Short and Sweet

Short and sweet, that was our February. Another case of so much to do, so little time. Our highlight of the month - Mia started walking! She'd been "cruising" for a few months now but only took her first few unaided steps on the second day of Chinese New Year. We thought she was fast when she was crawling, but now she moves like lightning and we literally have to run after her to stop her from getting her hands into all kinds of forbidden places, like the shoe cabinet which is currently her favourite target. She looks incredibly cute tottering around on those little legs of hers, with her little pot hanging out :)

Relaxing Sunday - On the way to our usual Sunday brunch spot

Since Mia arrived, I've tried to put aside some alone time with Ryan every now and then but it hasn't been easy. We've all adjusted very well to being a family of four and I can't imagine what life would be like if we didn't have Mia. Yet, I do miss the special Mama moments with my little boy. And I am also well aware that my position of "No 1" will very soon be usurped by a certain somebody :(

In Steve Biddulph's book 'Raising Boys', he talks about the three stages of boyhood that every boy goes through. Stage One is from birth to six - the span of time when the boy primarily belongs to his mother. Stage Two starts at six to fourteen when the boy, out of his own internal drives, starts wanting to learn to be a man and now turns to his father for interest and activity. Finally at Stage Three from fourteen to adult - the boy needs input from male mentors if he is to complete the journey into being fully grown up. However, Biddulph is careful to point out that while boys go through these three stages, they do not necessarily indicate a sharp shift from one parent to another, but rather the stages just indicate a shift of emphasis. Therefore, regardless of which stage your child may be going through, the influence of both parents remain just as important. I read this book when Ryan was going through his terrible twos hoping to find some answers to dealing with the temper tantrums. While I may not fully agree with everything that Biddulph writes, many things in the book do ring true. And so I shall make the most of the time I have left, when my son still "belongs" to me!

Ryan has adjusted really well going from an only child to becoming a big brother. He has always been very affectionate and gentle with Mia. Of course there are the times when he attempts to block/push her from getting to close to his favourite toys but generally he's hasn't shown any jealousy towards her. Having said that, Shad and I have noticed, especially recently as Mia gets older and more interactive, that Ryan vies for our attention a lot more. During those cranky periods, it's amazing how a quick one on one moment with either Shad or myself minus Mia, even if it's only a quick walk down to the shops, can turn a grumpy little boy into a happy one.

For something a little different, I took Ryan on an open-air sightseeing bus ride one afternoon while Mia having her afternoon nap.

Waiting impatiently to start our adventure

Cameraman hard at work

Belchers - can you spot our apartment?

Dried seafood shops on Des Voeux Road bustling with activity close to CNY

The obligatory IFC shot

The Four Seasons - our first 'home' in HK

Pit stop at the Star Ferry Terminal

Row after row of antique shops on Hollywood Road

The old Hong Kong Police Station on Hollywood Road - nearing the end of our HK Heritage Tour

A few weeks ago, the Moon Bears had their Term 3 outing to Repulse Bay Beach. We had our fingers crossed for good weather since it had been cold and wet the entire week before. We were extremely lucky on the day, sun shine and light breeze, a perfect day for the beach. The children were very excited about going to the beach, but I think they were even more excited to have their Mamas (and a Daddy) ride the bus with them.

Roll call before boarding the bus

Aye aye Captain! - Any guesses what the theme of the day was?

Boys versus...

Girls (and guess who won? with the help of some Mums!)

Hunting for hidden treasure

Success! There were 24 children and incredibly they found 24 gold treasures :)

Building sand castles

Snack time

Another year gone, another candle on the cake. It wasn't that long ago when I said to Karen that the day she turns 40, I will vomit. Well, I'm not too far away from that mark myself! I had three lovely birthday meals this year. We had a delicious lunch at Amber in the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the Sunday before the actual day. Rated two Michelin stars, the food was very good and while the ambiance was a little stiff, it was surprisingly very kid-friendly. Ryan got to choose his meal from the kid's menu and Mia had a very comfortable high chair to relax in. Ryan alternated between chomping on his burger and colouring, while Mia spent the entire afternoon flirting with the charming maitre d'!

