The last time I wrote while we were in the midst of the movers unpacking, was during our move to our HK apartment on Boxing Day of 2008. This time, it is unpacking yet again in NZ, after expanding our household members and the number of boxes belonging to us. Hopefully we won't have to move any time soon again.
The move went well. Perhaps I had such low expectations of the NZ movers unpacking, but actually the crew was much better, and even a bit better than the crew in HK in my view. There were some damage -- our India Jaipur delicate stone inlay box, my favorite Vermont chest of drawers, and the Japan Kyoto ceramic art. But the other stuff made it, in one piece, or rather, in 316 boxes.
We had intended to take our helper in HK to help us with the move for one month but her visa application got rejected twice, an expensive 8000 HKD lesson to learn never buy a non-refundable ticket again! But luckily my aunt was able to fly with us to help with the children, and it helps that Jack adores her and wanted to do everything with her San Gu Po. The unpacking is going steady and starting to see a home slowly take shape is such a great joy, albeit a lot of work. We are both loving the house, and the great weather so far has certainly helped. Jack has also started school straight away after the second day of us landing and seemed to enjoy it and started to make new friends. Mic's cousin Judy and her boyfriend will be visiting next week to help with a bit of the unpacking. I feel so blessed and thankful about this move and the house, everything every step of the way just felt right and falling into place. Even our helper not able to come, turned out to feel right also -- this is our new life, and it was probably right that we needed to do this ourselves.
Settling in, into sunny Nelson.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Final Countdown
We are going into the final countdown stage for our days in Hong Kong.
The move is scheduled on May 4/5, and then our new tenants are moving in on May 7. Our flight is booked for NZ on June 14, the one way ticket, finally. It's hard to believe that we have less than a week here, the flat that we spent such effort on and called home, and thoroughly enjoyed since we bought it in 2008.
As we were walking through and preparing the manual for the tenants, it brings up so much memory of all the little details and thoughts that went into the making of this home. I am going to miss it, to some extent, but I am also glad that we will be moving on to this new chapter that's been in the planning for so long.
The logistics have worked quite seamlessly. The old items being sold, the new items coming in. The move, the rental. Every day there's something on the calendar that progresses the move. The movers, that's another story, but the short summary is I had to fire the one I am about to sign on and find a new mover the week before our scheduled move, but that's sorted, hopefully, by this afternoon at 3pm when I sign the new contract.
So slowly but surely, and steadily, we are exiting Hong Kong.
The move is scheduled on May 4/5, and then our new tenants are moving in on May 7. Our flight is booked for NZ on June 14, the one way ticket, finally. It's hard to believe that we have less than a week here, the flat that we spent such effort on and called home, and thoroughly enjoyed since we bought it in 2008.
As we were walking through and preparing the manual for the tenants, it brings up so much memory of all the little details and thoughts that went into the making of this home. I am going to miss it, to some extent, but I am also glad that we will be moving on to this new chapter that's been in the planning for so long.
The logistics have worked quite seamlessly. The old items being sold, the new items coming in. The move, the rental. Every day there's something on the calendar that progresses the move. The movers, that's another story, but the short summary is I had to fire the one I am about to sign on and find a new mover the week before our scheduled move, but that's sorted, hopefully, by this afternoon at 3pm when I sign the new contract.
So slowly but surely, and steadily, we are exiting Hong Kong.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Consciousness
It's been rainy and grey the entire time we have been back in Hong Kong, funny to say this, but I am starting to miss the blue skies of NZ.
The days have been busy trying to shop for the new house. Luckily the house is not that big so we don't have that many things to buy, but we already made three Ap Lei Chau trips and finally placed an order for our new dining table and chairs yesterday.
