walking, walking, and some more walking

another fact i have learned in hong kong: i am REALLY out of shape! there are three ways to get around here. you take the bus, the subway, or you walk. even if you take the bus or subway, however, you still have a lot of walking to do to the pick up area and from the drop off to your destination. this is really why chinese people are so skinny, not the diet. they eat a lot! but after hoofing it everywhere lately, fai and i have decided that we will have to train before our next visit! fai's sixty something year old partents are in better shape than we are. not only do they walk everywhere, but they do it carrying our kids for us. i'm such a wimp.

tomorrow we head to the ocean front. next week we go to disney and then to china to shop and visit more family. at some point, we'll go to karoke (i'm very excited about that) and more shopping around hong kong. all of this involves A LOT of WALKING. so i will either be in really good shape when we get back, or really tired and sick of walking. in fact, i may not do any more walking other than the necessary around the house for a month after we get home.

the other side of the world

well, it's happened. i resisted as long as i could, but it's finally happened: i turned 30. oh, yeah, and we have taken the kids on the longest trip ever and are in hong kong for the month. but really, which one of those is more important?

the girls actually did really well on the flights here. we were expecting much worse and i'm still expecting it on the way home. really, you can never let your guard down with them else the make liars and shrews of you! they took a while to adjust to the time difference, but i think we finally forced them to sleep at the right times. last night, they were in bed by 9pm and mali only got up once during the night, then not again until after the sun came up (a big step up from the previous days, i assure you, so i don't actually care what time the sun came up). they haven't fared as badly with the food, either, as i thought they would. i guess it's true what they say about kids being more resiliant and adjustable than adults (especially we really old ones at 30 and above...but i'm not bitter). they really like the family here. mali has latched onto yei yei much like noe did when they came over a couple years ago. she is completely spoiled now and will be useless when we get home! noe loves to play with her cousins and go to the millions of playgrounds around. daddy, of course, is in hog heaven.

as for myself, i am in my second trimester now and still feel like i'm in my first. i sleep a lot (which is nice since i have other adults around willing to watch the kids), have trouble with food textures and amounts, get breathless and exhausted, and have been having ligament pain for a while now. my friend Karma assures me that this just means that this is a very healthy pregnancy....i have to say, though, that's lost quite a bit of its luster every time i lose my lunch, so to speak. fai's family has been great to help me out, though, and actually won't let me do much of anything. they get really worried if i lift anything, walk too much, don't sleep enough, don't eat a ton, drink or eat something they don't think i should, or anything else. so really, all i do is follow along behind the line of people carrying my kids and my things sort of twiddling my thumbs until snack or nap time.

well, i've learned a couple of really important things since i've arrived. one, noe is small by any culture's standard, not just america's. i hear several times each day (at least fai says i hear it, and i have to take his word for it) from more than just his family (though that's the majority) about how she's too small. the "she's chinese" line doesn't fly around here. and i really need to get her to stop sucking her thumb before they visit next year or they may insist fai divorce me so they can work on her without me there to interfere! this is almost as much of a problem for them as her size! the only other complaint they seem to have is that i don't put enough clothes on her and mali. let me clarify, it's in the 70's and 80's here. they are in jeans and t-shirts, i brought jackets and even a couple of long sleeved t-shirts. fai and i have been sweating, but his mom keeps wanting to bundle them up! the other fact i've learned is that mali is big...by any culture's standard. of the four children, she apparently is the biggest (by height and weight ratio)...even though she is the youngest. she could take her cousins in a wrestling match, i'm pretty sure. everyone talks about her big belly! if it weren't for the fact that everyone also coos over how pretty she is, i'd worry that she is going to develope a complex!

well, that's it for now. i'll try to get pics up soon.

mali's father's day photos

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today's post is all about the bug. not that noe hasn't been doing some really cute things lately, but because mali has been taking up a lot more of my time!! lately, mali's "potty training" has been going really well. i say this with a somewhat reluctant smile because i don't really want to start her training when i know she's too young...or is she? this morning, she told me she needed to potty. so i took her and sat her down, preparing myself for a long ten minutes of books and toys and songs, etc. instead, she simply pooped on the potty and said she was done! five minutes later, she asked to go again, this time to pee...and did just that. no coaxing, no games, no waiting period. just in and out. now, i don't mean to say that she's staying dry. i still change her diaper several times a day...but this is a really good start!

my baby has also started imaginary play early so that she can play with noe. she plays with the ponies or princesses as though she's in their make believe world. she brings me imaginary food to eat. she "swims" like a mermaid in the bath or on the living room floor. all kinds of things like that. it's really funny to see.

her communication has grown even more, which is impressive as it was pretty good before. unfortunately, this makes it impossible to pretend i don't know what she wants.

her temper is really growing, too.... she has really bad tantrums and a really short fuse. her first choice when things don't go her way is to hit. her second is to pull hair. and she does not respond to time out as well as her sister.

