The Busiest Weekend Ever

Us and Uncle James
The weekend is finally over.

PHEW!

Starting from Saturday, this weekend was simply non-stop with something seemingly scheduled at every time slot.

Sarah's weekend actually started on Friday with a big bash at school kicking off their 25 year anniversary.

Then, on Saturday, we had lunch with my uncle James who was in from Houston, Joy and her children. After that, spent the afternoon with Sarah's friend, Jessica from Taipei who was visiting with her husband Peter. Then we spent the early evening with my God Brother Howard who was in from Taipei before having dinner with him.

Today, we had Dim Sum at 11:00 before splitting up with Sarah going to drop off some things at a friend's house while I put Margaret to sleep (who did not go down willingly) before having a meeting with a realtor at 4:00.


By the end of the day, we were so tired, we ordered pizza. We couldn't even think about cooking.

Both Sarah and I are now feeling like we're coming down with something... likely what Daisy had this week which put her out of commission.

For now, we're pumping vitamin C and are going to turn in early tonight.


I'm really not sure how other people do it. Maybe Sarah and I are just the homebody type that needs downtime in order to function.

I am so glad we don't have a packed schedule like this every week. I just wouldn't be able to handle it.

At home this afternoon

Friday Morning Blues

The blue onesie on her, I mean. I was calling her "Cookie Monster" this morning in Chinese - "Bing Gan Guai Wu."

Here she is, happy as a clam this morning. The first photo is of her trying to charm her mom (who is sitting in the chair) out of her breakfast toast, whereas the second one (below) is of her with her toys after breakfast.

Margaret is really enjoying standing these days, and can now cruise from one end of the couch to the other while holding on to the couch. I saw this performed for me this morning as she started from one end and wound up on the other in pursuit of a colorful business card I had left on the couch last night.

Very fun.


She's also enjoying eating. This morning's breakfast consisted of two cubes (an ice cube's worth of frozen pureed food) of papaya, one of apple, three of pear (plus wheat germ), a stick of string cheese and half a Chinese vegetable bun.

She would have kept eating, but I decided to stop her after the experience of a couple of days ago when a combination of overfeeding and choking on a bagel caused her to lose her entire breakfast into her bib.

Thank goodness for Daisy because without her, I'm not sure I could have still gotten to work on time.

The flip side was that I discovered how incredibly much she does eat. Up until that point, I was constantly scared of underfeeding her. After seeing the sheer volume of what came out, that fear is no longer.

Quick Update

Just a mid-week teaser to tide everyone over. The above is from Tuesday morning before heading in to work. She had dumped all her toys out of the basket, so I thought it'd be funny to put her inside.

The below is from early in the summer (June-ish) before Sarah left for the US. I found it on my phone and it's from when Sarah and Margaret came and met me at my office for lunch one Saturday.

Busy Busy Sundays

Today, a family Sunday found us having delicious lunch at Joy's house with George's brother Tom, his wife Valerie and their son, E.

It was great to get together with so much family. It really feels like we're reaching some sort of critical mass, now, with more of our friends and family moving here. The only problem now is finding the time to hang out with everyone!


Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to the lunch, today, so everything was taken by Valerie.

As a result, all shots you see are from this afternoon at our house, after Margaret's nap.

Surprise, a tooth!

During Margaret's feeding tonight, SAM stuck her finger in M's mouth to discover something surprising - an extra tooth on her right side. It's an upper and her fifth.

We were very surprised at this, though, in retrospect there were clues - the drooliness and the fussiness were there, but we were chalking that up to jet lag and other reasons.

Anyways, the discovery was great fun, and feels, essentially, free since we didn't know it was coming in at all and had already experienced the fussiness and attributed it to other causes.

Just wanted to share.

In other news, we went swinging again, today. The weather was great and we had some time before dinner.

As you can see, Margaret had fun.

