Life back in Hong Kong

So I made it back in one piece with 3 children in my care. There was a moment there where I thought I might just curl up and die when Noah turned a nasty shade of green all of sudden and I found myself trying to unsucker Tobias from my neck while urgently whispering to Noah to aim for the aisle if he thought he was going to be sick – sorry Cathay, but it was the only way I could see to make sure you tidied it all up :) Thankfully his green shade faded after he had a sleep and the rest of the trip continued without a hiccup (or a spew up).

 (notice the necklace - she is so into details!!! She chose the necklace and headband to look nice for the trip, can you believe she is my daughter, I mean I am lucky to remember knickers each day!!)

Once back life just seemed to reeve right on back to the 100mph life I had known before leaving for NZ. Dear little Tobias took over India's spot at our playgroup. I had to leave poor India at home while Tobias and I took off to SKIP. He loved it!! Here is a photo of one red faced little boy determined to bath all the dollies, one after the other.

 I turned my back for one moment and he had a foot in the bath tub. I did have to extract him as SKIP is no playcentre and this sort of play is totally NOT acceptable in Hong Kong. Tobias was pacificied by playing with the water in the sink....water is water you know....

So although India has had to stop going to playgroup at SKIP (she's now officially too old....they don't understand the concept of mixed ages playing together here) we still run our playgroup at home on a Tuesdays.  Her two little friends Reia and Mackie come along, plus the other siblings and Stef's twins – not bad when you consider how small our place is with no outdoor area barring our tiny wee deck. But we have a blast. One day we had a Pinkilicious Day in honour of the book we were reading at the time. Lucky old Noah managed to come to that one. We made pink cupcakes and decorated them, and drank pink lemonade. 

Just the other day we looked at how cabbage juice will change if you add acid or alkaline things to it (goes either blue or red instead of the normal purple). Well Mackie and India were in total raptures!!! Of course having a bit of baking soda and vinegar added into the mix helped with the chemical reactions.

When we aren't participating in any playgroups the kids and I have as much messy fun as you can in a WHITE apartment!! I love the kids to have a chance to use the paint as much as possible so we usually pull that out at least once a week . The other day we were painting straight onto the table and taking prints of our pictures. 

 Tobias was just “enjoying” the feeling of the paint under his one tentative finger when India started to paint her tummy orange. It was helpful that she was in her knickers (the normal attire for kids at our house, even for their friends....I wonder what that is about? Come to our house and take your clothes off.....they all say our apartment is warm but still) as she then started painting her chest and legs and arms. 

 Ohhhh it must have felt glorious, so cold and smooth. She was giggling away intent on her task, not quite sure if it was naughty or not but enjoying the thrill of pushing any boundaries I might try to erect. Tobias watched her and finally asked me to paint his hand – daring!! Finally once India was covered in orange I asked her what she was. She thought about it and decided she was a tiger, to which I pointed out that she needed some black stripes to hide herself in the grass. These were applied, and then she leapt down to show me her tigerish moves....

Noah has started his soccer classes and my goodness, the coach is in for some fun!! The first time he got to actually play against a team mate he scored a goal – in his own goal! Never one to be deterred by small things like this Noah raced back to his waiting team with a big smile and declared “Well that wasn't meant to happen” - you just gotta love his confidence that everyone will love him despite that obvious misdeed....the other funny thing is that Noah has been totally influenced by the computer soccer games he plays and now runs and dives just like an animated character! Paul and I laugh about the way he celebrates when he scores a goal, kind of like the Queen waving – just like he sees them do it on Fifa!!!

The other weekend I told Paul that we needed to get over to Happy Valley Racecourse nice and early. This is the sort of thing Paul hates....having to move our labour intensive lot out the door quickly, while racing off to something that only I think is worth a visit. Well I insisted that it would be good and no one could pop my balloon of enthusiasm. Boy Noah gave it a good go, he stabbed away with comments like “all the horses will probably be finished by now, there won't be any point going” and “this will be so boring!!!”. But I was unpoppable, off in my own little world thinking about watching some racehorses. When we pulled up to the ultra flash racecourse in our ghetto rider they must have thought the cleaners had found the wrong entrance, but I was all smiles and grabbed Noah and India and pulled them through to where all the horses were being marched around. 

We all chose the colour of rider we liked best then waited while the horses made their way to the starting box. You can tell by the smiles on the faces that two little children thought this actually was a brilliant idea – thanks mum for making us do things we don't want to do (they weren't actually saying that but I just imagine they are, its what keeps me suggesting outrageous things to do all the time). 

Anyway as soon as the horses pounded past us in a blaze India was already saying “Can we see them again?”, but alas Noah was partly right, we had arrived a bit late and that was the last race of the day – but I think next time I want to move them out the door early to get to Happy Valley it won't be so difficult.

So there you have it – life at 100mph!!! I will just leave you with a couple of funnies that popped out of their precious mouths....

• After Noah had been on a school trip to see a play Paul asked him “How was your field trip today?”. Noah looked at him indignantly and then replied “We didn't go to a field today!”.

• India and Noah were cuddling up with Paul in bed one morning. They were chatting to each other about how snuggly Daddy was. India wisely commented that she thought he was snuggly cause of all his hairs.

• Noah was gazing in the mirror the other day and said to me “Mum my hair is going white”. I thought he meant blonde so I corrected him, but he went on “No I mean white, must mean I am getting old!”

 (India and myself out for a bike ride on our new waterfront path)

 (Pauls mixed touch team won the National Winter League - go Dragons!!!)