Miscellaneous May

At the beginning of May, Ridge had his six month check up.  He was 18 lbs. and 28 inches, putting him in the 50-75th percentile for weight and 75-90th for height.  The only child in the DMV—er I mean medical clinic—that was close to Ridge’s size was a one year old.   

My early risers like to get me up at 5:30 each morning!  I guess I prefer that to Ridge waking up during the night, but now Jade has been getting up even earlier as opposed to her normal 6:30.  They are usually happy and smiley each morning which is a good way to start the day, but boy am I tired just after lunch time!

I snagged some cute sunglasses for the kids during girls’ night at Ladies’ Market.  Wouldn’t you know, a couple days later Ridge snapped the ear piece right off Jade’s pair.  Good thing they were cheap!

It took a good week or two to get Ridge to like eating solid foods.  Bananas mixed with rice cereal finally did the trick.  He loves bananas!!  These pictures are of the first time he was actually smiling while eating solids and not screaming as if he was being tortured!  Jade likes to help too.

   

Our primary had a temple activity where the children rotated through different classes centered around the temple.  The below right picture is of the temple Jade and Cody built out of marshmallows and spaghetti sticks.

 

I’m not sure what a three legged race has to do with temples, but it sure looks like fun!

  

The activity was for primary children only, so I stayed home with Ridge while Cody had quality time with his girl. I told him just make sure you get a picture of you two in front of the temple! This is what he took. Yes, technically it is in front of the temple, but c’mon just the doors?  Really?!

The event was held at the church building across from the Hong Kong temple.  During each one of the rotations, a group had the opportunity to walk across the street to the temple and hear the temple matron speak to them about the temple (Sister Aki, pictured below).

What an awesome experience for these children!

 

One of my dearest friends in Hong Kong is Lenny. She is from the Philippines and is working here as a domestic helper. She takes care of Jade’s friend, Sammi, who is one week older than Jade. They live in our building a few floors above us. A lot of afternoons Lenny and Sammi will come over to play. Lenny likes to time it right to be here to feed Ridge his dinner. She loves him and he loves her.  And I love both of them. 

This video is of one of the times Lenny had Ridge laughing really hard.  I only caught the very tail end of it, but hopefully it will give you the idea. 

Lenny and I have a lot in common because our jobs are basically the same.  Caring for kids, cleaning the house, and cooking meals.  She has a whole lot more experience than I do with all of those things though.  I have learned so much from her.  We love to swap cooking tips and recipes, and share foods with each other.  She teaches me Asian cooking and I teach her Western.  As one example, I taught her how to make Chicken Alfredo, and she taught me how to make Mango Float, a traditional Filipino dessert.

To make Mango Float, mix equal parts sweetened condensed milk and full cream.  In a tall dish like a glass bread pan, drizzle the milk mixture on the bottom, then layer with thinly sliced mango then a layer of graham crackers.  Repeat the three layers several times (I think we did six), ending with mango on the top.  Place in the refrigerator overnight, and the next day you have a deliciously sweet Filipino treat!

Last week our friends from college, Jake and Kim, stayed with us during their two day lay over on their way to Thailand.  We had a great time catching up with them and showing them some of Hong Kong.  About a year ago Cody put Jake in touch with the Schindler people in the U.S. and he’s been working for them since.  Jake wanted to have a quick visit to the Hong Kong office while he was here, so here are the two Thunderbird grads, Schindler employees at Schindler’s Hong Kong office together.  Kind of fun.  (Sorry the picture is so bad, I stole it from Jake’s FB page). 

Ridge is getting around fast.  A little too fast.  Although I do love that he can follow us around and will crawl over to our feet if he wants to be picked up.  Just this morning when Cody walked through the door after Seminary, Ridge was so excited he left his toys and crawled straight for him!  It was too cute!  Buuut he is also learning some other things.  Like how to pull out the DVD player and open the fridge door. 

He has also started doing back bends in the bumbo.  Not sure why?  It is not a tantrum.  He just does it.  Stretching out maybe?

We’re to the point I can’t take a shower if Ridge is awake.  He wants to play with anything that is not a toy.  Like shoes, chords, bags.  And everything goes straight into his mouth.  We have to make sure the bathroom doors are shut or he’ll make his way in there.  Yesterday we were getting ready to head out to music class.  I was packing the bag, Jade was going to the bathroom, and Ridge was observing from the hallway.  I turned to get something and Jade finished up and went to her room (forgetting to close the bathroom door).  I swear it was only two seconds and I turned around and found this:

Aaaaagh!  What am I going to do with him! 

Jade started gymnastics last week.  She really loved it!  Parents don’t get to go in with their kids though.  It makes Jade seem so grown up that she isn’t in the mommy-toddler classes anymore. 

 

I really wanted to know what she did in there, so we played gymnastics when we got home (later I found out they actually have a T.V. where parents can watch the class). She was the teacher and I was the student. I was impressed with how inventive she was in finding gymnastics props (ie. the rocking chair ottoman as a trampoline, her bed mattress as the tumbling matt, etc.) Here are some of the gymnastics moves she taught me.

Sometimes I can be really absentminded and sometimes I can be klutzy.  This week is a clumsy week.  Sunday was seminary graduation and Cody was the speaker (Friday is the last day of class—yay!).  I was hurrying to get dinner made early before we had to leave.  I hastily threw the pork chops on the hot oil in the frying pan causing the grease to splash up the side and onto my chest/neck area.  Luckily I was mostly protected by clothing, but I did get some pretty good burn spots.  The left picture is from Sunday and the right is from today (and yes, I am that pasty white). 

 

I tell you if there is a good place to have a burn, this is not it if you have a baby that doesn't stop moving and grabs at everything. Then yesterday I stubbed my pinky toe pretty bad on the door jam.  Today it is fat and purple.  And it hurts to walk on.  I’d show you a picture, but my toes are normally fat and ugly, so you’d think there was something wrong with all of them.  Plus my sisters have a foot phobia just as much as I do, so they wouldn’t appreciate it. 

So yah, those are a bunch of our happenings in May.  I can’t believe June is only a few days away, and our annual visit to Utah is only a month away!  Yahoo!!