It is exciting thinking about living in our new house, and furnishing a space. It was almost like buying our HK apartment eight years ago and the excitement planning the renovation. I remember what hard work it was but it was also really nice being able to enjoy living in HK that much more after having our own space designed to our needs. I can also finally say after three years since the start of us embarking on the NZ idea, I am truly ready to leave this city. I no longer fear the prospect of living in a country where we have to start over from scratch on everything, and a life with no helpers. The latter really sounds like such a first world problem and makes me feel like a looser that is even something I fear. However, the last few years and our extended travel has allowed us to practice living in all sorts of conditions and prepared me for this final move.
It's still a big task to sort and organize all our belongings, but we are doing it at our own pace and not in any rush. Mic said to me the other day, we are now truly chartering our life every single day. We determine what we do every single second of the day, and in a way, that is a great responsibility because we don't have any outside distractions/excuses for anything we do. I found this phase of our lives very inward facing, partly because of the constant demands of the children which takes us out of the social scene, but also the inward reflections are very true and personal. It is a phase of a deep true look at what makes me wake up every morning, what brings joy to me, and what I choose to spend my time and energy on. I no longer have things that just fills my day, like work, which makes me just go full speed ahead and allows me to moan about the life I was missing. The level of consciousness is so much higher and I actually find I am striving that much more to improve on my personality faults and be a better person.
There are still days I fail miserably, at being patient, being charitable, being compassionate. There are days I fall into my own pit of misery and bad moods. But at least I am aware, and every day, trying a little harder, to make the right choices with the consciousness I have not experienced before.
The days have been busy trying to shop for the new house. Luckily the house is not that big so we don't have that many things to buy, but we already made three Ap Lei Chau trips and finally placed an order for our new dining table and chairs yesterday.
It is exciting thinking about living in our new house, and furnishing a space. It was almost like buying our HK apartment eight years ago and the excitement planning the renovation. I remember what hard work it was but it was also really nice being able to enjoy living in HK that much more after having our own space designed to our needs. I can also finally say after three years since the start of us embarking on the NZ idea, I am truly ready to leave this city. I no longer fear the prospect of living in a country where we have to start over from scratch on everything, and a life with no helpers. The latter really sounds like such a first world problem and makes me feel like a looser that is even something I fear. However, the last few years and our extended travel has allowed us to practice living in all sorts of conditions and prepared me for this final move.
It's still a big task to sort and organize all our belongings, but we are doing it at our own pace and not in any rush. Mic said to me the other day, we are now truly chartering our life every single day. We determine what we do every single second of the day, and in a way, that is a great responsibility because we don't have any outside distractions/excuses for anything we do. I found this phase of our lives very inward facing, partly because of the constant demands of the children which takes us out of the social scene, but also the inward reflections are very true and personal. It is a phase of a deep true look at what makes me wake up every morning, what brings joy to me, and what I choose to spend my time and energy on. I no longer have things that just fills my day, like work, which makes me just go full speed ahead and allows me to moan about the life I was missing. The level of consciousness is so much higher and I actually find I am striving that much more to improve on my personality faults and be a better person.
There are still days I fail miserably, at being patient, being charitable, being compassionate. There are days I fall into my own pit of misery and bad moods. But at least I am aware, and every day, trying a little harder, to make the right choices with the consciousness I have not experienced before.
Saturday, March 12, 2016
The Journey and That New Address....
Where did the time go? The travel certainly has kept us busy over the last year, and we became experts at packing/unpacking. After the last post on the blog, we spent two months in Mauritius, followed by another two months in the US, attending three family weddings. It was great to be able to prioritize these weddings now, contrasting to all the events we missed in our busy work life. I loved sharing these milestone moments with the ones we loved, creating precious memories to be treasured . The US trip was also a great tour from the West to the East Coast seeing our closest friends - trips with Annie to the Roaring Camp, attending Susie's little Tim's baptism and becoming a Godmother, seeing Mike L, Bert, and YP settling in his new Bay Area life; the great reunion with Nancy and Ore at the Lake House where the dreams were spelled out three years ago; spending time with Glenn, Dionne, Stef in NYC/New England. Jack-Jack celebrated his third birthday at aunty Mina's in Boston, enjoyed a great culinary delight and his first Halloween pumpkin carving experience. He also had duties being the ring bearer, twice, at uncle Donovan and uncle Eric's weddings, looking so smart and grown up.
