Bicycle Advice

Keely has been asking for a bicycle for at least 2 months now if not longer. I first told a friend that I felt bad since we were moving to Hong Kong and living in an apartment and a bicycle wasn't an option. She told me that they lived in an apartment when her son turned 3 and they bought him one and he rode it around their apartment. Since we got here, we also discovered that our apartment seems to be on a pretty quiet road and we have a park nearby (even though normally bikes aren't allowed our friend thinks for a 3-year-old it would be ok). We have decided that for her birthday (if she is still asking for one), she will get a bicycle. We'll decide then if it will be an indoor or an outdoor activity.

A few weeks ago, I told her we would go to the toy store to look at bikes. She decided that she wanted an orange bike. When we got there there was an orange one. It was actually blue with an orange basket and an orange pooh on it. I wasn't too excited about it, but again if she kept asking for an orange one I would probably be convinced. However, last week when we went to the toy store again for her to sit on one she told me she wanted pink and purple. I'm a little happier with that choice because the pooh one seemed awfully babyish but if she changes her mind again she can probably convince me.

Obviously, I have never been bike shopping for an almost 3 year old. The smaller bikes are 12" and say they are for 3-5 year-olds and then the 14" once are for 4-6 year-olds. When our friend mentioned that her 4 1/2 year old was too tall for the 14" and would need a 16", I realized I needed Keely to sit on it. It looked to me that they already had the seat in the higher position and it looked like her feet hit it just right. The seat was up on the 14" one too and it was hard to tell how her legs were on that one. (I have to admit I didn't go to the trouble to have someone help us and so we were trying them out on the platform chained together...so I started getting nervous as she was getting on the second one that we were about to fall and hurt ourselves and ruin the display!) I know we should go try them out again, but what would be your advice on the size of bike we should get? What should I be looking for sizewise when she tries it out again? I would really like for her to be able to use it awhile so would it probably be better to get the 14" one so she could grow with it a bit? Any advice would be great!!

Ten Little Monkeys

Jordan doesn't like to stay laying down while we change her diaper. The other day something made me thing of the song Ten Little Monkeys and I started singing it to Jordan as I changed her diaper. She thought it was fun and kept her attention while I changed her diaper (for a day or two that is). I guess when I would get to the part about the doctor says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed," I would make a face that Keely and Jacob thought was fun and make my lips into a circle. The first day whenever Keely would sing with me she would mimic the way I did it!




A lot of times we couldn't make it all the way through the song without ending in a pile of giggles!

Hong Kong Stories #4

Last week, Jacob needed to stop by our friend's office and the girls and I had a play date. Jacob and Keely left early so Keely could meet a lady that would be baby sitting her. They hadn't been gone but a minute or two when I realized that Jacob forgot to give me money and I needed to recharge my octopus card (which gets me on the MTR and bus). I tried to call them, but it takes a few minutes after getting off the elevator for Jacob's phone to get service again. I jump on the elevator and then run towards the MTR while calling them to get the money and then run back. I had been running behind all morning and that extra outting really put me behind. I was very determined to make it to our friend's house at the time we said so I quickly finished getting the bag ready and Jordan and I hurried out of the flat. I'm starting to get a pretty good feel of when the mini bus gets to the stop that takes us to our friend's house and I knew I was going to really be pushing it. I texted Jacob and Keely as I got off the MTR and Jordan and I walked quickly through the station walking up two sets of elevators and running up two flights of stairs. We hustled out of the station and around the corner to see that the bus was about to get to the stop. Thankfully it was stuck behind two bigger buses. I call Jacob to see if they were on their way and they were just leaving the restroom at the office and were heading down the stairs. I'm pretty sure we have missed this bus...but I'm still hopeful! Everyone got on the bus and I shook my head at the bus driver but kept watching for Jacob and Keely. The bus driver waited a minute and then got out to do something. When he got back in, he was about to pull away and I saw Jacob round the corner carrying Keely. I waved at the driver who stopped and waited for Keely to get there. Two other ladies even made it on the bus!! Whew, I couldn't believe we made it! The rest of the morning wasn't too eventful until we got back on the MTR to head home after lunch. Jacob had to get off at an earlier stop, which pushed Keely into a meltdown. She calmed down until we got to our stop and I asked her if she had fun having lunch with Daddy. Uh oh...that pushed her over again. After we got calmed down, we headed back to our apartment. We were almost to our flat when somehow Keely tripped in the parking lot we were walking through and scraped and bruised up both knees!! I carried her AND Jordan the rest of the way to the apartment! I was sure glad when we got everyone down for a nap!

