When you wish upon a star...

Livie was overtired at night when we were at the hotel in Big Island, Hawaii.   She started crying when we told her that she couldn’t take the stuffed dolphin left in the room by the hotel.  Daddy tried every way to distract her from being upset.

Daddy: Livie, let's make a wish upon the stars.  What would you like to wish for?

Olivia: I wish I can have a stuffed dolphin.

Daddy: I wish my kids will stay with me forever, even when they grow up.

Olivia rolled her eyes, gave daddy a look and said, "You will!  So make another one!"

That made daddy's day.

First Real Road Trip

It’s Thanksgiving weekend. A few friends wanted to go to visit the only UNIGLO store in North America, which is in New York City. Of course Ho, being a “funaholic” and “fashionholic”, wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity. Our friends were very brave to invite us to join their 3 nights and 3 days trip to New York, as this would be the first ever long road trip for the kids. We are not talking about 2 hours to Niagara, it’s a 9-hour drive. Honestly, with our experience in Hong Kong, I believe my kids would behave “most” of the time. Yet still, riding in a van is quite different from on a plane where you can walk around.

The kids were very excited. We wanted them feel in charge of something, so we asked them to be responsible for the road entertainment department. After serious consideration, the 2 of them picked one DVD – Spy Kids. When I suggested other ones to take, they both answered, “We don’t want to lose it…” Great! We’re stuck in the van watching one movie for 9 hours.

It’s a brilliant idea to depart on Thursday. Even though we left our house at 7pm, after picking up D, Lou, and V on the way, by 9pm, we were at the border with no traffic at all. I made some smoked salmon sandwiches with my beloved Tang Zhong Toast Bread so we can save eating time too. I think it was about 2am when we arrived at the first stop. We only needed to stop once before then because Adrian woke up with his sleepy legs. He was going to throw a tantrum but Ho got him controlled by taking him out for fresh air. The kids were wide awake when we checked in the hotel at 2:30am. I only remembered asking them to brush their teeth before going to bed. Luckily they both went back to bed quite quickly after.

The theme of our first full day Friday was shopping of course. I was quite worried about what the kids could do for the day when we drove by the shops. You can’t imagine how relieved I was when I saw the big Scholastics store across the street of Uniglo. The kids and I spent at least 2 hours there reading and watching the Magic School Bus video while daddy shopped for deals in different stores.

Finally we got to see the Statue of Liberty on Saturday! It’s very tiny looking at it from the pier but we’re there to see it, not from TV or pictures! This was also Fifth Avenue day. Ho and I so wanted to bring the kids to FAO Schwartz. They went wild when they got on the Big Piano. Ho purposely showed them the movie before coming to New York. Livie loved the design your own Barbie computer and the fashion show too. Somehow Adrian fell in love with the life saber from Star Wars. He played with it whenever he saw it at the toy stores. It was so funny when I saw them playing with it and making their own sound effects. We also went to the American Girls store. I was waiting for Livie to ask me to buy her one, but she actually wasn’t even interested. She said, “They look so fat.” Oh my, no wonder she doesn’t eat well. She has weight control in her mind already!

On Sunday I took the kids with me following D, L, and V while Ho went back to Uniglo the 3rd time in 3 days! On our way to the 90K sq ft Forever 21 store at Time Square, we passed a huge Toys R Us store. Looked a like a lot was going on there. So I brought the kids in. Wow, it’s a flagship store with a 3-storey high Ferris wheel built on the basement and a live size moving T-Rex on the second floor! You can tell they really know how to do business because there was toy demonstration in every 10-ft diameter area. How can you not spend any money in the store? End up, the uncles and auntie came to look for us at Toys R Us too after their disappointing visit to the Forever 21 store.

We made one more stop at Muji and then we headed back to Toronto. We had a great time in this trip, seems like everyone got what they wanted in NYC. Apart from clothing for himself, Ho also bought me some very nice clothes and my favourites are the HeatTech undershirts from Uniglo! Kids went to one big toy store everyday, they were happy too. Luckily we found these toy stores so little feet of Livie’s can rest because we forgot to bring her stroller. Special mention goes to Uncle L who did an amazing job in driving us around in the crazy New York traffic. I love the combination of this group, I think we can go anywhere together! What made the trip more perfect was that we still had one full day before work and school day came on Tuesday.

