kindergarten homework is hard work...

and it doesn't help when mommy gets out the camera and tries to document it all...

bike rides in Kowloon City

We don't have bikes here in Hong Kong. We could get the girls some bikes, but if we did, we don't have a place to store them. I have one smart friend who bought a parking space in her apartment and that is where they keep their double jogging stroller and their bikes. I thought that was ingenious... I hadn't thought of doing that! But they live close to a lot of bike paths, and they've lived in Hong Kong for nine years, so naturally are a bit more settled than we are.

Anyway, we just discovered a place not too far from us where you can rent bikes and bike around some bike paths. Maybe in summer we can work on getting rid of those training wheels that Annika still needs, but at least the riding part came back to her.



We are LOVING the sunshine that we've been having again. It was a great Saturday activity and we will have to do it again.

Kowloon City is famous for Thai restaurants, so we had to have some Thai food for lunch before heading home! Yum!

The Happy Skirts Arrive!

Annika and Leila are the lucky recipients of their second round of "Happy Skirts" made by their Grandma Ruth. They were a Valentine's Day present, but unfortunately the lady at the post office sent them "surface", rather than air mail. So we've been watching the mail for a loooooong time! When the door lady gave them the packages, Annika started shrieking "the Happy Skirts! The Happy Skirts!". Thanks, Grandma Ruth! They looked very cute at church wearing them, and were very easy to spot at the playground later in the afternoon.

my point of view

The other day I had our air conditioning units cleaned. Not something I would think of to do, but makes sense that you should do this before it gets hot again so that the air is (somewhat) clean that comes out of them.

They basically invaded our little flat leaving not much space for Leila and I, so I put on a show for her to watch, and despite the loud noise of them working, I looked over and this is what I saw. Not much cuter than a sleeping child! :)

Sickies

I have to say, we've been pretty healthy in the 7.5 months we've been here. I would have expected that being exposed to new germs and bugs, and with Annika in kindergarten bringing home germs that we'd have been sick a lot more. But last Wednesday when I picked Annika up from kindergarten, she whimpered the whole way home that she was cold and as soon as we walked in the door she went and laid down on the couch and spent the rest of the evening lying there under a blanket. I kept her home from school the next day, and Leila was putzing around the whole day annoying Annika who had a fever and wasn't feeling well, when all of a sudden in the late afternoon Leila joined her on the couch with her blanket. Our ear thermometer quit working, and once you've had one of those nifty things you never want to go back, so I bought a new one and it is even better than the last one because it beeps twice if you have a fever and also shows a happy face/sad face depending if you have one or not (in addition to showing the temperature). So while Annika bounced back except for a hacking cough, Leila continued to make the thermometer show a sad face for five days straight. Finally on Monday I decided it was time to see what a trip to the doctor in Hong Kong is like.

There is a hospital right across from CAIS, so Jocelyn showed us where to go and what to do. You pretty much just walk in and ask to see a doctor. You pay up front, but get reimbursed from our health insurance provider once we submit our claim. I was pretty impressed- we didn't have to wait all that long, and the doctor's English was really good. The only thing is that all the nurses and doctors have masks, so that made it a little hard to understand them because their mouths were covered. But he was really thorough, and even recommended a chest x-ray to eliminate the possibility of pneumonia. I just wanted her checked out because she had an ear infection last spring and never once told me that her ears hurt. In the end, he said it was mild bronchitis and sent us home with FOUR bottles of medicine! Isn't that crazy? And so confusing to keep track of all the instructions. One of them is just Dimetapp which is good because our reserves of Canadian medicine have been getting low. So I've just been giving her the antibiotics and the fever/cough/phloem ones as needed. And she's already feeling a lot better.

But I have been feeling the whole time that the girls have been sick that I may be getting a sinus infection. I hoped I could fight it off, but today my teeth started tingling (does anyone else get that with a sinus infection?) and realized that it was my turn to see the doctor.

And look! My own little pharmacy of pills. They give them out like candy! Now Mike came home with a hoarse voice, so he may be next. There have been lots of kids absent in both his and Annika's class, so there is definitely stuff going around. I think the cool damp weather doesn't help.

But I'm sure soon we'll be back to our healthy selves, and now we have a better idea of how the doctor/hospital system works. One good thing is that the girls go to bed SO easily while they've been under the weather. We've pretty much thrown Leila into bed as early as 6:30 some nights, and Annika is quick to follow. And all this talk of bed is making me want to retire early myself... Good night!

evening walk

The other evening after a warm day that felt like spring (but it got cold again), we went on an after supper walk. Mike had discovered this little playground, but the rest of us hadn't been there. You had to walk up these stairs up the edge of a small mountain (hill?).

And at the top... GRASS! What a treat for after all that exercise! Look how it's so grey. We haven't seen the sun in a long time. I keep reminding myself that I'd rather have grey than snow. I really would. ("Rain and grey would be welcome and preferably/melt away my frozen tears/ I'd rather be/ with an umbrella walking down the street.") But good thing the multi-vitamins I give the girls have some Vitamin D in them!

