Stanley (The place, not the dog)

At "Main Street, USA" for brunch
Saturdays are for lazy brunches, long, meandering walks headed nowhere and plans to have no plans.

That was us today at Stanley.

Sarah's brilliant idea was to head out to Stanley for brunch, take a spin around the boardwalk and come back. Aided by warm weather and the first day all week in which it didn't rain, we needed no encouragement to agree with her.

We were sitting down at the restaurant by 11:20 am and tucked into our breakfasts not long after. Breakfast being cheeseburgers for Jack and I and a more traditional one of melon, english muffins, eggs, ham, sausage and tea for SAM. Then, we were out of there by the lunchtime rush.

Marvelous.

Quiet moment by the sea
We were blessed by a breeze while we explored all around Stanley and absolutely overjoyed at how perfectly the day had turned / was turning out.

With Stanley Market, quiet bits of shore and historical buildings, we spent the early afternoon until about 3:00 just wandering together.



After a brief break at Pacific Coffee to recharge the grownups and Margaret, we headed home on the bus.

Thank goodness for that, too, because dinner was hot pot with us and our closest eight friends so having a rest beforehand was essential.

A wonderfully engaging (and filling) time was had by all.

Breaktime at Pacific Coffee before headed home

The prettiest girls I know



Home this afternoon after Stanley

Shoutout to Clara

It sure is great having an older cousin. Teething's tough going, but Clara's tips are making it much easier. I know the rings were meant for my play mat, but they just sound so nice when they jingle together. And they feel so good on my gums! And how'd you come up with the knee chew? Ingenious!


I tried this one as soon as I heard about it!


These have been my favorite for a while now

They're Back!

And we're all overjoyed.

We think Margaret has grown longer in just the few days she's been away. She's grabbier than she was and was quite smiley during her 9:00 pm feed.

As I write, my house, and it feels like my life, is full again.

More photos this weekend. Some of us have to work...

Remember this baby? These are pics from when Margaret was about a week old.

Check out those legs!

She HATED the bath!
Now we're here

Is that the same baby? Where'd all the hair go?

The only thing the same here appears to be the towel

To paraphrase the old Virginia Slims tagline, we've come a long way, baby!

SAM and Margaret come home tomorrow, and I can't wait.

Quiet Nights

As many of you know, the girls are away in Beijing. And while Jack and I have been having a wonderful time together in the evenings, I miss the company of SAM and Margaret immensely.

I now have some extra time in the evenings that would otherwise be spent catching up with SAM or feeding Margaret. And while it's nice to have a quiet house, even with Jack sleeping in the living room, it's too quiet here.

There's no soft grumbling from Margaret's bedroom and no rustle of sheets next to me as Sarah turns over and mumbles a few incoherent words from a half dream before going back to her steady, somnolent breathing.

Absent the punctuation of this life's background noise which I have gotten used to, the sound of traffic filtering through the windows is as alien as if I was sleeping in a hotel room in a city far from home.

The house even seems visually emptier.


Now, Sarah has extended her trip by another day, so Jack and I are on our own until Thursday night.

Such is the effectiveness of the Chinese doctor that she's gone to see in Beijing that even she was convinced that it was worthwhile to stay for more sessions.

And while it wasn't that she was necessarily feeling bad before, she reports that she can feel that the treatment (that involves massage and Chinese herbs) has had immediate effect even after just one session.

Margaret almost turning over all the way. We're still waiting for her to figure out the arm thing.

So I will leave you with a few recent pictures that didn't make the first round cuts for being in a blog entry, but which I still think are worthy of attention.

Hopefully it will tide all of us over until they get back.

Lazy Afternoons in the Sunshine

With Margaret and Sarah off to Beijing as of this morning, the plan for the boys' afternoon was a simple one.

Ribeye steaks at a restaurant called "Lardos" (aptly named).

Then we did this


While looking at this


Then there was ice cream and home.

Men behaving badly, indeed.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

From yesterday
Taking a page out of Jack's book today, I'm quoting song lyrics as my girls wing away from me on their way to Beijing.

It's the first time we've been apart, and I'm sad. :(

So seeing as there will be a dearth of Margaret photos for a few days (they're back Wednesday), I thought I'd do as many as I could today!

All ready to go at 6:50 am
Despite getting up at 5:30, Margaret seemed to be in a good mood... until we got on the airport express which is probably around when she should have gone down for her nap.