Afterwards, we embarked on our three month house hunting trip in Nelson, NZ.
It was quite a roller coaster ride. We arrived in early December, and were offered the Kiwi hospitality of staying with a friend we met at Rabbit Island from our last trip in their tranquil house in the Wairoa Gorge. It was good to have a base for our house hunt but that turned into quite a stress point for us later on. I suppose we were on such a mission to find a place we house-hunted with a lot of intensity -- we saw just about everything there is in the market, which is a lot -- and it was very exhausting to do this while lugging two kids in tow, in and out of the car, open-home after open-home. By the end of the process we practically could count all the streets in Richmond, the town we were looking to find a house in the Nelson region, and have a stack of notes on all the valuations of the various houses, neighborhoods, size/date of construction, approaching it with our investment banking training background. It was a such a first world problem that I feel I had no right to complain (it sounded so ridiculous to complain not finding a house with the ideal view, layout, construction, when it is not money we were lacking to buy a house) - yet it still brought about challenging moments for us feeling mentally exhausted by the lack of prospect of returning to a base that we can set up our home.
The friends we stayed with did not have children, so an infant and a toddler doing what kids that age do was quite disruptive to the way they live. They were very nice and didn't say a word of complaint, but we were quite self-conscious about it and felt the need to keep the kids away so the four of us practically lived in a way that we were out soon after the kids finish breakfast and only returned at night to shower and sleep, spending the whole day outside, every day, for three months. We soon became very familiar with the library (by the way, they allow you to take out 35 books per card -- imagine what a little library you can have at home! and we certainly went through our fair share of reading in the three months), and all the shady parking spots where the kids can take a nap during the day. The particularly challenging part for me was eating out all the time, without being able to make my own food. In hindsight we should have planned for an alternative short term accommodation but by the time we wanted to find another place everything was booked up for the busy summer holiday period, even motels only had short openings and no BnB/rental could accommodate our stay. We came to really value the need to have our own space, and making that mission of finding our own place just a little more desperate as well.
During the three months we also took a few breaks by taking some road trips - one week to the West Coast just after Xmas, two weeks in Wellington visiting mic's cousin in early January, who will be our closest relative in NZ, and another two weeks to Christchurch in Feb. These trips were welcome breaks to our cluttered and confused minds over finding our ideal home and also reinforces the reason we chose to move here -- the easy access to amazing scenery, beautiful walks, and incredibly child friendly.
Overall it was a good time. The weather was pleasant, the pace was slow, life was simple and pleasures were simple. Sweet tasting summer berries straight off the bush, Jack running with his dump truck on a stretch of beach that is miles long with nobody else on it, amazing sunsets, ever changing skies and clouds, picnics under the tree, aroma from freshly brewed delicious flat-whites, crisp tasting water from the well, and the list goes on.
Despite what a wonderful place we were in, I still got home-sick, at times, and that little cloud of doubt casted over our seemingly crazy decision to move away from everything we were familiar with. It didn't help that Veronique and I celebrated our birthdays away from close family and friends. I thought life would be enough, just the four of us, but I actually felt very sad that Veronique's first birthday was such a non-event. I was never into big parties so it wasn't that I wished for a fancy celebration and lots of people showing up, like what Jack had for his first birthday, but it just felt very lonely, that it was just us, with no one else that really cared for her by her side, seeing her at this milestone, taking her first steps, speaking her first words, and growing into her own little person day by day.
Jack-Jack was such a trooper, as always, an incredibly good traveler, and as accommodating as a three year old can be for our house hunting schedules. We sent him to a few pre-schools trials and to my surprise he adjusted so well to it like he belonged there on day one. I was worried with our nomadic lives he wasn't going to be ready to be away from us right away and I thought I had to gradually withdraw from the classroom, but he just happily waved goodbye the first time he stepped foot in the school and it was me who teared up from seeing how big my little boy has all of a sudden become. We signed him up so he has a spot at the Ark Preschool when we return, a welcome stability for him and for us.