Nightwaking

We were awakened by Livie’s screaming cry at 5am this morning. Both Ho and I ran to her room to see what happened. We found out that she just woke up and wanted to turn off her CD player but mistakenly switched on the radio really loud. I gave her a hug and wiped her tears while Ho took his pillow getting ready to stay in her room with her. After a short while without waking daddy up, she came to my room to tell me that she couldn’t sleep. I took her to my bed, hoping she could fall asleep soon. It didn’t work however. I tried holding her, massaging her, taking her to the washroom, holding her hands, nothing worked. She had been waking me up every 15 mins to tell me that she still couldn’t sleep. At 6am, I said, “Sweetie, do you want to try lying down? You may fall asleep easier that way. Mommy has 2 meetings in the morning and my boss will not be happy if I’m late.” She finally lied down, held my hand and tossed a little. When I woke up again at 7am, she was sound asleep like an angel.

I could feel her love to me by just looking at her. When I left for work, I just couldn’t resist giving her a big kiss.

Kids and Gadgets

Today is Friday in 3rd week of school year.  When I finished my morning shower, I heard the kids talking to daddy already.  I was thinking, "Great, they won't be as rush as the other days".  However when I came out of the washroom, Adrian was playing with daddy's iPhone, Livie was playing with Adrian's Leapfrog, and daddy was in the other washroom playing with his iPad!  Of course they had to rush at the end.  That's why I always tell my friends, I have 3 kids.  My friend described herself as "iPad Widow", I wonder what I should call myself?  When we chat about this at dinner, Ho said, "I'll buy you an iPod Touch, then we can all play!"

Man!

Test of Food Function in Panasonic Lumix

Just a test of the food function in our Panasonic Lumix camera.  Not bad!  These pictures were taken from my father-in-law’s birthday dinner.  It’s Jennifer turn to make the birthday cake this time.  Very pretty and yummy too!  What a great success!  Here’s the link if you want her recipe. http://jwingyee.blogspot.com/2010/06/lo-yehs-father-in-laws-birthday-cake.html  The puffs were the only one course I made.   I used the leftover cream from Ho’s aunt’s birthday cake to fill some cream puffs.  The camera is pretty good!

On the flight back

Finally the last day in Hong Kong.  I kept my promise by taking the kids to the hotel restaurant for buffet breakfast.  All they wanted was rice crispies with milk.  That’s a HK$98 per kid buffet man!  They just enjoyed the freedom of going out to the food table to take whatever they wanted.  Luckily the manager was so kind not to charge us for Livie.  Well, anybody can tell she doesn’t eat much.  She’s so tiny.  Ho didn’t join us because he had to do the last minute shopping, ha!

We were on the plane back to Toronto.  There were a lot of kids on the plane.  Wow, there were a brother and his little sister, should be younger than 2 years old because she didn’t occupy a seat.  They were fighting 70% of the flight.  The sister was constantly crying and the brother was constantly yelling at her.  I felt so bad for those sitting around them.  Strange thing was, they were sitting with their mommy and their daddy was sitting at one row behind.  If I were the one sitting beside the mommy and kids, I would have offered to exchange seat with the daddy so he could help to separate the kids.  Well, maybe there’s a reason I don’t know.  Anyway, compared to those kids, Adrian and Livie were so quiet and well behaved.  Livie was a little grumpy because she was tired but didn’t have enough room to stretch and sleep.  She was fine most of the time.  She had a comment about the airplane when I took her to the washroom.  I accidentally hit her head with my elbow.

Olivia: Mommy, did you know your elbow hit me?

Me: I’m sorry, but we don’t have much room when 2 of us are in the washroom.

Olivia: Why do they make the washroom so small when the plane is so big?

Sales Admin Team Reunion

Finally got a chance to check out one of those baking utensil shops that Cherry told me about.  This one is in Causeway Bay.  A little bit disappointed because the prices are not as low as I was expecting them to be.  Yet, it is a real one-stop shop for bakers.   I only picked a few items which may not be available in Toronto. 

Very excited to see my ex-colleagues from Hutchison at dinner tonight.  The kids were also happy to eat with their kid friend Tim, Auntie Peggy, Jo and 2 uncles.  So we went separate ways for dinner.  Everybody looks the same after 12 years J.  So happy to see everyone is doing well.  I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures with them!  Just because of this, I have to make sure I’ll return to Hong Kong soon for this picture opportunity again!

