Toothy Tot

After weeks of excessive drooling and chewing on everything she can get her hands on, two little pearly white teeth finally made an appearance. All of us, especially Ryan, have been closely following this major event. Every time Ryan looks into Mia's mouth, he shouts " Mia has teeth!" Four weeks later, Mia now has an extremely cute toothy smile.

Unfortunately, there's still no sight of any hair growth on our little girl's head. So Daddy has resorted to photoshop!

Splish Splash

Mia had her first dip in the swimming pool at seven and a half months old. While our little Missy seemed to enjoy the water, she wasn't overly thrilled either, looking very much like "Ms Glum"!

Master diver and his little mermaid

Little Miss Pinky with Daddy (those beautiful pink swimmers came all the way from LA courtesy of Aunty Christine)

Floating like an old pro

Splashin' around

Finally enjoying the cool waters while Koh-koh dives for lost treasure

Dining in Darkness

Shad: Ryan, what do you want to do today?

Ryan: Go to the beach.

Shad (looking at Lisa): OK, shall we have a bbq there?

Lisa: That'll be fun. Just a simple one, hot dogs, marshmallows? And maybe some fishballs HK style too :)

And so that was how the plans for a Sunday evening came about. To avoid the crowds as well as the heat, we left for the beach a little later in the evening, maybe just a little too late. By the time we got to South Bay, climbed down the tens of steps from the carpark to the BBQ pits with our bags of charcoal, utensils and foodstuff, started the fire and put the snags on the barbie, we were sitting in complete darkness! There was no lighting around the barbeque area, but fortunately the people at the pit next to us were obviously seasoned "barbequers". They'd come fully equipped with their fluorescent torches so we "borrowed" some of their light. Now one problem solved, then out came the insects and mosquitoes! On top of that, the novelty of cooking his own food soon wore off and the complaints from the little munchkin gradually became louder, "the fire is making me too hot, the stick is too heavy, I am thirsty..." Shad and I just looked at each other and said the same thing simultaneously, "hurry up cook, eat then let's go". We gobbled down one hot dog each then packed up and left. As Ryan so aptly put it the minute we got back into the car, "ah this is much better!"

Stunning sunset

Family cook out (Mia: Why are we here? So darn hot and all these insects flying around me!)

The face says it all!

Back to Nature

All week Ryan had been looking forward to our lychee picking excursion. He still remembers picking the fruits off the trees and riding on the bullock cart the last time we were there. However, this time around, the lychee harvest was rather dismal so we had to settle for longans and sweet corn instead. Bright and early Tuesday morning, we set out on the half an hour drive to the Tai Tong Lychee Valley in Yuen Long with Ryan's four little friends, their Mamas and Daddy. Unfortunately, we managed to pick one of the hottest days of the year and the boys were drenched in sweat even before we got to the sweet corn field. Thank goodness the lady at the ticketing office was kind enough to let Mia (accompanied of course) stay in the air conditioned room while we were there. And once again, our little girl slept through the entire two hours that Ryan and I were out roasting ourselves on the farm!

Still looking nice and fresh at the start of the day

Japanese tourists???

"you mean fruits actually grow on trees and not in supermarkets?" (result of living in a concrete jungle... har har)

Flashback to July 2007

Plucking lychees straight from the tree

No lychees, just longans this time

Organic sweet corn

Farmhand Ryan at work

This is much harder than it looks...

With his bounty safe in the bag

"Undressing" our crop

Chinese spinach (choy sum) - somehow this brought back memories of my grandmother's vege patch back in our Seremban house

Watermelon shoots

A semi-grown watermelon

Sweet corn ready for harvesting

A "pisang" tree

2009... lychees from the fridge (plucked earlier by the farmers)

2007... juicy lychees stright from the tree (plucked by Ryan)

Bullock cart ride

Poor rabbits being "force-fed" by four very enthusiastic boys

Dinner time later that day... how much fresher does it get?

"Real" Birthday

After one "pretend" birthday party and a "school" birthday, we finally celebrated Ryan's actual birthday on 28 June. This time, the party guests were Mama and Daddy's friends, much to the birthday boy's disgust!

Conversation in car one week earlier:

Ryan: How many more sleeps before my "real" birthday Mama?