The solution to our future address finally appeared the last week before we left. It was actually one of the first houses we saw in the first week we arrived but was ruled out as mic and I had different opinions over it. Subsequently the seller realized he didn't have a code of compliance certificate for the house so it was taken off the market while he sorts it out with the local council, and only came back on the market during our last week. Upon seeing it for the second time, we fell in love with it (well, I hate to say, but I always liked it from the start), and decided to make an offer on it.
Perhaps it was fate. Like a lot of things in life, you need to go through a certain journey, and what seemed like a full circle process was just the unavoidable learning you need to go through to discover what you really want, even though it may have been right in front of your eyes from the start. Regardless, I am happy that the hunt is over, and we didn't make the offer out of desperation, and this is a house that we can and will make a life in for this next phase of our lives.
377 Hill Street.
Afterwards, we embarked on our three month house hunting trip in Nelson, NZ.
It was quite a roller coaster ride. We arrived in early December, and were offered the Kiwi hospitality of staying with a friend we met at Rabbit Island from our last trip in their tranquil house in the Wairoa Gorge. It was good to have a base for our house hunt but that turned into quite a stress point for us later on. I suppose we were on such a mission to find a place we house-hunted with a lot of intensity -- we saw just about everything there is in the market, which is a lot -- and it was very exhausting to do this while lugging two kids in tow, in and out of the car, open-home after open-home. By the end of the process we practically could count all the streets in Richmond, the town we were looking to find a house in the Nelson region, and have a stack of notes on all the valuations of the various houses, neighborhoods, size/date of construction, approaching it with our investment banking training background. It was a such a first world problem that I feel I had no right to complain (it sounded so ridiculous to complain not finding a house with the ideal view, layout, construction, when it is not money we were lacking to buy a house) - yet it still brought about challenging moments for us feeling mentally exhausted by the lack of prospect of returning to a base that we can set up our home.
The friends we stayed with did not have children, so an infant and a toddler doing what kids that age do was quite disruptive to the way they live. They were very nice and didn't say a word of complaint, but we were quite self-conscious about it and felt the need to keep the kids away so the four of us practically lived in a way that we were out soon after the kids finish breakfast and only returned at night to shower and sleep, spending the whole day outside, every day, for three months. We soon became very familiar with the library (by the way, they allow you to take out 35 books per card -- imagine what a little library you can have at home! and we certainly went through our fair share of reading in the three months), and all the shady parking spots where the kids can take a nap during the day. The particularly challenging part for me was eating out all the time, without being able to make my own food. In hindsight we should have planned for an alternative short term accommodation but by the time we wanted to find another place everything was booked up for the busy summer holiday period, even motels only had short openings and no BnB/rental could accommodate our stay. We came to really value the need to have our own space, and making that mission of finding our own place just a little more desperate as well.
During the three months we also took a few breaks by taking some road trips - one week to the West Coast just after Xmas, two weeks in Wellington visiting mic's cousin in early January, who will be our closest relative in NZ, and another two weeks to Christchurch in Feb. These trips were welcome breaks to our cluttered and confused minds over finding our ideal home and also reinforces the reason we chose to move here -- the easy access to amazing scenery, beautiful walks, and incredibly child friendly.
Overall it was a good time. The weather was pleasant, the pace was slow, life was simple and pleasures were simple. Sweet tasting summer berries straight off the bush, Jack running with his dump truck on a stretch of beach that is miles long with nobody else on it, amazing sunsets, ever changing skies and clouds, picnics under the tree, aroma from freshly brewed delicious flat-whites, crisp tasting water from the well, and the list goes on.
