Chinglish

The other day my friend commented, "Josiah speaks with a Chinese accent". I have to reluctantly agree that he has picked up some of the tones and expressions of Cantonese. He likes to call me "Mom-me-uh" and Jason "Dad-de- uh" (which he's heard kids on the playground calling their parents). He also says "no- ah", "why-oh", and "bb" instead of "baby". I think he has discovered that when he adds additional vowels to words that he can draw them for an extra whinny effect. Josiah is probably the perfect age for learning the Cantonese and Mandarin around him. If we make a commitment to be in Hong Kong more long term, we will certainly start him in lessons first thing. But for now, we can enjoy his own unique Chinglish.

Annette is also embracing, or should I say digesting, the Chinese culture. Here she is eating at a Chinese resturant after shoveling fists full of chow mein noodls, bok choi, and rice into her mouth.

Josiah has just about mastered using his set of chopsticks.

Standard Chartered 10K

This morning I woke up at 3:40 AM (crazy!) to participate in the Standard Charter 10K. This race is iconic in Hong Kong with 60,000 people running either the 10K, half or full marathon. The trains were running early for the event which was fun because every single person on the train was a runner going to the same event. The weather was cold and a little drizzly and we ran the whole race in the dark. Really, were it not for my friends/ training- partners, this would not have been all that fun. I've been building up to this race for a long time and it has provided great motivation for me to train consistently. We finished in 57 minutes, which wasn't that fast, partly due to how closely we were packed to other people.
Jamila, Emily and Dana


After the race we celebrated with an American Breakfast at the Flying Pan. Jason brought the kids to the restaurant by himself to join us. I was so proud of him for getting them both up, ready, fed and onto two buses down to the island. Probably that is harder than running a 10K. (:

Getting Impatient

When I found out I was pregnant with a girl I celebrated by making an assortment of little hair clips. That was 16 months ago and Annette is not even close to having enough fuzz to clip back. Yesterday Josiah found the hair clips and decided to put them to use.
Who needs hair when you have a smile like this?

You know you're tired when. . .

. . . you look forward to your laser eye surgery so you can get some rest.
Josiah got out of the hospital Friday night (see post below) and Saturday I went in for laser eye surgery. Jason and I left the kids with some awesome friends and went to Mong Kok for the procedure. The distractions of the last two days kept my mind off the surgery so I didn't have time to get nervous. In fact I called it my "blind date" with Jason because we really enjoyed just having a peaceful moment together in the waiting room. The fact that I had my corneas cut into, lifted up, and my eye's zapped did put a damper on the date, but it only lasted 8 minutes. Jason was a really big support, guided me to a taxi to get home, tucked me into bed, and watched the kids so I could rest. Ah, rest!! Three hour nap after surgery- doctor's orders!!!


Today I woke up and was amazed that I could SEE!! I am so excited to march forward in life free from contacts and glasses!!

HOSPITALity

Thursday afternoon Josiah was hospitalized after suffering a severe asthma attack. It is so hard to watch him suffer, and stressful deciding the right course of action. The doctors were very concerned about his condition and in a matter of minutes had an iv pumping steroids, antibiotics and fluids through his veins and a nebulizer giving ventolin to his lungs with oxygen between treatments. Up to this point Josiah has been labeled as having "allergic airways" but now that he is almost three the doctors gave an official asthma diagnosis.
Jason spent the night in the hospital, then we switched posts at 5am. The rest of the day I was with Josiah and Jason brought Annette back and forth so I could nurse her.


By the morning he was much better and we had some fun times including hide in the locker, push the locker around the hospital room, kick the "balloon" (an inflated laytex glove), listen to each other's hearts on the stethoscope, say "HI DOCTOR" to everyone who came in the room whether it was the nurse, cleaning lady, or his roomate's mom.

The doctor wanted us to stay one more night until she saw Josiah's rambunctiousness. . . as we were leaving Josiah called out to the nurses station "Bye, bye Doctors. Thank you!" This is the fifth time (including when he was born) he has been admitted the Prince of Wales hospital- and hopefully the last.

Like Mother- Like Daughter

Over Christmas my parents kept remarking that Annette was a "little Christine". Upon consulting the Ouimette family archives I had to agree. The picture in the cowboy hat I would believe was Annette.



Isn't she such a big girl now? Almost 1 year old!!

Now entering Whyville, Population: 1

Josiah's talking a mile a minute these days and he has discovered a fun little three letter word that apparently is useful in all situations. At least as long as that situation involves driving your mom crazy. I started counting one morning the number of times he says "why" I began at 7 am and stopped at 9 am when he had passed 50.

Our conversations sometimes go like this

Me: Josiah, would you like to read a book?

J: why?

Me: For fun, come on sit here

J: why?

Me: So we can be comfortable. Can you point to Clifford?

J: I want to hug Clifford

Me: Umm. . .that's going to be hard to do

J: Why? why? why? why? I want to hug Clifford

Me: Okay "hug" Clifford (however you're going to manage that)

J: why?

Ahhh!! If anyone has a good response to whying please leave a comment. I haven't resorted to "because I've told you so"- yet!

Welcome Year of the Rabbit

We did something new this year and ventured down to the New Years Fair in Causeway Bay. Most of our friends try to avoid the Chinese New Year crowds, but we went right to the most crowded place we could find on the most popular day (New Year's Eve). It was in-sane. You really can't tell from the photos, cause I was a little too overwhelmed to document it. But, it was a fascinating experience and really captured how vibrant and colorful the holiday is. The locals love seeing our kids in their Chinese costumes. Fun times, and I apologize to the several dozen people I rammed in the heals with our stroller.

One of my projects this year is to compile video clips documenting moments from each month. It is so encouraging to "edit" out all of the whining, crying, impatient responses, spilt milk etc and remember the humorous, ordinary and completely wonderful moments from this phase of our life. These are the moments I want to remember.

This song is "House of Memories" by Ten Shekel Shirt