The funny thing is that she built up to full forced screaming from a sort of intermittent mumbling so that when we finally realized she was making quite a bit of noise and put the pacifier in her mouth, the silence in the train compartment was absolutely defeaning.

Some parents.

Flagging a cab
The other challenge this morning was one we've been struggling with for a couple of days - getting eye drops into an infant's eyes.

I'm not sure if any of you out there have any experience with this, but it must be something like trying to hit a jinking fighter jet armed with nothing but a rifle. You don't know where she's going next as she desperately thrashes her body side to side, upset at all attempts to hold her still while being restrained by the limitations of the weapon which is that it can only dispense a droplet of medicine straight down.

Oh, and if she sees the dropper, she clamps her eyes shut with the force of an alligators jaws.

Completely watertight.

So we're left trying to hold the dropper just out of her sight line while trying to anticipate when the almost perfect randomization algorithm in her head will cause her to turn just the right amount so that you can squeeze the bottle in time for the droplet to fall somewhere along the very small space defined by the bounds of her upper and lower eyelids (her eyelashes serve as near-perfect natural eyedrop barriers). Then, prying her eyelids apart when the golden BB hits so that some gets into her eyes.

We figure we use about three to six drops per eye just to get a little smidge into a corner.

We've already gone to the pharmacy and bought another, bigger bottle of the stuff.

On the airport express
Now the girls are with the girls and the boys are home alone.

Jack and I are off to live it up on this, the last day of my long weekend.

It's a beautiful day outside and we're off to the New Territories. Fun stuff.

We'll keep you posted.

All ready for immigration
I hate to see her leave but I love to watch her go

Saturday Date Night

Hanging with Oscar on the floor.
After a rough day with Margaret yesterday, we were happy that she seemed fine today. In fact, she seemed fine enough to have a play session on the floor with her friend Oscar when we went to Dim Sum this morning with Oscar's family, Dickson, Lucy and Andrew.

I, on the other hand, was exhausted, having slept little last night, picked up Margaret's eye infection and still fighting off the tail end of a mild cold.

A nap after Dim Sum, however, was just what the doctor ordered and I took it. The best part?

Waking up to see SAM putting Margaret down into bed next to me, crawling into bed herself, and then observing Margaret look first to me, then to her mom, and start laughing and giggling at being in bed with us - only the second time either of SAM or I have observed her laugh.

Even at four months, she knows how to make us happy.

On the tram
Saturday date night with Jack was probably one of the best date nights ever.

After a pouring rainstorm in the late afternoon cleared out the air, we all decided to do date night by taking the ferry across to Tsim Sha Tsui to take in the view.

First, we took the tram to Central which afforded us wonderful crisp views of Causeway Bay and the road to Central. Once there, we enjoyed a dinner of Japanese Ramen noodles and made it onto the ferry in time to catch the tail end of the Festival of Lights light show that Hong Kong does with several of the buildings on both sides of the harbor. The Ferry captain even slowed the ferry so that we spent a maximum amount of time on the water watching the lights on the buildings flash and dance.

In Central
After a few photos and a walk along the promenade that lines the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, we hopped back on the ferry and were back home before 10.

It wasn't too long, but it didn't have to be. Jack called it a memorable night and I have to agree with him.

A most perfect way to spend the evening.

Jack watching the Festival of Lights in Central as we pull into TST

On the promenade looking back at Hong Kong Island

Old and New

Fussy Baby Today

Margaret was off all day today (though you wouldn't know it from the pictures), starting when she woke up complaining about something at 5:30 this morning. An unusual hour for her. After feeding her at around 6:30 we handed her off to Jack, but she remained fussy.

We weren't able to find anything overtly wrong with her except potentially an eye infection. She didn't have a temperature, but she was fussy for the rest of the morning.

So... we took her to the Doctor who issued some eye drops but found nothing else wrong.

Unfortunately, she really has just been 'off' for the rest of the day. Luckily, she was alright when we took Jack and Margaret to brunch buffet where four cups of coffee downed by me made sure I wouldn't be able to nap later in the afternoon.

Later, however, we went to the park in the afternoon (without mommy) and halfway through, she became inconsolable in her stroller so I had to carry her the rest of the way home while Jack wheeled the stroller.

My arms are now very sore.

Jack stayed home with Margaret this evening while SAM and I went out to have dinner and watch Charlie Wilson's War with some friends. Thanks, Jack.

She's mostly quiet now (with a couple of cries now and then, but she's mostly asleep) so we're hoping for a better day for her tomorrow.