Despite what a wonderful place we were in, I still got home-sick, at times, and that little cloud of doubt casted over our seemingly crazy decision to move away from everything we were familiar with. It didn't help that Veronique and I celebrated our birthdays away from close family and friends. I thought life would be enough, just the four of us, but I actually felt very sad that Veronique's first birthday was such a non-event. I was never into big parties so it wasn't that I wished for a fancy celebration and lots of people showing up, like what Jack had for his first birthday, but it just felt very lonely, that it was just us, with no one else that really cared for her by her side, seeing her at this milestone, taking her first steps, speaking her first words, and growing into her own little person day by day.
Jack-Jack was such a trooper, as always, an incredibly good traveler, and as accommodating as a three year old can be for our house hunting schedules. We sent him to a few pre-schools trials and to my surprise he adjusted so well to it like he belonged there on day one. I was worried with our nomadic lives he wasn't going to be ready to be away from us right away and I thought I had to gradually withdraw from the classroom, but he just happily waved goodbye the first time he stepped foot in the school and it was me who teared up from seeing how big my little boy has all of a sudden become. We signed him up so he has a spot at the Ark Preschool when we return, a welcome stability for him and for us.
The solution to our future address finally appeared the last week before we left. It was actually one of the first houses we saw in the first week we arrived but was ruled out as mic and I had different opinions over it. Subsequently the seller realized he didn't have a code of compliance certificate for the house so it was taken off the market while he sorts it out with the local council, and only came back on the market during our last week. Upon seeing it for the second time, we fell in love with it (well, I hate to say, but I always liked it from the start), and decided to make an offer on it.
Perhaps it was fate. Like a lot of things in life, you need to go through a certain journey, and what seemed like a full circle process was just the unavoidable learning you need to go through to discover what you really want, even though it may have been right in front of your eyes from the start. Regardless, I am happy that the hunt is over, and we didn't make the offer out of desperation, and this is a house that we can and will make a life in for this next phase of our lives.
377 Hill Street.
Friday, July 17, 2015
World Travel Year
How quickly time flies by.
Veronique is already 6 months old at a healthy 8kg (the weight Jack-Jack was at around 10.5 months of age), and she is certainly very keen to explore the world - sitting up and crawling at before 6 months, and now she's even interested to see the world from a new perspective by practicing standing up while holding on to things, the first stages of cruising and walking.
Jack-Jack is also developing into a fun age. His language skills is going through explosive growth, being able to speak and reason in full sentences, and able to switch back and forth between English and Mandarin, although his Chinese is still much better than his English, reflecting on how we have been trying to speak Chinese to him most of the time. The tantrums have subsided a little, and it seems that he's slowly taking in our reasonings. It's amazing to think what we are doing are shaping the lives of these two little creatures, and what a rewarding experience that is.
This year is our year to settle into our lives as a family of four, and travel around before our moves into NZ by the end of this year. We already spent 3 weeks in Hokkaido, Japan in June, and another 3 weeks in Taiwan seeing family and friends. The Japan road trip was a great holiday for us - escaping the summer heat in HK and Taiwan, enjoying the fresh and amazing produce/food in Hokkaido, and relaxing in the onsen all around Hokkaido (well, relaxing in a relative sense, it is certainly hard to really have a tranquil onsen experience with two kids). It was also great to see family in Taiwan, given us a little break from the constant child care as my aunt and dad takes over the role of playing with Jack-Jack and Mic and I can have a little time to ourselves. On our 13th wedding anniversary we were able to have a little coffee date on Yung Kang Street and have a little chat without the constant interruption of kids.
Our next trip is 6 weeks in Mauritius to attend mic's cousin's wedding, and then another 2 month trip to the US for another two weddings of my cousins. We often reflect on how meaningful our lives are now being able to spend time on what really matters in our lives and how extremely lucky we are to have come to the realization of what we want. It is certainly not a conventional life, but the direction just seems right as things fall into place so effortlessly. Our December trip to NZ will be for three months of househunting, and hopefully settling on a future home of ours. And a friend whom we have only met twice had so generously offered their home for us to stay until we find our own. The NZ dollar has also continue to fall against the dollar making economical savings to our move later this year. I jokingly said Veronique's arrival, thus delaying our move, had already proved to be providing us with our 2015 expense funds because she saved us so much money by delaying our currency exchange. God will provide, and he certainly does.
