A new way to get a haircut

Keely has been begging for a hair cut for a few months (she got one while we were in the States in October so she wasn't that desperate for one). In his free time, Jacob had been doing some searches on forums and found one that people just ranted and raved for children. We went to go find his salon and it wasn't where people said it was. Jacob read some more reviews and found out that he does house calls! I was a little leery but the cost wasn't that much more than what he pays and we didn't have to leave the house. Then Jacob found some pictures of him cutting adults hair too. I haven't had a haircut yet here because whenever it's a good time I just want to rest and stay home and not go get my haircut. Especially since getting my haircut with cultural and language barriers is not my favorite thing! So that seemed even better! He gets pretty booked, but he had a cancellation. He brought a case with his supplies and one side was FULL of toys. I don't think I have ever seen so many wind up toys in one place before!! Keely loved it. Then he cut my hair too! Keely kept asking me if I got to get stickers too when I was finished. We were really excited with our new find and it was great not to have to mess with getting to a salon!

Passport photos

We will soon need to renew our visas and this time it will be a two-year visa. However, Keely's passport expires in a little over a year. Our choices were either a) renew her visa for a year and then renew her passport and get her a new one, but have her on a completely different visa schedule or b) renew her passport early so we could all be on the same schedule. Option b sounded a lot simpler! That meant we needed passport pictures. Jacob had gone with a friend to get passport pictures at a little picture machine and they turned out really well. The picture machines are inside the MTR stations. We pulled up the MTR website, found where all the machines were, and were excited to see one was in the location we were planning on going to anyway the day before our consulate appointment!

Keely getting her picture taken in the photo machine while Jacob helped

However, the machine didn't seem to be calibrated correctly and the picture was too light! We decided to hunt down a shop who could take passport pictures. We found one with incredible ease! Keely got her picture taken again and we were told to come back in a couple hours. In the meantime we went to Ikea, went to lunch and Keely and Jacob ran a couple errands while Jordan and I went back home for naps. When I got up from my nap (ha ha) I looked at the pictures and immediately could tell they had been photoshopped. For some reason, even though they were taken on a white background they decided to cut her out and put her on a white background. For someone who used photoshop it was very obvious to me. Jacob just renewed his passport and said they really scrutinized over the picture so we were afraid it wouldn't be acceptable! It's was 4pm by now the day before our appointment! I suggested we go to the MTR station he was at with the friend since we knew that machine was calibrated correctly. We pack up and headed out. Road our bus to the MTR, road the MTR to the station, left the paid area, took the pictures, went back into the paid area, road the MTR back to our station and road the bus back home -- all in about an hour! Finally we had acceptable pictures! Whew!

Little Update On Us

Thank you for thinking of us this week and for the sweet comments, e-mails and messages. A lot of discussions have taken place this past week, and so we don't feel free yet to share. We are going to make sure there aren't any more discussions and things are finalized before we share but thank you for remembering us and feel free to continue to do so. We will share as soon as we can.

Another thing that has been going on with us is that I have been completely exhausted! When we first got here, I would crash about once a week. Sometimes I couldn't even wait until Keely's nap time! A remember a few times at the guest flat with Keely laying next to me playing the ipod or watching Sesame Street Podcasts as I was sleeping. One time I even remember her waking me up every few minutes to get her a new podcast (now they automatically go to the next one after an ipod update). It was probably normal with all of the new stimulants and walking and all of those fun big city things. In September my tired days grew. I found myself needing to nap with the girls a few times a week. Still I was thinking probably just part of living here. However, my exhaustion continues to grow -- I'm at napping at least 5 times a week with the girls! My joints also have begun to ache. In the past couple months I have had two three-day-episodes where I have hurt so bad and have been so tired. It almost felt like the flu but I didn't have a fever. The last episode was last week. It sounded like a few different possibilities and I went to the doctor last week and he seemed to agree. They ran blood tests and I went back today to get the results and everything is normal. The doctor is saying that maybe the episodes have been viral and maybe the exhaustion is from the weather. I don't know. It's a little frustrating, but maybe it's just the way of life of a mom with young children in a big city. If anyone has any thoughts or insights though I'll gladly take them!! I should be thankful it is nothing, but at first I was frustrated because it seems like all of this achiness, exhaustion, discomfort and pain is unexplained! Maybe it's just this phase in life!

