned but I do worry about their underbite so I was initially happy to work a bit on this to see if there is any improvement.  After two trips to the speech therapist though, I think a lot of this stuff is just BS.  I fail to see how paying someone over $100 an hour to tell me to get my children to use their molars to chew on hard stick-like food will really improve their jaw strength, beyond just, well, time -- as they get bigger and stronger and use their jaws more.

We have started to have a Chinese teacher come over (first once a week, and now twice a week) to work with Lola on phonics, characters, gross and fine motor skills, and reading.  SIS is no joke and at not even four years old Lola is learning addition and subtraction, as well as Chinese characters and camera words.  Lola loves her teacher and we've worked it into a ritual that Lola gets to go pick her teacher up at the Admiralty MTR in the mornings (and conveniently dropping me off in the process).  I like that the sessions are not rigid or too formal but they are a nice opportunity for Lola to get some extra attention.  We started off with another teacher at first, but Lola struggled mightily to be alone with her and we realized with Lola some things just cannot be forced.  In contrast, Lola took to this teacher immediately and naturally without any complaint and it was just ridiculous how little work it was to get Lola to sit through these sessions compared to with the prior teacher.  

The boys continue to enjoy Fairchild playgroup three times a week, and sometimes Lola goes with them in the morning to play with them for a bit, and "drop them off."  She loves Fairchild and wants to stay and participate, but she also takes a ton of pride in walking her brothers off and wishing them a good class, like the responsible and mature older sister that she is.  That school is doing something right and I think I will always have a very fond spot in my heart for them as I've entrusted my children's earliest and most formative years to their warm and welcoming classroom.

Al and Teo also continue to have (another) Mandarin teacher come over twice a week for playgroup, teaching them songs and words.  Their vocabulary has increased lately and they (especially Teo) are SO talkative.  Admittedly a lot of it is mumble jumble garble, but lately more and more words are clear, and anyway what they lack in clarity they more than make up for in enthusiasm and volume!  This Mandarin teacher is also a huge hit with the kids and we are so lucky and grateful that she has been a part of our family of educators for so long - ever since Lola was six months old.  She just has something about her that really draws kids to her - even shy or quiet ones will actively approach her and hug her!

Lola continues to attend art classes on Sundays, and what she lacks in skill or dexterity she makes up for in confidence and speed.  We have increased her activities a bit this month, with soccer on Tuesdays, swimming on Thursdays, tennis on Fridays and ice skating on Saturdays.  Swimming aside,  Lola seems to really enjoy all the other activities.  October 11-19 was her school's fall break, and I think Lola enjoyed having no school for such a long time (it was made longer by the fact that we had two typhoons back to back and they didn't have school on October 8 due to a big typhoon T8!)  

During this time Lola had a few playdates with friends and classmates, Al and Teo tried out a new kiddie gymnastics class, we all attended the birthday party of a set of identical twin girls turning two years old at Maggie and Rose Repulse Bay (that mom and I clinked enthusiastically over a glass of champagne), and one random weekend we went to check out The Mills (a refurbished former garment factory), which was a dog-friendly place all the way out in the New Territories with a nice playroom.  We rarely venture out so far (since twins + Covid, our life has largely been confined to essentially criss-crossing a mere 12 miles' radius (!!) Yes.  Think about that for a second) but now that we have a driver seven days a week (one that works for us full time Mon-Fri, and another that works for us part time on Sat and Sun) and the kids are getting older I'm hopeful we can explore a lot more in the New Territories or outlying islands.

We also continue to go to the American Club on weekends to go swimming.  Our biggest accomplishment this month was probably going swimming with all three kids at the American Club, and living to tell the tale!  Granted, I'm pretty sure Michael and I desperately gulped down some beer after that adventure...

This past weekend, Michael and I went out not once, not twice, but three times for dinner, which was really and truly something for us!  On Friday we went to a fancy sushi omakase dinner at Zuicho in Sheung Wan with another couple, on Saturday we went to a "casual and easy" dinner at our friends' apartment that was so adult and fancy (ha) and ended in whisky and egg tarts, and on Sunday we had dinner at the club.

It was, sadly, also the weekend that the boys were really sick, with Al burning up starting Saturday morning, and Teo following afterwards on Sunday night.  The boys ended up sleeping in our bed on Sunday night (I ended up "sleeping" (if sleeping means holding one wriggling boy while another sits/kicks/crawls on your head repeatedly) from the hours of 1am to 5am.  I was very proud that I managed to wrangle the kids to fall asleep (it only took two hours), with Michael and I serving as the outer brackets of our bed to prevent them from falling off.  