2015, a year of living out of our suitcase (or half a year since its only from June onwards), mentally saying goodbye to the HK home which we have set up for ourselves.
Onwards.
Veronique is already 6 months old at a healthy 8kg (the weight Jack-Jack was at around 10.5 months of age), and she is certainly very keen to explore the world - sitting up and crawling at before 6 months, and now she's even interested to see the world from a new perspective by practicing standing up while holding on to things, the first stages of cruising and walking.
Jack-Jack is also developing into a fun age. His language skills is going through explosive growth, being able to speak and reason in full sentences, and able to switch back and forth between English and Mandarin, although his Chinese is still much better than his English, reflecting on how we have been trying to speak Chinese to him most of the time. The tantrums have subsided a little, and it seems that he's slowly taking in our reasonings. It's amazing to think what we are doing are shaping the lives of these two little creatures, and what a rewarding experience that is.
This year is our year to settle into our lives as a family of four, and travel around before our moves into NZ by the end of this year. We already spent 3 weeks in Hokkaido, Japan in June, and another 3 weeks in Taiwan seeing family and friends. The Japan road trip was a great holiday for us - escaping the summer heat in HK and Taiwan, enjoying the fresh and amazing produce/food in Hokkaido, and relaxing in the onsen all around Hokkaido (well, relaxing in a relative sense, it is certainly hard to really have a tranquil onsen experience with two kids). It was also great to see family in Taiwan, given us a little break from the constant child care as my aunt and dad takes over the role of playing with Jack-Jack and Mic and I can have a little time to ourselves. On our 13th wedding anniversary we were able to have a little coffee date on Yung Kang Street and have a little chat without the constant interruption of kids.
Our next trip is 6 weeks in Mauritius to attend mic's cousin's wedding, and then another 2 month trip to the US for another two weddings of my cousins. We often reflect on how meaningful our lives are now being able to spend time on what really matters in our lives and how extremely lucky we are to have come to the realization of what we want. It is certainly not a conventional life, but the direction just seems right as things fall into place so effortlessly. Our December trip to NZ will be for three months of househunting, and hopefully settling on a future home of ours. And a friend whom we have only met twice had so generously offered their home for us to stay until we find our own. The NZ dollar has also continue to fall against the dollar making economical savings to our move later this year. I jokingly said Veronique's arrival, thus delaying our move, had already proved to be providing us with our 2015 expense funds because she saved us so much money by delaying our currency exchange. God will provide, and he certainly does.
2015, a year of living out of our suitcase (or half a year since its only from June onwards), mentally saying goodbye to the HK home which we have set up for ourselves.
Onwards.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Veronique 4 Months + 1 day ; Jack-Jack 2 years 6 months + 10 days
I feel so bad that we only just realized Veronique has turned four months on the day when a neighbor asked us how old she was. On top of that, we forgot to take her "monthly" photo on the playmat that we religiously did with Jack.
She is still growing like a champion. Yesterday I weighed her on the baby scale and she's already at a solid 7.25kg with her outfit and diaper. I remember those days when I was nervously weighing Jack-Jack to see if he's taking in enough milk so that the doctor would no longer consider him to be a "failure to thrive" child, ah, those dark days of motherhood. Now with Veronique I have fully accepted my role as the on-demand cow and take her everywhere I go.
