The Summer...

I realized I have not posted since late June...so it's time for a little catch-up. We left July 9 for 6 weeks in the US. The kids and I spent 3 weeks in NYC, followed by a week in DC, a week at a beach house in Dewey Beach (Delaware), and then our final week half in DC and half in NYC before flying back home. Shafi was able to join for a week in NY and for our week at the beach. It was really great to see friends and family and visit some of our old haunts in Brooklyn Heights and vicinity. We had a great time at the beach with my whole family - GG (my grandmother), Uncle Gorilla (Howard - my uncle) and Uncle Charlie, Uncle Alan (my brother) and Aunt Rachel, and Grandma and Grandpa (my parents).

There are really too many stories, pictures, etc. to share here, but you can check out our antics on Picasa. The flights both directions were not fun at all! I had both kids for 16+ hours on my own. Will did not much like staying seated and Leah got airsick during descent (both ways). But a relatively brief amount of pain in order to take such a long trip was not so bad. The jetlag was about a week on both ends...not too terrible.

We are now back in Hong Kong and I guess the summer is over...although it's still very hot & humid here...so it doesn't feel like fall except that school is back in session. Leah is back at Sunshine House - this year in the Cloudview Room. And Will has started there in Mother Goose (think mommy & me) 2 days a week. We've also gotten into full swing of extracurriculars with Leah in ballet, gymnastics and swimming and Will in gym for tots and socatots (soccer).

We've been spending lots of time at the pool and when the weather cools down a bit we may start hitting the beach a bit more also. Last night was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival - a harvest moon festival. We hung out down at Stanley Main Beach with hundreds of other expats and a few locals, celebrating with picnics, drinking and thousands of glow-sticks. It was a fun evening for all.

We have been reconnecting with friends here in HK and reaching out to those who were more recent acquaintances to cultivate new friendships. We're filling the social calendar and realizing how far we've come...we arrived in HK on the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival last year (a public holiday)...so while it's 2 more weeks on the Western calendar, it's been a year on the Chinese calendar.

I haven't kept up so well with Will's milestones here...but he's definitely very steady on his feet these days. He's running around and trying to jump (he puts his arms in the air, bends his knees, stretches up high, but doesn't quite get off the ground). He loves to play with balls - throwing and kicking. And he's starting to show a bit of interest in cars and animals. He's got quite a few words now - hello, bye, no, uh-oh, ball, up, mama, baba, lala (Leah), nada (Nilda), bath, vroom (car sound), beep (horn sound), woof woof, meow, ooh ahh (monkey sound), puh puh (puppy - his lovey), yes, whoa, yay. He's getting better at imitating sounds and words, but he still frequently prefers the screaming/whining method of getting attention and getting what he wants.