Mama: Seven more sleeps then you'll be 4 years old.

Ryan: Who's coming to my party?

Mama: You already had your party, remember your knights and dragon party on the beach?

Ryan: But that was only my "pretend" party.

Mama: Well, we can have a small party and ask Aunty Dee, Uncle Alex, Uncle Peter and Uncle Marco to come.

Ryan (very vehemently): NOOO! But they don't have any children! They can't come, it's a kids party!!

So, in line with our democratic approach to raising kids, we let the birthday boy voice his opinions and took his vehement protests into consideration. Then we went ahead and invited our "adult" friends (as Ryan calls them) to a birthday brunch at the Watermark restaurant in Central. And in the end, Ryan had a lovely time being the centre of attention of all the Uncles and Aunty. So you see, Mama and Daddy always know best! :)

However, the day didn't get off to a very good start. Leaving home was one big saga. In true Ryan fashion, he refused to leave the house because he was engrossed in playing with his toys. After some of coaxing, followed by threats and finally physical force (Shad had to carry him screaming and kicking out the door), we got into a taxi. The cying fit didn't stop there though, in fact we put on quite a spectacle at the Star Ferry Terminal where the restaurant was!

One very unhappy little boy

And now we're throwing our shoes at the cameraman

Uncle Peter trying to entice him into the restaurant with the promise of a BIG present

Finally we are ready to join the party, "Happy Birthday Kor-kor"

A miniature Daddy?

4 birthday profiteroles

Absolute torture... which one to open? Mama and Daddy said I can only choose one!

We ended the day with yet another birthday cake at a lovely dinner with our Belcher's buddies. Unfortunately we have no photos to show because forgot to take our camera with us that night. Four birthday cakes on his fourth birthday - how spoilt is that? :) BTW, we have started to manage expectations, both Shad and I have been reinforcing the fact that we will only have ONE birthday celebration each year from now on!

Goodbye Star Bears

Ryan's first year at kinder came to a rather abrupt end when the Hong Kong government shut down all pre-schools and primary schools on 11 June, roughly two weeks before the scheduled summer break in a bid to prevent the spread of swine flu amongst young children. The announcement came late Thursday night on national news and on Friday his teachers called to confirm that the school would indeed be closed for the rest of the school year. Ryan was a little confused when we tried to explain to him that he didn't have to go to school anymore, immediately asking "but what about Daddy's Day?" After Mama's Day, his school had planned a Daddy's Day the following week but all that had to be cancelled. However, the next day his teacher called to say that they would be holding a farewell party in a week's time so that the kids would get a chance to say goodbye to all their friends and teachers. We took this opportunity to bring in a birthday cake to school for a mini celebration with his little kinder friends.

Kings and Queens for the day (birthday boy decided the crown was in the way while he was enjoying his popcorn!)

One last dragon cake, green this time

Helping make the cake the night before. More icing ended up in his mouth than the cake!

Incredible hulk?

One very happy birthday boy

Yums!

The kids all knew exactly which part of the dragon they wanted

Receiving his graduation certificate from 3-year old kinder

Showing off his artwork

With Ms Camilla and Ms Astro, his Star Bears teachers

A Beautiful Saturday Afternoon

Many of you would have probably seen these photos on FB but bear with me because this blog is also a "gift" to our children. We hope that Ryan and Mia will look back at all these photos when they're older and be reminded of all the treasured moments we shared as a family while they were growing up.

As usual Ryan woke up bright and early around 7ish and after a "discussion" with Daddy decided that he wanted to go to Ocean Park. So while father and son enjoyed a morning with the dolphins, fish, sharks and pandas, Mia and I enjoyed some peace and quiet (those of you with little kids will know that the word quiet does not feature in their vocabulary!) at home.

The boys swung by the apartment to pick Mia and I up on the way to lunch. After a satisfying Korean meal we drove out to Big Wave Bay. It was a perfect day for the beach, cloudy with a cool breeze.

The giant and his tiny tot :)

First "dip" in sea water

Daddy and Mia

Practice makes perfect. As Yee Mah taught him, "one stick, one half tummy and a kick-out".

Hard at work

So proud of himself!

My babies

Mama (&) Mia

Mia's signature open-mouthed smile