She's a bit like her brother in the sense that she's not a great sleeper at night. She was quite good during those confinement months, and almost sleeping through with the occasional 5-hour stretches and I only had to get up once or twice. Now getting up twice to three times is considered a good night in my books, and on those regular nights... I lost count. But at least co-sleeping allowed me to still function with reasonable clarity and energy during the day, but to do that comfortably I had to send mic to sleep with Jack-Jack so I can have some more wiggle room on our bed. So there is a price to pay, but I always say to myself and mic that this is just a phase, before you know it she will be out of our bed and probably won't even answer when we call her, so I am just trying to enjoy those morning cuddles when it's just me and her, on the bed when the whole house is still quiet. It's actually a really special moment for me. With two kids in a house I rarely have a quiet moment like this to enjoy her this way, so even if I am sleepy-eyed and wish that I could lay for another hour, I get up, and I kiss and hug and smile back at her. She's a dutiful little alarm clock waking me up almost at 6AM every single morning kicking and bouncing her head on me vigorously to make sure I get up to play with her, and gives me her most adorable smile when I kiss her. She's much more social of a child than Jack-Jack, smiling a lot and loves to examine faces and people.
Her skin condition has finally improved a bit, after trying out endless bottles of lotion, oil and bath gels. And while the thighs are still chunky, she's leaned and lengthened a lot and looking more and more like a pretty little girl, easing her mother's vanity anxiety that her daughter is not beautiful enough. Physically she is very strong, long been able to hold her neck straight with ease, now when you pull her hand she can also sit up and stand with support.
**********************
Jack-Jack is going through an explosive stage of development on the language side. He's all of a sudden over the last two weeks started to talk a lot, putting together full sentences, having a real conversation, and switch with ease between Chinese and English depending on the audience. He can also recount what happened during the day with you (sometimes with some imagination, too). Just yesterday he went to the park with our helper and he told me "看到兩個crane truck" on the way home, and "腳痛痛，要塗藥藥，因為有碰到火，在Fireboat" (which is of course imaginary)
With both sets of grandparents in town for Veronique's baptism, he was a little Mandarin chatter with my dad and switches to English speaking to mic's parents and mic's sister. So interesting to watch.
Just yesterday, he started to ask the "what" and "why"s on just about everything he sees. I can just see those curiosity firing like little electric grids inside his head. So now we have explain to him when we are taking a lift, where does it go to, what happens after we get out of the lift, and the surroundings.
One more thing to note was my dad's time spent with him two weeks a go has certainly left his mark. Just last night I was reading him books before his bed time, and afterwards told him I wanted to hug and kiss him. This was our conversation:
"媽咪好想抱抱親親你“
“不要“
“為什麼不要？這樣媽咪好傷心耶“
“........" (silence)
"你是媽咪的小寶貝耶！我好想抱抱你、親親你喔“
“不是“
“？“
“ Jack-Jack 是外公的小寶貝“
媽咪無言中
She is still growing like a champion. Yesterday I weighed her on the baby scale and she's already at a solid 7.25kg with her outfit and diaper. I remember those days when I was nervously weighing Jack-Jack to see if he's taking in enough milk so that the doctor would no longer consider him to be a "failure to thrive" child, ah, those dark days of motherhood. Now with Veronique I have fully accepted my role as the on-demand cow and take her everywhere I go.
She's a bit like her brother in the sense that she's not a great sleeper at night. She was quite good during those confinement months, and almost sleeping through with the occasional 5-hour stretches and I only had to get up once or twice. Now getting up twice to three times is considered a good night in my books, and on those regular nights... I lost count. But at least co-sleeping allowed me to still function with reasonable clarity and energy during the day, but to do that comfortably I had to send mic to sleep with Jack-Jack so I can have some more wiggle room on our bed. So there is a price to pay, but I always say to myself and mic that this is just a phase, before you know it she will be out of our bed and probably won't even answer when we call her, so I am just trying to enjoy those morning cuddles when it's just me and her, on the bed when the whole house is still quiet. It's actually a really special moment for me. With two kids in a house I rarely have a quiet moment like this to enjoy her this way, so even if I am sleepy-eyed and wish that I could lay for another hour, I get up, and I kiss and hug and smile back at her. She's a dutiful little alarm clock waking me up almost at 6AM every single morning kicking and bouncing her head on me vigorously to make sure I get up to play with her, and gives me her most adorable smile when I kiss her. She's much more social of a child than Jack-Jack, smiling a lot and loves to examine faces and people.