Storm Signal 9

Storm? What storm? I'm hungry!
The Hong Kong Observatory advises us:

"Do not go outside. If you are reasonably protected, stay where you are and keep well away from all windows. Close all interior doors and make sure children are confined to the least exposed part of your home. On no account should you touch electric cables that have been blown loose."

It's a blowin' outside.

There's a weird harmonic in our kitchen on certain gusts and if you're in it, you can feel the air pressure change. Also, there must be a draft because the plants we have hanging by our living room windows are blowing around even though we can't really feel it.

Kinda' cool, actually.

Getting cleaned up after lunch
Of course, it didn't get this way until probably around 6:30 pm, meaning that while the whole day was rainy and dreary, it was actually quite calm.

It was quite eerie to look outside to see relatively calm weather but nobody on the streets.

Of course, inside, Margaret had a heckuva day, with Mommy home by noon and both her parents all to herself - not even Daisy, because we had sent her home.

"Why does Mommy have the camera?"
So we took pictures all day long. Well, there was slightly more to it than that.

We played a lot with Margaret and got a good baseline on where she's at now and what she is able to do. She is now able to pull herself up with only one hand, and is making attempts at standing with no hands. She can also almost scoot while hanging onto the couch but not quite yet.

We also napped for most of the afternoon.

I think that Sarah may have done some prep reading, but I can't be sure because I was zonked out in bed during Margaret's very long naps today.

On occasion I think about how today was a wasted day and how the weather would have been find to go out and do something, but then I realize that those types of risks just aren't worth taking now that we have Margaret.

Yeah, it wasn't very taxing.

"Hooray for storm days!"
Now it's almost 9:30 and Margaret is all snuggled into her crib, in her room - the least exposed part of the apartment, coincidentally.

Sarah is reading on the couch and I am seriously considering going to bed. I mean, what else is there to do?

And anyways, I'm likely to have to go to work tomorrow. Grump.

Looking heroically to the future
Anyways, we hope you all enjoy the bonus post and photos from this afternoon.

We sure enjoyed the day that made them.

Trying to charm dad

Looking like the cat who just swallowed the canary

Looking like she's about to ask a question

Typhoon 8

After breakfast with strange looking Daddy
Hong Kong is off work again due to a Signal 8 Typhoon Warning. Typhoon Nuri is forecast to score a direct hit on Hong Kong sometime tonight, and it is closing in on us as we speak.

We've been here three years almost and this is the first year we've had any days off for typhoons. I'm not complaining, but Sarah decided to go into school anyways in order to better prepare for the students coming in on Monday, leaving Margaret all to me!

Swinging up a storm
This morning, however, the weather seemed fine. It was overcast, but calm with no rain. So after breakfast, while Daisy headed out to get our dinner ingredients (so she could go home early), I took Margaret to the swings thinking it would be our only chance to get her out of the house for a bit today.

I realize now that this was rather ill advised. It was only after we got to the swings that, looking around at all the leaves and branches that had blown down in the previous hours that I realized that the danger came from more than just the rain.

This was probably why we were the only ones at the play park.

So after a few minutes of half-hearted swinging, which Margaret nonetheless enjoyed, I quickly bundled her back into the baby carrier and we came home.

Sad to be back home
Just as she finished her bottle, the rain started in earnest and as I write is now blowing in waves across our windows.

We got back just in the nick of time.

Now, all we have to do is to get Mommy home and we can retire warm and cozy in our home for the day.

One more for the crowd

Bagels fear her
In response to the overwhelming (sibling) requests for more photos, here's one I took of M this morning during breakfast.

Margaret is capable of putting away an incredible amount of food and enjoys some things that are... surprising.

Her new favorite is Gouda cheese which I would have thought would be too strong for her, but when presented this morning with grapes, gouda and blueberries, she ate four healthy slices of cheese before moving on to the berries. The bagel... that's her absolute favorite. She won't stop screaming until you put one in her hands (a half of a half) and she won't leave her high chair until she's done with it.