Blogging Hiatius

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to take a bit of a blogging hiatius. Our 15 day spring break has just ended, and I need a little rest! And I need to catch up a bit. Please be remembering us right now though. We have a couple life changes that have also come up (no I'm not pregnant!). We are spending time talking to Dad, thinking and discussing these things. Hopefully I'll be back next week!

The Buggy Board

When we were in the States, the stroller we bought at a consignment store had a bar on the back. Sometimes when she didn't want to walk, she would stand on it. One day after school, Keely was trying to stand on the back of our stroller even though there isn't a very good place to stand on it. A friend noticed while we were waiting at a cross walk and mentioned they had a buggy board. A buggy board is a board on wheels that attaches to a stroller. The friend offered it to us and these pictures are from the first day we tried it out.

We discovered that it was possible for her to sit on it too. I don't think it was very comfortable, but it's an option!

Jordan even likes to stand on it too! Too bad when we don't have the buggy board with us Keely wants to ride in the stroller, but when we have the buggy board she doesn't want anything to do with sitting in the stroller. One day maybe Jordan will have a chance to stand on it again too!

Project 365: Favorites of March

March 1

March 2

March 4

March 6

March 7

March 17

March 19

March 24

March 27

March 28

March 30

What you would have overheard...

if you were with us Friday.

We went out to lunch Friday and on our third trip to the restroom, we passed by a very tall Caucasian man. After he walked by Keely says, "He's really big." "Yes he is tall," I replied. "He's like a giraffe," says Keely. Wonder what he would have thought if we had told him that he was as tall as a giraffe?

Later that afternoon, I was helping Keely with some activities and Jordan was sitting with us talking to us.
Jordan: "Papa. Mimi. Mimi, Mimi, Mimi. I Mimi."
Me: "You are Mimi?"
Jordan: "Yes."
Me: "Are you Jordan?"
Jordan: "No."
Me: "Are you Papa?"
Jordan: "No."
Me: "Are you Mimi?"
Jordan: "No. I Elmo."

On the topic of Elmo...

The other day Jordan said she had to use the restroom and I asked her if she wanted me to take her or Daddy. Jordan replies, "Elmo." I think Elmo is on the mind lately!

Potty Training

We started potty training Jordan two weeks ago. We used this book, Potty Train in Three Days. We used it with Keely as well. I know lots of you have used the E-Book, but I have no idea what things are similar and different besides that I think it's different authors. In our version it is advised to go cold turkey -- day time, nap and night time all at once.

Jordan has been showing signs of readiness probably since 16 months. Maybe even before then. She started waking dry from naps at that point. When we finally started, she had almost every sign of readiness. She pretty much had it down by the end of day 1, though you could tell when she was tired on day 2! By day 3 she had naps down. We are still working on nights. She had it two nights in a row and then accidents happened again. But we are getting there! She also is working on holding it for longer periods of time. In my opinion that is understandable for her being on the young side. When we go out we go ahead and put on a pull up over her big girl pants just in case we can't get to a bathroom in a timely fashion and she has an accident. It takes us about 45 minutes round trip to pick Keely up from school and we take the stroller. There are only a couple bathrooms easy to get to on our route. Other times we are on a bus for 30 minutes or so. Needless to say, I didn't want to be cleaning up the stroller or bus seats! She has only needed it once. We are really proud of Jordan, and she is doing a great job! And we are a diaper-less home, besides a few pull ups!