Being too helpful

Before we moved here, my friend commented on a lot of times people here are just TOO helpful. I had four things happen in two days over the weekend that seemed to illustrate this comment.

1. We were eating in a fast food restaurant that didn't have a lot people there. On all of the tables were glass ketchup bottles. As I was pouring ketchup out, I hit the side near the neck on the label. A lady who worked there was near our table and I guess felt that I wasn't doing it incorrectly and needed help. So, she offered to pour the ketchup out for me -- as ketchup was coming out of the bottle.

2. At this same restaurant, we were gathering our belongings and children and were getting ready to leave. It takes us a couple minutes to gather everything. My ipod was still laying on the table and the nice helpful worker point out my ipod. I told her I would get it in a moment, but she pointed at it again very concerned we would forget it.

3. We were getting off some cable cars at a animal fun park. A man working there grabs my elbow to help me get out. However, he was on the right side of me and grabbed my left elbow and I needed to go left, which made it almost impossible to move. But I got out safely!!

4. At this same place, there were three or four sets of five stairs. I was pushing Jordan in the stroller and just wheeled her up on the back two wheels and wheeled her down the stairs. As we got to the last two stairs, someone who worked there saw us and it must have made him nervous. He ran to help us down the final two stairs.

Hong Kong Stories #3

Like I posted earlier, schools and public playrooms were closed due to H1N1 including classes at Sunday fellowship. The girls have been sitting with us during fellowship. Last week, we all had allergies. During the service, Jordan started coughing. I think it started with her fake cough. I got up to stand in the back. Then Jordan got herself choked up by the fake cough and started really coughing. Immediately, people all over the room turned around to looks at us. There had been crying babies, but no one turned to look at that...it was the baby coughing. I thought it was best to take her out so everyone didn't think the baby with the cough was infecting everyone! Keely saw us leave and told Jacob, "I want to see Mommy." She bee lined out of the room behind us. Jacob felt he only had one choice but pack up our bags and leave too. A shortened morning due to Jordan doing her fake cough!!

Better be prepared!

I haven't been here long enough to really know what I need to carry with me to be prepared for most anything. I carry diapers, wipes, changing pad, plastic bags (for disposing diapers in odd places or for soiled clothes), changes of clothes, water cups, Jordan's milk cup and box of soy milk, snacks, mints cell phone, ipod, money, octopus card, reusable shopping bag (we'll be charged or plastic bags starting in July), antibacterial soap, bug spray (there are biting gnats at the park), handful of small toys, umbrella (sometimes two if we leave when it's raining) and tissues. The other day, I was by myself with the girls. We went to play at the playground before we got on the train to meet Jacob to pick up our permanent ID cards (these were just our temporary ones). As we were about to get on the last escalator to the train, Keely's shoes start hurting her feet. I carried her to the escalator and convinced her to ride it down and walk onto the train - which happened to be right there when we got down. I remembered putting some band-aids in my bag the day we were traveling to Hong Kong. I just happened to try the right pocket first and squatting on the moving train while Keely held onto the bar I managed to put a band-aid on her blister. PTL I had a band aid. No way could I have carried her and Jordan around Hong Kong!! Anyone have any other suggestions of things I should have on hand that I haven't thought of (hopefully it's small and light though!).

Last Week's Misc Pictures Part 3

Here are last week's pictures that didn't make the cut!

Keely had been asking for her sunglasses for a couple weeks and I kept thinking they were in some box. Then I found them when I was packing her backpack on Sunday morning. In the middle of fellowship, Keely found them. Now she has to have them whenever we go out!

Another picture of Keely "writing."

Keely running around the playground.