Spa at Peninsula - updated post

Realized I forgot to include an important component of the spa treat.  So here's the updated version:

It’s my birthday and Ho treated me with a half day spa at Peninsula Hotel.  I was surprised to know the price was so reasonable.  Only about Cdn$100 more than a regular spa here in Toronto.  Yes, it's still expensive but you're getting a half day at the world class 6-star hotel including a pool side lunch!  What a deal.

It started with a small cup of ginger tea.  Their staff will never let you look up to them.  They will always squat when they need to talk to you.  After checking in, I was brought to the changing room to change into their robe.  Then the girl took me to the steam room and sauna.  In between there was a shower which had 3 settings: Tropical Rain, Cool Mist, and Body Jet.  Each sprayed water in different speed with different scent.  Loved it!  I thought the cool mist would be cold but it was just right.  The sauna room had a window facing the harbour.  After that I went to the harbour view relaxation room with adjustable beds, magazines and a fridge filled with complementary water, mango yogurt drink and berry smoothies.  Finally the masseur first greeted me with "Happy Birthday" when she came to take me to a private room for massage and facial.  Again, she squatted when explaining the products to me.  As expected, I fell asleep even before the facial started!  It was so relaxing!  The masseur wrote me a birThen I went back to the check in counter and the girl asked me if I wanted to have lunch in the robe or get changed first.  I thought, probably many people will be in swimming suit or robe, so I decided to change after lunch.  What a nice pool they have, covered with a panaramic view of the harbour.  It's a 3-course meal with fresh juice and tea or coffee.  I chose pan seared scallop on bed of greens, steamed chicken breast with mushroom sauce, and whole wheat strawberry shortcake with blood orange sorbet.  When the dessert came, a lit candle was on the sorbet and the waiter greeted me happy birthday again.  I could only finish half of the entree and dessert.  Even though they tried to provide a healthy light menu, but the smoothie from the relaxation room was quite filling already.  Wow, what a full half day.  Thank you daddy!  Too bad only hotel and spa guests are allowed so he couldn't join me for lunch.

Ho came to pick me up after the spa and we went to Heritage 1881 to take some pictures.   Then we met up with Jenn and Francis to look for Tony Wong’s patisserie and Tse Ling’s cookies in Kowloon City.  Luckily Jenn remembered the street name.  Even though we went the wrong way, but once we asked someone at a store on the street, he easily pointed out the direction to us, probably lots of people asked him before.

We went to Tse Ling’s Cookies Quartet first, wow, there was a line up to outside of the store.  Then we thought it might be a good idea to check out Tony Wong first.  Same thing!  Another long line up to outside.  So we decided to separate into 2 groups to do line up.  Tse Ling’s cookies got so very interesting flavours.  Quite light too.  Best thing is they let you try every single flavour before buying.  That’s good and you can tell they have confidence in their products.  Then we went to Tony Wong’s Patisserie.  The cakes exceeded my expectation.  They’re so good and not too sweet at all.  I bought his cookbooks at the store and asked if Tony’s in the store.  To my surprise he was there and even signed autograph on both books for me!  Yeah!

At night we had dinner at Ho’s uncle’s place.  His domestic helpers are good cooks!  The food was so yummy and they even made their own shredded pork with lean pork from soup.  I didn’t count the number of people there but it was one big birthday party for me.

What a special birthday it was this year!

Squid Gang Reunion

So excited to see my high school friends in Hong Kong.  It’s been 12 years since I last saw them.  They’re my best friends.  There are some friends in your life who you’ll always feel close to even though you have not been keeping in touch with frequently.  We spent the most important teenager days in high school together, our values are similar.  No matter how long we have been apart or how far we are away, we can always have things to talk about.  It’s like I never had left.  I was so surprised that they remembered my birthday and had a cake ready for me.  I knew there’d be a cake but didn’t expect it to be a birthday cake. Too bad Nicole wasn’t able to join us.  With her, that will be the perfect reunion.  We still had a great time at Christine’s place though. 

Can’t believe the buildings are so high in Hong Kong now.  I used to live on the 29^th floor and I was bragging about touching the clouds sometimes.  Now the normal residential buildings can reach 60^th floor or higher.  Beyond my imagination!