My most precious present hand-drawn by my son (Ryan, Mama, Daddy and Mia playing at the park when a bus came by)

Written by the artist himself (with some help from Daddy)

Chomping down on the mini gourmet burger

My entree of lightly seared trout covered with asparagus mouse (it had a much fancier name on the menu)

Shad's entree of lobster bisque - delicious but hardly enough for my hungry husband

"Iberian pork belly lacquered with vintage sherry vinegar enhanced jus

kabocha pumpkin gnocchi and trumpet mushrooms" - Divine!

A very willing model

Being cute is hard work!

Chris and Paula brought over a huge lunch and a scrumptious cake on the actual day. So nice to have such thoughtful friends!

And finally a cosy dinner at Inagiku with three of my favourite people :)

Daddy's Mini Me

Shad went to Melbourne for a week just after Chinese New Year. Whenever he's away, we switch into our "Daddy's away" mode. We go about our daily routine like normal except dinner and bed times are brought forward so by 8.30pm everyone is fast asleep in their beds, including me on most nights! Ryan seems to be much more affected by Shad's absence the older he gets. He especially misses his early morning chats with his Daddy so I try to make it up to him by letting him sleep in our bed whenever Shad's away. I tell Ryan that this is a special treat for him, and that he only gets to do this as a reward for good behaviour but who am I trying to kid, I love having him in our bed and the morning cuddles even more!

The kids and I were having a lazy Sunday morning sleep in when a good friend called to ask if we wanted to join them on an outing out to the pirates cave in Cheung Chau. As soon as Ryan heard the word pirate, he couldn't wait to get out of the house. We had a wonderful day, the boys were a little spooked out in the dark cave but otherwise had a great time playing together and being driven around the island by Uncle J-N on one of those three wheeled bikes. Meanwhile we girls enjoyed a slow stroll through the streets of Peng Chau searching, and finally finding, a "tong sui" stall :)

Armed and dangerous (literally!)

Hong Kong's most famous pirate, Cheung Po Tsai

A slightly worried little explorer at the mouth of the cave

A tight squeeze even for a little munchkin

I love this photo that Shad took of Mia at home. It truly captures the moment, look at the pure joy in her eyes.

Jam-packed January

January went by in a flash. Things took off the minute we got home from Melbourne. Shad went back to work, Ryan went back to school, and I once again became chauffeur to a very busy four and a half year old. Times really are different, I don't remember having half as many activities and play dates when I was his age. But then again, I guess I should point the finger back at myself, and my other half too of course, after all we were the ones who signed him up for swimming, taekwondo, science club, mandarin club... Living here, it's difficult not to get caught up in the "kiasu" Hong Kong parenting environment since more often than not, when you speak to another parent, you'll hear about their child being enrolled in endless number of enrichment programs. Having said this, I certainly hope that we have not fallen into that trap. Ryan seems to enjoy all the extra-curricular activities that he attends so far. For him it's all about play and he attends each activity with a different friend so it's like having a playdate with a different friend each time. So I guess, until the day he complains about not wanting to go, I will continue to be chauffeur to my pint size boss!

Those of you who know us know that we can never stay away from the beach for too long. So even though we came back to Hong Kong in the middle of winter, we still managed to sneak in a trip to South Bay on one one of those few "warm" winter days.

Digging in the dirt

Free foot scrub service :)

Unfortunately this "si fu" is not very professional, started to scrub his own foot 2 mins later!

We also caught with some friends who were holidaying in Hong Kong. That's the nice thing about living here, there are always people passing through and dropping by for a visit.

It was lovely to see my kids getting along so well with my (rightfully my sister's friend who also became my friend as I grew older) childhood friend's children from Singapore

Always wonderful to see Uncle Chris here from California but we missed Auntie Sharon and little Peter

It has been some time since we used our Ocean Park annual passes so we took advantage of a nice sunny day and brought the kids there with some other friends. As usual, the place was packed with Chinese tourists and after a couple of hours of jostling with ill mannered people, we decided that we'd had enough. Still, the kids had a good time watching the dolphins, riding the cable car and going through the underground aquarium.

Waiting for the dolphins to make their appearance

The stars of the show

Hong Kong has some great walking trails but most of them are in the New Territories or on many of the smaller islands. Even with a car, getting to them is always a challenge since they are a fair drive away and often require an additional mini bus or a ferry/sampan ride. We've been fortunate enough to explore some of these hard-to-get-to places thanks to our friends who have their own boat. Hiking is so much more enjoyable when you get picked up at the end of the walk rather than having to double back to the starting point! This time we went to the south west corner of Lantau Island and hiked up to Fan Lau Fort. This fort was built in 1729 and was once occupied by pirates. It was retaken by government troops after the pirates surrendered to the Qing government in 1810.