Hong Kong Stories #2

A couple weeks ago, the girls and I went to our friends' house for lunch. It was raining and was the first day for Keely to use her new umbrella. The mini bus we take to our friends' house only holds 16 passengers and everyone must have a seat. If a child hasn't been paid for then they need to sit in your lap. I was nervous with my bag and two umbrellas if we'd fit but Keely figured out she had enough room if she sat at the very front of the seat. So we go and eat lunch and play for awhile and then it was time to go home. Keely was tired and of course didn't want to go. She was upset and it was a fiasco getting into the elevator and convincing her to not put her umbrella up before we got outside. We finally get outside and get our umbrellas up and start walking up to the minibus stop when we see one leaving. I assume we have missed it (later I realized it didn't take anyone-- our friend said it was probably going on a gas run). Keely is informing me she doesn't want to ride the bus when another one comes drops people off and we try to get on but are told we can't! (another gas run possibly-- there are normally 2 buses that run). Now, Keely is very upset because the bus wouldn't let us get on. We waited almost 15 minutes for one of the buses to come, in the rain with a very tired child who is not happy at all. The bus finally comes and we climb on and Keely wants to scan my octopus card. It's too high for her and really hard for me to pick her up while carrying Jordan so I tell her I need to do it and to go find a seat. She gets very upset and won't move out of the doorway. I'm trying to quickly convince her to move on down the aisle when the bus driver starts yelling at me (I'm assuming to move on and get a seat). So I scoop Keely up and get her into a seat. She doesn't want to sit down and I'm trying to get her to sit down and move over when the bus driver pulls out and starts going!! I finally get in my seat. About halfway to our stop, I start asking Keely if she is happy and I find a smile. However, it didn't look anything like the one she had when we saw Jacob waiting for us as we got off!! Whew! What a fun ride!

Move-In Date!!

We have a move-in date! Yippee!! July 6th! Here's hoping that it doesn't get pushed back!! Never thought I'd be so excited to unpack boxes in my entire life!! We are ready to be settled and see our stuff!! YEA! 15 days until we move in to our very own flat!!

Hong Kong Stories #1

We have already had a few funny stories happen that I've been wanting to share, but haven't had a chance. I'll break them up to keep the posts shorter!

To the guest flat we are staying, the gate on the front door has a number lock on it to get in. It worked fine the first night, but the next morning I forgot my measuring tape and we couldn't get back in. We decided to go ahead and leave and when we came back we were able to get in. That night Jacob had a meeting, so the girls and I ate dinner with our friends and when we got back to the flat (already past bedtime) I couldn't get the lock to work. As I am working on it a man in the flat next door starts screaming, which makes the girls and I a little nervous. Keely tugs on my arm and says, "Mommy this is the wrong one." I keep reassuring her it's the right one and finally Keely says, "Mommy look at my eyes. This is the wrong one." Just then a little boy from the yelling flat had come out and got in the elevator and gestured for us to come with him. He explained to the guard downstairs what was going on but he said he couldn't help us. We went back upstairs to try again and then went back downstairs to wait for our friend to come help. That time the guard called another guard who came and helped us get in the flat! The next morning they came to fix it. For a few days whenever we'd get to the door, Keely would tell Jacob, "Mommy couldn't get in." A few days later, Jordan and I came back by ourselves and I didn't have the new code. I called Jacob for it and tried and tired it. I called him back frustrated that I just couldn't work the silly thing when he realized he gave me the wrong code! Since then I haven't had any problems getting inside!! Whew!

Last Week's Misc Pictures Part 2

Here's the misc pictures from last week that didn't make the picture-a-day cut!!

Another picture of Jacob and Keely in the rain

Jordan enjoying the air blowing on her. When we are on the plane on the trip here, we were in the bathroom and she sat on the changing table with her head right next to the vent while the air blew in her face. She thought it was great!!

Another picture of Jordan eating grits -- she was chowing down!!

Jacob and Jordan at the playground-- Jordan was desperately wanting to be picked up and we were all too sweaty to want to! Sorry Jordan!

When there aren't any kids to play with at the playground, Keely likes for me to play with her!

