Mid January Progress Report

Happy MLK!  Here are some random updates for the first half of January.

Right at the beginning of this year, Lola's cousin Aegis was coming through Hong Kong for some school interviews as their family will be moving to Hong Kong this summer.  She and her dad Colby stayed with us for a day and a half and our kids were so excited to have the opportunity to be with them.  We had dinner together two nights and the kids played together very well.  There was playdoh. A lot of playdoh.

Michael continues to be on the other half of the world. He has been gone 2 weeks and I am not really sure how I am going to make it another 3.5!  The kids have been taking turns getting sick with endless ear infections and fevers. Some times it really feels like 8:30pm cannot arrive soon enough.  He has been sending us really beautiful pictures from the Outer Banks, though, which makes me anticipate our trip down there this summer.  One super cute development is his "cooking show", i.e. narrating his steps as he makes his dinner while chatting with the kids over their breakfast.  The boys, especially Al, love it. 

The boys have been signed up for a longer school day on Mondays and Wednesdays this month,  where they get to stay on in the afternoon and do more math and STEM extracurriculars.  This means they get a fresh homemade lunch dropped off for them and they eat at school - so cute!

Everyone who has seen the boys recently said they've grown so big.  They do seem quite tall.  They graduated to a soccer class for bigger kids - four year olds!

Recently I have been working with Lola on her Chinese writing and reading skills.  I have also restarted her piano lessons.  The challenge has been to get her to practice, which is not-so-fun and all the effort is behind-the-scenes grunt work.  My respect for my parents has increased multifold as I realize how much tenacity and discipline is involved in teaching, instilling and cultivating skills.  

I think the rumors about metabolism falling off a cliff after you turn 40 are still, thankfully, largely untrue. But due to a complete lack of discipline when it comes to snacking, eating candy and chips, traveling a lot, and eating out all the time (I know, I don't mean to sound as ungrateful as that came across), I have come to realize that to preserve my own energy and mental health I need to work out more and sleep more. 

To be fair, working out was challenging for a long time because of my diastasis, which made running and yoga non starters for me.  Last fall has brought a new gift to my life, which is a gym membership that is close by, and which offers me a place where I can do zumba, barre and (my least favored) weightlifting (But i like the idea of burning fat while sitting, and who doesn't want to be more toned?)

While the diastasis remains an issue, time has improved the gap a bit.  I have also started private tennis lessons, playing (albeit very poorly) once a week with a female instructor.  Doing zumba and barre has also reawakened in me a desire to dance ballet - an activity I haven't touched in 25 plus years.  I now try to attend an adult ballet class when I can fit it into my schedule, and I laugh to myself when I am in front of the barre, thinking how I have come full circle since I was 12.  There is  comfort and exhilaration in learning an entirely new activity and knowing that I still can, and also in returning to an activity that is rooted in my past and finding the latent muscle memory.