The boys were so so so cute when they were in the bed though, the two of them sitting side by side in their big diapers, with their bellies protruding, and their soft skin, downy ducky hair, and big big eyes, giggling hysterically at each other as Michael warned them sternly that "Boys, this is not playtime!"  The struggle was real, as the boys were in the middle fighting mightily for real estate.  Al and Teo had to be ornery and sleep head to toe, so if one wasn't roundhouse-kicking the other in the head, the other was stab-kicking his brother in the groin.  They also both love/hate each other so much that they need to be together and treated equally but still not touching. Clearly, our bed isn't big enough for these shenanigans.

Lola got to go to a fancy birthday party on Monday evening at the Hong Kong Jockey Club for one of her classmates, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, running around in a new soft play area with big slides.  Of the most bizarre (but strangely popular!) events of the night, a huge stuffed horse came out during cake time for pictures, and all the kids got to take pictures with it.  I was shocked when my daughter, who normally hates pictures, volunteered to be the FIRST to take pictures with the horse.  Later she returned to the table and told me earnestly that "that horse is real!!" even though her friends said that the horse was fake.

The last news before the slide into a prolonged weekend of Halloween activities (next post, which hopefully will be before end of November - really don't want it to be another month before I post again!) is that I had a dentist appointment yesterday and today to get a bunch of painful dental work done.  I hate it.  The surgeon injected me six times with local anesthetic (do you know how awful it feels to have a syringe go deep into the gums and palate, it's a quite piercing kind of pain) and I left a drooling, numb, swollen, slobbery mess.  They also didn't have the exactly right cap on hand so next week when I go back to get my stitches out they likely have to redo some of it. Oh joy, the fun never ends.  It's been exactly a year and a half since I started this journey and it's still not over.  I just want teeth, please!

An Absolutely Action Packed Start to October

We kicked off the month of October here with a long weekend for National Day on Friday, October 1.  Lola was overjoyed to have a long weekend (funny how young the appreciation starts!) and we (I) promptly exhausted ourselves packing into all kinds of activities the entire weekend.  They weren't joking when they said you need a lot of energy to have children.  I also seem not to be able to help myself, throwing myself (and the kids!) into activities left and right.  On Sunday night Michael and I sat down to dinner at the club and he ordered us huge beers, then he toasted me, clinking glasses "to your [my] overdoing things."  

I had to laugh.  He is so right. I am so over the top.

On Friday morning, I took Lola to Legoland, at her request, as soon as it opened, where we rode the Merlin's Hat rollercoaster twice (there was no line and as soon as we finished we rode it again - it was great), played in the soft play area, built lego cars for testing on the tracks, built lego buildings to withstand the earthquake station, and just played with legos generally.  

Lunch options were so paltry at Legoland that we, hungry and tired, found our way to the Peninsula, that grand dame famous hotel on some of the most picturesque and famed land in TST, where we enjoyed a supremely fancy and beautiful lunch in the lobby lounge.  We got a seat right by the front windows where we had an amazing view of the fountain and the space museum directly across the street, sitting next to a huge porcelain vase of fresh flowers and while classical music played by a live string quartet soared delicately to the gilded rafters above our heads. 

It was decadent and lovely and Lola enjoyed every moment of it.  

I have to say, one of the most amazing things about her is how much adult appreciation she packs into her pint sized body.  I'm sure lots of children enjoy things but rarely do you hear them express their appreciation of it in such a prescient and poignant way.  As soon as the front doors to the hotel was opened by doormen dressed in crisp uniforms and white gloves and we stepped inside, she took a huge deep breath and exclaimed in awe, "wow it smells so wonderful in here! I love this smell!"  Her entire little body perked up in interest and it was clear she knew immediately that she would like this place.

Then we made our way to Harbor City where we walked all the way to Adventure Land (just to look around) then Toys R Us (also just to look around).  She got her princess fix.

Then we walked back to the Star Ferry pier where we sat on the upper deck and made our way back to Central.  Mind you, this was all on foot and I had no stroller - it was a lot.  On the way home, Lola insisted on sitting by herself and made me sit very far away from her as she also made a very big point of being contemplative, staring out at the water and the boats, without paying me any mind.