Measurements!

At Joy's house with Popo
Yes, we did go to the doctor and get M measured. The numbers are at the bottom, though, so you'll have to read through the rest of this post to learn what they are.

It's been awhile since my last post, with almost no recent news, I know. But it's been quite an exhausting time for us, readjusting to Hong Kong, work, etc. The worst has been Margaret's jet-lag, teething and cold. Yes, all at once.

On top of that, many of you have "just" seen Margaret. Margaret and Sarah left Roz's embrace to fall immediately into my sister Joy and her family, and my mom's.

That's right - my mother arrived in Hong Kong (in transit to Vietnam) an hour before Sarah and Margaret on Friday and so we had the opportunity to meet up at the airport and spend the weekend together.

Margaret and her cousins at Dim Sum
Margaret was luckily fairly well behaved during the day. However, the aforementioned jet-lag, teething and cold did a number on us.

We knew that it took her about a week to adjust to the jet-lag on the way there, so we were expecting it.

Margaret would typically wake up twice a night through the first week back. Sarah described it as like having a newborn.

Except for the fact that when Margaret was newborn, she'd go back to sleep immediately after feeding. Jet-lagged Margaret wanted to play after her bottle at 4:00 AM.

Family snapshot
On top of that, Margaret seemed to get over her jet-lag by mid-week, but after only a couple of nights of sleeping through the night, started waking up again due to some combination of a cold / congestion and teething.

There's nothing as sad as a plaintive, crying baby, standing in her crib with her arms outreached for you to pick her up.

Yes, even at 4:00 AM when you've already been up for forty five minutes with her and it's the fourth time you've put her back in the crib.

Teeth!

The tooth (upper) has broken through (see photos below) but unfortunately the cold is still creating gross, green runny nose on Margaret.

Hopefully, she'll recover from that this week.
It didn't, however, keep us from taking her swimming today.

She seemed okay in the wading pool, but didn't take to the big pool very well, today - even being held by us.

We're going to have to keep at it, for all her cousins like swimming, and it'd be a real bummer not to be able to go to the pool with them!

Flying!
Besides that, though, it's been great to have Margaret back home.

The teeth continue to grow out, which is really funny. She's going to be really buck-toothed, if that gap is any indication. I told SAM in a sad voice that she was going to be really ugly, and SAM's reply was, "It'll be good for her."

So true.

Gouda and Grapes for dinner
That's not all, though. She keeps getting faster and faster at crawling, is able to pull herself up to standing more and more easily now, and can manage to climb onto the sofa now using Mom as a stepping stool.

That part is very cool. I have video but that will have to wait until I have more time.

Anyways, life with M is now slowly moving back to normal. Sarah has been back at school now for a week, even though the kids don't arrive until the 25th, and I'm getting readjusted to the daily office routine again as well.

Summer vacation is really over now.

Climbing
Oh, and Sarah took Margaret to the doctor on Saturday for her final Hepatitis B vaccination and a general check.

All is as it should be, thankfully.

She weighs 8.3 KG / 18 pounds 4 ozs, and is 71 cm / 28 inches. Both in the 60th percentile. For those who care, her head circumference is 45 cm / 17 1/4 inches. That is in the 75th percentile.

Maine Trip Part II

The McLean Girls just getting down to work

After Jeff's departure, the trip (for me) effectively entered its second, quieter, more family focused phase.

That involved a couple of off island jaunts into Bath and Arrowsic for some work party type stuff.

On Friday, Sarah and I set up a bank account to start saving for Margaret, and we had work party at Roz's house to stack the cord of wood that Roz bought to heat her home for the winter.

For this, Brad was indispensable for building the braces to hold the wood and Roz displayed her organizational skiils (where Sarah doubtless inherited hers) by instructing us on where to stand and how to pass logs most effectively.

Just getting started (look at that pile)
All this made a real difference, as we were able to quickly work the pile down and fill the woodshed in a matter of an afternoon, managing to save the grass under the woodpile from certain death and creating the neat stacks of wood that you see below.