Disneyland

I bet it wouldn’t rain from the look of the sky, even though the weather forecast said it would.   I decided to go to Disneyland.  This one is only ½ the size of the Tokyo one.  At least that’s how I remembered it.  It’s funny when daddy took Livie to see the princess and tried to take a picture for them, Livie refused to do so.  I was waiting in line for Dumbo while they did that.  Then Livie told me a secret:

“The princess is too ugly and she didn’t look like a princess.  That’s why I didn’t want to take a picture of her.”  Poor princess, luckily she wasn’t around to hear it.

Ocean Park

We had had a lot of luck with the weather within our trip in HK.  Not too stuffy, and not too hot.  It’s the day for Ocean Park.  We invited a friend and her 15 month old daughter to go with us.  Fortunately we tuned Livie’s clock with a nap yesterday, so she was able to sleep to 7am this morning.   Last time when I was there was 12 years ago.  It had changed so much.  I’m so happy to see Adrian taking good care of the baby.  He had matured a lot after this trip.

We took the Ocean Park cable car together.  Adrian was so excited that he started to walk around in the cable car.  Ho and I were very nervous because we’re both scared of heights.  To add to the excitement, we got stuck for a couple of minutes in the air because there were some maintenance crews needed to climb down a tower.  Luckily we saw them climbing down so we knew that was the reason, otherwise, it could be a quite frightening experience for us, just me and Ho.  The kids didn’t care.  We just had to keep reminding Adrian to sit still.

Chatting with Livie

Another early morning for Livie.  This time after doing her homework, it’s still too early to wake up the boys, so I tried to brush her teeth and change her, getting ready for the walk and breakfast like what Ho and Livie did the other day.  While we were in the washroom, Livie and I were chatting again.

Olivia: When your tooth and gum are itchy, it means that your tooth is falling off.

Me: Who told you that?

Olivia: Adrian did.  He knows a lot because he’s in Grade 1.

It’s nice to see that she admires her brother so much.

Me: Livie, aren’t you happy to see yee-sum (aunt Jennifer) today?

Olivia: Yes.

Me: What do you think she would have bought?

Olivia:  I wish she would buy another mommy like you.

As you can tell, she’s a real brown noser.

Remember Adrian loves Tempo?  He loved it so much that today when he saw the bulk pack on shelf while we were passing by a local pharmacy, he insisted on buying the big package to bring back to Canada.  That’s the first souvenir he bought in HK.

The next day, Adrian kept complaining about too tired and wouldn’t carry his own backpack.  That’s when we found out that he had filled his backpack with the whole 30-pack Tempo in there!  Of course later on Livie wanted one package for herself too.  So our hotel room was filled with about 70 little packs of Tempo for rest of the trip.

Peak Tram

Livie woke up at 5am this morning again.  After entertaining her for almost 2 hours, finally Ho woke up and took her out for a walk and picked up breakfast on their way.  When Ho ordered 皮蛋瘦肉粥 lean pork congee, Livie said, “瘦肉?  (lean meat)”    She pointed at her body and said, “It’s like me, 瘦肉(lean)”

We visited the Peak by Peak Tram today.  The kids were tired but excited.  Livie almost fell asleep but when I told her mommy was scared of height (of course I wasn’t that scared, just saying it to distract her), she held my hand all the way in the tram, saying,

“It’s ok mommy, just hold my hand.”  I was so touched.

澳洲牛奶公司 (Australian Dairy Company)

Today Livie still woke up early, but we all woke up to go to the famous 澳洲牛奶公司 (Australian Dairy Company) for breakfast.  It sounds like an office but it’s actually a Hong Kong style café.  Not only their steamed milk desserts are famous, their scramble eggs are superb too.  A picky eater like Livie even told us that she couldn’t stop eating the eggs.  Everything’s is fast in Hong Kong.  Waiters, customers, and the food.  It’s almost like the waiter just turned around to get the plate of food after he took our order.  Livie said, “快過新城市. (It’s faster than New City).” – A HK style café in our neighbourhood in Toronto.  When we stepped out of the café, I asked the kids, “香港係咪樣樣嘢都好趕咁呢？”  They didn’t understand what it meant so I asked again in English:

Me: Do you find everything is rushed in Hong Kong?