Start of the trail

Mama did all the hard work while little Missy slept most of the way

Happy hiker

Three cheeky boys doing their favourite thing - jumping out to frighten the adults as we walk past

Conquerors of the fort

Navigating a way down

Finally sleeping beauty is up

Leading the way home

After our hike, we stopped by Tai O for lunch. Can't believe we've been in Hong Kong for four years and have not been to this place. The fact that it is only accessible by boat or a one-hour bus ride from either Mui Wo or Tung Chung is probably the reason why we haven't ventured out here before. Tai O is home to the Tanka people, a fishing community who have built their homes on stilts for generations. Unfortunately the fishing lifestyle is slowly dying out and the village has now become a popular tourist spot.

Venice of Hong Kong

A strange looking fish - guitar fish?

One angry looking puffer fish

Chinese New Year goodies for sale

"harm yue kai lap farn" (salted fish chicken fried rice) anyone? :)

Haggling over the price of a bottle of home made XO sauce

Cool breeze, rocking boat...what better thing to do than sleep?

Happy Tiger Year!

Happy New Year and Kong Hei Fatt Choy! So much for making new year resolutions, I'm having difficulty keeping even the simplest one - blogging regularly. Let me just say that the good intentions were there. As we were sitting in the airport on New Year's Eve waiting to board our flight back to Hong Kong, I was busily "writing" my first entry for 2010 in my head. But alas, intentions don't always translate into actions! So here we are now well into the third month of the year and I am just completing the first post.

Growing up in Malaysia, Chinese New Year for us always began with a reunion dinner with my Aunt's family (dad's oldest sister) followed by a second dinner at Taman SEA with the Ong side of the family. Dinner would drag on late into the night, or rather early the next morning, with the adults busy around the mahjong table, or chit chatting over endless cups of coffee while the kids ran around creating havoc. Still we would wake up bright and early the next day eager to start the festivities which without fail always involved a fair amount of mouth exercises on "long yuk" (barbeque meat), "kuih bangkit" (tapioca cookies) and "kuah chi" (melon seeds) throughout the day! Even after all these years, I still can't get used to not having a house full of people during CNY. And it does make me a little sad that my kids will grow up without the kind of fond memories that I have of Chinese New Year.

We had our steam boat reunion dinner which was the perfect meal on a freezing cold night, at home with some close friends this year. The weather over the next few days was miserable, so wet and cold that we didn't really feel like taking the kids out. Somehow this year it felt really quiet probably because I could remember what it was like last year when we had a houseful of people. Mum and Dad and my in-laws flew over to spend CNY with us then since we were housebound because of Mia's arrival, and it was wonderful being surrounded by family. Anyway, we still had a great time this year over some lovely meals with friends while the kids had lots of fun running around and loved being scared to death by the lion dance. And luckily Mum sent over a pack of "yee sang" otherwise it really wouldn't have felt like Chinese New Year!

Predictions for the Tiger Year aren't looking too good, 'tumultuous' and 'turbulent' seem to be used over and over again in many of the feng sui predictions on the internet. Astrology.com says, "nothing will be done on a small, timid scale. Everything, good and bad, can and will be carried to extremes. Fortunes can be made and lost. If you take a chance, gamble for high stakes but understand that the odds are stacked against you." Rather worrying especially when we have two tigers in the home! Guess we'll just have to make our own luck :)

Protector of our home

Reunion dinner with the Yings

Boys and their gadgets - and a very curious little onlooker

Don't let that cute little face deceive you - this little thing can be as fierce as a tiger!

First Day of CNY - making them work for their angpows :)

It was a tug of war trying to get that cup out of Mia's hands!

Our family - a Tiger, a Tigress, a Rooster and a Rat

Lion dance at the AMC - these kids were freaked out by this white furry thing

Wonder who was more frightened? - the baby or the "lion" who probably lost his hearing after that ear piercing scream

Symbol of Chinese New Year - for me anyway :)

Hopefully this will bring us all the luck we need for the coming year