As you can see, Margaret and Stanley, when they weren't napping, served as our rather effective cheer squad, keeping us motivated and smiling.

Lucy and Jerry even showed up for the last hour or so to help out and helped us to finish out the job much faster than expected.

Cheer squad with Aunt Sylvia

Finishing the job felt good, especially since we had all these neat stacks of wood to show for it. Plus, now Lucy and Jerry were there so we could get a nice group photo of the work crew.

The family photo from two posts ago, "Goodbye Maine" was taken by Lucy from the same set.

The work crew finished (look at those neat stacks!)
The rest of the time we spent back on the island, just hanging out, visiting friends, attending island meetings and going to the beach.

It was on one such occasion on the beach that the below photo was taken by Erica. As you can see, Margaret seems to have an affinity for seafood. I suppose that if the rocks don't kill her, the seaweed probably won't either. After all, it's what sushi comes wrapped in.

Moving on from rocks at Corey's Cove (thanks, E!)
Margaret is definitely into the beach. She loves crawling around in the sand, playing with (and eating) rocks, and splashing in the water. I suppose it is lucky that we don't live on the US West Coast or in some island paradise (yes, yes, Hong Kong is an island, but paradise....), otherwise, we'd never get her inside to hit the books.

It's interesting to me how Margaret doesn't at all mind getting sandy, dirty and wet. Considering how anal her mother and I are about such things, I suppose it's a good thing. I have this schizophrenic hope that we won't somehow make her neurotic about cleanliness, but at the same time, hope she's not a complete slob.

At V's house
At the beach, Margaret managed to spill the bucket you see to her right, all over herself, precipitating a complete meltdown. Luckily for us, Mom had a complete change of clothes for her, and dad arrived with apple juice. We then retired to The Monkey's (V's) house to warm up and enjoy the company of V's entire extended family.

Bubbles!
On Sunday, the morning was spent under a beautiful thunderstorm that kept us inside, leading us to light a fire and to come up with lots of creative ways to keep M occupied.

The weather cleared by the afternoon, however, leaving us with a beautiful sunny day to celebrate the joint birthday's of Chris and Sylvia with the Pieh clan.

"Welcome to MacMahan!"
We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful afternoon. The Pieh's brought pizza and salad and the McLean's provided 7-Layer dip and drinks. Everyone brought joy and good cheer.

It was a good way to get caught up with Lucy, Jerry, Chris, Tim and Amy and for Margaret to spend some additional time with her little (yet relatively bigger than her) cousins.

Lucy's successful tree walk
Jerry, true to his Outward Bound roots, even found for us a tree bridging an open span of water for a tree walk. All the adults gave it a go and I am proud to say, made it safely across.

Between tree walks, the beach and just hanging at the house, the day passed quickly, and before we knew it, present opening, and the entire day was over.

The Birthday boy and girl
Unfortunately for me, Sunday was my last day on MacMahan and in Maine as I needed to get back to Hong Kong, reality and work.

However, the saving grace was that by driving the Pieh's back over to Georgetown in the boat, Brad, Sylvia and Chris joined me on a final lobster run to Five Islands to bring back a couple of delectable sea creatures for my last lobster dinner on the island.


Bundle of Joy
Monday was a blur of getting out of the house and to Portland early in the morning. All the rushing was for naught, however, as my connecting flight in Newark was delayed by four hours.

Despite the late arrival, I arrived safely in Hong Kong (though late), and was pleasantly surprised the next day as a typhoon canceled work.

Thank you, Hong Kong Observatory!

Walking to the beach
Now, I'm back at home and back at work, and awaiting Sarah and Margaret (and my own mom) to arrive tonight.

Unfortunately, our Maine vacation is now officially over, and we're now entering the recovery phase.

However, as that chapter closes, we open a new one.