she slept in a toddler bed the other night and actually did very well. she stayed in bed, waking up once to stand up and cry because she wasn't sure where she was, but quickly went back to sleep. in the morning, she didn't wake her sister up, but just came out of the room on her own (letting noe sleep until almost 7:30), and was in a really good mood all morning. so now we're looking or a bed to give her. my baby is growing up!

a trying day, but a very sweet redemption

today was one of those days where i would have rather been doing laundry than the fun stuff we planned. yesterday, noe had a hard day. she woke up with a fever (the fever that mali had for two days before her). then she ran hard into the corner of a door jam, giving her a really nasty bump on her forehead. then she managed to scratch herself (i don't know why she did this) on the cheek during church badly enough to give herself a bruise there, too. we left church early because her fever got worse and she didn't feel well. so she slept for a few hours, then was whiny and ill the rest of the night. she crawled into bed with me at 5:30am and squirmed and whined (though her fever was gone before she went to bed and didn't come back), which ruined any chance of me getting much sleep after that (and it wasn't like i was getting much before that since the clock read 3 when mali woke up crying). so when she finally gets to sleep, i attemtp to doze a bit myself...and wake up to the knocking of landen's mom on the front door. not the best way to start the day. landen is hungry, having not eaten since 7pm the night before, and required a bottle even before his mom had left. this threw off our regular routine with getting the girls situated with their juice and a movie on the couch before his bottle, so the whining insued. the plan was to go to the zoo before 9am so we could get into the children's zoo for free. with the whining and forgettfulness that plagued our morning, we didn't leave the house until about 8:45am. we did not get to the zoo in time. oh, well. plenty to see without the children's zoo to keep up busy. ordinarily, it wouldn't have been a problem. but lately, mali has been rather defiant. it's weird, though, with the way she disobeys. she does it with a smile and laugh, then tells you she loves you and gives you a hug...before throwing an absolute tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. this happened several times today. noe, too, was very cranky because she wasn't allowed to run free the whole time. then, when i let her walk, she begged to be carried. we went through a few melt downs per kid before we got back to the car four and a half hours later. this is when i realize that we stayed longer than i had anticipated and landen was due to eat...and i didn't have a bottle made. he reminded me of this loudly all the way to an exit where i was able to pull in and get some water to make him his lunch. by this time, however, that wasn't enough. he required cooing, consoling, rocking, begging and bribing before finally calming down enough to settle back into his car seat. then he continued screaming until we were almost home. i got him taken care of quickly upon arrival, but once he had quieted and cheered, the girls got back into the game of fighting and crying and whining. by this point, i was done. as soon as fai walked in the door, i informed him that they were his for the rest of the night. i cleaned the kitchen and we ate dinner and had some watermellon on the deck before ushering them into the tub and were quickly trying to get them into bed. at this point, right after wrestling with mali to get her dressed, noe comes over to sit on my lap and asked "you have baby in your belly?" i told her that i don't, but that i hopefully will soon. to which she replied, "then i will take care of you." and there you have it: bad day forgotten. i love my kids. even on days when i wonder why, i still love them.

on a different note, we did manage to save mali's father's day photos. i will post them soon.

RIP

for father's day, i dressed the girls in daddy's clothes and took pics. noe's wearing daddy's shirt and tie. mali wore his uk jersey and hat. then i put them in pretty dresses and took pics that way, too. you'll also see a pic from the gangster tour in chicago and a few random pics from every day life here at the poon house.



















these will be the last pics you see from me in a while. while enjoying a lovely day at the pool, my camera took a dip in the water (helped by a munchkin who will go unnamed). a few days before, i had downloaded half of the father's day pics before the battery died. we may be able to save the others (such as mali's father's day photos), but i can't take any more for a while. fai says he's not buying another one since we'd just gotten this on earlier this year. it's our second in as many years. so enjoy these lovely pics. they'll have to last you for a while.

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mali has decided it's time that she started potty training. let me remind you that she is only 17 mo. old. i didn't start noe until she was 18 mo. and had to stop and start several times after that. (on a side note, noe is done potty training. she wakes up during nap time to go potty rather than pee in her pants, and she's completely dry in the morning). anyway, several times a day, mali tells me that she has to potty ("i pee" or "i poop" or "need potty") and leads me to the bathroom. i got some pull ups for her to wear on occassion so she can pretend to potty like her sister. so far, she doesn't actually do anything on the potty but pretend to wipe and want candy. we've had somewhat of a breakthrough, though...of sorts. she gets upset about pooping in her diaper, actually cries to me when she does it because she wants to go on the potty (though she won't actually sit on the potty at those times). so i have to comfort her until she's done, then she wants to run away before i can change her. but it's a step, right? also, from watching her sister on the potty, she realizes that she's supposed to poop in the water (she hears the splash and sees water in the potty). this realization could be seen as a step forward...or not. depending on who's bathing her. every time lately that fai has bathed the girls, mali has pooped in the tub, resulting in a cry for help from a grown man, the draining and cleaning and refilling of the tub, screaming of two little girls who have been rudely interrupted during their bath, and the happiness of the dog who has been left with the leftover food in the kitchen while the chaos swirls above stairs. you can see why i am not very thrilled about mali's notion to potty train so early?

