On the Hong Kong front - Shafi went and signed the lease on Friday - so we are indeed moving to Stanley in a couple of weeks. Yay! He continues to find his job interesting and challenging. He's working long hours - leaving at 7 a.m. and coming home around 9 p.m. - but hopefully that will scale back a bit once he gets ramped up. Leah definitely misses seeing him during the week. And since the apartment was settled, I took Leah to Sunshine House in Tai Tam and paid for her first month+ (last week of October and all of November) of preschool. We also got her uniform and backpack while there. She stayed for about an hour - just went in and joined the class like she belonged - while I filled out paperwork and such. She is in the Moonbeam room with 14 other kids. And she's the only American - the other kids are all white but a mix of European and Australian (maybe a Canadian too). There are Americans in some of the other classes - so I guess it's just a coincidence. Leah was so excited about school that she wore her uniform home (we were just trying it on to make sure the size was right) and also has been wearing her backpack around the apartment quite a bit.
In general family life news...
Leah is making huge strides in potty training. She's been wearing pull ups for a couple of weeks, because that's what the preschools prefer. I also told her that when she's potty trained and wearing big girl panties she will get a Becky and Buzzy - the puppets from the Kids Club. I ordered them and they will be brought over from the US by a friend of my parents who will be visiting Hong Kong at the end of the month. I also offered Anna May a 1 week bonus if she helps get Leah potty trained by the end of the month. This morning Leah peed and pooped on the potty. And while we were at lunch she asked to go to the potty twice. Both times I put her on the seat and she peed right away - so she really did need to go - as opposed to some past experiences where she really just wanted to go check out the bathroom. Tonight at the beginning of dinner she told us she was going to go pee pee on the potty before bed. Then after finishing her grapes while Shafi and I were cleaning up she said, "Mommy, I need to go to the potty now." I took her right up and she sat down and peed right away - quite the volume in fact. That seemed to be to be a good sign - her diaper had been dry for about an hour and she requested the potty. Not sure whether school is the motivation - she will be starting a week from Monday - or if it's other factors. But whatever it is - I hope it continues!
And Will is eating solids! He hasn't pooped in almost a week again - so I decided to try adding some food and see if that helps. Yesterday I watered down some stage 1 applesauce - about 50/50 applesauce and water. He loved it. After the first few bites he seemed to really get it - started opening his mouth for the spoon and trying to "drink" the contents of the spoon. If I put much in his mouth he definitely dribbles most of it out - but with very small spoonfuls he seems to really eat it well. Tonight I didn't water down the applesauce - and he ate about 1/3 of the jar with very little mess. I also bought a jar of pear, so assuming we finish the apple tomorrow, we'll try pear on Monday. And if all of that goes well, I think we'll try rice cereal. We're slightly fearful that it will make his pooplessness a bit worse - but it's also possible that the added heft will actually make it better. Let's hope!
Leah had her 2nd ballet class on Wednesday. This time she asked me to stay in the room, but I sat by the door, and after a few minutes when I could see that she was doing fine without me, I told her I was going and I walked out. It was nice to get to sit and chat with the other moms - I even got a couple phone numbers for making playdates. And I peeked in a few times - and Leah was following right along! When she came out at the end she came running up with a huge grin and said, "I participated, Mommy!"
Leah has also started to get bold in the pool. She can "swim" all over the pool, including the deep end, by herself while wearing arm band floaties. But the same child who earlier in the week would not even loosen her grip on my arm in the pool suddenly decided on Thursday that she could swim. She got out of the pool, put her floaties with the bag, came back and walked right on down the steps into the pool...and not the baby pool. Luckily I was standing just a couple feet away in the pool. I thought she would walk down the steps and maybe be able to stand. But when she got to the next to last step, she sort of dove in. She then more or less crumpled down under the water. I pulled her right out and she was totally fine - but she was incredibly freaked out - cried for several minutes. So then I put her floaties back on and coaxed her back into the pool. And I showed her that I have to move my arms and legs to stay afloat and when I don't then I sink and that she needs some lessons to learn to really swim - so for now she promises to keep the floaties on!
Today we went exploring in Stanley a bit and had a nice lunch with a couple friends of mine from college - Jen and Jason. They moved to Hong Kong about 4 months ago. Jason grew up here until age 8 and had been wanting to come back, so they found jobs and made the move. They are still settling in but seem to be enjoying it. It was nice to see some familiar faces and the kids took to them right away.
Leah after ballet class:
Leah in her new preschool uniform:
Leah swimming:
Will's first meal:
"Mmm - applesauce - I want more!" - Will's 2nd meal:
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