Jordan doing her happy dance after a success and a gummy reward

Ipod Apps

I have a friend who e-mailed me a LONG time ago about our favorite apps and I NEVER responded! I feel horrible! Another friend said she was interested in what our favorite apps were so I decided to make my response a post. I was asking Keely today what her favorites were and she pointed to most of them! So in my opinion these are Keely's favorites!! Since we have had the IPod for over a year, we have a lot of games. A lot of them are free ones or lite versions. These that I am sharing about are paid ones. In my opinion, most of our free ones are ok but aren't ones Keely comes back to a lot. If we really liked the lite version then we eventually bought it.

Keely's Favorite


Shape Builder and Shape Builder Lite
We have had this one since last May. It was one of our first ones and I find Keely comes back to it all of the time. It's a puzzle type game where you move the shapes into their designated spot. After getting all of the pieces in place, a photo appears of the object and a voice over says the object. The lite version has 15 puzzles and the full version has 146 puzzles. (I just discovered this developer has a connect the dots. We'll give it a try and let you know what we think.)


A New Favorite At The Time

123 Color
Shape Builder is an all-time favorite --we just got this one about a week or two ago and it is a favorite right now. I think it will continue to be a favorite though. There are pictures with either numbers, upper case letters or lower case letters in the different segments. You choose the corresponding number or letter on the color palette in order to color the picture. After you color the picture a song plays. There are 45 pictures and 25 songs.



Ones She Continues to Play

iWrite Words
A letter and word tracing game -- where you trace with your finger. I find Keely coming back to this one as well. It may not be an ultimate favorite but she comes back to it all of the time.







KidCalc 7-in-1 Math Fun (this is not the icon if you look for this on the App Store on your Ipod)
Quite honestly I'm not sure if she plays the games as they are intended anymore. She has made up her own games to do with the games...but she does tend to come back to this game quite a bit.







KidCalc FREE Math Fun
This is the free version of the one above. I'm not sure of the differences.







Clifford's BE BIG With Words
A word building game. You are given a choice of letters to choose from. Depending on the first letter you choose you get choices for the 2nd and 3rd to build 3-letter words. Jetta then paints the word.




zooSpelling
I this I got this one on sale or for free. Keely does come back to it from time to time. It is a word spelling game as well and you choose the letters from the painter palette. How you know which letter to pick is that the color under it corresponds with the color under the blank letter spot. After you complete the number of words for that animal, you help paint a picture of the animal. When you go to the zoo the picture of that animal now appears.



Wheels on the Bus
This one is a little young for Keely. She does play it from time to time and likes being able to move different things during the different verses. I really bought it for Jordan but she hasn't been too interested in it yet. It is a really cute and well written app if this is the type of thing your child likes.





5 Little Monkeys
Similar app to Wheels on the Bus. You can make the monkeys and different objects in the room do a lot of things. It also has different genres it sings it in. Same as Wheels though, not really Keely's type of app but she does come back to it from time to time.






Early Favorites

Animal Match
This is a memory matching game where the animals make different sounds when they are selected. They periodically add new animals. We liked this one in the beginning. It was one of our first apps. I think the main reason Keely doesn't come back to it is because of the number of apps we have and she doesn't seem into the memory ones right now. We have a few free matching ones too, but if your child is into memory games this is one of my favorites.



Toddler Teasers Quizzing
This too was one of our firsts and Keely really liked it. We started buy games a few months before she turned 3. It is more for the younger crowd just learning letters, numbers, shapes and colors or has just learned them and likes to review. They do have some free versions that they didn't have last year.





We also have a Bible story one that has 8 or so different Bible stories but I couldn't find it anymore in the store! I would love to hear some of your child's favorite apps. I have been trying to find some older ones for Keely (that aren't too young, but not too old), but haven't felt real successful. If you have please make sure you share!