Less Sleepless Nights

A few weeks ago I posted about Keely having trouble sleeping. Every night of the five nights we were in the hotel in CM, Keely would climb in bed with us between midnight and 2am. Then we arrived here and even though we are in a flat without our stuff, both Keely and Jordan immediately started sleeping through the night! (Jordan has had a couple hard nights because of a cold). Keely climbed in bed with us only 1 night the past two weeks! In the hotel and when we first got here, Keely would fall asleep on our bed and then we'd move her to the room she is sharing with Jordan. The past few nights, Keely will beg to go to her bed right away! One night Jordan was sleeping soundly because she wasn't feeling well and Keely had to move back to our room. Jordan just couldn't handle the temptation to talk to Keely instead of sleep. Keely laid on our bed and talked and sang until I thought Jordan was asleep and then went back to her room!! Thank goodness she is sleeping better. Now she is waking up most mornings at 6:20 like clock work where Jordan will sleep until 7:30...but I'll take one success at a time!

Pictures From May

When I was downloading the pictures from Jordan's birthday that Jacob had taken, I found a few pictures that were taken in May. So here they are...

Keely calls my funnel her tuba. She always seemed to find it in the kitchen drawer and would go around the house using it has a megaphone.

Keely is always jumping or bouncing-- including on my couch however hard I try to change that!

How I spend my free time

...these days that is. Besides trying to keep up with our project 365 pictures and our blogs, I spend a lot of time on google maps these days! The past few afternoons, I have been planning our route for the next days errands! Thank goodness for google map and I have an app for my Ipod that tells me all the information I need to know about MTR stops. I was a little nervous about figuring out the different areas and getting around, but we seem to be doing all right. It will be nice though when we don't have to find out the walking directions to everywhere we are going from google map!!

Jordan's Birthday

Jordan's Birthday Pictures

Right after Jordan woke up, we let her open a present. When Keely was helping me the day before, she picked this one out as the first one for Jordan to open.

Keely got an xlyphone for Easter and Jordan is always wanting to play it. She seems very excited to have her own even though Keely wasn't very excited that she couldn't play it first!

Jordan opening more presents.

Playing with her presents.

Jordan excited about her very own cupcake!

Yummy!!

There goes my hope for sanity!

It is quite rainy these days. It has rained off and on all week and most of the day the past two days. They are calling for rain most of next week! Well, Hong Kong is a big place...so there should be lots of indoor options for children, right? Usually! Thursday morning the girls and I actually did go to a public play room. The we went to wasn't that exciting but gave the girls a chance to crawl, jump and run around!

Keely and Jordan crawling around

Keely in the tunnel

There are quite a few and our plan was to try out the different ones on rainy days...UNTIL...H1N1 hit. Thursday it was announced that a local had transmitted the flu. I later read today that 12 secondary school students had gotten it. They announced yesterday that all kindergarten and primary schools would be closed for 14 days including public play rooms! We don't move into our own flat for another two weeks or so. Therefore, we are in a small apartment on top of each other and getting out seems to help all of us! If Jordan were older craft and cooking projects could help...but she's a very active 1 year old!! We'll see how creative we get!!

No Dairy Chocolate Cake

Everyone had great ideas for what to do for Jordan's birthday. It sounded like the vote was to do the cupcake, so that is what I went with. I would have done the oatmeal one or I even really liked this marble one, but Keely got to help and she of course chose chocolate. I found this recipe (which I love this food blog) and since it looked so easy I decided to go with it.

As you can see in this picture, this is the stirring spoon we had! I would reccommend stirring better than I did if that is all you have to stir with! On some of the cupcakes, I could really taste the oil at the bottom. My mom really felt like Jordan needed frosting, so I found this recipe for non-dairy frosting. I thought the frosting turned out very well. The ironic thing to all of it is that Jordan acted as fussy as she use to when she was between 2 and 5 months old for more than two days! So it looks all my efforts still didn't keep her system from getting upset! Oh well...I tried!

My measuring cup! I discovered after I had already begun that we didn't have any measuring cups (or I would have borrowed some from our friend). This is the only bottle we own these days...but it worked!

Last Week's Misc Pictures Part 1

It may not happen every week, but I suspect there will be weeks that we will have some misc pictures left over from our picture a day that don't make another post. Last Tuesday we had a couple fun pictures that didn't make the cut!

Keely, Jason and Jacob making a hug sandwich. They seem to do this whenever we are all together!

The park we went to Tuesday is the only park I have seen yet that you could walk on the grass and Jordan decided to have a go at crawling on it!

Cheese!