We finally made it home by a little after 3 pm, at which point we took a break, showered, met up with Al and Teo, and immediately headed back out to a friend's house for a playdate at their house.  It turns out they are good friends with another one of Lola's classmates who lives in the same building, so we ended up having a nice party and eating dinner there. We wrapped up by 7 pm and the kids were all in bed and zonked out by 8.

On Saturday, we all went out for a morning walk together, then relaxed and played at home, and enjoyed a nice lunch.  In the afternoon, we went to an event in Sun Yat Sen Park that I semi-arranged/organized, for moms and dads of twins who expressed interest in meeting up and/or socializing in Hong Kong.  We met not one, not two but three sets of families with three kids, interestingly ALL with an older singleton and then twins!  Two of these families were nearly exactly in the same boat as us, with an older child who was only about 2-2.5 years older than their younger identical twin brothers.  It was so interesting to see and hear the dynamics and also just to laugh, commiserate and connect with fellow parents.  

Then we all went to dinner at the American Club with Lola and Al and Teo, which was highly stressful and reminded us of how we still have a little while to go before we're probably ready to be eating in a restaurant as a family of five...

On Sunday, I characteristically overdid it again... we dropped Lola off at art class at 9 am, then I went with Siti to play with the boys at Maggie and Rose, first getting some alone time with Al, then some alone time with Teo.  It was really wonderful and I am trying hard to make sure I build in more and more of that time for the boys as they get older.  From the first I have been very cognizant of ensuring the boys have and feel that they have their own identities.  I'm sure we don't always succeed but at least the awareness and the attempts are there.

From there, we all went home around 11:45, the boys eating lunch at home while Lola and I headed to Parkview for a lunch playdate with her friend and friend's family.  After a lovely dimsum lunch, we did a stroll of the art exhibits and collection, then went to their playroom where Lola had an absolute blast flinging herself off slides and soft play areas screaming and laughing and loving everything. 

 When we wrapped that up at 3:30, we waited around to be picked up by the boys who had just woken up for their long naps, and then we headed out to the American Club where Michael took Lola swimming while I took the boys to Stanley with Auntie Lyn and Siti. 

Lola had a great time swimming with Michael, even voluntarily putting her head in the water (though when I mentioned that, she corrected me, saying she didn't put her head but rather "her mouth, and nose, and eyes, and eyebrows" in the water) and just generally being a good sport about swimming.  Al and Teo had a really great time too, strolling around Stanley, running up and down ramps and hallways, going up and down escalators, pointing out all the boats in the harbor and all the planes in the sky, and even going shopping at the supermarket.

Look at the boys eating dinner at the club - Al in particular with the mac and cheese cracks me up.

We all had dinner together, then in a very rare and luxurious feat Michael and I got to sit and enjoy our dinner together (capped off with quite a few beers, perhaps in our giddiness at this unexpected liberation) as the aunties helped us take all three kids home first.  It was probably the first time since we've become members at this club that Michael and I got to lie down on the loungers in the country club, in the adult section, staring up at the clouds and the stars, just talking and musing and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Lola decided to accelerate her push into adulthood by going to bed by herself.  I'm not sure what happened or what triggered it but when Michael and I got home in time to say good night to the kids, Lola told me she was headed to bed by herself and ushered me out of her room after I turned on her nightlight. 

It's pretty amazing to me that Lola can handle the sheer levels of activity that I've been throwing at her and she has not taken any naps.  She has also really moderated her moods well, despite being tired, they have not really devolved into the kind of epic meltdowns that we previously had to deal with when she was younger.   It makes me wonder if part of our difficulty in getting Lola to sleep when she was younger is we never fully tired her out sufficiently.  

Al and Teo are also quite high energy and increasingly show their ability to go, go go.  We barely use the carriers or strollers anymore, and they prefer to walk (or more accurately, run) every where we go.  It's been great as they all nap or sleep pretty well (other than a few incidents with Al recently). 

Whew. All of that is to say, I am pretty tired after my long weekend "off"!

It has completely not helped matters that that very night, on Sunday, the boys woke up at 1:30 am and refused to go back to sleep until 4:15 and 4:45 am, respectively.  We were horrified and at times during the work day on Monday and Tuesday I was so tired I felt nauseous.  Since then, however, we think we've figure it out - the boys hadn't eaten well enough and were hungry and woke up.  Now we are extra, extra careful to keep their room sufficiently cool and to make sure they enough for dinner!