Her skin condition has finally improved a bit, after trying out endless bottles of lotion, oil and bath gels. And while the thighs are still chunky, she's leaned and lengthened a lot and looking more and more like a pretty little girl, easing her mother's vanity anxiety that her daughter is not beautiful enough. Physically she is very strong, long been able to hold her neck straight with ease, now when you pull her hand she can also sit up and stand with support.
**********************
Jack-Jack is going through an explosive stage of development on the language side. He's all of a sudden over the last two weeks started to talk a lot, putting together full sentences, having a real conversation, and switch with ease between Chinese and English depending on the audience. He can also recount what happened during the day with you (sometimes with some imagination, too). Just yesterday he went to the park with our helper and he told me "看到兩個crane truck" on the way home, and "腳痛痛，要塗藥藥，因為有碰到火，在Fireboat" (which is of course imaginary)
With both sets of grandparents in town for Veronique's baptism, he was a little Mandarin chatter with my dad and switches to English speaking to mic's parents and mic's sister. So interesting to watch.
Just yesterday, he started to ask the "what" and "why"s on just about everything he sees. I can just see those curiosity firing like little electric grids inside his head. So now we have explain to him when we are taking a lift, where does it go to, what happens after we get out of the lift, and the surroundings.
One more thing to note was my dad's time spent with him two weeks a go has certainly left his mark. Just last night I was reading him books before his bed time, and afterwards told him I wanted to hug and kiss him. This was our conversation:
"媽咪好想抱抱親親你“
“不要“
“為什麼不要？這樣媽咪好傷心耶“
“........" (silence)
"你是媽咪的小寶貝耶！我好想抱抱你、親親你喔“
“不是“
“？“
“ Jack-Jack 是外公的小寶貝“
媽咪無言中
Friday, April 17, 2015
Family, Family, Family
After two plus years away from the corporate world, it does seem like we belong to a different world, especially as I walk through Central and seeing people rushing in their high power suits and beautiful three inch heels. Parts of me miss the look of work, but honestly I don't really miss the content of what I spent hours of life doing while I was working. On the contrary, I am quite happily content with my role as a mother and wife and taking care of the "little" things in life, like making dinner, reading to Jack-Jack, or even changing Veronique's diaper. When people ask me what we do nowadays, I guess my only answer would be "spending time with family", and never did I really understood the weight of these words until today.
I never thought that I would say that being a mother was a true calling that I am settled into. Even though I am still probably not the perfect mother but I have never felt more content, and settled, ever, in my life until today. I love the fact that I am spending 24/7 with the people I love the most in the my life, and I almost don't have time for anything else that can't compete in terms of level of fulfillment. Of course there are the usual ups and downs in life, but overall I thank God for the blessings we receive everyday. Being with family, the family we created, is truly amazing. Seeing your kids grow, every day, into this little person with thoughts and character, is truly special.
This year will be a busy year filled with trips to see family and friends before our final move into NZ. It seems that progress of life is now measured in months and seems to slip by so ever quickly. I am just breathing it in, inhaling the sweetness of, my family.
I never thought that I would say that being a mother was a true calling that I am settled into. Even though I am still probably not the perfect mother but I have never felt more content, and settled, ever, in my life until today. I love the fact that I am spending 24/7 with the people I love the most in the my life, and I almost don't have time for anything else that can't compete in terms of level of fulfillment. Of course there are the usual ups and downs in life, but overall I thank God for the blessings we receive everyday. Being with family, the family we created, is truly amazing. Seeing your kids grow, every day, into this little person with thoughts and character, is truly special.
This year will be a busy year filled with trips to see family and friends before our final move into NZ. It seems that progress of life is now measured in months and seems to slip by so ever quickly. I am just breathing it in, inhaling the sweetness of, my family.
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