"Mommy, close your eyes and say cheese!"

Happy 1st Birthday Jordan!!

Last Week: Packing Part 2

Last Thursday morning, the packing company arrived. Of course I left the camera in the daiper bag and the girls were at a friend's house! I was amazed at how together this company was. They arrived at 9:15 am and about 3 minutes after they had arrived, they were set up with their roles of cardboard bubble wrap, stacks of paper, tape and labels and were already wrapping and packing things! We packed almost everything but fragile things and oversized things like baskets. All of those things were laying out on the counters. When packaging a piece of furniture, they took the corrugrated cardboard and wrapped it around and then used knives to cut pieces out so they could wrap it around. I thought it was pretty amazing!! They left exactly 3 hours later after everything was packaged, wrapped or boxed and labeled and numbered. We ended up with about 140 items (with a couple numbers missing and couple duplicates!!). Friday morning, we went to the office to say good-bye to the Thai staff. That afternoon, Jacob met the packers to pack our 20 ft container. Packing and fumigating the container took 30 minutes! They drove our container down on Saturday, loaded it on a ship on Sunday and it left port on Monday. It is scheduled to be here the 8th, though it'll probably have to be unpacked and put into storage while we await renovations to be complete. Saturday morning, Keely woke up with what seemed like a high fever (we forgot to pack any of our six in our checked luggage!). Sunday we went to fellowship and had dinner with some friends at their house.

Moving/ traveling day was crazy. Jacob and I got up at 4:30am and woke the girls close to 5am. We left the hotel at 5:15am and got to the airport at 5:30am. Jacob dropped me, the girls and the luggage off and circled around to park the truck. Since we were leaving so early, we knew only one family was coming to see us off at the airport. In case they weren't able to make it, we had decided to lock our keys and sim cards (what makes our phones work) in the truck. Soon after Jacob dropped us off, I realized he had forgotten the carseat. It was raining and so when I saw him park, I waited for him to get out -- totally forgetting he was locking everything inside. So by the time I yell that we forgot the carseats -- it was already locked in! And we have no way to call anyone! Jacob happened to have a loaner Hong Kong sim card that he put in his phone and we called a lady from our office who called a lock smith. He arrived with like 2 minutes to spare before we needed to be going through immigration!

The locksmith "breaking" into the truck

Jordan having a last few minutes with one of our friends

When we checked in, we asked if there were extra seats and if we could have one for Jordan and her carseat (she only had a lap ticket). We got the impression that the answer was yes and then Jacob asked at the boarding gate and they said yes but as we were boarding the plane they didn't understand what the carseat was and then when we got to our seats they gave us a bad time so we just gave it back to put under the plane. (The flight attendant seemed really frustrated at us and I wasn't really sure why)

Jordan taking a catnap in the stroller in the Bangkok airport

Keely on the moving sidewalk

Jordan playing in the boarding area

At the gate in Bangkok, they called the crew and came and told us there weren't extra seats and that we had to gate check it. We decided to not push our way on the plane and boarded close to last. We are only on the plane 2 or 3 minutes when they move the lady in our row so we had 4 seats. Jacob runs to go get the carseat and they are closing the cabin door!! Jordan doesn't know the meaning of sitting still...so she climbed all over me and the empty seat, she did sit still some and played and ate some of her meal and then climbed over me some more!!

Jordan in her seat playing

Jordan in her seat eating

But we arrived and made it!! YEA!!

Project 365 Update

Thank you everyone for your ideas on how to use our photo-a-day pictures. I was glad to hear about some of you using blurb (that's it, right?). I think it sounds like a great service. I'm not completely sure what I will do in the end. We have started a new blog where we will post our pictures. That way if I don't end up scrapping them, we can easily print a book. We will also have them and the captions all in one place! If I do end up scrapping them, I have decided on doing a week a page so that we can do more captions than jsut a sentence. On a couple blogs I read, I saw that they have done captions like they are journaling. Here and here are the links to them if you want to see what others are doing. I like this idea because I think it'd be neat for the girls down the road to read about our first year here...so I would like to journal with them mostly as my audience in mind as I write. I only have 2 days up so far, but we have managed to take pictures for the past 4 days!! We have to admit that yesterday we did have trouble getting the picture! We were like already!! HAHA!! Hope you check it out!!