We're wondering if it might be teeth, so we've got the teething toys in the freezer and will see if it helps.

Life Rocks

After her bath on Saturday
First, let me say that I love my job.

I struggled for a year to find a home in the toy industry, and now I've got one at a company I respect, with a boss that I like and with co-workers who I have fun working with.

The work itself is not without its challenges, but I relish each one and look forward to the gratification that I feel when I complete a task successfully.

But... it's spring time in Hong Kong, and that means sunny but not-too-hot days with chirping birds, blooming flowers and a wife who looks so good in a tank top and sandals that, were I not already married to her, would make me think sinful thoughts. Though, admittedly, the thoughts I do have are probably no less sinful even though we are married.

That, plus the sheer joy that strolling (or is it stroller-ing?) with Margaret in the park evinces makes it even harder to think about waking up early again tomorrow to go into work.


At Tsim Sha Tsui
Now, Jack is here, and the freshness and excitement that he brings to each activity that we've done with him makes the exhilaration that I normally feel at learning to make decisions about foreign currency hedging or cost cutting or safety procedures feel like... work.

Like I wish I had hit the lottery and could sit back and spend every day in a life of leisure with every day bringing a walk in the park, a new activity with Margaret and a sunny afternoon spent snuggling with my wife. I think about the past year playing tour guide to everyone who visited and wish I could do the same with Jack and simply let his enthusiasm become my enthusiasm and give myself over to the joy, again, of having nowhere to be but exactly where I was.

Family Ferry Time
However, while sitting in the golden sunshine of a springtime Sunday afternoon makes me wish the responsibilities of life would give me another year (or lifetime) off, that deep buried recess of my mind in which responsibility resides (yes, it's in there somewhere) lets me understand that it's only because of what I've done and what I'm doing today, that I can even enjoy weekends like this and fantasize of a life devoid of actual work. The lessons I am learning in my job are lessons that inform my growth as a person and add incalculable value to my leisure. Not to mention that the responsibilities of my vocation are a part of my life that makes it as enjoyable as it is.

The more you live your life, the more you have to live for. With the addition of a few years have come the addition of a wife and daughter and so much more joy in every one of my days than I could have imagined five years ago before I met SAM.

Even the difficult passages and the lessons I've been forced to learn have made for a richer and more enjoyable life today.

The same goes for my job, I've realized. The confidence, knowledge and social skills I gain from spending most days hard at work in an office far from my home help me to approach each following day with more answers than the day before.

At 30 years old, while I certainly don't feel the confidence in myself or the comfort in inhabiting my own skin that I wish I felt, I feel myself getting closer.

And while I still have problems that I can't solve and longings for things like a bigger house, a better salary and more assuredness of where Margaret's tuition will come from, I feel that I'm getting closer to answers for those questions too.

And so tomorrow, I will go to work, decide how much foreign currency I need to hedge, send some emails about how much money safety programs will cost us, and come home to my family, realizing that I enjoy every part of my day more because of every task that I do in the course of that day; realizing that living my life makes my life better to live.

And realizing that, really, my life is pretty sweet.

The source of my happiness

Morning Surprises

First morning after meeting each other and Margaret and her Pa are already chumming it up like old pals.

We had a bit of extra time this morning because the government has closed school a week early (they moved up Easter break) due to a flu epidemic outbreak (thanks, Jack) that's going around. Since we don't own a TV, we didn't hear about it last night on the evening news and didn't find out until this morning when Daisy came in and let us know.

Sarah then checked her email which confirmed the fact but that teachers were expected to meet in the staff room at 9:00. Only then did the phone tree call come in.

So there was some found time this morning where SAM, Margaret, Dad and I hung out in the living room. It was fantastic to have even that extra forty five minutes with all of us together before I had to head off to work.

I didn't have to feel too jealous about missing out, though. SAM has to keep going into school as they've simply moved up the professional development days for the year.
The only real bonus is that she gets an extra twenty minutes, now, in the morning as she doesn't have to get there before the students do.

And anyways, Margaret is always waiting for me when I come home. Like you can see below from tonight.

Pa's Here

At around 7:30 this evening, SAM and I met Jack, or Pa, at the airport.

See above.

Upon arriving home, we spent a few very tender moments observing Jack and a sleeping Margaret get acquainted.

At her 9:30 pm feed, Jack and Margaret wasted no time getting to know each other for real.

See below.