noe is my soft hearted baby...excepting, of course, if she's the one guilty of offense. she cries and protests when someone is upsetting her sister or a stranger. we went to lunch at mcd's yesterday and there was a little boy in the tunnels on the play ground who was crying. he'd hit his head or something. noe went up trying to find him to help him come out because his brother wasn't bothering to do what their mother was telling him to. once he got out, she refused to go back up in the tunnels to play, insteady standing by him while his mom calmed him down. it wasn't until he had stopped crying and was ready to play again himself that she resumed her activity, but still insisted on helping him through the tunnel at least once. and last night, while mali cried in the tub while daddy tried to clean up her poop (noe was sitting on the potty because she had poopy water on her feet and wasn't allowed to run around), noe cried and demanded that mali be allowed out. "don't make my sister cry" she sobbed. it was heart wrenching stuff. only hours before, however, they were playing in the storage cabinet downstairs and she had smashed mali's fingers in the door. she told her quickly and several times that she was sorry while mali screamed, then shut her in the cabinet and ran away. there are also the times when she runs away from her friends who want to play with her toys, opens the basement door and chucks the item of preferrence down the stairs, and slams the door shut again, turning the lock so that no one can play with it. not much sympathy or empathy there.

mali loves babies. she's facinated with them, and poor little landen may not live through it! she will litteraly love him to death! she crawls on top of him to give hugs, grabs his head in a death grip to give him kisses, tries to calm him down by practically smothering him against her cheek or chest, scratches him on the head when she's attempting to "pet" him like she sees mommy doing, and tries to share her food and juice with him. landen is not even 4 months yet and can't have these things, of course. so they end up on his clothes and in his hair.

we're going to hong kong for a few weeks at the end of october (on my birthday, to be exact...oh, joy to spend a full day on a plane with two little kids on my 30th b-day when i should be wallowing in self pity and cake). ever since we told noe that we're going, she's talked of little else. she says we have to stop the plane to get yei yei and nai nai. she cries to go to hong kong. she tells daddy that she's going to hong kong when he comes home. she's pretty excited. i'm hoping she's going to stay this excited on the 22 hr. flight.

well, that's it for now, so for lack of a better closing, 'till next time.

my swimmer, girls' trip, and generalness

so i have neglected you all again, but fully expect your pardon because...well, because i'm arrogant, i guess.

today was a good day. i've pretty much gotten the hang of taking care of three kids under the age of three, i think. most days are pretty good. yesterday, we had play group then went to lunch with friends. then i dropped noe and mali off at a friend's house and took landen to the grocery store (i'm not brave enough to try to shop with three little kids). today, i took them to story time at the library, then home for lunch and naps, then to the pool right across the street. everyone was good and happy for the most part, and we all had a great time. after landen went home, the girls and i played and ate dinner before bath time, then they cleaned their room and went to bed. tomorrow, i'm taking them to a movie, and i'm not the least bit nervous about it. either i'm crazy, or this really isn't that bad! there are times when i think it's the former, but most times, it's the latter.

mali has proven to be quite the little swimmer. she loves to jump into the water and could care less if i am ready to catch her or not (or even if i'm there to catch her, i think). she loves to ride on the boogie board while we pull her through the water. she likes me to hold her arms and swing her around the water on her back. she doesn't mind daddy bouncing her to where she gets her face into the water. and today, she took a boy's floatie (heaven forbid she be happy with her own that has a harness in it and is made to prevent her from tipping or rolling) and immediately laid on her belly, arms gripping the floatie, and started kicking. she swam around the kiddie pool like that, with no fear, for about twenty minutes before i finally convinced her to let the boy have the floatie back to try it for himself! noe refuses to jump into the water without help, prefers to just sit in her floatie and won't put her face anywhere near the water!

i went to chicago with some girl friends for the weekend. it's the first time i've left the girls over night with the exception of when i gave birth to mali and was in the hospital for two days. we had a really good time. we ate chicago deep dish pizza, visited the art museum (my first), took a 10 mile bike ride through the city, spent a couple hours in china town and took a ganster tour.

while i was gone, fai took the girls out to the zoo, to lunch with their first bites of sushi (unappreciated, of course), then to the pool and mcd's for dinner. the were so tired, they were easy to put to bed, and he wasn't home enough with them to make a mess, so he didn't have to clean. smart man.

again, i'm going to put off pictures because i'm lazy. maybe once i've caught up on all the updates and housework, i'll post pictures and try to write a funnier post.