Help!! Any ideas??

Jordan's first birthday is Saturday and we are staying in a guest flat with minimal cooking things and minimal cooking ingredients. Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with going to buy ingredients but if I don't have to buy a ton of things it would be better! First I thought about a big chocolate chip cookie. I did bring a 14 inch pizza pan with us so I could do this. But then I think most 1 year olds get to eat a cake...so should I do cupcakes? I did bring my muffin tin, because I was thinking of making blueberry muffins for breakfast. The other wrinkle in that idea is that Jordan's system doesn't seem to like dairy and so I'm not sure icing would agree with her and would be a good idea. And I just realized you normally use a mixer for cakes, don't you? Don't have that! Or always an old standby of mine is brownies. Any ideas? I feel so bad for her, but it's hard when you aren't in your own home! Don't worry, I did bring half of her presents with us. I accidentally packed two of them in our crate that is coming from the States. In January, I didn't realize we wouldn't have it sent until May! It does come Saturday, but they will be storing it in a storage unit until we move! Family members sent her presents too!

Last Week: Packing Part 1

We did lots of it! We started full throttle the Saturday before the big pack out day on the following Thursday. We made a list of close to 40 things to do and got half done on Saturday and then I woke up earlier than normal on Sunday, which helped us complete the remainder of the list that day. We made a new list that night and continued to click things off. The furniture cleaners came Monday and cleaned our furniture and took our curtains to be cleaned. The bad thing was that Keely's room wasn't dark enough for naps...so she wouldn't nap Monday and Tuesday!! We were doing so well on Tuesday that we even played a little after Jordan's nap. Keely hds been asking a lot about going to the store with the car (like I talked about in this post) and so we went to the store with the car shopping cart and pushed Keely around one last time.

Then we went downstairs and the girls rode in this car.


Keely had always asked to ride one of the motorcycles, so she got to do that too! She of course chose the biggest motorcycle!!

Then the unexpected hiccups started happening! As we were on our way back home for naptime and going back into hustle mode, I got the eye aura I get before a migraine! I was out for the count for the afternoon and was able to eat dinner with the family even though I was still majorly fuzzy. The problem with the timing of this was that was our last night in the house and Wednesday was last minute things like take our bed apart, take down the last of the curtains and rods, take down the fans, etc. So we had to finish our Tuesday task list and pack our checked luggage that night. Thankfully, I was feeling better and we managed to get most of the items done. On Wednesday, our friend wasn't able to watch the girls in the morning...no big deal, Keely would just watch a show while Jordan napped and we would tick off what needed to get done. But Jordan didn't receive the memo and decided she didn't want to take a nap. Finally she was convinced to do so. Then our handyman who was suppose to come help us forgot and came over an hour later than expected. Then Jordan woke up when they arrived so I managed to clean ceiling fans while Jordan hung on me and the fans and crawled through dirt and dust falling off of the fans (fun, huh?). We had to get the curtains to the dry cleaners before lunch (and were hoping to get there first thing...but it didn't happen) so that we could get them back by Saturday (they are closed on Sunday and we left at 7am on Monday). I get over there and they tell me if I want them by Saturday that it will be 50% more. A few days before that they didn't mention the surcharge to Jacob when they told him to get them in before lunch. After Jacob and I discussed it over the phone, we decided we really needed to get them cleaned. I happen to only have that amount in my wallet, so I get ready to pay when the lady informs me if I pick them up after 5 then I won't be charged. I'm not quite sure what she means until she types out a new price for me on her calculator and it was a 1/3 less! Thank goodness!! The afternoon went pretty well. Our friend watched the girls while we did last minute things and then we headed to the hotel for naptime. It was much later than their normal naptime, but other than that!! We managed to get everything done and were ready for the packing company to come the next day!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Hong Kong here we are!

We actually made it here yesterday afternoon. It was an eventful trip and an eventful week last week! We are thankful we made it through it all! HAHA! I will try to go more into detail soon! We did start our Project 365 and I can't wait to look through our pictures and choose one. As soon as we do, we'll post it on our new photo a day blog and give you the link (Jacob will have to tell me again too! LOL). Just wanted to drop in and say we made it! And thank you for thinking of us!!