Olivia: Yeah!  Like Russia!

Since we’re so early today, we went to Langham Place 朗豪坊 to visit the longest escalator indoor. After visiting a few stores, Livie told me, “I like the stores here, they all said, “隨便睇！” (Please feel free to browse around).

Good girl

This is the 3rd day of our visit in Hong Kong.  Same as yesterday, Livie woke up first.  This time at 7:15am.  I vaguely remember she got up and got a drink of water.  Then when I really woke up, I realized that she had already brushed her teeth and started doing more worksheets!

I'm so touch!

We went to Harbour City and let them play in and arcade with  indoor playground.  Then we took the kids to Toys R Us.  Livie saw some Lego type of toy and started putting something together.  When we asked her what it was, she said it's a roller coaster.  She did such a good job that the promoter even put her finished work on display with the others.  We took so pictures.  I'll post them when we return to HK.  When we asked Adrian what he was making, he said, "I'm making something that I don't know what it is."  Again, very deep...  Ha!  :-)

Tempo

Still the second day in Hong Kong.  We managed to meet up with some of Ho’s high school friends for tea yesterday.   We also had dinner together.  Adrian’s nose was quite stuffed up at dinner time.  One of Ho’s friends, Uncle Yellow, gave Adrian a pack of Tempo facial tissue.  Adrian said it was the softest tissue he had ever used.  Who knows that later in the trip, Tempo became a very important part of the vacation.

Conditioner

Second day in Hong Kong.  Both kids are still suffering jet lag.  Livie  fell asleep while we're having afternoon tea with Ho's high school friends.  Luckily there are strollers available for guests at the mall, so I didn't have to hold her for the whole time.    Then she woke up and Adrian took the spot and fell asleep while we went shopping.  I have to say, for the amount of sleep they'd gotten, they had been behaving super good.

Since we don't like the shampoo offered at the hotel, we went to buy shampoo and conditioner to bring back to the hotel.  The conditioner was mainly for Livie because her hair is long.  Adrian was so happy that he wanted to take a shower right after we returned from dinner.  He came out and told me that he mixed the shampoo and conditioner together (home made 2 in 1?) when he washed his hair because he wanted his hair to be clean and soft.  He also put the condition on his body also because he wanted his skin to be soft too.  Until then we realized that we had never told him how to use the conditioner.  He didn't need to use it when he was in Canada.

Homework

This is our 2nd day in Hong Kong.  Livie was the first one who woke up.  She woke me up at 5:45am and asked for water.  I gave her the water and told her to get back to sleep.  After half and hour, she woke me up again and said she couldn't sleep.  What a lazy mom I was, I asked her to keep an eye on my watch and wake me up when the long arm reached the number "9", which is 25 mins later.  

Livie: Is this the one? (She was pointing at the fast moving second hand)

Me: No, it's this one. (I was pointing at the minute hand)

Livie: But that one is not working!

Anyhow, she was so good that she waited all the time (checking with me a few times in between), and asked me what she could do after.  Since it's still early and the boys had not awaken yet, I told her to brush her teeth and do some homework.  She happily went to the washroom while I prepared the worksheets for her.   She was very focused and quiet while doing the worksheets.  She actually finished 3 sheets before Adrian woke up! 

She's such a good girl...

Monopoly

This is the 3rd year we have participated Earth Hour.  Adrian reminded us that last year we all played monopoly together under candle light.  Of course they didn't understand the game at that time.  We just raced to the final point, the fastest one won.  This year, we played the proper way.  Olivia didn't understand it clearly but she played along anyway.  It was my turn again, I got the chance card which sent me to jail.  Then it's Adrian's turn to move.  Suddenly daddy realized that Livie looked sad and down.  He held her and asked her what's wrong.  Livie said:

"I don't want mommy to go to jail..."

She really loves us very much.

Princess and the Frog

We went to see Disney on Ice today. (Livie almost called it "Dizzy On Ice")  It was a great show with most of the famous Disney theme songs sung.  Livie really wanted to see it because she likes Princess and the Frog, even though she hasn't seen the movie at all.  While we're waiting for daddy in the car, she told me:

"I love Princess and the Frog because she's my new favourite.  When I have my baby in the future, when I hold the baby in my arms, I'll name her 'Princess and the Frog'".