An Interesting Find

A few months ago I found an interesting travel help for those flying with a car seat on this blog post (the post has some other travel tips as well). It is a Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory. You just use this strap to attach your car seat to your rolling carry on and then you can use your car seat as a stroller! We have something a lot like this bag that makes it so we can roll our car seat. It has worked for us so probably at this point in our lives we won't be switching -- and hopefully we only have one or two more flights with it any way. But a great idea if you aren't taking a stroller and haven't found something that works for you when taking your car seat on the plane! While I'm talking about travel -- something else we use for Keely (we did try it when we went home to the States when she was 23 months, but she slept much better when we put her in the car seat and made a little nest for Jordan (she was only 2 months at the time)) is the CARES system. It's a harness that attaches to the seat and seat belt on the plane seat but gives them the upper harness support similar to a car seat. It's really light and has been really nice. A little hard to sleep in, but still nice.

Mask Anyone?

Keely is definitely leading a different childhood than I did (of course excluding the mere fact that she was born in Thailand and lives in Hong Kong). However, I know when I had a cough when I was little that I wasn't asked to wear a mask. If I had I probably wouldn't have had a choice between pink or blue either! My parents also wouldn't have had child sized masked on hand in case I felt like I needed to wear a mask to school. The thought to wear a mask because I had a cough would have never entered my mind! My parents wouldn't have been able to buy child-sized masks at the corner drug store! Oh goodness what a world we live in, huh?

She sure is cute in her mask though and she has gone a long way since last fall from crying about wearing a mask and teachers trying to convince her by putting stickers on it to now where she asks us to give her one before she gets to school!

Disney Trip #4

I'm sure you aren't surpirsed, but a couple weeks ago we had to go to Disney again! Even though it was a Friday afternoon it wasn't very crowded. It's so nice to have season passes and not worry about how much time you spend there. We picked Keely up after school at noon, walked half a block or so to the bus stop and were inside the park even after a pit stop by one! As a family, we had only had our pictures taken with Daisy so we decided to get our pictures taken with some of the different characters. Having Daddy with us and after seeing our friend with the characters last time, Keely had a lot of fun with them! Jordan is still fearful and I always had to hold her on the side that wasn't next to them!!

Mommy and Jordan on Dumbo

Keely still gets all excited on the carousel and calls out "Yippee" throughout the ride. We get a lot of looks, but it appears they are enjoying watching her have fun!

Jordan is still content in the carriage!

Pluto accidentally swiped Jordan with his whiskers and she wasn't too happy -- so he just took a picture with Jacob and Keely

The family with Mickey

Minnie is Jordan's favorite character and she was pretty excited when we were in line, but still didn't want anything to do with her up close!

We asked Keely if she wanted to give Pooh a hug and this was her shy version of a hug!

Yet again another fun day!!

Moving On Up At The Playground

A few weeks ago we went to a new playground, which is always exciting for the girls. Keely has always loved this swinging poles, but last year she wasn't tall enough to do them. It's amazing what a little bit of time does! Jacob got pictures of her as she moved from pole to pole.

Our little monkey!

Playing With Daddy

The girls definitely love to play with their daddy and their daddy loves to build things! The girls and Jacob were playing with the pegs one night. Keely would build towers (while trying to keep the color pattern) and Jordan would pull pegs out from the middle to crash the tower.

Jordan watching Keely and Jacob build a tower

Right after Jordan crashed the tower
(look at that smile!)

The girls rebuilding the foundation

Starting a new structure
(I love this picture with Jordan in the corner peeking through checking out what they are doing!)

I just enjoy watching them all interact together. It's pretty funny most of the time!

Saving For Harmonicas

Like I talked about here, the girls have been doing little chores to earn stickers that were exchanged for money at the end of every week. It took the girls about 6 weeks to earn enough money for the girls' harmonicas. They were lucky though, they were on sale so they didn't have to spend all of their money! Keely was really excited on the day to go buy the harmonicas. Unfortunately it was late and almost nap time and so the girls weren't looking too excited after they bought them. Jordan decided she didn't want a harmonica and picked a tambourine type drum. And yes they did play with all coins!!

The girls were a lot more excited after their nap!