Here's some rickety steps leading up to nowhere. There were signs that we weren't allowed to use them.
And here's the view of where we came from. That big apartment complex is called Celestial Heights, and I wish we could live there. But we can't afford it- the rent is really high, but the flats are also (apparently) huge. It's a new building, and there's a shopping complex at the bottom of it which is where I always go to do my grocery shopping. And it's where the girls have their ballet lessons. There's also a dim sum place that I'd like to try, but (apparently) Mike is not a fan of dim sum. It doesn't fill him up. Well... anyway....

So at the top of this mountain, the girls became fast friends with this little guy, and he became fast friends with Mike. With the exception of his own daughters, I've never seen a baby take to Mike the way this boy did! He was like a puppy who wouldn't leave you alone. He kept toddling up to Mike and want to be picked up. Then the five or so ladies standing around would all cackle and laugh, and the one (I assume was his grandma) would come and take him back.

But it was no use. As soon as his grandma would put him back down, he'd be right back to where Mike was, wanting to be picked up again. Also, it was funny to me that he was wearing a snow suit when it was really quite warm out!

The whole thing got a little awkward because as soon as Mike would appease the little guy and pick him up, his grandma would come take him back, and it just continued like that until we left. And then he howled and was so sad. It made us wonder what kind of male involvement was happening in his life for him to have that kind of reaction. But it was still a nice walk and we continued up more steps and were rewarded with a tennis court at the top. And bathrooms.
Here the girls are modeling their new shirts, hairbands and butterfly toys from Grandma and Grandpa Janzen! They love everything you sent! Thank-you!

Leila's turn

Yesterday Leila had her first lesson, and you know that expression "her face lit up"? I put on her outfit and showed her in the mirror and the look she got on her face was priceless. There's not much that can beat a purple tutu! She had a great time and wished she could go again today. Tu-tu cute!

love

Photo Shoot

Yesterday was Leila's big day- her photoshoot with Nicolas & Bears. It was an interesting experience! All week I was wondering where it would be since the location was TBA when they set the date. I finally found out that it would be at the home of the lady who first approached us in August, and a driver would be sent to pick me and Leila up. Perfect! It was supposed to be at 3:40, which already seemed late but I got a call during the day that our pick-up time was being moved to 4:40 and would take until 8:00. That was during Leila's nap, so I let her sleep and sleep and finally got her up four to get ready to go. I never let her nap long, but it wanted her to have as much stamina as possible. Really, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I hadn't been told very much about it.
The driver was on time to pick us up, and in the van was another mom originally from Poland, her helper, and her one year old baby girl. I could see why they wanted the baby- she was so cute with big blue eyes and a whole head of hair. We drove and drove way out into the New Territories and I had no idea where we even were, and the van pulled up into a gated community that had dwellings as close to North American style that I have seen in Hong Kong. It all looked very fancy, and there were garages, big front doors and back yards. You just don't see that here- just lots and lots of high rises! Inside was huge and fancy- the kitchen alone was easily as big as our flat! To think that my friend's tiny HK flat cost $400,000 USD to purchase would probably make this home of Elaine's worth millions. Anyway, it had all been turned upside down to make it work for a photo shoot and they had had kids coming and going throughout the day. Leila and little baby Emily were the last two of the day.
Leila loved getting her hair and make-up (a bit of lip gloss and blush) done. She was so shy and cooperative. While they did this, a boy and a girl finished up the last of their pictures so once she was done, they were ready to start.

Getting Leila set up in her first of EIGHT outfits. She was really excited at this point, but once they started taking pictures, I think she realized that it was more difficult than she thought. I know how hard it is to take pictures of my kids. I mean I KNOW! It's hard! That CNY photo session is still very fresh in my mind. But I only worry about their face- not their hair, their pose or whether their clothes are looking perfect. (Later I sometimes regret that I didn't fix their hair or wipe their face, but it's hard enough to get the smile!) When the picture is supposed to be about the clothes, that really changes things. Leila would smile, but it would be too forced. We'd get her to laugh, but then her shoulders would go up, or she'd move her arms in front of herself and wiggle and tap her feet. And then her hair would get messed up and have to be fixed. It was all really tricky to have her be able to just stand with her hands at her side and SMILE. So after the first outfit she announced to me that she was done and wanted her regular clothes back on. But unfortunately we had many more wardrobe changes to go.

(Refueling with grapes and goldfish for the next round....)

All the while, Leila and the baby would switch off. I would never want to do something like this with a baby! At least Leila sort of understood what was going on. It was a little hard on little Emily, especially as time went on. But she was a very happy little girl and did really well. I have such a new respect for babies and children that you see in catalogues!

Getting Leila ready for her weekend trip to the country club....oops I mean, for the next pictures. Seriously, this company sells clothes as if these children are off to Martha's Vineyard or for a weekend on a yacht. It's so over the top! Also, all the kids that they advertise with are Caucasian and clearly they are marketing to Chinese people since all their locations are in HK and China. Kind of funny.


Leila had her moments where she wanted to be "all done", but we pushed through, and they got what they wanted. We were finally done at nine. And she fell asleep pretty quickly on the drive home. I was surprised that when she woke up this morning the first thing she told Mike and Annika is that she had fun at Nicolas & Bears. Out of curiosity I asked her if she would want to do it again and she said she wouldn't. It was pretty stressful. I think I'd only want to do something like this again is if there was actually some cold hard cash involved. :) But there were some catalogues from last year lying around, and the pictures were really nice. When it's all said and done, I think it will be fun to see the pictures and it definitely was an experience!