Flying
Somehow, perhaps due to time spent in school, the end of summer vacation always feels like the start of a new year - even more than January 1 does.

So now begins a new year for all of us, and a year of new experiences and new blogs.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

M&M hitting the sand


The Doctor and his Fisher Price equipment

Maine Trip Part I

A trip to Maine just isn't complete without lobster
After finishing up work in NYC, it was finally to Maine on Sunday for the real fun - my Maine vacation.

Unfortunately, I was the victim of a false start.

My flight was canceled due to storms and so I didn't actually make it to Maine until Monday, after spending a night at my friend Jet's place who lives in Astoria, Queens.

The delay was unfortunate in that I missed quality time with literally all the McLeans (Roz, Martha, Ray, Sylvia, Brad, SAM, Margaret, Jack and Carol were all there). Luckily enough, however, I got in on one of the last two seats available on the 9 AM flight from JFK to Portland where Jeff, Margaret's Godfather and my best friend arrived just in time to get us to Five Islands for lobster lunch with the family.

"What's in this bag? The ribbon is fun!"
Jack and Carol had to leave right after lunch, which was sad. However, Margaret wasn't, because this new person in her life, Uncle Jeff, had brought with him some presents.

There were books, stuffed animals, puppets, ribbon, wonderfully crinkly wrapping paper, everything a baby could want!

"Should I let him bribe me for love?"
Margaret, true to form, took right to her new Godfather, and snuggled right in for storytime.

The two, and the rest of us, would get along famously for the next few days.

"Yeah, why not."
Jeff was there from Monday through Thursday and part and party to the full-on McLean family MacMahan experience.

He took full ownership of his experience, pitching in the cooking and cleaning and fun. Not only did he make lots of yummy breakfast foods, but he led the charge on kayaking (during which he capsized), boardgames, barbecuing and more.

It was truly great for me to get to share this experience, which is so close to my heart, with him.

Splashing (and eating rocks) in tidepools with Aunty Sylvia
On top of the vacation, there was, of course, the baptism, which we did on Wednesday, right on the island, in St. Cuthbert's, the MacMahan chapel.

The ceremony was simple and Roger, the pastor, was wonderfully gentle and tolerant of Margaret's squawking and crawling on the floor during it.

The baptism was done with sea water that Jeff brought from off the rocks in front of the house, and Jeff officially became Margaret's Godfather, something which was extremely meaningful to me, and I hope Margaret in the years to come.

Clue (which Jeff won)
The days with Jeff on the island seemed to pass like a blur, and before we knew it, it was time for him to leave.

It has been years since I've spent any considerable time with Jeff, and so I really treasured our time together, and him making the effort to come out and spend a few days with us and meet the McLean side of my family.

S'more S'mores at night
During the time that Jeff was there, Margaret showed off a large number of her new developments that were new to many of us (including me).

She can now gleefully clap her hands together when instructed to do so with the magic phrase (in Chinese), "Pai Pai Shou."

Whenever she saw Lily or Stanley, she would reliably say "Ga," which we (perhaps wrongly) take to be her trying to vocalize "Gou" which means dog in Chinese.

On top of that, her second upper tooth is starting to come in (as evidenced by a white spot and constant fussiness).

She's just growing so fast!

M in her party dress, showing off her ability to clap
She's so long now in the bed, and moves with confidence and purpose.

She seems to think about what she's going to do next (as evidenced by her pausing and tapping her foot between switching activities) and then gets upset if thwarted.

I'm not sure what's next, but I can't wait for it.

After the baptism at St. Cuthbert's
As I said, Thursday came all too soon, and before we knew it, Jeff was on his way back to New Hampshire and so with the return of our last guest for a few days, we were able to focus on a few other tasks for the second half of our MacMahan vacation.

Projects.

That will have to wait for the next post, though.

Until then, enjoy the photos!

A moment in the woods with Mimi

Hard at training

Fun with Aunt Martha

One final pic with the Godfather before he's off